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Fetha Negast

1
Time Zone: EST (New York, Toronto)
Messenger: Ras I-Tom Sent: 4/27/2009 8:57:59 AM
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I bought a copy the other day, because of how Selassie I speaks highly of it, as a means of law for the Ethiopian people to follow in accordance to.

The long and great history of Our country demonstrates that Our people have always both administered and lived according to the law. Our people were at first ruled by Mosaic law, but after the advent of Christianity to Ethiopia they came later to be governed by the Fetha Nagast – a work combining both spiritual and secular matters, the former part peraining to the spiritual, the latter to the temporal affairs of Our people. The Fetha Nagast has been venerated, supported, and applied by both the government of Our Empire and by the Church. The names of scholars learned in this law are famous in the history of Ethiopia, particularly since the reign of Emperor Zar’a Ya’qob when both the study and enforcement of the Fetha Nagast began. By the Providence of the Almighty this bulwark of the law was preserved for Our people. Venerated for many centuries, it provided for Our people an invaluable source of legal principles. When we ascended Our Imperial Throne and enacted a Penal Code compiled on the basis of the Fetha Nagast, We made all necessary provision for the printing of the Fetha Nagast, in order that it might be available to Our people. Owing however to the invasion of Our country by the enemy, the copies which had already been printed, but not distributed, were burnt together with the printing press. When, with the assistance of the Almighty, We returned victorious to Our country and subsequently made provision for the codification of Our laws, realizing that those who had helped us in the process of codification had availed themselves of the provisions of the Fetha Nagast, We ordered that its text be printed together with a commentary thereon, and offered to Our people for their assistance. We are pleased that this great work, for so many centuries the basis of law and the administration of justice in Our country, has now, under the auspices of the Faculty of Law of the University to which We have given Our name, been translated into English so that it may be known to scholars of other countries. No modern legislation which does not have its roots in the customs of those whom it governs can have a strong foundation. The effort which has been made by the Faculty of law of Our University to disseminate the knowledge not only of the new codification but also of the historically rooted legal practices of Ethiopia, which by the providence of the Almighty we have preserved, and which are the source of Our new legislation is befitting and deserving of Our warmest approval.

Haile Selassie I, 29.8.1968


Has any of the I them read it?

Stay Haile blessed!



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