ዙር አባ zur aba, oft mistakenly amba (hill), means, “turn around, father,” in Amharic wearing Ge’ez garments. It is the only universally-accepted certification site for ዝማሬ ወመዋሥዕት zimaré we’mewasiit; St. Jared the Aksumite’s holy communion hymnal, and a hymnal for the recently reposed in the lord. We can call the latter, the Ethiopic Book of the Dead. The full name of the school is ዙር አባ አቡነ አረጋዊ ጽርሐ አርያም ገዳም zur aba abune aregawee tsirha aryam gedam (turn around, father, the our father elder, upper room, monastery). It is located in Gaynt, South Gwender, Ethiopia; a stone’s throw east of the metropolis Mount Tabor and west of the town Wind Exit. These are all places I have written about on this blog. They are the territories of my maternal grandfather’s mother.
Aunties are amazing. God bless aunties. My aunty, of no biological relation, thought of me recently when one of her friend’s completed a beautiful God-glorifying project, that had some ups-and-downs on the backend. They funded the building of dormitories for the abinet students of these eucharistic and noneucharistic liturgical hymns; which are considered the pinnacle of Ethiopian Orthodox learning. They are oft only taught after a student has completed all other studies, or at least dabbled and gotten their feet wet in a few other disciplines.
In this video, the current head of the school, መጋቤ ብርሃናት ፈንታ አፈወርቅ megabé birhanat (patron of lights) fenta afewerq is present, with the functional and swag-filled horse-tail flyswatter, as the senior and junior students of the school praise God, the Lord of the Harvest, for graciously sending His laborers to the harvest.
To date, I know of two Ethiopian Church scholars who have written about zur aba, in English: megabé haymanot (patron of the faith) presbyterandu’alem dagmawee and riise debr (head of the mountain) birhanu akal. The latter is a traditionally certified professor of zimaré we’mewasiit trained under the auspices of megabé birhanat fenta.
Pr. Andualem has written Soteriology in the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church as Reflected in the Liturgical Hymns of the Digwa of Yared (a phd dissertation for St. Michael’s College at the University of Toronto). And Riise Debr Birhanu has written Content Analysis of Metshafe Mewasiit (a master’s thesis for Adees Abeba University).
Zur Aba