Fetha Nagast

The Fetha Negest or law of the Kings is a law book, which was in 1240 held by the Coptic Egyptian writer, ' Abul Faḍā'il Ibn al-' Assal in Arabic. ' Ibn al - Assal took his laws partly apostolic writings and beyond previous legal texts of Byzantine rulers.

Content

The first part deals mainly with church affairs; he outlines the hierarchy within the church, the construction of the sacraments, and similar things. Their source was doing the Bible, writings earlier Church Fathers, including St. Basil the Great and Hippolytus of Rome, as well as various laws of the Church of Antioch and the other adopted at the Council of Nicea, the Council of.

The second section deals with matters of the common people, such as family law, debt, management, etc., and also relies on these sources. For the most part however, it is attributed to four books, which are called " Canon of Kings." Various scholars have identified these books as following:

It can be seen that the work ' Ibn al - Assal is heavily influenced by Roman law; because the first three sources of sustainably by laws of Justinian I and older law books were affected. The original title was canon collection. The Arabic version is, however, commonly known as Nomocanon of Ibn al- ' Assal. The Fetha Negest was intended for the Coptic Christians in Egypt, which it recognized as binding.

Later history

Some historical sources say was the Fetha Negest after Ge'ez translated and arrived in 1450, the reign Zara Yaqobs, to Ethiopia. Written occupied by Sarsa Dengel is the application as a constitutional law early 1563rd

The Ge'ez Petros Abda Sayd output is attributed. It is an inaccurate translation of the original Ibn al-' Assal, and differs significantly from several places. Obviously Petros had some difficulty with the Arabic original. Scientists have argued that the first part, the Church Act, before this time, as part of the Senodos in Ethiopia was applied, and that the title Fetha Negest, Law of Kings, refers to the second part, which was new to the country.

The Fetha Negest was officially until 1931 the supreme law in Ethiopia. It was replaced by the Emperor Haile Selassie by a modern constitution. As early as 1930 a completely renovated Penal Code was published, which was based on the Fetha. Shortly after taking office as regent and before the imperial coronation in 1921 he had some " cruel and unusual " punishments, such as amputation of hands for theft, which prescribed the Fetha abolish.