Gensle, Orin (Prof, )Abrha, Hagos2021-03-112023-11-302021-03-112023-11-302009-07http://etd.aau.edu.et/handle/123456789/25406Yam'ata is one of the Nine Saints (Roman monks according to tradition) who carne to Ethiopia in the 5th - 6 th cen turies . This p eriod is known as the Second Christianization of Ethiopia. All the Nine Sain ts con tributed a great deal to the spreading of Chris tianity th roughou t the Northern parts of Ethiopia . Each of the Nine Saints has his own h agiography . At least two of them have been edited and pu bl ished by Italian sch olars ; for instan ce, Giidlii Ariigawi by Ignazio Guidi and Giidlii P'iint'iilewon by Conti Rossini. Giidlii Yom'ata is among the unedited and unpublished h agiographies. Manu scripts of the h agiography of Saint Yam'ata are found in Gfu'alta and Wiij fuat. The focus of this research is thus the textual analysis of Giidlii Yam'ata. The researcher collected ten manuscripts of Giidlii Yom'ata, digitalized and printed them. The obj ective of this study is to analyze philological and historical featu res of the manuscripts, to show the use of figu rative language in the manuscripts, to show some linguistic and textual differences among the manuscripts and to propose a stemma for the manuscripts. Th is research will deliver a new pnmary source to historians, linguists and scholars of literature . The analysis in this paper draws on interrelated fields (philology, history, lin guist ics and li terature) . Philologically, the paleography, parchment, number of folios, number of columns, penmanship, family tree, archetype, and subarchetypes of the manuscripts h ave been analyzed. The research er has also presented a brief comparative historical analysis of the names of the Nine SQints, where they came from, and where they li\'ed in Eth iopia. The figurative language found in Giidlii Yam'ata and some poems attri bu ted to Y~m ' ata have also been analyzed. Highly expressive and figurative poems about the likeness of Ym'ata's body (£Tntdl'?: ,e9''''?;:/') are given at the end.enTextual AnalysisThesis