Manar al-Athar – serie

Khirbet et-Tannur was a religious sanctuary of the Nabataeans, ancient Arabs whose capital was the rose-red rock-cut city of Petra in Jordan. Excavated in 1937, the temple sculptures from Khirbet et-Tannur are in important public collections of the Jordan Museum, Amman, and the Cincinnati Art Museum. Nelson Glueck's fascinating finds of cult offerings and equipment were buried deeply in the Harvard Semitic Museum until they were unearthed by scholars decades later in 2002. New research on those discoveries and the sites sculpture by an international team of experts, led by Judith McKenzie (Oxford), has illuminated the religious practices and art of the Nabataeans. This gem of a small Nabataean temple has a fascinating story.

The Queen of Sheba is one of the most famous women of antiquity, rivaled only by Cleopatra and Helen of Troy for wealth, power and beauty. She is best known for her legendary meeting with King Solomon, an encounter that has resonated through time, nowhere more powerfully than in Ethiopia, where she is a foundational figures within the Ethiopian Church. There, the legend is known not only through the text called the Kebra Nagast, but also through traditional paintings. One of the most impressive of these paintings is a goatskin example by the artist Janbaru Wandemmu, at Groton School, USA, given by Professor Asrat Woldeyes, personal physician to Haile Selassie. The painting, which shows the legend in 25 panels, is presented here alongside another 56-panel work. This book illustrates the scenes from both paintings, with translations of their accompanying texts and an introduction.

An introduction for children to the wonders of Petra, by Judith McKenzie, author of The Architecture of Petra (OUP, 1990).  The marvellous ancient city of Petra in Jordan is very special, because it was carved out of the rose-red stone by the Nabataeans, a people who lived there 2,000 years ago. Among the city's many monuments and impressive buildings, the Petra Great Temple stands out because its columns had elephant-head capitals. Two elephants, Feal and Zarafeh, are among them. They realise that they have lost their tusks. In order to search for their tusks, they decide to climb down from the capital and start an adventure. During their quest, they explore Petra, visit many places, meet other animals, and make friendships. Will they succeed and find their tusks? To find out, join them in their search, as told in this book . . .

The essays in this lavishly illustrated volume shed light on Ethiopia and Eritrea's fascinating past by looking at some of the most remarkable Ethiopic manuscripts kept at the Bodleian Library of Oxford University. In Ethiopia and Eritrea, manuscripts, often beautifully illustrated, have for centuries been the principal means of recording not just the Scriptures but also historical information. Ethiopic manuscripts thus provide a unique window into the life and culture of Ethiopians and Eritreans up to the twenty-first century. The first three essays function as an introduction and examine the history of the collection, the classical Ethiopic (Ge'ez) language, and the production of manuscripts in Ethiopia and Eritrea. The remaining nine contributions—each devoted to one of the Bodleian's manuscripts—explore different facets of the manuscript tradition of Ethiopia and Eritrea. With its unique focus on the Bodleian's collection, this landmark volume presents a comprehensive and accessible overview of the context in which Ethiopic manuscripts were produced and makes the library's treasures more accessible to scholars and the interested public. The collection of Ethiopic manuscripts in the Bodleian Library in Oxford is one of the most significant in Europe. The Bodleian acquired its first Ge'ez manuscript in 1636 and further expanded its collection in 1843, when it acquired twenty-four of the manuscripts that the Scottish explorer James Bruce had brought back from Ethiopia and Eritrea. During the twentieth and twenty-first centuries the Bodleian Library has continued to expand its holdings of Ethiopic manuscripts through new acquisitions. Especially noteworthy are the forty-five manuscripts that the former Oxford University Medical Officer Bent Juel-Jensen bequeathed to the library at his death in 2007.  Colour illustrations throughout.