Libb wallad tarik

…of which the first was Libb wallad tarik (1908; “Imaginative Story”) by Afeworq Gabre-Eyesus. During the regency of Ras Tafari (1916–20; afterward Emperor Haile Selassie I), Hiruy Walde Selassie (d. 1938) became the leading Amharic writer, especially notable for allegorical compositions such as Wadaje lebbe (“My Heart as My Friend”).

…novel written in Amharic was Libb-waled tarik (1908; “An Imagined Story”), by Afawark Gabra Iyasus. The oral storytelling tradition is clearly in evidence in this novel, in which a girl disguised as a boy becomes the centre of complex love involvements, the climax of which includes the conversion of a…