Abba 'Ěnbāqom (c.1470 – c.1565) born Ab'ul Fath was a Yemeni[1] polyglot, translator, religious leader of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church,[2] and author of the Anqaṣa Amin.
[9][10] By his study he acquired many languages, including: Arabic, Geez, Coptic, Hebrew, Syriac, Armenian, Portuguese, and Italian.
Throughout his clerical life he worked to translate into Geez, the language of the Ethiopian Church, many Christian writings, e.g., John Chrysostom's Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews, and the story from India of Barlaam and Josaphat.
[15] Álvares reports that in 1520 he was at Dabra Libanos when the Emperor Libna Dengel installed a new Echage: "He whom they made Ichee was also held to be a man of holy life, and he had been a Moor.
[18] Accordingly at the death of Petros, 'Ěnbāqom had become the eleventh Echage at Dabra Libanos,[19] which was the second highest office in the Ethiopian Church (after the Coptic Abuna).
Then during the years 1526-1543 there came upon them very destructive raids led by the Muslim Ahmad Gran which destabilized the region and threatened the continued existence of Christian kingdom.
[24][25] During these decades of chaos and anarchy, 'Ěnbāqom kept on the move, relocating westward to Gafat then to Bizamo, both regions located south of the Abbay River or Blue Nile.
Ahmad Gran evidently replied in effect that as a Muslim he respected the Jewish Torah and the Christian Gospels, so he would not burn churches and would limit the killing to those who resist.
Perhaps too the learned 'Ěnbāqom influenced Galawdewos when he wrote his well-known "Confession of Faith" which diplomatically presents a theological and liturgical response to the Catholic Church.
[32] Abba 'Ěnbāqom sought "to provide spiritual and intellectual leadership for the Ethiopian Church, and to translate works and ideas from the rest of Christendom, thus bringing a richer theology from abroad and higher standards of clerical education...
[34] His book Anqasa Amin [Gateway of Faith], written in Geez, was an expansion and scholarly development of his 1532 letter in Arabic to the Muslim invader Ahmad Gran.
[41] The Anqasa Amin is an argumentative work, written in the midst of long-term and widespread chaos, destruction, and death.