Zara Yacob (1599-1692) is thought to be the first African philosopher outside of Egypt and North Africa to put his thoughts on paper.

Living in Christian Ethiopia during a time of fiercely competing religious doctrines, Yacob naturally contemplated how a thinking person was to discern which beliefs were actually true.

In addressing this question, Zara Yacob covered some of the same territory as Descartes, his contemporary in Europe, in exploring the nature of what can be known in decidedly original fashion. Scholars in Ethiopia at the time had access to the wisdom of the ancient Greeks, Romans and Arabs, as witnessed by their compilation of The Wisdom of the Philosophers, written and interpreted in their language. But Ethiopia had only recently come into contact with Jesuit missionaries from Portugal, who were more concerned with spreading their religious tenets than passing along the latest musings of philosophers from Europe. 

Zara Yacob’s experiences as a young man in this tumultuous era of Ethiopian history were very influential in the development of his thinking. As such, it will be important to consider the course of his life before exploring his thoughts on reason, discernment, and human nature.

A Brief Biography of Zara Yacob

Yacob was the son of a poor Ethiopian farmer. But as a child, teachers recognized his considerable intelligence and recommended to his father that he be given advanced education. For ten years Yacob studied foreign and Ethiopian interpretations of the Scriptures. He often found their positions inconsistent with his reason, but he wrote how he kept his opinions to himself.

After finishing his studies, Yacob taught for four years and began expressing some of his own perspectives. He was leery of accepting any “truth” that didn’t pass the test of his own reason. But this independent streak of mind soon put him at risk.

One of the visiting Jesuits succeeded in converting the Ethiopian emperor Susaynos from Coptic (Egyptian/Ethiopian) Christianity to Catholicism. The king promptly began persecuting those of different faiths. Yacob believed himself in danger and chose to live in cave for several years with only a copy of the Psalms to fortify his spirit. In those years of isolation, Yacob began to develop his philosophy of reason and human nature.

With the abdication and subsequent death of Susaynos in 1632, the emperor’s son took the throne and promptly returned to the Coptic faith of Ethiopian tradition. Yacob came out of hiding and sought employment educating the youth of wealthy men. He did the most work for a man named Haptu, who had a son named Walda Heywat. The son, powerfully impressed by Yacob’s teaching, convinced his mentor to put his words and life in writing. Besides a rich source of wisdom, Yacob’s account is also considered Africa’s first autobiography.

Zara Yacob on How to Know What is True

Zara Yacob’s life was greatly impacted by competing religious factions, the Jesuit priests from Portugal and the Coptic Christians of his own country, who both insisted their beliefs were the only one that were true. During his time in hiding, Yacob had considerable time to consider the logical reality that, while both groups steadfastly believed themselves to be correct in their thinking, the beliefs of both sides could not both be true. Yacob also came to a more radical conclusion. If that was the case, was it also not possible that both sides were mistaken to various degrees?

Yacob came to distinguish received truth (though he did not label it as such), which was what people were taught by their parents or gleaned from respected texts, and reasoned truth, which each individual could discern for themselves if they used their God given reason to consider what made sense.

“To the person who seeks it,” Yacob wrote, “truth is immediately revealed. Indeed, he who investigates with the pure intelligence set by the creator in the heart of each man and scrutinize the order and laws of creation will discover the truth.” (Sumner, Classical Ethiopian Philosophy, p. 236).

Such inquiry, however, required persistent effort and Yacob suggested that most people found it easier to simply accept what they were taught. Again, without explicitly referencing culture, he described how Jew, Christians and Muslims all tended to accept their different religious/cultural realities as absolute truth.

In acknowledging the relativity of received truth, Yacob was recognizing the impact of different religious (cultural) backgrounds in understanding the reality of their world. By including the impact of a person’s background in shaping an individual’s reasoning, Yacob put forth an understanding of reasoned truth that was in some ways more nuanced than Descartes’.

Implications of a Purposeful Created Nature

In developing his thinking, Zara Yacob began with what he felt was the logical conclusion that the world and the people living in it were creations that must have come from a creator. Further, if God was that creator, God must have created humans as he did for a purpose. As such, the functional nature of men and women was inherently good. This logic allowed Yacob to reject various religious doctrines that contradicted the premise of the essential goodness of God’s creation and how it operated in practice.  

Since pregnancy and giving birth were necessary for the continuation of humankind, Yacob wondered how sexuality or marriage could be deemed as spiritually undesirable? Given this line of thought, Yacob rejected principles of monastic life or sexual abstinence within marriage. And since the menstrual cycle was part of reproduction, how could it be proper to restrict women’s movements during that cycle? Similarly, since eating food was necessary for survival, how could restricting food intake through fasting or dietary restrictions make sense?

“Our reason teaches us that we should eat of all things which do no harm to our health and our nature,” he wrote. (Sumner, 238)

Yacob’s arguments allowed him to reject tenets that didn’t make sense to him from all three of major religious traditions, Christianity, Judaism and Islam. And freed from religious orthodoxy, it allowed Yacob—and others if they chose to follow his brand of thoughtful inquiry—to adopt an understanding of human nature and healthful living based on reason. In essence, Yacob asserted that moral living at its heart was also logical. Prayerful entreaties for that reason were a big part of his spiritual practice.

Respecting Others with Due Caution

The essential goodness of all creation lead Zara Yacob to argue that people of all faiths were to be treated equally. 

“All men are equal in the presence of God, and all are intelligent, since they are his creatures … discrimination cannot exist in the sight of God.” (Sumner, 239)

This was not just an abstraction. Yacob saw how profoundly both sides of religious conflict going on his country were persecuting those who disagreed with them or how kneejerk their negative reactions to even suggesting something positive about the other side.

“While I was teaching and interpreting the Books,” Yacob recalled, “I used to say: ‘The Frang (or foreigners) say this and this’ or ‘The Copts say that and that’ and I did not say ‘This is good, that is bad,’ but I said, ‘All things are good if we are ourselves are good.’ Hence I was disliked by all, the Copts took me for a Frang, the Frang for a Copt.” (Sumner, 231)

Yacob felt Jews and Muslims were similar in their insistence in asserting that only they knew the truth. But he argued, “No single human being can judge the truth for all men are plaintiffs and defendants among them themselves.” (Sumner, 234)

For Yacob, this blind spot in people of all backgrounds illumined an unfortunate reality of human nature. Because men so frequently chose to take the easier path of received “truth”, which often was not actually true at all, men were prone to deceive themselves and others. In short, whether unintentionally or not, people all too often lied. They were also capable of betraying trust. Yacob had learned that particular truth the hard way in his life, when individuals spread false rumors about him to rival factions.

As such, while Yacob endorsed kindness, generosity, and understanding towards others, he shared the belief asserted in The Book of Philosophers that one should show caution in sharing their private thoughts with others. There was a dark underbelly to human striving, and religious zealotry in particular, that was driven powerfully home when Yacob was forced into hiding. He expressed the powerful sorrow he felt at that time when he realized how people of his own faith could fundamentally betray the values of tolerance and treating people as you would wish to be treated that he felt were at its core.  

“When I found out that my faith was adulterous or false,” Yacob wrote of that painful time of exile, “I became sad on account of it and of the children that were born from this adultery, namely: hatred, persecution, torture, bondage, (and) death.” (Sumner, 239-240)

Embracing Equal Treatment of Women in Marriage

While Zara Yacob endorsed caution in dealing with those outside your immediate circle, his belief in the equality of all people shone through in his beliefs about marriage.

When Yacob asked to marry one of his employer’s maid servants, Habtu readily agreed, stating the maid would now be his servant. Yacob replied, “I don’t wish her to be my maid servant, but my wife. Husband and wife are equal in marriage. We should not call them master and maidservant, for they are one flesh and one life.” (Sumner, 248)

For her part, the maid servant who was named Hirut found the idea of marrying Yacob agreeable. As Yacob recalled, “Formerly, she was looked down upon in the house of Habtu, and men in the house made her suffer. But since she loved me so, I took the decision in my heart to please her as much as I could, and I do not think there is another marriage which is so full of love and blessed as ours.” (Sumner, 248)

The Passing of the Torch

When the leaders of the Coptic Christians were secure in their power in the country, they asked Yacob to come back and teach their faith, thinking he had only left because of the persecution of the Frangs. “Come back to us,” they said, “for your enemies have perished, but your friends are saved.”

To this, Yacob replied, “I have no enemy, and no friend except my master, this man of God, Habtu, his children, and my life. I will never leave them.” (Sumner, 249)

Once again, this response prompted retribution in terms of false rumors spread among the emperor’s inner circle. Ultimately, the rumors came to nothing. Predictably, further reversals of fortune occurred and worsening persecutions.

Yacob wrote frankly, “People took me for a Christian when I was dealing with them, but in my heart I did not believe in anything except in God who created all and conserves all, as he has taught me.” (Sumner, 252)

The humble Yacob wondered if this passive deceit was a sin in the eyes of God, but came to believe it for the best to “be with men as one of theirs, but with God I shall be as he has taught me.” (Sumner,

Zara Yacob was much loved by his master Habtu and his children. Later, when Habtu lay dying, he declared that Zara Yacob would be the father to his children. Walda Heywat, familiarly known as Mektu, was the youngest of his three sons.

The eldest son was already married, but “loved me as his father and accepted my advice.” The two younger sons grew up under Yacob’s watchful eye and tutelage, learning how to read the Psalms. Mektu the youngest showed a special aptitude and as a result the bond between them proved particularly strong.

Indeed, Yacob confessed, near the end of his text, “after his constant entreaties, I wrote this small book just for the sake of his love.” (Sumner, 251)

Zara Yacob lived for many years beyond the writing of his wisdom. “He had a peaceful old age,” Mektu noted, and was highly respected by all. In a clear indication of the warm relationship they shared, Mektu relayed how he “added these few words to the book of my teacher that you may know of his happy death.” (Sumner, 253)           

In the end, much as Locke and Descartes in Europe had set out a method for understanding human nature and discerning what is true, Zara Yacob in Ethiopia set up to do empower a similar effort. Like Descartes he struggled with how to reconcile belief in God and what made rational sense in living a moral life. It was in many ways an Ethiopian guidebook to rationally determining the proper course of people’s lives, guided by but independent of, formal religious principles.    

He wrote as requested by his disciple the story of his life and his beliefs as requested. His coda is remarkable.

“In order that those who will come after me will know me, I have written down those things I hide within me until my death. I entreat any wise and inquisitive man who may come after I am dead to add his thoughts to mine. Behold, I have begun an inquiry such as has not been attempted before. You can complete what I have begun so that the people of our country will become wise with the help of God and arrive at the science of truth…” (Sumner, 252)

Zara Yacob lived for 25 years after completing his work. It was only with his death, according to his wishes, that Walda Heywat saw to the release of his text. But not before Heywat added a text of his own.

Mark Carlson-Ghost

References on Zara Yacob

Kiros, Teodros (2005). Zara Yacob: Rationality of the Human Heart. Trenton: African World Press.

Ritchie, Brendan (2022). Ethiopian Philosophy @ https://ethiopianphilosophy.wordpress.com/about/ retrieved on 1/13/2022.

Sumner, Claude (1994). Classical Ethiopian Philosophy. Los Angeles: Adey Publishing Company.