Some Amharic and other documents from the Eugen Mittwoch<i>Nachlass</i>

There are two specific reasons for publishing these documents—quite apart from their intrinsic value—in an article in honour of H. J. Polotsky. My teacher H.J.P. and myself were, at different times, in statu pupillari , at any rate informally, in relation to Eugen Mittwoch (1876–1942). Polotsky took part in a Syriac class and in 1933–4 collaborated in the work of editing the Arŝam documents (private letter from H.J.P. to E.U. dated 25 December 1977), while I attended some informal lectures on Arabic given by Mittwoch in the mid-1930s. And, secondly, Polotsky has declared that any specimen of Aläqa Tayyä's handwriting is ‘always extremely pleasing’ (see below and BSOAS , XXXV, 2, 1972, 255 ff.).