The Monk on the Roof: The Story of an Ethiopian Manuscript Found in Jerusalem (1904)

Around 1900 the small Ethiopian community in Jerusalem found itself in a desperate struggle with the Copts over the Dayr al-Sultan monastery located on the roof of the Holy Sepulchre. Based on a profoundly researched, impassioned and multifaceted exploration of a forgotten manuscript, this book abandons the standard majority discourse and approaches the history of Jerusalem through the lens of a community typically considered marginal. It illuminates the political, religious and diplomatic affairs that exercised the city, and guides the reader on a fascinating journey from the Ethiopian highlands to the Holy Sepulchre, passing through the Ottoman palaces in Istanbul.

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Stéphane Ancel, Ph.D. (2006, Paris), is a researcher at the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) in Paris. He is a specialist of the contemporary history of Ethiopia. He has published many articles and translations related to the history of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.
Magdalena Krzyżanowska, Ph.D. (2020, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań), is a researcher at Hiob Ludolf Centre for Eritrean and Ethiopian Studies, Universität Hamburg. She is a linguist specializing in the Amharic language. She has also published on topics related to Ethiopic manuscript culture and Amharic literature.
Vincent Lemire, Ph.D. (2006, Paris), is an associate professor of contemporary history at the University of Paris-Est/Gustave Eiffel, and the current director of the Centre de recherche français à Jérusalem (CRFJ). He studies contemporary Jerusalem and the Middle Eastern history. He is the author of many monographs, including Jerusalem 1900: The Holy City in the Age of Possibilities (University of Chicago Press, 2017).