Afevork Ghevre Jesus, 1868-1947

Afäwarq Gäbrä Iyäsus (Amharic: አፈወርቅ ገብረ ኢየሱስ, romanized: āfewerik’i gebire īyesusi; spelled in Italian: Afevork Ghevre Jesus or Āfeworq Gebre Īyesūs; spelled in English Afewark Gebre Iyasus; 10 July 1868 – 25 September 1947) was an Ethiopian writer, who wrote the first novel in Amharic, Ləbb Wälläd Tarik (A Heart [better “Intellect”]-born Story), (Italian: Libb Wolled Tarik). Bahru Zewde writes, "Few people before or after him have demonstrated such superb mastery of the Amharic language. Few have ventured with such ingenuity into the hidden recesses of that language to come out with a wealth of vocabulary and idiom one scarcely thought the language possessed. Afäwarq is nonetheless a controversial figure for having supported the Italians during both the First and Second Italo-Ethiopian Wars.