Fetha Nagast

The Fetha Nagast (Ge'ez: ፍትሐ ነገሥት fətḥa nägäśt, "Law of the Kings") is a legal code compiled around 1240 by the Coptic Egyptian Christian writer, 'Abul Fada'il Ibn al-'Assal, in Arabic that was later translated into Ge'ez in Ethiopia and expanded upon with numerous local laws. 'Ibn al-Assal took his laws partly from apostolic writings, and partly from former law codes of the Byzantine rulers.

The first part of Fetha Nagast deals with mostly ecclesiastic affairs, outlining the structure of the Church hierarchy, sacraments, and such matters. It was compiled from the Bible, writings of early Church fathers including St. Basil and St. Hippolytus, and various canons adopted at the Council of Nicaea, the Council of Antioch, and others.

The second part, concerning issues pertaining to the laity, such as family law, debt, civil administration etc., also drew on these sources, but is attributed in large part to four books referred to as "The Canons of the Kings". Various scholars have identified these books as:

'Ibn 'al-Assal's work is thus heavily influenced by Roman law, the first three of these sources being themselves strongly influenced by Justinian's and earlier law codes. It was originally titled Collection of Canons, but the Arabic version is more commonly known as The Nomocanon of Ibn al-'Assal. It was intended to be used by the Coptic Christians of Egypt, who regarded it as authoritative.

There are a few historical records claiming that this law code was translated into Ge'ez and entered Ethiopia around 1450 in the reign of Zara Yaqob. Even so, its first recorded use in the function of a constitution (supreme law of the land) is with Sarsa Dengel beginning in 1563.

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