ፍትሐ ነገሥት (Law of the Kings — Legal Code of the Ethiopian Empire)

The Law for the People and the Needy

The Lord says to you and we beseech you, for you are the voice to all those who call upon you. Therefore our Lord Jesus Christ, to Him be praise, accepted their petition and came to them. And He commanded them that they should compose a book of law from the Old and New Testaments. And Ibn al-Assal a prominent Egyptian Christian jurist wrote this book and gave it to Constantine, son of Esey Jesse, and King in the land of the Greeks. A row of three red ornamental section markers separates the text.
Praise be to God
who has brought us to good
faith and works, and we understand
the works which He revealed, and those spoken
by the legislation of the former
and the latter. And after
this, we know that these
books were gathered from books,
from parables, and from canons of
the Church,

and from that which their hearts commanded, and it reached them
from the likeness of the work without
being corrected or renewed. And the
assembly [was] between the two,
but that which was separated
and gathered and reconciled regarding
them, [they] explained. And it was gathered from the
books, and for the kings
they were written from the commentaries,
[of those] who had
the knowledge to tell and clarify
and to teach. But because
it was that which was in the books and
canons, behold, they made
signs for them in one, and
because they had understanding, and parables
with the canon, the teachings
were derived from the signs.
And for this, [it was] placed within
them and was not remembered except
in the flow of the explanations, because
they were remembered in the
understanding [but] were not judged in their judgment
by separation, because
they were remembered in the
third of 130, and there are
those of those parts, gathered
and commanded, written and...

the ordering of judgment and laws
in detail, and the associations,
and the resolutions from the years and
with the words of the waters. And that which
resembles them for these from all
three. And that which remained from the
canons were remembered in the works
of the second, those which are in
this book. But because
that which was separated or that which was retracted
was moved because of the group, and
it was remembered from it, it gathered
the understanding because they existed so
that they would be parts within the
land in which were established
canons from the assembly. And they did not
reach us as a part, and from [what was seen]
that which appeared, and they were
gathered entirely as they were
reconciled in their likeness
within the commentaries. And by that which
is judged by it, it is righteousness, the investigation of
the wicked and the suffering
from above those who are moved
by passion and greed.
And from the confusion of debt and the
workers of transgression, and those who desire
for the making of this for the
sake of the writing of the Law for the...