- Lived:
- 1599–1692 · Aksum, a cave by the Tekezé river, and Enfraz, Ethiopia
- Tradition:
- Ethiopian rationalism — an independent inquiry written in Geʿez, the ancient scholarly language of Christian Ethiopia
- The Big Idea:
- God gave every human heart the light of reason, and every claim — every custom, every law, every scripture, including your own — must be tested against it before you believe it.
- In their words:
- "I have learnt more while living alone in a cave than when I was living with scholars."
- If you remember one thing:
- While Descartes doubted everything beside a stove in Europe, a persecuted Ethiopian scholar hid in a cave and reasoned his way — alone — to a rationalism of his own; and the fight over whether he really wrote it is itself one of philosophy's great lessons.