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This Cambridge Element offers an interdisciplinary introduction to the histories of the Ethiopian and Eritrean highlands from late antiquity to the late medieval period, updating traditional Western academic perspectives. Early scholarship, often by philologists and religious scholars, upheld 'Ethiopia' as an isolated repository of ancient Jewish and Christian texts. This work reframes the region's history, highlighting the political, economic, and cultural interconnections of different kingdoms, polities, and peoples. Utilizing recent advancements in Ethiopian and Eritrean Studies as well as Medieval Studies, it reevaluates key instances of contact between 'Ethiopia' and the world of Afro-Eurasia, situating the histories of the Christian, Muslim, and local-religious or 'pagan' groups living in the Red Sea littoral and the Eritrean-Ethiopian highlands in the context of the Global Middle Ages.
List of contents
Introduction; 1. The Emergence of the Aksumite Empire in Global Antiquity, 2nd-4th Centuries; 2. Aksum in the World of Roman Late Antiquity, 4th Century; 3. Aksum and South Arabia, 6th Century; 4. Endings and Beginnings: the Ethiopian-Eritrean Highlands in post-Aksumite Times, 7th-10th Centuries; 5. Cosmopolitan Communities: Fatimid Red Sea Trade and the Horn of Africa, 11th-12th Centuries; 6. Formation: Conquest, Consolidation, and Commerce in the 12th-15th Centuries.
Summary
This Cambridge Element offers an interdisciplinary introduction to the histories of the Ethiopian and Eritrean highlands from late antiquity to the late medieval period, updating traditional Western academic perspectives.
Foreword
An interdisciplinary introduction to the histories of the Ethiopian and Eritrean highlands from late antiquity to the late medieval period.
