Crusading threats? Ethiopian-Egyptian relations in the 1440s (original) (raw)
Review of Ecumenical Studies Sibiu, 2021
In her book on the exchange between medieval Ethiopia and Latin Europe, Verena Krebs has provided us with a crucial contribution to Ethiopian history, a contribution that radically challenges the traditional perspective on Ethiopia's medieval contacts with the Latin world. As stated in the introduction the book constitutes an attempt to answer the simple question of why generations of Ethiopian rulers in the fteenth and early sixteenth century repeatedly sent diplomatic missions to the courts of Latin Europe despite the hardships involved and the often meagre outcomes. For each mission, as well as for the European missions sent in reply, Krebs analyzes in detail the wide range of sources in Gi'iz, Arabic, Latin, Catalan, French, German, Italian and Portugese. It is a fascinating story of bold enterprises, long, arduous journeys and patient waiting, a story of majestic reception as well as imprisonment and beheading, curiosity, misinterpretation and false hopes. By contrasting the sources, Krebs manages to present a history of an exciting cultural and political exchange in which the expectations and goals were quite di erent. Despite her emphasis on this di erence, the exchange also reveals how Ethiopia was part of the same late medieval world as Portugal and Spain, and a world in which art and architecture, far distance trade and travel, and religiously legitimatized royal rule belonged together. Against half a century of scholarship that has treated the Ethiopian missions to Latin Europe as expressions of interest by Ethiopian rulers in European technology to enhance its military e ciency, Krebs demonstrated convincingly that the missions were primarily about obtaining precious religious artefacts, such as relics and precious objects of religious art, including recruiting artisans who could embellish royal churches and monasteries. e purpose was not to gain military aid but to strengthen royal legitimacy and consolidate the Solomonic dynasty by providing evidence for its universal recognition. e missions should be seen in relation to the propagation of texts like the Kibre Negest and the Fitha Negest rather than concerning a con ict with Ethiopia's Muslim neighbors or Mamluk rule. As Krebs demonstrates the interest in a military alliance against the Muslim rulers of the Near East was primarily on the side of the Europeans.
Medieval Ethiopian Kingship, Craft, and Diplomacy with Latin Europe
Medieval Ethiopian Kingship, Craft, and Diplomacy with Latin Europe, 2021
This book explores why Ethiopian kings pursued long-distance diplomatic contacts with Latin Europe in the late Middle Ages. It traces the history of more than a dozen embassies dispatched to the Latin West by the kings of Solomonic Ethiopia, a powerful Christian kingdom in the medieval Horn of Africa. Drawing on sources from Europe, Ethiopia, and Egypt, it examines the Ethiopian kings’ motivations for sending out their missions in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries – and argues that a desire to acquire religious treasures and foreign artisans drove this early intercontinental diplomacy. Moreover, the Ethiopian initiation of contacts with the distant Christian sphere of Latin Europe appears to have been intimately connected to a local political agenda of building monumental ecclesiastical architecture in the North-East African highlands, and asserted the Ethiopian rulers’ claim of universal kingship and rightful descent from the biblical king Solomon. Shedding new light on the self-identity of a late medieval African dynasty at the height of its power, this book challenges conventional narratives of African-European encounters on the eve of the so-called ‘Age of Exploration'. Front Matter and Introduction of the book "Medieval Ethiopian Kingship, Craft, and Diplomacy with Latin Europe", published by Palgrave Macmillan, March 2021. A preview of the book — including the first two chapters — is available on Google Books at https://books.google.de/books?id=XYokEAAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&hl=de#v=onepage&q&f=false
International Journal of African Historical Studies, Vol. 43(1), 2010, p. 1-26., 2010
This article explores the intertwined history of late 19th century Sudan and Ethiopia from a transboundary perspective. Focusing on a specific border zone in a period of growing tensions between the newly-established Mahdist state and the expanding Christian kingdom (1885-1889), the study analyzes how various patterns of commercial, military and diplomatic interactions shaped and were shaped by the Sudanese-Ethiopian conflict. That the ruling elites used religious arguments to legitimize military operations did not prevent intense flows of people, things and representations in the borderlands northwest of Lake Tana. A precise historical enquiry into the changing conceptualizations of the border, trade dynamics in goods and human beings, war booty practices, and diplomatic epistolary exchanges allows assessing the complex role of this portion of the border zone in the evolution of Sudanese-Ethiopian relations. The research is based on previously untapped Mahdist archives, European travel accounts, and scholarly works in Arabic, English, French and German. It is meant to contribute to the rapidly expanding field of border studies, as well as give new insights into the entangled history of African societies which retained their political sovereignty in the early years of the European scramble for Africa.
International Journal of Middle East Studies, Vol. 41(2), 2009, p. 247-267., 2009
This article deals with the Sudanese–Ethiopian conflict (1885–89) from a Mahdist perspective, in the wider context of the European scramble for Africa. Focusing on Sudanese representations of Ethiopia as well as on the causes underlying the conflict, I confront a Mahdist chronicle of particular historiographical significance with a range of historical sources. Departing from a purely jihadist framework of analysis, I highlight various Mahdist conceptualizations of Christian Ethiopia as well as historical, political, military, and economic processes conducive to the outbreak of an armed confrontation between the two independent African states. I argue that the Sudanese ruling elite resorted to jihadist discourse as a legitimizing device rather than as an inflexible policy and examine more specific rhetoric instruments meant to justify Mahdist attitudes toward the Christian kingdom. Whereas prophetic visions were used to make the khalifa's Ethiopian policy acceptable to Mahdist eyes, the ambivalent legacy of early Muslim–Aksumite contacts was reactivated in the framework of a dialogue with the Ethiopian enemy.
Book Review Vverena Krebs Medieval Ethiopian Kingship Craft and Diplomacy with Latin Europe
Why did Ethiopian kings seek diplomatic contact with Latin Europe? Verena Krebs's Medieval Ethiopian Kingship, Craft, and Diplomacy with Latin Europe challenges the established narratives concerning African-European encounters. Krebs argues that the desire for religious treasures and foreign artisans was linked to the political agenda of Ethiopian rulers. Like the biblical kings, they built monumental examples of religious architecture endowed with royal treasures from abroad. Krebs argues that the primary goal of the Ethiopian missions was not to gain access to European technology to strengthen the country's military capabilities. Most reviews of this volume discuss how effectively Krebs proves her thesis. This review focuses on the author's evaluation of varied sources for content about religious material culture. I consider the potential of the research in relation to art history and visual culture studies in Africa. Any exploration of the power attributed to objects made by skilled artisans from afar owes a debt to anthropologist Mary W. Helms's influential study, Craft and the Kingly Ideal: Art, Trade, and Power (University of Texas Press, 1993). In the introduction, Krebs discusses the resources analyzed in Ge'ez, Arabic, Catalan, Latin, German, French, Italian, and Portuguese. Krebs's skilled comparative scrutiny is showcased in Chapter Two ("All the King's Treasures"), Chapter Three ("The Sons of Dawit"), and Chapter Four ("The Rule of the Regents"). A fascinating narrative emphasizing Ethiopian agency is exemplified in the description of the mission that was sent to Venice by Dawit II in 1402. Dawit II instructed his envoys to visit holy sites, seek religious treasures, and enlist skilled artists and craftsmen to assist in the construction and decoration of religious monuments in Ethiopia. Later delegations followed precedent, as observed in the Arabic, Catalan, and Italian sources regarding missions to King Alfonso V of Aragon in the 1420s. Ethiopian rulers desired relics, valuable religious objects, and skilled craftsmen, as opposed to participating in crusades.
Orbis Aethiopicus. Beiträge zur Geschichte, Religion und Kunst Äthiopiens XVII, eds. Walter Raunig and Asfa-Wossen Asserate, J.H. Röll Verlag, pp.87—121, 2020
This article aims to shed some light on the interplay between the progressive conflation of Solomonic Ethiopian kingship with indigenous Latin Christian traditions relating to the mythical Prester John in the late Middle Ages. After looking at early descriptions of Ethiopia and Ethiopians in Latin sources, it examines how Latin authors gradually began to conflate the empire of Prester John with that of Solomonic Ethiopia – and how ideas originally ascribed onto the mythical Prester John were increasingly ascribed to the nägäśt of Solomonic Ethiopia. A subsequent evaluation of names and titles used in 15th and early 16th century Latin correspondence directed at the rulers of Solomonic Ethiopia reveals that this conflation appears to have been both immediate and tangible for contemporaries. The last section of the article asks whether and how actual Ethiopian ambassadors appear to have – either intentionally or not – freely contributed to the fanciful Latin conflation of the Solomonic nǝguś with the mythical Prester John. I argue that the gradual conflation of the myth of Prester John with Solomonic Ethiopian Christian rulership from the mid-14th century thus laid the groundwork for Latin Christian interests in Ethiopia prior to the actual onset of Ethiopian-European diplomacy, eventually shaping the idea of Solomonic Ethiopia as a uniquely desirable military partner in Latin Europe – an idea that significantly impacted the course of Ethiopian-European late medieval diplomacy well into the 16th century.