Penetrating the Ethiopian "Dark Ages"

Ethiopia is an under-researched subject within Medieval studies, despite its influential position between Rome and Persia in the Ancient world. The Aksumite kingdom flourished up to ca. 580 CE and, with a fully developed written language (Ge'ez), profited through trade from its position in the Horn of Africa where the Red Sea meets the Indian Ocean. Ca. 600 CE it experienced a sudden decline, entering a 500-year "Dark Age". This volume considers that decline, while at the same time linking the text of Islam's holy book, the Quran in the 7th c., to the Ge'ez Bible. It considers the rise of the Zagwe dynasty during the 11th c., and its takeover by the Solomonic dynasty in the late 13th c. While questioning the religious affinity of the latter, whose origins were in Shoa to the south, it describes how the legends of Queen Gudit, and Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, were used as propaganda to legitimize the Solomonic dynasty and justify its use of violence to gain power and further its political and economic ambitions. Meanwhile, philological and linguistic studies, including the origin and meaning of place and personal names, point to developments in the "Dark Ages" that exceed what is known from archaeology and external sources.