1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910483519103321

Autore

Krebs Verena

Titolo

Medieval Ethiopian Kingship, Craft, and Diplomacy with Latin Europe / / by Verena Krebs

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Springer International Publishing, 2021

Cham : , : Springer International Publishing : , : Imprint : Palgrave Macmillan, , 2021

ISBN

9783030649333 (eBook)

9783030649340

Edizione

[1st ed. 2021.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (319 pages) : illustrations

Disciplina

327.6304

Soggetti

Civilization - History

Europe - History - 476-1492

Africa, North - History

World history

Cultural History

History of Medieval Europe

History of North Africa

World History, Global and Transnational History

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

1. Introduction  -- 2. All the King's Treasures  -- 3. The Sons of Dawit  -- 4. The Rule of the Regents  -- 5. King Solomon's Heirs  -- 6. Conclusion.

Sommario/riassunto

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 theself-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'. Verena Krebs is Professor for Medieval Cultural Realms and their Entanglements at the Ruhr University Bochum, Germany, where she also co-directs the Bochum Centre for Mediterranean Studies. She holds a bi-national PhD from the universities of Konstanz, Germany, and Mekelle, Ethiopia; her primary research focus is on the late medieval Solomonic Kingdom of Ethiopia and its connections to the wider Mediterranean region.