Medieval Ethiopian Kingship, Craft, and Diplomacy with Latin Europe

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'.

• Diplomacy
• Solomonic Ethiopia
• Latin Christian Europe
• Religious material culture
• Fifteenth century
• Age of exploration
• Crusade
• Artisans
• Levant
• Military alliance
• Horn of Africa
• Jihad

“This extremely well written book will be the point of reference on this subject. It provides sagacious treatment of the many documents that can be brought to bear on the exchanges, and it places Ethiopia’s part in a new frame of reference.” (Andrew Kurt, Speculum, Vol. 97 (4), October, 2022)

“This is a remarkable and fascinating book that opens up entirely new vistas on the cultural and political history of the fifteenth-century Mediterranean. To someone who is not an expert in Ethiopian history, the book conveys a great sense of authority; it is backed up by a formidable array of footnotes.” (David Abulafia, Al-Masāq, March 28, 2022)

“Krebs has produced an impressive survey of Ethiopian-European relations and her volume will cer­tainly find a place in the library of … Ethiopianists. To be sure, in light of Krebs’s masterful discussion of relics and material culture, readers will certainly look forward to her announced second monograph … .” (Matteo Salvadore, Orientalistische Literaturzeitung, Vol. 116 (4), 2021)

“In this meticulously researched and highly original book, Krebs conjures up an immensely wide world as she follows the visits of Ethiopian pilgrims and ambassadors to late medieval Europe. She also opens a window onto the politics and culture of that proud highland kingdom. This is a model study that will change our vision of Europe’s encounter with the non-European world at the dawn of the Renaissance.” (Peter Brown, Emeritus Professor of History, Princeton University, USA) 

“Combining meticulous research and a thorough synthesis of the sources, this book offers a fresh look at the diplomatic history of Christian Ethiopia and Latin Europe between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries. A fascinating study that will undoubtedly be an invaluable resource for those who seek to research and teach the history of Ethiopia.” (Solomon Gebreyes, University of Hamburg, Germany)

• Institute of History, Ruhr University Bochum, Bochum, Germany

  Verena Krebs

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.

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