A History of Ethiopia in Pictures (Paper Cover)

CONTENTS

Early Development of Man in Africa                                                        

Prehistoric Man in Ethiopia                                                                       

South Arabia and the Sabaeans                                                               

The Civilization of Aksum                                                                      

The Expansion of Aksum                                                                       

The Conversion to Christianity                                                               

The Development of Amharic                                                                

Aksum and Early Islam                                                                          

The Decline of the Aksumite Empire                                                      

Life in the Middle Ages                                                                          

Churches in the Middle Ages                                                                  

The Zagwe Dynasty and the Churches of Lalibela                                  

The Establishment of the Solomonic Line                                              

Ethiopia and the World in the Middle Ages                                             

The Wars of the Middle Ages                                                                 

The Portuguese and Ahmed Gragn                                                         

The Great Days of Gonder                                                                      

The Decline of Gonder and the Era of the Mesafint                               

Emperor Tewodros and the Attempted Reunification of Ethiopia           

Emperor Yohannes IV                                                                            

Emperor Menelik II                                                                                

The Treaty of Wuchale and the Battle of Adwa                                      

The Foundation and Growth of Addis Ababa                                         

The Empire of Menelik II                                                                       

The Reunited Empire                                                                              

Modemisation under Menelik                                                                 

The Early Years of Emperor Haile Selassie I                                          

Fascist Aggression                                                                                  

The Continued Struggle against the Fascists                                            

Liberation - 194 ~                                                                                   

Economic and Social Development after the War                                   

Ethiopia and Africa                                                                               

Major Events in Recent Ethiopian History                                              

Long Term Developments                                                                      

Ethiopian Calendar          

INTRODUCTION

The authors have assembled in this short book a number of illustrations which give an impression of the march of Ethiopian history and the wealth of Ethiopian culture. These illustrations have been gathered from many historic documents, scarce publications and other sources inaccessible to the general reader. The authors wish to record their indebtedness to Eric Robson who has worked over many months, not only to produce faithful reproductions of original material but also to create many vivid, imaginative drawings of important events in Ethiopian history of which original illustrations do not exist.

Geoffrey Last
Richard Pankhurst 

Till now Ethiopia’s history has always been chronicled and seldom illustrated. The creators of this book have, in relatively few pages and with the aid of carefully-selected illustrations drawn from original sources or objects, produced the first visual history of Ethiopia. Here compactly assembled are reconstructions of Aksum in pre-Christian times, of Lalibela and its rock-hewn churches, of Gonder in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and of the battles of Maqdala and Adwa. We see the people who lived in these places and made the history of their times – the ancient Sabaeans, Yudit the Warrior Queen, King Lalibela, Ahmed Gragn, Tewodros, Yohannes IV and Menelik II. Man was born in Africa and this book takes events from man’s origin to present-day Ethiopia. The result is a fresh view of Ethiopian History, unique in its comprehensive illustration.