The African Prester John and the Birth of Ethiopian-European Relations, 1402-1555From the 14th century onward, political and religious motives led Ethiopian travelers to Mediterranean Europe. For two centuries, their ancient Christian heritage and the myth of a fabled eastern king named Prester John allowed the Ethiopians to engage the continent's secular and religious elites as peers. Meanwhile, back home the Ethiopian nobility came to welcome European visitors and at times even co-opted them by arranging mixed marriages and bestowing land rights. The protagonists of this encounter sought and discovered each other in royal palaces, monasteries, and markets throughout the Mediterranean basin, the Red Sea, and the Indian Ocean littoral, from Lisbon to Jerusalem and from Venice to Goa. Matteo Salvadore's narrative takes the reader on a voyage of reciprocal discovery that climaxed with the Portuguese intervention on the side of the Christian monarchy in the Ethiopian-Adali War. Thereafter, the arrival of the Jesuits at the Horn of Africa turned the mutually beneficial Ethiopian-European encounter into a bitter confrontation over the souls of Ethiopian Christians. |
Contents
PART I | |
The Crown of Aragon 14271453 | |
Rome via Jerusalem 14391484 | |
Lisbon 14411508 | |
Beyond the sea 15091520 | |
Shewa 1400s1526 | |
A tale of three cities 15271539 | |
Ending the war and the encounter 15401555 | |
Conclusion | |
Other editions - View all
The African Prester John and the Birth of Ethiopian-European Relations 1402-1555 Matteo Salvadore No preview available - 2019 |
The African Prester John and the Birth of Ethiopian-European Relations, 1402 ... Matteo Salvadore No preview available - 2017 |
Common terms and phrases
Affonso de Albuquerque African Albuquerque Alfonso Alvares Alvares's ambassador Arab Aragon Asia de João Bermudes Bracciolini Brocchi Cambridge Catholic century Christian Church Clemente Papa VII clerics coast companions Conti court Damião Damião de Góis Dawit diplomatic discourse dispatched document early modern Egypt embassy Emperor encounter Ethiopian monks Ethiopian-European Ethiopianist etiopici Europe European expansion exploration faith faranji Florence Gama Giovanni Góis Gomes Hakluyt Society History of Portugal Holy India Indies interlocutors Italian Jerusalem João de Barros João III journey King kingdom L'Ambasciaria di David L'Etiopia land Lebna Dengel Lefevre letter Lima Lisbon Mamluk Manuel Massawa Matewos Mediterranean mission Muslim negus Nile opted Ottoman overseas patriarch Pietro pontiff Pope Portuguese Empire Prester John Raineri Ranzano reached Red Sea reference region relations Roma Rombulo Rome S. N. Clemente Papa Saga Zaab sailed Santissimo S. N. Clemente Santo Stefano sojourn sovereign Sultan Tesfa Seyon translation traveled University Press Venetian Venice Yeshaq Zara Yaqob Zeila