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A Social History of Ethiopia: The Northern and Central Highlands from Early Medieval Times to the Rise of Emperor Tewodros II
A compilation of Ethiopia's social history, devoted to the northern and central highlands, and covering the period from early medieval times to the reign of Emperor Tewodros II.
371 pages, Hardcover
First published June 1, 1992
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About the author
Richard Keir Pethick Pankhurst
24 books17 followersRichard Keir Pethick Pankhurst OBE (3 December 1927 – 16 February 2017) was a British-Ethiopian scholar, founding member of the Institute of Ethiopian Studies, and former professor at the University of Addis Ababa in Ethiopia. His books have been reviewed in scholarly journals, with Edward Ullendorff calling his The Ethiopians as another testimony to his "remarkable diligence and industry in the service of Ethiopian studies". He is known for his research on economic history and socio-cultural studies on Ethiopia.
Source: Wikipedia
Source: Wikipedia
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November 11, 2017
'a historical encyclopedia'
Reading this book, which covers Ethiopian social history from the Middle Ages to the reign of Tewodros II in the mid-nineteenth century, reminded me more than once of reading an Indian textbook (at least 20th century Indian textbooks). It is a giant collection of facts gleaned from English, French, Italian and German sources. The author no doubt expended a great deal of time and thought in arranging this huge mass of material in some kind of order. And he succeeded---it is very orderly. But unfortunately, for a reader like me--not at all professionally concerned with Ethiopia--it is more or less unreadable. [Though I should add that I did stick with it to the end.] The Indian connection is in the style which he chose to present his material. He picked three time periods---The Middle Ages, The Gondar Period, and the Early Nineteenth Century---and then he looked at the same set of subjects in each. Each time period is subdivided into a humungous number of smaller sections, each with a title, followed by a presentation of all the facts the author could locate. There is nothing of the author to be found. What did he think about all this? Forget it. What are his conclusions ? Ditto. Does he see any similarities with any other cultures ? Did he think about other writers of social history ? No idea. And so it goes. It's not so much a history as a compendium of historical material. Readers are going to find innumerable paragraphs on everything from mourning ceremonies to horn and ivory workers. I was appalled to find a mention of "geisha girls"---not because of the topic, but because "geisha girls" is a very uneducated way of labeling them. I began to wonder about the quality of the rest. OK, maybe that is nitpicking. But if you want to read a literate, erudite history of Ethiopia, this is not it. There is not a single map. Whoa ! Works by Levine and Kaplan will suit you better. If you need facts because you are going to write a novel set in Ethiopian history between 1200 and 1868, look no further. This is going to be your bible. Other than that, I don't think many people can last to the end of this book. I'm probably nuts, but hey.....
Reading this book, which covers Ethiopian social history from the Middle Ages to the reign of Tewodros II in the mid-nineteenth century, reminded me more than once of reading an Indian textbook (at least 20th century Indian textbooks). It is a giant collection of facts gleaned from English, French, Italian and German sources. The author no doubt expended a great deal of time and thought in arranging this huge mass of material in some kind of order. And he succeeded---it is very orderly. But unfortunately, for a reader like me--not at all professionally concerned with Ethiopia--it is more or less unreadable. [Though I should add that I did stick with it to the end.] The Indian connection is in the style which he chose to present his material. He picked three time periods---The Middle Ages, The Gondar Period, and the Early Nineteenth Century---and then he looked at the same set of subjects in each. Each time period is subdivided into a humungous number of smaller sections, each with a title, followed by a presentation of all the facts the author could locate. There is nothing of the author to be found. What did he think about all this? Forget it. What are his conclusions ? Ditto. Does he see any similarities with any other cultures ? Did he think about other writers of social history ? No idea. And so it goes. It's not so much a history as a compendium of historical material. Readers are going to find innumerable paragraphs on everything from mourning ceremonies to horn and ivory workers. I was appalled to find a mention of "geisha girls"---not because of the topic, but because "geisha girls" is a very uneducated way of labeling them. I began to wonder about the quality of the rest. OK, maybe that is nitpicking. But if you want to read a literate, erudite history of Ethiopia, this is not it. There is not a single map. Whoa ! Works by Levine and Kaplan will suit you better. If you need facts because you are going to write a novel set in Ethiopian history between 1200 and 1868, look no further. This is going to be your bible. Other than that, I don't think many people can last to the end of this book. I'm probably nuts, but hey.....
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