Bibliotheca Historica


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Catalogue of the Apprentices' Library


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The Para Papers on France, Egypt and Ethiopia


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Reprint of the original, first published in 1858.




Ethiopia at Bay


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... what people are saying about this book ...'A marvelous recounting of Ethiopian and world history during those years. Mandatory reading for anyone interested in Third World relations and certainly for anyone who seeks to understand contemporary Ethiopian or Horn of Africa affairs.'?Foreign Service Journal?A significant primary source in its first hand account by a meticulously observant insider.'?Foreign Affairs?Commands attention and respect. John Spencer's personal, candid, and basically reliable record will have an honored place in the contemporary annals of that tortured country.'?Times Literary Supplement?Spencer is one of the very few living people in a position to describe Ethiopia's efforts to survive during those years.'?Library Journal?Spencer was privy to many important decisions. Of particular interest is his account of Haile Sellassie's disenchantment with the U.S.'?Publisher's Weekly?After the hard fate which befell the Emperor and his notables, Spencer is maybe the only one of the old regime's key persons still alive. There is hardly a single page one would want to miss.'?Sture Linner in Svenska Dagbladet?I found Ethiopia at Bay intensely interesting, sad and even tragic in the Greek mode. What a series of missed opportunities, anachronistic colonial arrogances, and western shortsightedness! The book would be enormously instructive to students of international relations generally.'?Lincoln Gordon, former President, Johns Hopkins University?Valuable indeed, Especially significant is Spencer's cogent analysis of the Emperor himself. Recommended for college, university, and larger public libraries.'?Choice.










AF Press Clips


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Emirate, Egyptian, Ethiopian


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In October 1875, two months after the takeover of the Somali coastal town of Zeila, an Egyptian force numbering 1,200 soldiers departed from the city to occupy Harar, a prominent Muslim hub in the Horn of Africa. In doing so, they turned this sovereign emirate into an Egyptian colony that became a focal meeting point of geopolitical interests, with interactions between Muslim Africans, European powers, and Christian Ethiopians. In Emirate, Egyptian, Ethiopian, Ben-Dror tells the story of Turco-Egyptian colonial ambitions and the processes that integrated Harar into the global system of commerce that had begun enveloping the Red Sea. This new colonial era in the city’s history inaugurated new standards of government, society, and religion. Drawing on previously untapped Egyptian, Harari, Ethiopian, and European archival sources, Ben-Dror reconstructs the political, social, economic, religious, and cultural history of the occupation, which included building roads, reorganizing the political structure, and converting many to Islam. He portrays the complexity of colonial interactions as an influx of European merchants and missionaries settled in Harar. By shedding light on the dynamic historical processes, Ben-Dror provides new perspectives on the important role of non-European imperialists in shaping the history of these regions.