The Ethiopian Borderlands

Historically, studies of Ethiopia, like those of other countries, tend to concentrate on events at or near the center of political power, and devote far too little attention to other areas. The present account attempts at least in part to redress the balance by shifting attention to the"peripheral" regions, which, while of central importance to their own inhabitants, tend to receive relatively little focus in studies of the Ethiopian region as a whole. This book is an historical investigative account of the history of the expanding and often nebulous borders of Ethiopia beginning from ancient times to 1800. It deals with areas that have for years been contentious and problematic for the adjacent peoples in the region: land of the Bhar Nagasah, Ifat, Adal, Fatagar Daiwaro, Bali, Damot, Gurage, Waj, Gamo, Ganz, Gafat, etc. It contains numerous illustrations of antiquities, from old European maps to Ethiopian historical drawings.