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ETHIOPIA IN THE ACCOUNTS OF ARABIC HISTORIOGRAPHERS [Abstract ID: 0511-07]
There are rich sources on Ethiopia in foreign languages such as Italian, French, German, English and Arabic. Others have also survived in local languages such as Ge’ez, Amharic, Afan Oromo, Harari, etc. In fact, Arabic writers frequently attempted to record Ethiopian history since early periods. However, this attempt seems to have developed from the 7th century onwards. Thus, they began in writing the communication of the Prophet Muhammad with the then king of Aksum (Ethiopia), Ashama Ibn-Abjar or Al-Nağāšī. Arab writers such as Ţabāri, Ibn Ishaq and Ibn Hisham were the pioneer ones who recorded about the first Hijra (emigration) to Aksum in 615. Moreover, Arabic historiographers and geographers of the 10th century including Al-Ya’qubi, Al-Masudi, Al-Istakhari and Ibn Hawqal had covered the wider medieval history of the Horn of Africa and the Aksumite episodes from different perspectives. This paper intends to present the Accounts of Arab writers on Ethiopia from the early periods up to 20th century. It mainly focuses on sources (manuscripts and electronically published) works of Arabic literature in order to obtain necessary data on the multidisciplinary areas including history, geography, religion, cultures of Ethiopian peoples.