Daily Medieval

Yesterday I teased information about Prester John. I wrote about him long ago ( here and here ), and he got mentioned in other contexts (mo...

The Tribe of Dan, one of the 12 Tribes of Israel, was compared to a lion's whelp by Moses, signifying strength (Deuteronomy 33:22). Numb...

Beta Israel (Ge'ez for "House of Israel") is the name for Jews who established a presence in the Kingdom of Aksum, supposedly ...

After the Christian conversion of the Kingdom of Aksum, and before the asylum given to some of the first Muslims , there were Jews in Aksu...

In the first part , we looked at the introduction of Christianity into what became Ethiopia during the 4th century. The Muslim presence in t...

Ethiopia was a fiercely Christian country in the Middle Ages, long before European colonization brought Christianity to Africa. To be fair, ...

The Emperor of Ethiopia, Amda Seyon I, was surrounded by threats from Muslims who were opposed to Ethiopia's Coptic Christianity . Each...

Emperor of Ethiopia  Amda Seyon  (reigned 1314 - 1344) was a Christian whose constant focus was fighting the surrounding Muslims and trying ...

When Christians and Muslims were burning down each other's houses of worship in Egypt during the reign of Sultan  al-Nasir Muhammad (li...

With the recent posts on rival popes and antipopes, it may be worthwhile to examine the title "pope" a little. From the start, St....

Sebinkarahisar, possible burial site of Ewastatewos [ link ] The word "sabbath" has a long history. Our word is from the Old ...

In the Middle Ages, the evidence suggests that Ethiopia was a Christian nation surrounded by hostile Muslim territories. Medieval manuscript...