The Ethiopian-European Encounter

Over the past decade, I dedicated most of my research to telling the story of what I dubbed the Ethiopian-European encounter. If there is an order to my scholarly production, it would be the following: first, one should read The Ethiopian Age of Exploration (2010), which discusses 15th century Ethiopian arrivals in Europe and offers both a chronological and a thematic introduction to my scholarship. Then, my monograph expands on the 15th century dealings discussed in the article and examines 16th century Ethiopian-European relations. If you want to know more about exceptional Ethiopians in 16th century Rome, consider reading my article on Yohạnnǝs or Giovanni Abissino, and the article I co-author with a dear friend on Tesfa Seyon or Pietro Abissino,

Next is my work on the Society of Jesus’s mission to Ethiopia: while other scholars have written much more extensive accounts on the Jesuit era, my two articles offer one a handy introduction to it, and the other a discussion of the mission’s inception. Additionally, I also wrote a brief article about the diplomatic legacy of the failed Jesuit mission in Ethiopia and Rome.

If you are hard-pressed for time and are only looking for a general introduction to the history of Ethiopian-European relations in the early modern era, consult my article in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African History.