Open events

This session is the first of two linked panels exploring the facts and legends of medieval Ethiopian history. This panel focuses on the "facts" known about this period and the challenges of navigating the lack of available written evidence. Paper 1 analyzes the Sassanian Conquest of Axumite Yemen in the 6th century and its consequences; Paper 2 studies the writings of an 8th-century Chinese general who traveled to the region and recorded his observations of the living habits and political turmoil of the Axumite and Nubian peoples; and Paper 3 uses disparate datasets to reconstruct the rise of Christianity in the Sawan highlands of Ethiopia before the 13th century and provide a social history of Sawan Christians.