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Available
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Series
Publication
Oxford ; Oxford University Press, Emblems of Antiquity Series, 4th printing, 2013, Hardcover
Description
Just prior to the rise of Islam in the sixth century AD, southern Arabia was embroiled in a violent conflict between Christian Ethiopians and Jewish Arabs. Though little known today, this was an international war that involved both the Byzantine Empire, which had established Christian churches in Ethiopia, and the Sasanian Empire in Persia, which supported the Jews in what became a proxy war against its longtime foe Byzantium. Our knowledge of these events derives largely from an inscribed marble throne at the Ethiopian port of Adulis, meticulously described by a sixth-century Christian mercha
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LibraryThing member DeusXMachina
Oxford University Press as publisher was already a good hint that this wouldn't be an easy read, but I love to learn completely random facts about the world that are thoroughly reviewed and that I'll never need again, so I'm fine with that.
The topic itself is pretty obscure: A pre-islamic conflict
Bowerstock analyses and explains meticulously the body of source material, the power structure in the region, the influence of outside and historical powers like the Roman, Meroitic and Egyptian empires and the development of the conflict.
The lessons? Propaganda is everything, it's not about religion, and every aggressor always has good reasons.
The topic itself is pretty obscure: A pre-islamic conflict
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between jewish Arabs in the territory of today's Yemen and christian Ethiopians at the other side of the Red Sea that is in the end not much more than a proxy war between the Byzantine and the Persian empires.Bowerstock analyses and explains meticulously the body of source material, the power structure in the region, the influence of outside and historical powers like the Roman, Meroitic and Egyptian empires and the development of the conflict.
The lessons? Propaganda is everything, it's not about religion, and every aggressor always has good reasons.
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Language
Original publication date
2013
Physical description
xix, 181 p.; 21.7 cm
ISBN
9780199739325