Argues that the chapter in `Umara's history is entirely an interpolation, by another hand of the 6-7th/12-13th centuries, with no valid new information on the history of the Isma`ilis in Yemen. It was originally published as "The Chapter... more
Argues that the chapter in `Umara's history is entirely an interpolation, by another hand of the 6-7th/12-13th centuries, with no valid new information on the history of the Isma`ilis in Yemen. It was originally published as "The Chapter on the Fatimid Da'is in Yemen in the Ta'rikh of 'Umara (d. 569/1174): An Interpolation," in Studies in the History of Arabia, I: Sources for the History of Arabia, 2 (Riyad, 1979), 51-61.
Until 2010 (when a careless tourist broke it into pieces), a curious Kufic-inscribed sandstone block greeted those who entered the narthex of the 11th century church of Wuqro Cherqos in East Tigray, Ethiopia. My paper identifies the... more
Until 2010 (when a careless tourist broke it into pieces), a curious Kufic-inscribed sandstone block greeted those who entered the narthex of the 11th century church of Wuqro Cherqos in East Tigray, Ethiopia. My paper identifies the origin of this long misunderstood fragment and presents it in the longue durée, from its architectural placement in the great mosque of a Fatimid trading colony to its later medieval use as a chancel arch in the church of Wuqro Cherqos, and finally its reception in the modern era. In telling the story of the life of this stone fragment, a microcosm is illustrated in order to reveal the larger picture of Islam’s changing reception in Ethiopia, from the middle ages to the 21st century.
I begin by placing the inscribed stone in its original context as part of an inscribed arch (possibly the miḥrāb) in the great mosque of a settlement in Tigray – when the region was Fatimid-aligned and the church of Wuqro Cherqos was built under Egyptian protection (10th or 11th centuries CE). I then trace how, after northern Ethiopia emerged as a centralized power under the Zagwe dynasty, the inscribed arch was spoliated and used in a Christian context. Placed as the chancel in Wuqro Cherqos, it took on new meaning as a luxurious liturgical threshold akin to the Egyptian and Indian silks that hung alongside it. Lastly, I show how, after the arch came apart in the late 1990s, modern Ethiopian scholars promoted the remaining Arabic inscribed fragment as an ancient Ethiopian inscription, up to its final erasure in 2010.
This article discusses the `Adan coinage of the 12th-century Isma`ili Sulayhid/Zuray`id dynasties in the light of the author's Ph.D. research on their relationship to the Fatimid caliphate, in particular the reaction of the Yemenis to the... more
This article discusses the `Adan coinage of the 12th-century Isma`ili Sulayhid/Zuray`id dynasties in the light of the author's Ph.D. research on their relationship to the Fatimid caliphate, in particular the reaction of the Yemenis to the disappearance of al-Amir's successor Tayyib, resulting in a schism in the Isma`ili movement that still exists. Because the article is unillustrated and depends heavily on Lowick's 1964 article for details of the coins, I have taken the liberty of appending the latter in this pdf.
