Which Middle Ages for Ethiopia?

Current debates on the notion of Middle Ages of Ethiopia (and Eritrea) offer the occasion for reflecting on periodizations proposed as well as on recent trends which tend to neglect essential phases of the history of studies. The wave of studies on Late Antiquity has marginally impacted the studies on Ethiopian past. These remain in the large majority indifferent to the change of paradigm that the late antique turn of the last decades requires and imposes, even though impressive discoveries have revealed ancient Ethiopia’s participation and entanglement within a larger ecumene. On the contrary, recent nationalistic trends tend to flatten Ethiopian past projecting backward the living tradition of the present and stressing its unicity, whereas the present tradition has evolved and retained it only to a limited extent. Actually, large portions of this past, committed to rare manuscripts, are vanished, forgotten, and actually ignored. A correct re-appreciation of Ethiopian past has to restart from the approaches which have located Ethiopia within a broader context, even before the discoveries which have marked the last decades. Among the scholars who were pioneers in this approach, Enrico Cerulli needs to be re-evaluated in his own right for what he wrote in his works.