Introduction

For millennia, Northeast Africa has linked sub-Saharan Africa with the Near East and the eastern Mediterranean. Towards the end of the first millennium BCE, more distant lands bordering the western Indian Ocean were also incorporated into this network of commercial and cultural interaction. Although Egypt's role in this network is by far the best documented of any region in Northeast Africa, the lands of Nubia and Ethiopia to the south were also involved. Both have shaped, and have been shaped by, historical trends in and around Northeast Africa, though often in very different ways. The Early Middle Ages constitute an important era in the history of Egypt's southern neighbours, for it witnessed such developments as the spread of Christianity, the expansion of the early Islamic empire (with all the challenges that implied), and the decline and fall of some polities together with the rise of others. On the whole, Nubia fared better than Ethiopia during this period, though this impression might owe something to the fact that there is more written documentation for Nubia at this time. Although there is good evidence that the Early Middle Ages witnessed a revival of Nubian culture, it will be argued in this chapter that there are hints of important cultural activity in Ethiopia at about the same time, even if the political history of Ethiopia during this period remains largely obscure.

Geographical and Linguistic Background

The two regions with which this chapter is concerned differ considerably in their topography, ecology, and climate. Nubia, stretching southwards from Aswān into northern Sudan, is centred on the Nile river, which in this region is interrupted by no fewer than six cataracts, rapids caused by rocky outcrops that hinder navigation and in some instances force those travelling via the Nile to disembark and proceed overland to the next stretch of navigable water. As with Egypt to the north— and, indeed, Ethiopia to the southeast— agriculture has historically been the mainstay of the Nubian economy, aided by such devices as the shādūf (a counterweighted tool for lifting water) and the sāqiya (an ox-driven waterwheel). Such technology is particularly vital to the agricultural economy in Lower (i.e. northern) Nubia, a region which is virtually rainless. Yet even with the aid of these devices, the agricultural output of Nubia has always been lower than that of Egypt, given that the Nile Valley floodplain is usually narrower in the former region, with the result that Nubia's population has been correspondingly smaller in size and lower in density.