Wrong Prester John, Wrong Indies: Ethiopian and European Encounter in Early-Modern Ethiopia

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Can a Christian be converted to Christianity? Jesuit missionaries in Ethiopia in the 16th and 17th century believed so, and moreover attempted to do so. "This course examines Ethiopian and European encounters in late medieval/early-modern Ethiopia, roughly 15th to the 17th century. The class focuses on efforts, by mainly Portuguese Jesuits, to "Latinize" Orthodox Ethiopia and the impact these efforts had on the Ethiopian political and religious landscape. Issues to be discussed include, conversion (Christians converting Christians?), knowledge exchange, conflict and diplomacy, theology and more. Readings for this course are drawn from a variety of primary and secondary sources translated from Ge"ez (Classical Ethiopic), Amharic, Portuguese, Arabic and more. The readings include, Francisco "lvares" The Prester John of the Indies, Verena Krebs" Medieval Ethiopian Kingship, Craft, and Diplomacy with Latin Europe, Ahmad ibn Abd, Shihab al-Din's Futuh Al-Habashah: Or The Conquest of Abyssinia, The Jesuits in Ethiopia (1609-1641): Latin letters in translation, Getatchew Haile's The Missionary Factor in Ethiopia, Leonardo Cohen's The Missionary Strategies of the Jesuits in Ethiopia (1555-1632), Annales Iohannis I, Iyāsu I Et Bakāffā and more.