Over the past two decades, archaeological documentation on abandoned, ruined, and recently rediscovered cities has accumulated in the countries of the Horn of Africa (Ethiopia, Somaliland). Whether it is Nora on the escarpment of the central highlands, Harlaa not far from Harar, or several other sites in eastern Ethiopia and neighboring Somaliland, it is remarkable that these sites date from the Middle Ages. No less remarkable is the fact that all these urban sites are distinctly Muslim. Among them are Nora and Harlaa—the best-documented to date—as well as the city of Awfât, the capital of the Awfât Sultanate.
The course will provide a comprehensive overview of this new archaeological evidence, seeking to understand how it alters the historical geography of Islamic Abyssinia and the models proposed thus far regarding the distribution of political entities and trade networks within the Horn of Africa. One phenomenon that will be examined—from the perspective of their commercial interconnections and the role of their respective elites—is the increasingly stark contrast between an urban Islamic Abyssinian world and a rural Christian Ethiopian world.