Jeffrey M. Shaw

The Ethiopian-Adal War - which saw the Muslim sultanate of Adal almost succeed in conquering Ethiopia before being thwarted by the intervention of a small but crack Portuguese force eager to rescue the kingdom of Prester John from the Muslims - has attracted little attention from English-language historians, and this slim volume from Helion is as far as I know the only English-language book taking the whole of the war as its subject matter.

It quickly becomes obvious that this is an amateur labour of love, whose language could be more polished and whose analysis could be more profound. As a narrative history of the War, though, it does its job well enough.… (més)