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This lavishly illustrated work by two renowned scholars narrates the history of the spread of Islam all over the world, from its birth in Arabia in the seventh century to the present day. Islam remains an active and stillspreading phenomenon whose influence in different parts of the world is profound, and, to many non-Muslims, mysterious and little understood. With its 180 maps, 200 illustrations and carefully prepared text, the book brings clarity and under-standing to a religious and cultural force of great contemporary significance.

In a chapel in the old crenellated church of Mary of Zion in Aksum, Ethiopia is kept an object that emperors, patriarchs and priests have assured the world is the most important religious relic of all time: the tabota Seyon, Ark of the Covenant, the Ark of Zion. This Ark is alleged to be no other than the Ark that Moses had constructed at Sinai and which destroyed the walls of Jericho. It was brought into Jerusalem by King David and installed in a magnificent temple by King Solomon. Then, the story goes, it came to Ethiopia of its own choice with the half-Ethiopian, half-Jewish son of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. Are the legends true? Or is this story a monumental deception? Is there any real proof or is it the faith of a people alone that has created this Ark? From ancient texts to local stories, from the Bible to the writings of sixteenth and seventeenth century Jesuits, Stuart Munro-Hay traces the extraordinary legend of Ethiopia's Ark in what is a triumph of historical detective work. Munro-Hay scrutinises every mention of the Ark in Ethiopian records and tests every theory before he reaches his shocking conclusion. "The Quest for the Ark of the Covenant" promises to settle the mystery of the Ark of the Covenant for once and for all.

An annotated bibliography of some 600 resources on aspects of the country including history and prehistory, archaeology, politics, famine, travel, language, and foreign policy. Includes sections listing journals and conference proceedings, bibliographies and reference works, and dissertations and theses, plus a chronology, a list of rulers, and an introduction outlining the country's history. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Ethiopia Unveiled explores some unusual and exotic aspects of an intriguing topic: Ethiopia ?s presentation to and reaction to, the outside world over a period of several hundred years. The lands concerned are chiefly European Mediterranean countries, Italy, Spain, and Portugal, but also include Yemen, Egypt, and Palestine, where the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem was the goal of innumerable Ethiopian pilgrims. Some years ago, as a visiting professor at the Humboldt University at Berlin, lecturing on Ethiopian history, the author noticed how surprised the students were to hear of the sometimes quite vigorous interaction between European mediaeval powers and remote, but Christian, Ethiopia . Despite the incredible difficulties of communication ? even with closer neighbors like Egypt, Jerusalem or the Yemen transmission was far from easy ? there are letters and reports still preserved concerning Ethiopian relations not just with Egyptian sultans and patriarchs and Yemeni imams, but also with European kings and popes. The former mainly concern church matters or sometimes the Nile, though once the vague fantastic dream of converting an Ethiopian Christian king to Islam surfaced in Yemen. The European contacts are perhaps more surprising, and include accreditations of ambassadors, schemes for joint anti-Muslim military action, and even marriage proposals. In later times the association between the two very different worlds that Ethiopia and Europe represented increased, but at the same time understanding became obscured by the intermingling of wonderful legendary additions; for example, the queen of Sheba, Prester John, or the story of the blocking of the Nile to starve Muslim Egypt. All in all, the Ethiopians? relations with the outside world seemed to deserve a study on their own ? the genesis of this book.

An annotated bibliography of some 600 resources on aspects of the country including history and prehistory, archaeology, politics, famine, travel, language, and foreign policy. Includes sections listing journals and conference proceedings, bibliographies and reference works, and dissertations and theses, plus a chronology, a list of rulers, and an introduction outlining the country's history. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

An atlas covering the history of Islam, from the birth of Mohammad through the twentieth century and into the twenty-first, features in-depth accounts of each area in the Islamic world, along with 180 maps and 200 illustrations.