Reflections on the notions of "empire" and "kingdom" in seventeenth-century Ethiopia: royal power and local power

Hervé Pennec (1) , Dimitri Toubkis (1)

1 CEMAf - Centre d'Etudes des Mondes Africains

The purpose of this article is to re-interrogate the notions of “empire” and “kingdom,” in seventeenth-century Ethiopia, attentive to the borrowings and models used by the sources, which are particularly rich for this period. But it is equally through a study of a person close to King Sysneyos, the räs Se‘lä Krestos, and the relations that he maintained with his sovereign, that we can reformulate these notions of “empire” and “kingdom.”

Mots clés: Ethiopia; Empire; Royalty; Jesuits; Seventeenth-Century; Royal space

Mots clés: Ethiopie; Royauté; 17e siècle; Espace royal

Domaines: Histoire

Hervé Pennec, Dimitri Toubkis. Reflections on the notions of "empire" and "kingdom" in seventeenth-century Ethiopia: royal power and local power. Journal of Early Modern History, 2004, 8 (3-4), pp.229-258. ⟨hal-00348618⟩