ABSTRACT
This chapter explains a powerful theme in Ethiopian history: the immediate proximity of the country to the Arab Peninsula and its relations with the Arabs, especially those of the South. In Ethiopia, feudalism was the minimal preservation of pre-existing autonomous units, under a central authority that had asserted itself. One can understand how the particular historical formation of Ethiopian feudalism made it more resilient, so that it continued until the substantial reforms introduced in our own time. The greater importance of Ethiopia in the economy of the ancient world was born with Alexander the Great's venture, and especially with the foundation of the city of Alexandria in Egypt: the brilliant creation of an emporium, which soon became huge, for the exchange between the Middle East and the West. That exchange was not confined to goods, but was also exchange of ideas, of inspiration and of artistic expression, in one word, of civilisation.
