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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Some documents on nineteenth-century Ethiopia from the Nachlass of Gerhard Rohlfs
Author:Tafia, Bairu
Year:1982
Periodical:Rassegna di studi etiopici
Volume:29
Pages:175-235
Language:English
Geographic term:Ethiopia
Subjects:travel
history
1800-1899
Abstract:The most outstanding result of the German envoy's journey to the Ethiopian court in 1880-81 was indeed Rohlfs' contribution bo the knowledge of Ethiopia rather than his diplomacy which was in any case doubtful from the very beginning. After going through the private correspondence of Gerhard Rohlfs (1831-96), which consists of at least five thousand letters (preserved in the Heimataiusema of Vegesack), one cannot help realizing that his journey had a unique aspect. namely that Rohlfs established an informal and yet a superb. reliable and consistent agency in northeast Africa which provided him with allround information for several years. The present article consists of 34 documents, all of which are reports in the form of letters on the exploration, trade, social conditions and political developments in Ethiopia and on the coast of the Red Sea. Eight of them come from Rohlfs' nephew, the German-Czechish explorer Dr. An ton Stecker, seventeen were written by Franz Hassen, an Austrian adventurer in Egyptian service, and the remaining nine by Engdasat Schimper, a well informed and capable man of Ethiopian-German origin. Notes, ref.
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