In Bastions of the Cross, a study of three rock churches in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia, Mikael Muehlbauer revisits the history of the so-called Dark Ages—the tenth through twelfth centuries—and offers a comprehensive reinterpretation of the prevailing view that this region of the Horn of Africa was isolated from the broader global context during this period. He provides compelling evidence that, on the contrary, the region was integrated within a wider network, as the Fatimid dynasty shifted its focus toward the Red Sea and neighboring regions. Moreover, he suggests that trade between Egypt and Ethiopia resumed (if it had ever been interrupted) with notable dynamism. He also argues that Ethiopia played an active role in commercial exchanges with the regions of the Indian Ocean and South Asia.

The context outlined in the book’s introduction and explored in greater detail in the third and fourth chapters is not...

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