"This Volume dealing with various aspects of Ethiopia's varied social history, is devoted by and large to the northern central highlands, and covers the period from early medieval times to the region of Emperor Tewodros II which is considered a turning-point in the country's history - and serves at the same time as a point of departure for dramatic changes that were to characterize the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The region under review was important in that it constituted the core of the traditional Ethiopian State, and was over centuries to exercise no small influence on the other parts of the country. The area was at the same time distinctive - and formed a cohesive entity - in that it had a unique highland, and predominantly Christian, culture. The region is moreover of special interest on account of its indigenous chronicles and hagiographies, and the many descriptions by foreign travelers, which made it, at least until the middle or second half of the nineteenth century, by far best documented part of Ethiopia. It is thus an area that can be studied over a considerable span of time."