The Throne Of Adulis: Red Sea Wars On The Eve Of Islam, by G.W. Bowersock

This particular book (which is a really short book of about 140 pages, including an appendix on the diplomatic history of the Byzantine and Axumite Empires during the period before the rise of Islam) is one that I have considered getting a couple of times from various scholarly journals, and I finally managed to receive a copy from the Michigan War Studies Review, which looks for the longest reviews of any of the historical journals I review for. In looking at the book online, I saw that some of the readers had found the book a little bit large and were disappointed at the lack of naval history included in the work (since the subtitle of the book says “Red Sea Wars” which implies naval action, although the book appears to be more about political and diplomatic history with the occasional commentary on military action.

Given that this is a short book, and that it is about a specific time in period where the Byzantine Empire and the Persian Empire fought each other directly for several centuries, each of them seeking allies in their conflict, among which were included a Jewish Yemeni kingdom and the Coptic Empire of Axum. These various polities fought each other and engaged in religiously motivated military conflict, and the book, from what I have read so far, is very harsh on the Jewish treatment of Christians, showing a clear favoritism for certain realms and behaviors as opposed to others. After all, the early Middle Ages were not a time of great sentimentality in any part of the world and surely the Middle East and the Horn of Africa (where this book is focused) was no different than most parts of the world in that regard. Like some of my other book reviews and non-book reviews, this book seeks to provide some context to the military and political situation of Arabia and the neighboring parts of Africa through the long dureè [1].

The behavior of Justinian as a strong emperor are at their best-known in areas like southern Spain, North Africa, and Italy, where he was ably served by such famous generals as Belisarius [2]. His behavior in Southern Arabia and East Africa, where he did not directly project military power in an attempt to increase his empire, but rather sought to influence neighboring powers to engage in diplomatic partnership with his realm provides another way to show this strong emperor as able to project his force not only through direct military intervention but also through forceful rhetoric and able diplomats, many of whom were from the same family. This story is worth telling, as diplomatic history tends to be a much neglected area of history (for all that I have a major interest in it [3]). Here’s hoping it will not be a long read, but will instead whet my appetite for even more reading about equally obscure subjects which I like to fill my library with.

[1] See, for example:

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2012/12/06/non-book-review-the-aden-effect/

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2013/02/15/book-review-somalia-the-new-barbary/

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2010/12/03/book-review-the-horn-of-africa/

[2] See, for example:

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2011/08/18/on-the-greatest-military-leaders-of-all-time/

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2013/05/14/non-book-review-masters-of-the-battlefield/

[3] See, for example, “The Puzzle Of Chilean Prussianization” in Time Well Wasted: