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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Haile Sellassie and the Arabs, 1935-1936 |
Author: | Erlich, Haggai |
Year: | 1994 |
Periodical: | Northeast African Studies |
Volume: | 1 |
Issue: | 1 |
Pages: | 47-61 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | Ethiopia |
Subjects: | press attitudes Arabs Italo-Ethiopian War heads of State Politics and Government international relations Inter-African Relations |
About person: | Hayla Selasse I, emperor of Ethiopia (1892-1975) |
External link: | http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/northeast_african_studies/v001/1.1.erlich.pdf |
Abstract: | The Italo-Ethiopian conflict of 1935-1936 had a tremendous impact on the whole world and it did not fail to affect the Middle East. Mussolini, aiming to create and to fan regional instability, used a combination of Islam and Arabism to present himself as the champion of Islam and help the propagators of pan-Arabism in various ways. Against this background, an ongoing discussion about Ethiopia was held in Arabic from early 1935 to mid-1936, by local public opinion-makers throughout the Middle East. The present paper uses Arabic books and newspaper articles from this period to assess Arab attitudes towards Ethiopia. Opinions in the hundreds, if not thousands, of newspaper articles dealing with the Abyssinian crisis and Ethiopia published in the numerous dailies of the Arab world throughout 1935 were polarized. The discussion of the figure of Haile Selassie reflected the whole Ethiopian issue in all its stages. Until the Ethiopian defeat in 1936, Haile Selassie was widely regarded with respect. In May 1936, however, following Haile Selassie's flight from Ethiopia, his general image was degraded to that of a vanquished loser. Notes, ref. |