'"Grammarians, linguists, Semiticists, Ethiopianists, students, and curious speakers of Amharic will be well and long served by this exemplary work. For advanced students of the language, it will become an indispensable tool."' Grover Hudson, "Journal of the American Oriental Society", 1998. "Good news: Heinz Halm's excellent outline of the early history of the F t imids is now available in English...The impression that this volume, despite its high scholarly claim, almost appears like a 'best-seller', may be acknowledged with pleasure by everybody expecting from a book in the non-fictional area, in addition to new insights and an increase of knowledge, also a fair deal of literary entertainment." Sebastian Gunther, "Bibliotheca Orientalis", 1998.