King of Kings

ASFA-WOSSEN ASSERATE, born in 1948, is a prince of the Imperial House of Ethiopia. Educated at the German School in Addis Ababa, he later attended the University of Tübingen, Magdalene College, Cambridge, and the University of Frankfurt am Main, where he received a Ph. D in history. He has lived in Germany for over forty years and works as a consultant for African and Middle Eastern affairs and as a political analyst. A bestselling author writing in German, he has been the recipient of two of the most distinguished literary prizes in the Federal Republic of Germany, the Adalbert von Chamisso Prize for Literature and the Jacob Grimm Prize for German Language. Asfa-Wossen Asserate is an honorary senator of the Eberhard-Karls-University of Tübingen.PETER LEWIS has had careers in university teaching and publishing and now works as a freelance translator and author.

• Foreword // xiPrologue: Who Was Haile Selassie? // xviiNotes on the text // xxviii1. A Childhood in Harar // 12. Two cousins vie for power // 223. The Ethiopian Machiavelli // 424. The Elect of God // 845. The darkest hour // 1176. The Lion of Judah returns // 1627. Shots across the bows // 2258. Shaking hands with history // 2799. An empty house // 32410. Haile Selassie's legacy // 354Notes // 362Ethiopian Imperial Titles, in descending order of rank // 396Glossary // 399Genealogical Table // 402Bibliography // 404Picture credits // 416Acknowledgements // 417Index // 421

‘This magnificent biography by the German-Ethiopian historian Asfa-Wossen Asserate ... is diligently researched and fair-minded; Haile Salassie is at last accorded a proper dignity. The book is manifestly a riposte to Ryszard Kapuscinski's The Emperor’