One of the commonplaces with regard to Ethiopian literature is the fact that it is heavily indebted to foreign sources for much of its material. The initial works of Ethiopic literature were made from Greek but as knowledge of that language faded, undoubtedly owing to the spread of Muslim hegemony which isolated Ethiopia from contact with Christianity outside Africa, translation from Greek came to an end. With the ‘restoration’ of the Solomonic dynasty in 1270, increased literary activity brought about the translation into Ge‘ez (Ethiopic) of a number of Arabic works, usually those of Christian writers.