Re-Islamization of Southeastern Ethiopia
By Ulrich Braukämper, Frankfurt a.M.
Political agents for the expansion of an ideology or religion are first of
all men who enter certain areas to propagate their respective systems of
belief Besides this direct missionary activity there is always „Stimulus
diffusion", by which ideas are transported to other regions. This is one
of the well-known characteristics of Islam in sub-Saharan Africa.^ In
Ethiopia, however, it has not yet been sufficiently investigated by
means of historically oriented field research.'
The more the human media of diffusion move away from established
centres of religious training, the stronger the impact of the local envi¬
ronment on the institutional framework, beliefs and practices of Islam
tends to become. From the point of view of orthodox Islam, people who
call themselves Muslims in certain parts of the Hom of Africa ought
rather to be labelled "half-pagans".
' This article is based on a paper presented at a conference "Les agents reli¬
gieux islamiques en Afrique Tropicale" in Paris, December 15-17, 1983. I am grateful to Adam Jones, Institut für Historische Ethnologie der Universität
Frankfurt a.M., for comments and for corrections of my Enghsh.
^ The various characteristics of Islamic diffusion have particularly been
investigated for West Africa. See for example Jean-Claude Froelich: Essai
sur les causes el methodes de I'islamisation de l'Afrique de l'Ouest du XP siecle au XX" siecle. In: I. M. Lewis {ed.): Islam in Tropical Africa. London 1966, pp. 160-
73; Nehemiah Levtzion: The Long March of Islam in the Westem Sudan. In: R.
Oliver (ed.): The Middle Ages of Afriean History. London 1967, pp. 13-18; J.
Spencer Trimingham: The Expansion of Islam. In: J. Kritzeck and W. H.
Lewis (eds.): Islam in Africa. New York 1969, pp. 13-34; Ulrich Braukäm¬
per: Der Einfluß des Islam auf die Oeschichte und Kulturentwicklung Adamauas — Abriß eines afrikanischen Kulturwandels. Wiesbaden 1970, chapters II and III.
' General studies on Islam in the area of our concem have been published by Enrico Cerulli: L'Islam neU'Africa Orientale. In: Aspetti eproblemi attuali del
mondo musulmano. Roma: Reale Accademia dTtalia 1941, pp. 5-24; J. Spen¬
cer Trimingham: Islam in Ethiopia. London 1952; Joseph Cuoq: L'Islam en
Ethiopie des origines au XVP siecle. Paris 1981. My own field studies among the
"Highland East Cu8hitic''-speaking Hadiya-Sidama people and among the
southeastern Oromo (Arsi and Barentu) were carried out between 1970 and
1974.
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EXPANSION OF ISLAM IN SOUTHERN ETHIOPIA
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In some parts of southeastern Ethiopia, particularly between the
Omo River and the eastem escarpment of the Arsi-Bale Massifs and
the Harar Plateau, Islam was the dominant religion during the last cen¬
turies of what can be classified as the Middle Ages of Ethiopian history.*
The expansion ofthe non-Muslim Oromo people during subsequent cen¬
turies mostly eliminated Islam in those areas. But some Muslim
pockets, although cut off from the Islamic centres in the Hom of Africa,
continued to exist, and in the folk religions of those areas, Muslim
beliefs and practices survived in various degrees of adulteration. These
left-overs from medieval times are important ethnographic data for
reconstracting cultural history^, and they have also acted as stimulat¬
ing factors in the (re-)islamization of southeastem Ethiopia since the
19th century. In the area of our concem, the Barentu- and Arsi-Oromo,
the Harari, Alaba, and some groups ofthe Hadiya, Gurage and Burdji
are islamized. The Muslim religion is also advancing among the Gudji-
and Borana-Oromo, who are still largely adherents of their old folk reli¬
gion. Thus what is numerically the most important block of Ethiopian
Muslims, constituting approximately half of an estimated population of
42 million, is concentrated in the southeastem highlands. (The old
Islamic regions of the Afar and the Somali remain outside our conside¬
ration here.)
Early expansion of Islam and its decay
In order to comprehend the relevance of survivals and syncretistic
features of a former Islamic period for the recent religious expansion, it
is indispensable to sketch the situation which existed in medieval
times.* After Islamic civilization had gained a foothold on the northeast
African coast, it not only sporadically infiltrated the hinterland but also
established a politically organized outpost on the eastem escarpment of
* For Jean Doresse: L'empire du Pretre Jean. Paris 1957, vol. II, p. 323, the end of the Middle Ages in this area is marked by the outbreak of the Adalite
"holy war" in 1527. I consider the expansion of the Oromo people over large parts of the Hom of Africa, which started at the same time, a more important event.
^ See Jan Vansina: The Use of Ethnographic Data as Sources for History. In:
T. 0. Ranger (ed.): Emerging Themes of African History. London 1968, pp. 108
sq.
" Cf. Ulrich Braukämper: Islamic Principalities in Southeast Ethiopia be¬
tween the Thirteenth and Sixteenth Centuries. In: Ehtiopianist Notes I, 1 (1977), pp. 17-56; I, 1 (1977), pp. 1-43.
Medieval Muslim Survivals as a Stimulating Factor
the Ethiopian highlands, the sultanate of Shawa, as early as A. D., 896/
7. It was replaced by the state of Yifat in A.D. 1285.' This state was
mentioned by Arabic historiographers, al-'Umari and al-Makrizi, as
part of the Muslim confederation of Zayla' on the Somali coast^, whose
power centre shifted to the Harar Plateau in the 15th century. The
seven members of the federation were: Yifat, Dawaro, Arababni,
Hadiya, Sharkha, Bale and Dara. As I have shown in greater detail in
another context'', the inhabitants of those states in the highland areas
up to the Rift Valley were either Semitic-speaking Harala-Harari people
in the north or Cushitic-speaking Hadiya-Sidama people in the south.
Politically, they were subordinate to the Ethiopian empire which con¬
trolled them through military colonists (chawä). It can be assumed that
these settlers constituted a Christian minority within what was, at least
superficially, an islamized population.
This situation lasted for almost two centuries, but was then dramati¬
cally changed when the war-leader of Harar-Adal, Ahmad b. Ibrähim al-
Ghäzi, nicknamed Grän (the Lefthanded), proclaimed a djihäd against
the Ethiopian empire in 1529. The Christian minorities of the south¬
eastem highlands were eliminated, and the position of Islam was consi¬
derably strengthened — although only for a period of a few decades.
Even before the defeat of Gräü by Ethiopian-Portuguese forces in 1543
and the final collapse ofthe Muslim offensive upon the death ofhis suc¬
cessor Nür b. Mudjähid in 1568, the Oromo (Galla), whose country of
origin lay between the upper Ganale and the upper Dawa, had started to
invade Adal as well as the Ethiopian empire. Both of these adversaries
were so much weakened by their long stmggle that they could not pre¬
vent the Oromo from occupying large parts of their territories. Thus the
Muslim areas ofthe Harar Plateau and the Arsi-Bale Massifs mostly fell
under the dominance of a „pagan" people. This political and ethnic
change necessarily affected the cultural situation, particularly the reli¬
gion, of the region. The autochthonous Hadiya-Sidama and Harala-
Harari were gradually assimilated by the conquerors, although certain
' Enrico Cerulli: E mdtanato dello Scioa nel secolo XIII secondo un nuovo
documento storico. In: Rassegna di Studi Ethiopici 19 (1941), pp. 5 sqq.
* al-'Umari: Masälik el Ah^är fi Mamälik elAmsär. I. L'Afrique, moins l'Egypte
(Par Fadl AUäh al-'Omari). Transi. and annot. by M. Gaudefroy-Demom¬
bynes. Paris 1927, pp. 5-19; al-Makrizi: Makrizi Historia Regum Islamiticorum
una cum Abulfedae Descriptione Regum Nigritarum. Transi. from the Arabic by
R. F. Rinck. Leiden 1790, pp. 10 sqq.
" Ulbich Bbaukämpeb: Geschichte der Hadiya Süd-Athiopiens — Von den
Anfängen bis zur Revolution 1974. Wiesbaden 1980, chapter 3.2.
cultural differences, for example conceming their status in the age- grade system (gada), persisted.'"
Islam was replaced by a Cushitic folk religion which was basically
Oromo but also incorporated features adopted from autochthonous
Muslim groups. At the westem fringe ofthe area of our concem, in the
regions along the Rift Valley, the speakers of "Highland East Cushitic"
languages preserved their linguistic and ethnic identity. Not directly
subjected to the dominating pattems of "pagan" Oromo culture, those
peoples maintained pronouncedly Islamic elements. They can be traced
most obviously in the fanddno religion ofthe Hadiya. Before we focus on
this case, we propose to analyse some examples of Muslim survivals
and features of religious syncretism along the Barentu- and Arsi-Oromo.
Remnants of Islam among the southeastern Oromo
The ancestors ofthe Barentu-Oromo occupied the Harar Plateau from
the 1570s onwards and gradually assimilated the Semitic-speaking
Harala and Harari. However, Harar itself survived as a Muslim town
and subsequently played an essential role in the islamization of the
Oromo conquerors. Beside this place, which became a highly attractive
urban centre of cultural orientation for the surrounding Oromo pea¬
sants, some smaller Muslim pockets — sanctuaries and shrines of
"saints" — remained in the countryside." Most were re-established in the 19th and 20th centuries, but for some, for example the "Harala"
mosque of Manna Kallu near Dobba/Chercher, an unbroken continuity
can be demonstrated. These places were a permanent potential of
agents for the expansion of Islam. From the late 1 8th century onwards a
steady influx of Somali missionaries, whose descendants are still trace¬
able in the clans ofthe warra kallu (Oromo: priests) and who frequently
led their genealogies back to Ismä'il Djabarti, a Muslim pioneer of the
10/1 1th century in the Hom of Africa'^, reinforced the process of isla¬
mization.
We know hardly anything about the old folk religion of the Barentu-
Oromo, because in the eastem parts of the Harar Plateau they were
mostly islamized by the end of the last century, and in the west, parti-
For a detailed analysis see U. Braukämper: Geschichte (n. 9), chapter 3.4.
'' I have tried to analyse this at length in a paper entitled Notes on the Islami¬
cization and the Mtislim Shrines of the Harar Plateau. In: Proceedings of Second
Intemational Congress of Somah Studies. Vol. 2. Hamburg 1984, pp. 145-74.
For this dating see Ewald Waoner: Legende und Gesehiehte. Der Fath
Madinat Harar von Yahyä Nasralläh. Wiesbaden 1978, pp. 133, 138.
it
Medieval Muslim Survivals as a Stimulating Factor
cularly among the Ittu ofthe Chercher region, where conversion was not
completed until the 1950s, no study about this subject has been made.
At present, the only limited access we have to pre-lslamic beliefs and
practices are those "pagan" survivals which have persisted in their Muslim society.
Our state of information for the pre-Muslim religion ofthe Arsi-Oromo
is more advanced. It was documented particularly by Cerulli and
Habbrland when it still existed as a functioning whole, just before it
fell into decline.Moreover, a dualism has persisted within their
society between "pure" Oromo clans and those of the assimilated
"Garba", i. e. Hadiya. This dualism has made it possible for us not only
to investigate culturally relevant differences within the Arsi ethnos, but
also to make comparisons with the socio-religious system ofthe Hadiya
proper.
Hadiya clans among the Arsi-Oromo are frequently recognizable by
their corrupted Arabic denominations, e.g. fakissa (Fakih Tsä), she-
damma (Shaykh Ädam), alii ('Ali), djafarra (Dja'far). The curtailment
or abandoning of such names in genealogies indicate the progressive
impact of the "pagan" Oromo culture.
According to an Arsi folk tradition the Hadiya were descendants of
Nabbi Adam, the first prophet of the Muslim hagiology, whereas the
Oromo were sent down from the earth by their sky-god Wayü.'*
On the one hand, the assimilated Hadiya were considered to be of a
lower social status than the "pure" Oromo and did not possess equal
rights in the ^a<ia-system as a core institution of Arsi society; on the
other hand, however, they had a reputation for being ritually potent.
Particularly those clans which are called kalecha shan or awan shan
("five priests") gained prestige as magicians and also important politi¬
cal functions alongside the abba-gada, the age-grade leaders. Their
magical power, for example in rain-making ceremonies or extinguishing
fire, was believed to result from their sharific origin, i. e. their descent
from the family ofthe Prophet Muhammad. Their main religious instru¬
ment, the big drum [dibbe), can be assumed to represent a contribution
of the Muslim stratum to Oromo culture.'^
" See Enrico Cerulli: R popolazioni del bacino superiore dello Uabi. In:
L. A. DI Savoia-Aosta (ed.): L'esplorazione dello Uabi — Uebi Scebeli. Milano
1932, pp. 33 sqq.; Eike Haberland: Galla Süd-Äthiopiens. Stuttgart 1963,
p. 451-516.
'* E. Habebland: Galla (n. 13), p. 443
'° This can be concluded from the analysis ofE. Habebland: Galla (n. 13),
p. 444.
Certain practices which can easily be identified as Islamic survivals
were peculiar to most Hadiya clans of the Arsi. They observed a fasting-
time (somu), generally of 15 days, buried their dead so as to lie roughly
in the direction of Mecca and performed a ritual sacrifice (sakadäda) on
the occasion of funeral ceremonies. Some Hadiya, particularly members
of the kalecha clans, are said to have also observed the Muslim ritual
prayer, which was called sagadde or sagidda among the Arsi'*.
However, places where a pure Islam was practised with uninterrupted
continuity do not seem to have existed in the Arsi-Bale Massifs. The
most important Muslim sanctuary of Northeast Africa, that of Shaykh
Husayn in Bale, was re-established at the end ofthe 18th century."
Other important shrines, such as A§häb 'Uthmän in the Arsi highlands,
were not set up until the 19th century. Around 1930, most ofthe Arsi
west of the Chilalo-Warra Lukko chain were adherents of the old folk
religion (awäma), whereas in the 1950s non-Muslims had become a
minority and by the 1970s hardly any existed.'*
The fandäno religion of the Hadiya
The system of non-Muslim Oromo culture had its impact also on those
"Highland East Cushitic "-speaking peoples who lived east of the Rift
Valley. The Sidama and Darassa adopted the gada-system during the
16th and I7th centuries, a fact which inevitably resulted in a wide-
reaching annihilation of Islamic elements. However, I observed among
the Sidama in 1973 that followers of their old folk religion (chimessa, pl.
chimeiye) had preserved Muslim elements which were to some extent
reminiscent of those described with regard to the Hadiya clans of the
Arsi. The "Highland East Cushitic" groups who occupied dwelling-areas west of the Rift Valley, particularly the Hadiya, Alaba and Kabena"*, were able to maintain their socio-religious systems in a more "original"
state. Muslim survivals have persisted more manifestly among them
than among any other group of that region.
" Cf. U. Braukämper: Geschichte (n. 9), pp. 141 sqq.
" Ulrich Braukämper: The sanctuary of Shaykh Husayn and the Oromo-
Sontali Connections in Bale. In: Proceedings ofthe First Intemational Congress of Somali Studies. Mogadishu 1986 (forthcoming).
" E. Cerulli in: L'esplorazione (n. 13), p. 141; E. Haberland: Galla
(n. 13), p. 470. In 1973, 1 met what were presumably the last awäma groups in the region of Kokossa, near the Wabi Shebeli headwaters.
'° For the historical analysis of the migrations see U. Braukämper: Ges¬
chichte (n. 9), chapters 3.4-3.5.
Medieval Muslim Survivals as a Stimulating Factor
The Hadiya word fandäno (whose derivation remains unknown) in
general refers to the traditional "way of life" and in particular to a syn¬
cretistic religion in which Muslim relics used to play a crucial part. The
consciousness of the connection of this religion with Islam was in fact so
strong that fandäno members (sg. fanddndjo), when asked about their
religious confession, frequently answered that they were Muslims.
Cebulli was told by informants west ofthe Gibe (Omo) River that the
Tembaro confessed Islam.^" But my own research in that area indicates
that they — like many other Kambata-speaking people — adopted the
fandäno religion from the Hadiya.
Particularly since the 1950s, fandäno has been rapidly abandoned
among the Hadiya in favour of Christianity (Ethiopian Orthodox
Church and Euro-American missions) or Islam. In the 1970s there was
only a small area in the southwest of their dwelling-area where fanddno
was still practised and could be documented before it totally disap¬
peared.
Hadiya traditions refer to Bimaddo as the founder of fanddno, a per¬
son who, in a document referring to the Ethiopian emperor Zar'a Yä'-
kob (1434-68), can be identified as the Muslim leader Melimad.^' It can
be assumed that an infiltration of "pagan" elements started not very
long after the Hadiya had been cut off from the Muslim centres in the
Hom of Africa by the Oromo expansion. However, the process which
followed was not a heterogeneous dissolution of Muslim pattems, but
the formation of a socio-religious system which, despite some regional
variations, had developed a relatively uniform shape by the end of the
1 7th century. It is tme that fanddno did not possess those criteria which
are a conditio sine qua non for a "religion ofthe Book", such as codified
dogmas. But there was a strict division between the fandäno people, i. e.
those who observed the rules ofthe religion and those "heathens" (ibdje,
sg. ibdjelcicho) who did not. Fanddno certainly did not share with the
world religions the ideology of systematic expansionist mission, but by
means of intermarriage and personal links it was spread among groups
of the neighbouring East Gurage, Alaba, Kambata and Tembaro.
A detailed description of the fanddno beliefs and practices is beyond
the scope of this paper. Instead I propose merely to sketch some
Enbico Cerulli: TTie Folk-Literature of the Galla of Southern Abyssinia. In:
Harvard African Studies 3, 3 (1922), pp. 43, 45.
^' See U. Braukämper: Gesehiehte (n. 13), pp. 81 sqq.
I intend to present this in a publication entitled Fandäno: the Socio-Religi- ous System of the Hadiya in Southem Ethiopia. Some information on fanddno was
important elements ofthe socio-religious sphere which markedly reveal
a Muslim origin. Prayers showing some similarity to the Islamic ^cdät
were regularly performed by a number of people, presumably a minority
of the fandano-Heidiya, in the mornings and evenings. The observance
of a fast (somdtw) of either 15 or 30 days was considered one of the
essential religious duties. Adults had to abstain from any kind of food
from sunset until cock-crow. The method of slaughtering and the food
avoidances of Islam were strictly preserved, and no fanddno would ever
eat meat slaughtered by a "pagan" or a Christian. Any violation of one
of these formal obligations had to be expiated by a particular purifica¬
tion ceremony (manissamäko) . It is difficult, however, to explain why
the fandäno gave up male circumcision, which was practised among all
their neighbours, in favour of making an incision in the penis or in the
knee.
Many spiritual beings, categories of demons (e. g. djinn, iblis) or spi¬
rits of possession cults (e. g. djafarro, adämo) have either pure or cor¬
rupted Arabic names. In the field of eschatology, concepts relating to
the destination of human souls or to heaven and hell, clearly reflect a
Muslim background. On the whole, fanddno presents itself as an out¬
standing example of a syncretistic religion where elements of Islam
amalgamated with local Cushitic beliefs and practices.
Analysis of the conditions for re-islamization
With respect to religion there is an obArious territorial division in sou¬
them Ethiopia which is marked by the Rift Valley: the eastem part is
largely islamized and the westem part predominantly christianized.
The reasons for this constellation are manifold and have not yet been
sufficiently investigated.
If we wish to analyse the conditions and factors which led to this reli¬
gious division, we must start with a comparative study ofthe geographi¬
cal situation. After the decline of medieval Islam, southeastem Ethiopia
continued to be bordered along all its eastem fringes by Muslim
peoples, the Afar and the Somali. The southwestem people, however,
lacked a common border with Muslims, because until the 20th century
Islam hardly spread south of Sennar in the Blue NUe area. The econom-
coUected by Herma Plazikowsky: Historisches über die Hadiya. In: Zeitschrift
fiir Ethnologie 82 (1957), pp. 84-92, and by Haile Bubamo Arficio: Some
Notes on Fandano Religion in Hadiya (South-Westem Shawa) (mimeographed
paper). Addis Ababa 1977.
Medieval Muslim Survivals as a Stimulating Factor
ic and commercial connections of all Ethiopian highland inhabitants,
Christians as well as "pagans", were always oriented towards the east,
towards the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean. A system of trade routes
linked the interior vwth the seaports from the Eritrean to the Benadir
coasts.
By contrast, the westem escarpment falls steeply into the Sudanese
plain, boggy and malaria-stricken during parts ofthe year and occupied
by Nilotic and pre-Nilotic people who displayed a hostile attitude
towards traders heading to and from the Nile Valley. Thus, the agents of
Islamic expansion had steady access to the hinterland from the east,
but they were more or less prevented from entering Ethiopia from the
Sudan. Islamization from the west was in fact restricted to some parts
of westem Wallaga, where Muslim communities were established
among the Berta, Bela Shangui and Oromo from the 1880s onwards.^*
Likewise, the introduction of the Tidjäniya order by shaykhs from the
west to the areas of the Djimma-Oromo and Gurage^^ just before the
turn of this century occurred outside the main currents of Islam in
Ethiopia.
Different ecological and socio-economic conditions play an important
role in determining the priorities of religious orientation in the area of
our concem. In this respect, southem Ethiopia is to a large extent
divided vertically by the Rift Valley into an eastem and a westem part.
It can generally be stated that the eastem regions, including the Harar
Plateau and the Arsi-Bale Massifs, receive less rainfall and have a spar-
cer natural vegetation than those of the west. In the east, particularly
among the Arsi-Oromo, a mixed economy with grain cultivation and
stock-farming predominates, whereas intensive horticulture wdth
Ensete ventricosum as the main staple food is characteristic for most
parts of the west. (The Sidama and Darassa constitute a major excep¬
tion, depending largely on ensete, although they live east of the Rift
Valley.)
For further details see Mordechai Abir; Caravan Trade. andHistory in the NoHhemParts of East Africa. In: Paideuma 14 (1968), pp. 103-20; cf. U. Brau¬
kämper: Geschichte (n. 9), pp. 253-56.
" See Alessandro Triulzi: Salt, Gold and Legitimacy. Prelude for a History
of a No-Man's Land Bela Shangui, Wallaga, Ethiopia (ca. 1800-1898). Napoli
1981, pp. 162 sqq.
Enrico Cerulli: Etiopia Occidentale. Roma 1930-33, Vol. II, p. 96; J. S.
Trimingham: Islam (n. 3), p. 246; William Shack: TTte Gurage. A People ofthe
Ensete Oulture. London 1969, p. 193; personal communications from Gurage
informants.
This dichotomy in basic economic pattems became highly relevant
when the inhabitants of southem Ethiopia were confronted with the
choice between two world religions — Islam and Christianity. (The rea¬
son why the traditional folk religions have obviously no chance of survi¬
val and are rapidly falling into oblivion is beyond our consideration
here.) The acceptance or rejection of either Islam or Christianity
depends to a cmcial extent on formal obligations such as food avoi¬
dances and fasting prescriptions. Orthodox Christians are for example
forbidden to eat the meat of camels. This obligation is easy to observe
in highland areas where these animals cannot exist, but it would seve¬
rely affect the economic basis of camel-breeding societies. More impor¬
tant is the fact that the rules of Ethiopian Christianity, requiring believ¬
ers to abstain from any kind of non-vegetarian diet for about 180 days
per year, rank among the most rigid a religion has ever created. In the
ensete-cultivating areas, where animal proteins constitute only a small
quantity ofthe diet, those rules of abstinence do not affect ordinary food
habits to a major extent. On the other hand, they threaten the very core
of the economic systems of those peoples who depend heavily on live¬
stock-raising. Arsi informants in the lowlands of the Rift Valley and in
the northem highlands of Bale told me that following some missionary
campaigns organized by the Ethiopian church in the 1950s, many of
them were baptized. But after the first period of fasting almost all of
them preferred to tum Muslim. The Islamic Ramacjän offers the advan¬
tage of not demanding abstention from livestock products.
One can certainly predict that the Borana, the last Oromo group
which is still largely pagan and at the same time relies on pastoral
nomadism (including the raising of camels) , will tum Muslim in the near
future. Among their brethren in northem Kenya their progressive isla¬
mization has already been documented.^* The relevance of ecological
and economic conditions for the religious situation is also shown by the
fact that those Hadiya, who are intensive agriculturalists in the high¬
lands, have mostly converted to Orthodox Christianity, whereas those
of the Bilate valley, with a higher dependance on livestock, have largely
tumed Muslim. (An attractive altemative was presented to all inhabi¬
tants of those regions by Euro-American missions, which do not
demand food avoidances or fasting and at the same time offer the
chance of modem education.)
Paul Baxter: Acceptance and Rejection of Islam among the Boran of the
Northem Frontier District of Kenya. In: I. M. Lewis (ed.): Islam in Tropical Africa.
London 1966, pp. 233-52.
Medieval Muslim Survivals as a Stimulating Factor
It is a rational prerequisite that a religion has to fit into the material
pattems of culture of human groups. The acceptance or rejection of a
particular religion, however, is also influenced by psychological factors.
For example, since the occupation of southem Ethiopia by the Amhara
in the late 1 9th century, many inhabitants of that area have shared a
deep-rooted antipathy towards the socio-religious system of their Chris¬
tian conquerors. Thus it could be assumed that a sense of opposition
which resulted from this attitude led people to give preference to Islam,
because it presented the rival cultural system to that of Orthodox Chris¬
tianity. But this reaction was not general, and as we have already stat¬
ed, most inhabitants of the southwest preferred to tum Christian,
although their fate in terms of political suppression and economic
exploitation was sometimes worse than that of people in the southeast.
The conversion to Orthodox Christianity caimot merely be explained by
the desire of people to integrate themselves as much as possible into the
culture ofthe mling ethnic stratum of the Amhara. To achieve extensive
privileges and socio-economic benefits was not under any circum¬
stances possible for more than a small minority of local elites and chiefs
(balabbat), who for obvious opportunistic reasons sometimes tumed
Christian even in Muslim-dominated areas.
The phenomenon of religious preferences in the area of our concem
cannot be considered without the role of survivals. Southwestem Ethio¬
pia up to the region of Madji and Gamu was under Christian influence
between the 15th and 17th centuries, and numerous relics ofthe Chris¬
tian religion can be found there."* From Gurage, where pockets of
Orthodox Christianity persisted with unbroken continuity, priests were
sent as far as Kambata up to the middle of the 19th century.^^ The
awareness of people of their religious past is an emotional factor of
which missionary agents were able to take advantage.
In southeastem Ethiopia islamization was from the 19th century
onwards no longer the result of an unsystematic infiltration, mainly car¬
ried by traders or adventurers: rather it was promoted by shaykhs from
Muslim centres, who intentionally went out to "pagan" areas in order to
" In 1973, I interviewed a chief ofthe habaUosa, a clan ofthe Arsi-Oromo south of Lake Zway, who was the only Orthodox Christian within his completely islamized group.
See Eike Haberland: Altes Christentum in Süd-Äthiopien. Wiesbaden
1976.
J. L. Krapf: Reisen in Ost-Afrika abgeführt in den Jahren 1837-1855.
Komthal 1858, pp. 73 sq.; Ulrich Braukämper: Die Kambata. Geschichte und
Gesellschaft eines südäthiopischen Bauemvolkes. Wiesbaden 1983, pp. 63 sq.
convert people. Cases of this type are known to have occurred among
the Barentu- and Arsi-Oromo as well as among the East Gurage and
Hadiya ofthe Bilate valley. This can be illustrated by the example ofthe
Alaba, where Muslim survivals were particularly marked. In about 1850
they were visited by a shaykh named Wolle from Yifat on the eastem
escarpment of the Shawan highlands. Shortly after this, Khana, the
main agent of islamization in Alaba, arrived from the sanctuary of
Shaykh Husayn in Bale. Before he started his activities, he had
informed himself carefully about the genealogies and cultural traditions
ofthe indigenous people. When he began preaching in front of local dig¬
nitaries and councils of elders, he showed them an old document,
according to which, he said, the forebears ofthe Alaba had all been Mus¬
lims, and famous ancestors of the tribe, such as Hasan and Side, had
been distinguished protagonists of Islam. Referring to these facts,
Khana urged the Alaba to retum to the faith of their ancestors. The
overwhelming majority ofthe people headed his appeal and tumed Mus¬
lim during the period ofhis stay in the Bilate valley (roughly from 1855-
1890).'"
Conclusions
The conditions under which Islam spread in the southem Ethiopian
highlands are remarkably different from those it faced in other parts of
sub-Saharan Africa. From the very beginning, it was confronted with
another world religion. Orthodox Christianity, which had been firmly
established in northem Ethiopia since the 4th century A. D. Unlike their
co-religionists in the states and empires ofthe Sudanic zone, Ethiopian
Muslims have never been in a position of overwhelming strength, being
mostly dominated by their Christian neighbours.
Christian expansion was mainly directed to the southwest, towards
the so-called Kaffa higlands; Muslim expansion generally proceeded on
an east-west route from the arid regions of the Hom towards the clima¬
tically and economically more favourable mountainous regions of the
interior. In the area of the Rift Valley the two religions collided and
have competed ever since. Islam has the advantage of having started its
missionary activities in the 19th century, whereas the Orthodox Chris-
Herma Plazikowsky: Beiträge zur Geschichte des Islams in Abessinien. In:
Der Islam 32 (1957), pp. 81 sq.; U. Braukämper: Geschichte (n. 9), p. 182. Kha-
na's grave on Mount Dato at the boundary between Alaba and Kambata became
an important shrine for the local population.
Medieval Muslim Survivals as a Stimulating Factor
tians did not launch systematic campaigns until the end of the Second
World War. In many regions of southem Ethiopia Islam became an in¬
stitutionalized channel for expressing a sense of opposition to the domi¬
nating political system and at the same time an important focus in the
search for a new cultural identity.
In referring to the Rift Valley as an ecological and cultural line of
demarcation I do not mean to advocate a geographical determinism.
However, the general division of southem Ethiopia into a Muslim east¬
em and a Christian westem part is an obvious fact. As I have tried to
show, it is the result of a combination of factors, such as geopolitical
constellations, the vicinity of the respective core areas, accessibility to
religious agents, and socio-economic conditions. The cultural orienta¬
tion in the contested areas was to some extent dependent on subjective
attitudes which were influenced by religious survivals. The latter were
not in themselves a decisive factor, but nevertheless played a stimulat¬
ing role in the processes of religious change.
3 ZDMG 137/1
bis zur Mitte des 17. Jahrhunderts
Von Klaus Röhrborn, Gießen
Par bonheur, les hommes sont tels dans ce pays, qu'Us n'ont besoin que d'un nom qui les gouverne.
Montesquieu
I.
Den osmanischen Promemorien gilt seit langem und zu Recht das
besondere Interesse der Forschung, allerdings mit einer gewissen Ein¬
schränkung, was die frühen Schriften dieser Art angeht. Nur das Asaf-
name' des Lütfi Pa§a ist seit längerem publiziert und bekannt, aber von
Mustafa Äli's Nasihatü's-selätin^ oder gar vom anonymen Htrzü'l-
mülük^ hat die historische Forschung bisher kaum oder nicht Kenntnis
genommen. Im Falle des Hirzü'l-mülük vielleicht deshalb, weil von die¬
sem Werk nur ein oder zwei Handschriften bekaimt sind*. Das Nasiha-
tü's-selätin, fiir das Andreas Tietze 9 Handschriften namhaft machen
konnte®, bietet dagegen sprachliche Schwierigkeiten, wie man sie aus
anderen Denkschriften nicht gewöhnt ist, und Mustafa Äli's Anspielun¬
gen bleiben gelegentlich auch fiir den Spezialisten dunkel*. Das ist aller-
' Rudolf Tschudi: Das A^afnäme des Luffl Pascha. Berlin 1910. (Türkische Bibliothek. 12.)
^ Andreas Tietze: Mustafä 'Äli's Counsel for sultans of 1581. Ed., transi., notes. Bd. 1. 2. Wien: Österr. Akad. der Wiss. 1979-82. Bd. 1: 188 S., 72 Taf., 4"; Bd. 2: 295 S., 90 Taf., 4" (Österr. Akad. d. Wiss. PhU.-hist. Kl. Denkschrif¬
ten. 137. 158.) Der vorliegende Aufsatz ist zugleich Besprechung dieses Werkes.
^ Vgl. zu dieser Denkschrift: Untersuchungen 7-10.
■* Nach mündlicher Auskunft von Rhoads Murphey existiert noch ein zwei¬
tes Manuskript dieses Werkes in Rumänien (?), das aber auch unvollständig ist.
^ Nasihatü's-seldtin I 9.
° Vgl. die diesbezüglichen Fußnoten von Tietze in Nasihatü's-seldtin I 26
(Anm. 16), 27 (Anm. 26), 64 (Anm. 136), 65 (Anm. 141) usw.
