Muslim Ethiopia


Book Description

Drawing on international and multidisciplinary expertise, this pioneering edited collection analyzing Islam in contemporary Ethiopia challenges the popular notion of a 'Christian Ethiopia' imagined as the century-old, never colonized Abyssinia, isolated in the highlands and dominated by Orthodox Christianity.




Islam, Ethnicity, and Conflict in Ethiopia


Book Description

Discussing an armed insurgency in Ethiopia (1963-1970), this study offers a new perspective for understanding relations between religion and ethnicity.




Localising Salafism


Book Description

The political transition in 1991 and the new regime’s policy towards the ethnic and religious diversity in Ethiopia have contributed to increased activities from various Islamic reform movements. Among these, we find the Salafi movement which expanded rapidly throughout the 1990s, particularly in the Oromo-speaking south-eastern parts of the country. This book sheds light on the emergence and expansion of Salafism in Bale. Focusing on the diversified body of situated actors and their role in the process of religious change, it discusses the early arrival of Salafism in the late 1960s, follows it through the Marxist period (1974-1991) before discussing the rapid expansion of the movement in the 1990s. The movement’s dynamics and the controversies emerging as a result of the reforms are discussed, particularly with reference to different understandings of sources for religious knowledge and the role of Islamic literacy.




Islam in Nineteenth-Century Wallo, Ethiopia


Book Description

While presenting an historical account of the internal dynamics of Islam in Wallo, Ethiopia, with particular emphasis on the modes of its introduction and dissemination, and on its relationship with the Ethiopian state and regional power structure, this book describes the background to, and manifestations of, the revival and consolidation of Islam in the region in the nineteenth century by assessing the role of Muslim scholars, traders and chiefs in that process. It also traces the origin of the tradition of Islamic renewal and reform, and analyzes the response of Wallo Muslim religious intellectuals to the attempt of the Ethiopian Christian monarchs of the period to bring about the political unification of the kingdom by imposing a policy of religious coercion on the Muslims of Wallo. Based largely on hitherto-untapped oral and written indigenous sources, and supplemented by external archival and documentary evidence, the study is aimed at redressing the historiographical and interpretive imbalance embedded in the scholarly, institutional and popular perceptions on Islam in Ethiopia.




Saudi Arabia and Ethiopia


Book Description

What is the significance of Islam¿s growing strength in Ethiopia? And what is the impetus for the Saudi financing of hundreds of new mosques and schools in the country, the establishment of welfare organizations, and the spread of the Arabic language? Haggai Erlich explores the interplay of religion and international politics as it has shaped the development of modern Ethiopia and Saudi Arabia. Tracing Saudi-Ethiopian relations from the 1930s to the present, Erlich highlights the nexus of concrete politics and the conceptual messages of religion. His fresh approach encompasses discussions of the options and dilemmas facing Ethiopians, both Christians and Muslims, across multiple decades; the Saudis¿ nuanced conceptualization of their Islamic ¿self¿ in contrast to Christian and Islamic ¿others¿; and the present confrontation between Ethiopia¿s apolitical Islam and Wahhabi fundamentalism. It also provides new perspectives on both the current dilemmas of the Wahhabi kingdom and the global implications of the evolving Saudi-Ethiopian relationship.




Islam in Ethiopia


Book Description

Originally published in 1952.This volume examines the impact of Islam upon the nomadic and settled North-East Africa, the reactions of the population to that impact and the existing state of Islam professed by those who have been won over to it. It pays particular attention to Ethiopia and the effect of Islam upon it and the centuries of conflict between Christianity and Islam.




Islamic History and Culture in Southern Ethiopia


Book Description

Studies on Islam in Ethiopia have long been neglected although Islam is the religious confession of almost half of the Ethiopian population. The essays focus on the following topics: Islamic Principalities in Southeast Ethiopia between the 13th and 16th Century * Notes on the Islamization and the Muslim Shrines of the Harar Plateau * The Sanctuary of Shaikh Husayn and the Oromo-Somali Connections in Bale * The Islamization of the Arsi-Oromo; Medieval Muslim Survivals as a Stimulating Factor in the Re-Islamization of Southeastern Ethiopia. The essays are based on the study of written records and on field research in southern parts of the country carried out during the first half of the 1970s.




Islam and Gender in Colonial Northeast Africa


Book Description

In Islam and Gender in Colonial Northeast Africa, Silvia Bruzzi provides an account of Islamic movements and gender dynamics in the context of colonial rule in Northeast Africa. The thread that runs through the book is the life and times of Sittī ‘Alawiyya al-Mīrġanī (1892-1940), a representative of a well-established transnational Sufi order in the Red Sea region. Silvia Bruzzi gives us not only a social history of the colonial encounter in the Eritrean colony, but also a wider historical account of supra-regional dynamics across the Red Sea, the Ethiopian hinterland, and the Mediterranean region, using a wide range of fragmentary historical materials to make an important contribution towards filling the gap that currently exists in women's and gender history in Muslim societies.




Ethiopia and the Red Sea


Book Description

First Published in 1980. An important waterway for international trade, the Red Sea is about 2000 kms. long and generally between 200-300 kms. wide. In its southern part the Arabian peninsula approaches the Horn of Africa to a distance of about 25 kms. This book is partly the outcome of research for the chapter called 'Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa' (from the middle of the sixteenth century until the middle of the eighteenth century), published in the fourth volume of the Cambridge History of Africa. The extensive research conducted for several summers between 1967 and 1971 for a forty-page chapter resulted in substantial material in order to create this volume.




A Companion to Medieval Ethiopia and Eritrea


Book Description

"A Companion to Medieval Ethiopia and Eritrea introduces readers to current research on major topics in the history and cultures of the Ethiopian-Eritrean region from the seventh century to the mid-sixteenth, with insights into foundational late-antique developments where appropriate. Multiconfessional in scope, it includes in its purview both the Christian kingdom and the Islamic and local-religious societies that have attracted increasing attention in recent decades, tracing their internal features, interrelations, and imbrication in broader networks stretching from Egypt and Yemen to Europe and India. Utilizing diverse source types and methodologies, its fifteen essays offer an up-to-date overview of the subject for students and nonspecialists, and are rich in material for researchers. Contributors are Alessandro Bausi, Claire Bosc-Tiessé, Antonella Brita, Amélie Chekroun, Marie-Laure Derat, Deresse Ayenachew, François-Xavier Fauvelle, Emmanuel Fritsch, Alessandro Gori, Habtemichael Kidane, Margaux Herman, Bertrand Hirsch, Samantha Kelly, Gianfrancesco Lusini, Denis Nosnitsin, and Anaïs Wion"--