Islam in Ethiopia

According to the latest 1994 national census, Islam is the second most widely practiced religion in Ethiopia after Christianity, with approximately one third (32.8%) of Ethiopians adhering to Islam [Berhanu Abegaz, [http://bxabeg.people.wm.edu/Ethiopia.Census%20Portrait.pdf "Ethiopia: A Model Nation of Minorities"] (accessed 6 April 2006)] , having arrived in Ethiopia in 615 [J. Spencer Trimingham. 1952. "Islam in Ethiopia". Oxford: Geoffrey Cumberlege for the University Press, 44] . The CIA World Factbook places Islam as the second most widely practiced religion in Ethiopia, stating that some 45 percent of the population are adherents. [ [https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/et.html#PeopleCIA World Factbook: Ethiopia] ] . Islam is the main religion of the Somali, Afar, Argobba and Harari and of 44.3% of the Oromo peoples of Ethiopia according to 1994 census. Islam first came to northern Ethiopia during its foundation and it is practiced by a small percentage of the Amhara, Tigray, Gurage and other ethnic groups.

History

The first Muslims in Ethiopia were refugees from Mecca, persecuted by the new leading tribe, the reactionary Quraysh. They were received by the ruler of Ethiopia, whom Arabic tradition was named Ashama ibn Abjar, and he settled them in Negash. Located in the northern Tigray province, Negash is the historical center of Islam in Ethiopia and parts of East Africa. The Quraysh sent emissaries to bring them back to Arabia, but the King of Ethiopia refused their demands. The Prophet himself instructed his followers who came to Ethiopia, to respect and protect Ethiopia as well as live in peace with Ethiopian Christians. [cite web|url=http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/ettoc.html|title=Ethiopia and the Early Islamic Period|accessdate=2007-09-25|last=Ofcansky|first=Thomas P.|coauthors=LaVerle Berry|date=1991|format=HTML|work=A Country Study: Ethiopia|publisher=Federal Research Division, Library of Congress|language=English|quote=According to Islamic tradition, some members of Muhammad's family and some of his early converts had taken refuge with the Aksumites during the troubled years preceding the Prophet's rise to power, and Aksum was exempted from the jihad, or holy war, as a result.] However, it would be the city of Medina, north of Mecca, that was ultimately decided to be the new home of the exiles from Mecca.

Islam later developed more in the coastal regions of the southern horn of Africa, particularly among the Somali. This was challenged by the mostly Christian northern people of Abyssinia, including Amhara, Tigray and north western Oromo. However the north and northeastern expansion of the Oromo, who practiced mainstream traditional Waaqa, affected the growth of Islam in its early days. Historian Ulrich Braukamper says, "the expansion of the non-Muslim Oromo people during subsequent centuries mostly eliminated Islam in those areas." However, following the centralization of some Oromo communities, some of them adopted Islam and today constitutes over 40% of their population. [# Ulrich Braukamper, "Layers "Islamic History and Culture in Southern Ethiopia" (2003)]

Under the former Emperor Haile Selassie, Muslim communities could bring matters of Personal and Family Law and inheritance before Islamic courts; many did so and probably continued to do so under the revolutionary regime. However, many Muslims dealt with such matters in terms of Customary Law. For example, the Somali and other pastoralists tended not to follow the requirement that daughters inherit half as much property as sons, particularly when livestock was at issue. In parts of Eritrea, the tendency to treat land as the corporate property of a descent group (lineage or clan) precluded following the Islamic principle of division of property among one's heirs.

The First Muadhdhin

The Ethiopian Bilal was one of the foremost companions of the Prophet Muhammad and the first Muadhdhin -muezzin- or the caller to prayer. [ [http://www.islamselect.com/en/mat/47694 The First Muadhdhin - Bilal ibn Rabah] ]

Ancient Muslim sultanate

Ethiopia is believed to be the site of the oldest sultanate in the world. The Makhzumite Dynasty of Shewa is dated as far back as 896 AD. [ [http://books.google.com/books?id=MypbfKdMePIC&pg=PA12&lpg=PA12&dq=Makhzumite+Dynasty&source=web&ots=_oEv0Ob6j_&sig=g1LTFinLn792OEmCuXmdI29byBE&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=2&ct=result#PPA12,M1 Makhzumite Dynasty of Shewa] ] Shewa was the former province of Ethiopia under Emperor Haile Sellasie I and currently the location of Addis Ababa. It preceded the foundation of the Islamic Sultanate of Shoa.

The First Hijrah

When the Prophet Mohammed saw the persecution to which his followers were subjected to in Mecca, he told them to find safe haven in northern Ethiopia, Abyssinia, where they would "find a king there who does not wrong anyone." It was the first hijra (migration) in Islam history. [ [http://www.alquraan.net/history/hist_36.html the first hijrah to AByssinia] ]

The fourth Muslim holiest city

Ethiopia is home to Harar, the fourth holiest city in Islam, with 82 mosques, three of which date from the 10th century, and 102 shrines. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/5176110.stm The fourth Muslim holiest city] ]

Oldest Muslim settlement in Africa

Negash, a village in the Tigray Region (or kilil) of Ethiopia, is known as the earliest Muslim settlement in Africa; a seventh century cemetery has been excavated inside the village boundaries. [Paul B. Henze, "Layers of Time: A History of Ethiopia" (New York: Palgrave, 2000), p. 43.]

Muslims in contemporary Ethiopia

Much as the rest of the Muslim world, the beliefs and practices of the Muslims in Ethiopia are basically the same: embodied in the Qur'an and the Sunnah. There are also Sufi brotherhoods present in Ethiopia. The most important Islamic religious practices, such as the daily ritual prayers ("Salat") and fasting (Arabic صوم, "Sawm", Ethiopic ጾም, "S.om" or "Tsom" - used by Christians as well) during the holy month of Ramadan, are observed both in urban centers as well as in rural areas, among both settled peoples and nomads. Numerous Muslims in Ethiopia perform the pilgrimage to Mecca every year.

In Ethiopia's Muslim communities, as in neighboring Sudan and Somalia, many of the faithful are associated with, but not necessarily members of any specific Sufi order. Nevertheless, formal and informal attachment to Sufi practices is widespread. The emphasis seems less on the contemplative and disciplined mysticism, and more on the concentration of the spiritual powers possessed by certain founders of the orders and the leaders of local branches.Fact|date=July 2008

ee also

*First migration to Abyssinia
*Islam by country

References

*loc

External links

* [http://www.ethiopiantreasures.toucansurf.com/pages/rel-war.htm The Muslim-Christian War (1528-1560)]