The Princeton Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought

Ethiopia and Eritrea

The early phase of Muhammad’s life was closely associated with the Axumite kingdom (first to tenth centuries) of Ethiopia. His own wet nurse, Umm Ayman, was Ethiopian, and one of his first followers, the Ethiopian Bilal b. Rabah, became the first mu’adhdhin (the person who calls the faithful to prayer in the mosque) of the emerging community. But the focal point of relations between Ethiopia and Muhammad came to be the tale of Najashi, the Christian “king of kings” of Ethiopia based at Axum. According to the story (not mentioned in the Qur’an but well-known from the sīra [life of the Prophet]), it was the Axumite ruler Ashama who provided refuge to Muhammad’s followers when they were persecuted by the Quraysh of Mecca. As the Ethiopian king had been the only leader who responded to the Prophet’s request, Muhammad reputedly later instructed his followers to “leave the Abyssinians as long as they leave you,” meaning that they were not to initiate jihad against them even though they were Christians. This early seventh-century tale left a legacy of two contradictory interpretations: one that the existence of Christian Ethiopia could be tolerated because of its act of benevolence, the other that the Ethiopian ruler had actually converted to Islam even though the Ethiopians denied it, so that the existence of Christian Ethiopia was not legitimate after all.

In contrast to other Africans, the Ethiopians did not usually accept Islam as a divine revelation. The conversion of Ethiopia to Christianity had begun already in the fourth century, and by the seventh century Ethiopian Christianity had come to be identified as the official religion, with well-established institutions and networks of churches and monasteries. Nonetheless, thanks to long-distance trade, Islam was adopted by local groups such as the ‘Afar and the Somalis and in coastal towns such as Zeil‘a and Massa‘wa (in present-day Eritrea). The inland town of Harar was another important Muslim community, a center from the 13th century onward of the Qadiri Sufi order, which was active in the diffusion of Islam. Many Muslim communities also appeared in the Christian highlands, where they are known mainly as Jabarti and reputed to be descendants of the ṣaḥāba (Companions of the Prophet). In the 13th century, the Sidama Muslim principalities of ‘Adal and ‘Yifat in present-day Somalia gained power and threatened the southern boundaries of the Solomonic dynasty kingdom. Yet it was not until the 16th century that Islam in Ethiopia shed its image as peripheral and faction-ridden and started being perceived as a threat to Christian Ethiopia.

During the years 1529 to 1543, Imam Ahmad b. Ibrahim (known as Ahmad “Gran,” or Ahmad the Left-Handed) of ‘Adal led a holy war (jihad) during which he conquered most of Ethiopia, destroyed churches and monasteries, and converted many Ethiopians to Islam. Christian Ethiopia was saved by the arrival of the Portuguese and the Ethiopian perception of Islam as a unified political and military force, able to destroy Christianity dates from the Muslin occupation in the 16th century. During the 17th and 18th centuries, waves of Oromo migrations from the south, many of whom converted to Islam during this period, reinforced the Islamic hegemony over the southern boundaries of Ethiopia and shifted the demographic balance, only partly offset by the waves of Ethiopian expansion to the south toward the end of the 19th century.

Although Ethiopia proper was not occupied by a European power, the imperialist race for control of the Middle East and the Horn of Africa did affect its relations with the Muslims, both inside and outside Ethiopia. Islamic revival in neighboring countries occasionally aroused Ethiopian fear of Muslim invasions from countries such as Egypt, Sudan, and Somalia; Eritrea was occupied by Italy and thus separated from Ethiopia. The transfer of Eritrea to Ethiopia as part of the Ethiopian Federation in 1952 led to the emergence of the Eritrean Liberation Front (established in 1960). Islam was one of the main motivating forces of this movement, especially in the ideology and activities of the Eritrean Liberation Front. In the consolidation of 20th-century Ethiopia, on the other hand, Islam was usually marginalized by the increasing strength of Christianity, the state religion. After the revolution of 1991, a new dialogue emerged between the republican and secular Ethiopian state and its Muslim subjects, but although the Muslims gained more economic power and freedom of worship, they still claimed to be politically underrepresented. According to the 2007 census, Muslims constitute about 34 percent of the population in Ethiopia and less than half in Eritrea, but the leadership of both countries continues to debate whether to pursue policies of integration and equality or marginalization and deprivation.

See also East Africa