Habesha peoples

Habesha

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Regions with significant populations
(Strict definition) Ethiopia: 29,300,000 Eritrea: 2,300,000 United States: 250,000 Sudan: 111,000 United Kingdom: 75,000 Israel: 64,000 Italy: 53,000 Yemen: 18,000 Canada: 16,000 Egypt: 6,000 Germany: 6,000 Djibouti: 3,500 Saudi Arabia: 1,900
Languages
Ge'ez, Hebrew, Amharic, Tigrinya, Tigre, Gurage and all other Semitic languages in Ethiopia
Religion
Predominantly Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox (Coptic) Christianity; Jewish, Muslim and P'ent'ay minorities exist

The term Habesha (Ge'ez ሐበሻ ḥabaśā, Amh. hābešā, Tgn., ḥābešā; sometimes Amh. Abesha, አበሻ `ābešā; Arabic. al-ḥabašah الحبشية) refers to a Semitic group of people whose cultural, linguistic, and in certain cases, ancestral origins trace back to the tribes of the Axumite (Habasha) and the Pre-Islamic South Arabian Kingdoms. Today they include the Amhara and Tigray-Tigrinya ethnic groups of Ethiopia and Eritrea who are predominantly Orthodox Christians. The Amhara and Tigray ethnicities combined make up about 36% of Ethiopia's population (ca. 23 million Amhara, 4.5 million Tigray) while Tigrinyas make up about half of Eritrea's population (ca. 2.25 of 4.5 million). It should be noted, however, that a broader definition of this term may include some segments of the Semitic-speaking Gurage groups (in the southwest) and the Harari (in the east/southeast), as well, because of their strong historical links to the Amhara and Tigray. In the broadest sense, the word "Habesha" may refer to anyone from Ethiopia or Eritrea, while some would exclude themselves from this association.

Etymology

The modern term derives from the vocalized Ge'ez ሐበሣ (ḥabaśā), first written unvocalized as ሐበሠ (ḥbś, but probably pronounced ḥbs) or the "pseudo-Sabaic ḥbštm". The earliest known use of the term dates to the second or third century AD South Arabian inscription, recounting to the defeat of the Aksumite king (nigus) GDRT (vocalized Gadarat or Gedara) of Aksum and HBSHT. The term "Habashat" seems to refer to a group of peoples, however, rather than a specific ethnicity, as evidenced by a Sabaean inscription about the alliance between the Himyarite king Shamir Yuhahmid and Aksum under King `DBH in the first quarter of the 3rd century AD. They have been living alongside the Sabaeans who lived across the Red Sea from them for many centuries:

Shamir of Dhu-Raydan and Himyar had called in the help of the clans of Habashat for war against the kings of Saba; but Ilmuqah granted . . . the submission of Shamir of Dhu-Raydan and the clans of Habashat.

The term "Habesha" was formerly thought by some to be of Arabic descent (who used the word Habash, also the name of an Ottoman province comprising parts of modern-day Eritrea), because the English name Abyssinia comes from the Arabic form. South Arabian expert Eduard Glaser claimed that the hieroglyphic ḫbstjw, used in reference to "a foreign people from the incense-producing regions" (i.e. Punt, probably located around southern Eritrea, northern Ethiopia, and the Sudanese border) used by Queen Hatshepsut ca. 1460 BC, was the first usage of the term or somehow connected, a claim repeated by others; however, this etymology is not at all certain, given the large time difference in the usage of the terms.

History

Historically, the province of Tigray and central Eritrea was where Ethiopian and Eritrean (Habesha) civilization had its origins, which is the basis of the Sabean theory. The first kingdom to arise was that of D`mt in the 8th century BC. The Aksumite Kingdom, one of the powerful civilizations of the ancient world, was centered there from at least 400BC to the 10th century AD. Spreading far beyond Tigray and Eritrea, it molded the earliest culture of Ethiopia and left many historical treasures: towering finely carved stelae, the remains of extensive palaces, and the ancient places of worship still vibrant with culture and pageantry.

Ancient Period

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Ethiopia Arms

Throughout history, indigenous peoples had been interacting through population movement, warfare, trade, and intermarriage in the Horn of Africa region, resulting in a predominance of peoples speaking languages of the Afro-Asiatic family. The main branches represented were the Cushitic and the Semitic. (Munro-Hay 62) As early as the third millennium BCE, the pre-Aksumites had begun trading along the Red Sea. They mainly traded with Egypt. Earlier trade expeditions were taken by foot along the Nile Valley. The Egyptians main object in the trade from the Ethiopian region (which they may have called Punt) was to acquire myrrh, which the northern Horn of Africa region had much of.

The foundation of the Kingdom of Aksum’s is suggested to be as early as 300 BCE. Very little is known of the time period between the mid-first millennium BCE to the beginning of Aksum’s flourish, thought to be around the first century CE. There is little in common between the Aksumites and the earlier pre-Aksumite civilizations (Munro-Hay 1991, 4).

The Aksumite kingdom was located in the northern Ethiopian province of Tigray and Eritrea and it Aksum remained the capital until the seventh century CE. Aksum owes its prosperity to its location. The Blue Nile basin and the Afar depression are both within a close proximity of Aksum. The former is rich in gold and the latter of salt: both materials having a highly important use to the Aksumites. Aksum was also within an accessible distance to the port of Adulis, on the coast of the Red Sea, hence maintaining trade relations with other nations, such as Egypt, India, and Arabia. Aksum’s ‘fertile’ and ‘well-watered’ location produced enough food for its population as well as its exotic animals, such as elephants and rhinoceros (Pankhurst 1998, 22-3).

From its capital on the Tigray Plateau, Aksum was in command of the trade of ivory with Sudan. It also dominated the trade route leading south and the port of Adulis on the Gulf of Zola. Its success depended on resourceful techniques, production of coins, steady migrations of Greco-Roman merchants and ships landing on the port of Adulis. In exchange for Aksum’s goods, traders bid many kinds of cloth, jewelry, metals and steel for weapons.

At its peak, Aksum controlled territories as far as southern Egypt, east to the Gulf of Aden, south to the Omo River, and west to the Nubian Kingdom of Meroe. The South Arabian kingdom of the Himyarites and also a portion of Western Saudi Arabia was also under the power of Aksum. At this point in time the majority of the citizens of Aksum were one of the ancestors of the present day Amhara and Tigray,the Biher-Tigrigna (also Tigrinya speakers) and Tigre of Eritrea.

Medieval Period

Fasilides' Castle in Gondar, Amhara Region.

Some time in the early middle ages, the Amharic and Tigrinya languages began to be differentiated, and Ge'ez eventually became extinct (except in churches). Amhara warlords often competed for dominance of the realm with Tigrayan warlords. While many branches of the Imperial dynasty were from the Amharic speaking area, a substantial amount were from Tigray. The Amharas seemed to gain the upper hand with the accession of the so-called Gondar line of the Imperial dynasty in the beginning of the 17th century. However, it soon lapsed into the semi-anarchic era of Zemene Mesafint ("Era of the Princes"), in which rivalling warlords fought for power and the Yejju Oromo inderases (or regents) had effective control, while emperors were just considered to be figureheads. The Tigrayans only made a brief return to the throne in the person of Yohannes IV, whose death in 1889 allowed the base to return to the Amharic speaking province of Shewa.

His Imperial Majesty Emperor Yohannis IV of Tigray origin, Emperor of Ethiopia and King of Zion, with his son and heir, Ras Araya Selassie Yohannis

Some consider the Amhara to have been Ethiopia's ruling elite for centuries, represented by the line of Emperors ending in Haile Selassie. Many commentators, including Marcos Lemma, however, dispute the accuracy of such a statement, arguing that other ethnic groups have always been active in the country's politics. One possible source of confusion for this stems from the mislabeling of all Amharic-speakers as "Amhara", and the fact that many people from other ethnic groups have Amharic names. Another is the fact that most Ethiopians can trace their ancestry to multiple ethnic groups. In fact, the last Emperor, Haile Selassie I, often counted himself a member of the Gurage ethnicity on account of his ancestry, and his Empress, Itege Menen Asfaw of Ambassel, was in large part of Oromo descent. The expanded use of Amharic language results mostly from its being the language of the court, and was gradually adopted out of usefulness by many unrelated groups, who then became known as "Amhara" no matter what their ethnic origin.

Modern Period

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Members of the EPLF.

The Eritreans mounted a revolt against the status of Eritrea as a province in 1961, which culminated in the defeat of the Derg in 1991 and independence by referendum in 1993. During the time of the Derg in the 1970s, various movements arose in Tigray and throughout Ethiopia against its persecution. One of these, the Tigrayan People's Liberation Front, formed in the mid 1970s, grew disgruntled with the Derg and advocated the secession of Tigray. By 1991, however, when both groups collectively defeated the Derg, TPLF's views had changed, and it became the helm of the EPRDF, created under its guidance (and dominated by the TPLF), the current dominant party. As a result a new nation was born Eritrea, separating itself from Ethiopia. However, despite being separated by a border, the Tigrinya people in Eritrea are the same ethnically and linguistically (ignoring small dialect differences) as the Tigrayans in Ethiopia. Today, there exists a large amount of habesha in the diaspora of the western world and many European countries.

Origins

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Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah, Ethiopia.

The Imperial family of Ethiopia (which is currently in exile) claims its origin directly from the offspring of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba (Ge`ez: ንግሥተ ሣብአ nigiśta Śab'a , who is named Makeda (Ge`ez: ማክዳ) in the Ethiopian account. The Ethiopian epic 'Glory of Kings', the Kebra Negast, is supposed to record the history of Makeda and her descendants. King Solomon is said in this account to have seduced the Queen, and sired a son by her, who would eventually become Menelik I, the first Emperor of Ethiopia. The tradition that the biblical Queen of Sheba was a ruler of Ethiopia who visited King Solomon in Jerusalem in ancient Israel is supported by the 1st century ad Jewish historian Flavius Josephus, who identified Solomon’s visitor as a queen of Egypt and Ethiopia.

Bernard Leeman (2005) supports the Ethiopian traditions, citing Sabaean inscriptions near Mekele testifying to the existence of three Queens of Sheba who ruled jointly with Sabaean (Sheban) kings. He also notes that the Torah in the Sheba-Menelik Cycle of the Ge'ez Kebra Nagast lacks all the temple and kingship laws of Deuteronomy, indicating that the Ethiopians probably received it during King Solomon's time before Ezra produced the "definitive" Torah centuries later. Leeman's work, supported partly by research into the Ancient West Arabian language and geographical references in the Sheba-Menelik Cycle, was presented as a solution to the present impasse in Biblical archaeological debate. In brief, he believes that the Old Testament and Sheba Menelik Cycle are both credible accounts but the Queen of Sheba and Solomon were neighbours, and ancient Israel and Judah up to 586 BC were in western Arabia, not Palestine. Since this undermines the raison d'être of the State of Israel, his views are highly controversial.

It was long held that the ancient communities that evolved into the modern Ethiopian state were formed by a migration across the Red Sea of Semitic-speaking South Arabians around 1000 BC who intermarried with local non-Semitic-speaking peoples. Indeed, the ancient Ethiopian kingdom of Aksum ruled much of Southern Arabia including Yemen until the rise of Islam in the 7th century, and both the indigenous languages of Southern Arabia and the Amharic and Tigrinya languages of Ethiopia are South Semitic languages. However, the ancient Semitic language of Ethiopia, is now known to not have derived from Sabaean, and there is evidence of a Semitic speaking presence in Ethiopia and Eritrea at least as early as 2000 BC.. There is also evidence of ancient Southern Arabian communities in modern day Ethiopia and Eritrea in certain localities, attested by some archaeological artifacts and ancient Sabaean inscriptions in the old South Arabian alphabet. However, scholars like Stuart Munro-Hay point to the existence of an older D’mt or Da'amot kingdom, prior to any Sabaean migration ca. 4th or 5th c. BC, as well as evidence of to Sabaean immigrants having resided in Ethiopia for little more than a few decades Furthermore, there is archeological evidence of a region in Northern Ethiopia and Eritrea also called Saba, now referred to as Ethiopian Saba to avoid confusion.

South Arabian/Sabean Origin theory

Nigist (Queen) Makeda of Sheba

The state of Sheba mentioned in the Old Testament is sometimes believed to have been in Ethiopia, and/or Yemen. Others believe it covered parts of both the Yemen and present-day Ethiopia. According to the Ethiopian legend, best represented in the Kebra Negest, the Queen of Sheba was tricked by King Solomon into sleeping with him, resulting in a child, named Ebn Melek (later Emperor Menelik I. When he was of age, Menelik returned to Israel to see his father, who sent with him the son of Zadok to accompany him with a replica of the Ark of the Covenant (Ethiosemitic: tabot). On his return with some of the Israelite priests, however, he found that Zadok's son had stolen the real Ark of the Covenant. Some believe the Ark is still being preserved today at the Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion in Axum, Ethiopia.

The Sabean theory was first suggested by Hiob Ludolf and revived by early 20th century Italian scholar Conti Rossini, and has been supported by the Ethiopian monarchy for centuries. The theory states that at an early epoch South Arabian tribes emigrated to the opposite African coast. According to this theory, Sabaeans brought with them South Arabian letters and language, which gradually evolved into the Ge'ez language and Ge'ez alphabet. However, though the Ge'ez alphabet did develop from Epigraphic South Arabian (whose oldest inscriptions are found in both Ethiopia and Eritrea and Yemen), it is now known that Ge'ez is not descended from any of the Old South Arabian languages.

By the mid first millennium BCE, there is evidence of close contact between the Ethiopians and the South Arabians, particularly Sabaeans. The documented groups known to have lived on the west side of the Red sea are the Beja, Agaw, and Sidama (in the south), according to Taddesse Tamrat (Tamrat 5-6), although inscriptions by the kings of D'mt (8th century BCE) call themselves of the tribe of Agazi, meaning "Ge'ez speakers."

Further proof of this theory is this old quote , which refers to the Ethiopians (at the time) as an "Arabian people" living next door to their Sabean counterparts:

an Arabian people living next to the Sabaeans together with the Ḥaḍramites. The region of the Abasēnoi produce[d] myrrh, incense and cotton and they cultivate[d] a plant qhich yields a purple dye (probably wars, i.e. Fleminga Grahamiana). It lies on a route which leads from Zabīd on the coastal plain to the Ḥimyarite capital Ẓafār.

"At an early epoch South Arabian tribes emigrated to the opposite African coast, where Sabaean trade colonies had probably existed for a long time. As early as the first century A.D. we find in the north of the Abyssinian mountain — lands the Semitic realm of Aksum. The conquerors brought with them South Arabian letters and language, which in their new home gradually attained an individual character. From this language, the Ge'ez, wrongly called Ethiopian, two daughter-languages are descended, Tigré and Tigriña. The confusion of this kingdom with Ethiopia probably owes its origin to the fact that the Semite emigrants adopted this name from the Graeco-Egyptian sailors, at a time when the Kingdom of Meroë was still in some repute. And so they called their kingdom Yteyopeya. From Aksum as a base they gradually extended their dominion over all Abyssinia, the northern population of which today shows a purer Semitic type, while the southern is strongly mixed with Hamitic elements. At an early date the south must have been settled by Semites, who spoke a language related to Ge'ez, which was afterwards to a great extent influenced by the languages of the native population, particularly by the Agau dialects. A descendant of this language is the Amharic, the present language of intercourse in Abyssinia itself and far beyond its boundaries."[1]"

In recent times, this theory has been debated with another theory in the Indigenous development of Habesha civilization.

Indigenous Theory

Early nineteenth century warriors in Abyssinia

There is little archaeological evidence to verify the story of the Queen of Sheba — and the longstanding presumption that Sabaean migrants had played a direct role in Ethiopian civilization has recently come under attack. Sabaean influence is speculated by some recent authors to have been minor, limited to a few localities, and disappearing after a few decades or a century, perhaps representing a trading or military colony in some sort of symbiosis or military alliance with the Ethiopian civilization of D`mt or some proto-Aksumite state.

In the reign of King Ezana (ca. early 4th c. AD, the term is listed as one of the nine regions under his domain, translated in the Greek version of his inscription as Αἰθιοπία, the first known use of this term to specifically describe the region known today as Ethiopia (and not Kush or the entire African and Indian region outside of Egypt). The 6th c. author Stephanus of Byzantium later used the term "Αβασηγοί" (i.e. Abasēnoi) in reference to:

an Arabian people living next to the Sabaeans together with the Ḥaḍramites. The region of the Abasēnoi produce[d] myrrh, incense and cotton and they cultivate[d] a plant qhich yields a purple dye (probably wars, i.e. Fleminga Grahamiana). It lies on a route which leads from Zabīd on the coastal plain to the Ḥimyarite capital Ẓafār.

The Abasēnoi spoken of by Stephanus was located by Hermann von Wissman as a region in the Jabal Hubaysh (perhaps related in etymology with the ḥbš root). Other places names in Yemen contain the ḥbš root, such as the Jabal Habashi (Ḥabaši), whose residents are still called al-Ahbuš (pl. of Ḥabaš). The location of the Abasēnoi in Yemen may perhaps be explained by remnant Aksumite populations from the 520s conquest by King Kaleb; King Ezana's claims to Sahlen (Saba) and Dhu-Raydan (Himyar) during a time when such control was unlikely may indicate an Aksumite presence or coastal foothold. Traditional scholarship has assumed that the Habashat were a tribe from modern-day Yemen that migrated to Ethiopia. However, the Sabaic inscriptions only use the term ḥbšt to the refer to the Kingdom of Aksum and its inhabitants, especially during the 3rd c., when the ḥbšt (Aksumites) were often at war with the Sabaeans and Himyraites.

Culture

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Woman coffee farmer filling cups with coffee in Ethiopia

The way of life among the habesha evokes images of Bible times. Camels, donkeys, and sheep are everywhere. Fields are plowed using oxen. The Orthodox Church is a large part of the culture. The church buildings are built on hills. Major celebrations during the year are held around the church, where people gather from villages all around to sing, play games and observe the unique mass of the church, which includes a procession through the church grounds and environs.

Coffee is a very important ceremonial drink. The "coffee ceremony" is common to the Tigrinya and the Amhara. Beans are roasted on the spot, ground and served thick and rich in tiny ceramic cups with no handles. This amount of coffee can be finished in one gulp if drank cold, however, it is traditionally drank very slowly as conversation takes place. When the beans are roasted to smoking, they are passed around the table, where the smoke becomes a blessing on the diners. The traditional food served at these meals, consist of injera a spongy flat bread, served with sebhi or wot (a spicy meat sauce).

The country houses are built mostly from rock, dirt, and a few timber poles. The houses blend in easily with the natural surroundings. Many times the nearest water source is more than a kilometer away from their house. In addition, they must search for fuel for the fire throughout the surrounding area.

The Habesha people have a rich heritage of music and dance, using drums and stringed instruments tuned to a pentatonic scale. Arts and crafts and secular music are performed by mostly artisans who are regarded with suspicion. Sacred music and iconic art is performed by monastically trained men.

Language and Literature

"...an ancient tongue spoken in this region fissured into the modern languages of the Afro-Asiatic (formerly Hamito-Semitic) family. This family includes the Cushitic and Semitic languages now spoken in Ethiopia.... During the 2nd millennium BC...a people speaking Ge'ez (a Semitic language) came to dominate the rich northern highlands of Tigray. There, in the 7th century BC, they established the kingdom of Da'amat.... Aksum's culture comprised Ge'ez, written in a modified South Arabian alphabet, sculpture and architecture based on South Arabian prototypes, and an amalgam of local and Middle Eastern deities. Thus, evidence exists of a close cultural exchange between Aksum and the Arabian peninsula...." ("History of Ethiopia," Encyclopaedia Britannica)

All Habesha people speak Semitic languages, which originate from the Ancient language of Ge'ez. The Ge'ez language is classified as a South Semitic language. It evolved from an earlier proto-Ethio-Semitic ancestor used to write royal inscriptions of the kingdom of Dʿmt in Epigraphic South Arabian. As a member of South Semitic, it is closely related to Sabaean, and the Ge'ez alphabet later replaced Epigraphic South Arabian in the Kingdom of Aksum (although Epigraphic South Arabian was used for a few inscriptions into the 8th century, though not any South Arabian language since Dʿmt). Early inscriptions in Ge'ez and Ge'ez alphabet have been dated² to as early as the 5th century BC, and in a sort of proto-Ge'ez written in ESA since the 9th century BC. Ge'ez literature properly begins with the Christianization of Ethiopia (and the civilization of Axum) in the 4th century, during the reign of Ezana of Axum. While Ge'ez is an extinct language that is only used in churches, the two languages that have branched off from it are Amharic and Tigrinya. Tigrinya is a direct descendant of Ge'ez, while Amharic has a large Cushitic influence.

Religion

Christianity

The Chapel of the Tablet at the Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion allegedly houses the original Ark of the Covenant.

Many people think of Christianity in Africa as a European import that arrived with colonialism, but this is not the case with the Habesha. The empire centered in Axum and Adowa was part of the Mediterranean world in which Christianity grew. The arrival of Christianity in Tigrayan lands happened about the same time that it arrived in Ireland. The Tigrayans, in fact, had been converted to Christianity hundreds of years before most of Europe. Many Tigrayan churches were cut into cliffs or from single blocks of stone, as they were in Turkey and in parts of Greece, where Christianity had existed from its earliest years. The church is a central feature of communities and of each family's daily life. Each community has a church with a patron saint.

Ethiopia has often been mentioned in the bible. A great example of this is the story of the Ethiopian Eunuch as written in Acts, Chapter 8, verse 27: "Then the angel of the Lord said to Philip, Start out and go south to the road that leads down from Jerusalem to Gaza. So he set out and was on his way when he caught sight of an Ethiopian. This man was a eunuch, a high official of the Kandake (Candace) Queen of Ethiopia in charge of all her treasure." The passage continues by describing how Philip helped the Ethiopian understand one passage of Isaiah that the Ethiopian was reading. After the Ethiopian received an explanation of the passage, he requested that Philip baptize him, which Philip obliged. Queen Gersamot Hendeke VII (very similar to Kandake) was the Queen of Ethiopia from the year 42 to 52. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church was founded in the fourth century by Syrian monks. Historically, the Ethiopian and Eritrean churches have had strong ties with the Egyptian Coptic church, the Egyptian Church appointing the archbishop for the Eritrean Church. They gained independence from the Coptic church in the 1950's, although the Eritrean Orthodox Church has recently reforged the link.

Over 5 million of these people are Coptic Orthodox, with one priest for every 92 members--the highest concentration in Ethiopia. The remainder are Muslims. There are many Muslims in Tigray Province, but they generally belong to other people groups. The Tigray are reported to have fewer than 500 evangelical believers. There are more believers among the Tigrinya in Eritrea.

This leather painting depicts Ethiopian Orthodox priests playing sistra and a drum.

The faith of the Coptic Church is very intimately woven into the culture of the Tigrinya people and is central to their way of life. It is loosely defined as a Christian church, but a major icon in the church is the Ark of the Covenant. The people accept the Bible as true, but the Orthodox canon includes some books unique to their tradition.

Church services are conducted in Ge´ez, the ancient language of Ethiopia and Eritrea. It is considered the holy church language, just as Latin once was in the Roman Catholic Church. Unlike Latin, however, Ge´ez is taught to only a few educated scholars. Even the average priest only memorizes his part of the service.

Much has been added to Christianity. The Church grounds, like the Biblical temple, are filled with beggars and people selling religious paraphernalia such as candles and pictures of Mary and the Saints. Orthodox beliefs are law-oriented with emphasis on the rigid observance of worship rituals such as church attendance, fasting, prescribed prayers, and devotion to saints and angels. A child is never left alone until baptism and cleansing rituals are performed. Boys are baptized forty days after birth. Girls wait until eighty days, an indication of their lesser value.

Defrocked priests and deacons commonly function as diviners, who are the main healers. Spirit possession is common, affecting primarily women. Women are also the normal spirit mediums.

Similarities to Judaism

The Ethiopian church places a heavier emphasis on Old Testament teachings than one might find in the Roman Catholic or Protestant churches, and its followers adhere to certain practices that one finds in Orthodox or Conservative Judaism. Ethiopian Christians, like some other Eastern Christians, traditionally follow dietary rules that are similar to Jewish Kashrut, specifically with regard to how an animal is slaughtered. Similarly, pork is prohibited, though unlike Kashrut, Ethiopian cuisine does mix dairy products with meat- which in turn makes it even closer to Islamic dietary laws (see Halal). Women are prohibited from entering the church during their menses; they are also expected to cover their hair with a large scarf (or shash) while in church, but contrary to popular belief and the actual practice of most other Christian denominations, it is not in the Old Testament that this is commanded, but rather in the New (1 Cor. 11). As with Orthodox synagogues, men and women are seated separately in the Ethiopian church, with men on the left and women on the right (when facing the altar). However, women covering their heads and separation of the sexes in the Church building officially is common to many Oriental Orthodox, Eastern Orthodox and Catholic Christians and not unique to Judaism. Ethiopian Orthodox worshippers remove their shoes when entering a church, in accordance with Exodus 3:5 (in which Moses, while viewing the burning bush, is commanded to remove his shoes while standing on holy ground). Furthermore, both the Sabbath (Saturday), and the Lord's Day (Sunday) are observed as holy, although more emphasis, because of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, is laid upon the Holy Sunday.

Judaism

Judaism in Ethiopia undoubtedly goes back into very ancient times. Precisely what its early history was, however, remains obscure. The now dominant Coptic Ethiopian Church claims it originated from the visit of the Queen of Sheba to King Solomon back in the Tenth Century B.C.E. This visit is mentioned in the Hebrew Scriptures (I Kings 10:1), but Sheba probably was a kingdom in the south of the Yemen, but is very close to Ethiopia from the Red Sea, and it has been recorded that Ethiopia was heavily influenced by the Sabean kingdom. Moreover, the details of the queen's visit, including the alleged theft of the Holy Ark as well as Solomon getting her pregnant with a child who established the "Solomonic" lineage in Ethiopia, as given in Christian Ethiopian tradition, are not in the Bible. They instead developed in the middle ages, first written down in full in the 13th century Kebra Nagast, inspired partly to legitimize the Solomonic dynasty as compared to the previous Zagwe dynasty of Agew descent (Cushitic, not Semitic-speaking, though passionately Christian).

What we call the Jewish Pre-settlement Theory essentially states that starting around the 8th century BCE until about the 5th century BCE, there was an influx of Jewish settlers both from Egypt & Sudan in the north, and southern Arabia in the east. Whether these settlers arrived in great numbers is yet a matter of debate. What is certain, however, is that these settlers must have preceded the arrival of Christianity. Evidence for their presence exists not only in historical books, but also in material artifacts depicting ancient Jewish ceremonies. For instance the Temple at Yeha (in Tigray province), which is said to have been erected in the 8th century BCE, is believed to be an architectural copy of other Jewish temples found in Israel and Egypt during the pre-Babylonian era (before 606 BCE). Another example is found on the monastery islands of Lake Tana (northern Gojjam), where several archaic stone altars, fashioned in the manner of Jewish sacrificial alters of pre-8th century BCE Israel, have been found not only preserved in good condition but also containing blood residue. The manner of the blood placed on the stone altars was found to be typical of a culture that strongly adhered to Mosaic Law.

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King Tekle Haimanot of Gojjam

The chief Semitic languages of Ethiopia also suggest an antiquity of Judaism in Ethiopia. "There still remains the curious circumstance that a number of Abyssinian words connected with religion -- Hell, idol, Easter, purification, alms -- are of Hebrew origin. These words must have been derived directly from a Jewish source, for the Abyssinian Church knows the scriptures only in a Ge'ez version made from the Septuagint" (From Page 40, A.H.M. Jones and Elizabeth Monroe, A History of Ethiopia (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1935).)

Beta Israel traditions claim that the Ethiopian Jews are descended from the lineage of Moses himself, some of whose children and relatives are said to have separated from the other Children of Israel after the Exodus and gone southwards, or, alternatively or together with this, that they are descended from the tribe of Dan, which fled southwards down the Arabian coastal lands from Judaea at the time of the breakup of the Kingdom of Israel into two kingdoms in the 10th century B.C.E. (precipitated by the oppressive demands of Rehoboam, King Solomon's heir), or at the time of the destruction of the northern kingdom of Israel in the 8th century B.C.E. Certainly there was trade as early as the time of King Solomon down along the Red Sea to the Yemen and even as far as India, according to the Bible, and there would therefore have been Jewish settlements at various points along the trade routes. There is definite archaeological evidence of Jewish settlements and of their cultural influence on both sides of the Red Sea well at least 2,500 years ago, both along the Arabian coast and in the Yemen, on the eastern side, and along the southern Egyptian and Sudanese coastal regions.

Islam

Islam in Ethiopia dates back to 615. During that year, a group of Muslims were counseled by the Prophet Muhammad to escape persecution in Mecca and travel to Ethiopia, which was ruled by, in the Prophet Muhammad's estimation, a pious Christian king. The Prophet Muhammad's followers sought refuge in the Ethiopian Kingdom of Aksum, possibly settling at Negash. Moreover, Islamic tradition states that Bilal, one of the foremost companions of the Prophet Muhammad, was from Ethiopia. Ethiopia was thus the earliest home outside of Saudi Arabia for the dispersal of the Islamic world faith.

Mosque in Harar

Most of Ethiopia's Muslims are Sunni Muslims and much as the rest of the Muslim world, the beliefs and practices of the Muslims of Ethiopia are basically the same: embodied in the Qur'an and the Sunnah. There are also Sufi Orders present in Ethiopia. According to the 1994 census of Ethiopia (with similar numbers for the 1984 census), about half of its population is adherent of Islam and members of the Muslim community can be found throughout the country.

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 Ethiopian Muslims perform the pilgrimage to Mecca every year.

References

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• Pankhurst, Dr. Richard. "History of Northern Ethiopia - and the Establishment of the Italian Colony or Eritrea". Civic Webs Virtual Library. Retrieved March 25. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
•  This article incorporates public domain material from The World Factbook. CIA.

See also

• Beta Israel
• Amhara people
• Tigray-Tigrinya people
• History of Ethiopia
• Sheba
• Solomonic Dynasty
• Semitic
• Ethiopian Orthodox Church