Abstract
According to the 2007 census, Muslims constitute around 34 percent of Ethiopia’s 74 million people, making them the second largest religious group in Ethiopia after the country’s dominant religious group, Orthodox Christians (43 percent). Islam in Ethiopia had an auspicious beginning, thanks to the hospitality the companions of the Prophet Muhammad got from a benevolent Christian king in the seventh century A.D. during their migration to Axum, also referred to as the first hijra. The geographical proximity of Ethiopia to Arabia and the flourishing long-distance trade between the two as well as the disavowal of trade as a dignified vocation by the Christians had also provided a commercial inlet for Islam to Ethiopia’s hinterland. As early as the ninth century, an Islamic Sultanate was established in central Ethiopia—the Makzumite dynasty—followed by the wide variety of other Islamic principalities in the medieval period in present-day south-eastern Ethiopia (Taddesse Tamrat 1972; Trimingham 1952).
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abbink, Jon. “An Historical-Anthropological Approach to Islam in Ethiopia: Issues of Identity and Politics.” Journal of African Cultural Studies 11, no 2 (1998): 109–24.
Abdulkadir Ahmed. “State and Religion: A Comparative Analysis under Ethiopian and Indian Constitution.” Harar Law Review (2008). Accessed February 12, 2009. http://hararlawreview.wordpress.com/2008/01/27/14/
Ahmadin Jebel. Ye Ethiopiyawiyan Muslims Tarik: Ye Chqonaena Ye TigilTarik (615–1700). Addis Ababa: Nejashi publishers, 2011.
BahruZewde. History of Modern Ethiopia. Oxford: James Currey, 1991.
Barnes, Cedric and Harun Hassan. “The Rise and Fall of the Mogadishu’s Islamic Courts.” In Briefing Paper 7 no 2. London: Chatham House, 2007.
Brooks, Miguel. trans. A Modern Translation of the Kebra Nagast: (The Glory of Kings). Lawrenceville NJ: Red Sea Press, 1996.
Carmichael, Tim. “Contemporary Ethiopian Discourse on Islamic History: The Politics of Historical Representation.” Islam et Sociétés au Sud du Sahara 10 (1996): 169–86.
Dereje Feyissa. “Akirarinet: The Potential for and Signs of Religious Radicalization in Ethiopia.” Research Report Submitted to DFID-Ethiopia. Addis Ababa (2011a).
Dereje Feyissa. “Setting a Social Reform Agenda: The Peacebuilding Dimension of the Rights Movement of the Ethiopian Muslims Diaspora.” Diaspeace Working Paper 9 (2011b), http://www.diaspeace.org/Dereje_D12_final.pdf.
Desplat, Patrick. “The Articulation of Religious Identities and Their Boundaries in Ethiopia: Labelling Difference and Processes of Contextualisation in Islam.”Journal of Religion in Africa 35, no. 4 (2005): 482–505.
Eckert, Julia. Law against the State: Ethnographic Forays into Law’s Transformations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012.
Erlich, Haggai. Ethiopia and Middle East. Boulder, London: Lynne Rienner, 1994.
Erlich, Haggai. Islam and Christianity in the Horn of Africa: Somalia, Ethiopia and Sudan. Boulder, London: Lynne Rienner, 2010.
Erlich, Haggai. Saudi Arabia and Ethiopia: Islam, Christianity and Politics Entwined. Boulder, London: Lynne Rienner, 2007.
Ethiopian Orthodox Church. There HasNever Been an Ethiopian King called Nejash. AddisAbaba: Office of the Patriarch, 2008.
Gordon, Neve and Nitza Berkovitch. “Human Rights Discourse in Domestic Settings: HowDoes It Emerge?” Political Studies 55, no. 1 (2007):243–66.
Hussein Ahmed. “Coexistence and/or Confrontation? Towards a Reappraisal of Christian-Muslim Encounter in Contemporary Ethiopia.” Journal of Religion in Africa 36, no 1(2006): 4–21.
Hussein Ahmed. “Islam and Islamic Discourses in Ethiopia (1973–93).” In New Trends in Ethiopian Studies: Papers of the 12th International Conference of Ethiopian Studies, edited by Harold Marcus and Grover Hudson, 775–801. Lawrenceville, NJ: Red Sea Press, 1994.
Kosmin, Barry A. and Ariala Keysar. Secularism and Secularity: Contemporary International Perspectives. Hartford, CT: Institute for the Study of Secularism in Societies and Cultures, 2007.
Kuru, Ahmet. Secularism and State Policies toward Religion: The United States, France, and Turkey. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
Maclure, Jocelyn. “The Politics of Recognition at an Impasse? Identity Politics and Democratic Citizenship.” Canadian Journal of Political Science 36, no. 1 (2003): 3–21.
Markakis, John. “Ethnic conflict in prefederal Ethiopia.” Paper presented at the first National Conference on Federalism, Conflict, and Peace building. Addis Ababa: GTZ, 2003.
Mattei, Ugo. 1995. “The New Ethiopian Constitution; First Thoughts on Ethnical Federalism and the Reception of Western Institutions”. http//www.gus.unitn.it, accessed on October 2, 2010.
Ministry of Education. “A Draft Directive to Regulate Religious Practices in Educational Institutions (in Amharic).” Addis Ababa, 2008.
Østebø, Terje. “Islamism in the Horn of Africa: Assessing Ideologies, Actors and Objectives.” ILPI Report no. 2, 2010.
Østebø, Terje. “The Question of Becoming: Islamic Reform Movements in Contemporary Ethiopia.” Journal of Religion in Africa 38, no. 4 (2008): 416–46.
Rotberg, Robert. “Building Legitimacy through Narrative.” In Israeli and Palestine Narratives of Conflict: History’s Double Helix, edited by Robert Rotberg, 1–18. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2006.
Sergew Hable Selassie. Ancient and Medieval Ethiopian History to 1270. Addis Ababa: United Printers, 1972
Shinn, David. “Ethiopia: Coping with Islamic Fundamentalism before and after September11.”Africa Notes 7 (2002): 1–7.
Taddesse Tamrat. Church and State in Ethiopia, 1270–1527. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1972.
Trimingham, J. Spencer. Islam in Ethiopia. London: Frank Cass, 1965 [1952].
Ullendorff, Edward. Ethiopia and the Bible: The Schweich Lectures of the British Academy, 1967. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1968.
ZelalemTemesgen. “The 2006 Religious Conflict in Didessa and Gomma Waradas of Western Oromia.” MA thesis, Addis Ababa University, 2009.
Editor information
Copyright information
© 2013 Patrick Desplat and Terje Østebø
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Feyissa, D. (2013). Muslims Struggling for Recognition in Contemporary Ethiopia. In: Desplat, P., Østebø, T. (eds) Muslim Ethiopia. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137322098_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137322098_2
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-45931-5
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-32209-8
eBook Packages: Palgrave Religion & Philosophy CollectionPhilosophy and Religion (R0)