Wikipedia

Ifat (historical region)

This article is about the ancient region in the Horn of Africa. For the sultanate, seeIfat Sultanate.

Ifat(Harari:ኢፋት;Amharic:ይፋት;Somali:Awfat) also known asYifat,[1]AwfatorWafatwas a historicalMuslimregion in theHorn of Africa.[2]It was located on the eastern edge ofShewa.[3][4][5]

19th century map of Ifat located east of theShewanhighlands and west of theAwash River.

Geography

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According to thirteenth centuryArabgeographerIbn Sa'id al-Maghribi,Ifat was alternatively known asJabarta.[6]

In the fourteenth centuryAl Umarimentioned seven cities or domains within Ifat:Biqulzar,Adal,Shewa,Kwelgora,Shimi, Jamme and Laboo.[7]

Ifat designated the Muslim dominated portion ofShewainAbyssiniaaccording to post seventeenth centuryHararitexts, its territory extended from the Shewan uplands east, towards theAwash River.[8]

History

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During Islam's inception tradition states theBanu MakhzumandUmayyadcoalitions quarreled in Ifat.[9][10]According to historianEnrico Cerulli,in thirteenth century SultanUmar Walasmafounded theIfat Sultanatein Ifat after overthrowing theMakhzumi dynastyand subsequently invading states ofHubat,Gidaya,Hargayaetc.[11]The later Ifat rulers who are described as zealous would expand their dominion fromZequallain eastern Shewa toZeilaon the coast ofSomaliathus the Muslim dominated regions of the Horn of Africa would be known as Ifat up to the fourteenth century.[12][13]In 1328 during EmperorAmda Seyonof Ethiopia's crusades, the territory of Ifat was invaded and incorporated into his empire after defeating its sultanHaqq ad-Din I's forces in battle.[14]Ifat would lose its prominence as the Muslim power in the region toAdalfollowing the Abyssinian annexation of its dominion.[15]

In the mid fourteenth century Ifat leaderJamal ad-Din Iwould rebel against Abyssinia by forming an alliance with theAdalleaderSalihto battle the forces of the emperor Amda Seyon.[16]In the late fourteenth century, Ifat rebel leadersHaqq ad-Din IIandSa'ad ad-Din IItransferred their base toAdalin theHararregion founding theAdal Sultanate.[17][18]These two Walasma princes exiled from Ifat had moved to an area around Harar which todayArgobbaandHararispeakers exist.[19]According toHararitradition numerousArgobba peoplehad fled Ifat, and settled around Harar in theAw Abdallowlands during their conflict with Abyssinia in the fifteenth century, a gate was thus named after them called thegate of Argobba.[20]According to Ayele Tariku, in the mid-1400s emperorZara Yaqobassigned a military battalion in Ifat region following his successful defence of the frontier from the attacks ofAdal Sultanate.[21]

According to sixteenth century Adal writerArab Faqīh,Ifat was governed by the Adalite, Abūn b. ‘Uthmān following its conquest by theAdal Sultanateduring theEthiopian-Adal war.[22]During Ifat peoples conflicts withOromoin the early seventeenth century, the Ifat Muslim leaders formed an alliance with Christianrulers of Shewahowever the region much like neighboring modernBale,Fatagar,Angotand others would eventually succumb to the Oromo.[23][24]In the eighteenth century, slave and salt commerce was active in Ifat mainlyWollowhere its reportedAfarbrokers would transport them toTadjouraon the coast.[25]Later in the nineteenth century Ifat towns such asAliyu Ambawere major centers facilitating trade betweenAbyssiniaand theEmirate of Harar.[26][27]Under the reign of Shewan kingSahle Selassie,the appointed Muslim Ifat governors were Hussain ofArgobba,and his father Walasma Mohamed who professed their origin from theWalasma dynastyof the middle ages.[28]

Ifat was also the site of forceful conversions of Muslims to Christianity by thenShewakingMenelik IIunder the orders of emperorYohannes IV.[29]French writerÉlisée Reclusin 1890 describes the fate of the initial inhabitants and dwellings of Ifat:[30]

As in Abyssinia properly so-called, the Shoa Mahommedans have been forcibly converted. They were formerly very numerous, and the name of Jiberti, by which they are known throughout Abyssinia, is a reminiscence of their holy city of Jabarta in Ifat, which has since disappeared.

In 1896 rebel leader of Ifat,Talha Jafarled a revolt with the support of localAfar,Oromo,Argobba,WarjihandAmharaMuslims in the region, he had also made attempts to reach out to the ruler ofSudanknown as the"Khalifah al-Mahdi",this forced Menelik now emperor ofEthiopiato send an army to confront the insurgents. Talha would however successfully negotiate a peace treaty with the emperor which ended hostilities a year later.[31][32]According to historian Hussein Ahmed, Talha deceived the emperor into presuming he had a large force backing his rebellion, when in fact they were diminutive.[33]

In 1958 Ifat sub-province was called Yifat & Timuga withMenzandGishebecoming their own zone.[34]

Ruins

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In 2007, a French archeologist team discovered numerous ruined towns 20km east ofShewa Robitnear the western bank of theAwash River.The most notable were the towns of Asbari, Nora and Awfāt, the latter identified as being the capital of the former Ifat state. The ancient ruins discovered included a mosque, a reservoir for water, and a necropolis dedicated to theWalashma Dynasty,all dated back to the 14th and 15th centuries. In Asbari and Nora most of the housing were grouped around two large stone mosques, their access was enclosed by walls and a hydrographic system, marked by slight depressions sloping into a thalweg. The funeral epigraphy of the oldest tomb notes that it is of a "sheikh of the Walasma" dated to April 1364, while another is of SultanAli ibn Sabr ad-Dindated to June 1373. Sometime in the 16th century, these towns were abandoned, local Argobba accredit Arabs for building the structures.[35][36]The dwellings resemble Argobba or Harari historical building designs.[37]

Inhabitants

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19th century map byJohn Pinkertonindicating Ifat region's location north ofWej provinceand west ofFatagarregion

TheArgobba peopleare believed to originate from Ifat and were living alongside the people ofDobain the region.[38][39]Argobba,Harari,WolaneandSiltʼe people,appear to have represented major populations of Ifat in the Middle Ages.[40][41]The bulk of Ifat's population also included nomadic pastoralist ethnic groups, such as theAfarand theWarjih.[42]The inhabitants of Ifat were the first to be recorded usingKhatin the fourteenth century.[43]

MedievalArabictexts indicateEthiopian Semitic languageswere spoken by the people of Ifat however Cerulli states these speakers were soon replaced byAfarandSomali.[44][45]

References

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  1. ^Abir, Mordechai (1968).Ethiopia: The Era of the Princes; The Challenge of Islam and the Re-unification of the Christian Empire (1769-1855).London: Longmans. p. 146f.
  2. ^"Awfāt".Brill.
  3. ^Hassan, Mohammed.Reviewed Work: Islam in Nineteenth-Century Wallo, Ethiopia: Revival, Reform and Reaction by Hussein Ahmed.Michigan State University Press. p. 148.JSTOR41931349.
  4. ^Trimingham, J.Spencer (13 September 2013).Islam in Ethiopia.Taylor & Francis. p. 67.ISBN9781136970221.
  5. ^"Ifat".Encyclopedia Britannica.
  6. ^Braukamper, Ulrich (2002).Islamic History and Culture in Southern Ethiopia.LitVerlag. p. 24.ISBN9783825856717.
  7. ^Huntingford, G.W.B.The Glorious victories of Amda Seyon, king of Ethiopia.Oxford University Press. p. 20.
  8. ^Cerulli, Enrico.Islam yesterday and today.p. 343.
  9. ^Ayenachew, Deresse (2023)."Notes on the survey of Islamic Archaeological sites in South-Eastern Wallo (Ethiopia)".Revue des Mondes Musulmans et de la Méditerranée(153). Marseille Université: 65–82.doi:10.4000/remmm.19271.
  10. ^Sultanate of Sawa.Encyclopedia Aethiopica.
  11. ^Cerulli, Enrico (1941)."Il Sultanato dello Scioa nel Secondo XIII Secondo un Nuovo Documento Storico".Rassegna di Studi Etiopici.1(1): 26.JSTOR41460159.
  12. ^Huntingford, G.W.B (1955)."Arabic Inscriptions in Southern Ethiopia".Antiquity.29(116). Cambridge University Press: 230–233.doi:10.1017/S0003598X00021955.
  13. ^McKenna, Amy (15 January 2011).The History of Central and Eastern Africa.Britannica Educational Pub. p. 100.ISBN9781615303229.
  14. ^Williams, H.E.L. (1999).Chronology of world history.ABC-CLIO. p. 449.ISBN9781576071557.
  15. ^Chekroun, Amélie.Between Arabia and Christian Ethiopia: The Walasmaʿ Sultan Saʿd al-Dīn and his sons (early fifteenth century.
  16. ^Trimingham, J.Spencer (13 September 2013).Islam in Ethiopia.Taylor & Francis. p. 72.ISBN9781136970221.
  17. ^Baba, Tamon.NOTES ON MIGRATION BETWEEN YEMEN AND NORTHEAST AFRICA DURING THE 13–15TH CENTURIES(PDF).Kyushu University. pp. 81–82.
  18. ^Zewde, Bahru (1998).A Short History of Ethiopia and the Horn.Addis Ababa University. p. 64.
  19. ^Niane, Djibril (January 1984).General History of Africa.Heinemann Educational Books. p. 427.ISBN9789231017100.
  20. ^ABUBAKER, ABDULMALIK.THE RELEVANCY OF HARARI VALUES IN SELF REGULATION AND AS A MECHANISM OF BEHAVIORAL CONTROL: HISTORICAL ASPECTS(PDF).The University of Alabama. p. 44.
  21. ^Tariku, Ayele (2022)."The Christian Military Colonies in Medieval Ethiopia: The Chewa System".The Medieval History Journal.25(2). SAGE publications: 179–306.doi:10.1177/09719458211003380.S2CID253239262.
  22. ^Chekroun, Amelie.Le futuh al habasha.e l’Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne. p. 336.
  23. ^Ifat.Encyclopedia Aethiopica.
  24. ^Paulitschke, Philipp (1884).Die Geographische Erforschung der Adâl-Länder und Harâr's in Ost-Afrika.Leipzig: Verlag von Paul Frohberg. p. 31.
  25. ^Ahmed, Hussein (2010)."Benevolent masters and voiceless subjects: slavery and slave trade in southern Wällo (Ethiopia) in the 19th and early 20th centuries".Annales d'Ethiopie.25:199.doi:10.3406/ethio.2010.1413.
  26. ^Abir, Mordechai (1968).Ethiopia: The Era of the Princes; The Challenge of Islam and the Re-unification of the Christian Empire (1769-1855).London: Longmans. pp. 13f.
  27. ^Secrétaire Scientifique (2020).Aleyyu Amba: The Ifat and its political, religious and commercial networks during the XIXth century.French Center for Ethiopian Studies.doi:10.58079/mlx3.
  28. ^Darkwah, Rexford.The rise of the kingdom of Shoa 1813-1889(PDF).University of London. p. 259.
  29. ^Yates, Brian.The Other Abyssinians.University of Rochester Press. p. 69.
  30. ^Reclus, Élisée.THE EARTH AND ITS INHABITANTS THE UNIVERSAL GEOGRAPHY(PDF).J.S Virtue and CO. p. 190.
  31. ^Omer, Ahmed (2002)."Emperor Menelik's Attempts towards Political Integration: Case Study from North-Eastern Shoa (Ethiopia), 1889-1906".Annales d'Éthiopie.18:237.doi:10.3406/ethio.2002.1023.
  32. ^Falola, Toyin (26 September 2020).The Palgrave Handbook of Islam in Africa.Springer International Publishing. p. 465.ISBN978-3-030-45759-4.
  33. ^Ahmed, Hussein (1989)."THE LIFE AND CAREER OF SHAYKH TALHA B. JA'FAR (c. 1853-1936)".Journal of Ethiopian Studies.22.Institute of Ethiopian Studies: 22.JSTOR41965976.
  34. ^Lindahl, Bernhard.Local History of Ethiopia(PDF).Nordic Africa Institute. p. 19.
  35. ^Francois-Xavier, Fauvelle (2020).Nora, a Medieval Islamic City in Ethiopia (14th-15th Centuries).ERC COG HornEast project.doi:10.58079/pp0n.
  36. ^Fauvelle, François-Xavier (22 November 2017)."The Sultanate of Awfāt, its capital and the necropolis of Walasmaʿ: Fifteen years of archaeological and historical investigations into medieval Ethiopian Islam".Annales Islamologiques(51): 239–295.doi:10.4000/anisl.4054.
  37. ^Hirsch, Bertrand (2006)."Reconnaissance de trois villes musulmanes de l'époque médiévale dans l'Ifat".Annales d'Éthiopie.27:134.
  38. ^Leslau, Wolf (1948)."A Year of Research in Ethiopia".Word.4(3). Taylor & Francis: 220.doi:10.1080/00437956.1948.11659345.
  39. ^Berhe, Fesseha.Regional History and Ethnohistory Gerhard Rohlfs and other Germanophone Researchers and a Forgotten Ethnic Group, the Dobʿa(PDF).Mekelle University. p. 128.
  40. ^Niane, Djibril (January 1984).General History of Africa.Heinemann Educational Books. p. 427.ISBN9789231017100.
  41. ^Dilebo, Lapiso (2003).An introduction to Ethiopian history from the Megalithism Age to the Republic, circa 13000 B.C. to 2000 A.D.Commercial Printing Enterprise. p. 41.OCLC318904173.Like their direct descendants, the Adares of today, the people of ancient Shewa, Yifat, Adal, Harar and Awssa were semitic in their ethnic and linguistic origins. They were neither Somalis nor Afar. But the Somali and Afar nomads were the local subjects of the Adal.
  42. ^"The Oromo of Ethiopia 1500–1800"(PDF).p. 21.
  43. ^Braukhamper, Ulrich (2002).Islamic History and Culture in Southern Ethiopia.LitVerlag. p. 25.ISBN9783825856717.
  44. ^Roland, Oliver.Cambridge History of Africa(PDF).Cambridge University Press. p. 150.
  45. ^Cerulli, Enrico.Islam yesterday and today.p. 361.

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