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Trade, Islam, and the Mahdia in Northwestern Wallaggā Ethiopia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

Alessandro Triulzi
Alessandro Triulzi
Affiliation:
Instituto Universitario Orientale, Naples
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Extract

The district of Belā Shangul, in the northwestern corner of the present Governorate-General of Wallaggā, Ethiopia, has played a crucial role in the introduction of Islam in western Ethiopia. The present paper attempts to show how the commercial potential of Belā Shangul was the reason for the peaceful penetration of Islam in the region in the nineteenth century, thus creating the basis for the ready acceptance of the Mahdia by the Islamized ruling families of the region later. It is due to the considerable inroads that Islam had made in the region that the first Mahdist envoys were welcomed there, and that they could operate freely from 1882 onwards.

The paper further discusses the importance of Mahdist presence in the region, its impact on local society, and its attempts to penetrate the Oromo countries south and east of Belā Shangul. It argues that Mahdist rule over the region was effective until about 1890, and that the favourable attitude shown towards the Mahdia by the region's ruling families became more hostile mainly because of the harsh rule established in Belā Shangul by the Mahdist commander, Khalīl al-Khuzāni, and of the new militant Islam he introduced in the region. Khalīl's campaign of 1886 and Mahdist raids in 1888–90 further alienated the local rulers, who rebelled under the leadership of ʿAbd ar-Raḥmān of Belā Shangul proper. The reported cession of this district by the Khalifa to Menilek of Ethiopia must be seen in the political context of the time: the border district had become too burdensome for Omdurman to rule, yet its commercial and mineral resources made it too valuable to remain a no man's land.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 16 , Issue 1 , January 1975 , pp. 55 - 71
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1975

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References

1 An earlier version of this paper was read at the Third Session of the International Congress of Africanists held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 9–19 Dec. 1973. I am indebted to Atieb Ahmed Dafallah for his assistance in securing the local documents and oral data used in this paper.

2 For a general survey of the region's peoples, see Cerulli, E., Peoples of South West Ethiopia and its Borderland (London, 1956), 11–37Google Scholar; and Davies, H. R. J., ‘Some Tribes of the Ethiopian Borderland between the Blue Nile and Sobat Rivers’, Sudan Notes and Records, XLI (1960), 19–34.Google Scholar The Bertha (B∈rθá) are better known in the literature as Berta.

3 Bryan, M. A., ‘A Linguistic No Man's Land’, Africa, xv (1945), 188–205.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

4 Grottanelli, V. L., ‘I Pre-Niloti: un'arcaica provincia culturale in Africa’, Annali Lateranensi, XII (1948), 282–326.Google Scholar

5 See Cerulli, E., ‘Three Berta Dialects in Western Ethiopia’, Africa, III (1947), 157 n.;CrossRefGoogle ScholarTrimingham, J. S., Islam in Ethiopia (London, 1952, reprint 1965), 218.Google Scholar It should be noted here that Belā Shangul is both the name for the border region and for the small district south of Qessān ruled (until 1898) by Khōjalī Ādam and his son ‘Abd ar-Rahmān (Tor el Guri). In order to avoid a terminological confusion which has misled several authors in the past, I shall refer to Belā Shangul proper when talking about the latter.

6 Informant: Jima'a Appila, a Bertha farmer who lives in Bulqwo, near Asosa, interviewed 29 Jan. 1973. (Copies of the Field Notes have been deposited at the Institute of Ethiopian Studies, Haile Sellassie I University, henceforth IES). The first person, to my knowledge, to have pointed out that Banī is an Arabic corruption of Bela, is Arkell, A. J., ‘A Note on the history of the country of the Berta …’ Ms. 1928, Central Records Office, KhartoumGoogle Scholar (henceforth CRO), Dakhlia 1 112/16/101, 1. See also Dafallah, Atieb Ahmed, ‘Sheikh Khojele al-Hassan and Bela Shangul (1825–1838)’, Fourth Year Essay, Faculty of Education/History, Haile Sellassie I University, Addis Ababa, 05 1973, 2.Google Scholar

7 Sudan Intelligence Report (henceforth SIR), ‘Some notes on the Abyssinian Districts of Beni Shangul, Ghomasha, and Asosa’, 190 (1910), 8;Google Scholar and Arkell, , ‘A Note’, 1–2.Google Scholar For a general account of the Egyptian conquest of Sennār, see Hill, R., Egypt in the Sudan 1820–1881 (London, 1959, reprint 1966), 8–13.Google Scholar For Egyptian rule over Belā Shangul, see Massaja, G., I miei 35 anni di missione nell' Alta Etiopia (Rome, 1885–1895), II (1886), 80–94;Google ScholarMatteucci, P., Sudan e Gallas (Milan, 1879), 141–275;Google ScholarSchuver, J. M., ‘Reisen im oberen Nilgebiet’, Ergänzungsheft zu Petermanns Mitteilungen, LXXII (1883), 1–10, 41–77.Google Scholar

8 Massaja, , I miei 35 anni, 88;Google ScholarMatteucci, , Sudan, 171;Google ScholarSchuver, , ‘Reisen’, 2–3.Google Scholar

9 Thus the Austrian mineral expert, J. von Russeger, found many Donqolāwī jallāba in the Dūl gold areas of Belā Shangul in 1838. See his Reise in Aegypten, Nubien, und Ost-Sudan (Stuttgart, 1844), 11, 576.Google Scholar See also Trimingham, J. S., Islam in the Sudan (London, 1949, reprint 1965), 8–9;Google ScholarHolt, P. M., The Mahdist State in the Sudan 1881–1898 (2nd ed.London, 1970), 9;Google Scholar and Hill, , Egypt, 15.Google Scholar

10 Beltrame, G., Il Sénnaar e lo Sciangàllah (Verona, 1879), II, 153.Google Scholar

11 The best description of Belā Shangul trade is in Matteucci, , Sudan, 234–5.Google Scholar See also Massaja, , I miei 35 anni, 94;Google Scholar and Schuver, , ‘Reisen’, 4.Google Scholar Informant: Shaykh Ahmad Khōjalī, a district judge in Asosa, interv. 17 Feb. 1972.

12 Matteucci, , Sudan, 167–8, 235.Google Scholar

13 This term, and the opposite one of as-Sāfil (the lower region, i.e. Sennār) are widely used in the region even today. As used here, aṣ-Ṣa‘īd is a synonym for Belā Shangul region.

14 Khomosha elders (al-Bashīr wad an-Nūr and Shaykh ‘Abd al-Wahid Yūsuf, a Jabalāwī an ‘Arab’ farmer respectively), interv. 17 Feb. 1972. For interesting parallels with other parts of Africa, see Lewis, I. M. (Ed.), Islam in Tropical Africa (London, 1966), ‘Introduction’, 23–7.Google Scholar

15 Informants: Jima‘a Ap.p.ila, and Abba Manassi Ismā‘īl, a noted Jabalāwī oral historian, interv. at Goha (Khomosha), 28 Sept. 1972.

16 Holt, P. M., ‘Fung Origins: a critique and new evidence’, J Afr. Hist. IV, 1 (1963), 51Google Scholar

17 Informants: Mūsā Afifi, a trader in Menge (Belā Shangul proper), interv. 16 Feb. 1972; Shaykh Babakir Khōjalī, the eldest son of the last Asosa ruler, interv. at Gare near Asosa, 12 Feb. 1972; ‘Ālī wad al-Faqīh, a district judge in Fadasi, interv. 27 Jan. 1973.

18 Khomosha elders.

19 Ibid.

10 Informant: Shaykh Babakir Khōjalī. Similar processes are outlined in Lewis, , Islam, 27.Google Scholar

21 The date of ‘Ummad's coming to the Ṣa‘īd has been recorded in the Qur’ān in possession of al-faqīh Muhammad al-Bashīr, interv. at Gambela near Asosa, 19 Feb. 1973.

22 Informant: Dajjāzmāch ‘Abd ar-Rahim Khōjalī, assistant governor of Asosa, interv. in Addis Ababa, 19 Feb. 1973.

23 Khomosha elders.

24 Ibid.

25 Informant: Shaykh Babakir Khōjal–20.

26 See, e. g. Trimingham, , Islam in the Sudan, 32, 243.Google Scholar For a somewhat cursory view of the penetration of Islam in this region, see Trimingham, , Islam in Ethiopia, 218–20.Google Scholar

27 Schuver, , ‘Reisen’, 44.Google Scholar

28 Ibid. 42

29 Ibid. 4–5.

30 al-Mahdī to Mahmud Muḥammad Himmaidi, 28 Rajab 1299/15 June 1882. I am indebted to the Hon. Yūsuf Ḥāmid, a Member of the Ethiopian Parliament for the Belā Shangul region, for a copy of the text of this letter. It is perhaps worth noting that, as in similar letters written by the Mahdī at this early time, no specific theological argument is advanced here. The letter starts with the self-assured statement: ‘You know that God the Almighty has made me his khalīfah on earth so as to govern it according to His will and authority by following the Kitāb and the Sunna.’ The Mahdī then goes on to state that he will not be able to perform his duties without the support of all believers in God, and that he has appointed his representative so that people will follow the right path. The common fight against the oppressive rule of the ‘Turks’, and the explicit promise of a return to the rule of (Muslim) law, seem to have been considered by the Mahdī sufficient grounds at this time to retain the people's support. For a similar letter commissioning an amīr to the Suakin region, see Holt, , The Mahdist State, 82.Google Scholar

31 Arkell, , ‘A Note’, 2.Google Scholar

32 On the Mahdist hijra as ‘the enforced visit of a tribe or of individual notables to Omdurman’, see Holt, , The Mahdist State, 160.Google Scholar

33 Informants: ‘Abd ar-Raḥim Khōjalī and Abba Manassi Ismā‘īl. See also Arkell, , ‘A Note’, 2.Google Scholar

34 al-Mahdī to ‘all his lovers in God, the agents, the pure, and the Anṣār of the Religion’, 22 Rabī‘I 1302/10 Jan. 1885. Original in possession of the Hon. Yūsuf Hāmid.

35 Khomosha elders.

36 A collection of these documents is in the possession of a Sammāni devotee, Shaykh Ja‘far Muh.ammad, who lives in Hura, about 3 hours north of Asosa: interv. 28 Jan. 1973.

37 On the Rātib, see Holt, , The Mahdist State, 165Google Scholar; and Trimingham, , Islam in the Sudan, 156.Google Scholar

38 One of these copies is in the possession of Shaykh Ja‘far Muḥammad.

39 Informant: Abba Manassi Ismā‘īl. For general descriptions of Mahdist provincial administration, see Holt, , The Mahdist State, 244–9;Google ScholarTrimingham, , Islam in the Sudan, 155;Google Scholar and Wingate, F. R., Mahdism and the Egyptian Sudan (London, 1891, reprint 1968), 476–7Google Scholar

40 Khalifa to Mahmud Himmaidi, 2 Jumādā I 1303/6 February 1886, and Khalifa to ‘Abd ar-Raḥmān Khōjalī, II Jumādā II 1303/17 Mar. 1886, CRO, Mahdia, Out-Letter Book (henceforth OLB ), vol. 9, nos. 972 and 981 respectively.

41 Khalifa to Maḥmud Himmaidi, 4 Ramaḍān 1303/6 June 1886, and Khalifa to ‘Abd ar-Raḥmān Khōjalī, same date, CRO, OLB, vol. II, nos. 32, 33, 34, 35. Not all the region's rulers had this hostile attitude: al-Ḥasan Muḥammad of Aqoldi and Muḥammad Hasan (Abba Moti) of Fadasi, for instance, seem to have received the Mahdist overlord favourably (ibid.).

42 For the Mahdī's strict rules on smoking and drinking, see Holt, , The Mahdist State, 131;Google ScholarWingate, , Mahdism, 57, 61–2.Google Scholar Informant: Abba Manassi Ismā‘īl.

43 Informants: Shayks Babakir Khōjalī and Ja‘far Muḥammad.

44 Holt, P. M., Lambton, A. K. S. and Lewis, B. (Eds.), The Cambridge History of Islam (Cambridge, 1970), II, 909;Google ScholarLevy, R., The Social Structure of Islam (Cambridge, 1965), 310.Google Scholar

45 See Levy, , op. cit., 309;Google ScholarTrimingham, , Islam in the Sudan, 124, 155;Google ScholarHolt, , The Mahdist State, 126;Google ScholarWingate, , Mahdism, 476–7.Google Scholar

46 Informant: Shaykh Ja‘far Muḥammad.

47 Holt, , The Mahdist State 42.Google Scholar

48 Informant: Mūsā Muḥammad Ibrāhīm, a veteran of Tor el Guri's army, interviewed at Menge, 17 Feb. 1972.

49 Khalifa to Yūnus al-Dikaym, 7 Ramadān 1303/9 June 1886, quoting earlier correspondence, CRO, OLB, vol. 11, no. 43.Google Scholar

50 Khalifa to Khalīl al-Khuzāni, 4 Ramaḍān 1303/6 June 1886, CRO, OLB vol. II, no.36.Google Scholar

51 Khalifa to Maḥmud Himmaidi, 20 Ramaḍān 1303/22 June 1886, and Khalifa to ‘Abd ar-Rahmān Khojālī, same date, CRO, OLB, vol. 11, nos. 50 and 51.Google Scholar

52 Khalifa to Khalīl al-Khuzāni, 9 Dhū'l-qa'da 1303/9 Aug. 1886; Khalifa to ‘Abd ar-Rahmān Khōjalī, same date; and Khalifa to Maḥmud Himmaidi, 10 Dhu'l-qa'da 1303/10 Aug. 1886, CRO, OLB, vol. 11, nos. 154, 153, 164 respectively.Google Scholar

53 Holt, , The Mahdist State, 147.Google Scholar

54 Informants: Khomosha elders and ‘Āli wad al-Faqīh. It does not seem, however, that Khalīl had been authorized by the Khalifa to wage the jihād south of Belā Shangul. Early in 1886, when Khalīl first reported to Omdurman that the Oromo ruler was ignoring the Mahdist call, the Khalifa instructed Khalīl not to advance against the Gallāwi and to limit himself to ‘the people of the mountains’. (Khalifa to Khalīl, 2 Jumādā I 1303/6 Feb. 1886, CRO, OLB, vol. 9, no. 800) Whether these instructions had changed by the end of 1886 is not known.Google Scholar

55 Fadasi was visited in 1878 by Gessi and Matteucci (see Matteucci, , Sudan, 257–75)Google Scholar, and in 1881 by Schuver, (‘Reisen’, 4–7).Google Scholar

56 The best description of Qumbabi and its trade in the early 1880s is in Schuver, , ‘Reisen’, 17–19.Google Scholar

57 Schuver, , op. cit. 22, 66.Google Scholar

58 Schuver, , op. cit. 21–3, 36.Google Scholar

59 See Matteucci, , Sudan, 270. Informant: Shaykh Ahmad Khōjalī.Google Scholar

60 Informants: Ḥāmid Ḥasan, a traditional bālābbāt (hereditary chief), interviewed in Addis Ababa, 4 Sept. 1972; Shaykh Ja'far Muhammad and ‘Ālī wad al-faqīh.

61 For a general appraisal of Mahdist penetration in Oromo country, see my ‘The Background to Rās Gobanā's Expeditions to Western Wallaggā (1886–1888): A review of the evidence’, Paper submitted to the First U.S. Conference on Ethiopian Studies, Michigan State University, 2–5 05 1973, to be published in the Proceedings.Google Scholar

62 An anonymous Amharic manuscript history of the Bakarē family of Naqamtē, Wallaggā, in possession of a descendant, Wayzaro Aṣada Habta Māryām (henceforth Bakarā Ms.), fo. 34. See also Cervuli, E., ‘The Folk-Literature of the Galla of Southern Abyssinia’, Harvard African Series, III, Varia Africana (Cambridge, Mass., 1922), 82.Google Scholar

63 ‘Ya-Dajjāzmāch Jotē Tullu Tārik’, Amharic Ms. in my possession, fo. 2. I am indebted to Qanyāzmāch Yosēf Jotē, once governor of Gidami, Qēllam (Wallaggā), for having provided me with a copy of this family chronicle. See also Bakura Seyon Ṭelāhun, ‘Ya-Asosā Bēni Shangul Awrājā Gezāt Tārik’, an unpublished typescript dated 1953 Eth. Cal., by a former governor of Asosa (IES, MS. 359), fo. 19.

64 The French traveller, Jules Borelli, who visited the Rās as soon as he returned to Shoa, was told this by Gobanā himself. See Borelli, J., Ethiopie Méridionale (Paris, 1890), 150, 162.Google Scholar This is supported also by Sudanese evidence. The presence of ‘Gobana, Makk of the Abyssinians’ in the area was reported to Omdurman as early as June 1886 (Khalifa to Yūnus al-Dikaym, 4 Ramadān 1303/6 June 1886, CRO, OLB, vol. 11, no. 43)Google Scholar, and Khalīl had been instructed to be on friendly terms with him and to avoid hostilities (Khalifa to Khalīl, 26 Muharram(?) 1304/25 Oct. (?) 1886, CRO, OLB, vol. 11, no. 398).Google Scholar

65 Mahdist outposts were reportedly stationed both at Tullu Arba and in the Jarso region east of Nejjo. They were apparently checked by Gobanā's own outposts. See Bakarē MS., fo. 35–6.

66 Informants: Shaykh Aḥmad Khōjalī and Abba Manassi Ismā'īl.

67 al-Ḥasan Muhammad to his brothers, 24 Rabī' I 1304/21 December 1886. Letter in possession of Grāzmāch Muḥammad Ashāfi, once governor of Asosa, interv. 13 Feb. 1972. The Grāzmāch has a rich collection of documents on the Khōjali family of Aqoldi, later Asosa.

68 Informant: Abba Manassi Ismā'īl.

69 Informant: Mūsā Muḥammad Ibrāhīm.

70 Khomosha elders, and Abba Manassi Ismā'īl.

71 Holt, , The Mahdist State, 192–3.Google Scholar

72 The second expedition by Khalīl is often confused with the first one of 1886. For an analysis of the evidence, see my ‘The Background’.

73 Ato Nagada, ‘Ya-Rās Gobanā Tārik’, Amharic MS. in possession of Wayzarit Tsehai Berhane Sellassie, IES, fo. 13. The chronicle quotes Gobanā's allies as being Muh.ammad of Fadasi and ‘Abd ar-Rah.mān of Belā Shangul proper, but the second does not seem to have taken part in the expedition.

74 The date given by Nagada (ibid.) is confirmed with few details by Menilek's chronicler, Gabra Sellāsē (Tārika Zaman Za-Dāgmāwi Menilek Negusa Nagast Za-Ityopiā, Addis Ababa, 1959 B.C., 150), and by Ato Aṣmē Walda Giyorgis (‘Ya-Gāllā Tārik’, IES, MS. 173, fo. 98).

75 Informant: ‘Ālī wad al-Faqīh.

76 SIR, 61 (1 Jan. to 15 Feb. 1899), App. D, ‘Fazoghli Intelligence Diary’, by Nason Bey, Kaimakan.

77 Wingate, , Mahdism, 488–9.Google Scholar

78 Ibid. 489. See abo az-Zākī Ṭamal to Khalifa, Rabī' II 1307/25 Nov.–23 Dec. 1889, CRO, Mahdia 1/4, 147.

79 az-Zākī Ṭamal to Khalifa, 8 Rajab 1307/28 Feb. 1890, CRO, Mahdia 1/4, 168.

80 az-Zākī Ṭamal to Khalifa, same date, quoting letter from ‘Abd ar-Rasūl dated 12 Jumādā II 1307/3 Feb. 1890, CRO, Mahdia 1/4, 171.

81 Arkell, , ‘A Note’, 3.Google Scholar

82 Ibid. 4; Wingate, , Mahdism, 489.Google Scholar See also az-Zākī Ṭamal to Khalifa, 10 Dhū'l-qa'da 1307/28 June 1890, acknowledging receipt of letter from the Khalifa dated Shawwāl 1307/21 May–18 June 1890, CRO, Mahdia 1/4, 209.

83 Intelligence Report, Egypt, xxx (1894);Google ScholarSIR, 60Google Scholar (25 May to 31 Dec. 1898), App. 72, ‘General Hunter's Expedition to Roseires, Report’; and App. 80 A, Letter of Muḥammad Khōjalī to the Sirdar, dated 2 Jumādā II 1316/18 Oct. 1898.

84 Sanderson, G. N., ‘Conflict and Co-Operation Between Ethiopia and the Mahdist State, 1884–1898’, Sudan Notes and Records, L (1969), 37.Google Scholar

85 Arkell, , ‘A Note’, 3.Google Scholar On the supposed cession of Belā Shangul to Menilek, see Sanderson, op. cit., and Marcus, H. G., ‘Ethio-British Negotiations concerning the Western Border with Sudan’, J. Afr. Hist. IV, 1 (1963), 83–8;Google ScholarSanderson, , ‘The Foreign Policy of the Negus Menilek, 1896–1898’, J. Afr. Hist. v, 1 (1964), 87–91;CrossRefGoogle Scholar and again Marcus, , ‘The Foreign Policy of the Emperor Menilek, 1896–1898: A Rejoinder’, J. Afr. Hist. VII, 1 (1966), 117–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

86 SIR, LX (1898), App. 72Google Scholar, Statement by Shaykh Aḥmad Abū Shotāl of Roseires.

87 Ta' rīkh Hayāt Yūsuf Mikhā'il, the Memoirs of the Mahdist Chief Clerk, CRO, Mahdia 2/4, fo. 86. This seems to be confirmed by the statement that Muḥammad ‘Uthmān al-Hājj Khālid, the Khalifa's emissary to Menilek, gave to the British soon after the fall of Khartoum: ‘… the Khalifa told me to tell Menelik that wad Tur el Guri [‘Abd ar-Rahmān Khōjalī‘] had been disobedient and that Menelik might fight him … I never heard that Khalifa Abdulla had promised to give Gallabat or Beni Shangul to the Abyssinians.’ ‘Statement of Mohammed Osman El Haj Khaled, Jaali, Khalifa Abdulla's emissary to Menelik’, CRO, Mahdia 1/34/15, fos. 146–7. See also Shuqair, Naum, Ta' rīkh as-Sūdān (Cairo, 1903), 111, 632.Google Scholar

88 F.O. 403/275, Rodd to Salisbury, Cairo, 21 July 1898, no. 115, enclosing translation of Rās Makonnen's letter to Rodd, dated 30 June 1898.