Muslims of Gondar 1864-1941 - article ; n°1 ; vol.16, pg 161-172

Abdussamad H.Ahmad

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Annales d'Ethiopie - Année 2000 - Volume 16 - Numéro 1 - Pages 161-172
Résumé : Bien que la Chrétienté fût dominante sur les plateaux éthiopiens, il est également vrai que ces mêmes plateaux recelaient une minorité musulmane, permanente et autochtone. Comme le cas est fréquent en Afrique, la vie quotidienne des Musulmans des plateaux éthiopiens était très liée au commerce. Le propos de cet article est de démontrer l'importance économique relative, ainsi que la survivance des quelques Musulmans gondariens au sein de la majorité chrétienne qui méprisait leur activité mercantile et considérait leur religion comme inférieure.
Summary : While it is true that the Ethiopian highlands were dominated by Christianity, it is equally true that the highlands possessed a permanent, indigenous Muslim minority. As was so frequently the case elsewhere in Africa, the ongoing life of the highland Ethiopian Muslims was closely connected to trade. The concern of the author is to demonstrate the relative economic importance and the survival of the few Gondarine Muslims amidst the Christian majority, which looked at their mercantile job with contempt and considered their religion inferior.
12 pages
Source : Persée ; Ministère de la jeunesse, de l’éducation nationale et de la recherche, Direction de l’enseignement supérieur, Sous-direction des bibliothèques et de la documentation.

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• Publié par: ANNALES_D-ETHIOPIE
• Publié le: 01 janvier 2000
• Nombre de lectures: 122
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

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Abdussamad H. Ahmad
Muslims of Gondar 1864-1941
In: Annales d'Ethiopie. Volume 16, année 2000. pp. 161-172.
Résumé : Bien que la Chrétienté fût dominante sur les plateaux éthiopiens, il est également vrai que ces mêmes plateaux
recelaient une minorité musulmane, permanente et autochtone. Comme le cas est fréquent en Afrique, la vie quotidienne des
Musulmans des plateaux éthiopiens était très liée au commerce. Le propos de cet article est de démontrer l'importance
économique relative, ainsi que la survivance des quelques Musulmans gondariens au sein de la majorité chrétienne qui méprisait
leur activité mercantile et considérait leur religion comme inférieure.
Abstract
Summary : While it is true that the Ethiopian highlands were dominated by Christianity, it is equally true that the highlands
possessed a permanent, indigenous Muslim minority. As was so frequently the case elsewhere in Africa, the ongoing life of the
highland Ethiopian Muslims was closely connected to trade. The concern of the author is to demonstrate the relative economic
importance and the survival of the few Gondarine Muslims amidst the Christian majority, which looked at their mercantile job with
contempt and considered their religion inferior.
Citer ce document / Cite this document :
Ahmad Abdussamad H. Muslims of Gondar 1864-1941. In: Annales d'Ethiopie. Volume 16, année 2000. pp. 161-172.
doi : 10.3406/ethio.2000.971
http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/ethio_0066-2127_2000_num_16_1_971161
Annales d'Ethiopie, 2000, vol. XVI: 161-172.
Muslims of Gondar 1864-1941*
Abdussamad H. Ahmad
Résumé : Bien que la Chrétienté fût dominante sur les plateaux éthiopiens, il est éga
lement vrai que ces mêmes plateaux recelaient une minorité musulmane, permanente
et autochtone. Comme le cas est fréquent en Afrique, la vie quotidienne des Musul
mans des plateaux éthiopiens était très liée au commerce. Le propos de cet article est
de démontrer l'importance économique relative, ainsi que la survivance des quelques
Musulmans gondariens au sein de la majorité chrétienne qui méprisait leur activité
mercantile et considérait leur religion comme inférieure.
Mots-clefs : Ethiopie, Islam, Gondar, histoire.
Summary : While it is true that the Ethiopian highlands were dominated by Christian
ity, it is equally true that the highlands possessed a permanent, indigenous Muslim
minority. As was so frequently the case elsewhere in Africa, the ongoing life of the
highland Ethiopian Muslims was closely connected to trade. The concern of the author
is to demonstrate the relative economic importance and the survival of the few Gon-
darine Muslims amidst the Christian majority, which looked at their mercantile job
with contempt and considered their religion inferior.
Keywords : Ethiopia, Islam, Gondar, history.
* I had the opportunity to present a paper on Muslims of Gondar 1900 -1935 to the Spring
Symposium of the University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign, April 2-3,1984. In due cours
e, I was able to conduct further field work on the Muslims of Gondar and their relations with
the Christian elite. An earlier version of this paper was published in Katsuyoshi Fukui, Eisei
Kurimoto and Masayoshi Shigeta (editors), Ethiopia in Broader Perspective: Papers of the
Xlllth International Conference of Ethiopian Studies, vol. 1, Kyoto: Japan, 1997, pp. 128-137. 162
Gondar had a historic Islamic community. Yet both Ethiopian and foreign histo
rians tend to view Ethiopia as a Christian country. If they are at all conscious of Islam
in Ethiopia, they see it as a geographically distinct and politically marginal phenomen
on. In this view Ethiopia consists firstly of a solid dominant block of Christians who
live in the highland plateaus and secondly of disparate groups of pastoral lowlanders
who follow Islam. The history of Ethiopia then becomes in part the account of ten
sions and conflicts between these two elements. There are many inadequacies in this
view. This study seeks to correct the one concerning the religiously monolithic cha
racter of the highlands.
While it is true that the highlands were dominated by Christianity, it is equally true
that the highlands possessed a permanent, indigenous Muslim minority, a minority
whose native language was either Tigrina or Amharic. As was so frequently the case
elsewhere in Africa, the ongoing life of the highland Ethiopian Muslims was closely
connected to trade. My concern in this article is to demonstrate the relative economic
importance and the survival of the few Gondarine Muslims amidst the Christian major
ity which looked at their mercantile job with contempt and considered their religion
inferior.
Trade and weaving were the major occupations opened to the Muslims of Gondar.
Trade, both local and international, was the main occupation of the Muslims. Muslims
merchants of Gondar dominated the trade of the wider Red Sea region and mastered
the techniques involved in long-distances trade and thereby came to preponderate in
the commerce of Gondar1. Perhaps as an extension of their principal role as traders in
the cotton that came from Gallabat a good number of the Muslims of Gondar became
weavers2.
In Gondar, there were Christian merchants who mastered the techniques involved
in commerce as well. However, Christians had many other opportunities which were
basically closed to the Muslims: farming, the military profession, court and legal
appointments, etc. In the main, had a general prejudice against commerce.
Nonetheless, this did not stop some Christians in the least from taking part in com
merce when they wanted to3. Yet, it is also true that Muslims, excluded as they were
from the magistral posts in the political life of Christian Ethiopia, enjoyed success in
1 Informants: Aligaz Yimar, Garima Taffara, Mitiku Kasse, Nure Ambaw and Yussuf
Ahmad. Aligaz was an excellent local historian. He was interviewed at Dabra Tabor on 5
March 1982 and was 87 at the time of interview. The manuscript was in the hands of abba Gari
ma Taffara. The late abba Garima compiled the in 1978. He was a major local his
torian in Gondar. He kindly made the typed manuscript available to me, while I conducted my
research in Gondar in the summer of 1979. The had a wealth of information on Gond
arine politics, the church, trade and crafts in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Miti
ku and Nure were merchants interviewed at Addis Zaman on 16-17 Sept. 1979. Mitiku was 80
and Nure 82 at the time of interview. Yussuf was a merchant and an outstanding historian. He
was interviewed at Gondar on 14-15 Sept. 1979. He was 61 at time of interview. I had the
opportunity to interview him at Gondar on 10-15 January 1988 and at Addis Ababa on 17-30
June 1990. See also Vinigi L. Grottanelli, Ricerche Geografiche e Economiche Sulle Popo-
lazioni, Reale Accademia d'ltalia, Missione Di Studio alLago Tana, v. 1. II, Rome: Centro Studi
per l'Africa Orientale Italiana, 1939. p. 154. Mordechai Abir, Trade and Politics in the Ethio
pian Region 1830-1855, Ph.D. thesis, University of London, 1964, p. 17.
2 Informants: Aligaz Yimar, Garima Taffara, Mitiku Kasse and Yussuf Ahmad, cited supra. 163
commerce when dealing with their co-religionists at Matamma and Massawa4. Musl
ims were the most important elements of the economy of Gondar. The importation of
foreign goods from the coast and the export of rare commodities like gold, ivory, civet
and slaves were in the hands of the Muslim merchants. They played an important role
in making Gondar the center of wholesale trade for much of northwestern Ethiopia5.
Gondar's Commercial Relation with Yemen
The establishment of Gondar as the imperial capital, during the reign of Fasiladas
(1632-1667), coincided with the return of relative peace to a kingdom wrecked for a
hundred years by warfare and rebellion. The policy of Fasiladas to collect customs
dues and protect the trade routes favored the expansion of trade, and Gondar may have
emerged as the first true urban centre of the Christian kingdom6. This is clear from an
account of a journey to Gondar by the Yemeni Qadi Sharaf al-Din al-Hassan. In res
ponse to this visit, Fasiladas sent an embassy to Yemen to negotiate trade relations be
tween Ethiopia and Yemen in 1642. Some five years later, in 1647, he sent a second
embassy to Yemen. This time he sent a Gondarine Muslim by the name of al-Hajji
Salim b. 'Abd al-Rahim and a Christian whose name was not mentioned7. Here again,
the Christian kings delegated the Muslims of Gondar to establish commercial relations
with the Muslims of Yemen.
The Yemeni embassy Al-Haymi noted that the Muslims of Gondar resided in a
quarter outside the city, although the inhabitants were not exclusively Muslims8. Al-
Haymi preferred to stay in the house of a Muslim in Gondar9. The expansion of trade
apparently favored the Muslims, who were a significant component of the town's
population10, and were described as being rich". This gave impetus to the development
of commercial activities throughout the highlands12. Along with their Muslim peers,
the