Islam in World Cultures: Comparative Perspectives - Islamic Books ...

2 2 2Islam i n World Cult u r e sDuring their occupation, the Egyptians implemented an extensive series ofinfrastructural, health, administrative, and religious reforms. The Harari wererestored to dominance over the Oromo, and Harar’s urban, Islamic culturewas emphasized as an ideal throughout the larger region. Because of fiscal andpolitical problems in Cairo, the Egyptians withdrew in 1885. However, theirencouragement of an Islamic revival of sorts continued to inspire the Harari.After taking over leadership of the town, Amir Abdullahi, a Harari, attemptedto spread Islam among the rural Oromo, and he strictly enforced Islamic lawsin the town, efforts that earned him an honored position in Harari historicalr e c o l l e c t i o n s .Despite Harar’s recently restored independence, its strategic geographicallocation made it a tempting target for others. Situated between the centralEthiopian province ruled by Menilek and trading ports along the Red Sea andthe Gulf of Aden, it promised secure trade access to a more regular and lessexpensive supply of modern weapons and other coveted foreign goods. Thus,although subduing Ethiopia’s Islamic stronghold must have been symbolicallyappealing, Menilek’s decision to take the town was probably made primarilywith economic and political considerations in mind. Nonetheless, at the Battleof C’alanqo on January 6, 1887, his Christian armies defeated a combinedMuslim force of Harari, Oromo, and others. The Horn of Africa’s historical Islamiccapital has, ever since, been ruled by dominantly Christian governmentsbased in Addis Ababa in central Ethiopia.Over the course of history, relations between Muslims and Christians inEthiopia were not always warm. In the regions where Muslim traders andcraftsmen had lived and traveled for centuries, there tended to be separateMuslim towns or neighborhoods. In fact, Emperor Yohannes I (1667–1682)“convened a council that ordered Muslims to live separately from Christians invillages and town quarters of their own.” When Christians met Muslims, “theygreeted Muslims with the left hand—a sign of contempt—and called them, pejo r a t i v e l y, n a g g a d e (merchant), or e s l a m .” Similarly, “Christian Ethiopianswould not eat with them, drink from cups they had used (unless purified by aman of religion), or eat meat slaughtered by Muslims” (Kapteijns 2000,230–231). The pattern was repeated in late nineteenth- and early twentiethce n t u ry Harar, where Christian soldiers and settlers initially lived outside thet o w n ’s 200-year-old protective wall, thus maintaining spatial and social separation.Further reflecting these social tensions, the red earth of Harari homeswas said to symbolize the blood spilled at C’alanqo; Christianity was belittledby calling a certain butterfly Amhara kitab (“Amhara book,” or Bible) because“the cryptic and nonsensical markings on the wings were said to be likeAmharic writing, and the opening and closing, and flitting about, were intrinsicto the image also.” Moreover, Harari who married Christians were sociallyrejected, Harari women began to dress more modestly, Islam’s prohibition on