Islamic Law in Ethiopia: an Analysis of the Legal Texts Found in Manuscripts from the Horn

Islamic law in Ethiopia: an analysis of the legal texts found in manuscripts from the Horn

Adday Hernández López. Postdoc researcher (ILC-CSIC)

The paper that I’m presenting is linked to the work that I carried out in the project Islam in the Horn of Africa: A comparative literary approach, which ended last December. The aim of this Project, directed whose PI was Alessandro Gori, has been to locate, digitize and catalogue different collections of Arabic manuscripts produced in the Horn mainly during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries because the Arabic literary production of the Horn has been somehow ignored until recent times. Thousands of Arabic manuscripts from different locations have been catalogued between 2014 and 2018, and they have been classified according to their genres, contents, authors, titles, places of creation, etc. Although the Project has also included the writings of Djibouti and Somaliland, I will pay special attention to the Ethiopian written production.

Ethiopia is a country were different ethnic groups cohabit in the same territory and, accordingly it is divided into nine different regional states. To this complexity in ethnic and linguistic factors, religious diversity has to be added as well; in principle there are around a 55 % of Orthodox Christians and a 34 % of Muslims according to the official statistics, but some scholars have suggested that the number of Muslims could be actually higher1. Nonetheless, in the Afar and Somali regions more than a 90 % of the inhabitants are Muslims; in the Harari region the Muslims constitute around a 60 % of the population and in the most populous state, the Oromia, Muslims constitute the majority of the population as well, with around a 45 %.

In the eighth century of the Christian Era Islam was already spread in some areas of the Horn, specifically in the littoral since, as Trimingham stated, “the History of

1 These data correspond to the year 2014 and they are taken from: https://www.nationmaster.com/country-info/profiles/Ethiopia/Religion#2014 (consulted on the 19/07/19) 1

Islam in East Africa belongs more to the history of the Indian Ocean than to African history”2. Later on, from the twelfth century onwards, Islam would spread inlands owing to the trade and the migration of Somalis and Afar moving from the coast to the interior3. Islamization processes, thus, followed different developments in each area and, in consequence, the interaction between Islam and the previous traditions of each ethnic group would result in independent religious manifestations that can hardly be described as a homogeneous “Ethiopian Islam”4.

In the sixteenth century, the Barr Saʻd al-Dīn Sultanate conquered the Ethiopian Christian kingdom. Although the Ottoman intervention in this so-called-Ethiopian jihad has been recently questioned, Ottoman ideas and practices permeated the legal thought in the Horn through the influences coming from Egypt and Yemen and, in consequence the Ḥanafī school of law grew in importance.

However, the manuscripts analyzed for this contribution5, have been produced mainly during the Nineteenth and Twentieth centuries, after the resurgence of Islam that took place around 1830, promoted by Muslim preachers and scholars connected to some Sufi ṭuruq and the Shāfiʻī madhhab6. The content of the analyzed codices shows an ongoing relationship between Yemen and the Horn, especially with Hadramawt. The sādā, or members of local Yemeni families who claimed to be descendants of the Prophet via ʻAlī and Fāṭima, visited the Horn, some of them even settled there, as well as they travelled to Tanzania, Mozambique, Madagascar, South Africa and Southeast Asia, establishing a scholarly network based on the Qādiriyya and the Shādhiliyya Sufi orders that has been studied by different scholars such as Anne Bang in Bergen among others7. In this network, Kārimīs, Ḥaḍramīs, non-Ḥaḍramī

2 See J. Spencer Trimingham, Islam in East Africa, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1964, p. 1. 3 See Terje Østebø, Localising Salafism: Religious Change among Oromo Muslims in Bale, Ethiopia, Leiden, Brill, 2012, p. 51. 4 See Hernandez A., “The ʻAjamization of Islam in Ethiopia through Esoteric Textual Manifestations in Two Collections of Ethiopian Arabic Manuscripts”, Islamic Africa 8 (2017), pp. 171-192, 173-4. 5 The corpus employed for this contribution is made up by the manuscripts catalogued in the frame of the project Islam in the Horn of Africa. A Comparative Literary Approach, directed by Alessandro Gori (University of Copenhagen). For further information on this project visit http://islhornafr.eu/ 6 According to Thrimingham, this revival was a general reaction to “the lethargy which had overtaken the Arab world under Ottoman rule”, see Trimingham, The Sufi Orders in Islam, Oxford: 1998, p. 105. 7 Bang, A. Sufis and scholars of the sea: family networks in East Africa, 1860-1925, Leiden: Brill, 2003; Islamic Sufi networks in the western Indian Ocean (c. 1880-1940): ripples of reform, Leiden: Brill, 2014. Freitag, U., Indian Ocean Migrants and State Formation in Hadhramawt, Leiden: Brill, 2003; Ho, E. The 2

Yemenis, Persians, Hindīs, Swahilis and Malays participated according to Kooriadathodi in the transmission of ideas and texts8. Consequently, in this period we find in Ethiopia, as in other points of this network, a shrine-centered Islam in which the celebration of the mawlid and the pilgrimage to the tombs of saints and prophets was part of the ritual life. These (mainly) Yemeni influences were also noticeable in the field of Islamic law in every place visited by the sādā. For instance, two of the most copied Shāfiʻī texts in our corpus are al-Nawawī’s Minhāj al-ṭālibīn and al-Muqaddima al-ḥaḍramiyya, which have been also found by Bang and Loimeier in Zanzibar9.

So, although the Ḥanafī school of law seems to have been the preferred one before the Sufi revival, the described context fostered the spread of the Shāfiʻī doctrines, and we even have examples of Ethiopian scholars who went to study Islamic law to Tarim and Zabīd. That is the case of al-Ḥājj Dawūd b. Abī Bakr (d. 1234/1818), known as “Muftī Dawūd” who, after his stay in Zabīd, established a teaching center at Gaddo, from where he propagated the Shafiʻīyya in the region of Dawway10.

The content of the manuscripts in our corpus confirms the success of the Shāfiʻī school and these are the most copied works found of this school:

 Minhāj al-ṭālibīn  Manhaj al-ṭullāb  Fatḥ al-Wahhāb bi-sharḥ Manhaj al-ṭullāb  Tuḥfat al-muḥtāj bi-sharḥ al-Minhāj  Ḥāshiyat Ibn Qāsim al-ʿAbbādī ʿalā Tuḥfat al- muḥtāj bi-sharḥ al-Minhāj  Ḥāshiyat al-Shirwānī ʻalā Tuḥfat al-muḥtāj bi- sharḥ al-Minhāj  Takmilat kāfī al-muḥtāj ilā sharḥ al-Minhāj

Graves of Tarim. Genealogy and Mobility across the Indian Ocean, Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006; and the recent Thesis dissertation of Kooriadathodi, M. Cosmopolis of law: Islamic legal ideas and texts across the Eastern Ocean and Eastern Mediterranean Worlds (14/12/2016), University of Leiden. 8 Kooriadathodi, M. Cosmopolis of law, p. 28. 9 Loimeier, R. Between Social Skills and Marketable Skills, Leiden: Brill, 2009, 179-185; Bang, A. Islamic Sufi networks in the western Indian Ocean, 121-123. 10 Hussein Ahmed, Islam in the Nineteenth-Century Wallo, Ethiopia. Revival, Reform and Reaction, Leiden: Brill, 2001, pp. 67, 82, 91, 106, 108, 136, 145. 3

 al-Dībāj fī tawḍīḥ al-Minḥāj  Bidāyat al-muḥtāj fī sharḥ al-Minhāj  Sharḥ al-Maḥallī ‘alā Minhāj al-ṭālibīn  Ḥashiyat al-Qalyūbī ‘alā sharḥ al-Maḥallī ‘alā al-Minhāj  Ḥāshiyat al-shaykh ‘Amīra ‘alā sharḥ al-Maḥāllī ‘alā al-Minhāj  Nihāyat al-muḥtāj  Najm al-wahhāb fī sharḥ al-Minhāj  al-Sirāj al-wahhāj ʿalā matn al-Minhāj  ‘Ujālat al-muḥtāj  Mughnī al-muḥtāj ilā ma‘rifat ma‘ānī alfāẓ al-Minhāj  al-Ḥāwī al-ṣaghīr

 Manẓūmat al-baḥja al-wardiyya

 al-Ghurar al-bahiyya fī sharḥ manẓūmat al-baḥja al-wardiyya

 Irshād al-ghāwī ilā Masālik al-ḥāwī

 Fatḥ al-jawād bi-sharḥ al-irshād

 al-Imdād bi-sharḥ al-irshād

 Mukhtaṣar Abī Shujā‘ ‘alā madhhab al-Shāfi‘ī

 Fatḥ al-qarīb al-mujīb fī sharḥ alfāẓ al-Taqrīb

 Ḥāshiyat al-Bājūrī ‘alā sharḥ Ibn Qāsim al-Ghazzī ‘alā matn Abī Shujā‘ fī madhhab al-imām al-Shāfi‘ī

 Ḥāshiyat al-Birmāwī ‘alā sharḥ Ibn Qāsim al-Ghazzī ‘alā matn Abī Shujā‘ fī madhhab al-imām al-Shāfi‘ī

 al-Iqnā‘ fī ḥall alfāẓ Abī Shujā‘

 Ḥāshiya ‘alā kitāb al-Iqnā‘ fī ḥall alfāẓ Abī Shujā‘

 Tuḥfat al-ḥabīb ‘alā sharḥ al-Khaṭīb

 al-Muqaddima al-Ḥaḍramiyya fī fiqh al-sāda al-shāfi‘iyya

 al-Minhāj al-qawīm sharḥ al-Muqaddima al-ḥaḍramiyya

 Kitāb Kanz al-Zubad

 Matn al-Zubad fī al-fiqh ‘alā madhhab al-imām al-Shāfi‘ī (versification)

Regarding the Shāfiʻī local scholars, apart from Mufti Dawud, two famous Ethiopian scholars, Jamal al-Din al-Anni and Jawhar b. Haydar were affiliated to the Shāfiʻī madhhab and composed legal works according to its doctrines, and we also find in the corpus the works written by two scholars from Wolkite (in the Southern regions and Nationalities regional state) the shaykh Kamal al-Din al-Ubbi and his son Badr al- Din, who is the main compiler of the collection preserved in the Zabi Molla zāwiya.

The Ḥanafī school

Although in a much lower degree, the Ḥanafī school of law is well represented in the corpus, especially in the area of the Afar region bordering Djibouti and Warrahimano, in the Amhara region. These are the Ḥanafī works found:

 Muhimmat al-sharīfa fī sharḥ al-Muqaddima al-Laṭīfa  Risālat shurūṭ al-ṣalāt ʻalā madhhab al-imām al-aʻẓam Abī Ḥanīfa al- Nuʻmān.  Kitāb al-Mirqāt fī sharḥ Risālat al-shurūṭ  Tuḥfat al-muluk fī fiqh madhhab al-Imām Abī Ḥanīfa al-Nuʻmān  Hadiyat al-ṣuʻlūk fī sharḥ Tuḥfat al-mulūk  Kitāb al-shaʻbiyyāt  Al-Ikhtiyār li-taʻlīl al-mukhtār  Al-manḥ al-azhar fī sharḥ al-fiqh al-akbar  Manẓūma fī al-khilāf  Al-Muqaddima al-laṭīfa ʻalā madhhab Abī Ḥanīfa  Badā’iʻ al-ṣanā’iʻ fī tartīb al-sharā’iʻ  Fayḍ al-ghayth  Al-Muqaddima fī al-ṣalāt  Al-Durr al-mukhtār sharḥ tanwīr al-abṣār wa-jāmiʻ al-abḥār  Muqaddima ʻalā madhhab al-Imām al-aʻẓam Abī Ḥanīfa  Ifāḍat al-anwār ʻalā matn uṣūl al-manār

However, only one of them appears in the list of the most copied legal works of the corpus, Tuḥfat al-mulūk fī fiqh maḏhab al-Imām Abī Ḥanīfa al-Nuʻmān, by al-Rāzī, Muḥammad b. Abī Bakr b. ʻAbd al-Qādir (d. 666) and while we find 26 copies of the Minhāj al-ṭālibīn, for instance, of this Ḥanafī work there are only 3 manuscripts and two printed books:

 Minhāj al-ṭālibīn (26 mss)  Ḥāšiyat al-Qalyūbī ʻalā sharḥ al-Maḥallī ʻalā al-Minhāj (19 mss)  Tuḥfat al-muḥtāj bi-sharḥ al-Minhāj (16 mss)  Manhaj al-ṭullāb (16 mss)  Fatḥ al-Wahhāb bi-sharḥ Manhaj al-ṭullāb (15 mss and many printed books)  Mughnī al-muḥtāj ilā maʻrifat maʻānī alfāẓ al-Minhāj (13 mss)  al-Muqaddima al-ḥaḍramiyya fī fiqh al-sāda al-shāfi‘iyya (11 mss)  al-Minhāj al-qawīm sharḥ al-Muqaddima al-ḥaḍramiyya (3 mss)  Mukhtaṣar Abī Shujāʻ ʻalā madhhab al-Shāfiʻī (10 mss)  Tuḥfat al-ḥabīb ‘alā sharḥ al-Khaṭīb (7 mss)  ʻUmdat al-sālik wa-ʻuddat al-nāsik (8 mss)  Irshād al-ghāwī ilā Masālik al-ḥāwī (4 mss)  Fatḥ al-jawād bi-sharḥ al-irshād (7 mss)  Iʻānat al-ṭālibīn ʻalā ḥall alfāẓ Fatḥ al-muʻīn (4 mss and 15printed books)  Matn al-Zubad fī al-fiqh ‘alā madhhab al-imām al-Shāfi‘ī (4 mss)  Safīnat al-najā fī uṣūl al-dīn wa-al-fiqh (3 mss and 5 printed books)  Tuḥfat al-mulūk fī fiqh maḏhab al-Imām Abī Ḥanīfa al-Nuʻmān (3 mss and 2 printed books)  al-Barāhīn al-ḥisān fī-mā yataʻallaq bi-hilāl ramaḍān (3 mss)

Regarding local production, only two of the Ḥanafī works found have been composed by local scholars, both in the twentieth century:

- Aḥmad b. ʻUmar al-Darrī, d. 1372/1953: Risālat shurūṭ al-ṣalāt ʻalā madhhab al-imām al-aʻẓam Abī Ḥanīfa al-Nuʻmān. - Ḥusayn b. Ḥabīb b. Ādam al-Warrahibanī al-Ḥanafī (20th c. CE): Muhimmat al- sharīfa fī sharḥ al-Muqaddima al-Laṭīfa. Commentary of al-Muqaddima al-laṭīfa ʻalā madhhab Abī Ḥanīfa, by Aḥmad b. Muḥammad al-Makkī al-Ḥanafī.

What about the other two Sunnī schools?

While the Ḥanbalī school is almost non-existent, the Mālikī doctrine has some followers especially in Eritrea and the areas of Ethiopia bordering Sudan, but unfortunately, we have no manuscripts coming from those areas. Both doctrines nonetheless are represented by a couple of works in some of the locations where there was a scholar dedicated to Islamic law. The main collector of the Zabi Molla collection, for example, is Badr al-Dīn al-Ubbī, and in spite of being a Shāfiʻī, he follows the model of the traditional Islamic schools, where they used to compare the shāfiʻī fiqh texts with other produced by Ḥanafī or Mālikī scholars. Some other Mālikī references have appeared in sites were the scholars are affiliated to the Tijānī Sufi order, and this has to do with the fact that Aḥmad al-Tijānī, founder of the ṭarīqa, was a Mālikī himself.

Concluding remarks

The material found in the corpus presents a scenario in which Islamic law has kept on being cultivated, and it is considered as an important subject, even if the country has been ruled by non-Muslims. Islamic law has been taught and, moreover, it has been applied. The current system of sharīʻa courts was established at the beginning of the twentieth century by the king Menelik II, and the Italians (who arrived in Ethiopia around 1930), gave support to the Islamic institutions. After the Italians were defeated, however, Haile Selassie restricted sharīʻa courts’ jurisdiction to family law between Muslims who consented to the courts’ jurisdiction, and it continued working in the same way until present day, even during the times of socialist government (from 1974 to 1991)11. In the database there is a codex containing some judgments of the Islamic court of Harar, another codex that includes notes on court

11 Michael Kebede, “Ethiopia’s Sharia Courts” (28/10/2015), Journal of the Oxford Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, https://joxcsls.com/2015/10/28/the-fieldwork-wire/ 7 cases preserved in Limmu Ghannat in the Oromia, and a third similar manuscript in Aggaaro, also placed in the Oromo regional state.

What is still to be seen is if this Islamic legal system has continuity in the future and the way in which it will face challenges such as the spread of salafism in the region.