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Islam, Christianity, Judaism, and Ethiopia: the Messages of Religions

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Islam, Christianity, Judaism, and Ethiopia: the Messages of Religions האוניברסיטה העברית בירושלים המרכז לחקר האסלאם ע“ש נחמיה לבציון The Nehemia Levtzion Center for Islamic Studies The Hebrew University of Jerusalem Islam, Christianity, Judaism, and Ethiopia: The Messages of Religions Haggai Erlich The Fifth Annual Levtzion Lecture Jerusalem 2013 Islam, Christianity, Judaism, and Ethiopia: The Messages of Religions Haggai Erlich Tel Aviv University The Nehemia Levtzion Center for Islamic Studies The Institute for Asian and African Studies The Hebrew University of Jerusalem 2013 Copyright © Haggai Erlich 2013 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the Levtzion Center and the author The Fifth Annual Levtzion Lecture was delivered at the Hebrew University, 30 April 2009 Abstract This paper provides a succinct overview of the relationships between Ethiopia – a land in which Christianity first encountered Islam, and where Judaism was already present – and the Middle East, the cradle of these religions. The paper focuses on the dialectic between historic political and strategic needs, interests and concrete options on one hand, and the reservoir of abstract notions bequeathed by these ancient religions, on the other. The main thesis is that Islam, Christianity and Judaism, far from providing monolithic messages, harbored a wide range of prescriptions for moderates and fanatics alike. Analyzing the multi- facetted legacies by which Ethiopians and their Middle Eastern neighbors conceptualized each other, the paper discusses several modern political developments and demonstrates how they were inspired by these religious interpretations and proclivities. Haggai Erlich, a professor emeritus of the Department of Middle Eastern and African History at Tel-Aviv University, earned a B.A. from that department, an M.A. from the Hebrew University (1969), and a Ph.D. from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), in London (1973). His areas of research include the history of Ethiopia, the Horn of Africa, and the Nile countries; relationships between the Horn of Africa and the Middle East; Egypt and the modern Middle East; and the role of universities and university students in twentieth-century Arab societies. His most recent publications are: Ethiopia and Saudi Arabia – Christianity, Islam, and Politics Entwined (Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2007); Ethiopia – History of a Siege Culture (Hebrew; Tel Aviv: Ministry of Defense Press, 2008); Islam and Christianity in the Horn of Africa: Somalia, Ethiopia, Sudan (Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2010); Generations of Rage: Students and University in the Middle East (Hebrew; Tel Aviv: The Open University, 2012); Alliance and Alienation – Ethiopia and Israel During Haile Selassie’s Time (Hebrew; Tel Aviv: The Moshe Dayan Center, 2013). 1 Islam, Christianity, Judaism, and Ethiopia: The Messages of Religions Haggai Erlich Introduction Nehemia Levtzion dedicated his scholarly work to both the Middle East and Africa, and especially to the role of Islam in shaping their histories. Though Ethiopia has an image of uniqueness and isolation, of being "a Christian island encircled by Islam," she has remained throughout history connected closely to these two worlds around her. Ethiopia symbolized Africa’s pride and with the establishment of the Organization of African Union in 1963, became the continent’s modern capital. Major aspects of her culture have been also been connected, from her very ancient origins, to the Middle East. Her relations with most "others," with Islamic and European entities, have developed along the Nile River and across the 1 Red Sea.0F I shall just briefly mention some concrete cases in point. A long history of mutual dependency with Egypt: Ethiopia the source of the Blue Nile (the supplier of four fifths of the waters reaching Egypt); Egypt the source of Christian patriarchal authority. This was a complicated story, which culminated during the days of the Mamluks and the Solomonic dynasties, as well as in the Ethiopo-Egyptian confrontations of 1875- 1884. Another case was the conflict with the Sudan during the period of the Mahdiyya (1884-1898), which ended disastrously for both sides (especially as a result of war in 1889). Integrated with these histories was also a long multi-dimensional dialogue with the Ottomans, revolving around control of the Red Sea as well as around the ownership and management of the Ethiopian Christian institutions in Jerusalem. 2 The Ottomans’ involvement in Ethiopia’s history culminated with their backing of a local African Islamic conquest of Ethiopia, during 1529- 1543, known as the Ahmad Gragn War, and soon after an effort to establish a province in what is today the Eritrean coast. Closer to our days, Mussolini’s 1936-1941 conquest of Ethiopia was conducted as if it were also in the name of Islam, and had far reaching consequences for both Ethiopian and Arab nationalisms. Post-WWII examples are the challenge of modern Nasserism in the 1950s and 1960s, which aimed to turn local Muslims in the Horn of Africa into revolutionary Arabs; the struggle over Eritrea lasting from the mid-1950s and ending with the independence of Eritrea in 1991; the relentless Somali national and Islamic effort to regain the Ogaden area from Ethiopia began in 1960 and culminated in a war in 1977-1978, and then in an Ethiopian invasion and occupation of Mogadishu during 2006-2008, etc. Not only confrontations marked the relations of Ethiopia with the Middle East, but also fruitful intra-regional cultural dialogues. Islam came to Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa directly from Arabia, and from the very dawn of Islam. Christianity had come to Ethiopia in the fourth century, first from Syria and then was further institutionalized through the Coptic Church of Egypt. Ethiopia’s Eastern Christianity has remained intensively inspired by the Hebrew Bible and the concept of ancient Israel. Ethiopia’s Christianity remained anchored in Jerusalem, while Judaism came to Ethiopia even before Islam and Christianity. Ethiopia’s main languages – Ge‘ez, Amharic and Tigrinya – are Semitic, and they developed through the uninterrupted connection with Arabia and the core countries of the Middle East. The fundamentals of Ethiopia’s political, religious, artistic, and general culture stemmed directly from her close connection to the Judaic, Christian and Islamic Middle East. Moreover, Ethiopia’s modern relations with the Islamic and the Arab worlds also revolved around the Arab-Israeli conflict. Between the late 1950s and 1973, Haile Selassie’s Ethiopia was practically allied with Israel. The Jewish state, working to find allies and 3 friends in what was defined as the "periphery" of the Middle East and the Arab world, invested in Ethiopia’s development more than in any other country. The Ethiopians, for their part, trusted the Israelis and asked them to help and guide in nearly everything. These special relations ended due to Arab pressure on Ethiopia which proved more effective around the 1973 war in the Middle East. Emperor Haile Selassie’s expelling of the Israelis had quite disastrous ramifications for his regime and was one of the causes of its demise in 1974. Right now, the Ethiopian-Middle Eastern connection is seemingly approaching a very serious moment of truth. In 2007, Ethiopia began planning a dam on the Blue Nile, which is approaching completion in 2013. After millennia of anxieties, suspicions, and mutual threats, a new concrete reality along the river is in the making. Ethiopia is about to be in control of Egypt’s very existence. With good mutual trust, both sides are to gain more waters and more electricity. With mistrust – God forbid – the whole region may suffer from a new chain of hostilities. The issue is too complicated to be analyzed seriously here. However, it is certain that legacies of the past are sure to have their say on the shaping of the future of all involved. History has many facets and each observer is inclined to emphasize one aspect or another. No historian is capable of including and presenting the full complexity, especially when it comes to relations between different peoples with vastly different characteristics. I tend to understand developments also as the product of dialectics between needs, interests, and concrete options on one hand, and the reservoir of abstract notions bequeathed by the historical past on the other. For the last twenty-five years, I have explored Ethiopian relations with Islamic peoples, Middle Eastern countries, the Nile Valley, and the Horn of Africa. Each time, my research has reaffirmed that the everyday political and strategic act was and remains part of an active dialogue between the fundamental concepts of Muslims and Christians. I have also come to appreciate the fact that these concepts and images are hardly monolithic. Historically, Muslims have regarded the Christians of Ethiopia in both positive and negative lights and the same holds true for Ethiopian Christian views of Muslims. Just as the concrete reality has always 4 created a variety of alternatives and courses of action, the world of fundamental religious and historical abstractions is abundant with various legacies from which to choose. I have just completed a new study: Alliance and Alienation – Ethiopia and Israel in the Days of Haile Selassie (Tel-Aviv, 2013), and so I can safely state that the same is true of Christians and Jews. Relations between Israel and Ethiopia are difficult to grasp in the absence of familiarity with some foundational Jewish and Christian notions, their nuances and their complexities. Furthermore, since the histories of Israel and Ethiopia are inextricably linked to relations between the Christian Ethiopian state and Middle Eastern Islamic and Arab states, it is instructive to summarize the relevant array of religious legacies and conceptual dichotomies that were always directly in the background of actual developments.
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