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113-466: Habesha peoples ( Ge'ez : ሐበሠተ ; Amharic : ሐበሻ ; Tigrinya : ሓበሻ ; commonly used exonym: Abyssinians ) is an ethnic or pan-ethnic identifier that has been historically employed to refer to Semitic-speaking and predominantly Oriental Orthodox Christian peoples found in the highlands of Ethiopia and Eritrea between Asmara and Addis Ababa (i.e. the modern-day Amhara , Tigrayan , Tigrinya peoples) and this usage remains common today. The term

226-743: A Semitic -speaking ethnic group inhabiting Ethiopia . They inhabit the Gurage Zone and East Gurage Zone , a fertile, semi-mountainous region in Central Ethiopia Regional State , about 125 kilometers southwest of Addis Ababa , bordering the Awash River in the north, the Gibe River , a tributary of the Omo River , to the southwest, and Hora-Dambal in the east. According to the 2007 Ethiopian national census

339-607: A patron saint . Ethiopia has often been mentioned in the Bible . A well-known example of this is the story of the Ethiopian eunuch as written in Acts (8: 27): "Then the angel of the Lord said to Philip, Start out and go south to the road that leads down from Jerusalem to Gaza. So he set out and was on his way when he caught sight of an Ethiopian. This man was a eunuch, a high official of

452-402: A Proto-Semitic voiceless lateral fricative [ɬ] . Like Arabic, Geʽez merged Proto-Semitic š and s in ሰ (also called se-isat : the se letter used for spelling the word isāt "fire"). Apart from this, Geʽez phonology is comparably conservative; the only other Proto-Semitic phonological contrasts lost may be the interdental fricatives and ghayn . There is no evidence within

565-655: A common ancestor of modern Ethio-Semitic languages but became a separate language early on from another hypothetical unattested common language. Historically, /ɨ/ has a basic correspondence with Proto-Semitic short *i and *u , /æ ~ ɐ/ with short *a , the vowels /i, u, a/ with Proto-Semitic long *ī, *ū, *ā respectively, and /e, o/ with the Proto-Semitic diphthongs *ay and *aw . In Geʽez there still exist many alternations between /o/ and /aw/ , less so between /e/ and /aj/ , e.g. ተሎኩ taloku ~ ተለውኩ talawku ("I followed"). In

678-723: A few decades at the time of the inscriptions. Both the indigenous languages of Southern Arabia and the Amharic and Tigrinya languages of Ethiopia belong to the large branch of South Semitic languages which in turn is part of the Afro-Asiatic Language Family . Even though the Ethiosemitic languages are classified under the South Semitic languages branch with a Cushitic language substratum. Munro-May and related scholars believe that Sabaean influence

791-440: A first language by 39.93%, 35.04% Silt'e , 10.06% spoke Soddo Gurage , 3.93% spoke Amharic , 2.16% spoke Libido , and 1.93% spoke Kebena ; the remaining 6.95% spoke all other primary languages reported. The majority of the inhabitants were reported as Muslim , with 29.98% of the population reporting that belief, while 51.97% practised Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity , 15.9% were Protestants , and 1.95% Catholic . According to

904-539: A heavier emphasis on Old Testament teachings than one might find in the Roman Catholic or Protestant churches, and its followers adhere to certain practices that one finds in Orthodox or Conservative Judaism . Ethiopian Christians, like some other Eastern Christians , traditionally follow dietary rules that are similar to Jewish Kashrut , specifically with regard to how an animal is slaughtered. Similarly, pork

1017-544: A long sleeve, knee-length shirt, and matching pants. Most shirts are made with a Mandarin, band, or Nehru collar. The suit is made of chiffon, which is a sheer silk or rayon cloth. The netela shawl or a kuta is wrapped around the suit. The Habesha empire centered in Aksum and Adwa was part of the world in which Christianity grew. The arrival of Christianity in Northern Ethiopia and Eritrea happened around

1130-423: A massive stem that grows underground and is involved in every aspect of Gurage life. It has a place in everyday interactions among community members as well as specific roles in rituals. For example: the ritual uses of ensete include wrapping a corpse after death with the fronds and tying off the umbilical cord after birth with an ensete fiber; the practical uses include wrapping goods and fireproofing thatch. Ensete

1243-575: A plant which yields a purple dye (probably wars , i.e. Fleminga Grahamiana ). It lay on a route which leads from Zabīd on the coastal plain to the Ḥimyarite capital Ẓafār . Abasēnoi was located by Hermann von Wissman as a region in the Jabal Ḥubaysh mountain in Ibb Governorate , perhaps related in etymology with the ḥbš Semitic root ). Other place names in Yemen contain the ḥbš root, such as

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1356-531: A possible value for ḫ ( ኀ ). These values are tentative, but based on the reconstructed Proto-Semitic consonants that they are descended from. The following table presents the consonants of the Geʽ;ez language. The reconstructed phonetic value of a phoneme is given in IPA transcription, followed by its representation in the Geʽez script and scholarly transliteration. Geʽez consonants have

1469-474: A single introduction of early Ethiosemitic from southern Arabia approximately 2,800 years ago, and that this single introduction of Ethiosemitic subsequently underwent quick diversification within Ethiopia and Eritrea. There is also evidence of ancient Southern Arabian communities in modern-day Ethiopia and Eritrea in certain localities, attested by some archaeological artifacts and ancient Sabaean inscriptions in

1582-401: A spongy flat bread, served with wat , a spicy meat sauce. Houses in rural areas are built mostly from rock and dirt, the most available resources, with structure provided by timber poles. The houses blend in easily with the natural surroundings. Many times the nearest water source is more than a kilometer away from the house. In addition, people must search for fuel for their fires throughout

1695-430: A triple opposition between voiceless, voiced, and ejective (or emphatic ) obstruents. The Proto-Semitic "emphasis" in Geʽez has been generalized to include emphatic p̣ /pʼ/ . Geʽez has phonologized labiovelars , descending from Proto-Semitic biphonemes. Geʽez ś ሠ Sawt (in Amharic, also called śe-nigūś , i.e. the se letter used for spelling the word nigūś "king") is reconstructed as descended from

1808-523: A word (regardless of gender, but often ኣን -ān if it is a male human noun), or by using an internal plural . Nouns also have two cases: the nominative, which is not marked, and the accusative, which is marked with final -a . As in other Semitic languages, there are at least two "states", absolute (unmarked) and construct (marked with -a as well). As in Classical/Standard Arabic , singular and plural nouns often take

1921-430: Is kitfo (frequently spelled ketfo ). It consists of raw (or rare) beef mince marinated in mitmita ( Amharic : ሚጥሚጣ mīṭmīṭā , a very spicy chili powder similar to the berbere ) and niter kibbeh . Gored gored is very similar to kitfo , but uses cubed rather than ground beef. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church prescribes a number of fasting ( tsom Ge'ez : ጾም , ṣōm ) periods, including Wednesdays, Fridays, and

2034-455: Is ሊቅየ liqə́ya (i.e. the accusative is not * ሊቀየ *liqáya ), but with ከ -ka ("your", masculine singular) there's a distinction between nominative ሊቅከ liqə́ka and accusative ሊቀከ liqáka , and similarly with -hu ("his") between nominative ሊቁ liqú (< *liq-ə-hu ) and accusative ሊቆ liqó (< *liqa-hu ). Internal plurals follow certain patterns. Triconsonantal nouns follow one of

2147-608: Is also exchanged as part of a variety of social interactions, and used as a recompense for services rendered. Ensete is totally involved in every aspect of the daily social and ritual life of the Gurage, who, with several others tribes in Southwest Ethiopia, form what has been termed the Ensete Culture Complex area... the life of the Gurage is enmeshed with various uses of ensete, not the least of which

2260-494: Is also used in varying degrees of inclusion and exclusion of other groups. The oldest reference to Habesha was in second or third century Sabaean engravings as Ḥbśt or Ḥbštm recounting the South Arabian involvement of the nəgus ("king") GDRT of ḤBŠT. The term appears to refer to a group of peoples, rather than a specific ethnicity. Another Sabaean inscription describes an alliance between Shamir Yuhahmid of

2373-400: Is an integral part of the culture. The church buildings are built on hills. Major celebrations during the year are held around the church, where people gather from villages all around to sing, play games, and observe the unique mass of the church. It includes a procession through the church grounds and environs. Coffee is a very important ceremonial drink. The "coffee ceremony" is common to

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2486-407: Is destined for death." Different species of ensete are also eaten to alleviate illness. The Gurage regard overeating as coarse and vulgar, and regard it as poor etiquette to eat all of the ensete that a host passes around to guests. It is considered polite to leave at least some ensete bread even after a very small portion is passed around. The Gurage in rural highland areas centers their lives on

2599-401: Is known of the time period between the mid-1st millennium BCE to the beginning of Aksum's rise around the 1st century CE. It is thought to be a successor kingdom of Dʿmt , a kingdom in the early 1st millennium BC most likely centered at nearby Yeha . The Kingdom of Aksum was situated in northern Ethiopia and Eritrea, with its capital city in Northern Ethiopia. Axum remained its capital until

2712-492: Is likely possible for soldiers to implant their language in the region effectively. However the extent of Aksumite political and economic control over the interior Ethiopian Highlands, as well as that of successor dynasties dominating the Christian north, is being studied. Aside from local oral traditions linking their past to areas farther north, the Gurage countryside is home to orthodox Christian monasteries likely dating to

2825-486: Is lost when a plural noun with a consonant-final stem has a pronoun suffix attached (generally replaced by the added -i- , as in -i-hu , "his"), thereby losing the case/state distinction, but the distinction may be retained in the case of consonant-final singular nouns. Furthermore, suffix pronouns may or may not attract stress to themselves. In the following table, pronouns without a stress mark (an acute) are not stressed, and vowel-initial suffixes have also been given

2938-429: Is made from shredded injera or kitcha stir-fried with spices or wat . Another popular breakfast food is fatira. The delicacy consists of a large fried pancake made with flour, often with a layer of egg, eaten with honey. Chechebsa (or kita firfir ) resembles a pancake covered with berbere and niter kibbeh , or spices, and may be eaten with a spoon. A porridge , genfo is another common breakfast dish. It

3051-439: Is nutritional. Ensete can be prepared in a variety of ways. A normal Gurage diet consists primarily of kocho , a thick bread made from ensete, and is supplemented by cabbage, cheese, butter and grains. Meat is not consumed on a regular basis, but usually eaten when an animal is sacrificed during a ritual or ceremonial event. The Gurage pound the root of the ensete to extract the edible substance, then place it in deep pits between

3164-436: Is prohibited, though unlike Kashrut, Ethiopian cuisine does mix dairy products with meat - which in turn makes it even closer to Islamic dietary laws (see Halal ). Women are prohibited from entering the church during their menses ; they are also expected to cover their hair with a large scarf (or shash ) while in church in keeping with 1 Corinthians 11 . As with Orthodox synagogues , men and women are seated separately in

3277-527: Is the first known use of this term to describe specifically the region known today as Ethiopia (and not Kush or the entire African and Indian region outside of Egypt). There are many theories regarding the beginning of the Abyssinian civilization. One theory, which is more widely accepted today, locates its origins in the Horn region. At a later period, this culture was exposed to Judaic influence, of which

3390-418: Is the main staple food , Teff and other cash crops are grown, which include coffee and khat which used as traditional stimulants . Animal husbandry is practiced, mainly for milk supply and dung. Other foods consumed include green cabbage, cheese, butter, roasted grains, meat and others. The principal crop of the Gurage is ensete (also enset, Ensete edulis , äsät or "false banana plant"). This has

3503-669: Is used instead of bebere for a milder alicha wat or both are omitted when making vegetable stews, atkilt wat . Meat such as beef ( Amharic : ሥጋ , səga ), chicken ( Amharic : ዶሮ , doro ) or Tigrinya : ደርሆ, derho ), fish ( Amharic : ዓሣ , asa ), goat or lamb ( Amharic : በግ , beg or Tigrinya : በጊ, beggi ) is also added. Legumes such as split peas ( Amharic : ክክ , kək or Tigrinya : ኪኪ, kikki ) or lentils ( Amharic : ምስር , məsər or birsin ); or vegetables such as potatoes ( Amharic : ድንች , Dənəch ), carrots and chard ( Amharic : ቆስጣ ) are also used instead in vegan dishes. Another distinctively Habesha dish

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3616-417: Is usually served in a large bowl with a dug-out made in the middle of the genfo and filled with spiced niter kibbeh . Wat begins with a large amount of chopped red onion , which is simmered or sauteed in a pot. Once the onions have softened, niter kebbeh (or, in the case of vegan dishes, vegetable oil ) is added. Following this, berbere is added to make a spicy keiy wat or keyyih tsebhi . Turmeric

3729-849: Is written left to right using a system based on the Geʽez script . According to the 1994 census, the six largest ethnic groups reported in Gurage Zone were the Sebat Bet Gurage (45.02%), the Silt'e (34.81%), the Soddo Gurage (9.75%), the Mareqo or Libido (2.21%), the Amhara (2.16%), and the Kebena (1.82%); all other ethnic groups made up 4.21% of the population. Sebat Bet Gurage is spoken as

3842-558: The Afroasiatic family. Among these tongues is the classical Ge'ez language . The kingdom of Dʿmt wrote proto-Ge'ez in Epigraphic South Arabian as early as the 9th century BCE. Later, an independent script replaced it as early as the 5th century BCE. Ge'ez literature is considered to begin with the adoption of Christianity in Ethiopia and Eritrea, as well as the civilization of Axum in the 4th century BCE during

3955-574: The Beta Israel Jewish community. Hawulti Obelisk is an ancient pre-Aksumite Obelisk located in Matara , Eritrea. The monument dates to the early Aksumite period and bears an example of the ancient Geʽez script. In one study, Tigre was found to have a 71% lexical similarity to Ge'ez, while Tigrinya had a 68% lexical similarity to Geʽez, followed by Amharic at 62%. Most linguists believe that Geʽez does not constitute

4068-912: The Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria in the 1950s, although the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church has recently reforged the link. A number of unique beliefs and practices distinguish Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity from other Christian groups; for example, the Ark of the Covenant is very important. Every Ethiopian church has a replica of the Ark. Also, the Ethiopian Church has a larger biblical canon than other churches. Church services are conducted in Ge´ez,

4181-770: The Emperor . However, in Western Gurageland which was inhabited by the Sebat Bet, Kebena and Wolene fiercely resisted Menelik. They were led by Imam Omar Baqsa of Chaha and Hassan Enjamo of Kebena who declared jihad against the Shewans. In October 1876 Menilek himself campaigned in Chaha Gurage. He was defeated and a large number of Shewan captives were sold to Wällamo by the victors. Only about one-third of Menilek's men returned safely. Among those killed in

4294-619: The Emperor Haile Selassie rewarded his achievement in creating his plantation by calling him to Addis Ababa and decorating him." The Gurage people are highly entrepreneurial people with a culture of social mobility that celebrates hard work. As a result, the Gurage are represented in all business sectors in Ethiopia, ranging from shoe shiners to owners of big businesses. Commonly, the Addis Ababa Merkato attributed to them. They are model of good work culture in

4407-653: The Gulf of Aden , south to the Omo River , and west to the Nubian Kingdom of Meroë . The South Arabian kingdom of the Himyarites and also a portion of western Saudi Arabia was also under the power of Aksum. Their descendants include the present-day ethnic groups known as the Amhara, Tigrayans and Gurage peoples. After the fall of Aksum due to declining sea trade from fierce competition by Muslims and changing climate,

4520-522: The Himyarite Kingdom and King `DBH of ḤBŠT in the first quarter of the third century. However, South Arabian expert Eduard Glaser claimed that the Egyptian hieroglyphic ḫbstjw , used in reference to "a foreign people from the incense-producing regions" (i.e. Land of Punt ) by Pharaoh Hatshepsut in 1450 BC, was the first usage of the term or somehow connected. Francis Breyer also believes

4633-611: The Oromo people , their land was appropriated by the Abyssinian colonizers coupled with hefty taxation which led to a revolt in the 1960s. Some scholars consider the Amhara to have been Ethiopia's ruling elite for centuries, represented by the Solomonic line of Emperors ending in Haile Selassie I . Marcos Lemma and other scholars dispute the accuracy of such a statement, arguing that other ethnic groups have always been active in

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4746-495: The Semitic family of the Afroasiatic language family . They have three subgroups: Northern, Eastern and Western. Gurage languages include Sebat Bet , consisting of the dialects Inor , Ezha , Muher , Geta , Gumer , Endegegn , Chaha , and also Soddo , Masqan , Zay . Like other Ethiopian Semitic languages , the Gurage languages are heavily influenced by the surrounding non-Semitic Afroasiatic Cushitic languages . Gurage

4859-881: The Tigre , the Gurage , the Argobba and the Harari people. In antiquity Ge'ez -speaking people inhabited the Aksumite Empire ; the ancient Semitic-speaking Gafat inhabited Eastern Damot ( East Welega ) and Western Shewa ; the Galila clan of Aymallal ( Soddo ) inhabited Southwest Shewa ; the Zay inhabited East Shewa ; the Harla who are the ancestors of Harari lived in Somalia ; and

4972-682: The burning bush , is commanded to remove his shoes while standing on holy ground). Furthermore, both the Sabbath (Saturday), and the Lord's Day (Sunday) are observed as holy, although more emphasis, because of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ , is laid upon the Holy Sunday. Islam in Ethiopia and Eritrea dates to 615. During that year, a group of Muslims were counseled by Muhammad to escape persecution in Mecca and migrate to Abyssinia , which

5085-534: The 1994 Ethiopian census, self-identifying Gurage comprise about 2.7% of Ethiopia's population, or about 1.4 million people. The populations of Gurage people are not exactly known because approximately half of the population live outside of the Gurage zone. The Gurage, the writer Nega Mezlekia notes, "have earned a reputation as skilled traders". One example of an enterprising Gurage is Tekke, who Nathaniel T. Kenney described as "an Ethiopian Horatio Alger, Jr. ": "He began his career selling old bottles and tin cans;

5198-525: The 20th century, elites of the Solomonic dynasty employed the conversion of various ethnic groups to Orthodox Tewahedo Christianity and the imposition of the Amharic language to spread a common Habesha national identity. Within Ethiopian and Eritrean diasporic populations, some second generation immigrants have adopted the term "Habesha" in a broader sense as a supra-national ethnic identifier inclusive of all Eritreans and Ethiopians. For those who employ

5311-464: The 4th century. The Aksumites, in fact, had been converted to Christianity hundreds of years before most of Europe. Many of their churches were cut into cliffs or from single blocks of stone, as they were in Turkey and in parts of Greece , where Christianity had existed from its earliest years. The church is a central feature of communities and of each family's daily life. Each community has a church with

5424-830: The 7th century. The kingdom was favorably located near the Blue Nile basin and the Afar depression. The former is rich in gold and the latter in salt: both materials having a highly important use to the Aksumites. Aksum was accessible to the port of Adulis , Eritrea on the coast of the Red Sea. The kingdom traded with Egypt, India, Arabia and the Byzantine Empire . Aksum's "fertile" and "well-watered" location produced enough food for its population. Wild animals included elephants and rhinoceros. From its capital, Aksum commanded

5537-453: The Dahlak islands through the port of Adulis and destroyed it, which was the economic backbone for the prosperous Aksumite Kingdom. Fearing of what recently occurred, Axum shifted its capital near Agew In the middle of the sixteenth century Adal Sultanate armies led by Harar leader Ahmed Ibrahim invaded Habesha lands in what is known as the "Conquest of Habasha" . Following Adal invasions,

5650-633: The Egyptian demonym to be the source of the Semitic term. The first attestation of late Latin Abissensis is from the fifth century CE. The 6th-century author Stephanus of Byzantium later used the term "Αβασηνοί" (i.e. Abasēnoi) to refer to "an Arabian people living next to the Sabaeans together with the Ḥaḍramites ." The region of the Abasēnoi produce[d] myrrh, incense and cotton and they cultivate[d]

5763-546: The Ethiopian church, with men on the left and women on the right (when facing the altar). However, women covering their heads and separation of the sexes in the Church building officially is common to many Oriental Orthodox , Eastern Orthodox and Catholic Christians and not unique to Judaism. Ethiopian Orthodox worshippers remove their shoes when entering a church, in accordance with Exodus 3:5 (in which Moses , while viewing

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5876-524: The Ethiopians and Eritreans. Beans are roasted on the spot, ground, and brewed, served thick and rich in tiny ceramic cups with no handles. This amount of coffee can be finished in one gulp if drunk cold; but, traditionally it is drunk very slowly as conversation takes place. When the beans are roasted to smoking, they are passed around the table, where the smoke becomes a blessing on the diners. The traditional food served at these meals consists of injera ,

5989-528: The Ge'ez language and Ge'ez script . Linguists have revealed, however, that although its script developed from Epigraphic South Arabian (whose oldest inscriptions are found in Yemen), Ge'ez is descended from a different branch of Southern Semitic, Ethiosemitic or Ethiopic sub-branch . South Arabian inscriptions does not mention any migration to the west coast of the Red Sea, nor of a tribe called "Habashat." All uses of

6102-622: The Great. The decline in the prestige of the dynasty led to the semi-anarchic era of Zemene Mesafint ("Era of the Princes"), in which rival warlords fought for power and the Yejju Oromo enderases ( Amharic : እንደራሴ , "regents") had effective control. The emperors were considered to be figureheads. Until a young man named Kassa Haile Giorgis also known as Emperor Tewodros brought end to Zemene Mesafint by defeating all his rivals and took

6215-417: The Gurage also call injera). The Gurage raise zebu . These cattle are primarily kept for their butter, and a typical Gurage household has a large quantity of spiced butter aging in clay pots hung from the walls of their huts. Butter is believed to be medicinal, and the Gurage often take it internally or use it a lotion or poultice. A Gurage proverb states that "A sickness that has the upper hand over butter

6328-444: The Gurage can also be found in substantial numbers in Addis Ababa , Oromia Region , Harari Region and Dire Dawa . According to the historian Paul B. Henze , the Gurage origin is explained by traditions of a military expedition to the south during the last years of the Kingdom of Aksum , which left military colonies that eventually became isolated from both northern Ethiopia and each other. However other historians have raised

6441-402: The Habashat were a tribe from modern-day Yemen that migrated to Ethiopia and Eritrea. However, the Sabaic inscriptions only use the term ḥbšt to the refer to the Kingdom of Aksum and its inhabitants, especially during the 3rd century, when the ḥbšt (Aksumites) were often at war with the Sabaeans and Himyraites. Modern Western European languages, including English, appear to borrow this term from

6554-418: The Jabal Ḥabaši, whose residents are still called al-Aḥbuš (pl. of Ḥabaš ). The location of the Abasēnoi in Yemen may perhaps be explained by remnant Aksumite populations from the 520s conquest by King Kaleb . King Ezana's claims to Sahlen (Saba) and Dhu-Raydan (Himyar) during a time when such control was unlikely may indicate an Aksumite presence or coastal foothold. Traditional scholarship has assumed that

6667-412: The Kandake (Candace) Queen of Ethiopia in charge of all her treasure." The passage continues by describing how Philip helped the Ethiopian understand one passage of Isaiah that the Ethiopian was reading. After the Ethiopian received an explanation of the passage, he requested that Philip baptize him, which Philip obliged. Queen Gersamot Hendeke VII (very similar to Kandake) was the Queen of Ethiopia from

6780-577: The Middle Ages (Debre Tsion Maryam, Muher Iyesus, Abuna Gebre Menfes Kiddus, and others), before the conquests of Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi and subsequent Oromo migrations into the central Highlands. In the late 1870s Menelik led a campaign to incorporate the lands of the Gurage people into Shewa . In 1878, the Soddo Gurage living in Northern and Eastern Gurageland peacefully submitted to Menelik and their lands were left untouched by his armies, likely due to their shared Ethiopian Orthodox faith and prior submission to Negus Sahle Selassie , grandfather of

6893-616: The ancient language of Ethiopia and Eritrea. Ge´ez is no longer a living language, its use now confined to liturgical contexts, occupying a similar place in Eritrean and Ethiopian church life to Latin in the Roman Catholic Church . Other Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox practices include such things as fasting, prescribed prayers, and devotion to saints and angels. A child is never left alone until baptism and cleansing rituals are performed. Boys are baptized forty days after birth, whereas girls are baptized eighty days after birth. Defrocked priests and deacons commonly function as diviners, who are

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7006-522: The base በ /b/ in the script. Noun phrases have the following overall order: በዛ ba-zā in-this: F ሀገር hagar city በዛ ሀገር ba-zā hagar in-this:F city in this city ንጉሥ nəguś king ክቡር kəbur glorious ንጉሥ ክቡር nəguś kəbur king glorious a/the glorious king Adjectives and determiners agree with the noun in gender and number: ዛቲ zāti this: FEM ንግሥት Gurage people The Gurage ( / ɡ ʊəˈr ɑː ɡ eɪ / , Gurage : ጉራጌ, ቤተ-ጉራጌ) are

7119-420: The battle was Aläqa Zänäb, author of the first chronicle of Emperor Tewodros. The muslim Gurages fought for over a decade to keep the Shewans from the Muslim areas of Gurage until 1888 when Gobana Dacche faced them in the Battle of Jebdu Meda where the army was defeated by the Shewans, and with that all of Gurageland was subdued. The Gurage languages are a subgroup of the Ethiopian Semitic languages within

7232-419: The best-known examples are the Qemant and Ethiopian Jews (or Beta Israel ) ethnic groups, but Judaic customs, terminology, and beliefs can be found amongst the dominant culture of the Amhara and Tigrinya. Some scholars have claimed that the Indian alphabets had been used to create the vowel system of the Ge'ez abugida , this claim has not yet been effectively proven. Abyssinian civilization has its roots in

7345-417: The breasts up, with tiny glass beads of various colours strung so as to make a band two fingers in breadth around their necks. The habesha kemis is the traditional attire of Habesha women. The ankle length dress is usually worn by Ethiopian and Eritrean women at formal events. It is made of chiffon , and typically comes in white, grey or beige shades. Many women also wrap a shawl called a netela around

7458-503: The consonant transliterated ḫ . Gragg notes that it corresponds in etymology to velar or uvular fricatives in other Semitic languages, but it is pronounced exactly the same as ḥ in the traditional pronunciation. Though the use of a different letter shows that it must originally have had some other pronunciation, what that pronunciation was is not certain. The chart below lists /ɬ/ and /t͡ɬʼ/ as possible values for ś ( ሠ ) and ḍ ( ፀ ) respectively. It also lists /χ/ as

7571-574: The country's politics. This confusion may largely stem from the mislabeling of all Amharic-speakers as "Amhara", and the fact that many people from other ethnic groups have adopted Amharic names . Another is the claim that most Ethiopians can trace their ancestry to multiple ethnic groups, including the last self-proclaimed emperor Haile Selassie I and his Empress Itege Menen Asfaw of Ambassel . The Habesha developed an agricultural society, which most continue, including raising of camels , donkeys , and sheep . They plow using oxen. The Orthodox Church

7684-535: The country. Islam in Ethiopia is the predominant religion in the regions of Somali , Afar , Berta , and the section of Oromia east of the Great Rift Valley , as well as in Jimma . Islam in Eritrea is the predominant religion of all the ethnic groups except for the Tigrinya people, the Bilen people , and the Kunama people . The most important Islamic religious practices, such as the daily ritual prayers ( ṣalāt ) and fasting ( Arabic : صوم ṣawm , Ethiopic ጾም , ṣom – used by local Christians as well) during

7797-417: The distant past. Braukhamper also states King Amda Seyon ordered Eritrean troops to be sent to mountainous regions in Gurage (named Gerege), which eventually became a permanent settlement. In addition to Amda Seyon's military settlement there, the permanence of Abyssinian presence in Gurage is documented during his descendants Zara Yaqob and Dawit II 's reigns. Thus, historically, Gurage peoples may be

7910-477: The early 1st millennium BC as the main factor of state formation on the highlands. Rock inscriptions in Qohayto (Akkala Guzay, Eritrea) document the presence of individuals or small groups from Arabia on the highlands at this time." It was first suggested by German orientalist Hiob Ludolf and revived by early 20th-century Italian scholar Conti Rossini . According to this theory, Sabaeans brought with them South Arabian letters and language, which gradually evolved into

8023-447: The entire Lenten season; so Habesha cuisine contains many dishes that are vegan . According to Leo Africanus , a greater number of the Abyssinians historically wore sheep hides , with the more honourable wearing the hides of lions , tigers and ounces . Duarte Barbosa also attests that their clothes being of hides as the country was in wanting of clothes. Pedro Paez , a Spanish Jesuit who resided in Ethiopia, described that

8136-442: The following patterns. Quadriconsonantal and some triconsonantal nouns follow the following pattern. Triconsonantal nouns that take this pattern must have at least one "long" vowel (namely /i e o u/ ). In the independent pronouns, gender is not distinguished in the 1st person, and case is only distinguished in the 3rd person singular. Suffix pronouns attach at the end of a noun, preposition or verb. The accusative/construct -a

8249-409: The form of wat (also w'et or wot ), a thick stew, served atop injera , a large sourdough flatbread , which is about 50 centimeters (20 inches) in diameter and made out of fermented teff flour. People of Ethiopia and Eritrea eat exclusively with their right hands, using pieces of injera to pick up bites of entrées and side dishes. Fit-fit , or fir-fir, is a common breakfast dish. It

8362-422: The formal dress. The netela or netsela is a handmade cloth many Ethiopian women use to cover their head and shoulders when they wear clothing made out of chiffon , especially when attending church. It is made up of two layers of fabric, unlike gabi , which is made out of four. Kuta is the male version. An Ethiopian or Eritrean suit is the traditional formal wear of Habesha men. It consists of

8475-472: The graphemes ś (Geʽez ሠ ) and ḍ (Geʽez ፀ ) have merged with ሰ and ጸ respectively in the phonological system represented by the traditional pronunciation—and indeed in all modern Ethiopian Semitic. ... There is, however, no evidence either in the tradition or in Ethiopian Semitic [for] what value these consonants may have had in Geʽez." A similar problem is found for

8588-529: The holy month of Ramadan , are observed both in urban centers as well as in rural areas, among both settled peoples and nomads. Numerous Ethiopian Muslims perform the pilgrimage to Mecca every year. Ge%27ez language Today, Geʽez is used as the main liturgical language of the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church , the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church , Ethiopian Catholic Church , Eritrean Catholic Church , and

8701-476: The issue of the complexity of Gurage peoples if viewed as a singular group, for example Ulrich Braukhamper states that the Gurage East people may have been an extension of the ancient Harla people. Indeed, there is evidence that Harla architecture may have influenced old buildings (pre-16th c.) found near Harar (eastern Ethiopia), and the Gurage East group often cite kinship with Harari (Hararghe) peoples in

8814-548: The latter of which is sometimes marked with the suffix ት -t , e.g. እኅት ʼəxt ("sister"). These are less strongly distinguished than in other Semitic languages, as many nouns not denoting humans can be used in either gender: in translated Christian texts there is even a tendency for nouns to follow the gender of the noun with a corresponding meaning in Greek. There are two numbers, singular and plural. The plural can be constructed either by suffixing ኣት -āt to

8927-741: The longstanding presumption that Sabaean migrants had played a direct role in Ethiopian civilization. Scholars have determined that the ancient Semitic language of Ethiopia was not derived from the Sabaean language . Recent linguistic studies as to the origin of the Ethiosemitic languages seem to support the DNA findings of immigration from the Arabian Peninsula, with a recent study using Bayesian computational phylogenetic techniques finding that contemporary Ethiosemitic languages of Africa reflect

9040-550: The main healers. Spirit possession is common, affecting primarily women. Women are also the normal spirit mediums. A debtera is an itinerant lay priest figure trained by the Church as a scribe , cantor , and often as a folk healer, who may also function in roles comparable to a deacon or exorcist . Folklore and legends ascribe the role of magician to the debtera as well. A small number of Abyssinian Christians adhere to various forms of Pentecostalism or Anabaptism , collectively known as P'ent'ay . The Ethiopian church places

9153-681: The majority of the Muslim world , hence the beliefs and practices of the Muslims of Ethiopia and Eritrea are basically the same: embodied in the Qur'an and the Sunnah . There are also Sufi orders present in Ethiopia. According to the 1994 census of Ethiopia (with similar numbers for the 1984 census), about a third of its population is adherent of Islam and members of the Muslim community can be found throughout

9266-405: The modern Ethiopian state were formed by a migration across the Red Sea of Sabaean -speaking South Arabian tribes, including one called the " Habashat" , who intermarried with the local non-Semitic-speaking peoples, in around 1,000 BC. Many held to this view because "epigraphic and monumental evidence point to an indisputable South Arabian influence suggesting migration and colonization from Yemen in

9379-489: The northern Ethiopian Highlands were ancient foreigners from South Arabia that displaced the original peoples of the Horn has been disputed by Ethiopian scholars specializing in Ethiopian Studies such as Messay Kebede and Daniel E. Alemu who generally disagree with this theory arguing that the migration was one of reciprocal exchange, if it even occurred at all. In the 21st century, scholars have largely discounted

9492-520: The northern Habesha. Predominately Muslim ethnic groups in the Eritrean Highlands such as the Tigre have historically opposed the name Habesha; Muslim Tigrinya-speakers are usually referred to as Jeberti people . Another term for Muslims from the Horn of Africa was '"Al-Zaylai"' , this applied to even the empress Eleni of Ethiopia due to her ties to the state of Hadiya . At the turn of

9605-494: The old South Arabian alphabet . Joseph W. Michels noted based on his archeological surveying Aksumite sites that "there is abundant evidence of specific Sabean traits such as inscription style, religious ideology and symbolism, art style and architectural techniques." However, Stuart Munro-Hay points to the existence of an older D'MT kingdom, prior to any Sabaean migration c. 4th or 5th century BC, as well as evidence that Sabaean immigrants had resided in Ethiopia for little more than

9718-436: The other ancient Argobba and Harari inhabited Shewa , Ifat , and Adal . Throughout history, various European travelers such as Jeronimo Lobo , James Bruce and Mansfield Parkyns visited Abyssinia . Their written accounts about their experiences include observations and descriptions of the Abyssinian customs and manners. Habesha cuisine characteristically consists of vegetable and often very spicy meat dishes, usually in

9831-410: The peasant women wore skins like their husbands and, in some areas, some woollen cloths five or six cubits long and three wide that they call " mahâc ", and they could quite fairly call it haircloth because it is much rougher than what Capuchin monks wear, as in Ethiopia they do not know how to make cloth, and the wool is not suitable for it as it is very coarse. They all go barefoot and often naked from

9944-475: The periphery. According to Gerard Prunier, one very restrictive use of the term today by some Tigrayans refers exclusively to speakers of Tigrinya ; however, Tigrayan oral traditions and linguistic evidence bear witness to ancient and constant relations with Amharas. Some Gurage societies, such as Orthodox Christian communities where Soddo is spoken, identify as Habesha and have a strong sense of Ethiopian national identity, due in part to their ancient ties with

10057-477: The post-classical form Abissini in the mid-sixteenth century. (English Abyssin is attested from 1576, and Abissinia and Abyssinia from the 1620s.) Historically, the term "Habesha" represented northern Ethiopian Highlands Semitic speaking Orthodox Christians , while the Cushitic-speaking peoples such as Oromo and Agaw , as well as Semitic-speaking Muslims/ Ethiopian Jews , were considered

10170-469: The power base of the kingdom migrated south and shifted its capital to Kubar (near Agew). They moved southwards because, even though the Axumite Kingdom welcomed and protected the companions of Muhammad to Ethiopia, who came as refugees to escape the persecution of the ruling families of Mecca and earned the friendship and respect of Muhammad. Their friendship deteriorated when South-Arabians invaded

10283-481: The pre-Aksumite culture. An early kingdom to arise was that of D'mt in the 8th century BC. The Kingdom of Aksum , one of the powerful civilizations of the ancient world, was based there from about 150 BC to the mid of 12th century AD. Spreading far beyond the city of Aksum, it molded one of the earliest cultures of Ethiopia and Eritrea. Architectural remains include finely carved stelae , extensive palaces, and ancient places of worship that are still being used. Around

10396-715: The pre-Aksumites had begun trading along the Red Sea. They mainly traded with Egypt. Earlier trade expeditions were taken by foot along the Nile Valley. The ancient Egyptians' main objective in the Red Sea trade was to acquire myrrh . This was a commodity that the Horn region, which the ancient Egyptians referred to as the Land of Punt , had in abundance. Much of the incense is produced in Somalia to this day. The Kingdom of Aksum may have been founded as early as 300 BCE. Very little

10509-449: The product of a complex mixture of Abyssinian and Harla groups which migrated and settled in that region for different reasons and at various times. Another stated that the Gurage were originated from a place called Gura, Eritrea . This believed that linguistically by citing a southward Semitic migration during the late classical and medieval period; however more historical research needed. A single military expedition explanation

10622-514: The reign of Ezana. While Ge'ez today is extinct and only used for liturgical purposes in the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church and Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church . Ge'ez language is ancestral to Tigre and Tigrinya languages. Some historians in the past have labelled the Ethiopian Semitic languages as the Abyssinian languages . They are mainly spoken by the Amhara , the Tigrayans ,

10735-438: The rows of ensete plants in the field. It ferments in the pit, which makes it more palatable. It can be stored for up to several years in this fashion, and the Gurage typically retain large surpluses of ensete as a protection against famine. In addition to ensete, cash crops are maintained (notably coffee and khat ) and livestock is raised (mainly for milk and fertilizer). Some Gurage also plant teff and eat injera (which

10848-402: The same final inflectional affixes for case and state, as number morphology is achieved via attaching a suffix to the stem and/or an internal change in the stem. There is some morphological interaction between consonant-final nouns and a pronoun suffix (see the table of suffix pronouns below). For example, when followed by የ -ya ("my"), in both nominative and accusative the resulting form

10961-463: The script of stress rules in the ancient period, but stress patterns exist within the liturgical tradition(s). Accounts of these patterns are, however, contradictory. One early 20th-century account may be broadly summarized as follows: As one example of a discrepancy, a different late 19th-century account says the masculine singular imperative is stressed on the ultima (e.g. ንግር nəgə́r , "speak!"), and that, in some patterns, words can be stressed on

11074-486: The single largest non-Arab ethnic group who were Muhammad's companions. Among these was Umm Ayman who cared for Muhammad during his infancy, a woman that he referred to as "mother". Abyssinia was thus the earliest home outside of Arabia for the dispersal of the Islamic world faith. One third (34%) of Ethiopia's population are Muslims by last census (2007). Most of Ethiopia and Eritrea's Muslims are Sunni Muslims, much like

11187-523: The southern part of the Empire was lost to Oromo and Muslim state of Hadiya thus scattered Habesha like the Gurage people were cut off from the rest of Abyssinia. In the late sixteenth century the nomadic Oromo people penetrated the Habesha plains occupying large territories during the Oromo migrations . Abyssinian warlords often competed with each other for dominance of the realm. The Amharas seemed to gain

11300-480: The surrounding area. The Habesha people have a rich heritage of music and dance, using drums and stringed instruments tuned to a pentatonic scale . Arts and crafts and secular music are performed mostly by artisans, who are regarded with suspicion. Sacred music is performed and icons are painted only by men trained in monasteries. Abyssinians speak languages belonging to the Ethiopian Semitic branch of

11413-559: The term date to the 3rd century AD and later, when they referred to the people of the Kingdom of Aksum. Edward Ullendorff has asserted that the Tigrayans and the Amhara comprise "Abyssinians proper" and a "Semitic outpost," while Donald N. Levine has argued that this view "neglects the crucial role of non-Semitic elements in Ethiopian culture." Edward Ullendorff and Carlo Conti Rossini 's theory that Ethiosemitic-language speakers of

11526-437: The term, it serves as a useful counter to more exclusionary identities such as "Amhara" or "Tigrayan". However, this usage is not uncontested: On the one hand, those who grew up in Ethiopia or Eritrea may object to the obscuring of national specificity. On the other hand, groups that were subjugated in Ethiopia or Eritrea sometimes find the term offensive. European scholars postulated that the ancient communities that evolved into

11639-454: The third-, fourth- or even fifth-to-last syllable (e.g. በረከተ bárakata ). Due to the high predictability of stress location in most words, textbooks, dictionaries and grammars generally do not mark it. Minimal pairs do exist, however, such as yənaggərā́ ("he speaks to her", with the pronoun suffix -(h)ā́ "her") vs. yənaggə́rā ("they speak", feminine plural), both written ይነግራ . Geʽez distinguishes two genders, masculine and feminine,

11752-551: The throne in 1855. The Tigrayans made only a brief return to the throne in the person of Yohannes IV in 1872, whose death in 1889 resulted in the power base shifting back to the dominant Amharic-speaking elite. His successor Menelik II an Emperor of Amhara origin seized power. Upon Menelik's occupation of the Harar Emirate and other neighboring states, a considerable number of natives were displaced and Abyssinians settled in their place. In Arsi Province , mainly inhabited by

11865-461: The time that the Aksumite empire began to decline, the burgeoning religion of Islam made its first inroads in the Abyssinian highlands. During the first Hijrah , the companions of Muhammad were received in the Aksumite kingdom. The Sultanate of Shewa , established around 896, was one of the oldest local Muslim states. It was centered in the former Shewa province in central Ethiopia. The polity

11978-473: The trade of ivory . It also dominated the trade route in the Red Sea leading to the Gulf of Aden. Its success depended on resourceful techniques, production of coins, steady migrations of Greco-Roman merchants, and ships landing at Adulis. In exchange for Aksum's goods, traders bid many kinds of cloth, jewelry, metals and steel for weapons. At its peak, Aksum controlled territories as far as southern Egypt, east to

12091-548: The transcription employed by the Encyclopaedia Aethiopica , which is widely employed in academia, the contrast here represented as a/ā is represented as ä/a. Geʽez is transliterated according to the following system (see the phoneme table below for IPA values): Because Geʽez is no longer spoken in daily life by large communities, the early pronunciation of some consonants is not completely certain. Gragg writes that "[t]he consonants corresponding to

12204-487: The upper hand with the accession of Yekuno Amlak of Ancient Bete Amhara in 1270, after defeating the Agaw lords of Lasta (in those days a non-Semitic-speaking region of Abyssinia) The Gondarian dynasty, which since the 16th century had become the centre of Royal pomp and ceremony of Abyssinia, finally lost its influence as a result of the emergence of powerful regional lords, following the murder of Iyasu I , also known as Iyasu

12317-429: The whole Ethiopia. One of the most famous Ethiopian musicians, Mohamoud Ahmed, still recalls how he started out in life shining shoes in the city before he got his break and joined the music orchestra that allowed him to capture the imagination of millions of admirers both in Ethiopia and abroad. The Gurage live a sedentary life based on agriculture, involving a complex system of crop rotation and transplanting. Ensete

12430-663: The year 42 to 52. The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church was founded in the 4th century by Syrian monks. Historically, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church and Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church have had strong ties with the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria , the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria appointing the archbishop for the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church. They gained independence from

12543-564: Was minor, limited to a few localities, and disappearing after a few decades or a century. It may have represented a trading colony (trading post) or military installations in a symbiotic or military alliance between the Sabaeans and D`MT. In the reign of King Ezana , c. early 4th century AD, the term "Ethiopia" is listed as one of the nine regions under his domain, translated in the Greek version of his inscription as Αἰθιοπία Aithiopía. This

12656-474: Was ruled by, in Muhammad's estimation, a pious Christian king ( al-najashi ). Muhammad's followers crossed the Red Sea and sought refuge in the Kingdom of Aksum, possibly settling at Negash , a place in present-day Tigray Region. Moreover, Islamic tradition states that Bilal , one of the foremost companions of Muhammad, was from Abyssinia, as were many non-Arab Companions of Muhammad ; in fact, Abyssinians were

12769-466: Was succeeded by the Sultanate of Ifat around 1285. Ifat was governed from its capital at Zeila in northern Somalia . Throughout history, populations in the Horn of Africa had been interacting through migration, trade, warfare and intermarriage. Most people in the region spoke Afroasiatic languages , with the family's Cushitic and Semitic branches predominant. As early as the 3rd millennium BCE,

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