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90-727: According to Dr. Lapiso Delebo, Hubat was one of the Islamic states that had developed in the Horn of Africa from the ninth to fourteenth centuries. In 1288 AD Sultan Wali Asma of the Ifat Sultanate invaded Hubat following collapse of the Makḥzūmī dynasty . Hubat was also invaded by Ethiopian Emperor Amda Seyon in the early 1300s. Hubat was an Ifat protectorate in the fourteenth century and an autonomous state within Adal Sultanate in

180-523: A holy language by the Rastafari religion and is widely used among its followers worldwide. Early Afro-Asiatic populations speaking proto- Semitic , proto- Cushitic and proto- Omotic languages would have diverged by the fourth or fifth millennium BC. Shortly afterwards, the proto-Cushitic and proto-Omotic groups would have settled in the Ethiopian highlands, with the proto-Semitic speakers crossing

270-524: A pidgin as early as the 4th century AD to enable communication between Aksumite soldiers speaking Semitic, Cushitic, and Omotic languages, but this hypothesis has not garnered widespread acceptance. The preservation in Old Amharic of VSO word order and gutturals typical of Semitic languages, Cushitic influences shared with other Ethio-Semitic languages (especially those of the Southern branch), and

360-587: A referendum was held in the territory to decide whether to join the Somali Republic or to remain with France. The referendum favoured continued association with France, partly due to a combined yes vote by the sizable Afar ethnic group and resident Europeans. There was also reports of widespread vote rigging , with the French expelling thousands of Somalis before the polls. The majority of those who voted no were Somalis who were strongly in favour of joining

450-553: A series of protests against the long-serving government, which were associated with the larger Arab Spring demonstrations. The unrest eventually subsided by April of the year, and Djibouti's ruling People's Rally for Progress party was re-elected to office. The Dervish existed for 25 years, from 1895 until 1920. The Turks named Hassan Emir of the Somali nation, and the Germans promised to officially recognize any territories

540-669: A European country began in 1508 with Portugal under Emperor Lebna Dengel , who had just inherited the throne from his father. This proved to be an important development, for when Abyssinia was subjected to the attacks of the Adal Sultanate General and Imam Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi (called " Gurey " or " Grañ ", both meaning "the Left-handed"), Portugal assisted the Ethiopian emperor by sending weapons and four hundred men, who helped his son Gelawdewos defeat Ahmad and re-establish his rule. This Ethiopian–Adal War

630-648: A UN-supervised referendum in Eritrea (dubbed UNOVER ) in which the Eritrean people overwhelmingly voted for independence, Eritrea declared its independence and gained international recognition in 1993. In 1998, a border dispute with Ethiopia led to the Eritrean-Ethiopian War . From 1862 until 1894, the land to the north of the Gulf of Tadjoura situated in modern-day Djibouti was called Obock and

720-460: A colony of Italy . In 1896 further Italian incursion into the horn was decisively halted by Ethiopian forces. By 1936 however, Eritrea became a province of Italian East Africa (Africa Orientale Italiana), along with Ethiopia and Italian Somaliland . By 1941, Eritrea had about 760,000 inhabitants, including 70,000 Italians. The Commonwealth armed forces, along with the Ethiopian patriotic resistance, expelled those of Italy in 1941, and took over

810-607: A national charter that functioned as a transitional constitution, was then set up. The first free and democratic election took place later in 1995, when Ethiopia's longest-serving Prime Minister Meles Zenawi was elected to office. As with other nations in the Horn region, Ethiopia maintained its historically close relations with countries in the Middle East during this period of change. Zenawi died in 2012, but his Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) party remains

900-739: A number of lakes formed by lava flows that dammed up several valleys. Among these are Lake Asale (116 m below sea level) and Lake Giuletti/Afrera (80 m below sea level), both of which possess cryptodepressions in the Danakil Depression . The Afrera contains many active volcanoes, including the Maraho, Dabbahu , Afdera and Erta Ale . In Somalia, there is not much seasonal variation in climate. Hot conditions prevail year-round along with periodic monsoon winds and irregular rainfall. Mean daily maximum temperatures range from 28 to 43 °C (82 to 109 °F), except at higher elevations along

990-715: A one-party communist state , which was called the People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia . In July 1977, the Ogaden War broke out after the Somalia government of Siad Barre sought to incorporate the predominantly Somali-inhabited Ogaden region into a Pan-Somali Greater Somalia . By September 1977, the Somali army controlled 90 percent of the Ogaden, but was later forced to withdraw after Ethiopia's Derg received assistance from

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1080-550: A region of geopolitical and strategic importance, since it is situated along the southern boundary of the Red Sea ; extending hundreds of kilometres into the Gulf of Aden , Guardafui Channel , and Indian Ocean , it also shares a maritime border with the Arabian Peninsula . This peninsula has been known by various names. Ancient Greeks and Romans referred to it as Regio Aromatica or Regio Cinnamonifora due to

1170-551: A united Somalia, as had been proposed by Mahmoud Harbi , Vice President of the Government Council. Harbi was killed in a plane crash two years later. Djibouti finally gained its independence from France in 1977. Hassan Gouled Aptidon , a Somali politician who had campaigned for a yes vote in the referendum of 1958, became the nation's first president (1977–1999). In early 2011, the Djiboutian citizenry took part in

1260-596: A worldwide figure and 1935's Time magazine Man of the Year . Following the entry of Italy into World War II, British Empire forces, together with patriot Ethiopian fighters, liberated Ethiopia during the East African Campaign in 1941. Haile Selassie's reign came to an end in 1974, when a Soviet-backed Marxist-Leninist military junta , the Derg led by Mengistu Haile Mariam , deposed him, and established

1350-751: Is a South Ethio-Semitic language, along with Gurage , Argobba , Harari , and others. Due to the social stratification of the time, the Cushitic Agaw adopted the South Ethio-Semitic language and eventually absorbed the Semitic population. Amharic thus developed with a Cushitic substratum and a Semitic superstratum . The northernmost South Ethio-Semitic speakers, or the proto-Amhara, remained in constant contact with their North Ethio-Semitic neighbors, evidenced by linguistic analysis and oral traditions. A 7th century southward shift of

1440-775: Is a subgrouping within the Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic languages . It is spoken as a first language by the Amharas , and also serves as a lingua franca for all other populations residing in major cities and towns in Ethiopia . The language serves as the official working language of the Ethiopian federal government, and is also the official or working language of several of Ethiopia's federal regions . As of 2020, it has over 33,700,000 mother-tongue speakers and more than 25,100,000 second language speakers in 2019, making

1530-579: Is an abugida , and the graphemes of the Amharic writing system are called fidäl . It is derived from a modification of the Ge'ez script . Each character represents a consonant+vowel sequence, but the basic shape of each character is determined by the consonant, which is modified for the vowel. Some consonant phonemes are written by more than one series of characters: / ʔ / , / s / , / tsʼ / , and / h / (the last one has four distinct letter forms). This

1620-663: Is because these fidäl originally represented distinct sounds, but phonological changes merged them. The citation form for each series is the consonant+ ä form, i.e. the first column of the fidäl . The Amharic script is included in Unicode , and glyphs are included in fonts available with major operating systems. As in most other Ethiopian Semitic languages , gemination is contrastive in Amharic. That is, consonant length can distinguish words from one another; for example, alä 'he said', allä 'there is'; yǝmätall 'he hits', yǝmmättall 'he will be hit'. Gemination

1710-501: Is called an abugida ( አቡጊዳ ). The graphemes are called fidäl ( ፊደል ), which means "script", "alphabet", "letter", or "character". There is no universally agreed-upon Romanization of Amharic into Latin script . The Amharic examples in the sections below use one system that is common among linguists specializing in Ethiopian Semitic languages. Amharic has been the official working language of Ethiopia, language of

1800-469: Is mostly heard as the affricate sound [ t͡sʼ ]. The rhotic consonant is realized as a trill when geminated and a tap otherwise. The closed central unrounded vowel ⟨ə⟩ /ɨ/ and mid-central vowel ⟨ä⟩ /ə/ are generally fronted to [ ɪ ] and [ ɛ ], respectively, following palatal consonants , and generally retracted and rounded to [ ʊ ] and [ ɔ ], respectively, following labialized velar consonants . The Amharic script

1890-416: Is not indicated in Amharic orthography, but Amharic readers typically do not find this to be a problem. This property of the writing system is analogous to the vowels of Arabic and Hebrew or the tones of many Bantu languages , which are not normally indicated in writing. Ethiopian novelist Haddis Alemayehu , who was an advocate of Amharic orthography reform , indicated gemination in his novel Love to

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1980-411: Is sometimes used to be inclusive of neighbouring southeast African countries to distinguish the broader geopolitical definition of the Horn of Africa from narrower peninsular definitions. The name Horn of Africa is sometimes shortened to HoA . Quite commonly it is referred to simply as "the Horn", while inhabitants are sometimes colloquially termed Horn Africans or Horners . Regional studies on

2070-806: Is the Aden Ridge along the coast of Saudi Arabia . The eastern boundary is the Central Indian Ridge , the northern portion of which is also known as the Carlsberg Ridge . The southern boundary is the Southwest Indian Ridge . Extensive glaciers once covered the Simien and Bale Mountains but melted at the beginning of the Holocene . The mountains descend in a huge escarpment to the Red Sea and more steadily to

2160-416: Is usually sunny and dry, but the short ( belg ) rains occur from February to April and the big ( meher ) rains from mid-June to mid-September. The Danakil Desert stretches across 100,000 km of arid terrain in northeast Ethiopia, southern Eritrea, and northwestern Djibouti. The area is known for its volcanoes and extreme heat, with daily temperatures over 45 °C and often surpassing 50 °C. It has

2250-905: The Barbara civilization . The city of Mogadishu came to be known as the "City of Islam" and controlled the East African gold trade for several centuries. During the Middle Ages , several powerful empires dominated the regional trade in the Horn, including the Adal Sultanate , the Ajuran Sultanate , the Ethiopian Empire , the Zagwe dynasty , and the Sultanate of the Geledi . The Sultanate of Showa , established in 896,

2340-810: The Abyssinian annexation of the region. Horn of Africa The Horn of Africa ( HoA ), also known as the Somali Peninsula , is a large peninsula and geopolitical region in East Africa . Located on the easternmost part of the African mainland, it is the fourth largest peninsula in the world. It is composed of Somalia (including the de facto independent Somaliland and Puntland ), Djibouti , Ethiopia , and Eritrea . Although not common, broader definitions include parts or all of Kenya and Sudan . It has been described as

2430-594: The Ancient Egyptians , Phoenicians , Mycenaeans , Babylonians and Romans . The Romans consequently began to refer to the region as Regio Aromatica . In the classical era , several flourishing Somali city-states such as Opone , Mosylon and Malao also competed with the Sabaeans , Parthians and Axumites for the rich Indo - Greco-Roman trade. The birth of Islam opposite the Horn's Red Sea coast meant that local merchants and sailors living on

2520-529: The Arabian Peninsula gradually came under the influence of the new religion through their converted Arab Muslim trading partners. With the migration of Muslim families from the Islamic world to the Horn in the early centuries of Islam, and the peaceful conversion of the local population by Muslim scholars in the following centuries, the ancient city-states eventually transformed into Islamic Mogadishu , Berbera , Zeila , Barawa and Merka , which were part of

2610-792: The Banu Hashim clan, in modern-day Somaliland and Ethiopia . The sultanate was governed by the Reer Guled branch of the Eidagale sub-clan established by the first sultan, Sultan Guled Abdi . The sultanate is the pre-colonial predecessor to the modern Somaliland . According to oral tradition, prior to the Guled dynasty the Isaaq clan-family were ruled by a dynasty of the Tolje'lo branch starting from, descendants of Ahmed nicknamed Tol Je'lo,

2700-669: The Ethiopian Empire . In 1270, the Amhara nobleman Yekuno Amlak , who claimed descent from the last Aksumite king and ultimately the Queen of Sheba , overthrew the Agaw Zagwe dynasty at the Battle of Ansata , ushering his reign as Emperor of Ethiopia . While initially a rather small and politically unstable entity, the empire managed to expand significantly during the crusades of Amda Seyon I (1314–1344) and his successors, becoming

2790-453: The Fascist era in late 1927. This occupation lasted until 1941, and was replaced by a British military administration . Former British Somaliland would remain, along with Italian Somaliland, a trusteeship of Italy, between 1950 and 1960. The Union of the two countries in 1960 formed the Somali Republic. A civilian government was formed, and on 20 July 1961, through a popular referendum ,

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2880-562: The Habr Awal with whom they still mostly live. The Majeerteen Sultanate (Migiurtinia) was another prominent Somali sultanate based in the Horn region. Ruled by King Osman Mahamuud during its golden age, it controlled much of northeastern and central Somalia in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The polity had all of the organs of an integrated modern state and maintained a robust trading network. It also entered into treaties with foreign powers and exerted strong centralized authority on

2970-733: The Herto skull (from ca. 160,000 ago) have been found in the region, both in Ethiopia. The findings of the Earliest Stone Tipped Projectiles from the Ethiopian Rift dated to more than 279,000 years ago "in combination with the existing archaeological, fossil and genetic evidence, isolate East Africa as a source of modern cultures and biology." According to the Southern Dispersal scenario,

3060-589: The House of Gareen , also expanded its territories and established its hegemonic rule through a skillful combination of warfare, trade linkages and alliances. The Zagwe dynasty ruled many parts of modern Ethiopia and Eritrea from approximately 1137 to 1270. The name of the dynasty comes from the Cushitic -speaking Agaw people of northern Ethiopia. From 1270 onwards for many centuries, the Solomonic dynasty ruled

3150-719: The Indian Ocean . Socotra is a small island in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Somalia. Its size is 3,600 km (1,400 sq mi) and it is a territory of Yemen. The lowlands of the Horn are generally arid in spite of their proximity to the equator. This is because the winds of the tropical monsoons that give seasonal rains to the Sahel and the Sudan blow from the west. Consequently, they lose their moisture before reaching Djibouti and northern part of Somalia, with

3240-501: The Red Sea coast of Eritrea and Sudan is considered the most likely location of the land known to the ancient Egyptians as Punt (or "Ta Netjeru", meaning god's land), whose first mention dates to the 25th century BCE. Dʿmt was a kingdom located in Eritrea and northern Ethiopia , which existed during the 8th and 7th centuries BCE. With its capital probably at Yeha , the kingdom developed irrigation schemes, used plows , grew millet , and made iron tools and weapons. After

3330-478: The Sinai Peninsula into Asia . A later return movement of peoples from South Arabia would have introduced the Semitic languages to Ethiopia. Based on archaeological evidence, the presence of Semitic speakers in the territory date to some time before 500 BC. Linguistic analysis suggests the presence of Semitic languages in Ethiopia as early as 2000 BC. Levine indicates that by the end of that millennium,

3420-572: The Somali wild ass , the desert warthog , the hamadryas baboon , the Somali pygmy gerbil , the ammodile , and the Speke's pectinator . The Grevy's zebra is the unique wild equid of the region. There are predators such as spotted hyena , striped hyena and African leopard . The endangered painted hunting dog had populations in the Horn of Africa, but pressures from human exploitation of habitat along with warfare have reduced or extirpated this canid in this region. Some important bird species of

3510-653: The USSR , Cuba , South Yemen , East Germany and North Korea , including around 15,000 Cuban combat troops. In 1989, the Tigrayan Peoples' Liberation Front (TPLF) merged with other ethnically based opposition movements to form the Ethiopian Peoples' Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), and eventually managed to overthrow Mengistu's dictatorial regime in 1991. A transitional government, composed of an 87-member Council of Representatives and guided by

3600-644: The Yejju Oromo tribe as well as Wollo and Raya Oromo. The Sultanate of the Geledi was a Somali kingdom administered by the Gobroon dynasty, which ruled parts of the Horn of Africa during the 18th and 19th centuries. It was established by the Ajuran soldier Ibrahim Adeer , who had defeated various vassals of the Ajuran Empire and established the House of Gobroon . The dynasty reached its apex under

3690-410: The constitution drafted in 1960 was ratified. Due to its longstanding ties with the Arab world , the Somali Republic was accepted in 1974 as a member of the Arab League . During the same year, the nation's former socialist administration also chaired the Organization of African Unity , the predecessor of the African Union . In 1991, the Somali Civil War broke out, which saw the dissolving of

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3780-457: The total number of speakers over 58,800,000. Amharic is the largest, most widely spoken language in Ethiopia, and the second most spoken mother-tongue in Ethiopia (after Oromo ). Amharic is also the second most widely spoken Semitic language in the world (after Arabic ). Amharic is written left-to-right using a system that grew out of the Geʽez script . The segmental writing system in which consonant-vowel sequences are written as units

3870-439: The Dervishes were to acquire. After a quarter of a century of holding the British at bay, the Dervishes were finally defeated in 1920 as a direct consequence of Britain's new policy of aerial bombardment . As a result of this bombardment, former Dervish territories were turned into a protectorate of Britain. Italy faced similar opposition from Somali Sultans and armies, and did not acquire full control of modern Somalia until

3960-408: The Ethiopianist tradition they are often transcribed with a dot below the letter. The notation of central vowels in the Ethiopianist tradition is shown in angled brackets. The voiced bilabial plosive /b/ is phonetically realized as a voiced labial approximant [β̞] medially between sonorants in non- geminated form. The fricative ejective / sʼ / is heard as a fricative ejective [ sʼ ], but

4050-402: The Ethiopians. The early 20th century in Ethiopia was marked by the reign of Emperor Haile Selassie I , who came to power after Iyasu V was deposed. In 1935, Haile Selassie's troops fought and lost the Second Italo-Abyssinian War , after which Italy annexed Ethiopia to Italian East Africa . Haile Selassie subsequently appealed to the League of Nations , delivering an address that made him

4140-471: The Grave by placing a dot above the characters whose consonants were geminated, but this practice is rare. Punctuation includes the following: One may construct simple Amharic sentences by using a subject and a predicate . Here are a few simple sentences: ኢትዮጵያ ʾItyop̣p̣ya Ethiopia አፍሪካ ʾAfrika Africa ውስጥ wǝsṭ in ናት nat is ኢትዮጵያ አፍሪካ ውስጥ ናት ʾItyop̣p̣ya ʾAfrika wǝsṭ nat {Ethiopia} {Africa} {in} {is} 'Ethiopia

4230-402: The Horn are the black boubou , the golden-winged grosbeak , the Warsangli linnet , and the Djibouti spurfowl . Amharic Amharic ( / æ m ˈ h ær ɪ k / am- HARR -ik or / ɑː m ˈ h ɑːr ɪ k / ahm- HAR -ik ; native name : አማርኛ , romanized :  Amarəñña , IPA: [amarɨɲːa] ) is an Ethiopian Semitic language , which

4320-413: The Horn of Africa are carried out in fields of Ethiopian studies and Somali studies . This peninsula has been known by various names. Ancient Greeks and Romans referred to it as Regio Aromatica or Regio Cinnamonifora due to the aromatic plants or as Regio Incognita owing to its uncharted territory. Some of the earliest Homo sapiens fossils, the Omo remains (from ca. 233,000 years ago) and

4410-481: The Horn of Africa as a source of a genetic marker " M35 / 215 " Y-chromosome lineage for a significant population component which moved north from that region into Egypt and the Levant. Ehret argued that this genetic distribution paralleled the spread of the Afrasian language family with the movement of people from the Horn of Africa into Egypt and added a new demic component to the existing population of Egypt 17,000 years ago. The area comprising Somalia , Djibouti ,

4500-443: The Rift Valley. Geologically, the Horn and Yemen once formed a single landmass around 18 million years ago, before the Gulf of Aden rifted and separated the Horn region from the Arabian Peninsula . The Somali Plate is bounded on the west by the East African Rift, which stretches south from the triple junction in the Afar Depression , and an undersea continuation of the rift extending southward offshore. The northern boundary

4590-481: The Southern route of the Out of Africa migration occurred in the Horn of Africa through the Bab el Mandeb . Today at the Bab-el-Mandeb straits, the Red Sea is about 12 miles (19 kilometres) wide, but 50,000 years ago it was much narrower and sea levels were 70 meters lower. Though the straits were never completely closed, there may have been islands in between which could be reached using simple rafts. Shell middens 125,000 years old have been found in Eritrea, indicating

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4680-401: The alphabet used for writing the Geʽez language. There are 34 basic characters, each of which has seven forms depending on which vowel is to be pronounced in the syllable. There are also 49 "wa" letters, which form compound sounds involving "w." All together, the alphabet has some 280 letters. Until 2020 Amharic was the sole official language of Ethiopia. The 2007 census reported that Amharic

4770-425: The ancient and early medieval periods of Somali maritime enterprise were also strengthened or re-established, and the state left behind an extensive architectural legacy . Many of the hundreds of ruined castles and fortresses that dot the landscape of Somalia today are attributed to Ajuran engineers, including a lot of the pillar tomb fields, necropolises and ruined cities built during that era. The royal family,

4860-434: The area's administration. The British continued to administer the territory under a UN Mandate until 1951, when Eritrea was federated with Ethiopia, per UN resolution 390 A (V) adopted December 1950. The strategic importance of Eritrea, due to its Red Sea coastline and mineral resources, was the main cause for the federation with Ethiopia, which in turn led to Eritrea's annexation as Ethiopia's 14th province in 1962 . This

4950-607: The aromatic plants found there, or as Regio Incognita owing to its uncharted territory. In ancient and medieval times, the Horn of Africa was referred to as the Bilad al Barbar ("Land of the Berbers"). It is also known as the Somali Peninsula, or in the Somali language as Geeska Afrika or Jasiiradda Soomaali . In other local languages it is called "Horn of Africa" or the "African Horn", in Amharic የአፍሪካ ቀንድ yäafrika qänd, in Arabic القرن الأفريقي al-qarn al-'afrīqī , in Oromo Gaanfaa Afrikaa , and in Tigrinya ቀርኒ ኣፍሪቃ q'ärnī afīrīqa . The Horn of Africa Region consists of

5040-429: The center of gravity of the Kingdom of Aksum and the ensuing integration and Christianization of the proto-Amhara also resulted in a high prevalence of Geʽez sourced lexicon in Amharic. Some time after the 9th century AD, Amharic diverged from its closest relative, Argobba , probably due to religious differences as the Argobba adopted Islam. In 1983, Lionel Bender proposed that Amharic may have been constructed as

5130-405: The commerce between the Roman Empire and Ancient India , Aksum's rulers facilitated trade by minting their own currency . The state also established its hegemony over the declining Kingdom of Kush and regularly entered the politics of the kingdoms on the Arabian Peninsula , eventually extending its rule over the region with the conquest of the Himyarite Kingdom . Under Ezana (fl. 320–360),

5220-443: The core inhabitants of Greater Ethiopia would have consisted of dark-skinned agropastoralists speaking Afro-Asiatic languages of the Semitic, Cushitic and Omotic branches. Other scholars such as Messay Kebede and Daniel E. Alemu argue that migration across the Red Sea was defined by reciprocal exchange, if it even occurred at all, and that Ethio-Semitic-speaking ethnic groups should not be characterized as foreign invaders. Amharic

5310-471: The courts, the language of trade and everyday communications and of the military since the late 12th century. The Amhara nobles supported the Zagwe prince Lalibela in his power struggle against his brothers which led him to make Amharic Lessana Negus as well as fill the Amhara nobles in the top positions of his Kingdom. The appellation of "language of the king" ( Ge'ez : ልሳነ ነጋሢ ; "Lǝssanä nägaśi," Amharic : የነጋሢ ቋንቋ "Yä-nägaśi qʷanqʷa") and its use in

5400-434: The diet of early humans included seafood obtained by beachcombing . Ethiopian and Eritrean agriculture established the earliest known use of the seed grass teff ( Poa abyssinica ) between 4000 and 1000 BCE. Teff is used to make the flatbread injera /taita. Coffee also originated in Ethiopia and has since spread to become a worldwide beverage. Historian Christopher Ehret , cited genetic evidence which had identified

5490-436: The domestic front. Much of the Sultanate's former domain is today coextensive with the autonomous Puntland region in northern Somalia. The Sultanate of Hobyo was a 19th-century Somali kingdom founded by Sultan Yusuf Ali Kenadid . Initially, Kenadid's goal was to seize control of the neighboring Majeerteen Sultanate, which was then ruled by his cousin Boqor Osman Mahamuud. However, he was unsuccessful in this endeavor, and

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5580-436: The dominant force in East Africa . In the early 15th century, Ethiopia sought to make diplomatic contact with European kingdoms for the first time since Aksumite times. A letter from King Henry IV of England to the Emperor of Abyssinia survives. In 1428, the Emperor Yeshaq sent two emissaries to Alfonso V of Aragon , who sent return emissaries who failed to complete the return trip. The first continuous relations with

5670-475: The eastern coast, a strong upwelling and the fact that the winds blow parallel to the coast means annual rainfall can be as low as 50 mm (2.0 in). The climate in Ethiopia varies considerably between regions. It is generally hotter in the lowlands and temperate on the plateau. At Addis Ababa , which ranges from 2,200 to 2,600 m (7,218 to 8,530 ft), maximum temperature is 26 °C (78.8 °F) and minimum 4 °C (39.2 °F). The weather

5760-443: The eastern seaboard, where the effects of a cold offshore current can be felt. Somalia has only two permanent rivers, the Jubba and the Shabele , both of which begin in the Ethiopian Highlands . About 220 mammals are found in the Horn of Africa. Among threatened species of the region, there are several antelopes such as the beira , the dibatag , the silver dikdik and the Speke's gazelle . Other remarkable species include

5850-414: The eldest son of Sheikh Ishaaq 's Harari wife. There were eight Tolje'lo rulers in total, starting with Boqor Harun ( Somali : Boqor Haaruun ) who ruled the Isaaq Sultanate for centuries starting from the 13th century. The last Tolje'lo ruler Garad Dhuh Barar ( Somali : Dhuux Baraar ) was overthrown by a coalition of Isaaq clans. The once strong Tolje'lo clan were scattered and took refuge amongst

5940-433: The fall of Dʿmt in the 5th century BCE, the plateau came to be dominated by smaller successor kingdoms, until the rise of one of these kingdoms during the 1st century, the Aksumite Kingdom , which was able to reunite the area. The Kingdom of Aksum (also known as the Aksumite Empire) was an ancient state located in the Eritrea and Ethiopian highlands , which thrived between the 1st and 7th centuries CE. A major player in

6030-424: The fifteenth century. According to Mohammed Hassen , Hubat was the stronghold of the Harla people and center of operations for fifteenth century Adal Emir Garad Abun Adashe . A siege of Hubat took place in the early sixteenth century led by the Adal Sultan Abu Bakr ibn Muhammad against rebel leader Garad Umar din. The sixteenth-century ruler of Adal who conquered Abyssinia, Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi ,

6120-434: The historic cities in the region, such as Amud , Maduna , Abasa , Berbera , Zeila and Harar , flourished during the kingdom's golden age. This period that left behind numerous courtyard houses , mosques , shrines and walled enclosures . Under the leadership of rulers such as Sabr ad-Din II , Mansur ad-Din , Jamal ad-Din II , Shams ad-Din , General Mahfuz and Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi , Adalite armies continued

6210-476: The internationally recognized countries of Djibouti , Eritrea , Ethiopia , and Somalia . Geographically the protruding shape that resembles a "Horn" consists of the "Somali peninsula" and eastern part of Ethiopia. But the region encompasses also the rest of Ethiopia, Eritrea and Djibouti. Broader definitions include Kenya and Sudan . The term Greater Horn Region (GHR) can additionally include South Sudan and Uganda . The term Greater Horn of Africa

6300-430: The kingdom of Aksum became the first major empire to adopt Christianity , and was named by Mani as one of the four great powers of his time, along with Persia , Rome and China . Somalia was an important link in the Horn, connecting the region's commerce with the rest of the ancient world. Somali sailors and merchants were the main suppliers of frankincense , myrrh and spices, all of which were valuable luxuries to

6390-457: The north and expansion in the east and south toward its present borders, owing to several migrations, commercial integration, treaties as well as conquests, particularly by Emperor Menelik II and Ras Gobena . From the central province of Shoa, Menelik set off to subjugate and incorporate 'the lands and people of the South, East and West into an empire.' He did this with the help of Ras Gobena's Shewan Oromo militia, began expanding his kingdom to

6480-482: The number of geographically distinct Cushitic languages that have influenced Amharic at different points in time (e.g. Oromo influence beginning in the 16th century) support a natural evolution of Amharic from a Proto-Ethio-Semitic language with considerable Cushitic influences (similar to Gurage, Tigrinya, etc.). The Amharic ejective consonants correspond to the Proto-Semitic " emphatic consonants ." In

6570-559: The result that most of the Horn receives little rainfall during the monsoon season. In the mountains of Ethiopia, many areas receive over 2,000 mm (79 in) per year, and even Asmara receives an average of 570 mm (22 in). This rainfall is the sole source of water for many areas outside Ethiopia, including Egypt . In the winter, the northeasterly trade winds do not provide any moisture except in mountainous areas of northern Somalia, where rainfall in late autumn can produce annual totals as high as 500 mm (20 in). On

6660-639: The royal court are otherwise traced to the Amhara Emperor Yekuno Amlak . It is one of the official languages of Ethiopia , together with other regions like Oromo , Somali , Afar , and Tigrinya . Amharic is an Afro-Asiatic language of the Southwest Semitic group and is related to Geʽez , or Ethiopic, the liturgical language of the Ethiopian Orthodox church; Amharic is written in a slightly modified form of

6750-610: The ruler of Hubat was Abu Bakr Qatin during the Ethiopian-Adal war . Hubat was invaded and settled by the Barento Oromo in the following centuries who came at loggerheads with the Adal Sultanate. The Emirate of Harar the successor state of Adal would continue to influence the region as numerous Oromo people converted to Islam during the reign of emir Abd ash-Shakur and this trend even continued following

6840-666: The ruling political coalition in Ethiopia. The Horn of Africa is almost equidistant from the equator and the Tropic of Cancer . It consists chiefly of mountains uplifted through the formation of the Great Rift Valley , a fissure in the Earth's crust extending from Turkey to Mozambique and marking the separation of the African and Arabian tectonic plates . Mostly mountainous, the region arose through faults resulting from

6930-544: The south and east, expanding into areas that had not been held since the invasion of Ahmad ibn Ibrihim al-Ghazi , and other areas that had never been under his rule, resulting in the borders of Ethiopia of today. Menelik had signed the Treaty of Wichale with Italy in May 1889, in which Italy would recognize Ethiopia's sovereignty so long as Italy could control a small area of northern Tigray (part of modern Eritrea). In return, Italy

7020-692: The state religion to again be Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity , and expelled the Jesuit missionaries and other Europeans. During the end of 18th and the beginning of 19th century the Yejju dynasty (more specifically, the Warasek) ruled north Ethiopia changing the official language of Amhara people to Afaan Oromo, including inside the court of Gondar which was capital of the empire. Founded by Ali I of Yejju several successive descendants of him and Abba Seru Gwangul ruled with their army coming from mainly their clan

7110-613: The struggle against the Solomonic dynasty , a campaign historically known as the Conquest of Abyssinia or Futuh al Habash . Through a strong centralized administration and an aggressive military stance towards invaders, the Ajuran Sultanate successfully resisted an Oromo invasion from the west and a Portuguese incursion from the east during the Gaal Madow and the Ajuran-Portuguese wars . Trading routes dating from

7200-527: The successive reigns of Sultan Yusuf Mahamud Ibrahim , who successfully consolidated Gobroon power during the Bardera wars , and Sultan Ahmed Yusuf , who forced regional powers such as the Omani Empire to submit tribute . The Isaaq Sultanate was a Somali kingdom that ruled parts of the Horn of Africa during the 18th and 19th centuries. It spanned the territories of the Isaaq clan, descendants of

7290-475: The union and Somaliland regaining its independence, along with the collapse of the central government and the emergence of numerous autonomous polities, including the Puntland administration in the north. Somalia's inhabitants subsequently reverted to local forms of conflict resolution, either secular , Islamic or customary law , with a provision for appeal of all sentences. A Transitional Federal Government

7380-526: Was also one of the first proxy wars in the region as the Ottoman Empire , and Portugal took sides in the conflict. When Emperor Susenyos converted to Roman Catholicism in 1624, years of revolt and civil unrest followed resulting in thousands of deaths. The Jesuit missionaries had offended the Orthodox faith of the local Ethiopians. On 25 June 1632, Susenyos's son, Emperor Fasilides , declared

7470-684: Was born in Hubat. In his early career Ahmed defeated an Abyssinian militia at the Battle of Hubat led by Degalhan a general of Emperor Dawit II . Ahmed Ibrahim also achieved a second stunning victory over an Abyssinian raiding party led by Fanuel in Hubat which gained him fame. Merid Wolde Aregay states the Hubat and Harla principalities demonstrated ability to defeat Abyssinians meant it was necessary to replace Sultan Badlay 's descendants. Hubat would later play an important role for Ahmad ibn Ibrahim in his struggle against Adal Sultan Abu Bakr ibn Muhammad. According to sixteenth century Adal writer Arab Faqīh ,

7560-779: Was eventually forced into exile in Yemen . A decade later, in the 1870s, Kenadid returned from the Arabian Peninsula with a band of Hadhrami musketeers and a group of devoted lieutenants. With their assistance, he managed to establish the kingdom of Hobyo, which would rule much of northern and central Somalia during the early modern period. In the period following the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, when European powers scrambled for territory in Africa and tried to establish coaling stations for their ships, Italy invaded and occupied Eritrea . On 1 January 1890, Eritrea officially became

7650-550: Was one of the oldest local Islamic states. It was centered in the former Shewa province in central Ethiopia. The polity was succeeded by the Sultanate of Ifat around 1285. Ifat was governed from its capital at Zeila in Somaliland and was the easternmost district of the former Shewa Sultanate. The Adal Sultanate was a medieval multi-ethnic Muslim state centered in the Horn region. At its height, it controlled large parts of Somalia, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Eritrea. Many of

7740-446: Was ruled by Somali and Afar Sultans , local authorities with whom France signed various treaties between 1883 and 1887 to first gain a foothold in the region. In 1894, Léonce Lagarde established a permanent French administration in the city of Djibouti and named the region Côte française des Somalis ( French Somaliland ), a name which continued until 1967. In 1958, on the eve of neighboring Somalia 's independence in 1960,

7830-475: Was spoken by 21.6 million native speakers in Ethiopia. More recent sources state the number of first-language speakers in 2018 as nearly 32 million, with another 25 million second-language speakers in Ethiopia. Additionally, 3 million emigrants outside of Ethiopia speak the language. Most of the Ethiopian Jewish communities in Ethiopia and Israel speak Amharic. Furthermore, Amharic is considered

7920-493: Was subsequently created in 2004. The Federal Government of Somalia was established on 20 August 2012, concurrent with the end of the TFG's interim mandate. It represents the first permanent central government in the country since the start of the civil war. The Federal Parliament of Somalia serves as the government's legislative branch. Modern Ethiopia and its current borders are a result of significant territorial reduction in

8010-456: Was the culmination of a gradual process of takeover by the Ethiopian authorities, a process which included a 1959 edict establishing the compulsory teaching of Amharic , the main language of Ethiopia, in all Eritrean schools. The lack of regard for the Eritrean population led to the formation of an independence movement in the early 1960s (1961), which erupted into a 30-year war against successive Ethiopian governments that ended in 1991. Following

8100-596: Was to provide Menelik with arms and support him as emperor. The Italians used the time between the signing of the treaty and its ratification by the Italian government to further expand their territorial claims. Italy began a state funded program of resettlement for landless Italians in Eritrea, which increased tensions between the Eritrean peasants and the Italians. This conflict erupted in the Battle of Adwa on 1 March 1896, in which Italy's colonial forces were defeated by

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