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Hassen Mohammed . The Oromo and the Christian Kingdom of Ethiopia, 1300-1700. Woodbridge, U.K. : James Currey , 2015. xx + 379 pp. Oromo Glossary. Spelling of Ethiopian Names. Maps. Chronology. Notes. Bibliography. Index. $80.00. Cloth. ISBN: 978-1847011176 .
BOOK REVIEWS
HISTORY
Prominent Ethiopianists such as C. Conti Rossini, Enrico Cerulli, and Taddesse Tamrat analyzed Christian and Muslim sources of Ethiopia--the sultanates of Shawa, Ifat, and Harar--without noticing the presence of the Oromo in the Christian kingdom of Ethiopia before the sixteenth century. With better knowledge of Oromo culture and language, Mekuria Bulcha, in Contours of the Emergent and Ancient Oromo Nation (CASAS, 2011), argued convincingly for the presence of the Oromo within the Christian kingdom and the Muslim states along the middle Awash Valley before the sixteenth century. Mohammed Hassen hinted at this thesis in his first book (The Oromo of Ethiopia: A History, 1570-1860, Red Sea Press, 1990), but provided no details. In his new book, The Oromo and the Christian Kingdom of Ethiopia, he offers a careful reevaluation and reinterpretation of the history of medieval Ethiopia that includes the Oromo.
The book is divided into eight chapters with narratives that shift between the sedentary and pastoral Oromo and the exploits of the Christian kings. The first two chapters focus on the sedentary Oromo and their contacts and interactions...