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Islam in Nineteenth-Century Wallo, Ethiopia: Revival, Reform and Reaction Hussein Ahmed Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2001. Pp. xx, 228; 2 maps. Cloth $104 US, $77 EUR
This book is the first to be published on Islam in Ethiopia since the publication of John Spencer Trimingham's Islam in Ethiopia in 1952. The author, Hussein Ahmed, professor of history at Addis Ababa University and an emerging authority on Islam in Ethiopia, is also the author of several articles on the subject. The history of Islam and the role of Muslims in Ethiopia have been neglected because, according to Professor Hussein, "bias has manifested itself in both the neglect and a priori distortion of Islam and in certain prejudices which have formed an integral part of the ideological panoply of the Christian dynasts" (190). In Islam in Nineteenth-Century Wallo, Ethiopia: Revival, Reform and Reaction, Hussein Ahmed exposes the received wisdom that considers Islam a negative factor in Ethiopian history and presents Islam as a positive factor that has shaped the history of that country.
Though the book is mainly a study of Islam in one region, it is a truly a major work on Islam in Ethiopia. It is a fascinating book because it depicts the progress of Islam in Ethiopia in chronological and thematic schemes in five phases: "Early phase; the period of expansion and consolidation; period of confrontation; period of steady expansion and period of revival and internal reverses" (58-59). It is also trail blazing, because the book is based on solid scholarship establishing conclusively that Islam as a religion and a way of life is an integral part of Ethiopian history. Professor Hussein breaks with the intellectual tradition of students of Ethiopian history and culture, who exclusively identify the country within the Christian paradigm (xviii), and suggests the need for a new paradigm that sees Ethiopia as the country in which Muslims and Christians have lived side by side peacefully, cooperating and trading with each other more often than fighting against one another. It is now clear that Ethiopia has not been a Christian island surrounded by a Muslim sea, but the land of both Christians and Muslims. From...