Muhammad (Muhammad b. Abdallah b. Abdalmuttalib, b. ca. 570, Mecca, d. 632, Medina), the Prophet of Islam, is considered in the Muslim tradition to be the bearer of the last divine revelation to mankind. For the general facts of his biography,s., e.g., Watt 1953, 1956, 1961; Rodinson 1961; Buhl Welch in EI; Bobzin 2000. The present contribution focuses on Muhammad’s attitude towards Ethiopia.

The sources commonly used for the recon- struction of Muhammad’s life (mainly the Sira by Ibn Ishaq/Ibn Hišam, the Tariţ by atTabari,the Tabaqat by Ibn Sad, various hadii collections, and some Qurýanic commentaries) contain numerous pieces of information on his relationships with the Ethio–Eritrean area. The proximity of the land and the lasting and deep ties between Arabia and the African shores of the Red Sea fostered a quite intense connection of Muhammad with al-Habaša (Abyssinia). Some doubt may be cast on the real historical value of the details preserved in the traditions but on the whole the episodes listed below can to a certain extent be considered reliable evidence for the strength of this connection.

It is not known exactly when Muhammad was born. Only two dates in the life of Muhammad are known: that of his higra to Yaôrib Medina (622) and that of his death (632). Two verses of the Qurýan (10:16 and 46:15) and, more clearly, an explicit passage from the Sira (Ibn Hišam ed. by at-Tadmuri 1987, vol. 1, 263; Guillaume 1955:104) affirm that Muhammad was 40 when he was granted the first divine revelation (mabŸai). The Sira also preserves a tradition that Muhammad remained in Mecca within his Qurayš tribe for a little more than ten years, after he had been chosen by God (Ibn Hišamed. by at-Tadmuri 1987, vol. 2, 154; Guillaume1955:238, quoting a verse by Abī Qays Sirma b. Abi Anas). It is also accepted in Islamic tradition that the public preaching of Muhammad probably started two or three years after he had received the first call to prophethood (Al-Mubarakf s.d., 37, 52). From these data, we may thus surmise that

Muhammad was born in a lapse of time between 569 and 572. According to the prevailing but not unique Islamic tradition (Conrad 1986:234f.), Muhammad was born during the “Year of the Elephant” (Cam al-fil). This name is commonly explained with the famous episode of Abraha’s expedition to conquer Mecca, destroy the Kaba and divert the great pilgrimage from the haram (sacred enclosure) of the holy Arabian town to the church (al-Qullays) he had built in SanCaý (though other sources seem to place the episode in a year between 530 and 552; s. Conrad 1987:227f.). In the army of the Abyssinian leader there was a big and strong elephant called Mahmd which belonged to the nagaši personally (according to Ibn Sad [n.d., vol. 1, 92], there were 13 elephants in Abraha’s army). Muhammad’s grandfather Abdalmuttalib, the head of Mecca at that time, tried to negotiate with Abraha, but to no avail. He asked the Abyssinan general to give back the camels he had seized but received a negative answer. Abraha attacked the Kaba but, according to all sources and the Qurýan itself (sura 106; Newby 1974), the divine intervention protected the “house of God”. These events (Ibn SaCd n.d., vol. 1, 90ff.; Ibn Hišam ed. by at-Tadmuri 1987, vol. 1, 64–69; CRStor 189–92) probably represent the background of the later Islamic tradition, sanctioned in a prophetic hadii (al-BuĽari 2001:286, Kitab alhagg, Bab Hadm alKaŸba, hadii no. 1596; an-Nawawi Muslim n.d., guzý 18, 252, hadii no. 2909; Ahmad b. Hanbal n.d., vol. 12, hadii no. 7052–53; alFasi 2000:175f.), that before the final judgement the KaCba will be demolished by an Abyssinian “with two thin legs” (îu s-suwayqatayn).

Muhammad’s father, CAbdallah b. Abdalmuttalib, had died before the boy was born, and Muhammad’s mother Amina gave him to a wet-nurse. The latter, Halima as Sa diya, gave the boy back when he was five years and one month old. According to a tradition transmitted by Ibn Ishaq (Ibn Hišam ed. by at Tadmuri 1987, vol. 1, 192), this was preceded by an incident with some Abyssinian Christians. They saw Muhammad with Halima after she had weaned him, asked her about him, turned him upside down and claimed that, aware of the exceptional status of the child, they were to take him with them to their king. The woman escaped with the child but preferred to give him back to his mother.

After his mother’s death, Muhammad was nursed by Umm Ayman al Habašiya, an Abyssinian woman who had been taken prisoner during Abraha’s expedition and became a servant of Muhammad’s father. When Muhammad married his first wife Òadiga, he freed Umm Ayman, and she became the wife of Zayd b. al Hariô, another of Muhammad’s freedman (an Nawawi Muslim n.d., guzý 12, 343, hadii no. 1771; according to Sayyid b. Muhammad Sadiq 2001:273f., Umm Ayman was Muhammad’s first nurse).

Later, too, Muhammad maintained relatively close relationships with people of Abyssinian origin. Significantly enough, to indicate the duty to pay obedience to every ruler, in a famous hadii the Prophet used the expression “even [if the ruler is] an Abyssinian slave” (al BuĽari 2001:1261f., Kitab Al Ahkam, Bab asamŸ wai iaa lilimam, hadii no. 7162; an Nawawi Muslim n.d., guzý 12, 467, hadii no. 1837; Crone 1994). As it was common in Arabia, Muhammad had Abyssinian servants in his household. Šuqran al Habaši (Sayyid b. Muhammad Sadiq 2001:61) was bought by Muhammad (or received as a

gift) from CAbdallah b. al Awf, or inherited from his father Abdallah. The Prophet freed him after the battle of Badr (624). An Abyssinian (habašiya) servant usually prepared a fermented but not intoxicating beverage called nabi for Muhammad (an-Nawawi Muslim n.d., guzý 13, 186, hadii no. 2005).

Umm Habiba, the Prophet’s wife, brought a servant called Baraka al Habašiya from Abyssinia (Sayyid b. Muhammad Sadiq 2001:275). Hiding behind a curtain in the mosque in Medina, Muhammad’s beloved wife Aiša saw some Abyssinians, called Ban l Arfida , an apparent tribal name, who were dancing and playing with their spears during a feast (al-BuĽari 2001:630, Kitab al-Manaqib, Bab qissat al-habaš, hadii no. 3520–30; ibid. 179, Kitab alidayn, Bab alhirab wad daraq yawm alid, hadii no. 949–50; an-Nawawi Muslim n.d., guzý 6, 433, hadii no. 892).

Muhammad apparently knew some Ethiopic, as in a tradition preserved by al-BuĽari (2001:1057, Kitab al Libas, Bab al-ţamisa as-sawdaý, hadii no. 5823) he pronounced the words sanah, sanah meaning ‘beautiful’ (s. also CRStor 210). The Quran has a number of Gééz loanwords. Some of them are not attested in early Arabian poetry and thus, probably, are taken directly from Gééz: notably, ragim ‘stoned, execrated’ Gééz régum ‘cursed, execrated’; gahannam ‘hell’  Gééz gahannam (Jeffery 1938:106, 139f.).

Islamic tradition mentions 37 sahaba (companions of the Prophet) who are said to have been of Abyssinian origin. 30 (25 men and 5 women) are known by name (Sayyid b. Muhammad Sadiq 2001:251–71, 273–78) while seven remain anonymous (ibid. 271–79). A certain number of them achieved an outstanding position in the history of early Islam: the first muýaîîin of Islam Bilal b. Rabah al-Habaši; Abī Bikra al Habaši,who transmitted 132 hadii of the Prophet; the nagaši’s nephew Îī MaĽmar (son of Asham[a]b. Abgar’s brother), who came to Arabia accompanying Gafar b. Abi Talib on his way home, and who also became a traditioner of hadii; and Wahši b. Harb who, when still a pagan fighting in the army of Qurayš, killed Muhammad’s uncle Hamza b. CAbdalmuttalib in the battle of Uhud (625),and later, converted to Islam by the Prophet, fought against Musaylama al-Kaďďab in the battle of Aqraba (634).

The emigration of some of Muhammad’s companions to al-Habaša in 615 (“the first higra”) paved the way for an intensification of the relationships. Probably in 620, when Muhammad was still in Mecca suffering from the political and economical pressure of the Qurayš pagans, a delegation made up of some 20 Christians, most likely from Ethiopia (although some traditions say they were from Nagran; Ibn Hišam ed. by at-Tadmuri 1987, vol. 2, 42; CRStor 210), came to visit him, apparently to ascertain his true nature. They met Muhammad in the haram of Mecca. After the Prophet read them some passages from the Quran, the Christians were so impressed that they eventually accepted Muhammad’s prophetic mission and even convinced his uncle Abī Gahl, a stubborn pagan. The Qurýan makes a direct reference to this episode in suras 28:52–55 and in 5:82–84. In Ibn Kaôir’s commentary on the Qurýan (Ibn Kaôir1994:380), a tradition transmitted by SaCid b. Gubayr is preserved, according to which the verses 28:52–55 were revealed to 70 priests whom the nagaši sent to the Prophet.

According to a tradition preserved by at Tabarani in the Mugam as saëir as quoted by as Suyīti in his Asbab annuzul (n.d., 291), 40 Abyssinians took part in the battle of Uhud against the pagans. Some of them were wounded. Seeing that the Muslims were very needy, they offered Muhammad to share their properties with them and therefore the Qurýanic verse 52:5 was revealed as a divine recognition of their faith and courage (s. also al-Baëawi 1992 vol. 4, 349, for a slightly different version: they were 40 Abyssinians who came together with Gafar b. Abi Talib).

The relationships between Muhammad and the nagaši are well known. The Prophet received gifts from the Ethiopian king, such as a Ÿanaza (a sort of spear) which Muhammad used when preaching the two feasts’ sermon (s. also CRStor 208) (according to other traditions [Ibn Sad n.d., vol. 1, 249], it was taken by Zubayr b. Awwam from Abyssinia), and a pair of black “simple” (saîig) shoes (ibid. 482). Muhammad also had a ring with a stone from al-Habaša (fassuhu habaši; ibid. 472; an-Nawawi Muslim n.d., guzý 14: 315, hadii no. 2094 speaks of a silver ring).

According to Ibn SaCd (n.d., vol. 1, 258f.), in the month of Muharram of 7 H. (628 A.D.), Muhammad sent Amr b.Umayya ad-Damri, who spoke Ethiopic, to the nagaši with two letters. The first letter called him to Islam, the second asked to arrange the wedding of the Prophet with Umm Habiba.

According to the tradition, the nagaši converted to Islam, arranged the wedding, put the letters inside an ivory case and said that Abyssinia will be in prosperity as long as the two letters remain inside it. At-Tabari (n.d., 652ff.) separates the two letters. He dates the mission of CAmr b. Umayya ad-Damri with one letter to the year 6 H., and mentions other details of the mission: the nagaši answered by a letter in which he openly accepted Islam and sent his son together with 60 companions to Muhammad, but they all perished in a sea wreck (s. also CRStor 209). Afterwards Muhammad sent what seems to be the second letter concerning the marriage to Umm Habiba; finally Umm Ha biba and the other emigrants went back to Arabia on two boats, reaching Muhammad while he was in an expedition against the oasis of Haybar (628). When the Prophet came to know of the death of the nagaši in 630, he prayed for him (an-Nawawi Muslim n.d., guzý 7, 25, hadii no. 951–53).

Muslims coming back from the Abyssinian higra brought back some information about the country. Thus, Umm Habiba and Umm Salama told M. that in al-Habaša they saw a church called Marya, in which a holy man was buried and his image was painted. M. commented that to bury saints inside churches and paint sacred images on church walls was the custom among these people, but that those who do so will be the worst people in front of God on the day of Judgement (an Nawawi Muslim n.d., guzý 6, 14, hadii no. 528).

Gafar b. Abi Talib’s wife, Asmaý bint Umays,who also participated in the higra, saw the use of the bier (naš) for deceased people. She took it back to Arabia and put it into practice for the first time on the occasion of the death of Fatima, Muhammad’s daughter (Ibn SaCd n.d., vol. 8, 28).

During the period of illness that was to last until Muhammad’s death, some of his wives together with other women and his uncle, al Abbas, decided to give the Prophet a medicine of apparently Abyssinian origin, called ladud (see Ibn Manzīr n.d., vol. 2, 357; Lane 1885, part 7, 2656f., for some observations on the meaning and origin of the word), to try to heal him. Made of seven ingredients, the ladud was put into the patient’s mouth on one side and rubbed in. It was brought to Medina by some women coming from Abyssinia (according to Ibn SaCd n.d., vol. 2, 236, by Asmaý bint Umays), and it seems to have been considered a good remedy for pleurisy (Ibn Hišam ed. by at-Tadmuri 1987, vol. 4, 300f.).

In Ethiopia, as elsewhere in the Islamic world,Muhammad is highly revered by the faithful. This devotion is clearly expressed in a large number of poems written in praise of the prophet by Ethiopian and foreign authors both in Arabic and in local languages (Drewes 2007). These poetical texts are commonly recited and sung in every important religious celebration and festival, especially during mawlid.

Christian Ethiopia is also well acquainted with Muhammad. Many traditions and legends on the life of Muhammad, the origin of his doctrine and the spread of his creed developed and are well attested in Gééz and Amharic texts (details and bibliography in Mittwoch 1915; Gori 1993 [1995]).

Source: 

Encyclopaedia-Aethiopica

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