Emir Abdullahi of Harar
Seiffe Tadesse
You had claimed that Emir Abdullahi (your grandfather) of Harar was a
Somali, not an Adere (an Ethiopian ethnic group), and that you had the
proof. I am still waiting to hear your story. Or, should I assume that
my speculation was right on the mark?
Cheers...
AHirad
Your uncle, Menelik, himself proved that when, in Feb 1887, he took
revenge for the 16th century conquest of Abyssinia by the Kingdom of Adel
and wrote the following letter to the British Resident in Aden:
"From Menelik King of Shoa, and of all the Gallas good and bad! How are
you? By the Grace of God I am well! Amir Abdullahi would suffer no
Christian in his country. He was another Grange [Immam Ahmed ibn Ibrahim
al-Ghazi (Ahmed Gurey)]. But by the help of God I fought him, destroyed
him, and he escaped on horseback. I hoisted my flag on HIS capital and my
troop occupied HIS city. Grange died. Abdillahi in our day was his
successor. This is not a Muslim country, as everyone knows!"
Without resorting to emotianally induced diatribe, I am able and willing
to stop any argument an Ethiopian puts forward dead on its tracks, but
what good would that be if, my own Somali countrymen are deraling the
Somali train. Betrayel! Disappointment!
Regards,
Hirad
im...@isl.net
waa yaab war halkan baadba ku wanaagsantay. Now you are getting it.
getting tired hassaling with your countrymen. libery.
Seiffe Tadesse
> AHirad wrote:
> > Your uncle, Menelik, himself proved that when, in Feb 1887, he took
> > revenge for the 16th century conquest of Abyssinia by the Kingdom of Adel
> > and wrote the following letter to the British Resident in Aden:
> >
> > "From Menelik King of Shoa, and of all the Gallas good and bad! How are
> > you? By the Grace of God I am well! Amir Abdullahi would suffer no
> > Christian in his country. He was another Grange [Immam Ahmed ibn Ibrahim
> > al-Ghazi (Ahmed Gurey)]. But by the help of God I fought him, destroyed
> > him, and he escaped on horseback. I hoisted my flag on HIS capital and my
> > troop occupied HIS city. Grange died. Abdillahi in our day was his
> > successor. This is not a Muslim country, as everyone knows!"
What an illustrative quote! Can you show me where in this quote of
yours that says Gragn and Amir Abdullahi were Somalis? In case you did
not grasp it, Menelik was talking about similar deeds committed by
these two fellows, namely, the persecution of christians under their
rule, and that this deed was used as an excuse to boot the Amir. While
the possibility of a blood relation between the two fellows might not
have been lost on Menelik, he certainly knew that both were not
Somalis.
Well, instead of me refuting your erroneous, if not ridiculous, claims
why don't we hear straight from the mouth of Lewis, the god-father of
Somalian history:
"The origins of Ahmad Gragn are appropriately
obscure....According
to one legend in Ethiopia, Ahmad Gragn was the issue of a
Coptic
priest and a muslim harlot. A recent writer has more
seriously
suggested that the Imam [Gragn] may have belonged to a
section of
the Beja tribes..... Somali contingents played a notable
part in
the Imam's victories ......."
In short, Gragn was not a Somali but some Somali soldiers had fought
for him.
FYI, Gragn was an Adal or Afar with some arabic blood.
I think the reason you guys are insisting on making Gragn and Amir
Abdullahi Somalis is because writers like Lewis had promiscuously used
the careers of these two fellows to spice up pre-colonial Somali
history.
Cheers...
AHirad
During my college days, I told my Ethiopian roommate what we, Somalis,
call the Ethiopians when they are sitting next table so as not make them
understand that we are gossiping about them. I told him, we call you
"deriska" (neighbors). I, in turn, asked him why they, Ethiopians, call
the Somalis and he said "the enemy". Melaku Hebtamariam, Ndelle, Addiso,
Waldo, and many others ones confirmed this, but that was not an issue for
us.
I also asked them, why the Habasha serve raw meat (dipped in spice) at
their social gathering. He said, there was one time Habasha were unable
to cook anything and they were forced to eat raw meat. Therefore, this
practice became some sort of sacrosanct tradition for the Habasha.
The man who made the Habasha resort to raw meat was Immam Ahmed ibn
Ibrahim al-Ghazi (1506-43) nicknamed Gran "the left handed" (Gurey to
Somalis). Even today, he is a Legend in Ethiopia and is used to scare
grown up Habasha. Ahmed Gurey embarked on a conquest which brought
three-quarters of Abyssinia into the power of the Muslim (mostly Somali)
Kingdom of Adal from 1529-43 when Gurey was killed and his army defeated
by Abyssinians, supported (as always, the European powers) by the
Portuguese, at Wayna Daga near Lake Tana.
Emir Abdullahi and Immam Ahmed were as Somalis as they get and until I
hear to the contrary they will be Somali heroes to me. Neither your
jejune blah blahs nor your piecemeal quotes of Lewis (Loyalist to Queen
than telling truth about history and not god father of mine at all) is
going to refute that. I've tons of history to illustrate that their
identity, but it is up to you to dig out your own research paper, not in
this forum.
BTW, I don't want to get into protracted debate with you, because it is
red herring to other pressing issues within Somalia. I, for one, don't
have anything against Ethiopia other than letting Somalis in Ogaden decide
their future--Self determination. Whether they join greater Somalia,
Ethiopia or greater Horn of Africa is up to them. Nothing more and
nothing less.
With regards,
Hirad.
Seiffe Tadesse
In article <4m08lu$q...@newsbf02.news.aol.com>
ahi...@aol.com (AHirad) writes:
> During my college days, I told my Ethiopian roommate what we, Somalis,
> call the Ethiopians when they are sitting next table so as not make them
> understand that we are gossiping about them. I told him, we call you
> "deriska" (neighbors). I, in turn, asked him why they, Ethiopians, call
> the Somalis and he said "the enemy". Melaku Hebtamariam, Ndelle,
> Addiso, Waldo, and many others ones confirmed this,
Dear Hirad:
Well, I have to admit that this is the first time I heard that the
Ethiopians use the label "enemy" to refer to Somalis. Probably, because
they never did. The only label that I know of that Ethiopians use when
refering to Somalis is "Sumale", which is nothing but the Amharic way
of saying Somali. But, it is true that after the 1977 battle Somalia
was considered the enemy of Ethiopia and sections of the Ethio-Somalis
who collaborated with the Siyad Barre regime in exterminating
non-Somalis from the province of Hararge were considered as enemies. I
think that is quite logical.
> I also asked them, why the Habasha serve raw meat (dipped in spice) at
> their social gathering. He said, there was one time Habasha were unable
> to cook anything and they were forced to eat raw meat. Therefore, this
> practice became some sort of sacrosanct tradition for the Habasha.
Then the fellow who told you that story doesn't know his culture. If
you bought that explanation without some questions, then it also
reflects on your intellect. Anyway, if you are interested here is the
real reason why eating raw meat has become part of the Ethiopian
culture:
Have you ever eaten raw meat? Can you imagine eating raw meat? You
might be exclaiming Yuck! right now. You probably think it won't sit
well in your stomach. You see, if you think the raw meat will make you
sick, then you are considered a man of weak stomach, a person who isn't
tough enough, a person who can't become a WARRIOR. There is your
answer! Eating raw meat is associated with the warrior, that is with a
man worthy of being called a MAN. If you can't eat raw meat you are not
man enough! If you are interested, I can recommend some anthropological
studies on Ethiopia that will corroborate what I just said. I also
recommend eating raw meat with some chilli sauce, if you have never
tried it before. But ask some pros first, any kind of meat from any
part of the body is not enjoyable! Who knows you might end up hooked to
it. :)
It is really absured to associate eating raw meat in the Ethiopian
culture with being primitive/barbaric, which some folks in this forum
would like it to be, or with Ethiopian people's inability to use fire.
For God'd sake, Ethiopia has 3000+ years of civilization!!!!!!!!
> The man who made the Habasha resort to raw meat was Immam Ahmed ibn
> Ibrahim al-Ghazi (1506-43) nicknamed Gran "the left handed" (Gurey to
> Somalis).
Come on Hirad! You know better than that. Or did I think too highly of
you? :) Couldn't they drop the habit after Gragn was killed, if indeed
he was the one who made them resort to raw-meat-eating? Or, are you
suggesting that the poor Ethiopians were so oohhhh scared of Gragn that
even after he was killed they were afraid of his ghost?
> Even today, he is a Legend in Ethiopia and is used to scare
> grown up Habasha.
He sure is an infamous legend, but again you are trying to get too much
mileage out of it.
> Ahmed Gurey embarked on a conquest which brought
> three-quarters of Abyssinia into the power of the Muslim (mostly Somali)
> Kingdom of Adal from 1529-43 when Gurey was killed and his army defeated
> by Abyssinians, supported (as always, the European powers) by the
> Portuguese, at Wayna Daga near Lake Tana.
You are allowing yourself to conveniently forget that Gragn was no
Somali and the Somalis made up only a fraction of his soldiers, and
that he had Turks and Arabs fighting for him, more importantly he had
modern arms, especially cannons which the Abyssinians didn't.
> Emir Abdullahi and Immam Ahmed were as Somalis as they get and until I
> hear to the contrary they will be Somali heroes to me. Neither your
> jejune blah blahs nor your piecemeal quotes of Lewis (Loyalist to Queen
> than telling truth about history and not god father of mine at all)
I am glad that there is at least one Somali out there who can see what
Lewis stands for. And I will let the issue of the identity of Gragn and
Abdullahi rest, hoping it will be settled by a genuine Somali historian
who is after the truth and nothing but the truth.
> BTW, I don't want to get into protracted debate with you, because it is
> red herring to other pressing issues within Somalia. I, for one, don't
> have anything against Ethiopia other than letting Somalis in Ogadendecide
> their future--Self determination. Whether they join greater Somalia,
> Ethiopia or greater Horn of Africa is up to them. Nothing more and
> nothing less.
I respect your wish and will not post on this thread anymore. I too
don't have anything against Somalis or their aspirations so long as it
doesn't come at the expense of Ethiopia.
Best Regards,
Seiffe
AHirad
Seiffe....@dartmouth.edu (Seiffe Tadesse) writes:
>I respect your wish and will not post on this thread anymore. I too
>don't have anything against Somalis or their aspirations so long as it
>doesn't come at the expense of Ethiopia.
-----
Tadesse:
Fine with me. We shouldn't advance our wishes against each others'
expense, alas Ethiopia did that many times in the past. However, why
fight the past battles and dwell too much on the past. Let us move
forward in the name of our people without resorting to mud and dirt. We
have tons of catching up to do. We should think about the whole Horn,
even though, that would be difficult for the time being for some of the
people in the Horn are not free to choose, such as the Somalis in Ogaden.
With best regards,
Hirad