Ifat (historical region)

According to thirteenth century Arab geographer Ibn Sa'id al-Maghribi, Ifat was alternatively known as Jabarta.^[6]

In the fourteenth century Al Umari mentioned seven cities or domains within Ifat: Biqulzar, Adal, Shewa, Kwelgora, Shimi, Jamme and Laboo.^[7]

Ifat designated the Muslim dominated portion of Shewa in Abyssinia according to post seventeenth century Harari texts, its territory extended from the Shewan uplands east, towards the Awash River.^[8]

During Islam's inception tradition states the Banu Makhzum and Umayyad coalitions quarreled in Ifat.^[9][10] According to historian Enrico Cerulli, in thirteenth century Sultan Umar Walasma founded the Ifat Sultanate in Ifat after overthrowing the Makhzumi dynasty and subsequently invading states of Hubat, Gidaya, Hargaya etc.^[11] The later Ifat rulers who are described as zealous would expand their dominion from Zequalla in eastern Shewa to Zeila on the coast of Somalia thus the Muslim dominated regions of the Horn of Africa would be known as Ifat up to the fourteenth century.^[12][13] In 1328 during Emperor Amda Seyon of Ethiopia's crusades, the territory of Ifat was invaded and incorporated into his empire after defeating its sultan Haqq ad-Din I's forces in battle.^[14] Ifat would lose its prominence as the Muslim power in the region to Adal following the Abyssinian annexation of its dominion.^[15]

In the mid fourteenth century Ifat leader Jamal ad-Din I would rebel against Abyssinia by forming an alliance with the Adal leader Salih to battle the forces of the emperor Amda Seyon.^[16] In the late fourteenth century, Ifat rebel leaders Haqq ad-Din II and Sa'ad ad-Din II transferred their base to Adal in the Harar region founding the Adal Sultanate.^[17][18] These two Walasma princes exiled from Ifat had moved to an area around Harar which today Argobba and Harari speakers exist.^[19] According to Harari tradition numerous Argobba people had fled Ifat, and settled around Harar in the Aw Abdal lowlands during their conflict with Abyssinia in the fifteenth century, a gate was thus named after them called the gate of Argobba.^[20] According to Ayele Tariku, in the mid-1400s emperor Zara Yaqob assigned a military battalion in Ifat region following his successful defence of the frontier from the attacks of Adal Sultanate.^[21]

According to sixteenth century Adal writer Arab Faqīh, Ifat was governed by the Adalite, Abūn b. ‘Uthmān following its conquest by the Adal Sultanate during the Ethiopian-Adal war.^[22] During Ifat peoples conflicts with Oromo in the early seventeenth century, the Ifat Muslim leaders formed an alliance with Christian rulers of Shewa however the region much like neighboring modern Bale, Fatagar, Angot and others would eventually succumb to the Oromo.^[23][24] In the eighteenth century, slave and salt commerce was active in Ifat mainly Wollo where its reported Afar brokers would transport them to Tadjoura on the coast.^[25] Later in the nineteenth century Ifat towns such as Aliyu Amba were major centers facilitating trade between Abyssinia and the Emirate of Harar.^[26][27] Under the reign of Shewan king Sahle Selassie, the appointed Muslim Ifat governors were Hussain of Argobba, and his father Walasma Mohamed who professed their origin from the Walasma dynasty of the middle ages.^[28]

Ifat was also the site of forceful conversions of Muslims to Christianity by then Shewa king Menelik II under the orders of emperor Yohannes IV.^[29] French writer Élisée Reclus in 1890 describes the fate of the initial inhabitants and dwellings of Ifat:^[30]

As in Abyssinia properly so-called, the Shoa Mahommedans have been forcibly converted. They were formerly very numerous, and the name of Jiberti, by which they are known throughout Abyssinia, is a reminiscence of their holy city of Jabarta in Ifat, which has since disappeared.

In 1896 rebel leader of Ifat, Talha Jafar led a revolt with the support of local Afar, Oromo, Argobba, Warjih and Amhara Muslims in the region, he had also made attempts to reach out to the ruler of Sudan known as the "Khalifah al-Mahdi", this forced Menelik now emperor of Ethiopia to send an army to confront the insurgents. Talha would however successfully negotiate a peace treaty with the emperor which ended hostilities a year later.^[31][32] According to historian Hussein Ahmed, Talha deceived the emperor into presuming he had a large force backing his rebellion, when in fact they were diminutive.^[33]

In 1958 Ifat sub-province was called Yifat & Timuga with Menz and Gishe becoming their own zone.^[34]

In 2007, a French archeologist team discovered numerous ruined towns 20km east of Shewa Robit near the western bank of the Awash River. The most notable were the towns of Asbari, Nora and Awfāt, the latter identified as being the capital of the former Ifat state. The ancient ruins discovered included a mosque, a reservoir for water, and a necropolis dedicated to the Walashma Dynasty, all dated back to the 14th and 15th centuries. In Asbari and Nora most of the housing were grouped around two large stone mosques, their access was enclosed by walls and a hydrographic system, marked by slight depressions sloping into a thalweg. The funeral epigraphy of the oldest tomb notes that it is of a "sheikh of the Walasma" dated to April 1364, while another is of Sultan Ali ibn Sabr ad-Din dated to June 1373. Sometime in the 16th century, these towns were abandoned, local Argobba accredit Arabs for building the structures.^[35][36] The dwellings resemble Argobba or Harari historical building designs.^[37]

 

The Argobba people are believed to originate from Ifat and were living alongside the people of Doba in the region.^[38][39] Argobba, Harari, Wolane and Siltʼe people, appear to have represented major populations of Ifat in the Middle Ages.^[40][41] The bulk of Ifat's population also included nomadic pastoralist ethnic groups, such as the Afar and the Warjih.^[42] The inhabitants of Ifat were the first to be recorded using Khat in the fourteenth century.^[43]

Medieval Arabic texts indicate Ethiopian Semitic languages were spoken by the people of Ifat however Cerulli states these speakers were soon replaced by Afar and Somali.^[44][45]