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Sheikh Hussein is a town in south-eastern
Ethiopia
Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...
. Located in the
Bale Zone
(Oromo language, Oromo: Aaana ''Baalee'') is a Zones of Ethiopia, zone in Oromia Region of Ethiopia.
Bale is bordered on the south by the Ganale Dorya River which separates it from Guji Zone, on the west by the West Arsi Zone, on the north by Ar ...
of the
Oromia Region
Oromia (Amharic: ) ( om, Oromiyaa) is a regional state in Ethiopia and the homeland of the Oromo people. The capital of Oromia is Addis Ababa.
It is bordered by the Somali Region to the east; the Amhara Region, the Afar Region and the Benish ...
, it has a longitude and latitude of with an elevation of 1386 meters above sea level. The
Central Statistical Agency
The Central Statistical Agency (CSA; Amharic: ማዕከላዊ ስታቲስቲክስ ኤጀንሲ) is an agency of the government of Ethiopia designated to provide all surveys and censuses for that country used to monitor economic and social growth ...
has not published an estimate for this town's 2005 population.
Overview
On 23 December 2007, ''Addis Fortune'' reported that SATCON Construction, an Ethiopian-owned firm, completed a four-year effort to build a 170 kilometer road through the mountainous area of the Oromia connecting Sheikh Hussein with the town of
Micheta, located in the
Darolebu woreda of the
West Hararghe Zone
West Hararge () is a zone in the Oromia Region of Ethiopia. West Hararghe takes its name from the former province of Hararghe. West Harerge is bordered on the south by the Shebelle River which separates it from Bale, on the southwest by Arsi, o ...
. The road was formally inaugurated 19 December.
Arthur Donaldson Smith
Arthur Donaldson Smith (1866–1939) was an American physician, hunter, and explorer of Africa. In the 1890s he made a geological expedition to Lake Rudolph (now Lake Turkana), passing through what was then Somaliland, southern Ethiopia and Kenya ...
arrived at Sheikh Hussein 21 September 1894, where he spent several days, and afterwards his companion visited the tomb of Sheikh Hussein's assistant Sheikh Mohammed.
Tomb of the saint
The town is named after what, in some Ethiopian
Muslim
Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...
eyes, is the most sacred place in that country: the
tomb
A tomb ( grc-gre, τύμβος ''tumbos'') is a :wikt:repository, repository for the remains of the dead. It is generally any structurally enclosed interment space or burial chamber, of varying sizes. Placing a corpse into a tomb can be ...
of the thirteenth century
Somali saint from
Merca
Merca ( so, Marka, Maay Maay, Maay: ''Marky'', ar, مركة) is a historic port city in the southern Lower Shebelle province of Somalia. It is located approximately to the southwest of the nation's capital Mogadishu. Merca is the traditional home ...
called
Sheikh Hussein
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Sheikh Hussein is a town in south-eastern Ethiopia. Located in the Bale Zone of the Oromia Region, it has a longitude and latitude of with an elevation of 1386 meters above sea level. The Central Statistical Agency has not published a ...
, who introduced
Islam
Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...
to the
Sidamo people living in the area at the time.
He is also credited for founding and establishing the
Sultanate of Bale
The Sultanate of Bale was a Sidama Muslim sultanate founded in the Bale Mountains of the southern Ethiopian Highlands and Horn of Africa. It corresponds roughly to the modern Bale Zone of the Oromia Region in Ethiopia.
History Establishment
The ...
and is said to have performed many miracles.
A number of these miracles have been recorded in a
hagiography
A hagiography (; ) is a biography of a saint or an ecclesiastical leader, as well as, by extension, an adulatory and idealized biography of a founder, saint, monk, nun or icon in any of the world's religions. Early Christian hagiographies migh ...
published in Cairo in the 1920s, entitled ''Rabi` al-Qulub.'' Although this town is now within the homelands of the
Oromo people
The Oromo (pron. Oromo language, Oromo: ''Oromoo'') are a Cushitic people, Cushitic ethnic group native to the Oromia region of Ethiopia and parts of Northern Kenya, who speak the Oromo language (also called ''Afaan Oromoo'' or ''Oromiffa''), ...
, it has continued to be the destination of approximately 50,000 pilgrims from Muslim Ethiopia twice a year during the Muslim months of
Hajj
The Hajj (; ar, حَجّ '; sometimes also spelled Hadj, Hadji or Haj in English) is an annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, the holiest city for Muslims. Hajj is a mandatory religious duty for Muslims that must be carried ...
and
Rabi' al-Awwal.
[J. Spencer Trimingham, ''Islam in Ethiopia'' (Oxford: Geoffrey Cumberlege for the University Press, 1952), pp. 253-256.] The first pilgrimage is to commemorate his birth, the second his death. They traditionally carry cleft sticks known as "Oulle Sheikh Hussein", which are too small to serve as walking sticks and are not utilized for any practical purpose. Once they arrive at the shrine, the pilgrims take their turns entering the saint's tomb by crawling through a small doorway.
["Local History in Ethiopia"]
The Nordic Africa Institute website (accessed 3 December 2007)
The extensive religious complex dedicated to the saint includes the town and the nearby valley of Kachamsare. In the 18th century,
Emir
Emir (; ar, أمير ' ), sometimes transliterated amir, amier, or ameer, is a word of Arabic origin that can refer to a male monarch, aristocrat, holder of high-ranking military or political office, or other person possessing actual or cerem ...
`Abd al-Shakur ibn Yusuf of
Harar
Harar ( amh, ሐረር; Harari: ሀረር; om, Adare Biyyo; so, Herer; ar, هرر) known historically by the indigenous as Gey (Harari: ጌይ ''Gēy'', ) is a walled city in eastern Ethiopia. It is also known in Arabic as the City of Saint ...
constructed a shrine to the Baghdadi saint `
Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani
ʿAbdul Qādir Gīlānī, ( ar, عبدالقادر الجيلاني, ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jīlānī; fa, ) known by admirers as Muḥyī l-Dīn Abū Muḥammad b. Abū Sāliḥ ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jīlānī al-Baḡdādī al-Ḥasanī al-Ḥusayn ...
near the tomb of Sheikh Hussein, inside the shrine compound. A
graveyard
A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite or graveyard is a place where the remains of dead people are buried or otherwise interred. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek , "sleeping place") implies that the land is specifically designated as a buri ...
has also been consecrated as part of the complex.
[ Other landmarks of the complex include the pond of Dinkiro, 300 meters south of the mosque, built in dry stone masonry; associated with the pond is a spring with "miraculous" water. At the entrance of the holy area are two wild fig trees called ''kiltu'' (identified as '']Ficus sycomorus
''Ficus sycomorus'', called the sycamore fig or the fig-mulberry (because the leaves resemble those of the mulberry), sycamore, or sycomore, is a fig species that has been cultivated since ancient times.
The term ''sycamore'' spelled with an A ...
'') in the Oromo language
Oromo ( or ; Oromo: ''Afaan Oromoo''), in the linguistic literature of the early 20th century also called Galla (a name with a pejorative meaning and therefore rejected by the Oromo people), is an Afroasiatic language that belongs to the Cushiti ...
. Near another pond, of Imaro, there is the mosque of Sheikh Hussein's father, both with a ''gubba'' of Harar type. Also nearby are several caves—a "cave of serpents", a "cave of herbs", and a "cave of honey"—and rock formations said to be petrified persons.[
]
References
Further reading
* I.M. Lewis, "The Western Somali Liberation Front
The Western Somali Liberation Front ( so, Jabhadda Xoreynta Somali Galbeed; abbreviated WSLF) was a separatist rebel group fighting in eastern Ethiopia to create an independent state. It played a major role in the Ogaden War of 1977-78 assisting ...
(WSLF) and the Legacy of Sheikh Hussein of Bale" in Tubiana, Joseph (ed.). ''Modern Ethiopia from the Accession of Menelik II
, spoken = ; ''djānhoi'', lit. ''"O steemedroyal"''
, alternative = ; ''getochu'', lit. ''"Our master"'' (pl.)
Menelik II ( gez, ዳግማዊ ምኒልክ ; horse name Abba Dagnew (Amharic: አባ ዳኘው ''abba daññäw''); 17 A ...
to the Present''. Rotterdam: Balkema, 1980.
External links
An ''Addis Tribune'' article on the Sof Omar Caves
* Jeylan W. Hussein, {{small, (259 KiB
The byte is a unit of digital information that most commonly consists of eight bits. Historically, the byte was the number of bits used to encode a single character of text in a computer and for this reason it is the smallest addressable unit ...
), ''African Study Monographs'', 26(1): 15-58, March 2005, especially. pp. 32–46.
Islamic holy places
Islam in Ethiopia
Monuments and memorials in Ethiopia
Populated places in the Oromia Region