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 ...

and

Eritrea Eritrea ( ; ti, ኤርትራ, Ertra, ; ar, إرتريا, ʾIritriyā), officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa region of Eastern Africa, with its capital and largest city at Asmara. It is bordered by Ethiopia ...

, the terms Tukrīr (

Amharic Amharic ( or ; (Amharic: ), ', ) is an Ethiopian Semitic language, which is a subgrouping within the Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic languages. It is spoken as a first language by the Amharas, and also serves as a lingua franca for all oth ...

) and Tukrir ( Tigrinya) are used to designate persons of

West West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sunset, Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic languages, German ...

Central Africa Central Africa is a subregion of the African continent comprising various countries according to different definitions. Angola, Burundi, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of the Congo, ...

n origin. The terms derives from the city and kingdom of

Takrūr Takrur, Tekrur or Tekrour ( 800 – c. 1285) was an ancient state of West Africa, which flourished roughly parallel to the Ghana Empire. Origin Takrur was the capital of the state which flourished on the lower Senegal River. Takruri was ...

that thrived on the lower

Senegal River ,french: Fleuve Sénégal) , name_etymology = , image = Senegal River Saint Louis.jpg , image_size = , image_caption = Fishermen on the bank of the Senegal River estuary at the outskirts of Saint-Louis, Senegal ...

in the eleventh century. The place was well-known to

Arab geographers Medieval Islamic geography and cartography refer to the study of geography and cartography in the Muslim world during the Islamic Golden Age (variously dated between the 8th century and 16th century). Muslim scholars made advances to the map-maki ...

, and an inhabitant of Takrūr or of West Africa in general was called in

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...

a Takrūrī (plural Takārīr or Takārna) from the 14th century onward. The ''

nisba The Arabic word nisba (; also transcribed as ''nisbah'' or ''nisbat'') may refer to: * Nisba, a suffix used to form adjectives in Arabic grammar, or the adjective resulting from this formation **comparatively, in Afro-Asiatic: see Afroasiatic_lang ...

'' al-Takrūrī was a common surname for one of West African descent. The Ethiopian terms are derived from the Arabic.Wolbert Smidt
"Tukrir"
in Siegbert Uhlig and Alessandro Bausi (eds.), '' Encyclopaedia Aethiopica'', Vol. 4: O-X (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2010), pp. 998–1000. The Tukrīr primarily inhabit the western edge of the Ethiopian Highlands. They are overwhelmingly

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 ...

. They are mainly Fulani and Hausa in origin from the region of the former

Kanem–Bornu Empire The Kanem–Bornu Empire existed in areas which are now part of Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon and Chad. It was known to the Arabian geographers as the Kanem Empire from the 8th century AD onward and lasted as the independent kingdom of Bornu (the B ...

. There were two major periods of immigration from West Africa to Ethiopia. The first coincided with the

Fula jihads The Fula (or Fulani) jihads ( ar, جهاد الفولا) sometimes called the Fulani revolution were a series of jihads that occurred across West Africa during the 18th and 19th centuries, led largely by the Muslim Fula people. The jihads and ...

that lasted from 1804 until 1842; the second with the

Scramble for Africa The Scramble for Africa, also called the Partition of Africa, or Conquest of Africa, was the invasion, annexation, division, and colonisation of Africa, colonization of most of Africa by seven Western Europe, Western European powers during a ...

, when West Africa was colonized by Europeans between 1885 and 1914. In the 19th century there was a Tukrīr sheikhdom with its capital at

Metemma Metemma (Amharic: መተማ), also known as Metemma Yohannes is a town in northwestern Ethiopia, on the border with Sudan. Located in the Semien Gondar Zone of the Amhara Region, Metemma has a latitude and longitude of with an elevation of 685 ...

, sometimes owing tribute to Ethiopia and at other times to

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

. It ended up dominated by

Fur Fur is a thick growth of hair that covers the skin of mammals. It consists of a combination of oily guard hair on top and thick underfur beneath. The guard hair keeps moisture from reaching the skin; the underfur acts as an insulating blanket t ...

from the nearby Sultanate of Darfur. It sided with the Mahdists during the

Mahdist War The Mahdist War ( ar, الثورة المهدية, ath-Thawra al-Mahdiyya; 1881–1899) was a war between the Mahdist Sudanese of the religious leader Muhammad Ahmad bin Abd Allah, who had proclaimed himself the "Mahdi" of Islam (the "Guided On ...

against Ethiopia (1885–1891) and disappeared with the Mahdists' defeat. The term Fallāta (from Fulani) has largely replaced Takārīr in the

Sudan Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic t ...

as a term for immigrants from West Africa.

Notes

References

{{authority control Ethnic groups in Ethiopia Ethnic groups in Eritrea Senegambian ethnic groups