Islam in the Land of Bilal: The Rich Heritage of Ethiopia’s Muslims

Today nearly a third of Ethiopians are Muslims. At around 37 million, that’s a larger Muslim population than many Middle Eastern countries. According to Islamic tradition, fourteen centuries ago the first person appointed by the Prophet Muhammad to call Muslims to prayer was an Ethiopian called Bilal ibn Rabbah. Moreover, some of the Prophet’s companions sought refuge in the Ethiopian Christian kingdom of Axum. Over the following centuries, Islam spread to other regions and ethnic groups in what is now Ethiopia, developing a rich tradition of manuscript written in Arabic and local languages alike. Using the Arabic script (or more recently the Fidäl script), Islamic manuscripts were written in languages as varied as Somali, Harari, Oromo, Afar and Tigrinya. This episode explores the multilingual manuscripts, Sufi traditions, and modern technologies through which Ethiopia’s Muslims have maintained their religious and cultural heritage from the time of Bilal to today.  Nile Green talks to Alessandro Gori, co-editor of The Writings of the Muslim Peoples of Northeastern Africa (Brill, 2022).