Are Abyssinia and Ethiopia the same country? When was the country called Abyssinia and when was it called Ethiopia? Also, who were the Habashat?
Abyssinia and Ethiopia is the same country, and both terms are used interchangeably.
The term Aethiopia has been used by the ancient Greeks to describe the Sudanese and the Ethiopians, because the people were darker compared to them.[1] When the Aksumites conquered Sudan, southern Egypt, southern Arabia, and other parts of the horn of Africa they called themselves Ethiopians.
The Portuguese arrived in Ethiopia during the middle ages to assist in the kingdoms struggle against Islamization.[2] They heard the term Abesha a variant of Habesha being used by the people. They Latinized it to Abyssinia which became the name of the country in Europe.
For over two millenniums, the word ‘Habesha’ and its numerous variants (Habashat, Habasa, Habesh, Habeshi, Abesha), have been used to name geographical pockets of territory and people extending from the Arabian Peninsula to the furthest limits of the Horn of Africa region. Although the word is of great antiquity, there is no consensus on what it actually means, and who exactly is or isn’t Habesha.
From ancient Egyptian inscriptions to modern day usage; Habesha is a word that has persisted throughout history.
Most of the earliest inscriptions mentioning Habesha deal with wars, alliances and peace treaties among rivaling Yemeni kingdoms and the Habesha.
“Shamir of Dhu-Raydan and Himyar had called in the help of the clans of Habashat for war against the kings of Saba; but Almaqah granted … the submission of Shamir of Dhu-Raydan and the clans of Habashat.”[3]
This inscription tells us that Shamir of Dhu-Raydan, who is almost certainly the Himyarite king Shamir Yuhahmid, requested assistance from the Habashat clans to go to war with Saba, a rivaling Yemeni kingdom.
The inscription also credits Almaqah[4] who was the moon God that polytheistic inhabitants on both sides of the Red Sea worshiped, for granting them victory over their Sabaean rivals.
Almaqah temples, and imagery
A video of an ancient war report (as part of a dedicational inscription) about two Sabaean-Himyarite kings – Il-Sharah Yahdhib and Ya’zil Bayyin – who fought the Ethiopians/Habesha and their allies of the Sahirat tribe in Tihama, the Red Sea coast in Eastern Yemen.
In the Horn of Africa during the 4th century the Aksumite king Ezana after conquering neighboring kingdoms and territories on both sides of the Red Sea styled himself as:
Ezana, king of Aksum, and of Himyar, and Kasu, and Saba, and Habashat, and Raydan, and Salhen and Tsiamo, and Beja, the King of Kings.
In reference to Ezana’s inscription, Professor Max Müller, a German philologist, believed the King of the Habashat had no common territory with the King of Aksum and the two kingdoms were separate appeared evident to him.
After the Aksumite kingdom had ended Arab travelers and geographers described the Horn region and its inhabitants as Habeshas.
The first among these travelers was Al-Ya’qubi, who visited the region in 872 CE. From his chronicles, we learn there were five independent and rivaling Beja kingdoms in present-day Eritrea and that ‘Habeshas’ were living alongside them. He also mentions an important Habesha capital near the Eritrean coast called Ku’bar.
Al-Ya`qubi describes the Eritrean highlands and seacoast as:
a vast and powerful country. Its royal town is Kubar. The Arabs go their to trade. They have big towns and their sea coast is called Dahlak. All the kings of the Habasha country are subject to the Great King (al-malik al-azam) and are careful to obey him and pay tribute.[5]
Decades later, Al-Masudi, a tenth-century Arab traveler to the region, gives a similar account in his geographical work Muruj al-Dhahab, theMeadows of Gold’.
“The chief town of the Habasha is called Ku`bar, which is a large town and the residence of the najashi [nagassi; king], whose empire extends to the coasts opposite the Yemen, and possesses such towns as Zayla, Dahlak and Nasi.” [8]
Centuries later in 1295 CE, another Arab traveler, Al-Harrani, writes about a Somali city:
Zayla, a town on the coast of the Red Sea, is a very populous commercial centre. . . . Opposite al-Yaman there is also a big town, which is the sea-port from which the Habasha crossed the sea to al-Yaman, and nearby is the island ofAql”
It should be noted that Habesha was frequently used as a mere geographical expression by early Arab and European travelers. As a geographical expression, it was once convenient, and representative of deep-seated ignorance of the region as a whole, although they may also have been informed by local indigenous knowledge.[6]
Habesha People[7] [8] [9]
Jaawwii.org 