ভূমিকা

Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Background of the Birth of Islam Abyssinia Before the Birth of Islam Following the study of the close neighbours of Arabia, namely Iran and Egypt, our discussion turns to Abyssinia which has an important role in the history of Islam in comparison with other neighbours.

a) General Conditions Geographically there has been only a minor variation between the Abyssinia of the past and the present; it included the Eritrean coast on the Red Sea as well as British Sumalia and French Sumalia which have now become independent, a well as a part of the Sudan. Abyssinia of that time was an extensive realm with an old history, but its civilisation did not even equal the level of the other neighbours of Arabia, and was at par with Yemen.

The rulers and people of Abyssinia belonged to a race south and west of the Red Sea, who were called the 'Habish' and 'Habash'. In early Islam the word 'Habish' was applied to those who came to Mecca from this region, and from that word the word Abyssinia is derived, a word which is closer to its root than Ethiopia which is now used for that country in European languages and papers and other publications.

It was applied to those who migrated from the shores of the Red Sea to this land, and settled there. Abyssinia itself is an extensive land having various natural divisions. A considerable part of it is desert with little agriculture and parse population; the other part has high mountains and mountainous land with abundant water and trees, with gold, silver and copper mines and flourishing agriculture. About one thousand years B.C. Abyssinia had a central government.

I mention this point to show that all the neighbours of Arabia including Hira and Ghassan had a central government, while Hejaz, the birthplace of Islam, lacked an organised government and was socially well behind all the countries surrounding it. Yet it made a sudden leap forward to establish a central government and its own special quality of democracy and freedom. What I would like to do is to see how did all this take place in such a short span of time, and what caused this quick change?

And to what extent does it influence our life today? In Abyssinia numerous races existed in a scattered way, with their local governments. At the same time Abyssinia had central monarchy which was strong and powerful enough to be obeyed by the neighbouring rulers, and here and there also existed autonomous governments.