Becoming Muslim: The Archaeology of Islamisation and Trade in Eastern Ethiopia

Abstract

Since 2015, excavations in the abandoned city of Harlaa located 120 km from the Red Sea coast, and occupied between the 7th–15th centuries AD, have provided significant new information on the role of Ethiopia in the medieval Islamic World. Harlaa was an important gateway for Islam, and an entrepot supplying maritime and land-based trade networks, based on industries such as mining, and jewellery production in dedicated workshops. The wealth of Harlaa appears to have been immense, with elaborate stone-built architecture, and material such as glass vessels, glass and semi-precious stone beads, copper and silver coins, Chinese and Middle Eastern ceramics, and shell imported from India, Sri Lanka, Egypt, Iran, Central Asia, and Yemen. Burial, dietary, and epigraphic evidence indicate a cosmopolitan community, Muslim and non-Muslim, and one that was instrumental in the gradual Islamisation of eastern Ethiopia. It also seems to have been responsible for the founding of Harar. Archaeology indicates that rather than being peripheral, medieval Ethiopia had an important role within the Islamic world.

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