alternatehistory.com

"Ethiopia is the despair of the compulsive classifier"
-Abraham Demoz

The Abridged History of Al-Habashah: From Axum to Abyssinia
By Taym Ansary

In the Beginning...


Developments around 2000BC would see the first introduction of the Cushite speaking peoples into the region.

*The North Cushite speaking peoples such as the Blemmyes and Beja would move into the Red Sea lowlands as primarily nomads of the relatively infertile region.

*Central Cushite speaking peoples would largely form the Agew tribes across the North-Western Plateau Highlands where they practiced forms of plow cultivation.

*The East Cushite speaking peoples went south of the Great Rift where over two dozen historically recorded tribes would practice the Gada system of hereditary government.

Semitic influences would begin around 1000BC but even today how exactly they came into the region are rather on the obscure side. It is known that the Semetic wave of this period split into one group which headed into the Northern Plateau and another which traveled into the Central Platesu.

Lastly the Omotic speaking people of this time frame in very diverse and numerous tribes traveled into the South-West where they practiced how cultivation.

Ah, but nothing remains in a vacuum and over the course of the next millennium these peoples would be subject to internal changes as well as external pressures.

Of these Semites and Eastern Cushites divided linguisticly around such centers as Yeha, Matara, and Haoulti where among the the Semites, Tigrean and Ge'ez developed through one another.

Southern Ethino Semites such as the Gurage peoples developed into a central belt of linguistic tribes which would be the Amharic, Gafat, Argobba, and Harari.

The Easterna Cushites would split into the Afar, Saho, and Somali peoples abandoning the Gada system of governance and moved eastward along the coastline of the Red Sea and Arabian Sea.

As mentioned the external influences on Al-Habesha's linguistic and ethnic makeup were not resisted or entirely welcomed, but absorbed and shaped to the tune of the local peoples making it unique and apart of their customs with surprising ease.

Nilo Saharans from the north such as the Breta, Gumuz, Ari, Majo, and Baskeb brought with them influences on agriculture and pastoralism. From the West the Sudanic people would be few but likewise would add their own agricultural and pastoral tricks into the regional pot. From the East the Semitic people arrived in four distinct waves:

1- South Arabs speaking Proto-Ge'ez were the first to arrive sometime during the First Millennium BC.
2-Around the beginning of the First Millennium CE the Hebraic culture spread into the region founding the beginning of the Beta Israel and Falasha.
3-Toward the middle of the First Millennium Syrianic Missionaries of the Christian brought their faith, though rejected by the Kings of Aksum would found isolated Christian communities.
4-Around the end of the First Millennium CE Arab Traders would settle along the Red Sea and Somali Coast, eventually bringing Islam from the south to Lakomelza and spreading it the Amhara speaking peoples.

There were other more minor influences until the arrival of Turks and Europeans such as the influence of Greek in the Aksumite court conveyed by Ptolemaic Kings when they ruled Egypt.

Now as one can see quite clearly, Al-Habashah is a immensely diverse place! Peoples of diverse backgrounds have moved into the region as late at the 19th Century through conquest or often enough marriage sparking new groups of people. To try to classify the region based on traditional methods such as ethnicity, language, religion, region, and so forth would be a convoluted matter. Anthropologist Donald Levine[1] would classify the people of Al-Habashah into nine distinct categories:

Red Sea Lowlanders[3]: Beja, Beni, North Cushite Bedawie, Tigre speaking Beni Amer and Bet Mala. Largely nomadic in their lifestyles these peoples practice a unique regional form of hereditary serfdom.

Agew: Central Cushitic. Falasha. Once a large and monolithic group they have overtime dwindled to a few enclaves in the Amhara-Tigrean region. Includes Kimant and Awi, largely practice traditional religions and plow cultivation.

Amhara-Tigrean: Bearers of Aksum and Islam in Al-Habashah. Practice both plow cultivation and cattle raising.

Eastern Rift[2]: Afar, Saho, Somali, Hararai, and Argobba. Live in largely decentralized tribal political units. The first three participate in nomadic pastoralism throughout the desert lowlands while the last two practice agricultural and trade.

Galla: Widely dispersed Gallinya speaking people. Despite largely intelligible language they are tribal distinct from one another in all aspects.

Lacustrine: Live along the chain of Great Rift lakes, practice the Gada system of self government.

Omotic: these people inhabit the small region of the Omo river and practice agriculture.

Sudanic: Nilo-Saharan people who practice sedentary forms of agriculture and cattle raising on the western border regions.

Caste: Untouchables in Pan-Habashah society, sharing traits of their local tribal affiliation they are regarded poorly for reasons based on their status as former slaves or social occupations.

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[1]- OTL Person whose book on "Greater Ethiopia" I got all this information from.
[2]- Referred to as "Core Islamic" in Levine's original classification.
[3]- Reffered to as "North Eritrean" in Levine's original classification.
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Levine, Donald N. Greater Ethiopia: The Evolution of a Multiethnic Society.

Chicago:University of Chicago Press, 1974.