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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 May 2021
The jihad of Imam Ahmad (1529–43) and the pastoral Oromo population movement made the sixteenth century one of turmoil and violent changes in the Horn of Africa. Both events were the results of processes that had been gathering momentum for over two centuries and they came to a head almost simultaneously. The jihad dramatically influenced the outcome of pastoral Oromo population movement because it was accompanied by warfare on a scale not previously witnessed in the area and sent different groups fleeing from the ‘storm centre’, abandoning their ancestral homes. This caused a chain reaction over a wide area. The dispersal of the refugees was accompanied by carnage and destruction on an appalling scale. ‘The immense toll that [it] had taken in human lives and material wealth was’ beyond calculation. Untold numbers must have died from famine during the jihad and the anarchy that followed its failure. This was particularly true of the Harar and Charchar regions, which were devastated. When Emperor Galawdewos conducted extensive military campaigns in the region and destroyed the Muslim city of Harar in 1550, thousands of people may have been killed. His actions precipitated a civil war among the Muslims out of which Amir Nur (1552–67), the nephew of Imam Ahmad, emerged as the third jihadic leader the city of Harar produced during the sixteenth century. Amir Nur's 1559 jihadic war was to have catastrophic consequences for both the Christian kingdom and the Muslim state of Harar (see Chapter 5).
As a result of the Christian and Muslim conflicts, a great number of people abandoned their ancestral lands to seek refuge in difficult mountainous regions or other areas that held out hope of asylum.
While some inhabitants fled to escape the sword, others fled famine and misery which had ruined much of the country … In addition, aside from the war itself, mass movements and famine, epidemics played havoc in sections of the country as well. Whole villages were abandoned, the land left uncultivated and the survivors migrated to other areas in the hope of finding some means of subsistence.
This phenomenon changed the pattern of population distribution, particularly in historical Bali, Dawaro, Hadiya and the Harar-Charchar regions.
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