5 - Movements of Pastoral Oromo into the Christian Kingdom, 1559−1600

Summary

In the previous chapter the course of the pastoral Oromo population movement into Bali, Dawaro, Hadiya, and to some extent Fatagar was described. Here their movement will be charted into the rest of the Christian kingdom. Before doing this, however, it may be useful to take a brief look at the situation in the region in 1559, a watershed in the history of the Horn. In that year the Muslim victory had a significant impact on the Christian kingdom.

THE IMPACT OF THE 1559 MUSLIM VICTORY ON THE CHRISTIAN KINGDOM

In 1559 Amir Nur (1552–67) the Muslim leader from Harar, won a decisive victory over Galawdewos, the emperor who restored the Christian kingdom after it was nearly destroyed by Imam Ahmad between 1529 and 1543. There is a similarity between the Christian defeat of 1529 and that of 1559. In the first, the small but highly organized, well-trained and disciplined Muslim force under Imam Ahmad completely routed the ten-times-greater Christian force, which was loosely organized and badly led by Libna Dengel. A large number of Christian soldiers were slain, and many more were taken prisoner. The rest ran off in disarray and confusion. This utter defeat was a complete surprise for the Christians. It may be that the Christian leadership did not expect a great victory, but no-one seems to have been prepared for a defeat of such shattering proportions. The surviving Christian leadership, including the emperor, was shocked. With the Christian society in a state of total confusion, it was left to Libna Dengel to try and salvage something out of what remained.

In 1559, exactly thirty years after the victory of 1529, the Muslims under the leadership of Amir Nur (the nephew of Imam Ahmad) routed a hastily collected Christian force under Galawdewos. The emperor, most of his officers, and a great many of his men were slain. The rest were either captured or dispersed in panic and disarray. Galawdewos’ camp was plundered, his capital looted, and its inhabitants put to the sword. In 1529, as in 1559, the morale of the Christian force was shattered. According to Merid Wolde Aregay, the death of Galawdewos ‘was the greatest opportunity which the [Oromo] were to have throughout the history of their [movement] into the north’.