Scholars and religious figures
Sheikh Hussein of Bale (1200s): the saint from Merca honoured in Ethiopia
Sheikh Hussein, also known as Sheikh Huseen Baliale, was a 13th-century Muslim preacher born in Merca on the Somali coast. Tradition credits him with bringing Islam to peoples of the Bale and Sidamo highlands in today's Ethiopia. His shrine, in the town of Sheikh Hussein, draws about 50,000 pilgrims twice a year, for his birth and his death. A book of his miracles, Rabi' al-Qulub, was printed in Cairo in the 1920s.
Sheikh Hussein of BaleSheikh Hussein · Sheekh Xuseen
- Known as one of
- Scholars and religious figures
- Era
- Before 1500: Adal, Ajuran and the coast
- Sources
- 4 sources
Who he was
Sheikh Hussein was a Muslim preacher of the 1200s who was born in Merca, the port on the southern Somali coast, and lived and taught in the highlands of today's Ethiopia. He is honoured there as a saint (Sheikh Hussein (saint), Wikipedia, citing Gish, Thay and Latif, Ethiopia, 2007, p. 83). The historian Ulrich Braukämper, who studied Islam in southern Ethiopia, also traces him to Merca (Braukämper, Islamic History and Culture in Southern Ethiopia, 2002, p. 155, via Google Books).
Very little about his life is documented. What is known comes from oral tradition and from a hagiography, a book written by followers in praise of a saint. This page says which is which.
What tradition says
- Bringing Islam inland. He is credited with introducing Islam to the Sidamo people and to peoples of Bale (Sheikh Hussein (saint), Wikipedia, citing Braukämper 2002).
- The Sultanate of Bale. Tradition also credits him with founding the Muslim Sultanate of Bale (same article, citing Østebø, Islam, Ethnicity, and Conflict in Ethiopia, Cambridge University Press, 2020, p. 52).
- Miracles. Many miracles are attributed to him. A number are recorded in Rabi' al-Qulub ("Spring of the Hearts"), a hagiography printed in Cairo in the 1920s (same article).
His lineage in Somali tradition
The anthropologist I. M. Lewis recorded that the Haran Madare, a group in the Bay region, are represented in old Somali oral traditions as a branch of the "saintly Walamogge lineage", descended "from the famous Sheikh Huseen Baliale, the patron saint of the Islamic population of Ethiopia" (I. M. Lewis, "Keeping the Birds at Bay in the Bay Area of Somalia", 1988, Roma Tre University repository). Wikipedia, citing Lewis's Saints and Somalis (1998, p. 105), links this line to the Ajuran (Sheikh Hussein (saint), Wikipedia).
The shrine and the pilgrimages
The town named after him, Sheikh Hussein, lies in Bale in Ethiopia's Oromia region. About 50,000 pilgrims from many parts of Ethiopia gather there twice a year. One pilgrimage marks his birth and the other his death (Sheikh Hussein (saint), Wikipedia, citing Trimingham, Islam in Ethiopia, 1952, pp. 253–256).
Pilgrims traditionally carry small forked sticks called "Oulle Sheikh Hussein". At the shrine they take turns entering the saint's tomb by crawling through a small doorway (Sheikh Hussein (saint), Wikipedia, citing the Nordic Africa Institute's Local History in Ethiopia).
Visiting the tombs of saints (siyaaro) is also an old practice among Somalis. See saints, shrines and siyaaro.
Merca and the coast
Merca was one of the old Muslim trading towns of the southern Somali coast, and later the home of Sheikh Cali Maye Durogba, who brought the Ahmadiyya order to Somalia (Library of Congress, Somalia: A Country Study, 1992). See Somali scholars and saints and how Islam reached the Somalis.
Read further
- J. Spencer Trimingham, Islam in Ethiopia (Oxford University Press, 1952), pp. 253–256.
- Ulrich Braukämper, Islamic History and Culture in Southern Ethiopia: Collected Essays (LIT Verlag, 2002).
- I. M. Lewis, Saints and Somalis: Popular Islam in a Clan-Based Society (Red Sea Press, 1998).
Sources
- Sheikh Hussein (saint), Wikipedia, citing Gish, Thay and Latif, Ethiopia, 2007, p. 83 · en.wikipedia.org
- Braukämper, Islamic History and Culture in Southern Ethiopia, 2002, p. 155, via Google Books · books.google.com
- I. M. Lewis, "Keeping the Birds at Bay in the Bay Area of Somalia", 1988, Roma Tre University repository · arcadia.sba.uniroma3.it
- Library of Congress, Somalia: A Country Study, 1992 · countrystudies.us
Sheikh Hussein of BaleSheikh Hussein · Sheekh Xuseen
- Known as one of
- Scholars and religious figures
- Era
- Before 1500: Adal, Ajuran and the coast
- Sources
- 4 sources
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