The term Habesha (ሐበሻ, sometimes Abesha, አበሻ), while sometimes described as referring to all Ethiopians and Eritreans, refers specifically to the politically dominant Amhara and Tigrayan ethnic groups of those countries.
Ancient Ethiopia, or the Kingdom of Aksum, subjugated the non-Habesha Cushitic-speaking or Agaw groups located in present-day Ethiopia and Eritrea, and today Cushitic groups like the Oromo and Afar often feel marginalized in what they see as Amhara/Tigray dominated Ethiopia. The term Habesha is often mistakenly thought to be of Arabic descent (who used the word Habashat, also the name of an Ottoman province comprising parts of modern-day Eritrea), because the English name Abyssinia comes from the Arabic form; however according to some Ethiopian sources, the name is a very old term referring to the hybrid mixture of Semites from Yemen with indigenous Hamitic peoples, and is explained as Ham "-be-" (with) Shem.[citation needed] The earliest known reference to a people called Habashat dates to the first or second centuries AD, when a South Arabian inscription refers to the defeat of the king (nəgus) GDRT (vocalized Gadarat or Gadar) of Aksum and Habashat.
The Amhara and Tigrayan tribes combined make up about 36% of Ethiopia's population (ca. 23 million Amhara, 4.5 million Tigrayan) while Tigrinya speakers make up about half of Eritrea's population.
The first recorded kingdom in Ethiopian history was the kingdom of D'MT (vocalized as Da'amat, Da'amot, Di'amat, etc.), though little is known of this first millennium BCE kingdom. The more well known Axumite kingdom followed D'MT, possibly emerging around the 3rd century BC (or as late as 100 AD). It was an offshoot of the Semitic Sabean kingdoms of southern Arabia who had been settling in Northern Ethiopia since around 500 BC.
Habesha speak Semitic languages, but they intermarried and absorbed the surrounding indigenous Cushitic speaking peoples to a great extent. While Habeshas are often though to be "Semitic," the term (as well as the term Cushitic) is merely a linguistic one and has no bearing on ethnicity. The derivation of the name 'Amhara' is debated; according to some it comes from the word 'amari', meaning 'pleasing, agreeable, beautiful and gracious', while some Ethiopian historians say it is an ethnic name connected with Himyarites.[1] Still others say that it derives from Ge'ez, meaning "free people." Both the Amharic and Tigrinya languages are descended from the ancient Ge'ez, still used in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. According to tradition, the Habesha people also trace their roots back to Menelik I who was the son of the Queen of Sheba and King Solomon, whose lineage historically gave kings a divine right to rule.
References
- ↑ Getachew Mekonnen Hasen, Wollo, Yager Dibab (Addis Ababa: Nigd Matemiya Bet, 1992), p. 11.
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