Ad Shaykh

The 'Ad Shaykh (Tigre: ዐድ ሼኽ; Arabic: عد شيخ), also spelled Ad Sheikh, are a Muslim holy family of Eritrea that grew into a large and wealthy Tigre-speaking tribal group. In the first half of the 19th century they were among the most important agents in the conversion of the Tigre-speaking societies of the Eritrean lowlands to Islam.: 185–186 : 114  Their influence declined after the Khatmiyya Sufi order, backed by the Italian colonial government, displaced them in the early 20th century.: 199–200 

Origins

The family traces its descent to a sharif named Husayn from Mecca.: 185 : 114  Like many holy clans of the region, the 'Ad Shaykh based their religious standing on claims of descent from the Prophet and on the possession of baraka, a spiritual power believed to be inherited.: 185  They first gained wide influence in the Sahel region of northern Eritrea in the early 19th century, mainly through the preaching and reputed miracles of Shaykh al-Amin b. Hamid b. Naf'utay.: 185 

Expansion and conversions

Between the 1820s and the 1850s, the 'Ad Shaykh and agents of the Nayebs of Hirgigo converted to Islam the Bet Asgede (the Habab, 'Ad Takles and 'Ad Temariam), the Mensa', the Marya, the Bet Juk and parts of the Bilen, who had previously followed local forms of Christianity.: 185  The family worked closely with the Nayebs, to whom many of these groups paid tribute.: 185–186 : 46  They also drew followers into the Qadiriyya Sufi order, chiefly among the Marya and Mensa', although little is known about this aspect of their activity.: 186 : 59–60 

The Ad Shaykh attracted whole families from the subordinate tigre class, the serf-like stratum of Tigre-speaking pastoral societies. Conversion and intermarriage with the holy family weakened the dependence of these families on their aristocratic masters; among the Bet Asgede, the aristocracy itself followed after Shaykh al-Amin married the daughter of their kantibay (chief).: 186 : 59  Miran describes this as a form of social revolution that challenged traditional chiefs, including those of the Beni-Amer.: 186  The new adherents were absorbed into the family, which grew into an influential and wealthy independent group.: 186 

The family later divided and spread across the western, northern and eastern lowlands of Eritrea. Some branches settled in the Anseba and Barka valleys, others remained in the Sahel, and others moved north as far as Tokar in Sudan.: 186 : 44  Two of Shaykh al-Amin's sons settled among the Garabit and the Faydab under the patronage of the Beni-Amer.: 186–187, n. 23 

Emberemi branch

Shaykh Muhammad b. 'Ali b. al-Amin (c. 1795 – 27 February 1877), a grandson of Shaykh al-Amin, lived for twelve years at Hirgigo before settling around 1840 at Emberemi, a village a few kilometres from Massawa, where he founded the Semhar branch of the family.: 186  He was one of the most influential religious figures of the coast and its hinterland from the 1840s until his death, converted many people, especially among the Habab, and attracted large numbers of pilgrims. The French traveller Guillaume Lejean called Emberemi a "little Mecca".: 186–187  An annual pilgrimage (ziyara) to his tomb at Emberemi, held on 13 Safar, drew worshippers from across the Tigre- and Saho-speaking lowlands.: 192 : 44 

Rivalry with the Khatmiyya

The 'Ad Shaykh and the Khatmiyya spread Islam in contrasting ways. The 'Ad Shaykh drew converts out of existing social hierarchies and into their own following, while the Khatmiyya incorporated local religious leaders into a wider network and left existing social and political structures in place.: 188  After Egypt took over Massawa in 1865, the balance between the two shifted gradually in favour of the Khatmiyya.: 190 

During the Mahdist uprising of the 1880s, leading members of the 'Ad Shaykh supported the Mahdists and the envoys of 'Uthman Diqna, and may have helped rally Tigre-speaking groups to the Mahdist cause. The Khatmiyya, by contrast, was allied with the Egyptians.: 194 : 44–45  A 1928 Italian report stated that the 'Ad Shaykh had secretly allied with the Mahdists through a Shaykh Hajj Ya'qub Muhammad 'Ali, who held a senior position in 'Uthman Diqna's forces.: 197, n. 57 

Italian colonial period

Italian officials regarded the 'Ad Shaykh as Mahdist sympathisers and as a destabilising influence among the lowland Muslims.: 199  Governor Ferdinando Martini (in office 1897–1907) sought to replace their influence with that of the Khatmiyya, whose leader he persuaded to settle in Keren in 1903.: 198–199  Martini's administration placed the family's Barka branch and its Sahel and Semhar branches under separate administrative districts (commissariati) in 1903, grouped the scattered sections in the Sahel and Anseba under a single chief, and ended the family's traditional exemption from tribute in 1904–1905.: 199 : 45 

These measures, together with the Khatmiyya's establishment at Keren, hastened the family's decline. By the 1920s the 'Ad Shaykh had little authority outside the Habab, and even there the Khatmiyya was gaining ground. The 'Ad Takles had joined the Khatmiyya, most of the 'Ad Temariam were under its influence, and the Marya had also switched from the 'Ad Shaykh and the Qadiriyya to the Khatmiyya.: 199–200 : 49 

Historiography

Italian colonial writing about the 'Ad Shaykh was consistently hostile, describing their influence in terms such as "subversion" and "plundering". Miran notes that the handbook of the colonial official Alberto Pollera (1935) repeats arguments and a tone typical of officials at the beginning of the century, so these sources should be read with caution.: 199, n. 66 

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Miran (2005) associates the dispersal with the sons of Shaykh al-Amin b. Hamid b. Naf'utay, while Miran (2010) suggests the split may have taken place in the 18th century.
  2. ↑ Other sources give his birth year as 1808.: 186, n. 22 

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 Miran, Jonathan (2005). "A Historical Overview of Islam in Eritrea". Die Welt des Islams. 45 (2): 177–215. doi:10.1163/1570060054307534. JSTOR 1571280.
  2. 1 2 Miran, Jonathan (2015). "Eritrea". In Fleet, Kate; et al. (eds.). Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE. Leiden: Brill. pp. 112–117.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Miran, Jonathan (2010). "Constructing and Deconstructing the Tigre Frontier Space in the Long Nineteenth Century". In Lusini, Gianfrancesco (ed.). History and Language of the Tigre-Speaking Peoples: Proceedings of the International Workshop, Naples, February 7–8, 2008. Studi Africanistici, Serie Etiopica. Vol. 8. Naples: Università degli Studi di Napoli "L'Orientale". pp. 33–50. ISBN 978-88-95044-68-2.
  4. 1 2 Miran, Jonathan (2007). "Power without Pashas: The Anatomy of Na'ib Autonomy in Ottoman Eritrea (17th–19th c.)". Eritrean Studies Review. 5 (1): 33–88.

Further reading