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Concept
Argobba people
Summary
The Argobba are an ethnic group inhabiting Ethiopia. A Muslim community, they are spread out through isolated village networks and towns in the north-eastern and eastern parts of the country. Group members have typically been astute traders and merchants, and have adjusted to the economic trends in their area. These factors have led to a decline in usage of the Argobba language. Argobba are considered endangered today due to exogamy and destitution as well as ethnic cleansing by the Abyssinian state over the centuries.
According to scholars, the Kingdom of Aksum's army moved south beyond Angot, encountering a nomadic people named Gebal in eastern Shewa, who are supposedly the precursors to Argobba. Gebal would develop into settlers of Hararghe known as Argobba after their conversion to Islam and having significant ties to the Muslim world, dominated trade in Zeila and Harar. Modern Argobba claim they originate from the Arabian Peninsula through Zeila in what is now Somaliland and first settled in the Harar plateau. Argobba people consider the inhabitants of Doba their ancestors.
In the 13th century, Argobba are associated with the Walashma dynasty of Ifat, which would become leaders of the Sultanate of Ifat and Adal Sultanate. According to Harari tradition numerous Argobba had fled Ifat and settled around Harar in the Aw Abdal lowlands during their conflict with Abyssinia in the fifteenth century, a gate was thus named after them called the gate of Argobba.
The Argobba and the Harla people seem to have relied on each other in the Islamic period. A power struggle erupted between the Abadir dynasty of Harari and the Walashma dynasty of Argobba throughout the Islamic period until Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi took control of Adal Sultanate by executing the Walashma sultan Abu Bakr ibn Muhammad in the 16th century.
Due to the wars between the Ifat Sultanate and Ethiopia, the region of Ifat was incorporated into Ethiopia having been an integral part of the empire for over a century since early medieval times.
Official source
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