Hadiya people

Hadiya (Amharic: ሐድያ), also spelled as Hadiyya, is an ethnic group native to Ethiopia in Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples' Region who speak the Hadiyya language. According to a popular etymology, the name 'Hadiya," sometimes written in the versions Hadya, Hadea, Hadija, Hadiyo, Hadiyeh, Adea, Adia, means "gift of god" A historical definition of the Hadiya people based on the old Hadiya Sultanate included a number of Ethiopian ethnic groups currently known by other names. Currently, this historic entity is subdivided into a number of ethnonyms, partly with different languages and cultural affiliations. In his book "A History of the Hadiya in Southern Ethiopia," Ulrich Braukämper reported that Leemo, Weexo-giira (Baadogo, Haballo, Bargaago, Waayabo, Hayyibba, Hoojje and Hanqaallo), Sooro, Shaashoogo, Baadawwaachcho, and Libido (Maraqo) Hadiya subgroups remain a language entity and preserved identity of oneness, the Hadiya proper. In contrast, Qabeena, Halaaba, Welene and Gedebano, and Silt'e people developed separate ethnic identities. Clans of Hadiya origin in Oromia, Sidama, Wolayta, Gurage, Tigray (Rayyaa, Azaaboo, and Ashaange), and Afar were completely absorbed by these nations. They were initially all inhabitants of a single political entity, a sultanate, which in the four centuries following its break-up in the mid-16th century fragmented into separate ethnic groups. The Hadiya people are the scattered remnants of a formerly much larger ethnic complex under the once mighty Muslim principality called Hadiya Sultanate. Hadiya are believed to be originally descendants of old Sidama (Highland East Cushitic) and the extinct Harla people who lived under the Harla Kingdom in the ninth century. A cluster of speakers labelled Hadiya-Sidama developed maintaining Islamic identity and later creating the Hadiya Sultanate as founding population. According to Arab historians, the dynasty was started by descendants of Harar Emir Abadir, who intermarried with Sidama. The earliest surviving mention of Hadiya is in the Kebra Nagast (ch.