Doba (historical region) explained

Doba (Amharic: ዶባ, Afar: Dobaq) also known as the Country of Dobas was a historical Muslim region in central modern Ethiopia.^[1] Historian Fesseha Berhe associates Doba with the Saho people.^[2] Historian John Trimingham argues that the people of Doba were of Afar stock.^[3]

The people of Doba are considered extinct today.^[4] According to George Huntingford, Doba appeared to have come from the name of a people who inhabited the area, the Dobe'a, rather than a region.^[5]

History

Doba was mostly populated by pastoralists known as the Dobe'a.^[6]

The people of Doba are linked to the Argobba aristocracy of Walasma.^[7] Argobba people consider the inhabitants of Doba their ancestors.^[8] Doba territory was within the 13th century Ifat state.^[9]

In the 14th century Doba neighbored Tigray, Angot, and Amhara regions of modern Ethiopia.^[10]

According to Ayele Tariku, in the 1400s emperor Yeshaq I had placed a military battalion called Jan Amora near Doba country to protect the Abyssinian frontier against attacks from the people of Doba.^[11]

During the reign of Emperor Baeda Maryam I in the late fifteenth century, the Doba bordering Angot are recorded to have disrupted crucial roads used for Abyssinian trade.^[12] Baeda Maryam I would incorporate the Doba peoples into his army after invading their region.^{[13] [14]}

Doba are reported to have lived in Tigray Province in the 16th century.^[15]

Later in the seventeenth century the induction of upland Doba and Harla peoples into Afar identity led to the emergence of the Aussa Sultanate.^[16] During the reign of Emperor Iyasu II in the 1700s, Doba warriors attacked the Abyssinian frontier.^[17]

In 1809, British explorer Henry Salt who had visited Doba declared that it was an extensive uncultivated plain and had stated that the inhabitants were a tribe which were an isolated group of "negroes" who were considered as a formidable set of marauders but had been experiencing difficulties maintaining independence.^[18]

Contemporary archaeologists discovered several ruins in the Chercher area called Doba (modern eastern Oromia) consisting of the districts Kubi, Addas, Mito, Djugola and Abadir dating back to the eighth century, and are linked to the Harla people.^{[19] [20]} The Doba people appear to have been pushed out of the Chercher region by the Oromo in the following centuries.^[21]

See also

• Dobe'a
• History of Ethiopia

Notes and References

1. Book: Menasbo . Negga . HISTORY AND IDENTITY IN NORTHEAST ETHIOPIA WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO RAYA-AZӒBO, 1543-1974 . Addis Ababa University . 68 .
2. Book: Berhe . Fesseha . Regional History and Ethnohistory Gerhard Rohlfs and other Germanophone Researchers and a Forgotten Ethnic Group, the Dobʿa . Mekelle University . 128 .
3. Book: Trimingham, J. Spencer . Islam in Ethiopia . 2013-09-13 . Routledge . 978-1-136-97022-1 . 81 . en.
4. Book: Levine . Donald . Greater Ethiopia The Evolution of a Multiethnic Society . 10 December 2014 . University of Chicago Press . 69 . 9780226229676 .
5. Book: Huntingford, G. W. B. . Some Records of Ethiopia, 1593-1646: Being Extracts from The History of High Ethiopia or Abassia by Manoel de Almeida Together with Bahrey's History of the Galla . 2017-05-15 . Taylor & Francis . 978-1-317-05271-5 . en.
6. Book: Ahmed . Hussein . Islam in Nineteenth-Century Wallo, Ethiopia . BRILL . 8 .
7. Book: Kifleyesus . Abebe . Tradition and Transformation The Argobba of Ethiopia . 2006 . Harrassowitz . 44 . 9783447053419 .
8. Book: Asfaw . Aklilu . A short History of the Argobba . Annales d'Éthiopie . 179 .
9. Book: Ifat . Encyclopedia Aethiopica .
10. Book: Tamrat . Tadesse . Church and state . University of London . 154 .
11. Tariku . Ayele . The Christian Military Colonies in Medieval Ethiopia: The Chewa System . The Medieval History Journal . 2022 . 25 . 2 . SAGE publications . 179–306 . 10.1177/09719458211003380 . 253239262 .
12. Book: Mordechai . Abir . Ethiopia and the Red Sea The Rise and Decline of the Solomonic Dynasty and Muslim European Rivalry in the Region . Taylor & Francis . 34–35 .
13. Book: Demisse . Yonas . Bringing the Slaves Back InCaptives and the Making and Unmaking of the Premodern Ethiopian State . Duke University Press . 261–279 .
14. Book: Trimingham . J.Spencer . Islam in Ethiopia . Taylor & Francis . 81 .
15. Book: Cerulli . Ernesta . Peoples of South-West Ethiopia and Its Borderland North Eastern Africa Part III . Taylor & Francis .
16. Book: Bausi . Alessandro . Ethiopia History, Culture and Challenges . Michigan State University Press . 83 .
17. Book: Budge . E.A . A History of Ethiopia: Volume II (Routledge Revivals): Nubia and Abyssinia . Routledge . 456 .
18. Book: Salt, Henry . A Voyage to Abyssinia and Travels Into the Interior of that Country: Executed Under the Orders of the British Government, in the Years 1809 and 1810 ... . 1814 . Rivington . 275 . en.
19. Book: Joussaume . Roger . MEGALITHISM IN CHER IN ETHIOPIA . French Center for Ethiopian Studies .
20. Book: History of Harar and Hararis . Harar tourism bureau . 27 .
21. Book: Perspectives Des Études Africaines Contemporaines Rapport Final D'un Symposium International . Deutsche UNESCO-Kommission . 274 .