Mawlūd Tradition, Reformist Dynamics and State Policies in East Ethiopia. The Controversial Celebrations of Prophet Muḥammad in Harar and among Its Oromo Neighbours

Abstract

This contribution questions the socio-historical dynamics of Mawlūd celebrations in Harar and its rural vicinity in the Oromiya Eastern Hararghe Zone. This work is the result of ethnographic investigations conducted in the first half of the 2010s while Ethiopian authorities attempted to impose a state version of Islam that was based on the controversial al-Ahbash doctrine. From the theological ambivalence of the Mawlūd corpuses in the Harari city and its rural Oromo surroundings, to its contemporary revivals in a regional context marked by ethno-national competition and Islamic reformism, this study reveals the plural stakes and still debated practices of Prophet Muḥammad’s celebrations in these eastern territories of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia.