Islamic Devotional Poetry in Ethiopia: Between Classical Arabic Tradition and Local Developments

Abstract

Ethiopia has a rich tradition of Sufi poetry in Arabic and local languages. This study explores a collection of poems, Manẓūmāt li-Ahl Dānā (“Poems of the people of Dānā”) and its diffusion from Wällo (north-eastern Ethiopia) to Jimma and Limmu (south-western Ethiopia) through the network of the local Qādiriyya. This diffusion entails a certain variation in the composition of the collection, that in some cases also changed its name in Manẓūmāt Ghojjamī (“Poems of Ghojjamī”), attributing them to a specific author coming from another area of Ethiopia.