A Review of "Islam and Christianity in the Horn of Africa: Somalia, Ethiopia, Sudan"
Although the region is often portrayed in today's media solely as a site of conflict, Erlich's new book gives the recent history of the Horn of Africa important new analysis. Erlich shows how dichotomous religious conceptualizations of the other served as powerful forces for both moderation and militancy. A current professor emeritus of Middle East and African history at Tel Aviv University and head of Middle Eastern and African studies at the Open University of Israel, Haggai Erlich brings to this present work his deep understanding of the Horn of Africa, its religions, and its politics. In the present work, Erlich argues that Christian and Muslim conceptualizations of the other have long functioned as conceptual reservoirs that inform recent and present day religious identities and understandings. The original concepts date back to the early formative centuries of Muslim Christian encounters in the horn. For Muslims, Ethiopia is remembered as a place of refuge where a benevolent Christian monarch (the najashi) protected the Prophet and his followers from persecution. This leads some to adopt the principle attributed to the Prophet of leaving "Ethiopia alone so long as they were left alone" (2) Ethiopia is also seen as a potential threat, because the najashi allegedly first converted to Islam but then was betrayed by his Christian subjects, thwarting the emergence of a Muslim Ethiopia. For Christians, the early history of the Ethiopian Church was inescapably intertwined with peaceful coexistence with Muslim lands, as bishops were sent to Ethiopia from Egypt's Coptic Church, and the Ethiopian ruling dynasty claimed descent from King Solomon of Jerusalem. Yet this positive view of strong Christian ties with Muslim ruled lands is challenged by what Erlich terms the "Ahmad Gragn syndrome" a set of suspicions and fears about Muslims stemming from the memory of this warrior's sixteenth century attacks on Christian lands (3) Subsequent chapters closely trace the political and diplomatic history between Ethiopia, Sudan, and Somalia over the last century and a half, alternating between Ethiopian Sudanese and Ethiopian Somali relations. Chapters 2 and 3, respectively, probe the language of diplomatic correspondence between Ethiopian kings and both the Sudanese Mahdi and Somali nationalist Sayyid Muhammad 'Abdallah Hasan. Religious conceptualizations were actively employed to threaten confrontation and express rationales for friendship. In the latter half of the book, Erlich shows how religious political identities have become more pronounced for many in recent decades, despite previous periods in each country that emphasized Marxism and modernist national discourses. The author also delineates the possibilities for future relations between the three countries. On the subject of future Somali Ethiopian relations, Erlich is not very optimistic but still sees some possibility of moderation, although it is challenged by the unresolved issue of Ethiopia's colonialera expansion into areas considered Somali. A more optimistic future for Sudanese Ethiopian relations may be in store, as formerly radical leaders are beginning to stress concepts of African affinity and their intertwined religious ties. Throughout this work, Erlich navigates an impressive narrative course that recognizes both the close ties between the horn of Africa and wider global and Middle Eastern communities and also underscores the significance of local religious legacies. For instance, he notes that, in the postcolonial period, students from Somalia or Sudan who study more radical versions of Islam abroad in Saudi Arabia must face, on their return, the challenges of reconciling these more radical views with moderate local discourses stressing mutual tolerance. Members of Ethiopia's Orthodox Christian church must also face more militant views of the Muslims brought by the expansion of more fundamental Pentecostal churches that do not actively incorporate coexistence with Islamic states into their foundational religious identities. Erlich's critical focus on the discursive power of religious conceptualizations, language, and recent identities is this work's most important contribution. By placing religious concepts of identity and the other at the center of his narrative, Erlich is able to highlight how many used these as both an interpretative lens and for pragmatic ends. The evolution of many leaders' views back and forth across the spectrum from moderation to militancy provocatively challenges representations of religious identity as leading to fixed, fundamentalist views. Erlich's ultimate conclusions, that, here, religious language seems to hold the potential for all possibilities, will be of interest, no doubt, to a wide range of readers, including African and Middle East area studies experts, those involved in diplomatic and advocacy work, and the wellinformed general reader. The one challenge of this work is that it may be difficult to fully appreciate for readers with little previous background on the subject. To keep a tight focus on religious concepts and identities, Erlich sets aside many aspects of regional history that do not explicitly relate. He also does not explicitly analyze the representativeness of his impressive and varied sources. This makes it challenging, at times, to evaluate the representativeness of key figures and sources of evidence as indicative of widely held sentiments. A few background digressions to highlight the readership and circulation of media sources and the interaction between leaders (both political and religious) and the wider public would have helped those less informed. Nonetheless, this work is a highly recommended read. Erlich's powerful conclusion lays out the possibilities each country's religious identities could take choices that could lead to emphasis on either mutual dependence or violent confrontation. Perhaps one of the most inspiring messages of the book is the appreciation of the potential for both religions to assert positive messages of coexistence and tolerance, sometimes even coming from leaders who were originally the most militant.