Negash

Negash

Negash

Village in Tigray, Ethiopia

For the Ethiopian personal name, see Negash (name). For the medieval Beja polity, see Kingdom of Nagash.

Negash is a village in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia, which straddles the Adigrat to Mekelle road 10 kilometres (6.2 miles) north of Wukro. It is located in Wukro woreda.

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History

Amedin Mosque
Interior of the new Negash mosque, completed in 2019

Negash is considered to be the earliest Muslim settlement in Africa; a cemetery from the 7th century CE has been excavated inside the village boundaries.[1] The Futuh al-Habasha records Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi visited the tomb of Ashama ibn Abjar in Negash during his invasion of the province of Tigray (around 1537).[2] Negash is also known for having one of Africa's oldest mosques,[3] that is the Al Nejashi Mosque.

In 2020 during Tigray War, the Al Nejashi Mosque was heavily damaged from shelling and looting.[4]

Demographics

In the statistical tables of the 2007 census published by the Central Statistical Agency, the kebele Negash is located in is reported to have a total population of 7,753 of whom 3,607 are men and 4,146 women; they are distributed amongst 1,689 households in 1,626 housing units. Although it is known for its particular relationship with Islam, 98.2% of the population follows the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, the 1.1% of the population is Protestant, and the remaining 0.7% is Muslim.[5]

See also

References

  1. [1]
    Paul B. Henze, Layers of Time: A History of Ethiopia (New York: Palgrave, 2000), p. 43.
  2. [2]
    Sihab ad-Din Ahmad bin 'Abd al-Qader, Futuh al-Habasa: The conquest of Ethiopia, translated by Paul Lester Stenhouse with annotations by Richard Pankhurst (Hollywood: Tsehai, 2003), pp. 350f
  3. [3]
    "Liste des premières mosquées au monde prophètique, rashidun et omeyyade selon les écris historique et les traces archéologiques". Histoire Islamique (in French). 2014-06-15. Retrieved 2017-09-24.
  4. [4]
    "Tigray crisis: Ethiopia to repair al-Nejashi mosque". BBC News. January 5, 2021.
  5. [5]
    "Tigray Statistical Table", Annex Table 1B CSA website (accessed 27 August 2010)
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