Dirre Sheikh Hussein As a Religious and Ethno-Nationalist Centre

Dirre Sheikh Hussein also known as Anajina, where one of the famous Sufi Sheikhs, Sheikh Hussein lived in the twelfth-century had played major roles in History of Arsi Oromo of Ethiopia.This book is intended to examine the transformation of the shrine from its establishment to Ethno-Nationalist Resistance centre after the Shewan conquest of Arsi territories in the last decades of nineteenth-century. The book had about eight chapters. Chapter one shed lights on the Historiographical analysis and interpretation of sources. Here, the author extensively analyzed archival, secondary, Oral, baaroo and manzuma (praise songs) to study the History of Arsi Oromo. Chapter two and three examined the Geographical settings and the establishment of the shrine. Moreover, it also discussed the process of state formation in Arsi country that curtailed by Shewan conquest. Chapter Four and Five extensively discussed about the beginning of pilgrimage/muudaa to shrine of Sheikh Hussein and its impacts on the development of Arsi Oromo nationalism. The last chapters examined how the Sufi Sheikhs and shrine contributed to the sophistication of Oromo arts, literature, technology and national identity.