(inshallah.org) 365 Tidbits about Islam in Ethiopia 11-04-14 On the subject of James Bruce , author of Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile, In the Years 1768, 1769,1770, 1771, 1772 and 1773. James Bruce noted his experience with Islam in Ethiopia, but referred the Ethiopian Muslims as Mahometans . Why Mahometans? Citing help from wikipedia, The OED cites 1663 as the first recorded usage of the English term, along with the older term Mahometan that dates back to at least 1529. The English term is derived from New Latin Mahometanus, from Medieval Latin Mahometus, Muhammad. It meant simply a follower of Mohammad. The term has been largely superseded by Muslim, Moslem or Islamic, but was commonly used only in Western literature until at least the mid-1960s. Muslim is more commonly used today, and the term Mohammedan is widely considered archaic or in some cases even offensive. (Photo: Bruce, with his Greek assistant Strates, reach a fountain at Gish Abay, which they were told was the source of the Nile – it was not. Nevertheless, to commemorate the occasion, using a coconut filled with Nile water, he toasted to the health of George III and Empress Catherine the Great of Russia (the champion of the Greeks against the Ottomans). (Photosource:britishmuseum. org)
Posted on: Fri, 11 Apr 2014 21:38:16 +0000
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