Between 330-1500A.D, the Greco Romans &Arabian teachers, traders& preachers introduced the two universal religions to Ethiopia. Hence, the two religions became the institutional force &the means of cultural development which afterwards shaped the identity of Ethiopians as a multi cultural, religious diversification & the writers& speakers of many foreign languages among which Arabic is the most commonly used by the Muslims.

This fact can be drawn from the following historical events happened during the advent of Prophet Muhammad .

 The immigration of “Sahaba” the followers of the prophet Mohammed who fled from the oppression of Mecca leaders to Ethiopia (Al-Habsha) shows solidarity & friendship of Ethiopians with Arab from pre Islamic period & the ability of the Ethiopian Emperor who ruled Ethiopia from 600 - 630 to speak & write Arabic language.

 According to the Arab historians &the sources of the biography of the prophet Muhammad, there were the oral &literal communications between the followers of the Prophet (pbuh) and the Emperor Al-Nejashi As-hama bin Abjar, and literal communications between the Emperor and the Prophet himself in Arabic, these are some of the evidences that support the influence and role of Arabic not only religiously but also politically, socially, linguistically and diplomatically.

Based on the historical relationship between the Ethiopian Orthodox & the Coptic church of Alexandria, from the early period of the introduction of Christianity to Ethiopia, we can clearly realize that the interpretation of Christian doctrine & other books into Abyssinian language (Geez) was from Arabic. For the fact that, during the 11th-13th centuries, as the dying of Egyptian Coptic language was on the way, the Alexandrian Coptic Church which was the mother Church of Ethiopian Orthodox Church was forced to use Arabic language as the religious, cultural& literatural media This shows evidently that there was an influential role of Arabic on the religious doctrine of Ethiopian Orthodox Church.

Apart from this, we can further discuss in depth & show how Arabic language influenced the Ethiopian Muslims' culture & literature:

 As Arabic is the language of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) who taught Islam to the World and at the same time it is the language in which Qura'n was revealed, and the rapid expansion of Islam in different ways and meanses, created the favorable condition for this language to be practiced by Ethiopian Muslims in their day to day religious and cultural affairs. It has got the opportunity of being spoken and written by many nations &nationalities.

This is a privilege which was not achieved by many other foreign languages in this country Though Ethiopia has been known as a home for nations and nationalities with great diversity of their corresponding languages, only very few of these languages had the literatures until the recent time.

But Arabic had its own literature and also as it will be mentioned later on this paper, the chance of being written in Ethiopia philology. Arabic between a political &ruling media to the cultural & religious media As a descriptive study of Historian indicates, Arabic was a language of some subsequent medieval Islamic states of Ethiopia and the ruling language of Harar sultanate until the collapse of the era of Harar princes in 1887.

When Amharic became the language of government all over Ethiopia after the unification of Minilek, Arabic remained at the level of media of learning & teaching Islam in all parts of Muslim societies i.e. in Harar, Wello, Raya, Darra, Bale, Arsi, Dawe, Ifat, Ogaden, Afar, Jimma, Gomma, &Limmu, where the Islamic culture and studies were widely and deeply spread during 19th & 20th centuries. When we see the methodology and the system of traditional way of learning and teaching, we observe the use of local languages side by side with Arabic for interpretation of the Qura'n, Hadith jurisprudence, Arabic grammar or Nahwi and Sarf, the phenomenon which can be witnessed from the current activities of Ulamas (sheikhs) in different parts of the country.

Arabic Writings in Ethiopian Philology Despite of the wide spread usage of Arabic language as a second or third language for many Ethiopian Muslims, we rarely find the literatures which are properly collected, complied and documented for the academic purposes or for public image in all over the libraries of the universities in the country.

Much of the literatures on this subject kept and documented locally and decentralized to the different parts of the rural and urban Ethiopia whose collection is so tiduos and boring one.

This paper focuses on contemporary phenomenon of the cultural and literatural art of the Muslim society to practice the religion of Islam in depth. It covers the late 20th century which I myself lived part of it in both rural and urban societies from Harar to Arsi and Wello, by participating on the traditional system of learning and teaching Arabic which has extended up to now in the fields of: 1. Analyzing Fiqh (jurisprudence).

2. Explanation on Arabic grammar and morphology with its patterns.

3. Memorizing the Holy Qura'n with interpretation.

4. Learnings of Hadith (the Prophet heritage and its sciences.) The first two fields were the main concerned area of concentration through out the last two decades while the latter two are the currently increasing fields of Islamic studies. As the documents brought from different parts of Ethiopia for this exhibition indicate the writings of Amharic and Oromic by Arabic scripts are mostly focused on two subjects. These are:

1. Guidance and advices for the purposes of Preaching and teaching Islam. 2. Life history of the Prophet and his glorification.

The art and the literature which was widely practiced in both poetry and prose to serve the cultural and religious necessity of Muslim Societies. The following two features can be discussed briefly on this issue:

1 The reason why Arabic scripts were used instead of existing Geez scripts.

2. The Phonological analysis of using (Arabic script in writing of local languages.

 A) Regarding the first issue: Amharic is the official language of the Federal Government which is widely spoken by almost all nations and nationalities in Ethiopia particularly urban dwellers It has its own script However, why Arabic scripts were used instead of the Sabeans or Geez is briefly discussed as follows:

Although the Muslims of northern part of Ethiopia are native speakers of Amharic they did not use Amharic or Geez script because:

 - Firstly, The Muslims were deprived of the right of getting formal education during the feudal system in Ethiopia so that they could not write Amharic correctly.

- Secondly, Arabic language has played an influential role on the life of Muslim community to the extent that it became the language of art in the literature at least in the religious affairs.

- Thirdly, some Muslims used to consider Amharic as the language of Christianity and Arabic as the language of Islam because the Bible is in the former and the Qura'n is in the latter. So that they thought that every thing related to Islam had nothing to do with Amharic scripts for the sake of spirituality matter.

B) The Phonetical analysis of using Arabic scripts in writing of Amharic. Oromic or Oromiffa is the language of the Oromo people and the official language in Oromia which is the largest Regional state in Ethiopia. It is also spoken by all Oromos and many Non-Oromos but few Wello Oromos.

Out of the vast and several Ethiopian languages these two languages are taken as samples for this study for their widely usage in this regard. This does not mean other languages are not used for interpretation of the texts in religious activities.

 Ayed an influential role on the Muslim community the extent that it became their language of art and literature at least in religious affairs Further This was done systematically by symbolizing some nearer Arabic phones. For instance, the Amharic scripts such as---- cannot be found in Arabic. The writers were not suffered to symbolize the Arabic scripts to replace the Amharic sounds which were not in Arabic alphabets The symbolization of letters was done systematically. Out of 28 Arabic alphabets almost all are used phonetically except those which do not have coinciding sounds with Amharic such as Ë Í Î Ð Õ Ö Ù Ú Û. . Similarly, there are also some Amharic sounds which do not exist in Arabic phonetics. They are: ----- the non-existence letters with the exception of the above-mentioned sounds or letters from both sides, Arabic and Amharic have the same sounds which enabled the traditional writers of Amharic language in Arabic scripts with no difficulties.

For non existent sounds they used nearest letters by adding dots in such a way They neglected --- and--- for the first are spoken --- most of the time in Wello, the main source of this art, while the second is spoken --- in their colloquial. From this, we can conclude that these writers were very skillful in mastering Arabic than Amharic during that time.

It is to be recalled that not all the Muslims of the period have achieved the virtue of writing Arabic. The majority of Muslim did not use to write Arabic. Very few of them were proficient in writing their religious and cultural affairs while others were limited to the level of reading and listening.

The known writers Arabic in Amharic scripts like: Said Ibrahim Chali of WARRA Babbu and Telha Jaffer of Orgobba of 20th century while the latter was in the 19th century. These writers used some words directly from Arabic when they failed to interpret it in Amharic and the whole nature of their writing was mixture of both languages. Arabic writings in Oromic Philology Here we come to the vast and wide usage of Arabic scripts in Oromiffa because of the wideness of Oromo Region and the numerousness of educational centers.

Out of the main Islamic educational centers of Ethiopia namely Harar, Dawe, Jimma, Gomma, Limmu, Raya, Derra, Wello and Ifat, all were Oromic speakers and used Oromic for interpretation. &nbs p; &nbs p; &nbs p; As a learner and writer of Arabic language, I myself used to write Arabic in Oromo philology which I could avail samples on this conference. A lot of documents are available which were written in Oromiffa using Arabic alphabet on different subjects like:-

 1. Arabic grammar and usage.

2. Islamic Jurisprudence 3. Poetry and poems on different topics. (Detail Explanation.) The above mentioned and described Islamic culture and teachings were very few of the endeavor of learned scholars of Islamic doctrine.

As it has been discussed in the writings of Arabic in Amharic Philology, the same is also true in the case of Arabic writings in Oromiffa. That is to say, the writers of Oromo language using Arabic scripts were those who did not attend the formal school. Their knowledge of writing was merely limited to Arabic language which implies that they could not write their religious affairs in their mother tongue. In fact, not only religious but also other linguistic, social, political and cultural affairs were not written in Oromo language as it was not the language of literature until the down fall of the military regime (Derg) system in Ethiopia. Therefore, the writers of Oromo language were very few of many Islamic Scholars who have exhaustively contributed their potential to hand down these documentary assets for the today's generation.

 From this one can learn that these writers were prominent Muslim scholars who have dedicated their life in learning, teaching & writing the Islamic issues to at their age. Their ability to write the language which had no its own script and literature in foreign scripts clearly indicates their proficiency in Arabic. It was so excellent that they could manage to fill the gap between oral knowledge of Islamic Culture and the absence of literature .The art which paved the way to the development of Oromiffa itself. The Phonological Analysis of using Arabic Scripts In Oromic Philology Symbolization of Oromic by Arabic scripts: As the big difference between Arabic and Oromic languages it seems the writers' attempts to adapt Arabic by Oromiffa was not as easy as Amharic.

However, the spiritual know how of the topic they talk about made it simple. The language of expression itself was mixture it was not pure Oromic or pure Arabic when any Arabic reader sees the text he can quickly understand the idea because of several Arabic words scattered here and there. The symbolization was almost the same as of Amharic. They used the letters of common sounds as it was and for non-existing sounds they used dotting system.

 The Oromic sounds which are not found in Arabic are dh, c, gn, ch, g, gph. They are collected - as the Oromo Historian and Anthropologist, Sheik Abubekr Sabalo of Harar mentioned in the syllables of this phrase “dhaga, capha, nyaachuu” which means: chewing the broken stone. So they used the same letters of Amharic except ca and dha of Oromic in this manner:

Dha = ga = ca = pha = gna = cha = Writing Materials: a / Pen They used the traditional materials for writing, such as bamboo sticks as a pen. Because it is hollow and once it is sharpened it can stay a long period of time. They used to flame the tip of this pen by fire to prevent frequent sharpening.

In the areas where bamboo is scarcely found the writers used similar wooden stick as pen. The bamboo stick was selected for its suitability of writing letters in bold and beautiful character as compared to the modern fountain pen which appeared very late in Ethiopia. b/Preparation of Ink: Preparation of Ink differs from place to places.

The familiar usage ink was using charcoal for the purpose of writing Qura'n on wooden plate (lough). But using charcoal for writing of articles on the paper and the like materials was not appropriate. It needed another convenient ink which was differently used at different places. Some used to prepare an ink of their own by buying normal ink and mix it the same ingredient local material for the purpose further blackening on the white paper. Others used to prepare from very colorful trees leaves after some processes was made to get very standard and long live ink which we can observe from different manuscripts of hundred of years age. c/ The Paper Summary An Introduction Here, some historical background of Arabic language and its usage in Ethiopia is described:-

Co-existence of Arabic with geez throughout the age of Christianity and Islam. Some evidence of this fact:

 1- The communications between Ethiopian Emperor Al Nejashi & the immigrants of Mecca tribe.

2- The literal correspondence between the Prophet and the Emperor.

3- The spiritual transformation of religious doctrines from the Coptic Church of Alexandria to the Orthodox Church of Ethiopia in the earlier period of expansion of Christianity.

4- The influence of Arabic language on Ethiopian Muslims since Hijera time of 1st Islamic Century.

5- The expansion of Qura'n and Hadith teachings by Arabic language.

6- The migration of different Arab tribes to Ethiopia like Makhzumite Al Alawiyad & Al Umawiyad and their extension over very wide land of Ethiopia.

7- Establishment of Islamic states which exerted until the time of the conquest of Imam Ahmad Grange. 8- Arabic became the language of learning and teaching in Harar, Wello, Ifat, Raya, Darra, Arsi, Bale, Jimma and Limmu and other Islamic studies centers.

Arabic writings in Ethiopian philology - Amharic and Oromiffa in Arabic scripts (why the two languages are selected from other Ethiopian languages) - Area of usage in this interatual art. - Why Arabic script instead of Sabean or Geez? -The phonological analysis.