Ahmad Taqi Sheikh Mohammed Rashid

Ahmad Taqi "Hundee" Sheikh Mohammed Rashid (1942 – 6 September 1974) was an Ethiopian Oromo nationalist, known, along with his comrade Elemo Qiltu, as the "first true fighters and martyrs of the Oromo causes". It was these two persons and their few colleagues who founded an organization with a fighting unit that bears the name of the Oromo people, although before them, many nationalists had fought and died for the Oromo causes.

In addition, these men are credited with reviving and popularizing usage of the name Oromo in early 1970s.

Early life

Ahmad Taqi was born to Sheikh Muhammad Rashid Bilal of Balballeti-Chirrati, a renowned Islamic scholar, traditionalist, historian, poet and community leader well known in the Harerghe Highlands. His mother was Mariyam Ahmad Hajji Salih Diimaa. He is the third child born to the family of Sheikh Muhammad Rashid.

Ahmad Taqi lived in his early years at his birthplace, called Balbaletti in eastern Ethiopia, in the Habro District of Hararghe Province (modern-day Habro woreda in West Hararghe Zone of the Oromia Region), and there he had studied Qur'an and other Islamic subjects, primarily under the tutorship of his father. Later, he traveled in many areas of the Chercher Highlands with his elder brother Muttaqi Sheikh Muhammed-Rashid, and his favourite cousin Sheikh Abdinur Kabir Khalid. The three studied, under different masters, the major streams of Islamic Education, which included Nahw (Classical Arabic), Tafseer (Qur'anic exegesis), Hadith, Sira (the traditions and life history of the Prophet), and other fields.

They returned to continue their education once again at the center of Sheikh Muhammad Rashid.