The Prophetic Advice to Desist from Ethiopia

دَعُوا الْحَبَشَةَ مَا وَدَعُوكُم، وَاتْرُكُوا التّرْكَ مَا تَرَكُوكُم
“Leave the Ethiopians so long as they leave you, and desist from the Turkic nations, so long as they desist from you.”
[Abû Dâwud's Sunan, an-Nasâ'î's Sunan, and others]

Failure to follow the aforementioned advice of the Prophet Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وسلم) has had devestating consequences in Islamic history. If one observes the map of largely Muslim North Africa, one can’t help but notice that in a solid belt of Muslim nations one finds the Christian nation of Ethiopia sticking out like a sore thumb. This is because the Arabs of the Arabian Peninsula remembered well the advice of their resident and Prophet who had shown great tolerance and respect for the Christians of Ethiopia, then called Abyssinia or “Habasha” in Arabic.