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Arsi Oromo is an ethnic Oromo people branch, inhabiting the Arsi Zone, West Arsi and Bale Zone Zones of the Oromia Region of Ethiopia, as well as in the Adami Tullu and Jido Kombolcha woreda of East Shewa Zone.The Arsi are made up of the Sikkoo-Mandoo branch of Barento Oromo. The Arsi in all zones speaks Oromo language share the same culture, traditions and identity with other subgroup Oromo.
In the early years of the eleventh century, the Islam had already become well-established in Bale Zone, a primary region of Arsiland. Proof of this can be seen in the existence of a mosque named Dobbi, which was constructed in the year 460 AH (1067 AD) and was situated in the Gasara area. Furthermore, the construction of two additional mosques, one in Balla in 1067 and the other in Zuqum in the year 1075, also testified to the presence of a Muslims sultanate referred to as Bali at this time.
The establishment of the Islam in the region of Bale Zone was not the only significant development in Arsiland at this time, however, as the twelfth century also brought about the emergence of several other Muslim sultanates in the southeastern parts of what is now Ethiopia. These sultanates included Dawaro, Sharkha, Arababni, Dara, Wej province and Hadiya people, and they were responsible for exerting a direct influence on the religious conditions within the Arsi Oromo people territories. According to historical records, some of these sultanates were founded on parts or all of the land now occupied by the Oromo people.
In the beginning of the early seventeenth century, the lands of Arsi Oromo were under the Emirate of Harar however the Emirate gradually lost control in the following centuries.
Arsi Oromo were largely independent and ruling under their own Gadaa until about the 19th century. The Arsi under their leader Nur Hussien from Harar demonstrated fierce resistance in coordination with the Hadiya rebel leader Hassan Enjamo against the Ethiopian Empire conquest of 1881-6, when Menelik II conducted several unsuccessful invasion campaigns against their territory. In response when the Abyssinians occupied Arsi, Shewans terrorized civilians by committing various atrocities including massacres and amputations. Although Arsi put up stiff opposition against an enemy equipped with modern European firearms, they were finally defeated in 1886.
In the 1940s the Arsi Oromo with the people of Bale province joined the Harari people Kulub movement an affiliate of the Somali Youth League that peacefully opposed Amhara Christian domination of Hararghe. The Ethiopian government brutally suppressed the ethno-religious movement using violence.
During the 1970s the Arsi faced persecution by the Ethiopian government thus formed alliances with Somalia.
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