Emirate of Harar

The Emirate of Harar was a Muslim kingdom founded in 1647 when the Harari people refused to accept Imām ʿUmardīn Ādam as their ruler and broke away from the Imamate of Aussa to form their own state under `Ali ibn Da`ud.

The city of Harar Gey served as its sole capital. Prior to its invasion by Shewan forces under Menelik II, the League of Nations noted that the Harar Emirate made up the area between the rivers Awash and Shebelle while the Ogaden was a tributary state. Originally however the Harar Emirate composed of present-day Somalia and to the south of eastern Ethiopia including the Arsi Province. Numerous Oromo and Somali clans in the region paid tax to the Emirate as late as the 18th century despite their gradual annexation of lands in the Harari state. Harar also dominated trade in Shewa.

Harar's influence began shrinking in the 19th century possibly due to lack of resources and famine. Like all Muslim states in the area. The British Empire defeated the Khedivate and occupied its territories in 1882 including Harar, but the British agreed to evacuate Harar and essentially cede the city to the Ethiopian Empire's sphere of influence in exchange for assistance against Mahdist forces in Sudan. As per the terms of their agreement (the Hewett Treaty), the British withdrew from Harar in 1884, leaving the city to the son of the former Emir of Harar with a few hundred rifles, some cannon and a handful of British trained officers. The Emirate would be finally destroyed and annexed by the armies of Negus Sahle Maryam of Shewa (the future Emperor Menelik II) in 1887 following the Emirate's defeat at the Battle of Chelenqo.

According to historian Merid Wolde Aregay, the Harar emirate's predecessor state the Adal Sultanate, consisted mainly of Hubat, the Harari uplands, the region of Babile and extended east into the modern Somali region of Ethiopia. He adds that its inhabitants spoke Harari language and it was the most dominant polity in the region.

However Sidney Waldron and others allude to the destruction of the early Harari kingdom in the sixteenth century and its transition into a City-state:

"The Harari who remained behind the new city walls were the sole survivors of a once much wider spread ethnic and linguistic community whose full extent may never be known, but whose last trace is the record of their decimation: By 1577 (the Oromo) had destroyed more than a hundred villages and besieged the city, Until the gates were filled with corpses"

Ali ibn Da'ud came to the throne after one of many internal crises which had torn the mini-states to shreds within the vicissitudes of their entire history. A certain Emir Ahmed, the son of Wazir Abram, had reigned for 10 days when 'Ali ibn Da'ud assumed the throne of Harar, thus founding a new dynasty of the Harari emirs. Prior to this incident, Ali ibn Da'ud had risen through the ranks with previous occupations such as being a head of a district (Malak) and one of the ministers of Emir Siddiq. Having exhausted all office positions, came to be in possession of sovereign powers in the long run. On 1 September 1662 Emir Ali ibn Da'ud had to face a violent Illamo Oromo raid which, had reached as near as Asmadin Gate and killed his son Sabr ad-Din ibn al-Amir 'Ali b. Da'ud.

Historian Ali Abdirahman Hersi, who specializes in Somali history, indicates that the Emirate continued to engage in trade, albeit at a reduced scale, and established settlements in the Ogaden region after the fall of the Adal Sultanate. The residents of these settlements encountered simultaneous assaults from both the Oromo and Somali, compelling them to construct a defensive wall. Beginning in the seventeenth century, the Oromo people in the vicinity of Harar started to embrace Islam. During this century, the Emirate would also start the mass production of religious manuscripts, with the Harari Qurans being notable for their distinctive designs.