Harar

Lore & Background

Around 1520, Harar became the capital of the Adal Sultanate under Sultan Abu Bakr ibn Muhammad, following the fall of Dakkar. Imam Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi later made it the center of his campaigns against Christian Ethiopia. After his defeat in 1543, his widow Bati del Wambara renewed jihad, and later Nur ibn Mujahid married her and became ruler. Nur constructed a large wall around Harar to defend against Oromo incursions, but the city experienced severe famines and a plague that killed Nur in 1568. Political instability followed, with rulers such as Uthman the Abyssinian and Talha ibn Abbas, and conflicts with the Oromo continued.

Reader's Guide

Harar's significance lies in its long history as a major commercial center linking Ethiopia, the Horn of Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, and Asia. Its old walled city, Harar Jugol, was recognized by UNESCO in 2006 for its cultural heritage, and the Ethiopian government has made it a criminal offence to demolish or interfere with historical sites there. The city's religious importance as the fourth holiest city of Islam, with mosques dating from the 10th century, underscores its enduring cultural prestige. Despite political decline during the Emirate of Harar and the Ethiopian Empire, the city maintained cultural prestige. The etymology of its name remains ambiguous, with possible origins from the Harla people or from a plain or tree, as noted by explorer Richard Francis Burton.

Did You Know?

• Harar is known in Arabic as the City of Saints (Madīnat al-ʾAwliyāʾ).
• The city has 82 mosques and 102 shrines, with some mosques dating back centuries.
• The city of Harar predates the legendary saint Abadir Umar ar-Rida, who is associated with its Islamic heritage rather than its founding.
• Harar was made the capital of the Adal Sultanate around 1520 under Sultan Abu Bakr ibn Muhammad.

Sacred Origins and Religious Identity

According to the semi-legendary thirteenth-century text Fatḥ Madīnat Harar, the city was established around 1216 CE when the legendary saint Abadir Umar ar-Rida arrived on the Harar plateau accompanied by four hundred and five other religious figures, including Aw Barkhadle and Isma'il al-Jabarti, all of whom had traveled from the Arabian Peninsula. Local groups—the Argobba, the Gaturi, and the Harla—welcomed Abadir and accepted his leadership. His brother Fakr ad-Din went on to found the Sultanate of Mogadishu, while a later descendant established the Hadiya Sultanate, embedding Harar within a wider network of Islamic polities.

Islam had already taken root on the plateau by the tenth and eleventh centuries through commercial contact with Zeila, and by the thirteenth century it had become the dominant faith of the region. Today, UNESCO describes Harar as the fourth holiest city in Islam. The old walled quarter contains eighty-two mosques—three of which trace their origins to the tenth century—along with one hundred and two shrines. In Arabic, the city carries the title Madīnat al-ʾAwliyāʾ, the City of Saints, a designation that reflects centuries of accumulated religious memory and the deep spiritual significance the Harari people have attached to their homeland.

Political Turmoil and the Adal Sultanate

In 1520, Harar became the capital of the Adal Sultanate under Sultan Abu Bakr ibn Muhammad, who had defeated the religious faction of Abun Adashe. The arrangement, however, was short-lived. Imam Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi—known locally as Gragn or Gurey, both meaning 'the Left-handed'—strengthened his position after a victory over an Ethiopian raid and in 1525 defeated and killed the Sultan. He installed Umar Din as a puppet ruler and used Harar as the base for campaigns that ravaged much of Christian Ethiopia.

After Imam Ahmad's defeat in 1543, his scattered men returned to the Harar region. His widow, Bati del Wambara, renewed the jihad, invading the highlands in 1548 but being repulsed by Ras Fanu'el. In 1551, Nur ibn Mujahid married Bati and assumed the throne. When Nur departed on a holy war to Fatagar in 1559, Ethiopian forces under Ras Hamalmal exploited his absence to breach the city and kill the last Walashma sultan, Barakat ibn Umar Din. Nur's return proved decisive: he defeated and killed the Ethiopian ruler Gelawdewos at the Battle of Fatagar and brought the severed head back to Harar in triumph.

Commercial Crossroads of the Horn

Harar's strategic position on a hilltop at an elevation of 1,885 metres, roughly 500 kilometres east of Addis Ababa, made it a natural node in the trade networks that stitched together the Horn of Africa. For centuries the city served as a major commercial hub, connected by overland routes to the interior of Ethiopia, the Arabian Peninsula, and Asia, while its access to coastal ports opened channels to the wider world.

Islamic influence reached the Harar plateau as early as the tenth and eleventh centuries, carried by merchants trading with Zeila. The city was part of the confederated states of Zeila, and the twelfth-century Jewish traveler Benjamin of Tudela described the Zeila region as the land of Havilah, bounded to the west by al-Habash. In the ninth century, Harar fell under the Maḥzūmī dynasty's Sultanate of Shewa. The first surviving written reference to the city appears in the fourteenth-century chronicles of Emperor Amda Seyon I, who recorded that in 1332 Gēt—Harar—dispatched three governors to support Salih against the Emperor's invasion of Adal at the Battle of Das. This early mention signals that by the first half of the fourteenth century, Harar had already accumulated considerable regional importance.

Preservation, Identity, and the Walled City

The old walled quarter of Harar, known as Harar Jugol, received UNESCO World Heritage Site status in 2006 in recognition of its cultural heritage. The Ethiopian government, acknowledging the city's deep ties to Arabian trade and Islamic scholarship, has made it a criminal offense to demolish or interfere with any historical site or fixture within the city. Protected structures include stone homes, museums, and items discarded from past wars.

The city's identity is layered in language. In Harari, the indigenous name is Gēy, simply meaning 'the city.' Outsiders historically called the residents Hadharee. In Arabic, ḥaḍārī functions as both a noun and an adjective denoting an urban dweller and everything associated with permanent settlement. The etymology of 'Harar' remains debated: archaeologist Timothy Insoll suggests a derivation from the Harla, an ancient group predating the Oromo arrival, while British explorer Richard Francis Burton proposed it derives from a plain south of the town or a particular tree.

Politically, Harar experienced a long decline during the Emirate of Harar, regained some significance under the Khedivate of Egypt, and continued to decay through the Ethiopian Empire while retaining cultural prestige. Today it serves as the capital of the Harari Region.