Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-wzw2p Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-31T20:23:23.745Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Harär Town and its Neighbours in the Nineteenth Century1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

R. A. Caulk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The survival of the Semitic-speaking, Muslim townsmen of Harär in the midst of animist Oromo (Galla) who migrated into the eastern highlands of modern Ethiopia in the late sixteenth century and settled as pastoralists is something of an anomaly, at least in the eastern Rift. Other pre-migration settlements of Muslim farmer-traders, presumably also speaking a southern Semitic language, appear to have been submerged and displaced. The Haräri's good fortune is not to be explained by their use of firearms and simple fortifications. Economic interdependence, the awe the newcomers felt for the town's saints and the greater cohesion of the townspeople probably played a greater role than mere self-defence.

A balance of power was needed, however, if the town was not to be swamped. This equilibrium seems to have been upset at the very time that the trade of the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden was revived by Egypt in the second quarter of the nineteenth century. Neither the succession to the amirate of pacifist princes nor the betrayal of the town to outsiders by the half-Oromo ruler, Amir Muhammad ibn Ali (1856–75), can correctly be blamed for this reverse although these are the excuses given in Haräri tradition. Rather, the repeated appeal to sections of the Oromo by factions within the town in struggles for the throne from the 1820s led to the Haräri becoming clients to neighbours who were still overwhelmingly animist herders little concerned with the commerce on which the townsmen's prosperity depended and little attracted to the titles and Muslim insignia with which the amirs rewarded those of the cultivating Oromo minority who paid taxes and rents in grain and supplied the town with other foodstuffs and its market with crops for export.

Though denigrated in the town's traditions, Amir Muhammad ibn Ali began the systematic proselytization of the surrounding Oromo and sought to induce more of them to cultivate crops for sale. Conversion and farming for the town's market, along with the appointment from the town of officials to replace the Oromo's elected officers, were the means by which, during the Turco-Egyptian occupation (1875–85), rulers with greater military resources obliged the confederation of the four great Oromo clans around the town (the Afran-Qallu) to adopt a way of life more in harmony with the interests of the townsmen. Despite the conquest of Harär and the surrounding Oromo and Somali by non-urban, Christian Ethiopians in the brief reign of Muhammad Ali's son, Amir Abdallahi (1885–7), the Islamic and mercantile legacy of the town was deeply enough rooted by then to flourish among the Afran-Qallu and to distinguish them, like the Haräri themselves, from their conquerors.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 18 , Issue 3 , July 1977 , pp. 369 - 386
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1977

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

2 H., and Joussaume, R., ‘Les anciennes villes dans le Tchercher’, Annales d'Ethiopie, ix (1972), 21 ff.Google Scholar; Hetzron, Robert, Ethiopian Semitic, (Monograph no. 2, Journal of Semitic Studies: Manchester, 1972), 36, 42, 124.Google Scholar

3 Aregay, Merid Wolde, ‘Population Movements as a possible factor in the Christian-Muslim Conflict of Medieval Ethiopia’, Symposium Leo Frobenius: Yaoundé 1973 (German UNESCO Commission, Munich, 1974), 266 ff.Google Scholar

4 Interviews: the late Gärad, Uthman, ughaz of the Gäri, and the late Fitawrari Dul Hersi, ughaz of the Bartäri, Jigjiga, May 1969Google Scholar. Cf. Francolini, Bruno, ‘I Somali del Harar’, Gli Annali dell' Africa Italiana, i, 3–4 (12 1938), 1126–7.Google Scholar

5 Cerulli, Enrico (ed. and trans.), ‘Documenti Arabi per la storia dell'Etiopia’, Memorie della Reale Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, iv, 2 (Rome, 1931), 57–62, 67–9, 77–8, 82–6, 95–6.Google Scholar

6 de Cahagne, Taurin, ‘Autour d'Harar’, Les Missions Catholiques (1882), 262.Google Scholar

7 Interview: Gärad Waday Rigē, assisted by other Gurgura Nolē Oromo, Dire Dawa, April 1974.

8 Rauf Pasha to the Khedive, Harär, 18 Ramadhan 1292/18 Oct. 1875, Shawqi Ata Alia al-Jamal (ed.), Al-wasek atarikhya liseyaset Misr fi al-Bahr al-ahmer 1863–1879 (Cairo, n.d.), no. 127, 271–7.Google Scholar

9 Barker, W. C. (Lt.), ‘Extract Report on the probable Geographical Position of Harrar; with some Information relative to the various Tribes in the Vicinity’, J. Royal Geog. Soc, xii (1842), 240Google Scholar

10 Moktar, Mohammed, ‘Notes sur le Pays de Harrar’, Bulletin de la Sociélé Khédiviale de Géographie, ii (1876), 362, 379Google Scholar. Hunter, F. M. (Major), ‘Report on the Province of Harrar’, enclosed in Hunter to the Bombay Govt., no. 219–1414, Aden, 30 June 1884 (copy in the library of the Royal Geographical Society, London), 2–3.Google Scholar

11 Interview: al-Sadiq, Haj Umar Abd, Harär, Jan. 1969 and Mar. 1975Google Scholar. Paulitschke, Philipp, ‘Harrâr’, Bollettino delta Società Africana d' Italia, viii, 5–6 (1889), 146.Google Scholar

12 Abir, Mordechai, Ethiopia: The Era of the Princes (London, 1968), 12.Google Scholar

13 Notes from the cover and end papers of an eighteenth-century manuscript read to me by Ahmad Abd al-Rahman whose maternal grandfather, Ali Abu Bakr, was the half-brother and a cousin of Amir Muhammad ibn Ali (d. 1875); interviewed, Harär, , Jan. 1969–Sept. 1975.Google Scholar

14 Interview by the late Dr V. Stitz with recent Haräri settlers and Muslim Nolē at Gursum; Moktar, , ‘Pays de Harrar’, 382.Google Scholar

15 Bardey, Alfred, ‘Notes sur le Harar’, Bulletin de Géographie Historique et Descriptive, i (1897), 143.Google Scholar

16 Aregay, Merid Wolde, ‘Southern Ethiopia and the Christian Kingdom, 1508–1708, with special reference to the Galla migrations and their consequences,’ (Ph.D. thesis, London University, 1971: forthcoming from Addis Ababa University Press), 424–5.Google Scholar

17 Tedeschi, Salvatore (ed. and trans.), ‘L'Emirato di Harar secondo un documento inedito’, Quaderno dell' Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, i, Sezione storica, no. 191 (1974), 481 ff.Google Scholar, citing earlier publications.

18 Cerulli, Enrico, Studi Etiopici, I, La lingua e la storia di Harar (Rome, 1936), 2.Google Scholar

19 Interviews: Shaykh Ahmad Abdallahi, Koran school, Harär, April 1970 and Jan. 1975; Lazim Ibrahim Yahya, keeper of the Aw Sofi shrine, and Shakyh Gatur Muhammad Abdallahi, keeper of the Abd al-Qadir Jilani shrine, both on the Bisidimo road, May 1975. Bardey, , ‘Notes sur le Harar’, 153.Google Scholar

20 Interview: Hersi, Hassan, ughaz of the Issa, Dire Dawa, Sept. 1975.Google Scholar

21 Personal communication from Drs L. J. Slikkerveer and W. F. L. Buschkens, University of Leiden. Institute of Cultural and Social Studies, Dept. of Medical Sociology, who are studying traditional medical practices in the province.

22 For evidence that the migrant Oromo were not necessarily ignorant of the cultivation of grains, see Haberland, Eike, Galla Süd-Athiopiens (Stuttgart, 1963), 773–4 (English summary).Google Scholar

23 Interview: Nolē and Alia elders, Alämaya, March 1975. They exaggerate the importance of the reign of the last amir. Moktar, , ‘Pays de Harrar’, 383Google Scholar, indicates that women wore hides and men wore locally woven sheetings.

24 Interview: Bakri, Shaykh, Dire Dawa, Apr. 1974.Google Scholar

25 Ahmed, Yusuf, ‘An Inquiry into some Aspects of the Economy of Harar and the Records of the Household Economy of the Amirs of Harar (1825–1875)’, Bulletin of the Ethnological Society of the University College of Addis Ababa, x (07–12, 1960), 10.Google Scholar

26 Burton, Richard, First Footsteps in East Africa (London, 1966), 164, 166, 168–74. 192–4, 200.Google Scholar

27 Moktar, , ‘Pays de Harrar’, 359, 370, 374–6, 383Google Scholar. Paulitschke, Philipp, ‘Gli Orómo o Galla dell'Harar’, Bullettino della Sezione Fiorentina della Società Africana d' Italia, iii, 1–3 (1887), 202Google Scholar, notes that well woven sheetings were brought by the Oromo in 1885 to the town as well as being locally sold; on iron working, see Cecchi, Antonio, Da Zeila alle frontiere del Caffa: viaggi, 3 vols. (Rome, 1886–1887), II, 621–22Google Scholar; de Cahagne, Taurin, ‘Autour d'Harar’, 270.Google Scholar

28 Paulitschke, Philipp, Harar, Forschungsreise nach den Somâl und Galla-Ländern Ost-Afrikas (Leipzig, 1888), 246Google Scholar; War Office, Intelligence Branch, Quartermaster-General's Dept., no. 40185–1896, Report on the Egyptian Provinces (London, 1884), 114–15Google Scholar. Hunter, , ‘Report on the Province of Harrar’ (cited in n. 10), 26–7.Google Scholar

29 Moktar, , ‘Pays de Harrar’, 384.Google Scholar

30 Muhammad Hassan, B.A. thesis, 23–4, citing Abd al-Rahman Abogn in Harär; Paulitschke, , ‘Gli Orómo’, 232–3.Google Scholar

31 Haj Umar Abd al-Sadiq, cited in n. 11. Cattle breeding continued to be important even to the farming Oromo: Giulietti, G. M., ‘Viaggio da Zeila ad Harar (1879)’, Bollettino della Società Geografica Italiana (1881), 435–6.Google Scholar

32 Cf. Ahmed, Yusuf, ‘Inquiry’, and Volker Stitz, ‘Arabic town records and the economic and population history of Harar during the 19th century’, paper presented to a conference of the History Society of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa, June 1975Google Scholar. The records of the diwan of 1242–97 Hijra/1826/7 to A.D. 1879/80 cited by Stitz are now deposited in the Institute of Ethiopian Studies: MSS. nos. 955, 956, 957 and 958, along with the microfilms on which his study was based.

33 Moktar, , ‘Pays de Harrar’.Google Scholar

34 Rauf Pasha to the Khedive, Harär, z Rabi al-Awal 1293/28 Mar. 1876, al-Jamal, Shawqi, Al-wasek atarikhya, no. 140, 309–310Google Scholar. Interview: Balambaras (and Gärad) Ibrahim ibn Ali whose great-great grandfather, Waday Iru, an Abado Alla leader, was killed resisting the Egyptians; Alämaya, , May 1975.Google Scholar

35 Moktar, , ‘Pays de Harrar’, 381–2.Google Scholar

36 Last, Murray, The Sokoto Caliphate (London, 1967), lxii–lxiiiGoogle Scholar; Ogot, B.A., ‘The Role of the Pastoralist and the Agriculturalist in African History: the case of East Africa’, in Ranger, T. O. (ed.), Emerging Themes in African History (Nairobi, 1968), 219.Google Scholar

37 Haberland, , Galla Süd-Äthiopiens, 277Google Scholar. Paulitschke, , ‘Gli Orómo’, 210, 234, 236–7Google Scholar. Some Nolē and Alla say a Haräri was too unworthy an enemy to count.

38 Stitz, , ‘Arabic town records’, 10.Google Scholar

39 Abir, , Ethiopia, 13Google Scholar; and ibid., 60, for its continuing place in the slave trade.

40 Haj Umar Abd al-Sadiq, cited in n. II; Tedeschi, , ‘Emirato di Harar’, 487, 494Google Scholar; something of Abd al-Rahman's unlucky expedition is remembered by the Alia of Fadis.

41 Wagner, Ewald (ed. and trans.), ‘Three Arabic Documents on the History of Harar’, J. Ethiopian Studies, xii, 1 (01 1974), 220–1Google Scholar; for a different version of Haräri tradition, see ibid., 219–20.

42 Burton, , First Footsteps, 189Google Scholar, author's note; cf. Harris, W. Cornwallis, The Highlands of Aethiopia, 3 vols. (London, 1844), i, p. 392–3CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Bardey, , ‘Notes sur le Harar’, 154–5Google Scholar; Paulitschke, , ‘Harrâr’, 145.Google Scholar

43 Interviews: Fatima Muhammad Idris, Abdash Duldul and his wife, Harär, Jan. 1969; also Haj Umar Abd al-Sadiq, cited in n. II; Ahmad Abd al-Rahman, cited in n. 13; Shaykh Ahmad Abdallahi, cited in n. 19.

44 Abu Bakr is usually known as ibn Aftal-Gärad because his father had distinguished himself in war and had been given the title once held by Adal governors of Zäyla; Haj Umar Abd al-Sadiq cited in n. 11 and Fatima Muhammad Idris, cited in n. 43.

45 Abdallahi, Shaykh Ahmad, cited in n. 19 (in Jan. 1975 interviewed with Abd al-Wadud Abd al-Karim.)Google Scholar

46 Abir, , Ethiopia, 10, n. 3.Google Scholar

47 Burton, . First Footsteps, 190.Google Scholar

48 Harris, , Highlands, 1, 392.Google Scholar

49 Barker, , ‘Extract Report’, 240.Google Scholar

50 According to informants interviewed by Abd al-Muhaimin, a grandson of Haj Mumie Beshir who had once been in the service of Amir Abdallahi (personal communication, May 1970).

51 Paulitschke, , ‘Harrâr’, 145Google Scholar, Abir, , Ethiopia, 11–12.Google Scholar

52 Hassan, Muhammad, B.A. thesis, 8, citing a Nolē informant.Google Scholar

53 Burton, , First Footsteps, 163, 189.Google Scholar

54 Ughaz Uthman Gärad of the Gäri, as cited in n. 4; he also said that the marriage of Amir Abdallahi with a sister of Ughaz Adan of the Gäri was exceptional, but later he recalled earlier Somali alliances. Paulitschke, Philipp, ‘Note per la storia del Harar’, Bullettino della Sezione Fiorentina della Società Africana d'Italia, ii (1886), 195Google Scholar, says that Fatima, whom he met in her nineties, was a Bartäri, as were many wives of the amir. According to Burton, the Gäri ughaz called her his ‘sister’ (First Footsteps, 163–4).Google Scholar

55 Burton, , First Footsteps, 174, 189, 190.Google Scholar

56 Unless otherwise indicated, my account is based on interviews with Haj Umar Abd al-Sadiq, cited in n. 11, and Fatima Muhammad Idris, cited in n. 43, as well as those cited in Hassan, Muhammad, B.A. thesis, 10–12.Google Scholar

57 But in an interview at Harär, in May 1970, Mayemuna Sayyid Ibrahim, whose father was record keeper to the last amir and fought at Chälänqo, insists that Ali Mayu of Anniya belongs to a much earlier period and that Muhammad's father was a son of the Amir Abd al-Shakur. Other informants associate an Ali Mayu as an adopted or illegitimate Oromo son with earlier rulers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

58 Information on Kormoso's career from interview with Balambaras Jebrel Waday Galmo Kormoso (a great grandson), at Shaykh Waday village near Adäle, Mar., May and Sept. 1975.

59 Gordon, Charles (Pasha), ‘Memorandum sur les Amirs de Harrar’, Abdine Archives. Sudan, Correspondence GordonGoogle Scholar; Hill, G.B. (ed.), Colonel Gordon in Central Africa 1874–79 (London, 1885), 31Google Scholar. Khalifa Citra's father was indentified for me by Haj Umar Abd al-Sadiq cited in n. 11.

60 According to Haräri interviewed by a university student, Abdallahi, Zäkariya, 1968.Google Scholar

61 Moktar, , ‘Pays de Harrar’, 391–6Google Scholar; interview: Käbir Abdalla, Addis Ababa, summer 1968; also Haj Umar Abd al-Sadiq, cited in n. 11.

62 Rossini, Carlo Conti (ed. and trans.), ‘Testi in Lingua Harari’, Rivista degli Studi Orientali, viii (1913), 412.Google Scholar

63 Hassan, Muhammad, B.A. thesis, 13–14Google Scholar, citing the late Haj Muhammad Orfo, interviewed at Mullata, Gara, May 1972.Google Scholar

64 Rauf Pasha to Mihradar, 5 Dhu al-Qa'da 1292/3 Dec. 1875, Abdine Archives, Sudan 5, dossier 3/3, no. 220 (Arabic); Soudan Général, carton 12, Année 1292, dossier 3/3 (French trans, made for Douin); also Moktar, , ‘Pays de Harrar’, 384–7.Google Scholar

65 Ahmad Abd al-Rahman, cited in n. 13; Fatima Muhammad Idris, cited in n. 43.

66 Burton, , First Footsteps, 186, 188Google Scholar; Barker, , ‘Extract Report’, 240.Google Scholar

67 I am indebted to Hassan, Muhammad, B.A. thesis, 16–18Google Scholar, for first bringing to light the importance of Muhammad ibn Ali.

68 The Harär Argobba are as yet unstudied, but see Stitz, Volker, ‘The Western Argobba of Yifat, Central Ethiopia’, Proceedings of the First United States Conference on Ethiopian Studies: 1973 (Michigan State University: East Lansing, 1975), 185–92.Google Scholar

69 Interview: Alla elders, Fadis (Bako), Jan. 1975. Moktar, , ‘Pays de Harrar’, 388Google Scholar, says that at Bubassa, some twenty miles south of Harär, the Oromo were studying Koran in 1875.

70 Interview: Shaykh Ahmad Abdallahi, a Qallu Alia from Deder, long resident in Nolē country, and Ibrahim Qadi Abdallahi, a Jarso Nolē, Kémbolcha, Jan. 1975.

71 Hassan, Muhammad, B.A. thesis, 16–18Google Scholar, citing a Nunu informant, the late Haj Muhammad Orfo; the qadi of Dire Dawa, Shaykh Yassin Muhammad; and a descendant of the first learned family to go to the Mētta Alla, Abu Bakr Abdallahi Sharif, who was interviewed in Addis Ababa, Nov. 1972.

72 This is also the preliminary conclusion of Dr Ulrich Braukémper, Frobenius Institute, Bonn (personal communication, Dec. 1973).

73 Interview: ‘Haji’ Barē, a Maya, at Gärad Sayyid village near Aw Waday, Mar. 1975.Google Scholar

74 Balambaras Jebrel Waday, cited in n. 58.

75 Idem, and the Alia and Nolē informants cited in n. 23.

76 de Cahagne, Taurin, ‘Autour d'Harär’, 262Google Scholar; Paulitschke, , ‘Gli Orómo’, 233–4Google Scholar. Cf. Rossini, Conti, ‘Testi in Lingua Harari’, 412–13Google Scholar, where the Haräri chronicler says Rauf made peace with rifles, set the Oromo to work and taxed them.

77 Rauf Pasha to the Khedive, 28 Mar. 1876, as cited in n. 34.

78 Ridwan, to Sanieh, Maia, 13 Rajab 1295/13 July 1878Google Scholar; and, Zéyla, Abu Bakrof to Sanieh, Maia, 3 Rajab 1295/3 July 1878Google Scholar, Abdine Archives, Soudan Général, carton 15, Année 1295 (French trans.), Registre 31. Deputy Governor to the Khedive, Harär, 22 Ramadhan 1298/18 Aug. 1881, Abdine Archives, Sudan 5, dossier 3/9; also Sacconi, P., ‘II Governo Egiziano et le tribu Galla e Somali’, (dated Harär, 14 Feb. 1883), L'Esploratore, vii (1883), 171 ff.Google Scholar

79 ‘The Tribes that came under Government Control in August 1880 and the Amount of Revenue obtained until the Year 1882’, Arabic tax report, 9 Safar 1300/30 Dec. 1882, Abdine Archives, Sudan 5, dossier 3/17.

80 Pasha, Muhammad Nadi, ‘Accounts obtained from the Hikimdariyat of Harar on the Revenues for the Year 1882’, Arabic tax report, 26 Nov. 1882Google Scholar, Abdine Archives, Sudan 5, dossier 3/16. Hunter, , ‘Report on the Province of Harrar’, as cited in n. 10.Google Scholar

81 Baer, Gabriel, Studies in the Social History of Modern Egypt (Chicago, 1969), 32, 36–7.Google Scholar

82 de Cahagne, Taurin to Secrétaire, Père, Zéyla, 9 Mar. 1882Google Scholar, Bibliothèque franciscaine provinciale, Paris, MS. 960, Lettres de Mgr. Cahagne, fo. 79; Giulietti, , ‘Viaggio’ (cited in n. 31).Google Scholar

83 Collected in 1969 by Ibrahim Ali, university student.

84 Gärad Waday Rigē, cited in n. 7. The present ugliaz of the Issa (cited in n. 20) says Ughaz Roblē turned to Cairo out of his hatred for the amir.

85 Interview: Ali, Musa Ibrahim, a Nolē, and other Oromo at Aw Waday market, Mar. 1975Google Scholar. Also informants cited in nn. 58, 69, 70 and 73; these include a number of the descendants of the elected leaders who died fighting Rauf yet whose sons did well.

86 Interview: the late Balambaras Tewfiq Muhammad Orfo, Dire Dawa, Apr. 1974, and the more detailed account given by his father, Orfo's son, Muhammad, in 1972 as cited in Hassan, Muhammad, B.A. thesis, 22 ffGoogle Scholar. Gärad Waday Rigē (cited in n. 7) denies that Orfo's authority extended to the Nolē for whom he names another leader of the Raba-Dori at the coming of the Egyptians.

87 For confirmation of the superficiality of such conversions, see Pasha, Nadi, ‘Notice sur Harrar’, Bulletin de la Société Khédiviale de Géographie, viii (1886), p. 463Google Scholar; Bardey, , ‘Notes sur le Harär’, 151.Google Scholar

88 Cf. Sacconi, P. to Sacconi, Gaetano, near Mt Thulik (Ogaden), 24 July 1883Google Scholar, L'Esploratore, viii, 2 (1884), 42Google Scholar; idem, ‘Nei Galla’, Harär, 17 June 1883, L'Esploratore, vii (1883), 311Google Scholar. Hunter, , ‘Report on the Province of Harrar’, as cited in n. 10.Google Scholar

89 Shaykh Ahmad Abdallahi, cited in n. 19; Kébir Abdalla cited in n. 61.

90 Paulitschke, , Harar, 312Google Scholar. Hassan, Muhammad, B.A. thesis, 37 ff.Google Scholar

91 Brotto, Enrico, Il Regime delle Terre nel Governo del Harar (Addis Ababa [1939?]), 20–1, 48–51.Google Scholar

92 Paulitschke, , Harar, 284.Google Scholar

93 Hunter, , ‘Report on the Province of Harrar’, 2Google Scholar; Paulitschke, , Harar, 421, n. 47.Google Scholar

94 Paulitschke, , ‘Gli Orómo’, 202, 210, 237, 240–1.Google Scholar

95 See ‘Memorandum of General Information, Harar Province’, enclosed, Dodds to Thesiger, Harär, 27 June 1917, Public Record Office (London), FO 371/2854, 156 ff.Google Scholar

96 Mondon-Vidailhet, Casimir, ‘Vainqueurs et vaincus’, Harér, July 1892, Le Temps (6 Dec. 1892).Google Scholar