Harar

Harar was formally founded in 1520 when Amir Abu Beker Mohammed moved his capital from an older settlement nearby.  The Amir was assassinated five years later by Ahmed ibn Ibrahim al Ghazi (Ahmed Gragn) who launched a jihad war against the Christian empire in 1530-32 through his death in 1543.

After his death a war impoverished Harar was isolated by the advanced of the Oromo tribes leading Gragn’s nephew and successor, Nur ibn al – Wazir Mu jahid, to erect strong encircling walls which remain as a dominant feature of the city.

In the following centuries Harar become an important trading centre with its own currency. The city particularly engaged in trade with Arabia, Egypt and India. The city was and still is famous for handicraft and also as a centre for Islamic learning and scholarship.

Harar ceased to be an independent city in 1875 when the Egyptians, determined to establish an East Africa Empire killed the Amir at the time Abdal Shakur. By 1887 the Egyptian occupation was over and an Amir who had managed to take over for a brief time was defeated by Emperor Menelik integrating the city into Ethiopia.

But the Egyptian occupation lasted only a decade, after which another Amir Abdullahi took over only to be defeated later by Menelik in 1887, after which Harar become an integral part of Ethiopia. In the period that followed many foreigners would settle in Harar, among them the famous French poet Arthur Rimbaud, who spent some of his last years in the city.

Menelik installed his cousin Ras Makonnen’s, a progressive best remembered for being the father of Emperor Haile Selassie as governor of Harar. In the early 20^th century the thriving trade that had been an important element of the city’s identity was affected when the construction of the Djibouti-Addis Ababa Railways by passed Harar and established a station in Dire Dawa.