Hargaya
Historic state in modern Ethiopia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hargaya (Harari: ሀርጋየ Härgāyä) was a historical Muslim state in present-day eastern Ethiopia.[1][2][3] It was located east of the Awash River on the Harar plateau in Adal alongside Gidaya and Hubat states.[4][5][6] It neighbored other polities in the medieval era including Ifat, Fedis, Mora, Biqulzar and Kwelgora.[7]
History
The people of Hargaya were reportedly a sub clan of the Harla people.[8][9] In the fourteenth century Hargaya elected Imam Salih to battle the forces of Abyssinian emperor Amda Seyon I.[10] According to the fifteenth century emperor of Ethiopia's Baeda Maryam I chronicle, Hargaya's ruler took the title Garad.[11]
According to sixteenth century Adal writer Arab Faqīh, the people of Hargaya fought in the army of Ahmed ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi leader of Adal Sultanate.[12][13] The text Futuh al-Habasha asserts Hargaya's overlord was Adal leader imam Ahmed's brother Muhammad ibn Ibrahim.[14] Amelie Chekroun states Hargaya people were presented as an independent group in the sixteenth century not associated with the Somalis.[15] Historian Merid Wolde Aregay deduced that the Hargaya state language was Harari.[16] In the later half of the sixteenth century Hargaya state would be ravaged by the Oromo invasions.[17][18] Researcher Mahdi Gadid states Hargaya alongside Gidaya domains were primarily inhabited by the Harari people before being assimilated by the Oromo and Somali people.[19][20]
An Oromo Garad of Hargaya and a Malak of the Nole community were among the governors of the area, according to the Emirate of Harar's 19th-century documents.[21]