Hubat ( Harari: ሆበት ''Hobät''), also known as Hobat, or Kubat was a historical

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

state located in present-day eastern

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...

. Hubat is today within a district known as Adare Qadima which includes Garamuelta and its surroundings in

Oromia region Oromia (Amharic: ) ( om, Oromiyaa) is a regional state in Ethiopia and the homeland of the Oromo people. The capital of Oromia is Addis Ababa. It is bordered by the Somali Region to the east; the Amhara Region, the Afar Region and the Benish ...

. The area is 30 km north west of

Harar Harar ( amh, ሐረር; Harari: ሀረር; om, Adare Biyyo; so, Herer; ar, هرر) known historically by the indigenous as Gey (Harari: ጌይ ''Gēy'', ) is a walled city in eastern Ethiopia. It is also known in Arabic as the City of Saint ...

city at Hubeta, according to historian

George Huntingford George Isaac Huntingford (1748–1832) was successively of Bishop of Gloucester and Bishop of Hereford. Life Huntingford was educated at Winchester College and New College, Oxford, where he became a Fellow in 1770, graduating M.A., 1776 and D. ...

. Trimingham locates it as the region between Harar and

Jaldessa Jaldessa ("Jal-de-ssa" which in Oromo literally translates to "Monkeys due to the monkeys surrounding the area") is a village in eastern Ethiopia, located in the Shinile Zone of the Somali Region of Ethiopia. The Central Statistical Agency has n ...

. Archaeologist

Timothy Insoll Timothy Insoll (born 1967) is a British archaeologist and Africanist and Islamic Studies scholar. Since 2016 he has been Al-Qasimi Professor of African and Islamic Archaeology at the University of Exeter. He is also founder and director of the C ...

considers Harla town to be Hubat the capital of the now defunct

Harla Kingdom Harla Kingdom was a 6th century Harla state centered around what is present day eastern Ethiopia. The kingdom had trading relations with the Ayyubid and Tang dynasties. It also established its own currency and calendar. The kingdom is mentioned in E ...

History

According to Dr. Lapiso, Hubat was one of the Islamic states that had developed in the

Horn of Africa The Horn of Africa (HoA), also known as the Somali Peninsula, is a large peninsula and geopolitical region in East Africa.Robert Stock, ''Africa South of the Sahara, Second Edition: A Geographical Interpretation'', (The Guilford Press; 2004), ...

from the ninth to fourteenth centuries. In AD 1288 Sultan Wali Asma of the

Ifat Sultanate The Sultanate of Ifat, known as Wafāt or Awfāt in Arabic texts, was a medieval Sunni Muslim state in the eastern regions of the Horn of Africa between the late 13th century and early 15th century. It was formed in present-day Ethiopia around ...

invaded Hubat following collapse of the Maḥzūmī dynasty. Hubat was also invaded by Ethiopian Emperor Amda Seyon in the early 1300s. Hubat was an Ifat protectorate in the fourteenth century and an autonomous state within

Adal Sultanate The Adal Sultanate, or the Adal Empire or the ʿAdal or the Bar Saʿad dīn (alt. spelling ''Adel Sultanate, ''Adal ''Sultanate'') () was a medieval Sunni Muslim Empire which was located in the Horn of Africa. It was founded by Sabr ad-Din ...

in the fifteenth century. According to Mohammed Hassan Hubat was the stronghold of the

Harla people The Harla, also known as Harala, or Arla, are an extinct ethnic group that once inhabited Djibouti, Ethiopia and northern Somalia. They spoke the now-extinct Harla language, which belonged to either the Cushitic or Semitic branches of the Afroas ...

and center of operations for fifteenth century

Adal Adal may refer to: *A short form for Germanic names in ''aþala-'' (Old High German ''adal-''), "nobility, pedigree"; see Othalan **Adál Maldonado (1948-2020), Puerto Rican artist **Adal Ramones (born 1969), Mexican television show host **Adal He ...

Emir Garad Abun Adashe. A

siege of Hubat The siege of Hubat was a military campaign carried out by Abu Bakr ibn Muhammad, sultan of Adal Sultanate, against the Hubat principality. The siege lasted more than a week in which Hubat leader Garad Umar Din would lose his life, resulting in a ...

took place in the early sixteenth century led by the Adal Sultan

Abu Bakr ibn Muhammad Abū Bakr ibn Muḥammad ( ar, أبو بكر بن محمد), reigned 1525–1526, was a sultan of the Sultanate of Adal in the Horn of Africa. The historian Richard Pankhurst credits Abu Bakr with founding the city of Harar, which he made his mili ...

against rebel leader

Garad Garad ( Harari: ገራድ, , , Oromo: ''Garaada'') is a term used to refer to a clan leader or regional administrator. It was used primarily by Muslims in the Horn of Africa that were associated with Islamic states, most notably the Adal Sultanat ...

Umar din. The notable sixteenth century ruler of Adal who conquered Abyssinia, imam

Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi ( so, Axmed Ibraahim al-Qaasi or Axmed Gurey, Harari: አሕመድ ኢብራሂም አል-ጋዚ, ar, أحمد بن إبراهيم الغازي ; 1506 – 21 February 1543) was an imam and general of the Adal Sultana ...

was born in Hubat. In his early career Ahmed defeated an Abyssinian militia at the

Battle of Hubat The Battle of Hubat was fought between the forces of Hubat principality led by Emir of Adal Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi, and the Abyssinian army, under Degelhan. This was the first encounter between Ahmed's forces with Abyssinians. Ahmed was k ...

led by Degalhan a general of Emperor

Dawit II Dawit II ( gez, ዳዊት; – 2 September 1540), also known by the macaronic name Wanag Segad (ወናግ ሰገድ, ''to whom the lions bow''), better known by his birth name Lebna Dengel ( am, ልብነ ድንግል, ''essence of the vi ...

. Ahmed Ibrahim also achieved a second stunning victory over an Abyssinian raiding party led by Fanuel in Hubat which gained him fame.

Merid Wolde Aregay Merid Wolde Aregay (1934 or 1935 – 2008) was an Ethiopian historian and a scholar of Ethiopian studies. Merid Wolde Aregay was born in Adwa in 1927 according to the Ethiopian calendar. He earned his BA in 1956 from what was called Unive ...

states the Hubat and Harla principalities demonstrated ability to defeat Abyssinians meant it was necessary to replace Sultan Badlay's descendants. Hubat would later play an important role for Ahmad ibn Ibrahim in his struggle against Adal Sultan Abu Bakr. Hubat would be invaded and settled by the

Barento Oromo Barento ( Oromo: ''Bareentoo'') is one of the two major subgroups of the Oromo people. They live in the West Hararghe Zone, East Hararghe Zone, Arsi zone, of the Oromia Region of Ethiopia while the other subgroup named Borana Oromo inhabiting Oro ...

in the following centuries who came at loggerheads with the Adal Sultanate.

Notable residents

Ahmed ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi ( so, Axmed Ibraahim al-Qaasi or Axmed Gurey, Harari: አሕመድ ኢብራሂም አል-ጋዚ, ar, أحمد بن إبراهيم الغازي ; 1506 – 21 February 1543) was an imam and general of the Adal Sultana ...

, Emir/Imam of Adal Sultanate *

Abubaker Qecchin Abubaker "the Slim" (Qecchin) also known simply as Qecchin or Katchthcen was a general in the Adal Sultanate under Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi. Abubaker's sobriquet ''"Qecchin"'' is derived from the Harari term for ''"thin"''. He was the Garad/emir ...

, general of the Adal Sultanate and chief of Hubat

References

{{coord missing, Somalia Cities of the Adal Sultanate

History

Notable residents

See also

References