Muhammad ibn 'Ali 'Abd ash-Shakur was

Emir Emir (; ' (), also Romanization of Arabic, transliterated as amir, is a word of Arabic language, Arabic origin that can refer to a male monarch, aristocratic, aristocrat, holder of high-ranking military or political office, or other person po ...

Harar Harar (; Harari language, Harari: ሀረር / ; ; ; ), known historically by the indigenous as Harar-Gey or simply Gey (Harari: ጌይ, ݘٛىيْ, ''Gēy'', ), is a List of cities with defensive walls, walled city in eastern Ethiopia. It is al ...

before the Egyptian conquest (1856–1875). He is remembered unfavorably by the Harari for favoring the neighboring

Oromo people The Oromo people (, pron. ) are a Cushitic peoples, Cushitic ethnic group native to the Oromia region of Ethiopia and parts of Northern Kenya. They speak the Oromo language (also called ''Afaan Oromoo''), which is part of the Cushitic language ...

. His son the last emir of Harar, Abdullahi II would succeed him following the Egyptian interval.

Rise to power

Muhammad claimed to be the grandson of Amir ʽAbd al-Shakur ibn Yusuf; however R. A. Caulk doubts this claim, observing that "the usurper who ruled Harar for nearly twenty years until deposed and murdered by the Egyptians was so directly descended from this or any other amir", agreeing with his Harari and Oromo informants that "his father, Ali, had merely adopted the name of his patron, Abd al-Shakur, and that he was really the son of a rich Anniya Oromo, Mayu, from the south-west of Harar." However this is disputed as the ancestral line of his father Mayu existed prior to the Oromo invasions.Caulk,
Harar Town and Its Neighbours in the Nineteenth Century
, '' Journal of African History'', 18 (1977), p. 378 His father Ali had grown up at the court of Amir ʿAbdalshakūr, where he gained the favor of the Amir and was married to a relative of the Amir's wife Gisti Fatima. Muhammad distinguished himself in combat against the Oromo under ʿAbdalshakūr's successor Amir ʽAbd ar-Rahman ibn Muhammad, and was given the sister of Fatima, Kadija, as his wife. In the oral traditions of the Harari, Muhammad was encouraged by his wife Kadija to organize a revolt against Amir Ahmad. He escaped arrest by fleeing the city in either 1854 or 1855 and found sanctuary amongst the Ala Oromo living beyond Gara Mullata mountain to the west. There he entered in an ''ilman gosa'' (adoptive brotherhood) with the Bokku of the Ala Oromo. Further, he married into the family of a prominent elder of the Ala Oromo, which gained him the support of a renowned warrior Kormoso. With this alliance, Muhammad marched on Harari, destroyed its gardens and lay siege to the city. It was at this time that Amir Abu Bakr died, in August. The oldest son of the Amir was still a minor and unable to succeed his father. Over the next few days ephemeral Amirs were appointed by town assemblies, but in the end the citizens acceded to Muhammad and he became Amir 30 August 1856.

Reign

Muhammad is said to have oppressed his own people by devaluing the city's currency while extracting a special ''mahalaq al-Oromo'' or Oromo tax. This tax was needed for Amir Muhammad to meet the demands of hospitality inherent in the status of ''ilman gosa''. Richard Pankhurst also notes that Emir Muhammad forbade his subjects from eating

rice Rice is a cereal grain and in its Domestication, domesticated form is the staple food of over half of the world's population, particularly in Asia and Africa. Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice)—or, much l ...

or dates, "declaring that they were suitable only for rulers." However, Caulk points that Muhammad engaged in a new policy: instead of simply keeping the Oromo at bay, he "made systematic efforts to convert them to Islam and extend their involvement in commercial agriculture; he thereby attempted to assimilate more of the Oromo and re-establish the balance on which the town's survival depended." Until the 1830s, only the Babile Oromo and groups of mixed Oromo-Somali ethnicity had been converted to Islam to any degree. Nonetheless, Muhammad lack the power to make much headway in this endeavor, and it was only after the Egyptian conquest that this policy made major strides.

End

The native Harari appealed to

Khedive Khedive ( ; ; ) was an honorific title of Classical Persian origin used for the sultans and grand viziers of the Ottoman Empire, but most famously for the Khedive of Egypt, viceroy of Egypt from 1805 to 1914.Adam Mestyan"Khedive" ''Encyclopaedi ...

Isma'il of

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

, who then directed Ra'uf Pasha, in command of the military expedition that had annexed

Zeila Zeila (, ), also known as Zaila or Zayla, is a historical port town in the western Awdal region of Somaliland. In the Middle Ages, the Jewish traveller Benjamin of Tudela identified Zeila with the Biblical location of Havilah. Most modern schola ...

and

Berbera Berbera (; , ) is the capital of the Sahil, Somaliland, Sahil region of Somaliland and is the main sea port of the country, located approximately 160 km from the national capital, Hargeisa. Berbera is a coastal city and was the former capital of t ...

to Egypt in 1870, to march on Harar. Ra'uf Pasha occupied Harar October 1875, according to Trimingham, "without encountering any resistance except for some from the Oromo tribes. So ended the independence of the

city-state A city-state is an independent sovereign city which serves as the center of political, economic, and cultural life over its contiguous territory. They have existed in many parts of the world throughout history, including cities such as Rome, ...

of Harar after less than two centuries." Two letters of Emir Muhammad survive, both dated 6 October 1875, to Ra'uf Pasha, which discuss the terms of the city's surrender.Printed with an English translation in Sven Rubenson (ed.), ''Acta Aethiopica, Volume III: Internal Rivalries and Foreign Threats, 1869-1879'' (New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers, 2000), letters 133 and 134.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Muhammad ibn Ali Abd ash-Shakur Emirs of Harar Year of death missing Year of birth missing

Rise to power

Reign

End

See also

References