Twitter thread on the origin of hararis

[Shimbiris]

You know its ironic how much djbouti contributed to owrsevsseving somali culture wether uts inviting the poets to gather recording dances and all sorts of performances . It all makes sense as they were the remnant somali urban class of zeila.

Maybe hundres of years ago when zeila waa at its peak the leaders of the city would also hold these types of culutral performances and stuff.

@Idilinaa has shown me sources that Saylac used to maintain a large library gathering literature from all over during the Middle-Ages and I know from my own readings over the years that "Zayla'i" were an elite bunch in terms of the sheer number of medieval and early modern Somali scholars they pumped out. It's been a cultural hub for a long time.

*salutes comrades @Khaem and @Sophisticate for their cid*

 

[Midas]

@Idilinaa has shown me sources that Saylac used to maintain a large library gathering literature from all over during the Middle-Ages and I know from my own readings over the years that "Zayla'i" were an elite bunch in terms of the sheer number of medieval and early modern Somali scholars they pumped out. It's been a cultural hub for a long time.

*salutes comrades @Khaem and @Sophisticate for their cid*

Man I hope scatted in some of these libraries we find somali language manuscripts or at least some chronicles that go more into depth of what was happening in the early centuries before the 1200s.

 

[Idilinaa]

The damage these europsans did to us really is mind boggling when you think about it. They also if i remember correctly dismantled a bunch of stuff to build the djbouti railway right?

The damage is numerous, they destroyed our city walls, entire neighborhoods, mansions, watch towers called ilalo's, castles, forts, citadels called qalcads , they bombarded and attacked a lot of it and then they tried to dismantle and redirect our commerce.

They made it very clear this was their intent from start when the British Invaded Ethiopia at the battle Magdala to rescue one of their own and was met with a landlocked nation that took them by surprise.

Everything they said here that Ethiopians lacked applied to Somalis, we had seaboards, ships, cities, forts, commerce.

What CIA described was accurate which stands to this day, its the lack of strategic and resource value that no ones especially western nations don't care about targeting Ethiopia in the same. The cost outweighed the benefit.

Instead Ethiopia presented to them as a useful christian ally to exert against their more strategic valued and resourceful Muslim neighbors.

 

[Midas]

I've feel like this is a huge piece of the puzzle of somali civilization that's been uncovered.

Part of why I find this so important is to push back against the b.s people without a state narrative that's been pushed heavily since the 90s both by outsiders and revisionist somali scholars. Harar and zeila are the core of destroying that narrative

 

[Idilinaa]

I've feel like this is a huge piece of the puzzle of somali civilization that's been uncovered.

Part of why I find this so important is to push back against the b.s people without a state narrative that's been pushed heavily since the 90s both by outsiders and revisionist somali scholars. Harar and zeila are the core of destroying that narrative

The stateless narrative comes not from interpretation of our history, it comes from successive attempts to remove local government and impose a Somali government from the outside and then have it be rejected in turn.

See Afwerki the Leader of Eritrea explain it


It didn't even start since the 90s they have been trying this since the 70s, all the leadership assassination attempts, foreign sponsored coup attempts and proxy militia groups happened during the Kacaan period.

They don't want to see an independent self-reliant and strong Somalia that persue it's own interests, that's really what it comes down to. It doesn't help their strategic interests. The "failed state" label was pushed by foreign powers to justify military intervention, political interference, and economic exploitation.

Even now it's not really a stateless society, it has functioning regional states that mostly act as facilitators for trade and security. They can try to weaken Somalia’s statehood, but they cannot destroy its economic resilience. That's why Somalia always bounces back.

 

[Soul Kaizer]

Exactly. I'm also willing to bet in the classical period before islam that we also had some written language like how ge'ez was for aksum.

I've talked about this in length before, as you know. It's 100% inconceivable that they had urbanism, global trade, some seafaring that at minimum took them to Arabia and then during the Islamic period were writing using Arabic and developing Ajami scripts, as we know, but somehow during the classical era they didn't write in some language? I wouldn't be shocked if they wrote using some OSA language.

It wouldn't be shocking considering how many native word we have for writing. Which would be bizarre if we learnt it from Arabs per se as we would just adopt their lexicon for writing.

In a book i read called Af-dhaab written by Cismaan Cabdinuur he said that our language most definitely had a previous script and the scripts may have been influenced by religion and culture over time. The exmples he used was that Somalis have many various words or realting words to 'write' these include:

Qor(write), Khad(ink), Xaradh(letter), Far(hand writing),qorid(writing), dhigid(writing), hingaad(Spell), Yeeri/yeedhis(spell), Warqad-War-Khad(Word with ink aka paper), Xaanshi(paper), summad(sign,letter), baal(sign), loox(log to right on), bog(post/page), shax(to paint/draw or how to write), Farshaxan(Far-shaxan meaning to draw with the finger beautifully), tiro or qaybid, Barre(teacher), xer, qalin jabin or qalin leef(Graduate), xiiso(lesson). and much more

the more arabic words:
Qalin,daabac, arday, wadaad, xaraf, cashar, xisaab, sawir(could be originally somali)

what do y'all think?
@Garaad diinle @Maintainnnin

 

[Garaad Awal]

Hararis are medieval refugees who fled Southern Ethiopia. They are not indigenous Eastern Ethiopia

 

[Midas]

It wouldn't be shocking considering how many native word we have for writing. Which would be bizarre if we learnt it from Arabs per se as we would just adopt their lexicon for writing.

I think this too although the guy he's referring to is a bit of nutjob I've seen in several interviews where he says ancient eygpt came from somalis

 

[Kun_Ciil]

He adds another source in the thread
View attachment 357727

View attachment 357729

Wow I never thought to correlate the town harar with the tree xarar. In Somalia it is still used to build fences/pillars for metal jingad/bacweyne housing.

The whole inside of the fence is supported by pillars of xarar tree. Same for metal sheet housing...the thick wood you see on the side is xarar.

Reading about fathul xabasha I was confused about what happened to Harar the base and city were Ahmed Gurey carried out his expeditions from. I thought it was a somali city but then I found out its claimed by Haraaris...

 

[Idilinaa]

I said to @Galool in a separate thread that it really is a shame what happened to Harar, they turned into an impoverished destitute open museum. After they erased it's historic population and disconnected it from it's regional importance.

When it used to be an industrious city and a seat of learning. Harar is no longer an intellectual-economic hub, it's just a tourist attraction. Paraded as a relic of the past by the Ethiopian government

Harar’s erasure from Somali networks led to its economic and political marginalization.

 

[Galool]

@Idilinaa I recently watched this video and you can see a lot of the distinctly Somali culture in Harar. How it was a Somali trade route, camel caravans, the stone city similiar to other Somali towns, the camel meat, the craftsman, the hyena gates being called waraabe gate. Even the craftsmen area is called giirgiir, which is the same as the Somali word gariir. The wooden doors and balconies.

It highlights a lot of the things you have been talking about on here.

It's obvious to any casual Somali unlooker. A lot of what they mistakenly believe is ''Uniquely Harari' culture is actually just copy and paste of Somali culture you find elsewhere and in other cities and in general. It shows that Harar was essentially just a Somali city with a majority Somali population until recently.

Even these wooden slates/boards we call 'looh'', they hold up as artifacts of culture in that same video. This is how Somalis teach and learn Quran , by writing on wooden slates with ink.

The boards displayed are carved in the same manner and style as well.

Qur'anic writing board, mid 20th century Unknown artist, Somalia​

Qur'anic writing board, Somalia ^ Minneapolis Institute of Art

In Islamic Africa, the main usage of Qur’anic boards is to learn how to read and write the Arabic language, which leads to reading and memorizing verses from the Qur’an. In Somalia these boards are called loox. Before the use of paper, the loox was the main tool for the education of youth. It...

collections.artsmia.org

A tradition used to this day:

This is also described by the Portuguese in the town of Maydh in the 1500s just in case some Harari pseudo historian claims we got it from them. It mentions the big School where kids wrote on ink wooden boards

Portuguese description of Maydh in the 1500s

Apparently all the inhabitants ran away when they saw the Portuguese coming, but the Portuguese mention that there were two mosques and a school, probably a dugsi, where they had wooden boards and ink, Loox.

www.somalispot.com

The manuscript/bookbinding culture is Somali as well, its literally copy and paste of the same style you find Merca and other cities. Most of what they display as harari manuscripts are probably Somali as well, since Burton and others described the extensive collections and private libraries that was kept by Somalis inside the city.

The authentic chronicles that Cerulli uncovered/published ''Tarikh Al Mulukh(The History of Kings), Tarikh Al-Wali Asma(The History of the Surpeme Rulers) and Tarikh Al-Mujahid(The History of the Holy War) was in the hands of Somalis as well or copied from us.

Yes, it is still in use today

 

[Galool]

If Somalia had not been divided up they would be called Reer Harar similar to the Reer Xamar, another mixed Somali group among the majority Somali people. The minority settled mixed groups always are nicknamed after the town they reside in.

Somalias cities have always attracted Muslims fleeing and merchants. The cities always have some diversity.

But with Harar there were massacres and Somalis were driven out and continue to be and they have Ethiopianized the Harari people there.

It still has a large ethiopian military base there and they destroyed the large Masjid and turned it into a church.

Its sad because the cities Islamic character has been degraded heavily and flooded with other groups. It seems like a ghost of what it used to be, which was a Muslim stronghold. Now it just looks to be a tourist spot.

In this video I recently saw about it and shared you can see a lot of the Somali culture still there but it is sad the vlogger says there are a lot of mentally ill people there. He says that every house has a mentally unwell person and he attributes it to their marrying within themselves and witch craft. Even the next scene, he shows the Masjid and there are people casually and openly eating khat in it. It is unfortunate.

This is the other thread

Somalis Kingdoms and Sultanates?

Do you have any maps of Somaliweyn during the 18th-19th century that depicts all these polities? Google images is horrible for finding historical Somali maps The ones i've seen online are terrible. No but i can make one. I could also make one also of middle ages as well, as aside by side...

www.somalispot.com

 

[chut]

Is it true that sheikh Isaaq had a harrari wife? if yes wouldn't you be able to find out what their ethnicity was.

 

[NidarNidar]

That thread was eye opening!!! Amazing stuff.

Aside from skillfully demonstrating that the self-identified ''Harari's'' were actually an East-Gurage refugee community connected from a portion of the Hadiyah region to southwest called Adare that sought protection from Somalis during the Oromo invasion and onslaught. They were referred to by their name Adare until they tried to distance themselves from the name in the 19th century and identify themselves as Harari. But the evidence he showed is overwhelming it would take a long time to describe it all.

He dropped a Harar court document from the 19th century and Arabic sources that just confirm that Emir Abdullahi was Somali, and his army and political circle was Somali

The names of the Malaq's administrators governing each neighborhood stick out to me aside from the nisba al-Somali.

al-Habar Awali (A member of Isaaq clan?). Every individual listed has a Somali name or nisbah, Hiraab, Bare, Bure, Ciqaal, etc

View attachment 357716

The Emir's army being composed of Somalis.
View attachment 357718

Emir of Harar is described as the Sultan of Somalis by a European explorer. I have actually shared this in another thread
View attachment 357719

But this one being an Arabic document recording an eyewitness who stayed in Harar and met the Emir. Clearly describe him as a Somali.
View attachment 357721
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[Midas]

View attachment 357751

Damn that letter perfectly describes it all. When was it written?

 

[novanova]

’Sheikh

Is it true that sheikh Isaaq had a harrari wife? if yes wouldn't you be able to find out what their ethnicity was.

If you’re talking about the mythological father of Isaaqs, then no. Thats impossible since ’Sheikh Isaaq’ didn’t even exist if we go by DNA, isaaq subclans don’t even have the same haplogroups..

Besides ”Hararis” are newcomers to eastern Ethiopia..

 

[chut]

’Sheikh

If you’re talking about the mythological father of Isaaqs, then no. Thats impossible since ’Sheikh Isaaq’ didn’t even exist if we go by DNA, isaaq subclans don’t even have the same haplogroups..

Besides ”Hararis” are newcomers to eastern Ethiopia..

If you're saying isaaq didn't exist because of dna then all somali clans are also fake because they could also have different haplogroups.

Also when I said harari I meant having a wife from harar at that time, not the modern hararis.

 

[Aseer]

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[gasara]

The damage these europsans did to us really is mind boggling when you think about it. They also if i remember correctly dismantled a bunch of stuff to build the djbouti railway right?

Poverty has come for many of those nations. Instead of spreading mischief in the lands they should have built their people up or at least try to eradicate poverty/classism.

 

[PotentialGaraad]

Man I hope scatted in some of these libraries we find somali language manuscripts or at least some chronicles that go more into depth of what was happening in the early centuries before the 1200s.

It may be possible that there exists Somali manuscripts in scripts that are not wadaad.

An example of what I mean is Arabic Africans. This was basically Afrikaans written in an Arabic script. I am not aware of any Somali manuscript written in a script like Ge'ez but it is not impossible. However, I feel that it would have been discovered already. It is not hard to find a Somali who can read Ge'ez.

Another place where Somali manuscripts could be found are in the backrooms of museums, libraries, archives and the sorts where no one has bothered to look at it again since it was last left there.

These things do happen quite often. One "rediscovered" manuscript is P. 25239 - a royal decree declaring the tax exemption for one Publius Canidius and it dates to around 33 BCE.

It was then reused as a cast on a mummy before it was rediscovered in 1904 and subsequently filed away in the Berlin Museum. It was out of sight and out of mind until the year 2000 when it was re-examined and was found to contain the only possible signature (bottom right) of Cleopatra VII.

I know that Al-Azhar has a lot of Hassan Al-Jabarti's works but as others said in this thread I am sure that many people in Somalia and abroad have valuable manuscripts laying around that would give us so much insight into our past. May Allah illuminate them and bring them to the forefront.