Hargaya

Hargaya (Harari: ሀርጋየ Härgayä) was a historical Muslim state in present-day eastern Ethiopia.^[1][2] It was located east of the Awash River on the Harar plateau in Adal alongside Gidaya and Hubat states.^[3][4][5] It neighbored other polities in the medieval era including Ifat, Fedis, Mora, Biqulzar and Kwelgora.^[6]

Location of Hargaya state in the middle ages

History

The people of Hargaya were reportedly a sub clan of the Harla people.^[7][8] In the fourteenth century Hargaya elected Imam Salih to battle the forces of Abyssinian emperor Amda Seyon I.^[9] According to the fifteenth century emperor of Ethiopia's Baeda Maryam I chronicle, Hargaya's ruler took the title Garad.^[10]

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.^[11][12] Historian Merid Wolde Aregay deduced that the Hargaya state language was Harari.^[13] In the later half of the sixteenth century Hargaya state would be ravaged by the Oromo invasions.^[14][15] Researcher Mahdi Gadid states Hargaya alongside Gidaya domains were primarily inhabited by the Harari people before being assimilated by the Oromo and Somali people.^[16][17]

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.^[18]