Muhammad ibn 'Ali 'Abd ash-Shakur
Muhammad ibn Ali Abd Ash-Shakur أمير محمد بن علي عبد الشكور | |
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17th Emir of Harar | |
Reign | 1856 – 1875 |
Predecessor | Ahmad III ibn Abu Bakr |
Successor | Abdallah II |
Born | Harar |
Died | October 1875 |
Dynasty | Dawud Dynasty |
Religion | Sunni Islam |
Muhammad ibn 'Ali 'Abd ash-Shakur was Emir of Harar before the Egyptian conquest (1856–1875). He is remembered unfavorably by the Harari for favoring the neighboring Oromo people. His son the last emir of Harar, Abdullahi II would succeed him following the Egyptian interval.[1]
Rise to power
Muhammad claimed to be the grandson of Amir
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.[2]
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.
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.[6] 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.[7]
End
The native
See also
- List of emirs of Harar
References
- ^ Zewde, Bahru. A History of Modern Ethiopia, 1855–1991. Ohio University Press.
- ^ Journal of African History, 18 (1977), p. 378
- ^ S. Waldron, "The political economy of Harari-Oromo relationships (1554-1975)", p. 12 (Forced migration Online website, accessed 3 July 2009)
- ^ Caulk, "Harar Town and Its Neighbours", p. 379
- ^ Pankhurst, Richard K. P. (1968). Economic History of Ethiopia. Addis Ababa: Haile Selassie I University. p. 37.
- ^ Caulk, "Harar Town and Its Neighbours", p. 380
- ^ Caulk, "Harar Town and Its Neighbours", p. 381
- ^ J. Spencer Trimingham, Islam in Ethiopia (Oxford: Geoffrey Cumberlege for the University Press, 1952), pp 120f.
- ^ 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.