Harar

Harar, a city of Africa, in the country of the Gallas, about 200 miles WSW. of Berbera, stands on the slopes of the mountains which surround it, Mount Hakim on the west rising to 8400 feet. It is fenced with a low wall and forts, the wall being pierced by five gates. The streets are simply water-channels crossing the uneven surface; the houses are partly stone edifices, partly huts. In the neighbourhood are fine banana groves and coffee gardens. Formerly the place was a commercial centre of considerable importance, but it has now lost a good deal of its trade to Tadjura and Berbera. Coffee, hides, cattle, and a dyestuff called wars, are the principal objects of commerce. The population number about 37,000, of whom two-thirds are females. They include native Harari (nearly one-half), Gallas, Somali, and Abyssinians. The Harari, though physically resembling the Abyssinians, differ both in their dress and manners from all their neighbours, but are rapidly becoming assimilated in these respects to the Arabs. Their language would seem to belong to the Hamitic division, and is probably a descendant of the ancient Ge'ez, though Arabic is replacing it for commercial purposes. Harar, which was converted to Islam in 1521, was formerly the capital of an independent state. In 1875 it was conquered by the Egyptians, who gave it back to its native emir; Italian in 1890-97, it is now British. See Burton's First Footsteps in East Africa (new ed. 1894).