Muhammad ibn 'Ali 'Abd ash-Shakur

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."[1] 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.[1]

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.[1]

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.

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.[2] This tax was needed for Amir Muhammad to meet the demands of hospitality inherent in the status of ilman gosa.[3] Richard Pankhurst also notes that Emir Muhammad forbade his subjects from eating rice or dates, "declaring that they were suitable only for rulers."[4]

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.[5] 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.[6]

The native Harari appealed to Khedive Isma'il of Egypt, who then directed Ra'uf Pasha, in command of the military expedition that had annexed Zeila and Berbera 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 of Harar after less than two centuries."[7] Two letters of Emir Muhammad survive, both dated 6 October 1875, to Ra'uf Pasha, which discuss the terms of the city's surrender.[8]

• List of emirs of Harar