Harla (people or land) in 1200, Nubia and the Horn of Africa

The Harla are the people Somali, Harari and Afar tradition remember as the builders of the old stone towns, cairns and terraces of the eastern highlands, before the Somali and Oromo came; the Harari of Harar regard them as their ancestors.

The archaeology now gives them a real centre: Harlaa, about 35 km north-west of Harar near Dire Dawa, a Muslim trading town of the tenth to early fifteenth centuries (radiocarbon dates of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries) with a twelfth-century mosque like those of the Somali coast and southern Tanzania, Islamic graves, a jewellery workshop working silver, bronze, glass and rock crystal, and imports from Egypt, Yemen, India, China, the Maldives and Madagascar. On 1 January 1200 the plateau from the Chercher highlands east to the Jijiga plain is drawn as Harla country: farmers of sorghum and other highland crops, herders below, and Muslim traders on the Zeila road. Ibn Sa'id (mid-thirteenth century) knew a Harla country east of the Ethiopian kingdom, living, he says, from gold and silver mines.

Harar itself is not yet a town: tradition dates the coming of its saint Abadir to about 1216 and some to the seventh or tenth century, but its earliest excavated layers are probably of the sixteenth century.

Who holds it

Name: Not known. A 'king of Harla' appears among Ifat's allies against Amda Seyon in 1332 (later)
Title: Not known: the town's notables and the people's chiefs
Since: Not applicable
Confidence: low

Overlord

None known. The Makhzumi sultanate of Shewa (eth sheet) and Zeila are partners on the caravan road; neither is known to rule here.

How things stand that morning

No war recorded. North and east the Afar and Dir herders of the plains; west, beyond the Awash, Muslim and Christian Shewa (eth sheet); south the herders of the Ogaden and the lands of Bale.

Customs

Not recorded. Muslim townsmen at Harlaa under their own notables; the countryside's government unknown.

Assemblies

Not recorded.

Overlord claims

None known in 1200. Some modern writers put the capital of the Makhzumi sultanate (Walale) in northern Hararghe, which would make this plateau part of the sultanate of Shewa; the usual view places that sultanate on the eastern Shewan plateau (eth sheet).

Where the sources disagree

After 1200: the Fath Madinat Harar brings the saint Abadir Umar al-Rida and other holy men to the Harar plateau about 1216 (a traditional date).
Wikipedia's Harla article claims a Harla kingdom from the sixth century and puts the Makhzumi capital Walale in northern Hararghe; neither claim rests on contemporary evidence.
The Harar article's statement that Harar was under the Makhzumi sultanate in the ninth century and part of a 'confederation of Zeila' is not supported by the excavations (Harar probably sixteenth century).

Evidence: Fair for Harlaa itself (excavations 2015-2017, radiocarbon and imports); thin for the people's extent and government.

On the map: The plateau is drawn whole as Harla country; the people's real reach is not known.

Sources and studies

Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.