Hubat (Harari: ሆበት Hobät), also known as Hobat, or Kubat was a historical Muslim state located in present-day eastern Ethiopia.[1][2][3] Historically part of the Adal region alongside Gidaya and Hargaya states on the Harar plateau.[4] Hubat is today within a district known as Adare Qadima which includes Garamuelta and its surroundings in Oromia region.[5] The area is 30 km north west of Harar city at Hubeta, according to historian George Huntingford.[6][7] Trimingham locates it as the region between Harar and Jaldessa.[8] Archaeologist Timothy Insoll considers Harla town to be Hubat the capital of the now defunct Harla Kingdom.[9]

1832 map by John Arrowsmith illustrating Hubetta's location in the Emirate of Harar

History edit

 
Ruins of Hubat near Dire Dawa

According to Dr. Lapiso Delebo, Hubat was one of the Islamic states that had developed in the Horn of Africa from the ninth to fourteenth centuries.[10] In 1288 AD Sultan Wali Asma of the Ifat Sultanate invaded Hubat following collapse of the Makḥzūmī dynasty.[11][12] Hubat was also invaded by Ethiopian Emperor Amda Seyon in the early 1300s.[13] Hubat was an Ifat protectorate in the fourteenth century and an autonomous state within Adal Sultanate in the fifteenth century.[14]

According to Mohammed Hassen, Hubat was the stronghold of the Harla people and center of operations for fifteenth century Adal Emir Garad Abun Adashe.[15] A siege of Hubat took place in the early sixteenth century led by the Adal Sultan Abu Bakr ibn Muhammad against rebel leader Garad Umar din.[16]

The sixteenth-century ruler of Adal who conquered Abyssinia, Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi, was born in Hubat.[17][18][19] In his early career Ahmed defeated an Abyssinian militia at the Battle of Hubat led by Degalhan a general of Emperor Dawit II.[20] Ahmed Ibrahim also achieved a second stunning victory over an Abyssinian raiding party led by Fanuel in Hubat which gained him fame.[21] Merid Wolde Aregay states the Hubat and Harla principalities demonstrated ability to defeat Abyssinians meant it was necessary to replace Sultan Badlay's descendants.[22] Hubat would later play an important role for Ahmad ibn Ibrahim in his struggle against Adal Sultan Abu Bakr.[23]

Hubat was invaded and settled by the Barento Oromo in the following centuries who came at loggerheads with the Adal Sultanate.[24] The Emirate of Harar the successor state of Adal would continue to influence the region as numerous Oromo people converted to Islam during the reign of emir Abd ash-Shakur and this trend even continued following the Abyssinian annexation of the region.[25]

Notable residents edit

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ Ogot, Bethwell (1992). Africa from the Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Century. University of California Press. p. 711. ISBN 9780435948115.
  2. ^ Loimeier, Roman. Muslim Societies in Africa A Historical Anthropology. Indiana University Press. p. 184.
  3. ^ Ende, Werner. Islam in the World Today A Handbook of Politics, Religion, Culture, and Society. Cornell University Press. p. 436.
  4. ^ Braukamper, Ulrich (2002). Islamic History and Culture in Southern Ethiopia. Lit. p. 33. ISBN 9783825856717.
  5. ^ History of Harar (PDF). Harar Tourism Bureau. p. 50.
  6. ^ Huntingford, G.W.B (1955). ARABIC INSCRIPTIONS IN SOUTHERN ETHIOPIA. Antiquity Publications. p. 233.
  7. ^ Pankhurst, Richard. The Ethiopian Borderlands Essays in Regional History from Ancient Times to the End of the 18th Century. Red Sea Press. p. 165.
  8. ^ Trimingham, J.Spencer. Islam in Ethiopia (PDF). Routledge. p. 85.
  9. ^ Insoll, Timothy. "Material cosmopolitanism: the entrepot of Harlaa as an Islamic gateway to eastern Ethiopia". Cambridge. Cambridge University Press.
  10. ^ Dilebo, Lapiso (2003). An introduction to Ethiopian history from the Megalithism Age to the Republic, circa 13000 B.C. to 2000 A.D. Commercial Printing Enterprise.
  11. ^ Trimingham, John. Islam in Ethiopia. Oxford University Press. p. 58.
  12. ^ Cerulli, Enrico (1941). "Il Sultanato Dello Scioa Nel Secolo Xiii Secondo Un Nuovo Documento Storico". Rassegna di Studi Etiopici. 1 (1). Istituto per l'Oriente C. A. Nallino: 26. JSTOR 41460159.
  13. ^ Tamrat, Taddesse. Church and state (PDF). University of London. p. 254.
  14. ^ Braukamper, Ulrich. Islamic History and Culture in Southern Ethiopia. Lit. p. 33.
  15. ^ Hassan, Mohammed. Oromo of Ethiopia 1500 (PDF). University of London. p. 26.
  16. ^ Lindah, Bernhard. Local history of Ethiopia (PDF). Nordic Africa Institute library. p. 5.
  17. ^ Checkroun, Amelie. Companion to Medieval Ethiopia and Eritrea. BRILL. p. 334.
  18. ^ Martin, Richard. Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World (PDF). Macmilian reference USA. p. 29.
  19. ^ Steed, Christopher. A history of the church in Africa. Cambridge University Press. p. 74.
  20. ^ Tamrat, Tadesse. Church and state (PDF). University of London. p. 157.
  21. ^ Davis, Asa (1963). "THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY JIHĀD IN ETHIOPIA AND THE IMPACT ON ITS CULTURE (Part One)". Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria. 2 (4): 572. JSTOR 41856679.
  22. ^ Aregay, Merid. Southern Ethiopia and the Christian kingdom 1508 - 1708, with special reference to the Galla migrations and their consequences. University of London. p. 126-128.
  23. ^ Shinn, David. Historical Dictionary of Ethiopia. Scarecrow Press. pp. 20–21.
  24. ^ Braukamper, Ulrich. A History of the Hadiyya in Southern Ethiopia. Otto Harrassowitz. p. 149.
  25. ^ Caulk, R.A. (1977). "Harär Town and Its Neighbours in the Nineteenth Century". The Journal of African History. 18 (3). Cambridge University Press: 381. doi:10.1017/S0021853700027316. JSTOR 180638. S2CID 162314806.