Indeed, there is evidence that Harla architecture may have influenced old buildings (pre-16th c.) found near Harar (eastern Ethiopia), and the Gurage East group often cite kinship with Harari (Hararghe) peoples in the distant past.

[8] Braukhamper also states King Amda Seyon ordered Eritrean troops to be sent to mountainous regions in Gurage (named Gerege), which eventually became a permanent settlement.

In addition to Amda Seyon's military settlement there, the permanence of Abyssinian presence in Gurage is documented during his descendants Zara Yaqob and Dawit II's reigns.

Thus, historically, Gurage peoples may be the product of a complex mixture of Abyssinian and Harla groups which migrated and settled in that region for different reasons and at various times.

This believed that linguistically by citing a southward Semitic migration during the late classical and medieval period; however more historical research needed.

[10] However the extent of Aksumite political and economic control over the interior Ethiopian Highlands, as well as that of successor dynasties dominating the Christian north, is being studied.

Aside from local oral traditions linking their past to areas farther north, the Gurage countryside is home to orthodox Christian monasteries likely dating to the Middle Ages (Debre Tsion Maryam, Muher Iyesus, Abuna Gebre Menfes Kiddus, and others), before the conquests of Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi and subsequent Oromo migrations into the central Highlands.

In 1878, the Soddo Gurage living in Northern and Eastern Gurageland peacefully submitted to Menelik and their lands were left untouched by his armies, likely due to their shared Ethiopian Orthodox faith and prior submission to Negus Sahle Selassie, grandfather of the Emperor.

Gurage languages include Sebat Bet, consisting of the dialects Inor, Ezha, Muher, Geta, Gumer, Endegegn, Chaha, and also Soddo, Masqan, Zay.

[19] One example of an enterprising Gurage is Tekke, who Nathaniel T. Kenney described as "an Ethiopian Horatio Alger, Jr.": "He began his career selling old bottles and tin cans; the Emperor Haile Selassie rewarded his achievement in creating his plantation by calling him to Addis Ababa and decorating him.

One of the most famous Ethiopian musicians, Mohamoud Ahmed, still recalls how he started out in life shining shoes in the city before he got his break and joined the music orchestra that allowed him to capture the imagination of millions of admirers both in Ethiopia and abroad.

[citation needed] The Gurage live a sedentary life based on agriculture, involving a complex system of crop rotation and transplanting.

A normal Gurage diet consists primarily of kocho, a thick bread made from ensete, and is supplemented by cabbage, cheese, butter and grains.

[22] In addition to ensete, cash crops are maintained (notably coffee and khat) and livestock is raised (mainly for milk and fertilizer).