The Emirate of Harar was a Muslim kingdom founded in 1647 when the Harari people refused to accept Imām ʿUmardīn Ādan as their ruler and broke away from the Imamate of Aussa to form their own state under `Ali ibn Da`ud.

[1] Prior to its invasion by Shewan forces under Menelik II, the League of Nations noted that the Harar Emirate made up the area between the rivers Awash and Shebelle while the Ogaden was a tributary state.

[4] Numerous Oromo and Somali clans in the Karanle region paid tax to the Emirate as late as the 18th century despite their gradual annexation of lands in the Harari state.

[8] However Sidney Waldron and others allude to the destruction of the early Harari kingdom in the sixteenth century and its transition into a City-state:[9][10] "The Harari who remained behind the new city walls were the sole survivors of a once much wider spread ethnic and linguistic community whose full extent may never be known, but whose last trace is the record of their decimation: By 1577 (the Oromo) had destroyed more than a hundred villages and besieged the city, Until the gates were filled with corpses"Ali ibn Da'ud came to the throne after one of many internal crises which had torn the mini-states to shreds within the vicissitudes of their entire history.

[11] According to 18th century British traveler James Bruce who visited Abyssinia, the ruler of Shewa Amha Iyasus was in conflict with the leaders of the Harar Emirate.

Above all, Egypt tried to make sure of benefits of precedence vis-à-vis European states by taking action first; and, during Khedive Ismail's reign, Werner Munzinger wrote to the Isma'il Pasha, urging him to seize Harar, the Swiss officer explained to the Egyptian ruler the economic and strategic advantages which would accrue from such a move, and that the revenue from the city’s taxes would be sufficient for the upkeep of an Egyptian garrison.

In 1875, Muhammad Rauf Pasha led a well armed Egyptian force of 1,200 men from Zeila into the interior of eastern Ethiopia under the guise that it was a scientific expedition to find the source of the Tekezé River and without encountering any opposition, seized Harar on 11 October 1875 and obliged Emir Muhammed 'Abd ash-Shakur to consider himself under the protection of the Khedive.

I, Muhammad bin ‘Ali, the Emir of Harar, in obedience to God and His Prophet, and also in obedience to the most honored, the most illustrious, the glory of Islam and the Muslims, the supporter of the law of the Master of the prophets, the guarantor of victorious armies, Muhammad Ra‘uf Pasha – may God increase his power and fulfill his plans – who is under the mighty lord, the venerable ruler, endowed with conquests which are constantly repeated, and privileges which adorn themselves in the pearlstring of their beauty, the excellent of [our] time, our lord, Khedive Isma‘il, the son of our Lord Ibrahim – may the stars of his happiness rise in brightness and the squadrons of his soldiers advance in victory – surrender completely of my own free will and in full possession of all my senses, I and the people under my control and my country, as I have said [before] and even if I had not said so.

Each was under a notable who had been given the Harari title, Garad; a cape, turban and robe; and a deed entitling him to fixed units of land, in return for a fee in cattle and the commission to collect tithe on the harvest and herds of the new settlement.

Communications improved, and substantial public works were undertaken during his tenure of office; most of the trade was routed through Jarso and Nole clans, to and from the coast.

As Harari tradition stated, these violations caused women to begin wearing tight-fitting pants during the Egyptian occupation that would make such forceful assaults less easy to execute.

"Historian Abdullahi Mohammed asserts that the endurance of the Emirate was largely attributable to the military strategies implemented by the state, as well as the persistent threats it encountered, which prompted a rapid response from the population.

[27] The formation of the Emirate of Harar in the mid-seventeenth century failed to halt the decline, and eventually only the walled city remained to the Harari people.