The ancient city is located on a hilltop in the eastern part of the country and is about 500 kilometres (310 mi) from the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa at an elevation of 1,885 metres (6,184 ft).

For centuries, Harar has been a major commercial center, linked by the trade routes with the rest of Ethiopia, the entire Horn of Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, Asia, and through its ports, the outside world.

[8] Because of Harar's long history of involvement during times of trade in the Arabian Peninsula, the Government of Ethiopia has made it a criminal offence to demolish or interfere with any historical sites or fixtures in the city.

The etymology of the name "Harar" remains ambiguous; however, archaeologist Timothy Insoll suggests that it may be derived from Harla, an ancient group that existed prior to the arrival of the Oromo people in the area.

[13] Other possible etymologies include ones put forth by British explorer Richard Francis Burton who states Harar is an extract of the name of a plain located south of the town or a specific tree.

At this point, the religious faction fighting against the Walashma came under the control of Imam Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi also known as "Gragn" or "Gurey", both meaning "the Left-handed".

In 1559 he departed on a jihad (holy war) to Fatagar, during his absence, the Ethiopians under Ras Hamalmal breached the city and killed the last Walashma Sultan Barakat ibn Umar Din.

[31] After the death of Nur ibn Mujahid, for the next following decade Harar would fall into a state of political instability, mainly due to the pressures of the Oromo.

Nur was succeeded by Uthman the Abyssinian, who soon came into conflict with the ulama as he did not strictly observe sharia among the nobility and had made a humiliating peace agreement with the pagan Oromo by granting them special privileges.

As a result, a local official named Mansur ibn Muhammad, recruited bands of Somali warriors and repel the Oromo attack, and then subsequently declared himself sultan.

After this, mentions of Harar in the historical record is sporadic, with the exception of the names of some of its rulers, the first being Sabraddin ibn Adam (1620–5), Sadiq (1632–46) and his son Abram, who only ruled for eleven months.

`Ali ibn Da`ud had risen through the ranks with previous occupations such as being a head of a district and the minister, had declared independence and founded a dynasty that would rule the city for the next two centuries.

In the end, ʽAbd ar-Rahman was deposed and forty villages are listed as having been destroyed by the Oromo to the north, west and south of Harar during the civil war.

[35] Around this time, Harar was visited by the famous British traveler Richard Francis Burton, he describes Harar during his visit in 1855:[39] "The ancient metropolis of a once mighty race, the only permanent settlement in Eastern Africa, the reported seat of Moslem learning, a walled city of stone houses, possessing its independent chief, its peculiar population, its unknown language, and its own coinage, the emporium of the coffee trade, the head-quarters of slavery, the birth-place of the Chat plant"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.

A few days later, Emir Muhammad was murdered by an Egyptian bashi-bazouk while leading evening prayers, his relatives then fled to the countryside to seek refuge among the neighboring Oromos.

[46] The Egyptians spent much of their time establishing their authority over the surrounding Oromo to secure the caravan routes and attempt the agricultural exploitation of Harar's hinterlands.

The imposition of substantial taxes in Harar incited protests from the Harari people against the Egyptian occupation, prompting British administrator Charles George Gordon to intervene in 1878 to remove Governor Rauf Pasha from his position.

[47] Researcher Alice Moore-Harell indicates that before Gordon's arrival, the atmosphere had grown strained, with certain Egyptian soldiers aligning themselves with the local populace and declining to follow the governor's directives.

[46] In 1887, the army of Menelik II would conquer Harar after defeating Emir Abdullahi's troops at Chelenqo, then appointed his nephew Ras Makonnen as governor of the region.

[55] During the East African Campaign, Italian rule would almost immediately disintegrate and Harar was captured by the 1st battalion of the Nigeria Regiment, advancing from Jijiga by way of the Marda Pass on 29 March 1941.

The freedom granted to Harar by the Italians was not quickly forgotten, especially after Emperor Haile Selassie attempted to restore the political and economic power of the Shewan elites.

The complex social interactions of Sufi rituals at Harar's numerous shrines both refied local Islamic identity and attracted large numbers of Muslim Ethiopian tourists.

[56] In 2018, Tom Gardner reported that the Qeerroo Oromo nationalists took control of the city, demanding millions of Ethiopian birr as a condition for restoring water supplies to the residents of Harar.

Based on the 2007 national census conducted by the Central Statistical Agency of Ethiopia (CSA), Harar city had a total urban population of 99,368, of whom 49,727 were men and 49,641 women.

[80] According to Fethia Ahmed, curator of the Harari cultural museum, the lids being turned upside down indicates that the husband has died and that there is a widow living in the house.

[80] Today, though, Hararis typically whitewash their houses with a limestone mixture (called näçih afär) at least once and ideally twice a year, once before Ramadan and once again before the Aräfa festival.

[80] Between the ēqäd ṭāqēts, the two rectangular niches in the center used for storing books, there is a vertical line of small basketry plates called sāgāris along with their lids.

Notable buildings include Medhane Alem Cathedral, the house of Arthur Rimbaud, the 16th-century Jami Mosque and historic Great Five Gates of Harar.

Harar Jugol is a rare example of a relatively well preserved historic town that has retained its traditions, urban fabric, and rich Harari Muslim cultural heritage to the present time.

However, inappropriate interventions, such as plastering the houses, changing doors from wood to metal, the introduction of non-traditional materials and visual impacts such as TV antennas have been gradually affecting the authenticity of the historic fabric.