Harla weren't somali

[loyan]

As we know futuhul habasha makes clear distinction between somalis and harlas,even more amda seyon chronicle mentions them as distinct people,futuhul habasha says "harla tribes and somali tribes most of the time"

 

[Idilinaa]

Its been covered in another thread . Read the link: https://www.somalispot.com/threads/futuh-al-habasha-somalis-as-bedouins.163690/#post-3963472

They make occupational distinctions not ethnic ones since they are written as a connected group that appear alongside eachother and other tribes.

In Futuh they even say ''The citizens and the Somals'' , in this case u can see Somal is just a blanket term for a rural nomadic population from the countyside and not an ethnicity. Which is what the name means. I explain it further here analyzing its usage in Futuh:

There are other clues in the text that give it away that ''Somal'' is not in reference to an ethnicity but rather used as a blanket term for bedouins:

''Citizens and the Somals.. '' ''His Somals from the country'' ''The country of the Soomaal''
The imam Ahmad bin Ibrahim and his companions heard news of the flight of the sultan and his Somals (Bedouin) from the country,

Something you pointed out :

''Somal is the only non tribal label that isn't a district
It is a country / what I assume is a balad in the Arabic text.

Harla is a district and there are tribes of the district. Sim is a district and there are tribes of the district And so on And tribes are named as being from these districts. It is not an ethnic label the way so many misinterpret it.

Harlas are not an ethnicity. They are a group of tribes from the region of Harla . Which itself maybe originally named for the mother tribe Of those tribes. Somal is unique in that it is not a district but a country As though they're talking about a countryside inhabited by these Somalis

You also see many instances of elites running off to go settle with "the Somals"

Where? What district? What region? It sounds so much to me like the text is saying they got whooped and ran off to settle with the nomads in the countryside

The amount of times you read '' "The Sultan and his Somals" it says like half a dozen times and that he hides among them when defeated .These are settled Somalis rallying their countryside tribes people

I remember a French researcher analyzing Futah pointing out mentioning the name ''Somal'' as if they are everywhere , inside and outside at the same. Like they have an omnipresence. This pretty much explains it

Same can be seen in Christian chronicles 14th century victory song where they even mention Tumur(Tumaal) alongside Semur(Somaal) but as a seperate but related group , even though both names are applied to Somalis in current times and the former retains its occupational function as Blacksmiths

 

[BossmanBoqoor]

As we know futuhul habasha makes clear distinction between somalis and harlas,even more amda seyon chronicle mentions them as distinct people,futuhul habasha says "harla tribes and somali tribes most of the time"

From my understanding Harla were non- nomadic Somali's they led a more settled lifestyle

 

[Som]

Harla don't exist anymore as a distinct group. They were distinct from somalia, Oromos and hararis and scholars believe they got assimilated by all of these three ethnicities

 

[Step a side]

Harla and Somali were occupational terms.

The entire Harla division was led by Sultan Mohamed (circled in blue) during the war. Sultan Mohamed happens to be a close relative of the imam. He was chief of one of the Harla tribes from Zerba. Today he would have been seen as a Somali but during Futuh he would have been seen as a Harla

Then the tribe of Zarba came up after them. Their chieftain was the sultan Muhammad, son of the paternal aunt of the imam. With him were one-thousand and-sixty notable infantry, and forty knights. The imam made them welcome and showed them his favour. He [sultan Muhammad] resided at Harar. The imam was exceedingly delighted at this and gave thanks to the Most High God.

His nephew Imam Mohamed Gasa bin Ibrahim bin Umar (circled in black) who was the governor of Bale at one point moved the capital from Harar to Awssa to start the Awssa Imamate. He appears on the list of rulers that ruled Harar which was compiled by Ahmed Sami in his Jadwal. 53 to 58 were all Gasa’s bloodline.

Lineage tree of Imam Ahmed, His cousin Sultan Mohamed that led the Harla contingent and Imam Mohamed bin Ibrahim bin Umar that moved the capital to Awssa with bunch of Harla’s accompanying him.