ABSTRACT
From the earliest documents the Central Ethiopian Group who founded Harar “city,” an indigenous urban complex without parallel in Ethiopia, have been known as Harari. They form a single tribal group and refer to themselves as Harage, literally “people of the city” , the suffixae signifying “city.” Harage call their language ge sinanf or “the language of the city.” To the Amhara Ethiopians, Arabs, and Europeans, the preferred name for the Harage is “Harari” and for their city Harar, and we have adopted this usage here; the neighbouring Galla designate the Harage as “Adàre.” Before 1886, when Ethiopian rule was firmly established over Harar, all Harari lived within the confines of their walled city, as do most families today. This traditional residential pattern has not noticeably been altered by the recent growth of Harari communities in the nearby town of Dire Dawa and in Addis Ababa.
