Old Harari or Ancient Harari is the earliest recorded form of the

Harari language Harari is an Ethio-Semitic language spoken by the Harari people of Ethiopia. Old Harari is a literary language of the city of Harar, a central hub of Islam in the Horn of Africa. According to the 2007 Ethiopian census, it is spoken by 25,810 pe ...

, spoken in

Harar Harar (; Harari language, Harari: ሀረር / ; ; ; ), known historically by the indigenous as Harar-Gey or simply Gey (Harari: ጌይ, ݘٛىيْ, ''Gēy'', ), is a List of cities with defensive walls, walled city in eastern Ethiopia. It is al ...

Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...

. It used the

Arabic script The Arabic script is the writing system used for Arabic (Arabic alphabet) and several other languages of Asia and Africa. It is the second-most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world (after the Latin script), the second-most widel ...

History

Historian Ewald Wagner posited that Old Harari could uncover a common ancestry linking southern Ethiosemitic and Eastern

Cushitic The Cushitic languages are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They are spoken primarily in the Horn of Africa, with minorities speaking Cushitic languages to the north in Egypt and Sudan, and to the south in Kenya and Tanzania. As of 2 ...

languages. The early

Zikr (; ; ) is a form of Islam, Islamic ibadah, worship in which phrases or prayers are repeatedly recited for the purpose of remembering God in Islam, God. It plays a central role in Sufism, and each Sufi tariqa, order typically adopts a specific ...

text is linked to Sayo Abdulmalik, who composed it in Old Harari. Tradition holds that Abdulmalik resided during the era of

Abadir Sheikh Abadir Umar Al-Rida ( Harari: አባዲር ዑመር አል-ሪዳ ፈቂ ዑመር, ), also known as Aw Abadir or Aw Badir was the legendary founder of Harar and a patron saint in modern-day eastern Ethiopia. He is also regarded as the comm ...

in the 13th century. According to philologist Alessandro Bausi, the earliest known manuscript featuring a text in Old Harari dates back to 1460. Historian Mohamed Nuuh Ali, who specializes in Somali studies, suggests that there are indications that Old Harari loanwords in

Somali language Somali is an Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language belonging to the Cushitic languages, Cushitic branch, primarily spoken by the Somalis, Somali people, native to Greater Somalia. It is an official language in Somalia, Somaliland, and Ethio ...

stem from the western expansion of the

Somali people The Somali people (, Wadaad: , Arabic: ) are a Cushitic ethnic group and nation native to the Somali Peninsula. who share a common ancestry, culture and history. The East Cushitic Somali language is the shared mother tongue of ethnic Som ...

. Subsequently, Middle Harari later emerged, characterized as a blend of both Modern and Old Harari. Linguist Giorgio Banti asserts that there is a common belief regarding the connection between the Harari language and the East Gurage languages, including Silt'e. However, this assertion is incorrect, as Old Harari is more similar to Modern Harari than to any of the East Gurage languages.

References

{{reflist Languages of Ethiopia