Somali hero Ahmed Gurey rare videos

[Somali-Transporter]

Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi aka Ahmed Gurey! no doubt about his legendary status in somali history!
what i find funny is that the hasbasha also started to claim him, they fall in love with their own butcher!

Watch this nice video about Ahmed Gurey..

Look this Ethiopians singing for Ahmed Gurey

Again Ethiopian scholars glorifying Him

[Khalid Ali]

The second song is an adari song imam ahmed lived in harar for a long period of time he might even have blood ties in that region so ofcourse they will sing for him , Adaris were part of the Conqeusts

[Somali-Transporter]

The second song is an adari song imam ahmed lived in harar for a long period of time he might even have blood ties in that region so ofcourse they will sing for him , Adaris were part of the Conqeusts

Adaris? are they cushites?

[Khalid Ali]

They speak a Semitic language there are Somalis clans incorporated into the adari society, i dont know why u take those linguistic categorization so serious

[Yohannes]

Adaris are the natives of Harar, and no they are not Cushitic, they are habesha.

It is pretty strange/funny when I come across Somalis on a Gragn-praising high, saying he was the great Somali guy who destroyed the Ethiopians.

I've had some good laughs reading some threads in the archives of this forum where Somalis argue over which sub-tribe Gragn was from even

Fact of the matter is, Gragn was (unfortunately) not Somali, but actually a Belew Muslim leader, a fact corroborated by contemporary books on him in Amharic and Arabic. There were several Abyssinian kingdoms and sultanates in the middle ages, both Muslim and Christian. Gragn's raid on a series of Christian Abyssinian kingdoms is most famously recorded in Futu7 el 7abesha (meaning the Conquering of the Abyssinians). Which I always thought was a funny title because there was no Futu7, since Ato Gragn's raids consisted of destroying ancient monasteries, violating women and killing monks. His raids were Muslim versus Christian forces and called Holy Jihads, yet he conveniently forgot all the rules laid out for a Jihad like not harming peaceful monks or womenfolk, much like the Islamist terrorists you see today around the world with their black flags committing atrocities in the name of their religion and god.

The Somalis I meet are always keen to point out some bizarre myths they have about Gragn, like the fact that he taught us tera sega (raw meat dishes). Sorry to burst your bubble again, but Abyssinians have been eating raw meat dishes long before Gragn was even born. Books by explorers for millennia mention Abyssinian warriors and their consumption of fresh tera sega with strong t'ej and spices with injera. For example, there's a book by the Egyptian Arab historian Al-Maqrizi called el 2elmaam bi man fil 2ar9' el 7abashah man Malouk el 2islaam from 14th century where he notes the unusual (to him) dietary custom of tera sega by mentioning how an Abyssinian king was eating the raw meat of a large cow. This is centuries before Gragn was born.

In the Somali mythos about Ato Gragn, he supposedly scared Abyssinian Christians so badly they didn't cook their foods with fire in fear of getting sighted

Funny stuff.

By the way, you guys should really try some tera sega dishes sometime. Nothing like a nice kitfo dinner on a hot summer evening with some fiery t'ej honey wine

It was interesting to note when we were in R'2as el 3eyn in the Kurdish part of Syria, the locals also had a similar raw meat dish to kitfo called Kebbe, although I still think the spice overload in our kitfo was stronger. The French interpretation on raw meat delicacies in the form of steak tartare is not bad with a nice cup of Bordeaux.



Lastly, to expand on what I meant by Futu7 el 7abash being a misnomer, Ato Gragn was a failure of a shifta because all the land he raided was all taken back within a few years and he was ultimately killed having failed at his goal (holy war on the Christians and the establishment of his Muslim state in their lands).

His death and failure to conquer marked the decline of the Muslims in the Horn from then on, and led to the eventual conquering of many Muslim kingdoms by the various Christian Abyssinians in the area. The nomadic groups in the periphery deserts would be raided in campaigns called semaj for centuries to collect taxes for tribute (you can ask your grandparents about the Abyssinians coming on horse-back with their guns to forcibly collect taxes in the area called the Ogaden today) until eventually late 19th century Abyssinian Emperors tied loose ends and formally included conquered pastoralist Muslim groups into the Ethiopian Empire (like the Afar and Somali, now part of the Afar and Somali Kililoch of Ethiopia).

So just my 2 cents, after reading a lot of misinformation about this guy online on this forum and elsewhere spread by Somalis.

[Khalid Ali]

Adaris are not habasha they are adaris hararis they speak a Semitic language not all Semitic speakers are Habasha only the Tigrai Tigre Gurage Tigrigna of Eritrea are considered habash the latter denies habasha ancestry and say habesha is not an ancestry and they are Eritreans. The Adari language has more Arabic elements than Amharic , Amharas cannot pronounce all Arabic sounds.As for Imam Axmed he might be an adari an ancient Somali tribe, his ancestry is not named in the fatuh al xabasha, we consider him a Muslim Mujahid and a Somali since he was born in Somaliland seylac. Somalis from my tribe and other Somali tribes fought along the imam and died with him in the Highland also our Turkish allies were present supported us

Tere sega very funny

[grandpakhalif]

My great marehan uncle ilaahi janna ha uu waraabiyo

[Yohannes]

Khalid Ali,

Yes, Adari speak a Semitic language like other Habesha of the Horn and consider themselves/are considered Habesha. I encourage you to visit Harar some time to ask some real Adari/Harari people about themselves and their heritage. Harar is a beautiful city with lots of history and great people.

Somali's claim that Gragn was a Somali is another funny part of the Somali mythos around him that doesn't stack up with the contemporary works written on him by Christians and Muslims.

By the way, Gragn wasn't the only crazy marauder who destroyed monuments, churches, monasteries and heritage in Ethiopia's history. About ~500 years earlier the Jewish queen Yodit did the same.

I know tera sega and alcohol are haram in Islam but Allah is Ar-Rahman right?

[DonCorleone]

Lying ass Ethiopians , everybody in the horns knows Ahmed gurey forced you to eat raw meat during the wars, how one before the war no one ate their meat raw in that region loooool duck off habesha bariah, honata hulu

[Waqooyism]

Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi was an Arab born in Dir-land who had nothing to do with the Marehan claimers. The Marehan claim was started by Siad Barre himself who wanted any reason to legitimize his illegal rule by claiming the Marehan were Muslims and unionist but Marehan were just a minor tribe that got lucky because of Majerteen greediness. They will never see leadership again.

Ahmad is claimed by Afar, Oromo, Issa, Marehan and all the other useless claimers but he was an Arab born in Zeila who grew up with the Dir clans and majority of his army was Habar Awal, Gadabursi and Issa.

There is no Marehan in Somaliland. There is no Marehan in Shinile, Harar region or any where close. It is like an Isaac saying the colonizer was Zanzibar was Isaaq.

The only people who still live in the land of Ahmad are Isaac and Dir and it was them that made up the bulk of is army. It is them that still live in Harar to Shniile to Zeila.

Siad Barre was the engineer of claimers. He twisted many of the region's history to through the ministry of education and government and forced it on the people. Anyone who discussed the real history was executed or shunned same way certain European countries do not allow any discussion of the Holocaust unless approved by Israel and Jews.

Adari are Arabs.

The Habesha are only two groups; Amara and Tigrayans.

[Waqooyism]

Some people took Siad Barre's clan propaganda too serious. You have to have evidence, do you guys even live there, what is the chance of a Marehan being born there? The fact is they never even heard of Zeila before Siad Barre or Dir clan or Ahmad Gurey or even Adal. To this day they don't even know that Adal was Dir Kingdom and Dirirdhabe was the base of Dir (Dirirdhabe means the home of Dir).

Everything makes sense to Dir's point of view. The biggest city is called Dir'irdhabe, they still live there to this day, they are the largest population there. People under estimate the Issa population in Shinile.

[Yohannes]

Lying ass Ethiopians , everybody in the horns knows Ahmed gurey forced you to eat raw meat during the wars, how one before the war no one ate their meat raw in that region loooool duck off habesha bariah, honata hulu

Seems you don't understand the concept of time. Your myth doesn't make sense since there were written histories about Ethiopians and our tera sega culture centuries before Gragn was even born (as I mentioned above), but I guess you're being purposefully dense. If you're interested in reading the book I mentioned before, the title in proper Arabic is الإلمام بمن فى أرض الحبشة من ملوك الإسلام by Al-Marqizi.

You're welcome.

[Bilis]

Adari speak a Semitic language like other Habesha of the Horn and consider themselves/are considered Habesha.

The Harari claim descent from Sheikh Abadir Umar Ar-Rida, an early Arab Muslim cleric from the Gulf. He's the acknowledged forefather of the Somali Sheekhaal clan as well:

Somali's claim that Gragn was a Somali is another funny part of the Somali mythos around him that doesn't stack up with the contemporary works written on him by Christians and Muslims.

Actually, it's the Abyssinian face-saving claim that Ahmed Gurey was an Arab or partially Habesha -- basically, anything but a Somali -- that doesn't stack up to most historical works (other than their own, of course).

Fact is, the Futuh al-Habash, which actually documents Gurey's conquest of Abyssinia, makes it abundantly clear that pretty much everyone in his entourage was Somali. That includes most of his troops and his own in-laws.

By the way, Gragn wasn't the only crazy marauder who destroyed monuments, churches, monasteries and heritage in Ethiopia's history. About ~500 years earlier the Jewish queen Yodit did the same.:

Gurey destroyed Abyssinian heritage, specifically. And it was more of a retaliatory act than anything.

The truth is, the Abyssinians were no angels. They would routinely attempt to exact tribute from/extort money out of the various Muslim Sultanates, including Gurey's Adal. When Gurey refused to pay that tribute, the Abyssinian Emperor Lebna Dengel launched an invasion force, only to be pushed back deep into eastern and southern Ethiopia. It was at that point that Dengel appealed for Portuguese assistance to help save his embattled kingdom.

That's how Gurey's jihad actually began.

[Bilis]

Some people took Siad Barre's clan propaganda too serious. You have to have evidence, do you guys even live there, what is the chance of a Marehan being born there? The fact is they never even heard of Zeila before Siad Barre or Dir clan or Ahmad Gurey or even Adal. To this day they don't even know that Adal was Dir Kingdom and Dirirdhabe was the base of Dir (Dirirdhabe means the home of Dir).

Everything makes sense to Dir's point of view. The biggest city is called Dir'irdhabe, they still live there to this day, they are the largest population there. People under estimate the Issa population in Shinile.

The Futuh al-Habash notes that the Harti, Marehan and various Dir clans (including the Isaaq), all were prominent parts of Gurey's army. It also states that the Yibir/Yabarre and Garre were as well, in addition to a few now apparently vanished Somali clans, such as the Jairan and Mazra. The latter two groups may have been early Ogaden clans.

[Yohannes]

Hi Bilis,

Yes I'm aware of the existence of different stories of how the distinct Adari people came about. I hope you're not taking the idea that I'm saying Gragn was one. I don't know much of this Sheekhaal but that sounds interesting. One thing I always wondered is how one person can be the founder of entire clan of peoples.

I'm not sure what you mean by face-saving, it's just that the only time I've heard Gragn was Somali was from Somali people I've conversed with when literature I've read on that time period including the book you mention make no mention of him being a Somali. Nothing about his name or anything else subtly refers to him as being Somali other than some Somali myths, and I fear they hold up as much as the funny ones about tera sega. Either way, I'm not sure why Somalis are very keen on claiming a warlord whose only claim to fame was destroying ancient heritage and terrorizing peasants for a few years. I hope future Somalis don't lionize Al-Shabaab in the same manner.

I don't really want to turn this into another long silly clan thread arguing whose Somali clan he was or whatever, since some people are already tossing around clan names. Ciise Somali clan are not the largest population in Dire Dawa and have never been since it was first built by Atse Menelik II. The Oromo have always been the main citizenry of Dire Dawa, although several other ethnicities of Ethiopia also live there.

Another forum poster summarizes my bemusement whenever my Somali friends bring up this Gragn guy here: viewtopic.php?p=2469013#p2469013


Thanks