The people of Hargaya were reportedly a sub clan of the
Harla people. In the fourteenth century Hargaya elected Imam
Salih to battle the forces of Abyssinian emperor
Amda Seyon I. According to the fifteenth century emperor of Ethiopia's
Baeda Maryam I chronicle, Hargaya's ruler took the title
Garad. According to sixteenth century Adal writer
Arab Faqīh, the people of Hargaya fought in the army of
Ahmed ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi leader of
Adal Sultanate. The text
Futuh al-Habasha asserts Hargaya's overlord was Adal leader imam Ahmed's brother Muhammad ibn Ibrahim. Amelie Chekroun states Hargaya people were presented as an independent group in the sixteenth century not associated with the
Somalis. Historian
Merid Wolde Aregay deduced that the Hargaya state language was
Harari. In the later half of the sixteenth century Hargaya state would be ravaged by the
Oromo invasions. Researcher Mahdi Gadid states Hargaya alongside
Gidaya domains were primarily inhabited by the
Harari people before being assimilated by the
Oromo and
Somali people. An Oromo
Garad of Hargaya and a
Malak of the Nole community were among the governors of the area, according to the
Emirate of Harar's 19th-century documents. ==References==