The Karanle (Arabic: كرنلي ,كرن, Somali: Karanle, Karan) are a Somali clan, forming one of the six branches of the larger Hawiye clan.[1] The Karanle are geographically spread out across three countries: Somalia, Ethiopia, and Kenya. Among all of the Karanle inhabited regions of the Horn of Africa, Ethiopia is the where the majority of the clan reside. In Ethiopia, the Karanle are mainly found in Harar, Hubat, and Babile but they also inhabit the Somali Region, Dire Dawa and surrounding regions.[2] The majority of the Karanle Sub-clans predominantly reside in the regions of Ethiopia where the Somali population is predominant, with the exception of the Murusade Sub-clan, who reside in central and southern Somalia.
Karanle, was the firstborn son of (Hawiye),[3] and was born to his first wife Arbera, who is said to be of Harari descent, and thus was tasked with the duty of upholding harmony within the community. The Karanle have been notably involved in the facilitation of peaceful resolutions through mediation. According to historical accounts, they are recognised as the maternal forebears of several prominent clans, such as the Hiraab, the Bimal, and other subclans of the Ogaden clan.[4][5][6]For their age in antiquity and relations with many clans, the Garads and Ugases of Karanle have often participated in coronations of new traditional leadership in many parts of the countries.
The Karanle are credited for fighting foreign invaders in Somalia and Ethiopia where they historically shared a long border.[7][8][9][10] Karanle's tomb can be found in Qundhuro, situated within the Haraghe region alongside his father, Shiekh Ahmed Hawiye's tomb.[11]
The Karanle of Somalia and Ethiopia and NFD Kenya are also closely linked with several ancient historical capitals such as Harrar and Mogadishu, setting up foundational quarters of the towns such as Harar's Erer Gate of the Reer Erer Nur of the Gidir clan family which houses the tomb of Nur Mujahid and the Jami Mosque, the oldest in town. The section of burials in Harar is placed where their descendants are found, hence the eastern sections of Harar, settled by Hawiye native subclans, houses many muslim saints of the clan such as Nur Mujahid and the descendants of Sheikh Nur Hussein of Bale.
Similar infrastructure include the Gidir Magala marketplace of Harrar and the Murursade Gate of South Mogadishu.[12] The Sheikh Basikh (or Raoûf) Mosque, once the largest in town, was a political centre for Karanle figures before its conversion to the Medhane Alem church in 1890 at the hands of Menelik after the Battle of Chelenqo.
History
Imam Ahmad Ibn Ibrahim Al Ghazi
An old map of Harar, the traditional homeland of the Karanle (Spelled here as Garanle)
With Adal Sultanate succeeding Ifat Sultanate, the Karanle figured prominently as leaders and soldiers in what culminated to become the 16th century conquest of Ethiopia (Futuh Al-Habasha).
The most famous and widely read Public Historian of Ethiopia, former Minister of Education, Arts & Culture and Dean of the National Library under Haile Selassie, Takla Sadiq Mekuria, author of the "History of Ethiopia; Nubia, Aksum, Zagoe till the Time of the Reign of Aşe Yækunno Amlak",[13] had state devoted the largest study - a 950-page book in 1961 to the life and times of Imam Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi (known as Ahmed Gurey or Mohamed Gragne, the Atilla of Africa and the King of Zeila) as well as the history of the elite core family-unit of the Malassay Army in his rough monograph on the Gragn Wars called "Ya Gragn Warara" (The Conquests of Gragn), in it he draws on the evidence from Arab Faqih Sihab Uddin and the chronicles of Sarsa-Dengel. Through the mediation of Dagazmac Wargnah he interviewed Ahmed Ali Shami, the most senior authoritative scholar of Harar to have produced the concise manuscript history of Harar (in his Fatah Madinat Harar manuscript) for several European institutions and maintains several preserved Arabic manuscripts, which all provide the only extensive family tree and genealogical known tradition of 8 generations of the father and relatives of Gragne's lineage from the Karanle Hawiye branch with his mother stated to be of the ethnic Harla.[14] This is also found in the Aussa chronicles and books authored by Manfred Kropp, Layla Sabaq and Berhanu Kamal and others. Gragne's wife was also the daughter of Emir Mahfuz, an important relative,[15][16] ruler of Zeila and a Balaw, a Karanle subclan also listed as a group of tribes from Bale[17] and a commonly Ethiopian mistranslation of the Coptic Christian synaxarium of Alexandria's "muslim badawī (bedouin/nomadic descent)" for Muslims in Egypt, Sudan, Somalia and the Red Sea Gulf. See example - Ethiopian chronicles of 10th century Muslim convert Saint George the Egyptian Balaw.[18][19][20]Imam Ahmad Ibn Ibrahim Al Ghazi was a Karanle, specifically the Balaw subclan of the Sehawle Karanle. Weakened by centuries of northern conflict, the Karanle of the post Adal Harar Emirate continued to remain powerful in the Somali interior and would later form a dynasty of jurists in early modern Zeila.[21][22][23][24][25][26]
^L'ultimo impero cristiano politica e religione nell'Etiopia contemporanea (1916- 1974)|quote="The Hawiye chiefs who together with their sons, participated in the plans of Lij Jasu only aggravated the violence on both sides. The Hawiyas, in revenge, destroyed the crops around Harar in order to create a scorched earth policy and raided numerous cattle, which were partly owned by Aqa Gabru. The punitive expedition led by the Amhara faced an entire coalition made up of Geri Somali and Ogaden soldiers, but led by the Hawiya."
^Moizo, Bernard (1999). Variations. L'Aube. p. 33.
^Roma, La Somalia Italiana e l'eccidio di Lafole, (Rivista Marittima: 1897)
^"Futuh Al Habasha - The Conquest Of Ethiopia (Shihabuddin Arab Faqih)". 2023-12-29. Archived from the original on 2023-12-29. Retrieved 2024-06-29. The plural use of tribes demonstrates a large group of native nomadic kinsmen. For comparison, Somalis are counted as plural tribes (where Hawiye is a tribe, Marehan is a tribe etc) while the Harla are also counted as multiple tribes for having an equally significant contribution. This also shows the ethnic Belewta individuals from other regions at the time of Sa'ad ad-Din after 1350AD would not constitute plural tribes hence the term emphasis relating to nomadic gallantry which Amharic historian Mekuria picks up on as does the synaraxium of Alexandria and other accounts. The founder of Awsa and relative of Gragn, Imam Mohamed Gasa, according to Awsa chronicles, would leave the Bale region (a traditional Hawiye homeland) to later form a dynasty beyond the Awash river evading the Oromo while having minimal to no contact with natives from Eritrea or Sudan even while the Ottomans recognised the Belewta Chiefs of Massawa to rule that Port on their behalf from 1554 onwards.
^Italiana, Società Geografica (1894). Atti del primo congresso geographico italiano tenuto in Genova dal 18 al 25 settembre 1892 (in Italian). Tipogr. del R. Istituto Sordo-Muti. At the Battle of Harmale in 1891, the Hawiya alone, led by Garad Omar Abdi faced 15,000 of Menelik's raiders into the Ogaden, defeated only in the wake of less numbers and arms, though not of value.
^Reclus, Elisée (1890). The Earth and Its Inhabitants, Africa: South and east Africa. D. Appleton. The Hawiyas, who are dominant in Ogaden, that is, the great central territory of Somali Land, are certainly the most powerful of all the Somali people. M. Revoil describes them as less bellicose than the other branches of the race, but at the same time more fanatical and more dangerous to foreigners. They belong to a distinct Mohammedan sect, which, to judge from their practices, seems in some way akin or analogous to that of the Wahabites in Central Arabia.
^Grant, Jonathan A. (2007-03-15). Rulers, Guns, and Money: The Global Arms Trade in the Age of Imperialism. Harvard University Press. p. 68. ISBN978-0-674-02442-7. The British Vice Consul at Harar, writing of the Hawiya tribe in the Ogaden, who were in revolt against the Ethiopians, reported that they had always been powerful, but had become much stronger after being furnished with a good supply of arms from Djibouti. He anticipated that all the Somali tribes would be so well armed in the near future that the Ethiopians would have great difficulty in preserving their rule in Harar.
^Borruso, Paolo (2002). L'ultimo impero cristiano: politica e religione nell'Etiopia contemporanea (1916- 1974) (in Italian). Guerini e associati. ISBN978-88-8335-277-5. The Hawiya chiefs who together with their sons, participated in the plans of Lij Jasu only aggravated the violence on both sides. The Hawiyas, in revenge, destroyed the crops around Harar in order to create a scorched earth policy and raided numerous cattle, which were partly owned by Aqa Gabru. The punitive expedition led by the Amhara faced an entire coalition made up of Geri Somali and Ogaden soldiers, but led by the Hawiya.
