Author : Avishai Ben-Dror
Year : 2008
A PhD dissertation submitted to the School of History, Tel Aviv University,
Between 1875 and 1885, the walled town of Harar, the ancient capital of Islam in the Horn of Africa, was occupied by Egypt, striving at that time to build an empire that stretched over both the greater Nile basin and the African Red Sea coast. Though Europeans were only indirectly involved, and though both occupiers and occupied were Muslims, the episode may well be regarded as a colonialist experience. At that time Egypt represented a rapidly modernizing,western-oriented state aiming to transform aspects of its local culture and structure according to Egyptian visions and interests. The entire episode was too short to leave a lasting, comprehensive impact. The Egyptian imperial enterprise collapsed for reasons that had little to do with the Harar experience, and in 1885, the British.