Abu Bakr II ibn `Abd al-Munan

Who was Abu Bakr II ibn `Abd al-Munan?

Abu Bakr II ibn `Abd al-Munan was the emir of Harar. He was the son of `Abd al-Mannan, the brother of `Abd ar-Rahman ibn Muhammad, and Guisti Fatima, `Abd ar-Rahman's oldest daughter. This Fatima is a different woman than Abu Bakr's wife, Fatima, whom the British explorer Richard F. Burton reports was the daughter of a local Somali chief, Gerad Adan bin Kaushan. He succeeded to the throne of Harar upon the death of `Abd ar-Rahman.

For a number of years in the 1830s, Abu Bakr campaigned against the neighboring Oromo with an armed force which the British explorer W. C. Barker described as "consisting of from 150 to 200 matchlock men, 100 cavalry armed with long spears, 60 spearmen on foot, and a few archers. Insignificant, however, as this force really is, the matchlockmen alone render it far superior to that of the neighbouring tribes, who have a great dread of fire-arms; they have not even a single matchlock in their possession." Despite his military successes, by 1840 Harari merchants lamented that the neighboring Oromo were devastating the neighboring villages. The Harari were attacked in their fields within sight of the city walls in the middle of the day, and the city was spared in the end only by paying tribute.