Garaad

The Garaad were the ruling house of the Muslim kingdom of Hadiya in the Ethiopian highlands south of Shewa, whose sovereigns bore the title Garad. Local tradition traces the dynasty to descendants of Abadir, emir of Harar, who intermarried with the local Sidama people.

Early in the fourteenth century Garad Amano refused tribute to Emperor Amda Seyon I, who invaded and reduced Hadiya to a tributary. During the reign of Zara Yaqob (1434-1468), Garad Mahiko defied the crown, was deposed in favor of his uncle Bamo and killed while fleeing to Adal.

In the 1530s Hadiya's Muslims joined the conquests of Ahmad Gragn. Garad Aze's revolt was crushed under Emperor Sarsa Dengel, but early in the seventeenth century Garad Sidi Mohammed defeated the troops of Susenyos I, and the traveller Remedius Prutky described an independent Hadiya in 1751.