Chercher province
{{short description|Former province in eastern Ethiopia}}
Chercher was a province in Hararghe (eastern Ethiopia) now part of Oromia Region, Ethiopia.{{cite book |last1=Clapham |first1=Christopher |title=Transformation and Continuity in Revolutionary Ethiopia |date=25 October 1990 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=216 |isbn=9780521396509 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LeszAAAAIAAJ&dq=chercher+hararghe&pg=PA216}}{{cite book |last=Zewde |first=Bahru |author-link=Bahru Zewde |date=2002 |title=Pioneers of change in Ethiopia : the reformist intellectuals of the early twentieth century |url=https://www.worldcat.org/title/pioneers-of-change-in-ethiopia-the-reformist-intellectuals-of-the-early-twentieth-century/oclc/469992008? |location=Oxford, Athens, finfinee|publisher=Oxford University Press, Ohio University Press, Addis Ababa University Press |pages=57–64 |isbn=9780821414460|oclc=46992008 }} Also known as Ittuu and West Hararghe, Chercher is the name given mainly to the eastern escarpment highland areas of Oromia state's West Hararaghe Zone, where the chains of Checher or higher mountains rise and extend inland from the Great Rift Valley in its northwest{{citation_needed|date=February 2022}}. The capital of the former Chercher province was Chiro.
==Etymology==
Chercher may originate from cer, the Harari word meaning “a cliff that creates a deep gorge.”{{cite book |title=Cherchar |publisher=Encyclopedia Aethiopica |url=https://en.sewasew.com/phrases/3209?withDetails=1}}
History
Chercher is home to ruins linked to the Harla people dating back to the eighth century in the district of Doba located in modern east Oromia. It was home to the people of Doba region prior to the Oromo invasions.{{cite book |last1=Joussaume |first1=Roger |title=MEGALITHISM IN CHER IN ETHIOPIA |publisher=French Center for Ethiopian Studies |url=https://books.openedition.org/cfee/780?lang=en}}{{cite book |title=History of Harar and Hararis |publisher=Harar tourism bureau |page=27 |url=https://everythingharar.com/files/History_of_Harar_and_Harari-HNL.pdf}}{{cite book |title=Perspectives Des Études Africaines Contemporaines Rapport Final D'un Symposium International |year=1974 |publisher=Deutsche UNESCO-Kommission |page=274 |isbn=9783794052257 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t3ocAAAAMAAJ&q=Tigrinha%20speaking%20Doba%20occupied%20the%20plains%20of%20Chercher%20and%20Raya%20-%20Azebo%20to%20the%20east%20.%20Some%20of%20the%20Doba%20were%20pastoralists}} According to tradition the ruins of Sharif Ahmed mosque, who was a chief of Harla is found in the Doba district of Chercher.{{cite book |last1=Braukamper |first1=Ulrich |title=Islamic History and Culture in Southern Ethiopia |year=2002 |publisher=Lit |page=120 |isbn=9783825856717 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HGnyk8Pg9NgC&q=the+ruined+mosque+of+sharif+ahmad+in+manna+qallu}}
During the Oromo invasions of the sixteenth century the Ittu Oromo had occupied the Chercher region from the Harari people and likely also Harla.{{cite book |title=Ittuu |publisher=Encyclopedia Aethiopica |url=https://en.sewasew.com/p/ittuu}} British deputy W.C Barker in 1842 states Chercher was a full day expedition from Harar city and was inhabited by the Oromo people.{{cite book |last1=Barker |first1=W.C. |title=Extract Report on the Probable Geographical Position of Harrar; With Some Information Relative to the Various Tribes in the Vicinity |publisher=: Wiley on behalf of The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) |page=243 |url=https://everythingharar.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Barkerextract_theposition_of_Harar.pdf}} The chronicle of the Emirate of Harar from the nineteenth century suggests that a Malak was present in Chercher, indicating that the Emirate held some degree of authority in the area.{{cite book |last1=Garad |first1=Abdurahman |title=Harar Wirtschaftsgeschichte eines Emirats im Horn von Afrika (1825-75) |publisher=P. Lang |page=83 |url=https://www.google.ca/books/edition/Harar/Z_gwAAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=Harar:+Wirtschaftsgeschichte+des+Emirats+im+Horn+von+Afrika+(1825-75)&dq=Harar:+Wirtschaftsgeschichte+des+Emirats+im+Horn+von+Afrika+(1825-75)&printsec=frontcover}}
From 1883 to 1885 the Shewan forces under Menelik attempted to invade the Chercher but were defeated by the Ittu Oromo.{{cite book |last1=Slikkerveer |first1=Leendert |title=Plural Medical Systems In The Horn Of Africa: The Legacy Of Sheikh Hippocrates |date=28 October 2013 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |page=123 |isbn=9781136143304 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5eErBgAAQBAJ&dq=battle+of+chelenqo+chercher&pg=PA123}}
In 1886 the Abyssinians of Shewa also suffered a defeat at the Battle of Hirna against the forces of Harar Emirate in the Chercher region.{{cite journal |last1=Caulk |first1=Richard |title=The Occupation of Harar: January 1887 |journal=Journal of Ethiopian Studies |year=1971 |volume=9 |issue=2 |pages=10–11 |jstor=41967469 }}{{cite book |last1=Asnake |first1=Gossa |title=A HISTORY OF HIRNA TOWN FROM ITS FOUNDATION UP TO 1991 |publisher=Addis Ababa University |page=93 |url=https://www.academia.edu/114397285/ADDIS_ABABA_UNIVERSITY_SCHOOL_OF_GRADUATE_STUDIES?uc-sb-sw=3845055}}
In the early 1900s, the former Ifat rebel leader Talha Jafar passed his later years in Chercher as the appointed governor of Wadessa during the reign of Lij Iyasu.{{cite journal |last1=Ahmed |first1=Hussein |title=THE LIFE AND CAREER OF SHAYKH TALHA B. JA'FAR (c. 1853-1936) |journal=Journal of Ethiopian Studies |year=1989 |volume=22 |publisher=Institute of Ethiopian Studies |page=23 |jstor=41965976 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41965976}} In the year 1923 regent Ras Tafari appointed Fit′awrari Tekle Hawariat Tekle Mariyam as governor of Chercher, a year later governor Tekle Hawariat founded the town of Chiro (known then under its old name Asebe Tafari.) and the new capital of the province.