Ahmad III ibn Abu Bakr was the Emir of Harar (1852–1856). He was the ruling Emir when the British explorer Richard F. Burton visited the city for ten days in January 1855, which he later described in his book, First Footsteps in East Africa.
Emir Ahmad was the son and successor of Abu Bakr II ibn `Abd al-Munan and Gisti Fatima. Burton writes that she was the daughter of a Somali chieftain, "Garad Hirsi of the Berteri tribe".Richard Burton, First Footsteps in East Africa, 1856; edited with additional material by Gordon Waterfield (New York: Praeger, 1966), p. 163 Upon the death of his father Abu Bakr he succeeded to the throne of Harar, reigning firstly under the regency of his mother. His mother was still alive at the time of Burton's visit, when the Emir had taken four wives: the daughter of Gerad Hirsi, a Sayyid woman of Harar, an emancipated slave girl, and "a daughter of Gerad Abd al-Majid, one of his nobles". Burton rounds out his tally of Emir Ahmad's households with the Emir's two sons, "who will probably never ascend the throne; one is an infant, the other is a boy about five years old."Burton, First Footsteps in East Africa, p. 190
Burton described Emir Ahmad at their first meeting as "an etiolated youth twenty-four or twenty-five years old, plain and thin-bearded, with a yellow complexion, wrinkled brows and protruding eyes. His dress was a white turban tightly twisted round a tall conical cap of red velvet, like the old Turkish headgear of our painters."Burton, First Footsteps, p. 175 The Emir's health at the time was "infirm", according to Burton, who adds, "Some attribute his weakness to a fall from a horse, others declare him to have been poisoned by one of his wives. I judged him consumptive."
Burton further mentions that at the time of his visit the Emir's vizier, or chief minister, was the treacherous Garad Mohammed, a man whom Burton had been told Ahmad's father Abu Bakr had warned him about.Burton, First Footsteps, p. 176 note However, Burton describes Emir Ahmad's rule as:
Concerned with matters on the coast he had good relations with the Habr Awal from Berbera who were influential in his court and was an enemy of the influential trader Haji Sharmarke Ali Saleh who controlled Zeila and would also put Berbera under his sway.Burton, First Footsteps, p. 238 note
See also List of emirs of Harar Harar Emirate of Harar Sharmarke Ali Saleh Zeyla Berbera Habr Awal References