Harar The Forgotten Islamic City

Behind its ancient walls and five symbolic gates, Harar stands as a living archive of Islamic memory in East Africa.

Within its homes shaped by five spiritual stations, the city echoes centuries of sacred traditions, manuscripts, and oral traditions, preserved by the Hararis, its original inhabitants. Today, that legacy is under threat.

Political decisions, demographic shifts, and migration have turned the Hararis into a minority in their own city, quietly struggling to protect their cultural and spiritual identity. '

Harar, the Forgotten Islamic City follows Mohamed, a 52-year-old engineer raised in the United States, returning to the land of his ancestors. Neither a stranger or a local, he walks the narrow streets of Harar as both witness and participant — seeking to reconnect with a city that shaped his roots, and to understand what remains when a people’s memory begins to fade.

More than a film, this is a meditation on belonging, displacement, and the fragile beauty of transmission — where remembering becomes resistance, and a forgotten city speaks again through those who choose to listen.