Sultanate of Harram
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Sultanate of Harram | |
|---|---|
.png) Flag
.svg) Coat of arms
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| Motto: "Bayn Ealimin" "Between Two Worlds" | |
| Anthem: "Alhamlat Alssalibia" | |
 Location of Harram. | |
| Official languages | |
| Ethnic groups (2021) | 68% Arab 22% Portuguese 7% Black 3% Other |
| Religion | 80% Maronite Church 15% Islam 5% Spiritism |
| Demonym(s) | Harranian |
| Government | Unitary absolute monarchy |
• Sultan | Hassan III |
• Steward | vacant |
| Legislature | Auxilary Council |
| Independence from Brazil | |
• Declared | 01 January 2009 |
| February 2015 | |
| 02 June 2021 | |
| 25 December 2021 | |
| 4 August 2022 | |
| Area | |
• Total | 0.2 km2 (0.077 sq mi) |
| Population | |
• 2021 estimate | 7 (active citizens) |
• Census | 20 (inhabitants) |
| GDP (PPP) | 2022 estimate |
• Total |  No calculation available |
• Per capita | No calculation available |
| GDP (nominal) | 2022 estimate |
• Total | No calculation available |
• Per capita | No calculation available |
| Gini (2022) |  24.2low |
| HDI (2022) | ▼ 0.875 very high · 35th |
| Currency | Ebenthali kupfermark (EBK) |
| Time zone | UTC−3 (BRT) |
• Summer (DST) | UTC−2 (BRST) |
| Date format | dd/mm/yyyy |
| Driving side | left |
| Calling code | +55 |
| Internet TLD | .hr |
| |
Harram, officially the Sultanate of Harram (Portuguese: Sultanato de Harram; Arabic: سلطنة حران, romanized: Saltanat Hram) is a small self-declared unrecognized Moorish city-state, commonly referred to as a micronation, consisting of a single enclave in South America, completely surrounded by the Brazilian city of Niterói, subsequently being the micronation with the highest population density in the Americas, with 0.2 km² (0.07 sq mi) and 20 inhabitants. A city-state, its administrative center is located in Old Town, the country's oldest district. Harram is a autocratic absolute monarchy, but despite this, the country has high levels of progressivism. Both Portuguese and Lebanese Arabic are official languages and are widely used by the population.
The country's foundation dates back to 2009 when Elias Harram, assuming the name of Hassan I, proclaimed his family's villa of Maronite Christians of Lebanese origin as a sovereign country, independent from the surrounding Federative Republic of Brazil. The specific territory on which Harram was founded was firstly settled by the Portuguese in the late 18th century. As Brazil became independent from Portugal, it was inhabited by Brazilians and subsequently it became a settlement for the Arab Harram Family who immigrated from Lebanon in the early 1930s fleeing the chaos established by the French mandate and the fall of the Ottoman Empire. The Harram Family reformed the villa, as they acquired its property, and created a tiny community of Maronite cult which evolved into an independent state culturally inspired by a mix between the Portuguese and Arabic cultures, specially the Moorish culture of the Arabs and Berbers present in the Iberian Peninsula during the vigency of the Al-Andalus.
By 2017, Harram's political activity had declined to near inactivity, until in 2021 a coup d'état revived Harranian politics by peacefully deposing the Harram family from their throne, installing in its place a Prince of Ebenthal. As a result, Harram retained its historic status as a small power South American micronational, but lost its position as a middle power within the State of Rio de Janeiro micronational cluster. Since then, Harram's policy has focused on forming a stable government, seeking to rescue the prestige that the nation enjoyed. The country, which co-founded the defunct Liberal League,[1] became a member of the Conference of Santiago and the Micronational Trade Organization. Since 2022,
Etymology
The name Harram in Turkish derivate from the name of one of the brothers of the biblical patriarch mentioned in the Book of Genesis, but who would have died young when his father, Terah, was still in Ur of the Chaldees. The micronation was named after the surname of the founder, Elias Harram, regarding the similarity with the city of Harran,[2] place of origin of the founders, on the Turkish border with Syria. The name was also easy to speak by the Portuguese-speaking population and then, an absolutist sultanate in the Ottoman molds was created.
History
Background
The territory claimed and administrated by the Government of Harram had been theorically inhabited by indigenous peoples, of which the most known are the Tupinambás, for 11.000 years, although there have been reportedly no settlement in the precise modern Harranian lands. In turn, following the Portuguese discovering Brazil in the late 15th century, that region was subsequently settled with the creation of the municipality of Niterói within what was then the State of Brazil, a part of the Portuguese Empire. Later, in 1822, the Kingdom of Brazil secceeded from the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and Algarves and became the independent Empire of Brazil and Niterói was made capital of the province of Rio de Janeiro, a status which would keep until 1975 already during the republican era.
Nonetheless, with the Brazilian independence ans its growth, millions of immigrants settled in Brazil, including many Maronite Christians from Lebanon and Syria, leving the unstable and Muslim-dominated Ottoman Empire at the invitation of Emperor Pedro II of Brazil since at least 1875. With the fall of the Ottoman Empire following World War I and the crisis ensued by this, with the establishment of the French Mandate in Lebanon and Kingdom of Syria, many Syrian and Lebanese Arabs chose to leave their countries and immigrated to Brazil, as the previous wave of immigrants had been mostly successful. Among this new immigrants it was Nakhoul Harram, the forefather of the Harram Family in Brazil, who settled in a Portuguese villa in Niterói in 1925. Eventualy his son, Adib Harram, acquired that villa in the 1950s and reformed it into an eccletic style mixing Portuguese and Arabic features, and villa became exclusive for members of the Harram family to live in a close community ans was called "Villa Harram" after the family's name.
Establishment and consolidation
Finally, in 2009, Elias Harram, Nakhoul's great-grandson, proclaimed the Sultanate of Harram as a virtual state on the NationStates roleplay platform, creating an identity for the virtual nation and assuming himself the name of Hassan I. The first years of Harram were contradictory as Hassan and his successors created an uchronic history for the country, claiming to be somewhat a successor state to the Ottoman sultante and heavily inspired by the Mozarabic and Mourish cultures, fruit of the Arab dominance over what would become Portugal for half of the Middle Ages. Either way, Harram was mostly successful in establishing itself with micronational activity out of the NationStates platform, gathering active micronational personel and enaging into relations with other micronations born from the NationStates. The pinnacle of this was the creation of the Liberal League, an intermicronational organization aiming to bring together micronations of liberal tendencies which were, by 2014 and 2015, moving away from the NationState into actual seccessionist micronationalism.
During this period, in 2015 Sultan Hassan II, who had succeeded Omar I (Hassan I's successor), aimed to continue their work, to further cement Harram's true micronationalism and end its ties with the NationStates (from where it was moving away since 2013), abolished the country's uchronic history and proclaimed the Villa Harram's sovereignity and effective independence from Brazil. Although his actions were praised, he was quickly deposed in a family conflict and the country was engulfed in a civil war, having being ruled by a series of three weak sultans (Omar II, Omar III and Omar IV), of which Omar III stands out as the most successful of them, modernizing the country with the creation of several departments. The conflict finally came to an end that same year with the ascension of Vinícius Harram as Sultan Omar V in 2016. Due to his charisma and inteligence, he was the preferred choice by Harram's allies to sat on the throne. Assuming this new position, he was able to bring the country stability, expanding the campaign of citizenship, creating a registry of citizens and keeping the country's social spaces active. During his reign, Harram also established relations with micronations other than its former NationState allies and intervened in foreign policy such as during the Ebenthali Civil War.
Decline and revival
Entering 2017, interest on micronationalism by the part of most Harranians, including the Sultan, begin to fade. Historians of the Harranian history atribute this mostly to the exodus of very active and charismatic citizens following the Harranian civil war, such as the sultans which succeeded on the throne. Micronational activity resumed on decrees issued by the Sultan and his granting of honours upon foreign officials and royalty, and stayed this way until 2019, when Harran celebrated ten years of existence with a party on which former citizens, including former Sultans Hassan I and II participated. By 2020 the sultanate was void of activity. Even being asked by some of its former allies which stood on micronationalism to resume his activities and offered support, Omar V rejected the possibility. He declared the state didn't ceased to exist and was still sultan, but had no prevision to form a government.
In 2 June 2021, a coup d'état was staged by Karnia-Ruthenia and Ebenthal aiming to revive the micronation as part of the Conference of Santiago Derivative Program. Sultan Omar V was formally deposed and, following an agreement with him, Prince João Mauro of Ebenthal was proclaimed Sultan of Harram and adopted the name of Hassan III, after the country's first two sultans who consolidate the sultanate. This put and end in the 12-years rule of the House of Harram over the country which carried its name. As Harram organized its new government, the country was expected to join the Conference of Santiago, what happened after the comrpomises settled by the signature of the Memorandum of Paradiestal.
On 8 August 2021, after the lack of activity, Hassan III of Harram was deposed, being enthroned the Brazilian-born micronationalist and former Emir of Takia, Filip Al Fradiq, as Hassan IV of Harram, who kept the compromises of his antecessor and acted firmly on the progress of Harram. However, after nearly an exact year of reign, Hassan IV decided to abdicate the throne of Harram in order to pursue new particular endeavors. Leaving the throne of Harram vacant, the former and deposed Sultan Hassan III was reinstated by the government of Ebenthal. In order to mark this transition, the country adopted new symbols and underwent slightly decentralizing structural changes, initiating a possible transition from Harram to a more democratic hybrid regime.
Geography
The Harranian territory is located on the far eastern part of South America's Atlantic coast, facing south. Completely surrounded by Brazil, Harram comprises a single enclave within the Brazilian municipality of Niterói. A city-state, Harram does not have direct access to the sea, nor does it have bodies of water. Its small size, relief, climate, and natural resources make Harram geographically simple, with Atlantic forests and a tropical climate. With a total area of 0.2 square kilometres (0.07 square miles), Harram spans only one time zone, the UTC−3, and the summer time zone UTC−2. The topography of Harram is extremelly simple due to its very small size, including a simple plain, with no hills whatsoever. The entire territory lies at sea level.
Climate
Harram has a tropical savanna climate (Aw) that closely borders a tropical monsoon climate (Am) according to the Köppen climate classification, and is often characterized by long periods of heavy rain between December and March.[3] The sultanate experiences hot, humid summers, and warm, sunny winters. Temperatures above 40 °C (104 °F) are common during the summer, though rarely for long periods, while maximum temperatures above 27 °C (81 °F) can occur on a monthly basis.
| Climate data for Harram (1961—1990) | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °C (°F) | 40.9 (105.6) |
41.8 (107.2) |
41.0 (105.8) |
39.3 (102.7) |
36.3 (97.3) |
35.9 (96.6) |
34.9 (94.8) |
38.9 (102) |
40.6 (105.1) |
42.8 (109) |
40.5 (104.9) |
43.2 (109.8) |
43.2 (109.8) |
| Average high °C (°F) | 30.2 (86.4) |
30.2 (86.4) |
29.4 (84.9) |
27.8 (82) |
26.4 (79.5) |
25.2 (77.4) |
25.0 (77) |
25.5 (77.9) |
25.4 (77.7) |
26.0 (78.8) |
27.4 (81.3) |
28.6 (83.5) |
27.3 (81.1) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | 26.3 (79.3) |
26.6 (79.9) |
26.0 (78.8) |
24.4 (75.9) |
22.8 (73) |
21.8 (71.2) |
21.3 (70.3) |
21.8 (71.2) |
22.2 (72) |
22.9 (73.2) |
24.0 (75.2) |
25.3 (77.5) |
23.8 (74.8) |
| Average low °C (°F) | 23.3 (73.9) |
23.5 (74.3) |
23.3 (73.9) |
21.9 (71.4) |
20.4 (68.7) |
18.7 (65.7) |
18.4 (65.1) |
18.9 (66) |
19.2 (66.6) |
20.2 (68.4) |
21.4 (70.5) |
22.4 (72.3) |
21.0 (69.8) |
| Record low °C (°F) | 17.7 (63.9) |
18.9 (66) |
18.6 (65.5) |
16.2 (61.2) |
11.1 (52) |
11.6 (52.9) |
12.2 (54) |
10.6 (51.1) |
10.2 (50.4) |
10.1 (50.2) |
15.1 (59.2) |
17.1 (62.8) |
10.1 (50.2) |
| Average Rainfall mm (inches) | 137.1 (5.398) |
130.4 (5.134) |
135.8 (5.346) |
94.9 (3.736) |
69.8 (2.748) |
42.7 (1.681) |
41.9 (1.65) |
44.5 (1.752) |
53.6 (2.11) |
86.5 (3.406) |
97.8 (3.85) |
134.2 (5.283) |
1,069.4 (42.102) |
| Average relative humidity (%) | 79 | 79 | 80 | 80 | 80 | 79 | 77 | 77 | 79 | 80 | 79 | 80 | 79.1 |
| Average rainy days (≥ 1 mm) | 11 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 6 | 6 | 4 | 5 | 7 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 93 |
| Sunshine hours | 211.9 | 201.3 | 206.4 | 181.0 | 186.3 | 175.1 | 188.6 | 184.8 | 146.2 | 152.1 | 168.5 | 179.6 | 2,181.8 |
| Source: Brazilian National Institute of Meteorology (INMET).[4][5][6][7][8][9][10] | |||||||||||||
Government and politics
The laws of Harram, established by the Sultanic Code of Hassan I, define the country as a unitary autocratic absolute monarchy following the tradition of Middle East regimes. The monarch is the Sultan of Harram, who is the head of state and head of government, with the Sultan's word having the force of law. All legislative, executive and judiciary power ultimately rests in the hands of the hereditary Sultan, who has the power to freely name his heir, although the Sultanic Code dictates that the Sultan of Harram must necessarily be a follower of a traditional Abrahamic religion. Despite concentrating de jure all political power and exercising highly centralized government, the Sultan appoints a Steward of the Royal House who, in such a position, is generally charged with dealing with a moderate portion of State affairs on behalf of the Sultan, de facto acting in a manner almost equivalent to that of a head of government. The Sultan further appoints members of the Auxilary Council, which is a body responsible for assisting the Sultan in matters of legislation; the Auxiliary Council develops draft laws and submits them to the Sultan's scrutiny, as well as assists him in developing, enforcing and overseeing laws, regulations and in dealing with public administration. Judiciary power lies solely with the Sultan, who may or may not appoint judges, and can grant pardons and commute sentences. The Sultan's authority is inviolable and the Sultan expects total subordination to his will.
All branches of government (executive, legislative and judiciary) are formally established by the Sultanic Code and relies exclusively with the person of the monarch, thus being a extremelly centralized regime. The Sultan freely appoints and dismisses government ministers, as well as members of the Auxiliary Council, which does not have a defined number of seats, and governs by decree. According to the Sultanic Code, the State's main responsibility is to defend and expand the land of the Arabs, guarantee security on its borders and harmony between the "peoples of Abraham and other religions" and safeguard dynastic sovereignty. All political parties and associations are banned, as according to the Sultanic Code, they are damaging to the political process and divisive to society. Nevertheless the members of government are free to openly uphold whichever ideology they like and are actively encouraged by the Sultan to do so.
Law
Unlike the vast majority of recognized and unrecognized Arab-majority nations, Harranian law is based on Roman-Germanic traditions and civil law concepts prevail over common law practice. The basics of Harranian law is codified as the Sultanic Code, although non-codified statutes represent a huge part, playing a central role in justice. Court decisions set out interpretive guidelines; however, they are seldom binding on other specific cases. The Sultan's will and actions have strong influence in law creation and in law cases.
There is no judiciary court in Harram, and judiciary authority lies with the monarch. The administration of justice is highly personalized, with limited due process protections, especially in political and security-related cases. The Sultanic Code is supposedly the cornerstone of the Harranian legal system and it operates as a constitution for the country. All legislations must conform to its rules. Despite the unbalanced and autocratic regime experimented by Harram, the Sultanic Code and the parameters set by the administration of justice so far protect civil liberties and personal liberties and the government does not sanction any form of legal discrimination, fighting them vigorously.
Military
Harram's armed forces, created alongside the sultanate in 2009, it is totally modeled after the military of the Ottoman Empire, composed of the Sultan's Army, the Sultan's Navy and the Sultan's Aviation Squadron , and officially are responsible for the external defense of the Sultanate, although they only fulfill strictly ceremonial functions. Harram's home defense is handled by the Harranian Gendarmerie. Notwithstanding the ceremonial functions of the armed forces, the country has a policy of conscription in order to ensure an emergency defense by the reserve in case of urgency.
Yet, despite having its own armed forces, Harram relies on the defense and protection of Brazil's police system and armed forces by unilateral agreement, taking advantage of its position as a secessionist microstate unrecognized by its surrounding neighbour.
Foreign policy
Economy
Infrastructure
Science and technology
Transport
Education
Health
Demographics
Race and ethnicity
Religion
Language
Culture
Architecture
Music
Literature
Cuisine
Sports
National holidays
See also
References
- ↑ NS Cache. Liberal League Retrieved on 24 January 2020. Published on 1 January 2017.
- ↑ Tahir Sezen, Osmanlı Yer Adları (Alfabetik Sırayla), T.C. Başbakanlık Devlet Arşivleri Genel Müdürlüğü, Yayın Nu 21, Ankara, p. 223.
- ↑ Alvares, Clayton Alcarde; Stape, José Luiz; Sentelhas, Paulo Cesar; de Moraes Gonçalves, José Leonardo; Sparovek, Gerd (2013). "Köppen's climate classification map for Brazil". Meteorologische Zeitschrift. E. Schweizerbart'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung. 22: 711–728.
- ↑ "Temperatura Mínima (°C)" (in português). Brazilian National Institute of Meteorology. 1961–1990. Archived from the original on 8 August 2014. Retrieved 8 September 2014.
- ↑ "Temperatura Máxima (°C)" (in português). Brazilian National Institute of Meteorology. 1961–1990. Archived from the original on 8 August 2014. Retrieved 8 September 2014.
- ↑ "Temperatura Média Compensada (°C)" (in português). Brazilian National Institute of Meteorology. 1961–1990. Archived from the original on 8 August 2014. Retrieved 8 September 2014.
- ↑ "Precipitação Acumulada Mensal e Anual (mm)" (in português). Brazilian National Institute of Meteorology. 1961–1990. Archived from the original on 8 August 2014. Retrieved 8 September 2014.
- ↑ "Número de Dias com Precipitação Maior ou Igual a 1 mm (dias)". Brazilian National Institute of Meteorology. Archived from the original on 27 August 2014. Retrieved 8 September 2014.
- ↑ "Insolação Total (horas)". Brazilian National Institute of Meteorology. Archived from the original on 8 August 2014. Retrieved 8 September 2014.
- ↑ "Umidade Relativa do Ar Média Compensada (%)". Brazilian National Institute of Meteorology. Archived from the original on 8 August 2014. Retrieved 8 September 2014.