Founding
1415–1577 Muslim sultanate in the Horn of Africa
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The Adal Sultanate, also known as the Adal Empire or Barr Saʿad dīn, was a medieval Sunni Muslim empire which was located in the Horn of Africa. It was founded by Sabr ad-Din III on the Harar plateau in Adal after the fall of the Sultanate of Ifat. The kingdom flourished c. 1415 to 1577. At its height, the polity under Sultan Badlay controlled the territory stretching from Cape Guardafui in Somalia to the port city of Suakin in Sudan.
The empire's frequent wars with its Christian rival, the Solomonic dynasty of Abyssinia, during the 15th and 16th centuries, led by important early figures such as Jamal ad-Din II, Badlay, and Mahfuz, would earn the sovereigns of Adal a reputation in the Islamic World as one of saints, and were as a result regularly supplied with arms, horses and other articles of war. In the 16th century under the leadership of Imam Ahmed ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi and his successor Nur ibn Mujahid, Adal embarked on the Conquest of Abyssinia deploying muskets and cannons. The war would eventually draw in the Portuguese and Ottoman Empires. The Adalites maintained a strong relationship with the Ottomans in particular.
The Adal Empire had a string of important ports and inland cities such as Harar, Zeila, Abasa, Amud, Awbare, Awbube, Berbera, Dakkar and many others, which flourished under its reign with courtyard houses, mosques, shrines, walled enclosures, cisterns and were integrated into the commercial network that tied the kingdoms and empires of the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean together. Adal acquired its wealth through the trade of millet, cattle, fruits, slaves, gold, barley, ivory and other commodities. The cities of the empire imported intricately coloured glass bracelets and celadon wares from the Ming Dynasty for palace and home decoration while its merchants used currencies such as dinars and dirhams during commercial transactions. The Adal Sultanate was alternatively known as the federation of Zeila and in 1577 moved its capital to Aussa.
Adal is believed to be an abbreviation of Havilah. Eidal or Aw Abdal, was the Emir of Harar in the eleventh century which the lowlands outside the city of Harar is named. In the thirteenth century, the Arab writer al-Dimashqi refers to the city of Zeila, by its Somali name "Awdal" (Somali: "Awdal"). The modern Awdal region of Somaliland, which was part of the Adal Sultanate, bears the kingdom's name.
Locally, the empire was known to Muslims as Barr Sa'ad ad-din, meaning "The country of Sa'ad ad-Din", in reference to the Sultan Sa'ad ad-Din II, who was killed in Zeila while fighting the Ethiopian Emperor Dawit I.
Adal (also Awdal, Adl, or Adel) was situated east of the province of Ifat and was a general term for a region of lowlands inhabited by Muslims. It was used ambiguously in the medieval era to indicate the Muslim inhabited low land portion east of the Ethiopian Empire. Including north of the Awash River towards Lake Abbe as well as the territory between Shewa and Zeila on the coast of Somaliland. According to Ewald Wagner, Adal region was historically the area stretching from Zeila to Harar.
In 1288, the region of Adal was conquered by the Ifat Sultanate. Despite being incorporated into the Ifat Sultanate, Adal managed to maintain a source of independence under Walashma rule, alongside the provinces of Gidaya, Dawaro, Sawans, Bali, and Fatagar. In 1332, Adal was invaded by the Ethiopian Emperor Amda Seyon I. His soldiers were said to have ravaged the province.
In the fourteenth century Haqq ad-Din II transferred Ifat's capital to the Harar plateau thus he is regarded by some to be the true founder of the Adal Sultanate. In the late 14th century, the Ethiopian Emperor Dawit I collected a large army, branded the Muslims of the surrounding area "enemies of the Lord", and invaded Adal. After much war, Adal's troops were defeated in 1403 or 1410 (under Emperor Dawit I or Emperor Yeshaq I, respectively). According to al-Maqrizi, the Walashma ruler Sa'ad ad-Din II was captured and executed in Zeila, which he claims was sacked. However, no other contemporary source corroborates the invasion of Zeila, and it is thought that an Amhara incursion into Zeila was unlikely to have occurred. His children and the remainder of the Walashma dynasty would flee to Yemen where they would live in exile until 1415. According to Harari tradition numerous Argobba had fled Ifat and settled around Harar in the Aw Abdal lowlands during their conflict with Abyssinia in the fifteenth century, a gate was thus named after them called the gate of Argobba.
In 1415, Sabr ad-Din III, the eldest son of Sa'ad ad-Din II, would return to Adal from his exile in Arabia to restore his father's throne. He would proclaim himself "king of Adal" after his return from Yemen to the Harar plateau and established his new capital at Dakkar. Sabr ad-Din III and his brothers would defeat an army of 20,000 men led by an unnamed commander hoping to restore the "lost Amhara rule". The victorious king then returned to his capital, but gave the order to his many followers to continue and extend the war against the Christians. The Emperor of Ethiopia Tewodros I was soon killed by the Adal Sultanate upon the return of Sa'ad ad-Din's heirs to the Horn of Africa. Sabr ad-Din III died a natural death and was succeeded by his brother Mansur ad-Din who invaded the capital and royal seat of the Solomonic Empire and drove Emperor Dawit I to Yedaya where according to al-Maqrizi, Sultan Mansur destroyed a Solomonic army and killed the Emperor. He then advanced to the mountains of Mokha, where he encountered a 30,000 strong Solomonic army. The Adalite soldiers surrounded their enemies and for two months besieged the trapped Solomonic soldiers until a truce was declared in Mansur's favour. During this period, Adal emerged as a centre of Muslim resistance against the expanding Christian Abyssinian kingdom. Adal would thereafter govern all of the territory formerly ruled by the Ifat Sultanate, as well as the land further east all the way to Cape Guardafui, according to Leo Africanus.
Later on in the campaign, the Adalites were struck by a catastrophe when Sultan Mansur and his brother Muhammad were captured in battle by the Solomonids. Mansur was immediately succeeded by the youngest brother of the family Jamal ad-Din II. Sultan Jamal reorganized the army into a formidable force and defeated the Solomonic armies at Bale, Yedeya and Jazja. Emperor Yeshaq I responded by gathering a large army and invaded the cities of Yedeya and Jazja, but was repulsed by the soldiers of Jamal. Following this success, Jamal organized another successful attack against the Solomonic forces and inflicted heavy casualties in what was reportedly the largest Adalite army ever fielded. As a result, Yeshaq and his men fled to the Blue Nile region over the next five months, while Jamal ad Din's forces pursued them and looted much gold on the way, although no engagement ensued.
After returning home, Jamal sent his brother Ahmad with the Christian battle-expert Harb Jaush to successfully attack the province of Dawaro. Despite his losses, Emperor Yeshaq was still able to continue field armies against Jamal. Sultan Jamal continued to advance further into the Abyssinian heartland. However, Jamal on hearing of Yeshaq's plan to send several large armies to attack three different areas of Adal (including the capital), returned to Adal, where he fought the Solomonic forces at Harjai and, according to al-Maqrizi, this is where the Emperor Yeshaq died in battle. The young Sultan Jamal ad-Din II at the end of his reign had outperformed his brothers and forefathers in the war arena and became the most successful ruler of Adal to date. Within a few years, however, Jamal was assassinated by either disloyal friends or cousins around 1432 or 1433, and was succeeded by his brother Badlay ibn Sa'ad ad-Din. Sultan Badlay continued the campaigns of his younger brother and began several successful expeditions against the Christian empire. He reconquered Bali and began preparations of a major Adalite offensive into the Ethiopian Highlands. He successfully collected funding from surrounding Muslim kingdoms as far away as the Sultanate of Mogadishu. However, this ambitious campaign ended in disaster when Emperor Zara Yaqob defeated Sultan Badlay at the Battle of Gomit in 1445 and pursued the retreating Adalites all the way to the Awash River. After killing Badlay and plundering his treasures, the Zara Yaqob decided not to conquer the Adalites, believing they were outside of the Christian boundary and shouldn't be included in his kingdom.
Following the defeat and death of Badlay ibn Sa'ad ad-Din at the Battle of Gomit, the next Sultan of Adal, Muhammad ibn Badlay, submitted to Emperor Baeda Maryam I and started paying annual tribute to the Ethiopian Empire with which he secure peace. Adal's Emirs, who administered the provinces, interpreted the agreement as a betrayal of their independence and a retreat from the polity's long-standing policy of resistance to Abyssinian incursions. Emir Laday Usman of Harar subsequently marched to Dakkar and seized power in 1471. However, Usman did not dismiss the Sultan from office, but instead gave him a ceremonial position while retaining the real power for himself. Adal now came under the leadership of a powerful Emir who governed from the palace of a nominal Sultan. Usman would route emperor Baeda Maryam's troops in battle. Historian Mohammed Hassen states the sultans of Adal had lost control of the state to Harar's aristocracy.
Emperor Na'od and Sultan Muhammad ibn Azhar ad-Din tried to remain at peace, but their efforts were nullified by the raids which Emir Mahfuz constantly made into Christian territory. Na'od who was determined to eliminate this threat, organized a large army and led it against the Emir, although the Emperor was victorious he was eventually killed in battle against the Adalites. Emperor Dawit II (Lebna Dengel) would soon succeed the throne, Mahfuz having recovered from his defeat renewed raids against the frontier provinces. He was stimulated by emissaries from Arabia who proclaimed the jihad (holy war), presented him with a green standard and brought in arms and trained men from Yemen. In 1516, Emir Mahfuz would then launch an invasion of Fatagar, Lebna Dengel was prepared and organized a successful ambush, the Adalites were defeated and Mahfuz was killed in battle. Lebna Dengel then moved into Adal where he sacked the city of Dakkar. Around the same time a Portuguese fleet surprised Zeila whilst its garrison was away with Mahfuz, the Portuguese then burnt down the port city.
After the victory of Lebna Dengel, the internal weaknesses of the Adal Sultanate soon revealed themselves. The older generation of the Muslims headed by the Walashma, indifferent to religion and ready to come to terms with Abyssinia, were staunchly opposed by the Harari and Harla religious aristocracy led by fanatic warlike emirs. The Sultan Muhammad was assassinated in 1518 and Adal was torn apart by intestinal struggles in which five sultans succeeded each other in two years. But at last, a matured and powerful leader called Garad Abun Adashe assumed power and brought order out of chaos. However, Sultan Abu Bakr ibn Muhammad, who had transferred the capital from Dakkar to Harar in 1520, profiting off the prestige that the hereditary monarchy still held, recruited bands of Somali nomads, ambushed Abun Adashe at Zeila and killed him in 1525. Many people went to join the force of a young rebel named Ahmad ibn Ibrahim, who claimed revenge for Garad Abogn. Ahmad did not immediately attempt conclusions with Sultan Abu Bakr, but retired to Hubat to build up his strength. Ahmad ibn Ibrahim would eventually kill Sultan Abu Bakr in battle, and replaced him with Abu Bakr's younger brother Umar Din as his puppet. Once in complete control, he then could then turn to the task he felt himself was divinely appoint to undertake, the conquest of Abyssinia. Fervor for the jihad had not yet overcome the forces inherent in nomadic life, Ahmad had to undertake several campaigns to restore order in the Somali territory which would constitute his manpower reserve. He then organized a heterogenous mass of tribes into a powerful army, inflamed by the fanatical zeal of jihad.
According to sixteenth century Adal writer Arab Faqīh, in 1529 Imam Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi finally decided to embark on a conquest of Abyssinia, he soon met the Abyssinians at the Battle of Shimbra Kure where he would win a decisive victory. But his nomads where unreliable and difficult to control, to Ahmad's frustration some of his Somali warriors would disperse back to their homelands after acquiring much plunder. At the same time, he faced opposition from his Harari troops who dreaded the potential consequences of the Muslim base relocating to Abyssinia. He then returned to Harar to reconstruct his forces and eliminate the tribal allegiances in his army, two years later he was able to organize a definite and permeant occupation of Abyssinia. From then the story of the conquest is a succession of victories, burnings and massacres. In 1531 Dawaro and Shewa were occupied, Bete Amhara and Lasta in 1533. In 1535 Ahmad, in control of the east and center of Abyssinia invaded Tigray where he encountered fierce resistance and suffered some reserves, but his advance was not stopped, his armies reached the coasts of Medri Bahri where they made contact with Queen Ga'ewa of Mazaga who joined their campaign against the Ethiopian Empire. Emperor Dawit II (Lebna Dengel) became a hunted fugitive, and harried from Tigray to Begemder to Gojjam, constantly pursued by the Adalites. In this period Adal Sultanate occupied a territory stretching from Zeila to Massawa as well as the Abyssinian inlands.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Adal Sultanate”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.