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Description
The Adal Sultanate, or the Adal Empire or the ʿAdal or the Bar Saʿad dīn (alt. spelling Adel Sultanate, Adal Sultanate) (Somali : Saldanadda Cadal) was a medieval Sunni Muslim Empire which was located in the Horn of Africa . It was founded by Sabr ad-Din II on the Harar plateau after the fall of the Sultanate of Ifat . The kingdom flourished circa 1415 to 1577. At its height, the polity under Sultan Badlay controlled the territory stretching from Somaliland to the port city of Suakin in Sudan . The Adal Empire maintained a robust commercial and political relationship with the Ottoman Empire .

Early history:
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), during which the Walashma ruler, Sa'ad ad-Din II , was captured and executed in Zeila, which was sacked. His children and the remainder of the Walashma dynasty would flee to Yemen where they would live in exile until 1415.
Rise of the Sultanate:
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 was forced to withdraw towards the Blue Nile 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 Sultan Badlay was killed during the battle of Gomit .

Badlay ibn Sa'ad ad-Din was succeeded by his son Muhammad ibn Badlay , who in 1468 signed a peace treaty with Baeda Maryam of Ethiopia and agreed to pay tribute to the empire. This was done to achieve peace in the region, though tribute was never sent. 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. Mohammad Hassan states Adal Sultans had lost control of the state to Harar's aristocracy.

Emir Mahfuz , who would fight with successive emperors, caused the death of Emperor Na'od , but he was in turn killed by the forces of Emperor Dawit II (Lebna Dengel) in 1517. After the death of Mahfuz, a civil war started for the office of Highest Emir of Adal. Five Emirs came to power in only two years. But at last, a matured and powerful leader called Garad Abuun Addus (Garad Abogne) assumed power. When Garad Abogne was in power he was defeated and killed by Sultan Abu Bakr ibn Muhammad , and In 1520, under his initiative, Harar became the capital of Adal. This time not only the young Emirs revolted, but the whole country of Adal rose against Sultan Abu Bakr, because Garad Abogne was loved by the people of the sultanate. Many people went to join the force of a young imam called Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi , who claimed revenge for Garad Abogne. Al-Ghazi assumed power in Adal in 1527, however he did not remove the Sultan, but instead left him in his nominal office. Yet, when Abu Bakr waged war on him, Ahmad ibn Ibrahim killed Abu Bakr, and replaced him with Abu Bakr's younger brother Umar Din . They fought under a combination of three banners used by Ahmad al-Ghazi.

In the 16th century, Adal organised an effective army led by Imam Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi that invaded the Abyssinian empire. This campaign is historically known as the Conquest of Abyssinia or Futuh al Habash. During the war, Ahmed pioneered the use of cannons supplied by the Ottoman Empire , which were deployed against Solomonic forces and their Portuguese allies led by Cristóvão da Gama . Some scholars argue that this conflict proved, through their use on both sides, the value of firearms such as the matchlock musket , cannons and the arquebus over traditional weapons.
Abyssinian–Adal conflict:
In the mid-1520s, Imam Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi assumed control of Adal and launched a war against Abyssinia, which was then under the leadership of Dawit II (Lebna Dengel). Supplied by the Ottoman Empire with firearms, Ahmad was able to defeat the Abyssinians at the Battle of Shimbra Kure in 1529 and seize control of the wealthy Ethiopian highlands , though the Abyssinians continued to resist from the highlands. In 1541, the Portuguese , who had vested interests in the Indian Ocean , eventually sent aid to the Abyssinians in the form of 400 musketeers . Adal, in response, received 900 from the Ottomans.

Imam Ahmad was initially successful against the Abyssinians while campaigning in the Autumn of 1542, killing the Portuguese commander Cristóvão da Gama in August that year. However, Portuguese musketry proved decisive in Adal's defeat at the Battle of Wayna Daga , near Lake Tana, in February 1543, where Ahmad was killed in battle. The Abyssinians subsequently retook the Amhara plateau and recouped their losses against Adal. The Ottomans, who had their own troubles to deal with in the Mediterranean , were unable to help Ahmad's successors. When Adal collapsed in 1577, the seat of the Sultanate shifted from Harar to Aussa in the desert region of Afar and a new sultanate began.
Collapse of the sultanate:
After the death of Imam Ahmad, the Adal Sultanate lost most of its territory in Abyssinian lands. In 1552 Nur ibn Mujahid became the Emir of Harar and the de facto ruler of Adal. In 1559 he invaded the Ethiopian Empire and killed Ethiopian Emperor Gelawdewos in the Battle of Fatagar . At the same time another Ethiopian army led by Dejazmatch Hamalmal attacked the capital of Adal, Harar . Sultan Barakat ibn Umar Din attempted to defend the city but was defeated and killed, ending the Walashma dynasty . Not long after this, Barentu Oromos who had been migrating north attacked the Adal Sultanate. This struggle, which was mentioned by Bahrey , led to the devastation of many neighboring regions according to a local chronicle. To protect Harar , the Emir ordered the construction of walls encircling the city, preserving it as a kind of Muslim island in an Oromo sea. However, the city then experienced a severe famine as grain and salt prices rose to unpreceded levels. According to a contemporary source, the hunger became so bad that people began to resort to eating their own children and spouses. Nur himself died in 1567 of the pestilence which spread during the famine.

Nur was succeeded by Uthman al Habeshi , who relaxed his predecessor's pro-Islamic policy and signed an infamous and humiliating peace treaty with the Oromos. The treaty stated that the Oromos can freely enter to the Muslim markets and purchase goods at less than the current market price. This angered many Muslims and led to a rebellion, in which he was overthrown and replaced by Talha Abbas in 1569. Talha would rule for only three years before being overthrown by some of his very fanatic subjects who were intent on another jihad or holy war against the Christians. He was replaced by Uthman's grandson Muhammad who soon carried out an expedition against the Ethiopian Empire in 1573. This campaign would end in total disaster. As soon as the army left the Oromo ravaged the countryside, up to the walls of the city. Emir Muhammad was also defeated and killed by Emperor Sarsa Dengel some where in Bale . Muhammad's successor Emir Mansur fought a fierce war against the Oromos, but was unable to defeat them. Emir Mansur would also launch a campaign against the Afar and Somali nomads, successfully reconquering Aussa and Zeila . He was then succeeded by Mohammed Jasa who in 1577 relocated the capital to the oasis of Aussa , effectively ending the Adal Sultanate. The Imamate of Aussa declined gradually in the next century and was destroyed by the neighboring Afar nomads who made Aussa their capital. Enrico Cerulli 's verdict on this "sad condition" of Adal's decadence was that whereas the Ethiopian Empire under Sarsa Dengel was able to reorganize and withstand the Oromo migrations , the Sultanate of Adal was too newly established to transcend tribal differences. The result he claims was that the nomadic people instinctively return to their "eternal disintegrating struggles" of people against people and tribe against tribe.

Description
The Adal Sultanate, or the Adal Empire or the ʿAdal or the Bar Saʿad dīn (alt. spelling Adel Sultanate, Adal Sultanate) (Somali : Saldanadda Cadal) was a medieval Sunni Muslim Empire which was located in the Horn of Africa . It was founded by Sabr ad-Din II on the Harar plateau after the fall of the Sultanate of Ifat . The kingdom flourished circa 1415 to 1577. At its height, the polity under Sultan Badlay controlled the territory stretching from Somaliland to the port city of Suakin in Sudan . The Adal Empire maintained a robust commercial and political relationship with the Ottoman Empire .

Early history:
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), during which the Walashma ruler, Sa'ad ad-Din II , was captured and executed in Zeila, which was sacked. His children and the remainder of the Walashma dynasty would flee to Yemen where they would live in exile until 1415.
Rise of the Sultanate:
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 was forced to withdraw towards the Blue Nile 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 Sultan Badlay was killed during the battle of Gomit .

Badlay ibn Sa'ad ad-Din was succeeded by his son Muhammad ibn Badlay , who in 1468 signed a peace treaty with Baeda Maryam of Ethiopia and agreed to pay tribute to the empire. This was done to achieve peace in the region, though tribute was never sent. 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. Mohammad Hassan states Adal Sultans had lost control of the state to Harar's aristocracy.

Emir Mahfuz , who would fight with successive emperors, caused the death of Emperor Na'od , but he was in turn killed by the forces of Emperor Dawit II (Lebna Dengel) in 1517. After the death of Mahfuz, a civil war started for the office of Highest Emir of Adal. Five Emirs came to power in only two years. But at last, a matured and powerful leader called Garad Abuun Addus (Garad Abogne) assumed power. When Garad Abogne was in power he was defeated and killed by Sultan Abu Bakr ibn Muhammad , and In 1520, under his initiative, Harar became the capital of Adal. This time not only the young Emirs revolted, but the whole country of Adal rose against Sultan Abu Bakr, because Garad Abogne was loved by the people of the sultanate. Many people went to join the force of a young imam called Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi , who claimed revenge for Garad Abogne. Al-Ghazi assumed power in Adal in 1527, however he did not remove the Sultan, but instead left him in his nominal office. Yet, when Abu Bakr waged war on him, Ahmad ibn Ibrahim killed Abu Bakr, and replaced him with Abu Bakr's younger brother Umar Din . They fought under a combination of three banners used by Ahmad al-Ghazi.

In the 16th century, Adal organised an effective army led by Imam Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi that invaded the Abyssinian empire. This campaign is historically known as the Conquest of Abyssinia or Futuh al Habash. During the war, Ahmed pioneered the use of cannons supplied by the Ottoman Empire , which were deployed against Solomonic forces and their Portuguese allies led by Cristóvão da Gama . Some scholars argue that this conflict proved, through their use on both sides, the value of firearms such as the matchlock musket , cannons and the arquebus over traditional weapons.
Abyssinian–Adal conflict:
In the mid-1520s, Imam Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi assumed control of Adal and launched a war against Abyssinia, which was then under the leadership of Dawit II (Lebna Dengel). Supplied by the Ottoman Empire with firearms, Ahmad was able to defeat the Abyssinians at the Battle of Shimbra Kure in 1529 and seize control of the wealthy Ethiopian highlands , though the Abyssinians continued to resist from the highlands. In 1541, the Portuguese , who had vested interests in the Indian Ocean , eventually sent aid to the Abyssinians in the form of 400 musketeers . Adal, in response, received 900 from the Ottomans.

Imam Ahmad was initially successful against the Abyssinians while campaigning in the Autumn of 1542, killing the Portuguese commander Cristóvão da Gama in August that year. However, Portuguese musketry proved decisive in Adal's defeat at the Battle of Wayna Daga , near Lake Tana, in February 1543, where Ahmad was killed in battle. The Abyssinians subsequently retook the Amhara plateau and recouped their losses against Adal. The Ottomans, who had their own troubles to deal with in the Mediterranean , were unable to help Ahmad's successors. When Adal collapsed in 1577, the seat of the Sultanate shifted from Harar to Aussa in the desert region of Afar and a new sultanate began.
Collapse of the sultanate:
After the death of Imam Ahmad, the Adal Sultanate lost most of its territory in Abyssinian lands. In 1552 Nur ibn Mujahid became the Emir of Harar and the de facto ruler of Adal. In 1559 he invaded the Ethiopian Empire and killed Ethiopian Emperor Gelawdewos in the Battle of Fatagar . At the same time another Ethiopian army led by Dejazmatch Hamalmal attacked the capital of Adal, Harar . Sultan Barakat ibn Umar Din attempted to defend the city but was defeated and killed, ending the Walashma dynasty . Not long after this, Barentu Oromos who had been migrating north attacked the Adal Sultanate. This struggle, which was mentioned by Bahrey , led to the devastation of many neighboring regions according to a local chronicle. To protect Harar , the Emir ordered the construction of walls encircling the city, preserving it as a kind of Muslim island in an Oromo sea. However, the city then experienced a severe famine as grain and salt prices rose to unpreceded levels. According to a contemporary source, the hunger became so bad that people began to resort to eating their own children and spouses. Nur himself died in 1567 of the pestilence which spread during the famine.

Nur was succeeded by Uthman al Habeshi , who relaxed his predecessor's pro-Islamic policy and signed an infamous and humiliating peace treaty with the Oromos. The treaty stated that the Oromos can freely enter to the Muslim markets and purchase goods at less than the current market price. This angered many Muslims and led to a rebellion, in which he was overthrown and replaced by Talha Abbas in 1569. Talha would rule for only three years before being overthrown by some of his very fanatic subjects who were intent on another jihad or holy war against the Christians. He was replaced by Uthman's grandson Muhammad who soon carried out an expedition against the Ethiopian Empire in 1573. This campaign would end in total disaster. As soon as the army left the Oromo ravaged the countryside, up to the walls of the city. Emir Muhammad was also defeated and killed by Emperor Sarsa Dengel some where in Bale . Muhammad's successor Emir Mansur fought a fierce war against the Oromos, but was unable to defeat them. Emir Mansur would also launch a campaign against the Afar and Somali nomads, successfully reconquering Aussa and Zeila . He was then succeeded by Mohammed Jasa who in 1577 relocated the capital to the oasis of Aussa , effectively ending the Adal Sultanate. The Imamate of Aussa declined gradually in the next century and was destroyed by the neighboring Afar nomads who made Aussa their capital. Enrico Cerulli 's verdict on this "sad condition" of Adal's decadence was that whereas the Ethiopian Empire under Sarsa Dengel was able to reorganize and withstand the Oromo migrations , the Sultanate of Adal was too newly established to transcend tribal differences. The result he claims was that the nomadic people instinctively return to their "eternal disintegrating struggles" of people against people and tribe against tribe.