Adal Sultanate

Name

The origins of the name Adal are obscure. But al-'Umari mentions it with Shoa and Zeila as being an integral part of the Muslim confederation led by Ifat.

In the thirteenth century, Arab writer, Al Dimashqi, refers to the Adal Sultanate's capital, Zeila, by its Somali name "Awdal" (Somali: "Awdal").

The modern Awdal region, which was part of the Adal Sultanate, bears the kingdom's name.

Establishment

According to Leo Africanus, the Adal Sultanate's realm encompassed the geographical area between the Bab el Mandeb and Cape Guardafui. It was thus flanked to the south by the Mogadishu Sultanate and to the west by the Abyssinian Empire.

Islam was introduced to the Horn region early on from the Arabian peninsula, shortly after the hijra. Zeila's two-mihrab Masjid al-Qiblatayn dates to about the 7th century, and is the oldest mosque in the city. In the late 9th century, Al-Yaqubi wrote that Muslims were living along the northern Somali seaboard. He also mentioned that the Adal kingdom had its capital in the city. The polity was governed by local dynasties established by the Adelites. Adal's history from this founding period forth would be characterized by a succession of battles with neighbouring Abyssinia.

Adal is mentioned by name for the first time in the 14th century, in the context of the battles between the Muslims of the northern Somali and Afar seaboard and the Abyssinian King Amda Seyon I's Christian troops. Adal originally had its capital in the port city of Zeila, situated in the northwestern Awdal region. The polity at the time was an Emirate in the larger Ifat Sultanate ruled by the Walashma dynasty.

Rise and fall

In 1332, the King of Adal was slain in a military campaign aimed at halting Amda Seyon's march toward Zeila. When the last Sultan of Ifat, Sa'ad ad-Din II, was also killed by Dawit I of Ethiopia at the port city of Zeila in 1410, his children escaped to Yemen, before later returning in 1415. In the early 15th century, Adal's capital was moved further inland to the town of Dakkar, where Sabr ad-Din II, the eldest son of Sa'ad ad-Din II, established a new Adal administration after his return from Yemen. During this period, Adal emerged as a center of Muslim resistance against the expanding Christian Abyssinian kingdom.

After 1468, a new breed of rulers emerged on the Adal political scene. The dissidents opposed Walashma rule owing to a treaty that Sultan Muhammad ibn Badlay had signed with Emperor Baeda Maryam of Ethiopia, wherein Badlay agreed to submit yearly tribute. 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 longstanding policy of resistance to Abyssinian incursions. The main leader of this opposition was the Emir of Zeila, the Sultanate's richest province. As such, he was expected to pay the highest share of the annual tribute to be given to the Abyssinian Emperor. Emir Laday Usman 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.

Adalite armies under the leadership of rulers such as Sabr ad-Din II, Mansur ad-Din, Jamal ad-Din II, Shams ad-Din and general Mahfuz subsequently continued the struggle against Abyssinian expansionism.

Emir Mahfuz, who would fight with successive emperors, caused the death of Emperor Na'od in 1508, 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 1554, 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 his brother Umar Din.

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. After the death of Imam Ahmad, the Adal Sultanate lost most of its territory in Abyssnian lands. In 1550 Nur ibn Mujahid assumed power after he killed Abyssinian emperor Gelawdewos. Due to constant Oromo raids both Adal and Abyssinian rulers struggled to consolidate power outside of their realms. During the rule of Muhammed Jasa in 1577 he transferred the capital from Harar to Aussa. The Adal Sultanate subsequently ended due to infighting with Afar tribes.

Ethnicity

The Walashma dynasty of the Ifat and Adal sultanates all possessed Arab genealogical traditions.

During Adal's initial period, when it was centered in city of Zeila in the present-day northwestern Adwdal region, the kingdom was primarily composed of Somalis, Afars, Hararis and Arabs.

Edwald Wagner connects the name 'Adal' with the Danakili (Afar) tribe Ada'ila and the Somali name for the clan Oda 'Ali, proposing that the kingdom may have largely been composed of Afars.

Here the Portuguese infantries had their first glimpse of Ahmad and document their observations, as recorded by Castanhoso:

While his camp was being pitched, the king of Zeila Imam Ahmad ascended a hill with several horse and some foot to examine us: he halted on the top with three hundred horse and three large banners, two white with red moons, and one red with a white moon, which always accompanied him, and [by] which he was recognized.

Among the earliest mentions of the Somali by name had come through a victory poem written by emperor Yeshaq I of Abyssinia against the king of Adal, as the simmur are said to have submitted and paid tribute. "Dr Enrico Cerulli has shown that Simur was an old Harari name for the Somali, who are still known by them as Tumur.* Hence, it is most probable that the mention of the Somali and the Simur in relation to Yishaq refers to the king's military campaigns against Adal, where the Somali seem to have constituted a major section of the population."

On his background:

Of the early history of the Imam Ahmad but little is known. He was the son of one Ibrahim el Ghazi, and both he and his father were common soldiers in the troop of Garad Aboun. Nothing even is said as to his nationality. He was certainly not an Arab : probably he was a Somali, for we find him closely connected with many who were Somalis.

According to Leo Africanus (1526) and George Sale (1760), the Adelites were of a tawny brown or olive complexion on the northern littoral, and grew swarthier towards the southern interior. They generally had long, lank hair. Most wore a cotton sarong but no headpiece or sandals, with lots of glass and amber trinkets around their necks, wrists, arms and ankles. The king and other aristocrats often donned instead a body-length garment topped with a headdress. All were Muslims. In the south hinterland, the Adelites lived beside pagan Negroid peoples, with whom they bartered various commodities.

Languages

Various languages from the Afro-Asiatic family were spoken in the vast Adal Sultanate. Arabic served as a lingua franca, and was used by the ruling Walashma dynasty.

In the predominately Somali capital of the Adal Sultanate, Zeila, and local Somali territories, the Arabic and Somali languages were most commonly present.

Accounts of the previous Ifat Sultanate, given its expansive region, also note an Abyssinian-speaking presence which J. D. Fage suggests is Ethio-Semitic.

Economy

During its existence, Adal had relations and engaged in trade with other polities in Northeast Africa, the Near East, Europe and South Asia. Many of the historic cities in the Horn of Africa such as Abasa and Berbera flourished under its reign with courtyard houses, mosques, shrines, walled enclosures and cisterns. Adal attained its peak in the 14th century, trading in slaves, ivory and other commodities with Abyssinia and kingdoms in Arabia through its chief port of Zeila. The cities of the empire imported intricately colored glass bracelets and Chinese celadon for palace and home decoration.

Military

The Adalite military was divided in several sections such as the infantry consisting of swordsmen, archers and lancers that were commanded by various generals and lieutenants. These forces were complimented by a cavalry force and eventually later in the empire's history; by matchlock-technology and cannons during the Conquest of Abyssinia. The various divisions were symbolised with a distinct flag.

The Adal soldiers donned elaborate helmets and steel-armour made up of chain-mail with overlapping tiers. The Horsemen of Adal wore protective helmets that covered the entire face except for the eyes, and breastplates on their body, while they harnessed their horses in a similar fashion. In siege warfare, ladders were employed to scale buildings and other high positions such as hills and mountains.

M. Lewis writes:

Somali forces contributed much to the Imām’s victories. Shihab ad-Din, the Muslim chronicler of the period, writing between 1540 and 1560, mentions them frequently (Futūḥ al-Ḥabasha, ed. And trs. R. Besset Paris, 1897.). The most prominent Somali groups in the campaigns were the Samaroon or Gadabursi (Dir) clans is very vague as to their distribution and grazing areas and Of the Isāq only the Habar Magādle clan (Aidagale, Arab &a Habar Yonis seem to have been involved and their distribution is not recorded. Finally several Dir clans also took part.

Ethnic Somalis being the majority of the army is further evidenced in the Oxford History of Islam:

The sultanate of Adal, which emerged as the major Muslim principality from 1420 to 1560, seems to have recruited its military force mainly from among the Somalis.

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, 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.

Oromo expansion

After the conflict between Adal and Abyssinia had subsided, the conquest of the highland regions of Abyssinia and Adal by the Oromo (namely, through military expansion and the installation of the Gadaa socio-political system) ended in the contraction of both powers and changed regional dynamics for centuries to come. In essence, what had happened is that the populations of the highlands had not ceased to exist as a result of the Gadaa expansion, but were simply incorporated into a different socio-political system.

Legacy

The Adal Sultanate left behind many structures and artefacts from its heyday. Numerous such historical edifices and items are found in the northwestern Awdal province of Somaliland, as well as other parts of the Horn region where the polity held sway.

Archaeological excavations in the late 19th century and early 20th century at over fourteen sites in the vicinity of Borama in modern-day northwestern Somaliland unearthed, among other artefacts, silver coins identified as having been derived from Qaitbay (1468–89), the eighteenth Burji Mamluk Sultan of Egypt. Most of these finds are associated with the medieval Adal Sultanate. They were sent to the British Museum for preservation shortly after their discovery.

In 1950, the British Somaliland protectorate government commissioned an archaeological survey in twelve desert towns in present-day Somaliland, near the border with Ethiopia. According to the expedition team, the sites yielded the most salient evidence of late medieval period affluence. They contained ruins of what were evidently once large cities belonging to the Adal Sultanate. Three of the towns in particular, Abara, Gargesa and Amud, featured between 200 and 300 stone houses. The walls of certain sites still reportedly stood 18 meters high. Excavations in the area yielded 26 silver coins, unlike the copper pieces that were more common in polities below the Horn region. The earliest of these recovered coins had been minted by Sultan Barquq (1382–99), also of the Egyptian Burji dynasty, and the latest were again Sultan Qaitbay issues. All of the pieces had been struck in either Cairo or Damascus. A few gold coins were also discovered during the expedition, making the area the only place in the wider region to yield such pieces. Besides coinage, high quality porcelain was recovered from the Adal sites. The fine celadon ware was found either lying on the surface, or buried at a depth of seven and a half inches, or ensconced within dense middens four to five feet high. Among the artefacts were grey granular sherds with a crackled blue-green or sea-green glaze, and white crystalline fragments with an uncrackled green-white glaze. Some Ming dynasty ware was also discovered, including many early Ming blue-and-white bowl sherds. They were adorned with tendril scrolls on a bluish ground and ornamented with black spotting, while other bowls had floral patterns outlined by grey or black-blue designs. Additionally, a few Ming red-and-white sherds were found, as well as white porcelain fragments with bluish highlights. The Adal sites appeared to reach an Indian Ocean terminus at the Sa'ad ad-Din Islands, named for Sultan Sa'ad ad-Din II of the Ifat Sultanate.

Additionally, local tradition identifies the archaeological site of Tiya in central Ethiopia as Yegragn Dingay ("Gran's stone") in reference to Imam Al-Ghazi. According to Joussaume (1995), who led archaeological work there, the site is relatively recent. It has been dated to between the 11th and 13th centuries CE. Tiya contains a number of megalithic pillars, including anthropomorphic and non-anthropomorphic/non-phallic stelae. Flat in form, these structures are characterized by distinctive, elaborate decorations, among which are swords, a standing human figure with arms akimbo, and plant-like symbols.