Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi
Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi أحمد بن إبراهيم الغازي | |
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Imam | |
Leader of Adal | |
Reign | c. 1527 – 21 February 1543 |
Predecessor | Abu Bakr ibn Muhammad |
Successor | Nur ibn Mujahid |
Born | c. 1506 Hubat, Adal Sultanate |
Died | 21 February 1543 Wayna Daga, Ethiopian Empire | (aged 36–37)
Burial | |
Spouse |
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Issue |
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Religion | Sunni Islam |
Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi (
: 79Dubbed "The African Attila" by Orientalist Frederick A. Edwards,[5]: 324 Imam Ahmed‘s conquests reached all the way to the borders of the Sultanate of Funj.[6][7] Imam Ahmed won nearly all his battles against the Ethiopians before 1541 and after his victory at Battle of Amba Sel, the Ethiopian Emperor, Dawit II was never again in a position to offer a pitched battle to his army[5]: 341 [8]: 329 and was subsequently forced to live as an outlaw constantly hounded by Imam Ahmed's soldiers, the Malassay.[9]
Early years
Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi was born in 1506
Upon hearing that a rebel named Ahmad ibn Ibrahim was in a power struggle with the Adal leaders, the Emperor of Ethiopia Dawit II sent his general Degelhan to confront him. The Abyssinian campaign originally seemed successful as large amounts of women and children of Adal were captured by Degelhan including the mother of Ahmad's commander Abu Bakr Qatin. Meanwhile, Emir Ahmad had laid a trap in Hubat: splitting his unit into three, he waited for the Abyssinians to enter the region after sacking Harar and ambushed them in the Battle of Hubat. The remaining Abyssinian army who were not killed fled in panic, thus Ahmed's troops won decisively and were able to recover stolen booty. Ahmad's victory not only strengthened his fighting capacity, but also spread his fame far and wide. The Sultan hearing about this gathered a large force of his Somali followers and besieged his capital at Siege of Hubat. Ahmad was unprepared and in a mountain encampment on Gara Muleta. The sultan besieged Ahmad and his small force for ten days, when he hoped to starve them. However, at this critical moment, the sheikhs of Harar intervened and reconciled the two leaders. Ahmad was forced to recognize the authority of the Adalite state for the first time in his career.[8]: 327–328 [20]
This peace was immediately broken by Abu Bakr, who tried to assassinate Ahmad while he was in
Invasion of Abyssinia
The chronicle of Imam Ahmad's invasion of Abyssinia is depicted in various Arabic, Abyssinian and other foreign sources. In 1529 Imam Ahmad finally decided to embark on a conquest of Abyssinia, he soon met the Abyssinians at the
However, the Imam wasn’t able to take advantage of this victory immediately due to tribal infighting within his army. He was forced to return to
- The Imam asked all the Arabs who were with him, "Is there the like of this church, with its images and its gold, in Byzantium, or in India, or in any other place?" They replied, "We never saw or heard of its like in Byzantium or India or anywhere in the world."[25]: 12
Nevertheless, he ordered all of the churches built by the Abyssinians to be destroyed, including Mekane Selassie, Atronsa Maryam, Debre Nagwadgwad and Ganata Giyorgis. He soon campaigned against the people of
The Imam was passionately interested in converting newly occupied territories as his men were made up of religious zealots. But many of the conversions were forced. While in the
- Praised be God who has conquered the whole of the land of Abyssinia. Now let us send to the land of Sa'd ad-Din, to bring up our wives and our children. Let us make our homes in Abyssinia. It is no longer possible for us to go back down to our country, or to leave this one.
They would then make plans to invade
: 240The King of Portugal would eventually send ships with 400 Portuguese musketeers, but when they arrived in 1541, Dawit II was dead and his son Gelawdewos had succeeded him.[25]: 260 The Portuguese led by
: lix f.The Imam successfully petitioned to the Turkish governor of Yemen Eyalet in Zabid, offering "much money" and submission to the official, he received an additional 2,000 musketeers from Arabia, and artillery and 900 picked men from the Ottomans to assist him. Meanwhile, due to casualties and other duties, da Gama's force was reduced to 300 musketeers. After the rains ended, Imam Ahmad attacked the Portuguese camp at Wolfa and through weight of numbers killed all but 140 of da Gama's troops. Da Gama himself, badly wounded, was captured with ten of his men and, after refusing an offer to spare his life if he would convert to Islam, was tortured and executed.[1]: 161
The Imam was certain that the surviving Portuguese were scattered, without their firearms, and alone in a foreign land, he concluded that this threat was ended, dismissed all but two hundred of the foreign musketeers, and proceeded to his camp at
The Abyssinians and Portuguese met Ahmad on 21 February 1543 in the Battle of Wayna Daga. The Imam had an army of over 15,000 soldiers including 200 Turkish musketeers, where as the Abyssinians and Portuguese had a combined force of around 8,000 men. The Abyssinians charged but the Adalites counterattacked and seemed to be pushing back the initial assault. The Abyssinian cavalry then threw themselves vigorously into the Adal lines which pushed the Adalites back. The Imam seeing his men lose ground moved up to encourage them, it was here that the Imam was killed while attempting to rally his men, although the sources differ in how he died.[1]: 80 Upon seeing the death of the Imam, his followers had begun to flee from the battlefield. What followed was a devastating rout as the Abyssinians pursued the fleeing Adalites and cut them down as they ran.[1]: 192 [22]: 89
The Imam's wife Bati del Wambara managed to escape the battlefield with the remnants of the army and retreated back to Harar, abandoning the occupation of Abyssinia. The corpse of the Imam was beheaded and Gelawdewos ordered his head to be set on a spear, and carried around in all of Abyssinia, so that the people know that the conqueror who had wrought them such evils was indeed dead. The Abyssinians then set up great festivals across the country celebrating the death of the Imam, as Castanhoso narrates "We remained in great pleasure, seeing each day the Abyssinians delighting in that victory, and in the liberty in which they found themselves."[1]: 82
Character
Muslim sources paint the Imam as an ascetic and a model
Soon after assuming power in 1527 he forbade wine, gambling, and dances accompanied by drums. He also was known to patronize
Legacy
Imam Ahmad’s invasion was arguably the single most important chapter in Ethiopia's long history. The destruction of cultural assets and national pride was immense. Imam Ahmad’s invasion left an indelible mark on the Ethiopian psyche. As
Historian Didier Morin states Ahmed Ibrahim who holds the title imam is often incorrectly identified with commander Ahmed Girri Bin Hussein Al Somali.[35]
Further reading
- The ISBN 978-0-9723172-5-2).
- Jeffrey, Shaw (2021). The Ethiopian-Adal War, 1529-1543: The Conquest of Abyssinia. Warwick: Helion and Company. ISBN 978-1914059681.
- Whiteway, Richard Stephen, ed. (1902). The Portuguese Expedition to Abyssinia in 1541-1543, as Narrated by Castanhoso, with Some Contemporary Letters, the Short Account of Bermudez, and Certain Extracts from Correa. Works issued by the Hakluyt Society, 2nd series. Vol. 10. Translated by Whiteway. London: ISSN 0072-9396. (collection of primary sources on the Portuguese expedition in English translation; also on Wikimedia Commons)
See also
- Imam Ahmed Stadium
- Adal Sultanate
- History of Medieval Somalia
- History of Ethiopia
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o
Whiteway, Richard Stephen, ed. (1902). The Portuguese Expedition to Abyssinia in 1541-1543, as Narrated by Castanhoso, with Some Contemporary Letters, the Short Account of Bermudez, and Certain Extracts from Correa. Works issued by the Hakluyt Society, 2nd series. Vol. 10. Translated by Whiteway. London: ISSN 0072-9396.
- ISBN 9781576075166.
- ISBN 9780313322730. Archivedfrom the original on 2023-04-08. Retrieved 2019-02-11.
- ISBN 9780852296639. Archivedfrom the original on 2023-04-08. Retrieved 2019-02-11.
- ^ a b c Edwards, Frederick A. (January–April 1905). "The Conquest of Abyssinia". The Imperial and Asiatic Quarterly Review and Oriental and Colonial Record. 3rd series. 19 (37 & 38). Woking: The Oriental Institute: 320–360.
- ^ Burton, Richard. First Footsteps in East Africa. p. 179.
- ISBN 9780706980042.
- ^ a b c Budge, E. A. Wallis (1928). A History of Ethiopia Nubia & Abyssinia. Vol. 1. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd.
- ^ from the original on 2022-09-27. Retrieved 2023-04-05.
- ^ ʻěnbāqom (1969). Anqaṣa Amin: la porte de la foi. Apologie éthiopienne du christianisme contre l'Islam à partir du Coran. Introduction, texte critique et traduction par E.J. Van Donzel... (in French). Brill Archive. p. 9.
- from the original on 2021-02-14. Retrieved 2020-12-27.
Imam Ahmed, born in 1506 at Hubat (specifically at Za‟ka, 32 km northeast of Harar town), was the leader of the militant Muslim Sultanate of Adal which embarked on a conquest of the Christian highland kingdom between 1529 and 1543.
- ^
Gildessa and Harar) ...
- ^
- Richard Stephen Whiteway (1902). The Portuguese Expedition to Abyssinia in 1541–1543 as Narrated by Castanhoso. Hakluyt Society. p. xxxiii.
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 the Garâd 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. - Kropp, Manfred Hassen (1990). "MÄLÄSAY: SELBSTBEZEICHNUNG EINES HARARINER OFFIZIERSKORPS UND IHR GEBRAUCH IN ÄTHIOPISCHEN UND ARABISCHEN CHRONIKEN". Afrika-Studien II (in German). 2 (2): 105–113. JSTOR 40732663. Archived from the original on 2022-03-09. Retrieved 2020-12-27.(Somali clan) in the Ogaden.
The leading historian of Ethiopia, under Haile Selassie, Takla Sadiq Mekuria, devoted a 950-page book to the question of origin of Gragn and in his rough monograph on the Gragn Wars (1961) called "Ya Gragn Warara" (The Conquests of Gragn), in it he draws on the evidence from Arab Faqih Sihab Uddin and the chronicles of Sarsa-Dengel. Through the mediation of Dagazmac Wargnah he interviewed Ahmed Ali Shami, the highest authoritative scholar of Harar that produced the concise manuscript history of Harar for several European institutions and concludes Gragn's father was to come from the Hawiye
- Mordechai Abir (1980). Ethiopia and the Red Sea: The Rise and Decline of the Solomonic Dynasty and Muslim European Rivalry in the Region. Taylor & Francis. p. 105. ISBN 9781136280979.
Probably of Somali origin, Ahmad ibn Ibrahim, popularly called Gran — the left handed — served as a soldier in Garad Abun's army and married Imam Mahfuz's daughter
- George Wynn Brereton Huntingford (1954). Some Records of Ethiopia, 1593-1646: Being Extracts from the History of High Ethiopia Or Abassia. Hakluyt Society. p. 105.
According to George Wynn Brereton Huntingford, Ahmad ibn Ibrahim was originally a Somali warrior in the service of the ruler of Zeila (Mahfuz)
- Richard Stephen Whiteway (1902). The Portuguese Expedition to Abyssinia in 1541–1543 as Narrated by Castanhoso. Hakluyt Society. p. xxxiii.
- ^
- Aregay, Merid Wolde. (1971). Southern Ethiopia and the Christian kingdom 1508 - 1708, with special reference to the Galla migrations and their consequences (Ph.D). University of London. p. 133. Archived from the original on 2021-04-21. Retrieved 2021-04-21. Harladynasty of rulers through his father.
- Hassen, Mohammed. "Review work Futuh al habasa". International Journal of Ethiopian Studies: 179–180. Ibrahim, a provincial governor of Sim in Harla realm.
- Gikes, Patrick (2003). "National Identity and Historical Mythology in Eritrea and Somaliland". Northeast African Studies. 10 (3). Michigan State University Press: 174. , but Somalis from a number of clans, particularly the Gorgora, a clan that probably originated around Zelia, certainly fought in his armies. Ahmed himself probably had no direct links with Somalis other than recruiting them.
- Wagner, Ewald (1991). "The Genealogy of the later Walashma' Sultans of Adal and Harar". Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft. 141 (2). Harrassowitz Verlag: 377. ethnic group.
- Kluijver, Robert (2021). A political history of Somalia (Ph.D). Paris Institute of Political Studies. p. 39.
Ahmed Gurey (or Gragn as he is called by the Ethiopians, or Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al Ghazi as the Arabs have called him) was probably the son of a local Harari chieftain who rose in the local military.
- Shahin, Emad (2014). The Oxford Encyclopedia of Islam and Politics. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-973935-6.
the local Harari amīr, Aḥmad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Ghāzī, nicknamed Gragn (in Amharic graññ, left-handed), unified the various Islamic peoples and conquered Ethiopia,
- Aregay, Merid Wolde. (1971). Southern Ethiopia and the Christian kingdom 1508 - 1708, with special reference to the Galla migrations and their consequences (Ph.D). University of London. p. 133. Archived from the original on 2021-04-21. Retrieved 2021-04-21.
- from the original on 2021-02-14. Retrieved 2020-12-27.
However, based on available meager documents, it has been tried to show that Imam Ahmad was an ethnic Balaw on his father's side and an Afar on his mother's side. The former is arguably based on the evidence weighed Gragn's paternal ancestry to be more convincing. As far as the later is concerned, attempts have been made to present a number of arguments are adequate to conclude that Imam was maternally of Afar origin. But the evidences that discuss his Afar connection, no concrete linkage is established with his with his paternal side while the Balaw tradition could at least off paternal relation. If then, Imam Ahmad was a Balaw in his paternal side and we accept an Afar connection due to his maternal ancestry. Imam Ahmad was a Balaw because genealogy is counted based on the paternal clan identity in most societies found in the Horn of Africa.
- ISBN 9780810874572.
- ^ a b c d e
Richard Pankhurst (1997). The Ethiopian Borderlands: In Regional History from Ancient Times to the End of the 18th Century Essay. Red Sea Press. ISBN 9780932415196. Archivedfrom the original on 2023-04-08. Retrieved 2019-02-11.
- from the original on 2021-05-08. Retrieved 2021-05-08.
- ^ Adashe. 1905. Archived from the original on 2023-04-08. Retrieved 2021-05-08.
- ^ Hassan, Mohammed. Oromo of Ethiopia (PDF). University of London. p. 30. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2020-02-13. Retrieved 2023-04-05.
- ^ Cambridge illustrated atlas, Warfare: Renaissance to Revolution, 1492–1792, by Jeremy Black pg 9
- ^ a b c d e Trimingham, J. Spencer (1952). Islam in Ethiopia (PDF). London, New York, Toronto: Oxford University Press.
- ISBN 9780521209816.
- ^ a b Pankhurst, The Ethiopians, p. 88
- ^ a b c d e f g
Shihāb al-Dīn Aḥmad ibn ʻAbd al-Qādir, also known as ʻArab Faqīh (2003). Futūḥ Al-Ḥabaša: The Conquest of Abyssinia [16th Century]. Translated by Stenhouse, Paul Lester. Annotations by Richard Pankhurst. Hollywood, California, USA: Tsehai Publishers & Distributors. OCLC 57236304.
- Pankhurst, Richard R. K.1961. An Introduction to the Economic History of Ethiopia. London: Lalibela House.
- ^ Futuh, pp. 381–384.
- ^ Jeremy Black, Cambridge illustrated atlas, warfare: Renaissance to revolution, 1492–1792, (Cambridge University Press: 1996), p.9.
- ^ Sic. Early visitors to Ethiopia commonly identified the Emperor with the legendary Prester John
- ^ Insoll, Timothy. The Mosques of Harar: An Archaeological and Historical Study (PDF). University of Exeter. p. 6.
- ^ ISBN 9781850653936.
- ^ Rochet d'Héricourt, Charles-Xavier (1841). Journey to the eastern coast of the Red Sea, to the land of Adel and the kingdom of Choa. p. 209.
- ^ Solomon Gebreyes Beyene, The Chronicle of King Gälawdewos (1540-1559): A Critical Edition with Annotated Translation, p. 185, Chap. 4, https://d-nb.info/1116605163/34
- ^ Cerulli, Enrico. Islam: Yesterday and Today translated by Emran Waber. Istituto Per L'Oriente. p. 218.
- ISBN 9782845864924.