Imam Ahmad ibn Ibrahim (Axmed Gurey) and the Adal campaigns, 1527–1543

In short

In the 1500s the Muslim state of Adal, with its capital at Harar, fought a long war against the Christian kingdom of Ethiopia. Its leader was Imam Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi, known in Somali as Axmed Gurey and in Amharic as Gran, both meaning "the left-handed".

Two kinds of primary source tell the story. One is an Arabic chronicle written by a man in the Imam's army, the Futuh al-Habasha ("The Conquest of Abyssinia"). The other is the Portuguese record of the soldiers sent to fight him. Both survive in full, in French and English translations (Basset, Histoire de la conquête de l'Abyssinie, 1897; Whiteway, The Portuguese Expedition to Abyssinia in 1541–1543, Hakluyt Society, 1902).

Who was he?

Little is known of his early life. The Portuguese scholar R. S. Whiteway, who edited the records in 1902, writes that he was the son of Ibrahim al-Ghazi, and that father and son were ordinary soldiers in the troop of Garad Aboun (Whiteway 1902, p. xxxiii).

He rose fast. When his campaigns into Ethiopia began in 1528, he was only about twenty-one (same source). He took the religious title of imam rather than the royal title of sultan (Basset 1897, introduction).

He married Bati Del Wanbara, daughter of Mahfuz, the emir of Harar. She rode with him on campaign. Whiteway notes that even the Ethiopian chronicles, though hostile to her husband, "loudly praise her humanity" (Whiteway 1902, p. xxxiv).

The Somali role

The Futuh al-Habasha names Somali communities and their leaders as they arrived at Harar to join the Imam (Basset 1897, pp. 72–73):

• The first to arrive were the Habr Magadi, as the chronicle spells them, led by Ahmed Gurey ibn Husayn "the Somali", a second commander also called Gurey.
• Then came the Geri, led by Matan ibn Uthman ibn Khalid "the Somali", who had married the Imam's sister.
• The chronicle also names the Marehan, who sent ninety horsemen and over seven hundred foot soldiers, and other communities of the region.

The chronicle describes how the Imam received each group with gifts of clothing and food. It says he sold his wives' jewellery and his household goods to buy arms for the army, keeping nothing for himself (Basset 1897, p. 73).

Whiteway concludes that the Imam was "probably" Somali himself, since he was closely tied to many Somalis, though the chronicle never states his origin (Whiteway 1902, p. xxxiii).

How was the war fought?

The dates below come from Whiteway's summary of the Ethiopian, Arabic and Portuguese sources (Whiteway 1902, pp. xxxv–xxxvi).

• Firearms. Firearms reached Arabia in 1515, and Muslim merchants brought them to Zeila. Ethiopia did not yet have them. Adal's army included matchlock men, mostly Turks from Zabid in Yemen (same source, pp. xxxii–xxxiii).
• March 1529, Shimbra Kure. The first great battle. The chronicle gives Ethiopia's army as 16,000 horse and over 200,000 foot, against 560 horse and 12,000 foot for Adal. Both sides agree Adal was far smaller, and Adal won.
• 17 July 1530. Debre Libanos, the most sacred monastery in Ethiopia, was burned.
• 28 October 1531, Amba Sel. Emperor Lebna Dengel was defeated and nearly captured. He never again offered a pitched battle.
• 1539, Amba Geshen. Adal stormed the royal mountain fortress where the royal family was held.
• 2 September 1540. Lebna Dengel died at Debre Damo as a fugitive, with almost all his land in Adal's hands.

Portugal joins the war, 1541–1543

Ethiopia asked Portugal for help. In 1541 about 400 Portuguese musketeers landed at Massawa under Christovão da Gama, son of Vasco da Gama (Whiteway 1902). The Imam asked the Ottoman pasha at Zabid for reinforcements.

The Portuguese won battles in February and April 1542. In August 1542 the Imam defeated them, and Christovão da Gama was captured and killed (same source, introduction).

On 21 February 1543, at Wayna Daga near Lake Tana, the surviving Portuguese and the army of the new Ethiopian emperor, Galawdewos, met the Imam's army. The Imam was killed in the battle (Whiteway 1902, pp. xxxiv, lxix–lxx). His son Muhammad, born in 1531, was captured, and later exchanged for an Ethiopian prince held by Adal.

After the Imam

Del Wanbara agreed to marry the Imam's successor, Nur ibn Mujahid, on condition that he avenge her husband. Nur killed Emperor Galawdewos in battle in 1559 (Whiteway 1902, p. xxxv).

Whiteway writes that the long war opened the way for Oromo migration into the highlands from about 1537, which changed the map of the region for good (same source, p. xxiv). Adal itself declined in the decades after 1543 (Britannica).

Who suffered?

Both sides record great losses. The chronicle puts Adal's own dead at Shimbra Kure at 5,000. It says that on the Ethiopian side more than 10,000 leading men were killed in that one battle (Whiteway 1902, p. xxxvi). Churches and monasteries were burned and looted across Ethiopia, and many people were killed or taken captive.

Sources differ

• His origin. The chronicle does not give it. Whiteway thought him probably Somali, but wrote that the evidence "does not appear decisive" (Whiteway 1902, p. xxxiii).
• The date of Shimbra Kure. Ethiopian accounts give 7 or 9 March 1529; the Muslim chronicle says only "early March" (same source, p. xxxv).
• The name of the Portuguese commander. Older accounts sometimes call him Pedro da Gama. The Portuguese records name him Christovão (Christopher) da Gama (Whiteway 1902).

How he is remembered

For many Somalis, Imam Axmed Gurey is a hero of the faith and of Somali arms. In Ethiopia he is remembered as the leader of a devastating invasion. Whiteway noted in 1902 that Christian traditions about him were many, while Muslim memory of him had faded (Whiteway 1902, p. xxxv). Both memories are part of the history of the Horn.

What this era moved forward

The Adal campaigns are the first time a written source shows many Somali communities, named one by one, joining one army under one leader for one cause. The chronicle that records it is one of the oldest books to name Somali communities at all.

Read the primary sources yourself

• Shihab al-Din Ahmad ibn Abd al-Qadir, Futuh al-Habasha, French translation by René Basset, Histoire de la conquête de l'Abyssinie (XVIe siècle), 1897: full text.
• R. S. Whiteway (ed.), The Portuguese Expedition to Abyssinia in 1541–1543, as narrated by Castanhoso, Hakluyt Society, 1902: full text.