Era
The Sultanate of Shewa (896–1285) and the founding of Ifat under the Walashma
The Sultanate of Shewa was the oldest documented Muslim state in the interior of the Horn of Africa. An Arabic chronicle found in Harar says its Makhzumi dynasty ruled eastern Shewa from 896–897 AD (283 AH) until 1285 AD (684 AH), when the Walashma family of Ifat took power. Ifat then became the leading Muslim state of the region, with Zeila as its port, and was the forerunner of the Adal sultanate.
In short
Inland from Zeila, on the eastern edge of the Ethiopian highlands, Muslim states grew up along the trade routes from the coast. Arab and Egyptian writers called the whole area "the country of Zeila". The two oldest states whose rulers are known by name are the Sultanate of Shewa, under the Makhzumi dynasty, and Ifat, under the Walashma dynasty, which took over from Shewa in 1285.
Almost everything known about Shewa comes from two Arabic texts found in Harar and published by the Italian scholar Enrico Cerulli in 1931 and 1941. Ifat is also described by the Egyptian historian al-Maqrizi, writing about 1435.
The sources
- The "Chronicle of Shewa" (Dikr at-tawarikh). An Arabic text copied in 1936 from an original of 1863 found in Harar, published by Cerulli in 1941 as "Il sultanato dello Scioa nel secolo XIII" in Rassegna di Studi Etiopici 1. It gives the dynasty's founding date and a list of rulers (Lusini, "The Costs of the Linguistic Transitions: Traces of Disappeared Languages in Ethiopia", University of Naples "L'Orientale").
- The "Harar chronicle", or History of the Walashma. An Arabic text copied in 1926 and published by Cerulli in 1931 (same source).
- Al-Maqrizi, Kitab al-ilmam bi-akhbar man bi-ard al-Habasha min muluk al-Islam ("Information on the Muslim kings in the land of Abyssinia"), about 1435. Published in Arabic with a Latin translation by F. T. Rinck in 1790 (Rinck, Macrizi Historia regum Islamiticorum in Abyssinia, Leiden, 1790).
The Sultanate of Shewa, 896–1285
- Founding. The Shewa chronicle says the dynasty was founded by Wudd ibn Hisham al-Makhzumi, of the Banu Makhzum clan of Quraysh, and ruled eastern Shewa for about 400 years from 896–897 AD (283 AH). Its capital was Walalah (Lusini).
- The dates. The chronicle says the dynasty ruled for 390 years from 283 AH. Cerulli pointed out in 1941 that 283 to 684 AH is 401 years, not 390. The historian Stuart Munro-Hay gives the same span: the Makhzumis "have reigned in Shewa from AH 283/AD 896" until Wali Asma "deposed the kings of Shewa" (Munro-Hay, Google Books, p. 365).
- Early events. The chronicle gives few early details: the death of a Queen Badit in 1063, the conversion of the "Gbbah" people to Islam in 1108, and the death of a Sultan Malasma'i of Gbbah in 1183 (Cerulli 1941; the conversion of 1108 is also given in the Cambridge History of Africa, vol. 3, p. 107).
- Language. Not all the Makhzumi rulers have Arabic names. Cerulli found names that "seem to be composed of words of a Semitic language of the Ethiopian group". The tenth sultan, who reigned from 1269 to 1278, is named Dilmarrah, which Lusini reads as "guide to the victory" from roots found in Harari, Argobba and Amharic (Lusini).
- Its place in the record. The historians Nehemia Levtzion and Randall Pouwels write that "the oldest documented Muslim polity inland was the sultanate of Shewa" (Levtzion and Pouwels, The History of Islam in Africa, 2000, p. 228).
Shewa in the Egyptian records, 1274
In 1274 a letter from the new Christian king Yekuno Amlak reached Cairo by way of Yemen. The Mamluk chancery secretary Ibn 'Abd al-Zahir noted with it that "among the kings of Abyssinia is Yusuf b. Arsmaya, master of the territory of Hadaya, of Sawa [Shewa] and of Kalgur, and their districts, which are ruled by Muslim kings". The Coptic historian al-Mufaddal, writing before 1358, gives the same ruler as "lord of Gidaya, of Shoa, of Qalgur and the surroundings; it is a nation of Muslim kings" (Fauvelle-Aymar et al., Espaces musulmans de la Corne de l'Afrique au Moyen Âge, 2011, ch. 2, §85, translated here from French). Fauvelle-Aymar and his colleagues argue that Shewa's Islam came by the route to the Red Sea ports such as Dahlak, and that Ifat's rise in 1285 marks the rise of a state tied more closely to Zeila (same source, §86).
1285: the Walashma take over
Lusini writes that "the beginnings of the preeminence of the Sultanate of Ifat can be dated with precision to the year 684 of hijra, namely 1285 AD", when Ifat clashed with the Makhzumi state of Shewa (Lusini). Levtzion and Pouwels describe Ifat as "once Shewa's easternmost district" (p. 228).
What al-Maqrizi says about the family (Rinck 1790, pp. 17–18, Latin translated here):
- The ruling house was said to be descended from Quraysh; others said from the Abd al-Dar, or from the Hashimites.
- It was brought from the Hijaz by a son of Aqil ibn Abi Talib, and settled in the land of Jabrah, "which today is called Jabarta". Jabarta, he writes, belongs to the region of Zeila.
- The family lived there and in the town of Awfat (Ifat), "known and celebrated for their virtue and love of peace, until the time of Umar, who is also called Walashma".
- Umar held the governorship of Awfat and its lands "for a long time, with great power", and died "dear to all for the excellence of his character". He left four or five sons, who ruled Awfat one after another.
A second tradition. The archaeologist Sada Mire writes that the Walashma dynasty of Ifat and Adal justified its rule through Islam and "their direct ancestral links to Sharif Yusuf Al-Kawnayn, also known as Aw-Barkhadle", the saint buried near Hargeisa, and that its leaders were buried at Aw-Barkhadle (Mire 2015, African Archaeological Review 32). See Ancient burials, standing stones and towns.
The languages of Ifat
Al-Maqrizi says that in Ifat an "Ethiopic language" (al-lugha al-habashiyya) was spoken alongside Arabic. Lusini notes that the phrase could mean any Semitic or Cushitic language of the region, and that Arabic was "most probably" used for trade and prestige. All the Walashma rulers had Arabic names (Lusini).
Ruined towns of Ifat
Mire writes that ruined towns across Somaliland, in the Sheekh–Hargeisa–Burco triangle and around Boorama, "are testimony to the earliest states in the Horn of Africa, as they are part of the Ifat and Awdal kingdoms". She argues that their spread across the country "challenges the notion that Arabs had outposts there, and in fact suggests that the local kingdoms of Ifat and Awdal (Adal) not only were settled people, but also were part of what might be viewed as an early Islamic Empire in the Horn of Africa" (Mire 2015). Surface finds at Fardowsa near Sheekh include Sasanian pottery of the 8th century and Chinese ceramics of the 13th to 17th centuries (same source).
After 1300
Ifat's wars with the Christian kingdom under Amda Seyon in the 1320s and 1330s, its fall in 1415, and the rise of the Adal sultanate are covered on Medieval and early modern polities, 1300s–1700s and Imam Ahmad and Adal, 1527–1543.
Related pages
Sources
- Lusini, "The Costs of the Linguistic Transitions: Traces of Disappeared Languages in Ethiopia", University of Naples "L'Orientale" · openstarts.units.it
- Rinck, Macrizi Historia regum Islamiticorum in Abyssinia, Leiden, 1790 · archive.org
- Munro-Hay, Google Books, p. 365 · books.google.com
- Cambridge History of Africa, vol. 3, p. 107 · books.google.com
- Levtzion and Pouwels, The History of Islam in Africa, 2000, p. 228 · books.google.com
- Fauvelle-Aymar et al., Espaces musulmans de la Corne de l'Afrique au Moyen Âge, 2011, ch. 2, §85 · books.openedition.org
- Mire 2015, African Archaeological Review 32 · link.springer.com
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