# Sultan Sa'ad ad-Din II of Ifat (Sacad ad-Diin)

> Sa'ad ad-Din II, Sultan of Ifat, died about 1403–1410 at Zeila: his reign, his death, and how Adal and the Sacadiin islands remember him.

Source page: https://calankii.com/en/people/saad-ad-din-ii/
Last checked: 2026-11-12
Publisher: Calankii (https://calankii.com)

## Who was he?

Sa'ad ad-Din II was a sultan of [Ifat](/en/history/sultanate-of-shewa-and-founding-of-ifat/), a Muslim state ruled by the Walashma family in what is now [Awdal](/en/regions/awdal/), Djibouti and eastern Ethiopia ([Wikipedia, Sa'ad ad-Din II](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sa'ad_ad-Din_II)). The historian Richard Pankhurst calls him "the last great ruler of Ifat" (same source). He died around 1403 or 1410.

## His reign

Wikipedia records that he was born at the court of the Ethiopian Emperor Newaya Krestos. With his brother Haqq ad-Din II he broke with the empire and moved the family's base east to the Harar plateau ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sa'ad_ad-Din_II)). For years he and the Ethiopian emperors fought over the trade routes and highlands between them (same source).

## His death at Zeila

After a lost battle he withdrew to Zeila, on the coast of today's Awdal. The forces of Emperor Dawit besieged him there. The Egyptian historian al-Maqrizi wrote that his water ran out, and after three days he was killed ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sa'ad_ad-Din_II)).

When Richard Burton visited Zeila in 1854, people told him the legend that when Sa'ad ad-Din was killed, the wells dried up and the island sank. Burton writes that his sons fled to the prince of Sana'a in Yemen and later came back ([Burton, *First Footsteps in East Africa*, 1856, ch. 3](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/6886)). Burton names four sons, Sabr ad-Din, Ali, Mansur and Jamal ad-Din, who "retrieved the cause" (same source).

## Adal after him

His sons returned and founded the Sultanate of Adal. The family now used the title "kings of Adal" ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sa'ad_ad-Din_II)). In the 18th century, records of the Emirate of Harar still called Adal *Barr Sa'ad ad-Din*, "the land of Sa'ad ad-Din" (same source). A century after him, [Imam Ahmad](/en/history/imam-ahmad-and-adal-1527-1543/) led Adal at its height.

## His tomb and islands

Burton saw his tomb on an island off Zeila: "a mound of rough stones surrounding an upright pole". He wrote that Sa'ad ad-Din was "formerly the hero, now the favourite patron saint of [Zayla](/en/history/early-zeila-before-1300/)", with the signs of recent offerings around it ([Burton 1856, ch. 3](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/6886)). By about 1950 the sea had washed the tomb away ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sa'ad_ad-Din_II)).

The Sacadiin (Sa'ad ad-Din) islands off Zeila are named after him (same source). See [medieval and early modern states](/en/history/medieval-and-early-modern-polities-1300s-1700s/).

## In short

A sultan of Ifat in the 1300s and 1400s. His family's state continued as Adal.

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