Adal

Adal was a Muslim state on the eastern edge of the Abyssinian highlands. Its rulers were amirs and imams in Arabic sources and kings (negus) in Ethiopian chronicles. It was often synonymous with the sultanate of Zayla' and took its name from Sa'd al-Din.

The Encyclopaedia of Islam (2nd ed.), signed E. Littmann, lists seven Muslim states of southern and eastern Abyssinia that al-Maqrizi called the mamalik of Bilad Zayla' (Awfat/Ifat, Dawaro, Arayabni, Hadya, Sharkha, Balí and Dara), and says that Adal, the farthest east of them and roughly the French Somali Coast, was another. Its people were Somali and Afar. Adal is first mentioned in the wars between the Abyssinian king 'Amda Seyon (1314–44) and the Muslims; when 'Amda Seyon marched on Zayla' in 1332, the king of Adal, who tried to bar his way, was defeated and killed. ¹

In the 15th century Adal was part of Ifat, and its amir ruled Ifat from Dakar, east of Harar. Under Zar'a Ya'qub (1434–68) and Ba'eda Maryam (1468–78) the Abyssinians negotiated with Adal and later fought it. The ruler of Adal, Muhammad son of Arwe Badlay, belonged to the family of the sultans of Zayla' and was a grandson of Sa'd al-Din, whose dynasty and land were named after him. Sa'd al-Din reigned 1386–1415 and fell in battle with King Yeshaq in 1415. In the later history the wars with the Galla from 1540 pushed the struggle with the Somali and Afar into the background, and even in the 19th century Sahla Sellase of Shoa called himself king of Adal. ¹