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Somalia Emergence of Adal
In addition to southward migration, a second factor in Somali
history from the fifteenth century onward was the emergence of
centralized state systems. The most important of these in
medieval times was Adal, whose influence at the height of its
power and prosperity in the sixteenth century extended from
Saylac, the capital, through the fertile valleys of the Jijiga
and the Harer plateau to the Ethiopian highlands. Adal's fame
derived not only from the prosperity and cosmopolitanism of its
people, its architectural sophistication, graceful mosques, and
high learning, but also from its conflicts with the expansionist
Ethiopians. For hundreds of years before the fifteenth century,
goodwill had existed between the dominant new civilization of
Islam and the Christian neguses of Ethiopia. One tradition holds
that Muhammad blessed Ethiopia and enjoined his disciples from
ever conducting jihad (holy war) against the Christian kingdom in
gratitude for the protection early Muslims had received from the
Ethiopian negus. Whereas Muslim armies rapidly overran the more
powerful empires of Persia and Byzantium soon after the birth of
Islam, there was no jihad against Christian Ethiopia for
centuries. The forbidding Ethiopian terrain of deep gorges, sharp
escarpments, and perpendicular massifs that rise more than 4,500
meters also discouraged the Muslims from attempting a campaign of
conquest against so inaccessible a kingdom.
Muslim-Christian relations soured during the reign of the
aggressive Negus Yeshaq (ruled 1414-29). Forces of his rapidly
expanding empire descended from the highlands to despoil Muslim
settlements in the valley east of the ancient city of Harer.
Having branded the Muslims "enemies of the Lord," Yeshaq invaded
the Muslim Kingdom of Ifat in 1415. He crushed the armies of Ifat
and put to flight in the wastes along the Gulf of Tadjoura (in
present-day Djibouti) Ifat's king Saad ad Din. Yeshaq followed
Saad ad Din to the island off the coast of Saylac (which still
bears his name), where the Muslim king was killed. Yeshaq
compelled the Muslims to offer tribute, and also ordered his
singers to compose a gloating hymn of thanksgiving for his
victory. In the hymn's lyrics, the word Somali appears for
the first time in written record.
By the sixteenth century, the Muslims had recovered
sufficiently to break through from the east into the central
Ethiopian highlands. Led by the charismatic Imam Ahmad Guray
(1506-43), the Muslims poured into Ethiopia, using scorched-earth
tactics that decimated the population of the country. A
Portuguese expedition led by Pedro da Gama, a son of Vasco da
Gama who was looking for the Prester John of medieval European
folklore--a Christian, African monarch of vast dominions--arrived
from the sea and saved Ethiopia. The joint Portuguese-Ethiopian
force used cannon to route the Muslims, whose imam died on the
battlefield.
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