The Walashma dynasty was a medieval Muslim dynasty of the Horn of Africa founded in Ifat (modern eastern Shewa).^[1] Founded in the 13th century, it governed the Ifat and Adal Sultanates in what are present-day, Somalia, Djibouti, Eritrea and eastern Ethiopia.^[2]

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The Walashma princes of Ifat and Adal claimed to possessed Arab genealogical traditions.^[3][4] In terms of lineage, Walashma traditions trace descent from Banu Makhzum tribe by El Maqrisi. But Ifat Sultanate trace descent from Akīl ibn Abī Tālib, the brother of the Caliph ʿAlī and Djaʿfar ibn Abī Tālib. The latter was among the earliest Muslims to settle in the Horn region. However, the semi-legendary apologetic History of the Walasma asserts that ʿUmar ibn-Dunya-hawaz was a descendant of Caliph ʿAlī's son al-Hasan.^[3] This is not supported by both Maqrizi and the chronicle of the Walashma. But ʿUmar ibn-Dunya-hawaz, whom both assert was the founder of the dynasty, was of Quraysh or Hashimite origin.^[4][5] Fourteenth century Arab historian Ibn Khaldun mentions the ancestors of Walasma were once tributary to the Kingdom of Damot.^[6]

However, most historians, including Enrico Cerulli and J. Spencer Trimingham, regard the Walashma dynasty to be of local origin.^[7][8] Cerulli asserts that according to Harar chronicles, the 10th century Somali saint "Aw" Barkhadle from Arabia was the fifth ancestor ofʿUmar ibn Dunya-hawaz, founder of the Walashma Dynasty.^[9][10][11] Ioan Lewis also mentions that in a short king-list titled 'Rulers of the land of Sa'ad ad-Din', Barkhadle is recognized as one of the Walashma ancestors.^[12] Lewis places his death at around 1190 AD.^[13] J. Spencer Trimingham does note that according to local traditions though, he was said to have lived for over 500 years, placing his death in the early 16th century.^[14][15] Some rulers of the Walashma Dynasty are also thought to be buried at the site of Aw-Barkhadle in modern-day Somaliland.^[16] As descendants of Barkhadle, it was said that the Walashma success, longevity, and influence was due to their native family background^[17] Walasma are historically tied to the ancestors of Argobba and the people of Doba.^[18] The Harari people also claim to be associated with the Walasma.^[19] Bahru Zewde, Richard Pankhurst, Djibril Niane regard the Walasma Sultans of Ifat and Adal to be predominantly Argobba and Harari.^{[20][21][22][23]} However, Amelie Chekroun suggests no possible link to identify the people of medieval Ifat with the Argobba people.^[24] According to I.M. Lewis, the polity was governed by local dynasties consisting of Somalized Arabs or Arabized Somalis, who also ruled over the similarly established Sultanate of Mogadishu in the Benadir region to the south.^[25]

Walasma dynasty of Ifat initiated a series of marriage alliances with the leaders of Adal. Ferry Robert notes that there existed political and matrimonial relations between the nobles of Adal and Somali tribes.^[26] According to the chronicle "Conquest of Abyssinia" by Arab Faqīh, Harla lords descendant from the last Walasma ruler of Ifat Sa'ad ad-Din II participated in the sixteenth century Ethiopian–Adal War.^[27][28] The last known Walasma member in Adal was Barakat ibn Umar Din of Harar during the sixteenth century.^[29] The Kabirto of Harla as well as Doba who originate from the Walasma dynasty were overthrown in 1769 by the Mudaito dynasty of Afar in Aussa (modern Afar Region), the descendant of Kabirto Shaykh Kabir Hamza, preserved their history through manuscripts.^[30][31][32]

The title Walasma was still used in Ifat province as late as the nineteenth century with governors of that region claiming descent from the old dynasty.^[33] In 1993 Mohammed Saleh who professed his ancestors were the Argobba Walasma of Ifat revealed that his progenitors were traders of the Shewa-Harar route for centuries.^[34]

According to Ferry Robert, the language spoken by the people of Adal as well as its rulers the Imams and Sultans would closely resemble contemporary Harari language.^[26] The 19th-century Ethiopian historian Asma Giyorgis suggests that the Walashma themselves spoke Arabic.^[35][36]

During the end of the 13th century, northern Hararghe was seat of a Muslim sultanate named under the rule of Makhzumi dynasty.^[37] A contemporary source describes the sultanate being torn apart by internal strafe and weakened by struggles with neighboring Muslim states. In 1278 one of these neighboring states, named Ifat in eastern Shewa, led by the Walashma invaded the Sultanate of Shewa. After a few years of struggle the sultanate was annexed into Ifat. This annexation is usually attributed to ʿUmar, but he had been dead for 50 years by the time Shewa was annexed. More likely, it was his grandson Jamal ad-Dīn or perhaps even his great-grandson Abūd. In 1288 Sultan Wali Asma successfully conquered Hubat, Adal and other Muslim states in the region. Making Ifat the most powerful Muslim kingdom in the Horn of Africa.^[38]

In 1332, the Sultan of Ifat, Haqq ad-Din I was slain in a military campaign against the Abyssinian Emperor Amda Seyon's troops.^[39] Amda Seyon then appointed Jamal ad-Din as the new King, followed by Jamal ad-Din's brother Nasr ad-Din.^[40] Despite this setback, the Muslim rulers of Ifat continued their campaign. The Abyssinian Emperor branded the Muslims of the surrounding area "enemies of the Lord", and again invaded Ifat in the early 15th century. After much struggle, Ifat's troops were defeated and the Sultanate's ruler, King Sa'ad ad-Din II, fled to Zeila. He was pursued there by Abyssinian forces, where they slayed him.^[41]

Adal was a general term for a region of lowlands inhabited by Muslims east of the province of Ifat. It was used ambiguously in the medieval era to indicate the Muslim inhabited low land portion east of the Ethiopian Empire. Including north of the Awash River towards Lake Abbe as well as the territory between Shewa and Zeila on the coast of Somaliland.^[42][21][43] According to Ewald Wagner, Adal region was historically the area stretching from Zeila to Harar.^[44][45] In the late fourteenth century Walasma princes Haqq ad-Din II and Sa'ad ad-Din II relocated their base to the Harari plateau in Adal forming a new Sultanate.^[46]

The last Sultan of Ifat, Sa'ad ad-Din II, was killed in Zeila after he had fled there in 1403, his children escaped to Yemen, before later returning to the Harar plateau in 1415.^[47][48] In the early 15th century, Adal's capital was established in the town of Dakkar, where Sabr ad-Din III, the eldest son of Sa'ad ad-Din II, established a new base after his return from Yemen.^[49][50] By the late 1400s the Walasma sultans began to be challenged by the Harla emirs of the Harar plateau with rise of Imam Mahfuz.^[51]

Adal's headquarters were relocated in the following century, this time to Harar. From this new capital, Adal organised an effective army led by Imam Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi (Ahmad "Gurey" or Ahmad "Gran") that invaded the Abyssinian empire.^[50] This 16th century campaign is historically known as the Conquest of Abyssinia (Futuh al-Habash). During the war, Imam Ahmad pioneered the use of cannons supplied by the Ottoman Empire, which he imported through Zeila and deployed against Abyssinian forces and their Portuguese allies led by Cristóvão da Gama.^[50] Some scholars argue that this conflict proved, through their use on both sides, the value of firearms like the matchlock musket, cannons and the arquebus over traditional weapons.^[52]

The Walashma sultans of Ifant and Adal also apparently had a fair taste for luxury, the commercial relations that existed between the Adal Sultanate and the rulers of the Arab peninsula allowed Muslims to obtain luxury items that Christian Ethiopians, whose relations with the outside world were still blocked, could not acquire, a Christian document describing Sultan Badlay relates:

"And the robes [of the sultan] and those of his leaders were adorned with silver and shone on all sides. And the dagger which he [the sultan] carried at his side was richly adorned with gold and precious stones; and his amulet was adorned with drops of gold; and the inscriptions on the amulet were of gold paint. And his parasol came from the land of Syria and it was such beautiful work that those who looked at it marveled, and winged serpents were painted on it."^[53]

• Somali aristocratic and court titles
• Ethiopian aristocratic and court titles

• Cerulli, Enrico (1931). "Documenti arabi per la storia dell'Etiopia". Memorie della Reale Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei. 6 (4): 39–101. OCLC 4178469.
• Pankhurst, Richard (1997). The Ethiopian Borderlands: Essays in Regional History from Ancient Times to the End of the 18th Century. The Red Sea Press. ISBN 978-0-932415-19-6.
• Trimingham, John Spencer (1952). Islam in Ethiopia. Oxford University Press. OCLC 3472650.
• Trimingham, John Spencer (1965). Islam in Ethiopia. Frank Cass & Company. ISBN 9780714617312. OCLC 546800.
• Trimingham, J. Spencer (1976) [1952]. Islam in Ethiopia. London: Routledge. ISBN 9781136970221. OCLC 858861432.
• Trimingham, J. Spencer (13 September 2013). Islam in Ethiopia. Routledge. ISBN 9781136970290.

• Kifleyesus, Abbebe (2006). Tradition and Transformation: The Argobba of Ethiopia. Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. p. 84. ISBN 978-3-447-05341-9.