AHMAD IBN IBRAHIM

Ahmad Ibn Ibrahim (1506-1543), nicknamed Grāñ, meaning the left-handed, was the leader of the 16th-century Muslim conquest of Ethiopia.

He was born in the state of Adal, an emirate in the lowlands east of Shawa. He inherited a long tradition of Muslim opposition to the highland Christian state, which dominated the whole region. He attached himself to Jarād Abun, a war leader who was opposed to the pacific policy of the Walashma, the established rulers of Adal, and on death succeeded to his position. He defeated and killed the sultan of Adal, Abü Bakr, but allowed the royal line to continue to rule.

Refusing to assume the secular title of sultan, he instead adopted the Islamic title of imam (religious leader). His refusal to acknowledge the supremacy of the Christian ruler, the Negus (king) Lebna Dengel [ruled 1508-40], precipitated a war which was to lead to the Muslim conquest of almost the whole of Ethiopia, at the cost of countless lives, and the destruction of hundreds of Christian churches, their treasures, and manuscripts.

Ahmad won successes in 1526-27, but his greatest victory was at Shembera-Kuré in eastern Shawa in 1529. After that victory, he initiated a deliberate war of invasion, aiming at permanent occupation and at the conversion of the conquered territories to Islam. A number of successful expeditions won him the province of Dawaro, south of the Awash river, and Shawa in 1531, followed by Amhara and Lasta to the north in 1533. Simultaneously, his armies took Bale, Guragé, Hadeya, and the Sidama region, all to the south of Shawa. In 1534, the Muslims invaded Tegré in the north, one of the principal provinces of the Christian state. Here, however, the formidable mountains, combined with the traditions and pride of the Tegréans, are an obstacle not previously encountered. The sacred city of Aksum and most of the monasteries there were nevertheless captured by Ahmad, who then pursued Lebna Dengel till his death in 1540, at which time the Ethiopian empire seemed doomed. But at this critical point, a Portuguese fleet arrived at Massawa, on the Red Sea coast, and the Ethiopian leaders asked the Portuguese for help, which was promptly given. In two encounters in 1542, Ahmad was defeated and routed. He sought reinforcements of regular troops and equipment from the Turkish Pasha of Zabid, on the coast of Yemen, across the Red Sea.
When these arrived, he attacked the Portuguese in the valley of Wofla and defeated them, capturing and killing their leader, Christovão Da Gama, the son of Vasco Da Gama, who had opened the Portuguese sea route to the Indies in 1498. In a spirit of overconfidence, Ahmad then sent away his Turkish mercenaries.

Yet the prestige of Grāñ the invincible had suffered from his previous defeats, and the Ethiopians, under the new emperor, Galawdéwos (Claudius) [ruled 1540-59], reinforced by the Portuguese, were ready to confront him when he moved from his mountain fortress in the Zobel mountains, southwest of lake Ashangi in Tegré. At the battle of Wayna Daga, just north of Lake Tana on February 25, 1543. Ahmad was decisively defeated and killed. With his death, the Muslim invasion of Ethiopia collapsed.

J. SENCER TRIMIGHAM