AHMAD IBN IBRÃHÎM

Ahmad Ibn Ibraãhîm (1506-43) nicknamed Grãn, the left-handed leader of the Muslim conquest of Abyssinia, was born in the state of Adal, situated in south-eastern Ethiopia. He inherited a long tradition of Muslim opposition to the highland Christian state, which dominated the whole region.

He attached himself to Jãrãd Abum, a war leader who was opposed to the pacific policy of the Walashma, the established rulers of Adal, and on Abun’s death succeeded to his position.  He defeated and killed the sultan of Adal.  Refusing to assume the secular title of Sultan (he allowed the old ruling line to continue), he instead adopted the Islamically significant title of Imãm, indicating a divinely guided protagonist in the cause of Islam.

His refusal to acknowledge the supremacy of the Negus Lebna Dengal precipitated a war which was led to the subjugation 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 several wars in 1526/7, but his victory at Shembera-kure in 1529 was the most significant turning point.  Having now learned how to hold his heterogeneous and indisciplined nomadic followers together after a victory, he initiated a deliberate war of invasion, permanent occupation, and conversion to Islam.  A succession of successful expeditions delivered Dawaro and Shoa into his hands in 1531, followed by Amhara and Lasta in 1533.  Simultaneously Bali, Gurage, Hadya, and other Sidama kingdoms fell to his columns in the south.

In 1534 the Muslim wave of conquest irrupted into Tigrai, the very heart of the Christian state, but here the formidable mountains, combined with the traditions and pride of the Tigreans, offered a resistance not previously encountered.  The sacred city of Azum and most of the great monasteries there, however, fell to his troops.

The pursuit of the Negus Lebna Dengel continued relentlessly, and when he died in 1540, the Abyssinian state seemed doomed.  But at this critical juncture, a Portuguese fleet arrived at Massoua, and the Abyssinian leaders sought the aid of the new arrivals.  In two encounters, in 1542 the Imãm was defeated and put to flight.

He sought reinforcements of regular troops and equipment from the Turkish pasha of Zabid. When these arrived he attacked the Portuguese at Wofla and defeated them, capturing and killing their leader Christovao da Gama.  In a spirit of over-confidence, he sent away his Turkish mercenaries.

Yet the prestige of Grãn as invincible had suffered from his previous defeats, and the Abyssinians under their new Negus Galawdewos (1540-59), reinforced by the Portuguese, were ready to confront him when he moved from his mountain fortress of Zobel.  At the battle of Waina-Dega (25th February 1543), the Imãm Ahmad was decisively defeated and he was killed.  With his death, the Muslim invasion of Abyssinia collapsed beyond recovery.

J. S. TRIMINGHAM