A thread on Ahmad ibn Ibrahim Al Ghazi, nicknamed Gragn i.e. the 'left handed' in Amharic.

Ahmad Gragn began his career by overthrowing & killing Sultan Abu Bakr of Harar making himself master of the rich walled city.

Though Ahmad was just a soldier he was also a religious leader & adopted the title of Imam.

Ahmad married Bati Del Wanbara, the daughter of Mahfuz & gained the support of her father & his soldiers who were committed to Jihad against Christian Ethiopia.

Ahmad Gragn began his conflict with the Christian Ethiopian Empire in 1527 by ordering the Muslim towns of Adal to stop paying tribute.

Emperor Lebna Dengel responded by ordering his governor Deglahan to march into Adal but the Imam decisively defeated him.

Ahmad then undertook a series of expeditions that took him deep into the western Highlands of Ethiopia where he captured an innumerable number of slaves which he sent to the Muslim ruler of Zabid in Southern Arabia who in return supplied him with guns.

After several further raids, Ahmad fought a major battle against the Emperor in March 1529 at Shimbra Kure 80km south of Addis Ababa.

Both sides suffered heavy casualties but Emperor Lebna Dengel was decisively defeated.

Ahmad frequently sent for military assistance to Zayla & Mahra in South Arabia. He received rifles, 7 cannons, & 70 well-armed Arab soldiers which played a crucial role.

Ludolf states "the Turks supply'd their Muhumetan friend with Arms and such as knew well how to use them."

By the summer of 1532, Ahmad's well armed troops had overrun almost all of Eastern & Southern Ethiopian provinces among them Dawaro, Bali, Hadeya, Ganz, Waj, Fatagar, and Ifat.

Ahmad then ordered his followers to settle their families permanently in the Ethiopian Highlands.

Ahmad was passionately interested in conversion of Christians to Islam which in many instances were by force.

He would ask:

"Why have you not become Muslim when the whole country has converted?"

Finding them adamant, he declared. "We have decided to cut off your head."

Ahmad was often ruthless in his demands for conversion, however if the communities submitted willingly & agreed to pay Jizya he was pleased.

In Abba Garima near Aksum, 2 localities consented to pay tax, but a 3rd refused & he attacked it and 'exterminated them to the last man'

Many converted out of survival. After the Imam's defeat many Muslims at once returned back to Christianity.

An example was the ruler of Bahr Negash who turned Muslim thinking the kingdom would never be restored. He asked for pardon after Ahmad was defeated and reconverted.

Ahmad's campaigns also resulted in widespread destruction. Adal soldiers ravaged the highlands and according to the Futuh al-Habasha destroyed and looted many historical churches & manuscripts.

At the church of Makana Selassie in Amhara, the Muslims almost lost the power of sight b/c the church was ornamented with so many sheets of gold & silver.

They set to work with a 1000 axes tearing down the gold. Each one took as much as they wished & were rich forever.

Emperor Lebna Dengel took Empress Eleni's advice and appealed to the Portuguese for assistance who dispatched a force in support of Christian Ethiopia led by Dom Cristovao da Gama son of the famous mariner Vasco.

The army of 400 landed in Massawa in February 1541.

Lebna Dengel's son Galawdewos was now Emperor and was continuing the struggle.

News of the Portuguese arrival spread like wildfire & many soldiers who sided with Ahmad began to defect & join Lebna Dengel's widow Empress Sebla Wangel.

The Ethio-Portuguese forces confronted Ahmad for the 1st time at Dambeya north of Lake Tana in April 1542. Ahmad was wounded in battle & urgently sent for help to Zebid promising to become a vassal of the Ottoman Emperor Suleiman II.

The Turks sent 10 field guns & 700 soldiers.

The Portuguese were defeated in August and Dom Christovao was captured & beheaded.

This victory gave Ahmad a false sense of security and his Turkish allies returned to Zebid.

Emperor Galawdewos & the surviving Portuguese regrouped & fought the Adal army at the Battle of Wayna Daga in western Bagemeder in February 1541.

Ahmad was killed and his son Muhammad was taken prisoner.

The 14 year Muslim ascendancy crumbled overnight & Ethiopia prevailed.

The long drawn struggle between Ahmad Gragn & the Ethiopian Empire was traumatic, it took a heavy toll of life & material wealth.

Many of our most holiest & beautifully decorated churches were in ruins & countless fine manuscripts were destroyed.

Like 2 exhausted gladiators, both Ethiopia & Adal lay exhausted after the war & could not resist the Oromo migration from SW Ethiopia & Northern Kenya.

The Oromo swept through the land like a tidal wave changing the demographic & political geography.

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