Adal (historical region) in the context of "Zeila"

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⭐ Core Definition: Adal (historical region)

Adal (Harari: ኣው አብዳል/ኢዳል; Somali: Awdal), known as Aw Idal, Awdal, or Aw Abdal was a historical Muslim region in the Horn of Africa. Located east of Ifat and the Awash river as far as the coast, and including Harar as well as Zeila. The Zeila state often denoted Adal and other Muslim dominions in medieval texts.

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👉 Adal (historical region) in the context of Zeila

Zeila (Somali: Saylac, Arabic: زيلع, romanizedZayla), also known as Zaila or Zayla, is a historical port town in the western Awdal region of Somaliland.

In the Middle Ages, the Jewish traveller Benjamin of Tudela identified Zeila with the Biblical location of Havilah. Most modern scholars identify it with the site of Avalites mentioned in the 1st-century Greco-Roman travelogue the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea and in Ptolemy, although this is disputed. The town evolved into an early Islamic center with the arrival of Muslims shortly after the Hijrah. By the 9th century, Zeila was the capital of the early Adal Kingdom and Ifat Sultanate in the 13th century, it would attain its height of prosperity a few centuries later in the 16th century. The city subsequently came under Ottoman and British protection in the 16th and 19th centuries respectively.

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Adal (historical region) in the context of Somalis

Somalis (/sˈmɑːliz, səˈmɑːliz/, sə-MAH-leez) (Somali: Soomaalida, Wadaad: صومالِدَ‎, Arabic: الصوماليون) are a Cushitic ethnic group and nation who are native to the Somali Peninsula, and share a common ancestry, culture and history.

The East Cushitic Somali language is the shared mother tongue of ethnic Somalis, which is part of the Cushitic branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They are predominantly Sunni Muslim. Forming one of the largest ethnic groups on the continent, they cover one of the most expansive landmasses by a single ethnic group in Africa.

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Adal (historical region) in the context of Adal Sultanate

The Adal Sultanate, also known as the Adal Empire or Barr Saʿad dīn (alt. spelling Adel Sultanate, Adal Sultanate) (Arabic: سلطنة عدل), was a medieval Sunni Muslim empire which was located in the Horn of Africa. It was founded by Sabr ad-Din III on the Harar plateau in Adal after the fall of the Sultanate of Ifat. The kingdom flourished c. 1415 to 1577. At its height, the polity under Sultan Badlay controlled the territory stretching from Cape Guardafui in Somalia to the port city of Suakin in Sudan.

The empire's frequent wars with its Christian rival, the Solomonic Dynasty of Abyssinia, during the 15th and 16th centuries, led by important early figures such as Jamal ad-Din II, Badlay, and Mahfuz, would earn the sovereigns of Adal a reputation in the Islamic World as one of saints, and were as a result regularly supplied with arms, horses and other articles of war. In the 16th century under the leadership of Imam Ahmed ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi and his successor Nur ibn Mujahid, Adal embarked on the Conquest of Abyssinia deploying muskets and cannons. The war would eventually draw in the Portuguese and Ottoman Empires. The Adalites maintained a strong relationship with the Ottomans in particular.

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Adal (historical region) in the context of Dawit II

Dawit II (Ge'ez: ዳዊት; c. 1496 – 2 September 1540), better known by his birth name of Lebna Dengel, and also known by the macaronic name Wanag Segad, was Emperor of Ethiopia from 1508 to 1540, whose political center and palace was in Shewa.

A male line descendant of the medieval Amhara kings, and thus a member of the House of Solomon, he was the son of Emperor Na'od and Empress Na'od Mogesa. The important victory over the Adal's Emir Mahfuz may have given Dawit the appellation "Wanag Segad," which is a combination of Geʽez and the Harari terms.

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Adal (historical region) in the context of Nur ibn Mujahid

Nur al-Din or Nur ibn Mujahid ibn ‘Ali ibn ‘Abdullah al Dhuhi Suha (Harari: ኑር ኢብን ሙጃሂድ, Somali: Nuur ibn Mujaahid, Arabic: نور بن مجاهد; died 1567) was an Emir of Harar who ruled over the Adal Sultanate. He was known for his victory in Fatagar against Ethiopian forces and for marrying his uncle's widow, Bati del Wambara. He succeeded Imam Ahmad Ibn Ibrahim as the leader of the Muslim forces against Christian Ethiopia by defeating the Emperor Galewdewos in battle in 1559. He is often cited as the "King of Adel" in medieval texts.

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