Qualla: Adal Sultanate https://qualla.com/adal-sultanate en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:29 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/s/c/v/7/adal-sultanate-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Adal Sultanate https://qualla.com/adal-sultanate Adal Sultanate: Introduction https://qualla.com/adal-sultanate/ Photo credit Yubudirsi, CC0. The sons of Sa'ad ad-Din II returned from exile in Yemen in 1415 with one purpose: to reclaim their father's throne. Sa'ad ad-Din had been hunted down and killed at Zeila by the Ethiopian emperor, his sultanate of Ifat shattered, his dynasty scattered across the Red Sea. But his eldest son Sabr ad-Din III landed on the Harar plateau, proclaimed himself king of Adal, and built a new capital at Dakkar. Within months he had defeated an Abyssinian army of 20,000 men. The Adal Sultanate had begun, and for the next century and a half it would be the Christian empire's most dangerous adversary, a Muslim power that fielded muskets and cannons, drew Ottoman and Portuguese empires into its wars, and came closer than any force in history to conquering Abyssinia entirely.

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]]> Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/c/v/7/adal-sultanate-wp/scv7-adal-sultanate-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Adal Sultanate: A Kingdom Forged in Vengeance https://qualla.com/adal-sultanate/ Photo credit Abdourazak Badar, CC BY-SA 1.0. Adal occupied the lowlands east of the Ethiopian highlands, a territory stretching from the ancient port of Zeila on the Gulf of Aden to the walled city of Harar on its inland plateau, and at its peak all the way to Cape Guardafui at the tip of the Somali coast. The name itself l...

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]]> Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/c/v/7/adal-sultanate-wp/scv7-adal-sultanate-a-kingdom-forged-in-vengeance.mp3 0:06 2 full Adal Sultanate: The Emirs Who Overruled Sultans https://qualla.com/adal-sultanate/ Photo credit Mcks6002123, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Adal Sultanate's greatest strength was also its deepest vulnerability: the relationship between its hereditary sultans and its warrior emirs. Sultan Jamal ad-Din II was perhaps the most capable ruler the dynasty produced. He reorganized shattered armies, defeated Solomonic fo...

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]]> Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/c/v/7/adal-sultanate-wp/scv7-adal-sultanate-the-emirs-who-overruled-sultans.mp3 0:06 3 full Adal Sultanate: Imam Ahmad's Conquest https://qualla.com/adal-sultanate/ Photo credit Geoffrey Last, Richard Pankhurst, CC0. In 1529, Imam Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi, known to his enemies as Ahmad Gragn, the left-handed, launched what no Adalite ruler had achieved before: a systematic conquest of Abyssinia. After a decisive victory at the Battle of Shimbra Kure, he returned to Harar to reorganize his f...

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]]> Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/c/v/7/adal-sultanate-wp/scv7-adal-sultanate-imam-ahmads-conquest.mp3 0:06 4 full Adal Sultanate: The Long Unraveling https://qualla.com/adal-sultanate/ Photo credit Ninwaal, CC0. The conquest of Abyssinia drew in outside powers. Portuguese musketeers arrived to support the beleaguered Christian emperor, while the Ottoman Empire supplied Adal with firearms and soldiers. What had been a regional conflict became a proxy war between European and Ottoman inter...

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]]> Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/c/v/7/adal-sultanate-wp/scv7-adal-sultanate-the-long-unraveling.mp3 0:06 5 full