Qualla: Sultanate of Aussa https://qualla.com/sultanate-of-aussa 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/f/j/3/sultanate-of-aussa-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Sultanate of Aussa https://qualla.com/sultanate-of-aussa Sultanate of Aussa: Introduction https://qualla.com/sultanate-of-aussa/ Photo credit DamiKarv, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Awash River runs through one of the hottest lowlands on earth, a country of salt pans and basalt, where the Ethiopian highland people were considered by everyone - including themselves - to be unsuited by nature. The Sultanate of Aussa ruled this country. For most of its existence, which stretched from 1734 into the 20th century and briefly returned in 1991, the sultanate held out against every power that tried to absorb it: the Ethiopian emperors, the Khedive of Egypt, even initially the Italians. When Ethiopian highland armies pushed into the Afar Triangle, one 19th-century observer noted, they found themselves "unsuited by nature to operations in these hot and feverish lowlands." The Afar were suited by nature. Aussa was their capital.

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Image: DamiKarv | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/f/j/3/sultanate-of-aussa-wp/sfj3-sultanate-of-aussa-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Sultanate of Aussa: Origins in the Adal Split https://qualla.com/sultanate-of-aussa/ Photo credit Dunn, Samuel, -1794, Public domain. The Sultanate of Aussa traces through an older kingdom - the Imamate of Aussa, carved out of the Adal Sultanate in 1577 when Muhammed Gasa moved his capital from Harar to the town of Asaita in the Afar lowlands. Adal had been one of the great Muslim polities of the Horn of Africa...

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Image: Dunn, Samuel, -1794 | Public domain

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/f/j/3/sultanate-of-aussa-wp/sfj3-sultanate-of-aussa-origins-in-the-adal-split.mp3 0:06 2 full Sultanate of Aussa: The Afar Way of War https://qualla.com/sultanate-of-aussa/ Photo credit William Cornwallis Harris, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Afar were respected throughout the region as formidable warriors. Abyssinian soldiers reportedly considered killing an Afar a greater achievement than killing an Oromo, and the Ethiopian armies that ventured into Afar country paid heavily for the attempt. The Afar held their ...

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Image: William Cornwallis Harris | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/f/j/3/sultanate-of-aussa-wp/sfj3-sultanate-of-aussa-the-afar-way-of-war.mp3 0:06 3 full Sultanate of Aussa: Munzinger's End https://qualla.com/sultanate-of-aussa/ Photo credit Sir E. Hertslet, CC BY-SA 4.0. In 1875, Sultan Mahammad ibn Hanfadhe defeated and killed Werner Munzinger. Munzinger was a Swiss-born colonial administrator working for the Khedivate of Egypt, leading an Egyptian army that was trying to push into Ethiopia through Afar country. The expedition ended with Munzing...

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Image: Sir E. Hertslet | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/f/j/3/sultanate-of-aussa-wp/sfj3-sultanate-of-aussa-munzingers-end.mp3 0:06 4 full Sultanate of Aussa: The Second War and Exile https://qualla.com/sultanate-of-aussa/ Photo credit ZemenfesKidus, Public domain. The Second Italo-Ethiopian War of 1935 to 1936 brought a different outcome. Sultan Mahammad Yayyo agreed to cooperate with the Italian invaders. By April 1, 1936, Italian troops had completed the occupation of the sultanate. The Sultan himself went to Rome, met Benito Mussolini a...

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Image: ZemenfesKidus | Public domain

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/f/j/3/sultanate-of-aussa-wp/sfj3-sultanate-of-aussa-the-second-war-and-exile.mp3 0:06 5 full Sultanate of Aussa: Continuity https://qualla.com/sultanate-of-aussa/ Photo credit Sémhur, CC BY-SA 3.0. The sultanate's present claimant is Ahmed Alimirah, who succeeded his father Hanfare Alimirah in 2020. The political power of the position is constrained by Ethiopian federal and regional governance, but the cultural weight remains substantial. The Afar Triangle, the geographic r...

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Image: Sémhur | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/f/j/3/sultanate-of-aussa-wp/sfj3-sultanate-of-aussa-continuity.mp3 0:06 6 full Sultanate of Aussa: The Danakil from the Air https://qualla.com/sultanate-of-aussa/ Photo credit ZemenfesKidus, Public domain. From altitude the Afar Triangle resolves into an alien landscape - salt pans glittering where seawater has evaporated over millennia, dark basalt fields from active volcanism, cinder cones dotting the horizon, and the green thread of the Awash River following its narrow valley be...

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]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/f/j/3/sultanate-of-aussa-wp/sfj3-sultanate-of-aussa-the-danakil-from-the-air.mp3 0:06 7 full