Bati del Wambara

Bati del Wambara fl. 1531, (Harari: ባቲ ዲል ወምበራ, lit. victory is her seat)[1] was the Harari[2] wife of the 16th-century general, Ahmad ibn Ibrahim, and then his successor, Nur ibn Mujahid. She was extremely influential in shaping both her husbands' military policies in their campaigns against the Ethiopian Empire.[3][4]

Bati del Wambara
Emira of the Adal Sultanate
Tenuremid-16th century
HusbandImam Ahmad ibn Ibrahim (d. 1543)
Emir Nur ibn Mujahid (m. 1552)
IssueMuhammad
Ahmad
A daughter
FatherMahfuz
ReligionIslam

Biography

Bati del Wambara was born the daughter of Mahfuz, Emir of Harar and later governor of Zeila. She married Imam Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi and accompanied him in his jihad[5] to make Ethiopia a Muslim province.[1] During this expedition, she gave birth to two sons - Muhammad in 1531 and Ahmad in 1533.[1]

When her husband was killed and their eldest son captured by the forces of Emperor Gelawdewos (the son of Emperor Lebna Dengle), del Wambara successfully negotiated with the Dowager Empress Seble Wongel to exchange the captured brother of Gelawdewos for the boy.[3][4] Del Wambara then fled to Harar with 40 soldiers and 300 horsemen.[6]

In 1552,[4] nearly 10 years after Imam ibn Ibrahim's death, she married the successive Emir of Adal, Nur ibn Mujahid. This was a political marriage aiming to enforce Nur's legitimacy. She is supposed to have pushed him into reviving the jihad in order to avenge the death of her deceased husband.[7] In 1559, Nur ibn Mujahid's forces fought against the heavily outnumbered Emperor Gelawdewos in Fatagar, and the dead body of Ethiopian emperor was beheaded, reportedly on the order of del Wambara.[4]

References
  1. Rita Pankhurst - Women of Power in Ethiopia: Struggle and Loss Archived 2015-08-08 at the Wayback Machine
  2. Baynes-Rock, Marcus (21 September 2015). Among the Bone Eaters. Penn State Press. ISBN 9780271074047. Retrieved 25 April 2016.
  3. Castanhoso, Miguel de (1902). Whiteway, R.S. (ed.). The Portuguese expedition to Abyssinia in 1541-1543 as narrated by Castanhoso. London: Redford Press. Retrieved 11 June 2020.
  4. Adugna, Minale (January 2001). "Women and warfare in Ethiopia". Gender Issues Research Report Series (13): 10. Retrieved 3 March 2021.
  5. Sihab ad-Din Ahmad, in his Futuh al-Habasa (translated by Paul Lester Stenhouse with annotations by Richard Pankhurst [Hollywood: Tsehai, 2003]) consistently uses the word "Jihad" to refer to Ahmad Gragn's conquest of Ethiopia.
  6. Nurhusien, Muhammed (2017). A survey of historical heritages in Gondar Zuria Woreda: from the fourteenth to the eighteenth century (MA). University of Gondar.
  7. Doresse, Jean (1970). Histoire de l'Ethiopie. Que sais-je?. Vol. 1393. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.
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