Muhammad ibn Azhar ad-Din

Muhammad ibn Azhar ad-Din (Arabic: محمد بن الأزهر اد الدين) (reigned 1488–1518) was a Sultan of the Sultanate of Adal. Sihab ad-Din Ahmad states in his Futuh al-Habasha that he was the son of Azhar, the second son of Abu Bakr, one of the ten sons of Sa'ad ad-Din II, and ruled for 30 years.[1]

Muhammad ibn Azhar ad-Din
محمد بن الأزهر اد الدين
Sultan of the Sultanate of Adal
Reign1488–1518
PredecessorMuhammad ibn Badlay
SuccessorAbun Adashe
DynastyWalashma dynasty
ReligionIslam

Reign

Sultan Muhammad attempted to remain at peace with the Emperor Na'od, but his efforts were foiled by the frequent raids of Imam Mahfuz. He was present with Imam Mahfuz when Emperor Lebna Dengel attacked and destroyed the Imam's army in Dawaro in 1516. Lebna Dengel would then proceed to lay waste to Muhammad Azhar ad-Din's residence in Dakkar during his invasion of Adal.[2]

Muhammad was murdered upon his return from an expedition against Ethiopia a few years after the Imam's death. J. Spencer Trimingham states that he was succeeded as Sultan of Adal by Garad Abun ibn Adash, who was not a member of the Walashma dynasty; Sihab ad-Din, however, writes that it was his relative in marriage, Muhammad bin Abu Bakr bin Mahfuz, who succeeded him as Sultan.[3] Richard Pankhurst follows Trimingham's general account, noting that Adal "was then torn apart by intestinal struggles, five sultans succeeding one another within two years."[4]

See also

Notes
  1. Sihab ad-Din Ahmad bin 'Abd al-Qader, Futuh al-Habasa: The conquest of Ethiopia, translated by Paul Lester Stenhouse with annotations by Richard Pankhurst (Hollywood: Tsehai, 2003), pp. 7f.
  2. Ullendorff, Edward. The Ethiopians; an Introduction to Country and People. Oxford University Press. p. 72.
  3. J. Spencer Trimingham, Islam in Ethiopia (Oxford: Geoffrey Cumberlege for the University Press, 1952), pp. 82-84.
  4. Richard Pankhurst, The Ethiopian Borderlands (Lawrenceville: Red Sea Press, 1997), p. 125
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