Mansur ad-Din
منصور اد الدين
2nd Sultan of the Sultanate of Adal
Reignearly 15th century
PredecessorSabr ad-Din III
SuccessorJamal ad-Din II
Died1424
DynastyWalashma dynasty
ReligionIslam

Mansur ad-Din (Arabic: منصور اد الدين) (died 1424) was a Sultan of the Sultanate of Adal and a son of Sa'ad ad-Din II.[1][2] He was of a Somali ethnic background.[3][4]

Reign

After his reconquest of Adal, Sabr ad-Din III died of natural causes in 1422, Sultan Mansur succeeded the throne and enjoyed support of his brother Muhammad.

Early in his reign he launched an expedition against an Ethiopian Christian monarch, Emperor Dawit I and drove him to Yedaya which was described as his royal seat, destroyed the Solomonic army, where according to Maqrizi, Dawit was captured and killed. His death however presumed to be an event of major importance, is not recorded by the Ethiopian Chronicles. The Ethiopian historian Taddesse Tamrat argues it's because the Ethiopian royal chronicles often deliberately attempted to suppress the violent deaths of the kings whose reigns they extol.[5][6]

Mansur later made his way towards to the Moha mountains where he surrounded a considerable imperial force of 30,000 soldiers. He besieged them for two months by the end of which they were suffering from hunger and thirst. He then offered them an ultimatum of embracing Islam or return to their homes. Some 10,000 men accepted the new faith of Islam; the remaining ones went home.

Death

Soon after this the fortunes of war again changed. In 1424 another Christian monarch, Emperor Yeshaq I, set forth with a huge army which Maqrizi likens to a swarm of locusts, the christian troops were also trained by fugitive Mamluk which taught them the secrets of Greek fire.[7] Mansur and his brother Muhammad were captured, their brother Jamal ad-Din immediately succeeded on the throne afterwards.[8][9]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Asafa Jalata, State Crises, Globalisation, And National Movements In North-east Africa page 3-4
  2. ↑ The date of his death is from J. Spencer Trimingham, Islam in Ethiopia (Oxford: Geoffrey Cumberlege for the University Press, 1952), p. 75.
  3. ↑ Cerulli, Enrico (1926). Le popolazioni della Somalia nella tradizione storica locale. L'Accademia. "Cerulli suggests that the Saint "Aw Barkhdale" (Yusuf Al Kownayn) can be associated with "Yusuf Barkatla", ancestor of Umar' Walashma, founder of the Ifat dynasty"
  4. ↑ Lewis, I. M. (1998). Saints and Somalis: Popular Islam in a Clan-based Society. The Red Sea Press. ISBN 9781569021033.
  5. ↑ Budge E.a. Wallis (1828). History Of Ethiopia Nubia And Abyssinia. p. 302.
  6. ↑ Pankhurst, Richard (1997). The Ethiopian Borderlands: Essays in Regional History from Ancient Times to the End of the 18th Century. The Red Sea Press. p. 57. ISBN 978-0-932415-19-6.
  7. ↑ Morié, Louis-J. Auteur du texte (1904). Histoire de l'Éthiopie (Nubie et Abyssinie) : depuis les temps les plus reculés jusqu'à nos jours. L'Abyssinie (Éthiopie moderne) / par L.-J. Morié... p. 215.
  8. ↑ Pankhurst, Richard. The Ethiopian Borderlands: Essays in Regional History from Ancient Times to the End of the 18th Century (Asmara, Eritrea: Red Sea Press, 1997), pp.57
  9. ↑ E. A. Wallis Budge, A History of Ethiopia: Nubia and Abyssinia, 1928 (Oosterhout, the Netherlands: Anthropological Publications, 1970), p. 302.
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