Talk:Ethiopian-Adal War

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is part of WikiProject Ethiopia, an attempt to co-ordinate articles related to Ethiopia. If you would like to participate, you can edit this article, or visit the project page, where you can join the project and/or contribute to the discussion.
Start This article has been rated as Start-Class on the Project's quality scale.
High This article is rated as being of high importance.


Portugal Portal
Ethiopian-Adal War is part of WikiProject Portugal, a project to improve all Portugal-related articles. If you would like to help improve this and other Portugal-related articles, please join the project. All interested editors are welcome.
Start This article has been rated as Start-Class on the quality scale.
Portugal To-do:


[edit] Invasion or War

Wouldn't a better name for this subject be "The Invasion of Ahmad Gragn"? After all, Gragn did not see this conflict in terms of Adal vs. Ethiopia, but as Moslem vs. Christian. At least the author of the Futuh colors his account of this series of violent events with this mindset, separating his campaigns into the Ethiopian highlands into "The first Jihad", "The second Jihad", etc. -- llywrch 18:54, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] War

Hi there and thnx for getting involved with the article. I tried to have a discussion on the naming of this conflict on like 4 different pages and got zero feedback. I was gonna go with your title, but opted for this one for two reason

  • 1...I figured the name was too cumbersom and would make the article hard to find
  • 2...I figured a conflict between organized states for FOURTEEN YEARS was more than just an invasion. For instance, when America attack Iraq, it was dubbed "the american invasion of iraq" for the first year or two. After being there for two more, it became "the iraq war". just something to chew on there.
  • 3...i went to a lot of trouble linking other pages with this article and really don't wanna change the name now.

I see your point tho. The war began and ended with Ahmad Gragn. But the Adal (it's a people as well as a sultanate) were the driving force in the fight. They had revolted against Ethiopia before. Ahmad Gran just made them successful.

On another note, 'm glad some1 has access to a book about this conflict cuz my personal library has virtualy nothing on the subject. I went with Abyssinian-Adal War or Ethiopian-Adal War to keep with naming traditions of other conflicts. I think we may need a redirect from the name u suggested tho. In terms of framing the conflict, pretty much all muslim rulers look at conflicts as "Believers" against "Infidels" during this period. That's propaganda 101. They used this terminology even against other muslim states. let me know what u think. hopefully some other folks will get involved and we can have a proper vote (and a proper page, lol) on this subject.Scott Free 20:47, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

I admit that finding information about this period in history is difficult. For example, the Futuh al-habasa was only available in a French translation from the late 19th century until a few years ago, when Paul Stenhouse published his English translation; however, this book takes things only up to the middle of the invasion. Then there are the two sources that R.S. Whiteway translated back in 1902 -- fortunately, you can obtain an electronic copy of this work in PDF format thru Google books. (More details at Ahmad ibn Ibrihim al-Ghazi and Dawit II of Ethiopia.) I've been slow in working on this due to inherent nature of working with primary sources: ignore the original research concerns, constructing a coherent narrative from primary sources is much like assembling a jigsaw puzzle, only you never know if you have all of the pieces! As for secondary sources, most of the ones I've found cover the 14 years at most a page or two, & often fail to have adequate access to all of the primary sources. Then there is the nationalist angle, e.g. was the Imam Ahmad Gragn a Somali? It's a tough topic, & not for the timid; I only wish I were less timid. ;-) llywrch 18:39, 12 October 2007 (UTC)
I actually have a copy of Pankhurst's translation of the Futuh although it's at home and not accessible to me right now, though I'm sure my library has a copy, so I'll work on this article when I can, but it'll have to be very infrequently. You should check out Pankhurst's Ethiopian borderlands, though, Llywrch. It covers the period covered by the Futuh with respective to the outlying provinces (basically all of the first years) extensively, which can help set up a basic chronology, although won't help that much in precise dates, strategies, attacks, etc. For that, you may try it's entry (I think under Ahmed Gragn) in the Encyclopaedia Aethiopica. — ዮም | (Yom) | Talk • contribs • Ethiopia 19:10, 12 October 2007 (UTC)
You guys rock! Thnx for putting those sources out there. i found an english translation of the Futuh al-habasa on amazon.com so i'll see if i can get my hands on it.Scott Free 19:29, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] HELP

Since every1's so interested in the name of this conflict, can we please get some contribs on the ACTUAL WAR?Scott Free 12:28, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

Tena yistilign, I tried to improve the article a bit, I hope it's alright, I'm gonna work on it the next days by incorporating some informations given on the German wikipedia [1] and here[2].--RasNehemia 19:48, 2 December 2007 (UTC)

thnx. of course it needs filling out and im not sure about all the fact but at least its something. you've done a lot more than us. :) Scott Free 20:05, 2 December 2007 (UTC)

Yep, we definately need some references and confirmations for this article. It's all in all very vague and you're hardly able to find anything regarding this war on the Internet.--RasNehemia 14:53, 3 December 2007 (UTC)