Muhammad ibn Azhar ad-Din

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Muhammad ibn Azhar ad-Din (reigned 1488 - 1518) was a sultan of Adal. Sihab ad-Din Ahmad states in his Futuh al-Habasa 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]

Sultan Muhammad attempted to remain at peace with the Emperor of Ethiopia 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.

Muhammad was murdered upon his return from an expedition against Ethiopia a few years after. J. Spencer Trimingham states that he was succeeded as Sultan of Adal by al-Jarad 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.[2] 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."[3]

[edit] 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. ^ J. Spencer Trimingham, Islam in Ethiopia (Oxford: Geoffrey Cumberlege for the University Press, 1952), pp. 82-84.
  3. ^ Richard Pankhurst, The Ethiopian Borderlands (Lawrenceville: Red Sea Press, 1997), p. 125
Preceded by
Shams ad-Din ibn Muhammad		 Walashma dynasty Succeeded by
Abu Bakr ibn Muhammad
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