Umar Din
ʿUmar Dīn (Arabic: عمر الدين), reigned 1526–1553, was a Sultan ruling over the Sultanate of Adal in the Horn of Africa. He was the younger brother of Abu Bakr ibn Muhammad.[1]
| ʿUmar Dīn عمر الدين | |
|---|---|
| Sultan of Adal Sultanate | |
| Reign | 1526–1553 |
| Predecessor | Abu Bakr ibn Muhammad (1525–1526) |
| Successor | Ali ibn Umar Din (1553–1555) |
| Born | Zelia, Somalia |
| Dynasty | Walashmaʿ dynasty |
| Religion | Islam |
Reign
After his brother Abu Bakr ibn Muhammad was killed by Imam Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi (1506–1543) in 1526, Umar Din was made sultan by Imam Ahmad. He ruled as a puppet king, with Imam Ahmad wielding true power.[2]
Umar Din was made Sultan by Imam Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi after he killed his brother Abu Bakr ibn Muhammad in 1526, and ruled at least until the Imam was killed in battle in 1543. Although Trimingham describes the Sultan as the Imam's puppet,[3] the Futuh al-Habasa of Sihab ad-Din records that the Sultan and the Imam quarrelled over the distribution of the alms tax at some point between the Battle of Shimbra Kure and the Battle of Amba Sel, which led to Imam Ahmad leaving Harar to live amongst his fellow Somalis in Zeila for some time. This suggests Umar Din wielded some power of his own.[4]
He was succeeded by his son Ali ibn Umar Din in 1553, who in turn was succeeded by his brother Barakat ibn Umar Din, the last member of the Walashmaʿ dynasty, in 1555.[5]
Notes
- Tamrat 1977, p. 169; Spencer Trimingham 1952, p. 86.
- Spencer Trimingham 1952, p. 86.
- J. Spencer Trimingham, Islam in Ethiopia (Oxford: Geoffrey Cumberlege for the University Press, 1952), p. 86.
- 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. 101-105
- Spencer Trimingham 1952, p. 92, note 4.
Works cited
- Spencer Trimingham, John (1952). Islam in Ethiopia. Oxford: Oxford University Press. OCLC 458382994.
- Tamrat, Taddesse (1977). "Ethiopia, the Red Sea and the Horn". In Oliver, Roland (ed.). The Cambridge History of Africa. Volume 3: from c. 1050 to c. 1600. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 98–182. ISBN 978-0-521-20981-6.