User:Alexanderkowal/sandbox/History of Africa: East Africa

East Africa

Horn of Africa

Medhri Bahri, Ajuran

At the beginning of the 6th century, the Kingdom of Aksum ruled over much of modern-day Ethiopia, Eritrea, and South Arabia, neighbouring the Harla Kingdom its east, whilst ancient Somali city-states such as Mosylon, Opone, Sarapion, Avalites, and Aromata on the Somali Peninsula continued to thrive off of the lucrative Indian Ocean trade and their preferential relations with India. Aksum was balanced against the Himyarite Kingdom in southwestern Arabia, who was allied to the Sassanid Empire in Persia and eastern Arabia, by forming an alliance with the Byzantine Empire. At this point, the Romans and the Persians had been wrestling for control of the Middle East for over five centuries, involving many proxy conflicts, and Aksum and Himyar had come into conflict various times over the past few centuries. In 518, Aksum invaded Himyar citing the persecution of the Christian community by the Jewish Himyarite king. Following the capture of Najran, the Aksumites implanted a puppet on the Himyarite throne, however a coup d'etat in 522 brought Dhu Nuwas to power who again began persecuting Christians, causing the Aksumites to invade again in 525, and with Byzantine aid conquer the kingdom, incorporating it as a vassal state after some minor internal conflict.

Aksumite trade in the Red Sea likely suffered following the Sassanid conquest of Egypt and the Levant during the early 7th century. Following the birth of Islam, Muslim-Akumite relations were initially positive with Aksum serving refuge for early Muslims fleeing from persecution in 613, however soured after Aksum made incursions along the Arab coast and the Muslims occupied the Dahlak archipelago. At the beginning of the eighth century, an Umayyad caliph had four kings drawn on the walls of his palace in Qusayr 'Amra, Jordan, which were the sovereigns of Visigothic Spain, Byzantium, Persia, and Aksum. Aksum became isolated following the Muslim conquests and the expulsion of the Byzantines from the region, experiencing a decline in prosperity. In the 8th century, Beja nomads invaded and occupied modern-day Eritrea, causing Aksum to lose their access to the Red Sea, with the Beja establishing various kingdoms and soon Islamising. This caused Aksumite population migrated further into the highlands, moving their capital from Aksum to Kubar, expanding south. Local legend holds that the Kingdom of Beta Israel endured in the highlands and finally descended in 960, with the Jewish queen Gudit defeating and devastating Aksum. According to tradition, she ruled for 40 years before being overthrown by the Zagwe dynasty in 1137. The Christian Zagwe unsuccessfully campaigned against the pagan Kingdom of Damot, which was the major regional power throughout this brief period.

During the 8th and 9th centuries Islam spread through the Somali Peninsula via proselytisation through Muslim clerics, with the Somali being some of the first non-Arabs to convert to Islam. The Somalis, previously pastoralist, organised into various clans in the ninth and tenth centuries, and established the Tunni Sultanate, and the Sultanate of Mogadishu out of Sarapion, along with various Muslim states in the Harar Plateau including Fatagar, Dawaro, Bale, Hadiya, and Adal, neighbouring the Arab Sultanate of Shewa and the Kingdom of Damot to the south. In 1275 the Arab dynasty of the Sultanate of Shewa was overthrown by Umar Walasma of the Walashma dynasty, who established the Sultanate of Ifat and expanded into the Harar Plateau including the key trading city of Zeila, previously Avalites. In the 13th century, alongside Mogadishu, the Ajuran Sultanate was established from the Garen Kingdom and subsequently expanded along the eastern Somali Peninsula, coming to dominate the Indian Ocean trade. Ajuran was simultaneously joined by the Warsangali Sultanate out of the Warsangali clan with Mosylon becoming Bosaso.

To the west, in 1270 Yekuno Amlak, purportedly descending from the last king of Aksum, rebelled and defeated the Zagwe king in battle, and established the Solomonic dynasty of the nascent Christian Ethiopian Empire. Throughout the next few decades, Ethiopia campaigned against Damot, Harla, Gojjam, and in its northern provinces where Beta Israel had been gaining prominence, whilst Ifat incorporated the polities of Gidaya, Dawaro, Sawans, Bale, and Fatagar. In 1320, a diplomatic religious dispute between the Ethiopian emperor and Mamluk sultan caused the Ifat sultan to initiate war against Ethiopia, and he invaded, burning churches and forcing renunciation on Christians, until the Ethiopian emperor retaliated and defeated the Ifat armies, raiding their provinces and forcing the Muslim states to become tributaries, putting down a widespread rebellion in 1332, ushering in a golden age for the Ethiopian Empire. In 1415 Sabr ad-Din III of the Walashma dynasty returned from exile to establish the Adal Sultanate, defeating the Ethiopian armies, and beginning the reconquest of the Harar Plateau.