Battle of Wayna Daga
date | February 21, 1543 |
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place | east of Lake Tana , today's Amhara region , Ethiopia |
output | decisive victory for Ethiopia |
Parties to the conflict | |
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Commander | |
Claudius (Gelwadewos) |
|
Troop strength | |
8,000 Ethiopian infantrymen 500 Ethiopian horses |
14,000 infantrymen 1200 horses 200 Ottoman musketeers |
losses | |
unknown |
large, but not exactly known; 160 Ottoman musketeers killed |
The Battle of Wayna Daga ( Amharic for "Weinbauanhöhe"), also known as the Battle of Lake Tana , took place on February 21, 1543 east of Lake Tana in what is now Ethiopia . The combined Ethiopian-Portuguese army under the young emperor Claudius (Gelawdewos) defeated the Muslim army of Imam Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghasi (Ahmed Gran ) from the Sultanate of Adal . Gran himself was killed by a Portuguese musketeer who had invaded the ranks of the Muslims alone. As a result, his army broke up and his soldiers fled the battlefield when they learned of his death.
Ahmed Gran's wife Bati del Wambara escaped to Harar with 40 surviving musketeers , but their son was captured after the battle and was later exchanged for the brother of the Ethiopian emperor, Minas .