Sultanate of Ifat

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Sultanate of Ifat around 1300

The Sultanate Ifat , also Ifaad or Yifat , was a Muslim sultanate on the territory of today's Ethiopia and Northern Somalia ( Somaliland ), which existed from the 13th century until it was conquered by the Christian empire Abyssinia in 1415. It is considered the forerunner of the Adal Sultanate .

Sultan Umar Walashma from the Walashma dynasty founded Ifat in 1285 with the conquest of the Sultanate of Shewa . Later other areas of Shewa and Afar and the neighboring, newly founded states of Fatajar, Dawaro, Bale and Adal were added. After a war between the Sultan Hakk ad-Din against Ethiopia under Negus Amda Seyon , Ifat became tributary to Ethiopia. During this time Ifat extended its sphere of influence to the port city of Saylac (Zeila). After Sultan S'adad-Din had tried to achieve complete independence for Ifat for the last time, Isaac (Yeshaq) conquered and annexed the sultanate in 1415.

At the end of the 15th century, descendants of the Walashma dynasty, who had moved further east to Harar , re-established the old Sultanate of Adal. In the 16th century, this became the most important Muslim state in the Horn of Africa .

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