Salih was the leader of
Adal
Adal may refer to:
*A short form for Germanic names in ''aþala-'' (Old High German ''adal-''), "nobility, pedigree"; see Othalan
**Adál Maldonado (1948-2020), Puerto Rican artist
** Adal Ramones (born 1969), Mexican television show host
** Adal ...
in the fourteenth century. He was commonly known as
Qadi
A qāḍī ( ar, قاضي, Qāḍī; otherwise transliterated as qazi, cadi, kadi, or kazi) is the magistrate or judge of a '' sharīʿa'' court, who also exercises extrajudicial functions such as mediation, guardianship over orphans and mino ...
or
Imam of the
Harar
Harar ( amh, ሐረር; Harari: ሀረር; om, Adare Biyyo; so, Herer; ar, هرر) known historically by the indigenous as Gey (Harari: ጌይ ''Gēy'', ) is a walled city in eastern Ethiopia. It is also known in Arabic as the City of Saint ...
territory.
Salih is known for resisting the invasion of Adal by Emperor of
Ethiopia
Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...
Amda Seyon. Despite their alliance tension between
Ifat and Adal leaders was evident as Salih refused to wait for the arrival of Ifat's troops under sultan
Jamal ad-Din I
Jamal ad-Din ( ar, جمال اد الدين) (flourished mid-14th century) was a governor of the Sultanate of Ifat. He was the son of Nahwi b. Mansur b. Umar Walashma (Umar ibn Dunya-huz) and a brother of Haqq ad-Din I.
Reign
The Emperor of Eth ...
before attacking the Abyssinians inorder to avoid allocating the spoils of war with Ifat.
Taddesse Tamrat
Taddesse Tamrat ( am, ታደሰ ታምራት; 4 August 1935 – 23 May 2013) was an Ethiopian historian and scholar of Ethiopian studies. He is best known as the author of ''Church and State in Ethiopia 1270–1520'' (1972, Oxford University Pre ...
argues Salih diminished Sultan Jamal of Ifat's power as he had gained the confidence of Muslims in the region. Salih and his
Harla
The Harla, also known as Harala, or Arla, are an extinct ethnic group that once inhabited Djibouti, Ethiopia and northern Somalia. They spoke the now-extinct Harla language, which belonged to either the Cushitic or Semitic branches of the Afroas ...
supporters were however defeated at the
Battle of Das in which Salih was himself killed by Emperor Amda Seyon of Ethiopia's army.
In 1621 Salih's tomb was rediscovered in Harar.
References
People from the Adal Sultanate
Military personnel killed in action
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