Mansur ad-Din ( ar, منصور اد الدين) (died 1424) was a
Sultan
Sultan (; ar, سلطان ', ) is a position with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", derived from the verbal noun ', meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it c ...
of the
Sultanate of Adal and a son of
Sa'ad ad-Din II
Sa'ad ad-Din II ( ar, سعد الدين زنكي), reigned – c. 1403 or c. 1414, was a Sultan of the Ifat Sultanate. He was the brother of Haqq ad-Din II, and the father of Mansur ad-Din, Sabr ad-Din II and Badlay ibn Sa'ad ad-Din. The hist ...
.
Reign
On the death of his brother
Sabr ad-Din III
Sabr ad-Din III ( ar, الصبر الدين الثاني) (died 1422 or 1423) was a Sultan of Adal and the oldest son of Sa'ad ad-Din II. Sabr ad-Din returned to the Horn of Africa from Yemen to reclaim his father's realm. He defeated the Ethio ...
, Sultan Mansur succeeded the throne and enjoyed support of his brother Muhammad.
Early in his reign he launched an expedition against an Ethiopian Christian monarch, Emperor Dawit and drove him to Yedaya which was described as his royal seat, destroyed the Solomonic army, where according to Maqrizi, he was captured and killed.
His death however presumed to be an event of major importance, is not recorded by the Ethiopian Chronicles. The Ethiopian historian
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 it's because the Ethiopian royal chronicles often deliberately attempted to suppress the violent deaths of the kings whose reigns they extol.
Mansur later made his way towards to Moha mountains where surrounded a considerable imperial force of 30.000 soldiers. He besieged them for two months by the end of which they were suffering from hunger and thirst. He then offered them an ultimatum of embracing Islam or return to their homes. Some 10.000 accepted the new faith of Islam; the remaining ones went home.
Soon after this the fortunes of war again changed. In 1424 another Christian monarch, Emperor Yeshaq, set forth with a huge army which Maqrizi likens to a swarm of locusts. Mansur and his brother Muhammad were captured and once more the former lands came under the rule of the Christian Amhara
[E. A. Wallis Budge, ''A History of Ethiopia: Nubia and Abyssinia'', 1928 (Oosterhout, the Netherlands: Anthropological Publications, 1970), p. 302.]
See also
*
Walashma dynasty
The Walashma dynasty was a medieval Muslim dynasty of the Horn of Africa. Founded in 1285, it was centered in Zeila, and established bases around the Horn of Africa. It governed the Ifat and Adal Sultanates in what are present-day Somaliland, ...
Notes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mansur Ad-Din Of Adal
Sultans of the Adal Sultanate
15th-century monarchs in Africa
1424 deaths
Year of birth unknown
15th-century Somalian people