Rise of the Ifat Sultanate (Horn of Africa, 1178)

Name: Rise of the Ifat Sultanate (Horn of Africa, 1178)
Start: 1177
End: 1179

Type Event Region Africa Time 1177–1179

In the late 12th century the Ifat Sultanate rose in the Horn of Africa lowlands, challenging Zagwe Christian Ethiopia and controlling Red Sea inland …

Timeline

1178Shewa lowlands · Horn of AfricaThe Walasma family integrated Somali, Afar, and Oromo nomadic groups and established an Islamic sultanate's administrative and military system in the Shewa-Ifat lowlands.
1178–1179Edge of the Ethiopian highlands · EthiopiaIfat forces expanded toward the highland margins, engaging in border conflicts and tributary disputes with the Zagwe dynasty, with control of Red Sea trade routes becoming the focus of their rivalry.

Sources

The Ethiopian Borderlands: Essays in Regional History from Ancient Times to the End of the 18th Century — Richard Pankhurst (1997)
Islam in Ethiopia — J. Spencer Trimingham (1952)