Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi Net Worth

Background and career

Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi (Arabic: أحمد بن إبراهيم الغازي, Harari: አሕመድ ኢብራሂም አል-ጋዚ, Somali: Axmed Ibraahim al-Qaasi; c. 21 July 1506 – 10 February 1543) was the Imam of the Adal Sultanate from 1527 to 1543. Commonly named ግራኝ አህመድ (Grañ Ahmed) in Amharic and Gurey in Somali, both meaning "the left-handed", he led the invasion and conquest of Abyssinia from the Sultanate of Adal during the Ethiopian–Adal War. He is often referred to as the "King of Zeila" in medieval texts.

Dubbed "The African Attila" by Orientalist Frederick A. Edwards, Imam Ahmed's conquests reached all the way to the borders of the Sultanate of Funj. Imam Ahmed won nearly all his battles against the Ethiopians before 1541 and after his victory at Battle of Amba Sel, the Ethiopian Emperor, Dawit II was never again in a position to offer a pitched battle to his army and was subsequently forced to live as an outlaw constantly hounded by Imam Ahmed's soldiers, the Malassay. Ahmed Gragn was subsequently defeated following a Portuguese intervention, which drew his war into a broader geo-political struggle between the Portuguese and Ottoman empires. The memory and legacy of his invasion nonetheless persists in both modern Ethiopia and Somalia.