The Adal Sultanate also known as the Adal Empire, or Bar Saʿad dīn was a medieval Sunni Muslim Empire which was located in the Horn of Africa. It was founded by Sabr ad-Din III on the Harar plateau in Adal after the fall of the Sultanate of Ifat. The kingdom flourished c. 1415 to 1577. At its height, the polity under Sultan Badlay controlled the territory stretching from Cape Guardafui in Somalia to the port city of Suakin in Sudan. The Adal Empire maintained a robust commercial and political relationship with the Ottoman Empire. Sultanate of Adal was alternatively known as the federation of Zeila.
Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi was the Imam of the Adal Sultanate from 1527 to 1543. Imam Ahmad led the conquest of the Ethiopian Empire under the Sultanate of Adal during the Ethiopian-Adal War. He is often referred to as the "King of Zeila" in medieval texts.
Newaya Krestos was Emperor of Ethiopia from 1344 to 1372, and a member of the Solomonic dynasty. He was the eldest son of Amda Seyon I.
Yeshaq I, throne name: Gabra Masqal II was Emperor of Ethiopia from 1414 to 1429/1430, and a member of the Solomonic dynasty. He was the second son of Emperor Dawit I.
Zara Yaqob was Emperor of Ethiopia, and a member of the Solomonic dynasty who ruled under the regnal name Kwestantinos I. He is known for the Ge'ez literature that flourished during his reign, the handling of both internal Christian affairs and external wars with Muslims, along with the founding of Debre Birhan as his capital. He reigned for 34 years and 2 months.
Baeda Maryam I, otherwise known as Cyriacus was Emperor of Ethiopia from 1468 to 1478, and a member of the Solomonic dynasty. His reign was characterized by a number of military campaigns, most notably against the Dobe'a who lived along the western escarpment of the Ethiopian Highlands.
The Sultanate of Ifat, known as Wafāt or Awfāt in Arabic texts, or the Kingdom of Zeila was a medieval Sunni Muslim state in the eastern regions of the Horn of Africa between the late 13th century and early 15th century. It was formed in present-day Ethiopia around eastern Shewa in Ifat. Led by the Walashma dynasty, the polity stretched from Zequalla to the port city of Zeila. The kingdom ruled over parts of what are now Ethiopia, Djibouti and Somaliland.
Sa'ad ad-Din II, reigned c. 1386 – c. 1403 or c. 1410, 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 historian Richard Pankhurst describes him as "the last great ruler of Ifat." He was of a Somali ethnic background.
Haqq ad-Din II was a Sultan of the Ifat Sultanate, the brother of Sa'ad ad-Din II, and the son of Ahmad ibn Ali.
The Walashma dynasty was a medieval Muslim dynasty of the Horn of Africa founded in Ifat. Founded in the 13th century, it governed the Ifat and Adal Sultanates in what are present-day Somaliland, Djibouti and eastern Ethiopia.
Jamal ad-Din II was a Sultan of the Adal Sultanate. He was the youngest son of Sa'ad ad-Din II. He was of a Somali ethnic background.
Badlay ibn Sa'ad ad-Din II (also known as Sihab ad-Din Ahmad Badlay, Arwe Badlay – "Badlay the Beast" was a Sultan of the Sultanate of Adal and a son of Sa'ad ad-Din II. Brought numerous Christian lands under Muslim rule and contributed to expanding Adal's reach and power in the region. The polity under Sultan Badlay controlled the territory stretching from port city of Suakin in Sudan to covering the whole Afar plains to the Shewa and Chercher Mountains to include significant portions of Somaliland. His name Badlay means "upper country" in the Harari language. Sultanate of Mogadishu was also tributary state of Adal under Badlay.
Muhammad ibn Badlay was a Sultan of the Sultanate of Adal. He was the son of Badlay ibn Sa'ad ad-Din. During his reign the Adalite ruler Muhammad and the Solomonic ruler Baeda Maryam agreed to a truce and both states in the following decades saw an unprecedent period of peace and stability. He was of a Somali ethnic background.
Muhammad ibn Azhar ad-Din was a Sultan of the Sultanate of Adal. Sihab ad-Din Ahmad states in his Futuh al-Habasha that he was the son of Azhar, the second son of Abu Bakr, one of the ten sons of Sa'ad ad-Din II, and ruled for 30 years. He was of a Somali ethnic background.
Hadiya also known as Adea or Hadia was a medieval Muslim state in the southern part of its realm located south of Shewa and west of Sharkha. Hadiya was historically a vassal state of the Adal federation and then became a province of Abyssinia in the fourteenth century. In the 1600s Hadiya regained its independence and was led by a Garad. By 1850, Hadiya is placed north-west of lakes Zway and Langano but still between these areas.
Hadiya, also spelled as Hadiyya, is an ethnic group native to Ethiopia in Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples' Region who speak the Hadiyyisa language. According to a popular etymology, the name 'Hadiyya," sometimes written in the versions Hadya, Hadea, Hadija, Hadiyo, Hadiyeh, Adea, Adia, means "gift of god" A historical definition of the Hadiya people based on the old Hadiyya Sultanate included a number of Ethiopian ethnic groups currently known by other names. Currently, this historic entity is subdivided into a number of ethnonyms, partly with different languages and cultural affiliations. In his book "A History of the Hadiyya in Southern Ethiopia," Ulrich Braukämper reported that Leemo, Weexo-giira, Sooro, Shaashoogo, Baadawwaachcho, and Libido (Maraqo) Hadiyya,Endegang subgroups remain a language entity and preserved identity of oneness, the Hadiyya proper. In contrast, Qabeena, Halaaba, Welene and Gedebano, and Silt'e people developed separate ethnic identities. Clans of Hadiya origin in Oromia, Sidama, Wolayta, Gurage, Tigray, and Afar were completely absorbed by these nations. They were initially all inhabitants of a single political entity, a sultanate, which in the four centuries following its break-up in the mid-16th century fragmented into separate ethnic groups.
The Ethiopian Empire, also formerly known by the exonym Abyssinia, or simply known as Ethiopia, was a sovereign state that historically encompasses the geographical area of present-day Ethiopia and Eritrea from the establishment of the Solomonic dynasty by Yekuno Amlak approximately in 1270 until the 1974 coup d'etat by the Derg, which dethroned Emperor Haile Selassie. By 1896, the empire incorporated other regions such as Hararghe, Gurage and Wolayita, and saw its largest expansion with the federation of Eritrea in 1952. Throughout much of its existence, it was surrounded by hostile forces in the African Horn; however, it managed to develop and preserve a kingdom based on its ancient form of Christianity.
Nur al-Din or Nur ibn Mujahidibn ‘Ali ibn ‘Abdullah al Dhuhi Suha was a Somali Emir of Harar who ruled the Adal Sultanate. He was known for marrying his uncle's widow, Bati del Wambara, and he also succeeded Imam Ahmad as leader of the Muslim forces fighting Christian Ethiopia.
The Ethiopian–Adal War or Abyssinian–Adal War, also known in Arabic as the "Futuḥ al-Ḥabash", was a military conflict between the Christian Ethiopian Empire and the Muslim Adal Sultanate from 1529 to 1543. The Christian Ethiopian troops consisted of the Amhara, Tigrayans, Tigrinya and Agaw people, and at the closing of the war, supported by a few hundred Portuguese musketmen. Whereas Adal forces were mainly comprised of Harla, Somali, Afar, as well as Arab and Turkish gunmen. Both sides at times would see the Maya mercenaries join their ranks.
Dawaro or Doaro was a Muslim principality which laid alongside the Ifat Sultanate. The state was originally independent until becoming a vassal and later a province due its subjugation by Emperor Amda Seyon I in the early 14th century. The region was situated east of Hadiya and north of Bali which covered much of Ethiopia's Arsi Province.
Ethiopian Empire 
Adal Sultanate