| Battle of Serjan | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||||
 Ethiopian Empire |  Adal Sultanate | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
| Dawit I | Sabr ad-Din III | ||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
| Unknown | Outnumbered | ||||||||
The Battle of Serjan was military engagement fought between the Ethiopian Empire and the emerging Adal Empire. The Adalite army was victorious and the reconquest of the Kingdom continues. [1] [2]
After their father was defeated in 1409, Sabr ad-Din III and his brothers fled in Yemen to the Rasulid court at Ta‘izz where they were received by the Sultan al-Malik al-Nāṣir. It is probable that they joined their uncle there. [3]
In 1412, Sabr ad-Din and his brothers came back to the Horn of Africa and landed in Siyara where they were joined by a number of their father's former followers to claim their once lost Kingdom, what followed was a series of hostilities and battles between the Christian Kingdom of Ethiopia and the emerging Adal Empire, he first beat the Ethiopians at the Battle of Zikr Amhara and then proceeded to the district of Serjan. [3]
Tough outnumbered by the soldiers of the Christian state, they fought a successful battle. Scattering their enemies, they burned many houses and churches and took a large amount of booty in Gold and other valuables. [4] [5]
What followed approximately a year later was the Battle of Retwa where Sabr ad-Din's brother defeated a larger Christian army but also the Battle of Adal where Sabr ad-Din himself burned the headquarters of the Christian king, he later came back victorious, with much loot and booty to his capital city where he ordered his followers to prolong the war.
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.
Amda Seyon I, also known as Amda Tsiyon I, throne name Gebre Mesqel, was Emperor of Ethiopia from 1314 to 1344 and a member of the Solomonic dynasty.
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The Battle of Zikr Amhara was a military engagement fought between the Ethiopian Empire and the emerging Adal Empire. The Adalite army was victorious and the reconquest of Adal began.
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