The Maya are an extinct ethnic group native to the old Wej province in Ethiopia. The Mayas were a Cushitic-speaking nomadic people, who were feared and dreaded by their neighbors for their use of deadly poisoned arrows. They were primarily pastoralists and their livelihood was with their cattle. The Maya were related to the Afar people.[ clarification needed ] [1]
To strengthen the imperial presence in the area, Zara Yaqob established a military colony consisting of Maya warriors from the south of his realm in the Medri Bahri. [2] Maya archers initially formed the core[ citation needed ][ clarification needed ] of the southern armies of Abyssinian Emperor Lebna Dengel in the Abyssinian–Adal war against the forces of the Adal Sultanate. However, after the fall of their homeland to Ahmed's armies, in true mercenary fashion, the Maya bowmen switched sides. [3]
Maya bowmen were armed with spears. They tipped their arrows with ouabain, a poison which caused death by cardiac arrest or respiratory failure.
The Maya homeland of Wej was one of the first lands to be invaded by the Oromo migrations. The Maya repelled the weight of the Oromo for years due to their skill with the bow, until the Oromo armies changed tactics and used thick oxhide shields and fixed shield formations. [3] In 1574, after finding out the Oromo had conquered the province of Wej, Emperor Sarsa Dengel gathered his forces from throughout Ethiopia to form an army at Gind Beret. From there, Sarsa Dengel headed south, where he found that the Oromo had also taken Maya. Sarsa Dengel was able to defeat the Oromo forcing them to flee towards Fatager. [4] By the end of the 16th century the Mayas were overrun by the attacking Oromos who had equipped themselves with big stiff oxhide shields as a special protection from against arrows. Before they totally disappeared from the historical scene, either by physical extermination or assimilation into the Oromos. [3]
They were for the last time documented as auxiliaries for the Ethiopian Emperor Susenyos I. [5]
Malik Ambar (1548 – 1626) was possibly born as a Maya under the birth name Chapu. [6]
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.
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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 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.
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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.
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