Ahmed Gragne

The Imâm Ahmed Al Ghazi (born in 1506 and died in 1543), called Gragne (the Left-handed person) by the Ethiopia NS, would be a Somali darod. He becomes sultan of Harrar (Adal) in 1535.

Towards 1520, the sultan of the Adal Abou-Bakr ibn-Mohammed is with the catches with the agitation of the population wandering Moslem women Somali and Danakil. The governor Aboun-Ben-Adash restores the order by exterminating the robbers, repressing the play, the drinking bouts, the dances rythmées by the drums. By its rigor, it obstructs the Sultan of Harrar Abou-Bakr which makes it kill with Zeïla in 1525. Abou-Bakr leaves the country in prey with the disorder and the banditism, which supports the preaching of the imâm Ahmed Al Ghazi. Its marriage with a girl of Mahfouz opens the doors of the capacity to him. Barn kills the Sultan and puts on the throne his/her own brother, which ensures an absolute authority to him on Adal.

In 1527, Ahmed Gragne refuses to pay the tribute with the Négus David II. The truce is broken between Christians and Moslems. Attacked by the Ethiopian army of the governor of Bali, Ahmed Gragne demolishes it at once, then reforms her troops with the mass of the Somali fanaticized and undertakes the holy war (Djihad) against Ethiopia until in 1542.

Ahmed Gragne is victorious the Ethiopian ones in Chémbéra-Kourié in March 1529, but its troops refuse to penetrate more deeply in the country. In 1531, It takes again the offensive against Ethiopia. Thanks to the Turkish firearms, it succeeds, in two years, to control the three quarters of the country: it occupies the Daouaro and the Choa, the Amhara and the Lasta, subject in the Bali passing, Hadya and Sidamo and erase the Christendom of the Cambata. It devastates the Ethiopian top-plates, burns the churches, plunders the cities and the monasteries. Only the provinces of the Striped , Bégameder and the Godjam are saved. In 1533, Gragne launches all its forces against the provinces of north. It invades the Striped one and meets a resistance in the province of Seraye, which belongs to the kingdom of the Medri Bahri, carried out by the Adkamé Melaga which will resist until the end of the holy war of Gragne.

Become sultan of Harrar, it completes the conquest of the Abyssinie, except for some mountainous regions where took refuge the Négus David II and its partisans. The country is devastated so much so that the invaders themselves suffer from the famine.

The Portuguese intervene in Ethiopia in 1541 to seccourir the négus Claudius, successor of David II. They gain the first success by crossing Amba-Sénéïti, then arrive at the beginning of April 1542 at the south of Macallé where they are cut off in front of the large one from the troops from Barn. In two battles in the north of the Amba-Alagui, they relax the Moslems, surprised by the firearms, and wound Imâm Ahmed Grange. Mid-April, they reach the plain of Ofala, in the south of the Lac Achangui, whereas the rain season arrives.

During this time, Gragne remakes its troops and there assistant 900 musketeers and ten received guns of Arabia of the pasha of the Turks of Zébid. It takes again the offensive before the season dries (August 29th, 1542) and puts the Portuguese in rout: two hundred survivors fold up themselves towards Sémien with the queen and the catholic Patriarch Bermudez. Their chief, Gift Christophe of Gamma, remained behind, is taken, tortured and turned in derision before being decapitated.

In October, the négus Claude successful to join to his troops what remains of the Portuguese, while Gragne, sure of its success, congédié its allies Turkish and regained its districts close to the Lac Tanned. The following year, the troops of Gragne are surprised and decimated by the Claude emperor in Ouaïna-Dega, close to the lake Tana, where it itself is killed out of a ball of mousquet by the Portuguese Pero de Lian (February 1543). Deprived of their chief, his soldiers disperse and are cut in part in their escape towards Adal.

Nour-ibn-Al-Ouazir succeeds Ahmed Gragne, encouraged by the widow of the imâm.

Random links: