@Emir of Zayla @Midas @World @NidarNidar
A carry on from what i said above. I have been learning more and i am pretty sure that AwFat and a lot of western frontier settlements were actually not regular cities, but military garrisons which is called Amsar ''Garrison towns'' which in Muslim/Arab polities are positioned in the borders. The archeology and descriptions by Al-Umar describes Awfat and other towns with the same plan with walls, fortified buildings, fortresses/castles on hills and houses far apart from eachother.
Any time they conquered areas they resettled muslim families there, which i assume most are Somalis and built fortresses, mosques and public facilities.
Look at this information on Arab Muslim/Garrisons and compare it to medieval sources about Awdal, it's exactly what they were doing.
en.wikipedia.org
en.wikipedia.org
Text on how Sultan Badlay ''' Camped a thousand Muslim families there'' in one of the southwestern territories.
This is just a detailed example a century before Futuh , you see similar things play out all over Futuh resettling nomadic and agro-pastoral families into conquered territories and appointing them as governor garrisons.
And another thing Amde Sayeon never reached Awdal or even Zayla in pursuit of the Sultan at all, there is no mention of it in the internal Arabic chronicles . They are not even recording real history or facts at this point, just like the Gelewados chronicle, it's glorified fan fiction.
Some writers also take up on this and super impose Ethiopian fantasies on other texts, Al-Maqrizi in Kitab Al-Imam never mentions them reaching Zayla, sacking the city or conquering other Muslim territories or the Sultan being chased to Zayla. The Sultan Sa'ad Din was mentioned to be heroicly defeating a number of their kings and winning many battles until he fell in battle in the western frontline due to a traitor.
And Wali Asma which was the ancestor of Umar was just one of the numerous governors or Emirs and military generals from Awdal in the eastern provinces. Later his grandson Umar himself was appointed into the position by a regional Muslim leader in the western frontier.
Another thing i found is how was pretty common it was for the Muslims than Christians to wear chain mail armour and iron helmet, close to a century or so before Futuh it is mentioned . The Sultan Badlay who they nicknamed ''Arwe''(The Beast') because of how he struck fear into them. He wore helmet and chain mail which was left behind in battle and Ethiopians kept as if it was treasure.
Wearing Armour must have fell out of use with the introduction of guns in the early modern period.