Was there a single more important event in Horn of Africa history than the Great Oromo Migration?

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It absolutely devastated the region and has had long lasting effect that continues to this day.
 
Can't have an Oromo migrations without the Ahmed Gurey jihad, can't have the jihad without the conquest of most of the horn of Africa by Amde Seyon.

Why did Islam retreat from the highlands? Amde Seyon
Why did the Habesha Empire emerge as the dominant power? Amde Seyon
Why was Adal a subject of Ethiopia that would rebel starting the wars that would culminate in the Ahmed Gurey jihad? Amde Seyon

Before his reign, the Habesha kingdom was just a kingdom in Ethiopia, with many other kingdoms of equal size and importance. After his reign, there is only Habesh and a rump, vassalized Ifat state, setting the stage for all proceeding history. He is the Napoleon of the Horn of Africa, in that the order preceding his reign was entirely wiped away to the extent that the list of place names and kingdoms of the Muslims at the Battle of Das is mostly unrecognizable, as they represented a political order entirely wiped away by his campaigns and an entirely new political order put in its place. If there had been no Amde Seyon, Ethiopia would be a Muslim country today.

The Oromo migrations happened due to the weakness of both Adal and the Habesha kingdom to resist them due to decades of war, but it was a reaction to proceeding events.
 

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Can't have an Oromo migrations without the Ahmed Gurey jihad, can't have the jihad without the conquest of most of the horn of Africa by Amde Seyon.

Why did Islam retreat from the highlands? Amde Seyon
Why did the Habesha Empire emerge as the dominant power? Amde Seyon
Why was Adal a subject of Ethiopia that would rebel starting the wars that would culminate in the Ahmed Gurey jihad? Amde Seyon

Before his reign, the Habesha kingdom was just a kingdom in Ethiopia, with many other kingdoms of equal size and importance. After his reign, there is only Habesh and a rump, vassalized Ifat state, setting the stage for all proceeding history. He is the Napoleon of the Horn of Africa, in that the order preceding his reign was entirely wiped away to the extent that the list of place names and kingdoms of the Muslims at the Battle of Das is mostly unrecognizable, as they represented a political order entirely wiped away by his campaigns and an entirely new political order put in its place. If there had been no Amde Seyon, Ethiopia would be a Muslim country today.

The Oromo migrations happened due to the weakness of both Adal and the Habesha kingdom to resist them due to decades of war, but it was a reaction to proceeding events.

Amde Seyon only conquered Ethiopian Kingdoms, not the Horn of Africa. He might have conquered Ifat Sultanate and Denkali (Afar) Sultanate but eventually rebelled and defeated Abyssinia and that's when Adal Sultanate came to birth.

As for Oromo migration, I agree with you on that one. However, Oromos conquered and assimilated other peasant kingdoms in Ethiopia as well. The only powerful kingdom that managed to fully repel their expansion was the Ajuran Empire.
 
The Adal struggle for national liberation took 30 years before the Habesh were defeated in the Ahmar mountains and Adal re-established itself in Dakkar. You are absurdly downplaying the enormity of what went into defeating the Habesh empire and pushing them out of the lowlands and Ahmar Mountains. All four of the first four sultans of Adal died in battle.

The sultans never succeeded in retaking Dawaro and the Habesh empire retained control of the right bank of the Awash up until Ahmed Gurey's jihad. Even though they had retaken the Ahmar Mountains, the Habesh threat was never eliminated and they attacked and burned down Dakkar in 1479.
 
Interesting. I personally never heard it before. Ahmed Gurey being Karanle and Amir Nuur being Marehan are popular but Ifat being Ogaden is new.

They're sort of hiding in plain sight, the Somali name for their dynasty isn't Walashma but rather Wilinwili.
 
Interesting, thank you.

What do you know about the Harlas? Who were they assimilated into?

Xarla are a clan who lived north of Harar until the devastation of their homeland shattered the clan and they went in many directions and assimilated into many clans and nations. Some historians believe they were originally Semitic speaking, however there is another tradition where Xarla are one of the original Sagaalka Samaale, their Abtirsi being originally Xarla Xariire Samaale.

The largest remaining fragment of the Xarla nation was adopted into Darod and are Xarla Koombe Kablalax Daarood today.
 

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Xarla are a clan who lived north of Harar until the devastation of their homeland shattered the clan and they went in many directions and assimilated into many clans and nations. Some historians believe they were originally Semitic speaking, however there is another tradition where Xarla are one of the original Sagaalka Samaale, their Abtirsi being originally Xarla Xariire Samaale.

The largest remaining fragment of the Xarla nation was adopted into Darod and are Xarla Koombe Kablalax Daarood today.

I see. Interesting.

Have you done research on the Ciise - Afar conflict and history? I read that the latter claim Ciise to be paternally Afar but who at some point started speaking and identifying as Somali.
 
I see. Interesting.

Have you done research on the Ciise - Afar conflict and history? I read that the latter claim Ciise to be paternally Afar but who at some point started speaking and identifying as Somali.

The genealogy of the whole Dir clan is weird to be honest. Having researched the clan system I believe the original clan system of Somalis was not like it is today, and was more akin to the Rendille clan system where there are a mixture of lineages, moeities and confederations, which over time has been streamlined into the modern Somali clan system and moeities and confederacy names have become ancestors in the abtirsi recitation.

This is why subclans of the same clan do not have the same number of fathers, as some subclans are older than others. Dir clans, almost universally, have short lineages. Gadabursi for instance counts about 25 generations to Dir, compared to 40 for Abgaal Hawiye for instance.

I believe that the Dir clan was originally a different tribe that lived to the west of other Somali tribes, and when the Somali kingdom broke up around 1150 and Somalis moved west, Dir people were incorporated into the Somali nation and were added to Irir Samaale, in the same manner that Xarla was added to Daarood later on. Around this time Daarood split from the Sagaalka Samaale to make a stand alone tribe and there are few traces left of their original connection to the Sagaalka Samaale, the new origin story for Daarood incorporates their dominance over Dir and explains it.
 

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Interesting. I personally never heard it before. Ahmed Gurey being Karanle and Amir Nuur being Marehan are popular but Ifat being Ogaden is new.

Ahmed Gurey was Dir, the Walashma Dynasty that ruled both Ifat and Adal Sultanate were Dir. Imam Nuur was Harari. You need to stop the Darood propaganda. Ogaden never lived in any Ifat or even Adal territory.

Do you know who fathered the Walashma Dynasty? It was Yusuf bin Ahmad al-Kawneyn and according to the Harar scripts, he was Dir.

@James Dahl Do you know who Sheikh Yusuf bin Ahmad al-Kawneyn AKA Aw Barkhadle is?
 
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Ahmed Gurey was Dir, the Walashma Dynasty that ruled both Ifat and Adal Sultanate were Dir. Imam Nuur was Harari. You need to stop the Darood propaganda. Ogaden never lived in any Ifat or even Adal territory.

Do you know who fathered the Walashma Dynasty? It was Yusuf bin Ahmad al-Kawneyn and according to Harari scripts, he was Dir.

@James Dahl Do you know who Yusuf bin Ahmad al-Kawneyn AKA Aw Barkhadle is?

Was that directed at James? sxb, I'm Abgaal.

He did say Ahmed Gurey is Hawiye so I'll take that.
 

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Was that directed at James? sxb, I'm Abgaal.

Alright, study the greatest scholar in his time called Sheikh Yusuf bin Ahmad al-Kawneyn. He was a famous Somali saint from Zeila and he is believed to be the father and founder of Walashma Dynasty.

Yusuf bin Ahmad al-Kawneyn is believed to be born in Zeila during the early Adal Kingdom period which he associated with. Yusuf bin Ahmad al-Kawneyn is a very famous Somali saint figure.[1] He is believed to be the founder and ancestor of the royal family known as Walashma Dynasty that governed both Ifat Sultanate and Adal Sultanate during the middle ages.[2][3]

Here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walashma_dynasty

A Harari medieval historian called Sheikh Abi-Bakr Ali Alawi stated in his book that Yusuf bin Ahmad al-Kawneyn was Dir who was the founder of Walashma Dynasty.

"Shiekh Abi-Bakr Al Alawi, a Harari historian, states in his book that Yusuf bin Ahmad al-Kawneyn was of native and local Dir (clan) extraction."

Source: Quath, Faati (1957). Islam Walbaasha Cabra Taarikh [Islam and Abyssinia throughout history]

Now did you know Ahmed Gurey was also born in Zeila a historical Dir city and he was part of the Walashma Dynasty? It's bloody obvious he was Dir too.
 
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Wasn't he born in Hubat?

Wikipedia trolls edited it. He was born in Zeila. Read the source from below.

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There are no extant documents that list his birthplace, any one that does is baseless speculation

There are no disputes that he was born in Zeila. I mean it came from the horses mouth at the end of the day. You just need to be more honest next time.
 
@James Dahl Do you know who Sheikh Yusuf bin Ahmad al-Kawneyn AKA Aw Barkhadle is?
I do indeed. One point that people should keep in mind is that al-Kawneyn had no children. It even says so on his grave.

The link between al-Kawneyn and Aw Barkhaadle is not proven by the way, and evidence points to two individuals who have become historically confused.
 
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