The Makhzumi sultanate of Shewa, 1 January 1200

The first inland Muslim state of the Horn, a sultanate on the eastern edge of the Shewan plateau, ruled since 896 (by its own chronicle) by a house claiming descent from the Makhzum of Quraysh.

Its short Arabic chronicle, composed near the end of the thirteenth century, names its capital Walalah and two other towns, Kalgur and Hadbaya, ruled by local lords under the sultan; it speaks of scholars and a chief judge (qadi al-qudat), and of Muslim neighbours at Mora, Adal and Hubat. For the twelfth century the summaries available report only that a people called the Gbbh began to convert in 1108 (Trimingham linked them to the forebears of the Argobba) and that in 1128 the Amhara fled the land of the Werjih, herders of the Awash valley. Later in the thirteenth century Damot forced it to pay tribute, a branch of rival claimants tore it apart, and in 1285 the Walasma of Ifat put an end to the dynasty.

The sultan of 1 January 1200 is not named in the summaries available; the state is drawn on the plateau and escarpment between Christian north Shewa and the Awash, with its eastern district of Ifat.

Who rules

Name: Not known for 1 January 1200
Title: Sultan of Shewa (Shawah), of the Makhzumi house
Since: Not pinned
Born: Not known
Family: The Makhzumi dynasty, which claimed descent from Wudd ibn Hisham of the Makhzum clan of Quraysh and ruled, in its own chronicle, from 283 AH (896).
Confidence: low

The chronicle published by Cerulli (1941) and edited by Labadie (Dhikr al-tawarikh, Vatican arabe 1792) as summarised in Wikipedia, in African History Extra and in Taddesse Tamrat; none of these summaries names a sultan reigning about 1200, and the chronicle's detailed annals concern the 1260s to the 1280s.

Overlord

None known on 1 January 1200 (later in the thirteenth century it paid tribute to Damot).

What the realm holds

Walalah, the capital (site not securely identified; Huntingford places Welela on a mountain about 24 km north of Debre Birhan)
The towns of Kalgur and Hadbaya under semi-autonomous lords (sites not known)
The plateau between the Christian districts of north Shewa and the Awash, with the escarpment above the Rift (drawn as the core)
Ifat, the eastern district between the highlands and the lowland road to the coast, where the house of Walasma is rising (separate record)
The road toward Zeila through the Awash lowlands (shared with the Afar and others)

How it was acquired

Founded, in its own tradition, in 283 AH (896); the founders are said to descend from Arab settlers.

Allies and rivals

Neighbours: the Christian communities of north Shewa and, beyond them, the Zagwe kingdom (no recorded dealings about 1200); Damot to the west, which later forces it to pay tribute; the herders of the Awash valley (the Werjih); the house of Walasma in Ifat, which marries into the dynasty in 1271 and destroys it in 1277-1285 (later); the port of Zeila, end of its trade road.

The realm that morning

Not pinned. The sultanate stands on the morning of 1 January 1200 (596 AH), but its sultan, his court and any war of these years are not recorded in the summaries reached. The khutba is presumably said in the name of the Abbasid caliph, as later Muslim rulers of the Horn did (not attested for 1200). The Christian communities of north Shewa lie to its north-west, Damot beyond the Muger to the west, the Afar lowlands to the east.

Wealth

The road from Zeila to the highlands: slaves, gold and ivory from the interior go out; cloth and imported goods come in. Farming on the plateau and escarpment terraces, herds in the lowlands. No coinage is recorded.

Military

No figures or descriptions for this date.

Threats

Damot (tribute exacted in the thirteenth century)
Rivalries within the Makhzumi house (attested in the 1260s-1270s)
The growing power of the Walasma in Ifat

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

Thirteenth century, not pinnedDamot forces the sultanate to pay tribute.Depends on: Damot's strength. Stopped by: A defence of Shewa or an alliance with the Christians.
1271-1285The sultan Dil-Marrah marries into the Walasma house (1271); Umar Walasma's son Ali burns Walalah (1277); the Makhzumi line is ended by 1285.Depends on: The rise of Ifat. Stopped by: Far beyond the opening years of play.

Places of note

Walalah (Welela): The Makhzumi capital, position after Huntingford's identification; not confirmed.

Where the sources disagree

Location: Taddesse Tamrat, Hirsch and Fauvelle-Aymar and Huntingford place the sultanate on the eastern Shewan plateau above the Rift; Braukamper and Ostebo place its capital in northern Hararghe, in Harla country. The Harar plateau is drawn with the Horn of Africa.
The Islamic sites studied by the French mission on the Shewan escarpment (Nora, Asbari, Masal) date from the end of the thirteenth to the fifteenth century: they belong to Ifat, not to the Makhzumi sultanate of 1200.
The end of the dynasty is put in 1277, 1280 or 1285-86 by different authors.

Evidence: One short Arabic chronicle, with only two entries for the twelfth century, plus fourteenth-century Arabic writers; no archaeological site is securely dated to the sultanate in 1200.

On the map: The sultanate's extent is unknown; the drawing follows the most common placement of Walalah and of Ifat.

Primary sources for this realm

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

The Glory of the Kings, Yeshaq of Aksum (compiler) (1314 to 1322 in Ge'ez; the colophon claims an Arabic version of 1225). Nothing on events, but the ideology that unmade the Zagwe: the story that Ethiopia's rightful kings descend from Solomon and Menelik, compiled a century after 1200 to justify Yekuno Amlak's seizure of the throne in 1270 and to brand the Zagwe as usurpers. Read online

Sources and studies

Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.