Abu Bakr ibn Muhammad

Abū Bakr ibn Muḥammad أبو بكر بن محمد
Sultan
Sultan of the Adal Sultanate
Reign	1525–1526
Predecessor	Garad Abun Adashe (1518–1520)
Successor	Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi(1526-1547) Umar Din (puppet ruler)
Dynasty	Walashmaʿ dynasty
Religion	Islam

Abū Bakr ibn Muḥammad (Arabic: أبو بكر بن محمد), (reigned 1525–1526), was a Sultan of the Adal Sultanate in the Horn of Africa. The historian Richard Pankhurst credits Abu Bakr with founding the city of Harar,[1] which he made his military headquarters in 1520. He was of Harari background.[2]

Reign

Abu Bakr organized Somali highwaymen and mercenaries, then attacked the popular leader of Adal emir Garad Abun Adashe and killed him subsequently moving the capital of Adal Sultanate to Harar city.[3] However, a power struggle with Imam Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi would ensue, who eventually defeated Abu Bakr and killed him. The Imam then made Abu Bakr's younger brother, Umar Din, the new sultan, although the latter only reigned as a puppet king.[4]

See also

• Walashmaʿ dynasty
• Siege of Hubat

Notes

1. Richard Pankhurst, History of Ethiopian Towns (Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1982), p. 49.
2. Levine, Donald. Ethiopia’s Dilemma: Missed Chances from the 1960s to the Present. University of Chicago Press. p. 3.
3. Abu Bakr b. Muhammad b. Azar. Encyclopedia Aethiopica.
4. Spencer Trimingham 1952, pp. 85f.; cf. Tamrat 1977, p. 169.

Works cited

• Spencer Trimingham, John (1952). Islam in Ethiopia. Oxford: Oxford University Press. OCLC 458382994.
• Tamrat, Taddesse (1977). "Ethiopia, the Red Sea and the Horn". In Oliver, Roland (ed.). The Cambridge History of Africa. Volume 3: from c. 1050 to c. 1600. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 98–182. ISBN 978-0-521-20981-6.