The Abridged History of Al-Habashah: Islamic Ethiopia

[Malta]

How did the Catholic Church react to the conversion of a historically Christian Kingdom?

Probably like most other cases, making statements about reclaiming the land and what not from the Muslim Heretics. Even though the Christian Kingdom was toppled by Jewish and Pagan invaders.

Still, there are Christian minorities scattered throughout the old Axum/Gondar area which they view could be reclaimed.

 

[Malta]

Looking at credible topics for my next update. Besides tensions with the Safavids, I think a viable divergence will be the survival of the Malacca Sultanate which in part fell due to the Portuguese.

A good number of Habesha traders/pirates/ghazis are going to be heading out across the Indian Ocean. No doubt many are going to congregate to Malacca. I could see the Sultanate using many of these Habesha to expand their holdings in Indonesia and elsewhere. Of course it will likely end up being a double edged sword...

 

[Malta]

High Seas – Habesha Traders and Pirates

The end of the Habashab-Portuguese War of 1506-1518 would have unforeseen consequences for not just the Portuguese but much of the Indian Ocean following the defeat of the Europeans. After several years of capturing and copying Portuguese ship designs from the coasts of Africa to India the shipwrights of the Habashah Empire had created fairly accurate copies of the Portuguese carracks and caravels. Initially these efforts were subsidized by Emperor Jamal ud-Din, but these efforts became increasingly expensive leading the imperial court to look at different avenues especially as the interests of the royal court turned back inland. To create fast cash for the Imperial treasury and cast off maintenance expenses the Habashabs decided to sell off a portion of the ships created for the royal navy, and to lease a patent for them to shipwrights in various ports. Though, the government did retain the armaments (also copied from German designs found on Portuguese ships) the plethora of cannon workshops that sprouted up during the war lead to private interests being able to re-arm the ships they had bought.

The trade routes of the Indian Ocean were, unlike their Portuguese counterparts, not a mystery to the captains and merchants of Habashah. Habesha, Somali, Arab and other merchants had been trading across the ocean for centuries. Habesha traders had even established loose dynasties over smaller islands such as the Maldives and Andaman Islands.

The end of the Habashab-Portugese war not only left many new ship designs in the hands of Habesha private interests it also had galvanized the Habesha, primarily Somali, who lives along the coastline. Adventurous captains and crews were able to make for themselves small fortunes by seizing Portuguese ships, now while the Portuguese were still fair game many also turned to local shipping very soon. Merchants who wanted to eliminate competition took advantage of the situation. Even religious aspects took over as young men of the Mewlewi Order, inspired by Guleed Ali, took to expanding the house of Islam into places where it had never been before. These included uninhabited islands such as the Commoros to pagan ports as far east as the east Indonesian islands. Habesha became synonymous with coin, made by trade or by gunfire became widespread as Habesha sailors made their impact across the Indian Ocean.

In India, raids increased on coastal villages and sometimes struck inland. On the island of Sri Lanka, the Habesha invaded the northern coast, taking over the Jaffna Kingdom and establishing an independent sultanate. In Southeast Asia many flocked to the busy port of Malacca owned by the Malacca Sultanate, using it an base to expand the Sultanate’s holdings on the island of Sumatra and establish their own independent polities in Java and Sumatra. These Habesha pirates were not afraid to take on fellow Muslims though, an alliance of Habesha warlords with support from the Malacca Sultanate would invade the young Brunei Sultanate, looting their capitol and creating independent polities in their territory. This eventually lead to the ruling dynasty to split, one half staying in Brunei and the other to flee to Mindanao and establish a separate kingdom there.

Eventually, as time would go on many of the descendants of these Habesha would assimilate into the local populations but there would still be small enclaves of ethnic Habesha (or new groups descended from a mix of them and the natives) who would become small but prolific minorities in the futures nation-states that would populate the Indian Ocean. Further, this advent also leads to the spread of the unique form of Islam native to Habashah, the Imranid branch, into Southeast Asia becoming a sizeable minority.

In particular, the overenthusiasm of the Habesha would lead to increasing tensions with the Safavid dynasty and the two powers would come to blows in good time. For the remainder of the early 16th Century the Habashah Empire turned its eyes not to the sea but to the land, the heart of Africa.

 

[Sceonn]

So Merchant interest will guide the oversea expansion will Government will focus inland. At this point Sufism was dominant in West Africa, So I wonder what syncretic mix the central African form will take with influences from both East and West.

Also Asian Rice has made it's African debut, and African Rice while lower yielding is far more robust and requires less labor so looking forward to early crossbreeds.

 

[Malta]

Here is a map of the Habshab state during the mid 16th century. As you can see we have Habashah proper directly ruled by the Emperor in Great Barara - including a small portion across the straits which is directly apart of Imperial rule. The Arab Vassalages are the oldest held by the Habashabs, but the southern and western vassalages are much more recent additions as a result of the Habashab-Portuguese War. Their holdings going north extends as far north as Aswan before it hits Ottoman Egypt. While the territory looks large on paper you should remember much of the territory consists of deserts and mountain ranges that have lead to the largest population centers being located on the coasts or in the northern provinces.

Due to the POD the Oromo Migration of the 16th century never manifested as a result much of the territory surrounding and to the west of Great Barara (Addis Ababa) remains Ahmara-Tigrayan speaking (the mix of Ahmara, Tigray, and splashed with Arabic as a result of the POD). Oromo is still spoken south of the Great Divide budding up against the Nilotic speaking peoples of western Kenya - with Somali of course dominating the east.

 

[Sārthākā]

interesting.....watched!

 

[Malta]

The Age of Gunpowder: The Fuse Is Lit

Habashah stands alongside the Ottoman Empire, the Safavids, and the Mughals as the four premier Islamic powers of the early modern period. All four would acquire gunpowder artillery and small arms using these to expand or enforce their territories as the feudal military organization gave way to a professional one. Not only achieving great technological progress which in some aspects could be referred to as Proto-Industrial they would complete great cultural achievements ushering in what could be considered a golden age for each of the four states.

Of the four, it was the Ottoman Turks and the Habashabs who were already established dynasties and empires prior to the the beginning of the Gunpowder Age while the Mughals and Safavids rose to power during the timeframe which runs roughly from the 16th to 18th centuries. The Habashabs transformed into a Gunpowder Empire in two stages during the 15th Century, the first stage being known as the “Portuguese Fuse” and the second stage known as the “Safavid Fuse”.

“Portuguese Fuse” is in reference to the early Habashab-Portuguese War of 1506 - 1518 where in response to Portuguese expansion in the Indian Ocean the two powers had come to blows. Primarily, the importance of this first stage in development was the transmission of technology from captured Portuguese ships, guns, and personnel. As the Gunpowder Guilds derived from the Mewlewi Orders greatly expanded Habashab artillery and naval technology and techniques over the course of the decade long war. Primarily these developments lent themselves to the Habashab navy rather than the army however and would spawn what would become an out of control epidemic of trade and piracy throughout the Indian Ocean - but this was something the Negus Jamal was content not to harness.

His eyes were focused inland.

With peace with the Portuguese established and the Mamlukes temporarily toppled by the Ottomans, Negus Jamal and his son, Prince or Lij Negash Jamal turned his eyes toward the southern and western borders of Habashah. Up until the Habashab-Safavid War they would expand their borders and establish various vassalages around the Great Lakes of Africa and into the Sahel. However, the process was slow and fraught with various difficulties for Jamal and his armies. For one, while they had begun to incorporate small arms and artillery cannons into the military this development was small and uneven as the Habashabs drew their men from the feudal and tribal levies. The quality and quantity of the men Jamal could draw up ranged across the spectrum of middling to worse and further to this his campaign seasons were cut short often due to feudal contracts mandating only short periods of service. Along with being at the whim of planting and grazing seasons where most of his levies would have to return home meant that he could not maintain a strong presence of Habashab troops in the regions for long and would have to resort to more dubious politicking

This would be the start of Jamal and Negash’s dissatisfaction with the state of the army, especially in comparison to what they had been told and seen of the Ottoman and even the Safavids. Though the issue had always been present in Habashab military history previous conquests had been slow and multi-generational and the expansion that the Negus and Lij hoped to achieve was too much for the Habashab military system. Another concern would grow from Guleed Ali who had so bravely lead the Habashab defeat of the Portuguese in Mogadishu and along the Swahili Coast. As a result of his fame and upswell of support he had established his own series of personal vassalages along the Swahili Coast after kicking out the Europeans. While de jure these vassalages owed allegiance to the Habashabs, in de facto they were more of a powerbase for Guleed and later his sons. Given the distance from the Habashab heartland of support any attempt to curb Guleed’s power would have been noticeable well before any attempt to strengthen Imperial control could get close to the Swahili Coast and Jamal knew it would likely lead to unrest against his rule.

Thus without a quick sword to strike, Jamal was forced to accept Guleed’s autonomy to the south.

The second stage of Habashab development, the “Safavid Fuse” would not arise until 1530 and the death of Jamal and the ascension of Negus Negash Jamal.

By 1530, tensions had been building between the Habashabs and the Safavids. As a result of the power vacuum left by the Portugese, Habesha piracy had skyrocketed leading to many attacks of Persian ships and coastal raids around the Persian Gulf leading to many losses for the Safavids. Part of these attacks did take on a religious conotation- as the Imranid Habesha were still considered a sub-section of Sunni Islam and were rivals to the Shia Safavids. The situation continued to deteriorate as the Muscat Emirate situated at the mouth of the Persian Gulf on the Arabian Peninsula exploded into civil war.

Both the Habesha and the Persians had a long history of intervention in the Arabian Peninsula that stretched back into ancient history. Each one at various times maintained directly controlled territory, the Persians in the Bahrani Coast and the Habesha in Arabia Felix. The Muscat Emirate had been an vassal to the Safavids, but the civil war threatened to upend Persian control as one of the two rival emirs,, was supported by the Rais of Aden - Sa’ad ibn Malak - a direct vassal of the Negus. Unwilling to let their interests fall, Tahmsap I, Shah of Iran, declared his support for his emir and ordered an offensive against the Habashabs. The Persians, mainly with naval support of their vassal as the Safavids were not a naval power, crossed the Strait of Hormuz and began to attack the Habesha aligned pretender. Sa’ad seeing this rallied the Arab vassalages of the Hebesha and attempted to push the Safavids back into the sea but were defeated in a series of short battles thanks to the Persian artillery.

Retreating back to Aden, Sa’ad called upon Negus Negash to intervene and push back the Safavids who had followed the Habesha Arabs into the vassalages with Aden in the direct path of the Safavid army. Negash, eager to win for himself a military victory, called forth his vassals across Ahmara and Tigray and crossed the Red Sea to Aden. As much as he had seen earlier in Africa, the organization of Negash’s forces were all over the place with commands split between each of the more powerful Rais. When the Habesha attempted to stop the Safavids at the Battle of Mukala the Habashabs were defeated by the artillery and cavalry columns of the Persians. When the Habashabs attempted to form a wide line to surround the Safavids their opponents launched a series of lightning attacks with their cavalry and artillery units that caused the larger Habashab force to take heavy casualties and flee the field. Attempts to concentrate their own artillery and musket units were hampered by the unwieldy nature of flinging together various bands of untrained musketeers and hoping they would be able to coordinate their shooting into a coherent attack.

Negash was only able to score a victory against the Safavids when a sandstorm blew directly into the path of the Safavid advance scattering the army and fouling their horse and artillery that negated the Safavid advantage enough to allow his army to swarm the Persians. The victory may have checked the Safavids but it was not enough to win him the war. Knowing the Safavids would be able to advance again once they regrouped, Negash sued for peace. The Safavids preserved their hegemony over the Muscat Emirate and the Habashabs were forced to pay reparations to the Shah for damages from the war and Habesha piracy.

Defeated, Negash returned to Great Barara fuming over the loss but with the resolve that the next time the Habashabs fought they would not be the losers. Fortunately, after his return he was soon met by the Ottoman Ambassador who offered a way to reform their military for another fight with the Safavids.