Battle of Fatagar

Battle of Fatager
Date23 March 1559; 465 years ago (1559-03-23)
Location
Nech Sar, Fatagar, Ethiopian Empire[1]
Result Adal victory
Belligerents
Adal Sultanate Ethiopian Empire
Commanders and leaders
Nur ibn Mujahid Gelawdewos †
Strength
1,800 Cavalry[2]
500 Musketeers[2]
"Numerous" Large archers[2]
"Numerous" spearmen[2]		 Total:1,550[2]
250 Cavalry[2]
100 Musketeers[2]
500 Archers[2]
700 Foot soldiers[2]
Casualties and losses
Minimal Heavy

The Battle of Fatagar (alternatively known as Nech Sar) was a reprisal war between the participants of the previous Adal Sultanate and Ethiopian Empire in the Ethiopian-Adal war. It was fought between the forces of the Sultanate of Harar led by Nur ibn Mujahid, and the Ethiopian Empire under Emperor Gelawdewos.[3] The Ethiopian Emperor was killed by Adal forces in this battle.[4][5]

Mohammed Hassen considers this battle a decisive defeat for the Ethiopian Empire. "Not only did his [Galawdewos] death produce terrible grief throughout the Christian land, it left the political scene uncertain and fluid. ... After this battle this force was never able to regain its full strength and failed to win back an inch of land lost before 1559 to the pastoral Oromo."[6]

Battle

In 1559, Nur invaded Fatagar to confront Gelawdewos with the Malassay comprising eighteen hundred horsemen, five hundred riflemen, numerous sword and bow-wielding troops. The Abyssinian forces were greatly outnumbered as Gelawdewos had sent an army to lay siege to Harar. However, the explorer Richard Francis Burton tells a slightly different account, adding that Gelawdewos had been supervising the restoration of Debre Werq when he received a message from Emir Nur challenging him to combat. When the Emperor met the Emir, a priest warned that the angel Gabriel had told him Gelawdewos would needlessly risk his life—which caused most of the Ethiopian army to flee.[7] According to Harari chronicle, Early in the battle Galawdéwos was shot, but continued struggling until encircled by numerous Harari cavalry, which gave him a death blow.[8]

Aftermath

Pedro Paez mentions that the Adalites took many riches and captives and when they were about to celebrate their victory, Nur mounted an ass with an old saddle. His captains saw this and asked why he was doing such a thing, having achieved such a great victory; they urged him to mount the best of five very fine horses that he had seized, which had all belonged to the emperor personally. He replied to them that he had not achieved that victory through his own strength, but that God, no less, had given it to him. Therefore, in recognition of this, he would not ride a horse, showing pomp and splendour, but that humble ass instead. That is something truly notable and all the more worthy of consideration since the one who did that had less knowledge of God. When the celebrations ended, the great men asked him to release them from the oath that he had imposed on them not to drink wine, since the war was now over. But he refused outright to do so; instead, he obliged them to swear again that they would not drink any for three years, in acknowledgment of what he owed God for the remarkable victory that He had given him, because his army had been incomparably smaller than the emperor's.[9] Pankhurst stated the death of Gelawdewos had caused Christian military power in the area to crumble. Nur then despatched the monarch's severed head to the "Country of Sa'ad ad-Din".[10] Jeronimo Lobo later declares Nur had laid waste to all the country and penetrated into the centre of Abyssinia.[11] According to Arsi-Hadiyya tradition, Nur is said to have established his headquarters at Mogo in the south of Shewa chasing the Christian military forces reaching as far as Käfa.[12]

References

  1. ^ Pankhurst, Alula; Piguet, François (2009). Moving People in Ethiopia: Development, Displacement & the State. James Currey. ISBN 9781847016133.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Solomon, The Chronicle, p. 246, Chap. 84
  3. ^ Shinn, David (2004). Historical Dictionary of Ethiopia. Scarecrow Press. p. 174. ISBN 9780810865662.
  4. ^ Pankhurst, Richard (1997). The Ethiopian Borderlands. Red Sea Press. p. 246. ISBN 9780932415196.
  5. ^ History of Harar and Hararis (PDF). Harar Tourism Bureau. p. 71.
  6. ^ Mohammed Hassen (1983). The Oromo of Ethiopia, 1500-1850: with Special Emphasis on the Gibe Region (PhD thesis). University of London, School of Oriental and African Studies. p. 221.
  7. ^ Richard Burton, First Footsteps in East Africa (New York: Praeger, 1966), pp. 183f
  8. ^ Pankhurst, Richard (1997). The Ethiopian Borderlands. Red Sea Press. p. 246. ISBN 9780932415196.
  9. ^ Boavida, Isabel; Pennec, Hervé; Ramos, Manuel João (2020-04-28). Pedro Páez's History of Ethiopia, 1622 / Volume II. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-351-81434-8.
  10. ^ Pankhurst, Richard (1997). The Ethiopian Borderlands: Essays in Regional History from Ancient Times to the End of the 18th Century. The Red Sea Press. pp. 246–247. ISBN 978-0-932415-19-6.
  11. ^ Lobo, Jerónimo (1735). Sequel of the Account of Abyssinia. A. Bettesworth, and C. Hitch. p. 317.
  12. ^ Braukämper, Ulrich (2012). A History of the Hadiyya in Southern Ethiopia. Harrassowitz Verlag. p. 115. ISBN 978-3-447-06804-8.

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