Muhammad ibn Azhar ad-Din

Muhammad ibn Azhar ad-Din محمد بن الأزهر اد الدين
Sultan of the Sultanate of Adal
Reign	1488–1518
Successor	Garad Abun ibn Adash
Dynasty	Walashma dynasty
Religious beliefs	Islam

Muhammad ibn Azhar ad-Din (Arabic: محمد بن الأزهر اد الدين‎) (reigned 1488–1518) was a Sultan of the Sultanate of Adal. Sihab ad-Din Ahmad states in his Futuh al-Habasa that he was the son of Azhar, the second son of Abu Bakr, one of the ten sons of Sa'ad ad-Din II, and ruled for 30 years.^[1]

Reign

Sultan Muhammad attempted to remain at peace with the Emperor of Ethiopia Na'od, but his efforts were foiled by the frequent raids of Imam Mahfuz. He was present with Imam Mahfuz when Emperor Lebna Dengel attacked and destroyed the Imam's army in Dawaro in 1516.

Muhammad was murdered upon his return from an expedition against Ethiopia a few years after the Imam's death. J. Spencer Trimingham states that he was succeeded as Sultan of Adal by Garad Abun ibn Adash, who was not a member of the Walashma dynasty; Sihab ad-Din, however, writes that it was his relative in marriage, Muhammad bin Abu Bakr bin Mahfuz, who succeeded him as Sultan.^[2] Richard Pankhurst follows Trimingham's general account, noting that Adal "was then torn apart by intestinal struggles, five sultans succeeding one another within two years."^[3]

See also

• Walashma dynasty

Notes

1. ^ Sihab ad-Din Ahmad bin 'Abd al-Qader, Futuh al-Habasa: The conquest of Ethiopia, translated by Paul Lester Stenhouse with annotations by Richard Pankhurst (Hollywood: Tsehai, 2003), pp. 7f.
2. ^ J. Spencer Trimingham, Islam in Ethiopia (Oxford: Geoffrey Cumberlege for the University Press, 1952), pp. 82-84.
3. ^ Richard Pankhurst, The Ethiopian Borderlands (Lawrenceville: Red Sea Press, 1997), p. 125

Preceded by Shams ad-Din ibn Muhammad

Walashma dynasty

Succeeded by Abu Bakr ibn Muhammad

Persondata
Name	Muhammad Ibn Azhar Ad-Din
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth
Place of birth
Date of death	1518
Place of death