State · 1415 – 1577

Adal Sultanate

A state of 1415 – 1577 — 162 years in sub-Saharan Africa. The atlas records 2 things within it — people 2. Its line of rulers holds 9 people.

For the full story, the article on Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0); this page holds what the record says of the state.

Stood: 162 years; 1415 – 1577
Rulers: 9; the Leader of Adal
Most ground: 490,400 km²; in 1534
Within it: 2; recorded rows
Symbol: 1; on record, with years

Map: Adal Sultanate in 1534, its borders in gold among its neighbours — Adal Sultanate in 1534, when it held the most ground the borders dataset draws for it: 490,400 km². Its neighbours wear their tints, as on the atlas's own map. Borders from Cliopatria (CC BY 4.0), coast and rivers from Natural Earth, cities from Reba, Reitsma & Seto 2016 (CC BY 4.0), each city under the name it bore that year.

Adal Sultanate in 1415, first mapped — The rise and the fall in one frame: the same ground at the years the borders dataset first maps it, maps it largest, and last maps it.

Adal Sultanate in 1534, at its largest — The rise and the fall in one frame: the same ground at the years the borders dataset first maps it, maps it largest, and last maps it.

Where it sits in time

Five thousand years, 3000 BCE to 2026; the state in gold.

Rulers

Read from the state’s own English article and its rulers’ articles, where Wikidata names no ruler.

killed, executed or dead in battleending not on recorda second row: a reign that began before the last had ended — rival claimants, or a shared throne

Ruler	Reign	Length	How it ended · source	To the ruler before
Mansur ad-Din of Adal	23 – 1424	1401 years	ending not on record
Sabr ad-Din II	1415 – 1422	7 years	ending not on record	sibling
Garad Abun Adashe	1518 – 1525	7 years	ending not on record
Abu Bakr ibn Muhammad	1525 – 1526	1 year	killed, the article saysread from the ruler's own article
Umar Din	1526 – 1553	27 years	ending not on record
Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi	1527 – 1527	under a year	ending not on record	sibling
Nur ibn Mujahid	1550 – 1567	17 years	ending not on record
Uthman the Abyssinian	1567 – 1569	2 years	ending not on record
Muhammad Gasa	1577 – 1577	under a year	ending not on record

9 rulers, 9 with terms dated as terms, covering 23 – 1577. Median reign 7 years. 3 of 8 handovers irregular - a killing, a deposition, a rival claimant, a rising or a coup beside it. A blank in the last column means no kin on record, which is coverage, never “unrelated”.

Ground held, by year

km² inside its borders as the borders dataset draws them, measured on an equal-area grid; a step series, held between the years the dataset maps.

150,100 km² in 1415, 76,700 km² in 1577; at its largest 490,400 km² in 1535. Cliopatria, CC BY 4.0.

Flag or arms

Each symbol with the years its own statement gives; the timeline flies the one of the year on screen.

flag, undatedFlag of Adal Sultanate · Public domain

What happened within it, by century

Every row the atlas hosts under this state, by the century it began in: wars and battles in red, risings, regime changes and massacres beside them, everything else in grey. A tall bar is a century the record is full for, which is partly a fact about Wikipedia.

1500 – 15992 rows

Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi · religious leader · 1506 – 1543
Malik Ambar · politician · 1548 – 1626

Among all states

Each measure against the states that carry it, never against all of them: a bar is the share of those states below this one.

How long it stood162 years
stood longer than 57% of 3,187 states with a recorded end or still standing.
The most ground it held490,400 km²
held more ground at its peak than 74% of 1,465 states with a border in Cliopatria.
Wars recorded per centurynone
had more wars on record per century than 44% of 3,187 states, counting the wars the atlas hosts under each.
How long a reign lasted, at the median7 years
had longer reigns, at the median, than 26% of 967 states whose dated line can carry a median.
Rulers on record9
has more rulers on record than 78% of 1,968 states with a line of rulers.

Theories that apply to its ending

Of 3 theories of why states fall, 1 has every condition present at this ending; each is applied by its own logic, condition by condition, and whether its authors named this case is a footnote.

Challenge, failed response and dissolution
Toynbee 1934 · Toynbee & Somervell 1946
Applies by its own logic: 2 of its 2 conditions held here (it needs all of them), and this is the kind of outcome it predicts — the state's ending.
- territory shrank by 25% over the 100 y ending 25 y before — territory -42
- unrest, adverse regime change or atrocity within 100 y in the state, or a war the state is fighting, still under way, or a war the state fought, ended within 50 y, or battle within 50 y in the state — warEnded

Open in the atlas

On the timeline, 1399 – 1593, with everything that stood beside it.
On the map in 1534, live: scrub the year and watch its borders move.
Investigate it: what led to it, what came of it, and its succession analysed.

Wikidata Q2365048 (CC0) · borders Cliopatria, CC BY 4.0 · coast and rivers Natural Earth · symbols from Wikimedia Commons, each credited above · data built 2026-10-06 · Pastlas v2.9.1, by Oleh Voronko. The published atlas and its data are for non-commercial use.