Ifat Sultanate

The Sultanate of Ifat — known as Wafāt or Awfāt in Arabic texts, or as the Kingdom of Zeila — was a medieval Sunni Muslim state in the eastern regions of the Horn of Africa between the late thirteenth century and the early fifteenth century, the Muslim sultanate shown on the map. It was formed in present-day Ethiopia around eastern Shewa in Ifat; led by the Walashma dynasty, the polity stretched from Zequalla to the port city of Zeila on the Gulf of Aden, ruling over parts of what are now Ethiopia, Djibouti, Somaliland and Somalia. Its earliest account comes from Ibn Sa'id, and its sultans drew wealth from the trade routes that ran from the highlands down to Zeila's harbours. The sultanate's recorded life ran to the early fifteenth century, when the Walashma state gave way in the wars of the Horn, its name surviving in the region's later Muslim sultanates.