Ifat was in eastern Shewa, which is central Ethiopia, extant 1285-1403. It was a Vassal state to Ethiopia after the defeat by Amde Seyon in 1332. At the height of its power in the 14th century it expanded to Zayla and the Gulf of Aden for a port, but the Walasma homeland was still in the Semitic highlands. Their army was initially composed of Argobba, later supplemented with Somalis after the seizure of Zayla.
Sorry to tell you Walashma was Absame dynasty.
Bunch of nonsense BS
Leo Africanus and Asma Giyorgis cant even agree on the languages the Walashma spoke. Big sections of the history dont follow logically and more is clearly just fable. There has to be a better way.
The argobba hypothesis is also conjecture. Honestly we don't have clear cut proof of Walashma's ethnicity. According to arab historian Maqrizi the Walashma first landed in Zeila, ibn battuta described zeila as a city of the barbar people which are now identified with modern somalis. Zeila has an exclusively somali population with minor afar influence in the past, if the Walashma were from zeila it doesn't make any sense to say the were argobba since this population never had any presence in Zeila or modern day Somaliweyn territories
I think Ethiopian scholars would certainly know if Walashma's were fellow habeshas and ethiosemitic speakers. If Walashma's were argobba the ethiopians would have clearly identified them as such but they never did
You are making far too much out of Zayla.The Mawyanni Arabs came through the port of Zayla in the 10th century; they were not from Zayla and did not capture the port until the 14th century. They were then almost immediately defeated by Amda Seyon in 1332, becoming an Ethiopian vassal state and beginning the Christian-Muslim conflict in earnest. The last sultan of Ifat was killed in 1403 AD, giving rise to Muslim power centers in Harar and Awdal and leading to Ahmad Gurey's wars.
