Medieval Gendabelo

[Emir of Zayla]

In medieval times, Gendabelo (Ghandabalu) was a significant city on trade routes linking the christian Abyssinian highlands and the Red Sea during the 15th and 16th centuries. Initially mentioned in royal chronicles of Ba’eda Māryām’s reign, Gendabelo served as a major market managed by Muslims. It was strategically positioned in the Awfat region, facilitating trade between the merchants and caravans arriving from Zeila and the Somali peninsula and Christian Ethiopian highlands. The city thrived as a breakbulk point where goods were transferred from camel caravans to other transport due to the plateau's terrain unsuitable for camels. Despite its historical prominence, the exact archaeological location of Gendabelo remains uncertain although some scholars say it’s near the Awash River.

The Futuh also mentions the city in some passages about Imam Ahmad’s expeditions

The Imām had sent Warajār Abūn to Zaylaꜥ to buy cannons for him so that he could take this fort [i.e. Ambā Geshen]. He bought a large bronze cannon, and two little ones made of iron and carried them by camel as far as the city of Ghandabalū. […] Abbas then had them carried on men’s backs, because the camels could not traverse the path. (Shihāb ad-Dīn, Futūḥ: 344)

Those people of Ifat and Ṭūbyā who were Muslim, along with the people of Ghandabalū, and its merchants, came and gathered in a group […] Uraʾī Abūn set out to join the imām, and the people of Ifāt with their cavalry, around fifty knights and two-thousand infantry, with their wives and children, went with him. They marched on and reached the imām who was on the way to the land of Dawāro. (Shihāb ad-Dīn, Futūḥ: 296)

During the reign of Imām Muḥammad ibn Ibrahim Gasa (1576-1583), he had a secretary named Kabir Ḥāmid b. Ibrahīm al-J.n.d.b.lī (الجندبلي) who carried a nisba that was connected to the city and came from there.

In Search of Gendabelo, the Ethiopian “Market of the World”of the 1...

Oral traditions collected in 1993 and 2002 in the Ifāt region in Ethiopia by Ahmed Hassen Omer refer to Gendabelo as a big international market during medieval times. The informants explained that ...

journals.openedition.org