In 1332, the King of Adal was slain in a military campaign aimed at halting Amda Seyon's march toward Zeila.[14] When the last Sultan of Ifat, Sa'ad ad-Din II, was also killed by Dawit I of Ethiopia at the port city of Zeila in 1410, his children escaped to Yemen, before later returning in 1415.[18] In the early 15th century, Adal's capital was moved further inland to the town of Dakkar, where Sabr ad-Din II, the eldest son of Sa'ad ad-Din II, established a new Adal administration after his return from Yemen.[2][19] During this period, Adal emerged as a center of Muslim resistance against the expanding Christian Abyssinian kingdom.[2]Adal would thereafter govern all of the territory formerly ruled by the Ifat Sultanate,[20] as well as the land further east all the way to Cape Guardafui, according to Leo Africanus.[10]Ahmed gurey was given 2000 ottoman soliders and he had another 10 thousand somali afar and yibir other soliders. It is a know fact that these were african kingdoms not Arabian.
After 1468, a new breed of rulers emerged on the Adal political scene. The dissidents opposed Walashma rule owing to a treaty that Sultan Muhammad ibn Badlay had signed with Emperor Baeda Maryam of Ethiopia, wherein Badlay agreed to submit yearly tribute. This was done to achieve peace in the region, though tribute was never sent. Adal's Emirs, who administered the provinces, interpreted the agreement as a betrayal of their independence and a retreat from the polity's longstanding policy of resistance to Abyssinian incursions. The main leader of this opposition was the Emir of Zeila, the Sultanate's richest province. As such, he was expected to pay the highest share of the annual tribute to be given to the Abyssinian Emperor.[21] Emir Laday Usman subsequently marched to Dakkar and seized power in 1471. However, Usman did not dismiss the Sultan from office, but instead gave him a ceremonial position while retaining the real power for himself. Adal now came under the leadership of a powerful Emir who governed from the palace of a nominal Sultan.[22]
The rulers of adal as most coastal city states were Arab. The original dynasty of ifat were habesha Muslims, but were later replaced by the Arab family.