Bati del Wambara fl. 1531, ( Harari: ባቲ ዲል ወምበራ, lit. ''victory is her seat'')Rita Pankhurst
Women of Power in Ethiopia: Struggle and Loss
was the Harari wife of the 16th-century general, Ahmad ibn Ibrahim, and then his successor,

Nur ibn Mujahid Nur ibn Mujahid ibn ‘Ali ibn ‘Abdullah al Dhuhi Suha ( Harari: ኑር ኢብን ሙጃሂድ, so, Nuur ibn Mujaahid, ar, نور بن مجاهد; died 1567) was a Muslim Emir of Harar who ruled Sultanate of Harar. He was the primary reason f ...

. She was extremely influential in shaping both her husbands' military policies in their campaigns against the

Ethiopian Empire The Ethiopian Empire (), also formerly known by the exonym Abyssinia, or just simply known as Ethiopia (; Amharic and Tigrinya: ኢትዮጵያ , , Oromo: Itoophiyaa, Somali: Itoobiya, Afar: ''Itiyoophiyaa''), was an empire that histori ...

Biography

Bati del Wambara was born the daughter of Mahfuz, Emir of Harar and later governor of

Zeila Zeila ( so, Saylac, ar, زيلع, Zayla), also known as Zaila or Zayla, is a historical port town in the western Awdal region of Somaliland. In the Middle Ages, the Jewish traveller Benjamin of Tudela identified Zeila (or Hawilah) with the Bibl ...

. She married Imam

Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi ( so, Axmed Ibraahim al-Qaasi or Axmed Gurey, Harari: አሕመድ ኢብራሂም አል-ጋዚ, ar, أحمد بن إبراهيم الغازي ; 1506 – 21 February 1543) was an imam and general of the Adal Sultan ...

and accompanied him in his jihad to make

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...

a Muslim province. During this expedition, she gave birth to two sons - Muhammad in 1531 and Ahmad in 1533. When her husband was killed and their eldest son captured by the forces of Emperor Gelawdewos (the son of Emperor Lebna Dengle), del Wambara successfully negotiated with the Dowager Empress Seble Wongel to exchange the captured brother of Gelawdewos for the boy. Del Wambara then fled to Harar with 40 soldiers and 300 horsemen. In 1552, nearly 10 years after Imam ibn Ibrahim's death, she married the successive Emir of

Adal Adal may refer to: *A short form for Germanic names in ''aþala-'' (Old High German ''adal-''), "nobility, pedigree"; see Othalan **Adál Maldonado (1948-2020), Puerto Rican artist ** Adal Ramones (born 1969), Mexican television show host ** Adal ...

. This was a political marriage aiming to enforce Nur's legitimacy. She is supposed to have pushed him into reviving the jihad in order to avenge the death of her deceased husband. In 1559, Nur ibn Mujahid's forces fought against the heavily outnumbered Emperor Gelawdewos in

Fatagar A medieval map of Fatagar and surrounding areas Fatagar ( Amharic: ፈጠጋር) was a historical province that separated Muslim and Christian dominions in the medieval Horn of Africa. In the eleventh century it was part of the Muslim states, the ...

, and the dead body of Ethiopian emperor was beheaded, reportedly on the order of del Wambara.

References

Somali monarchs People from the Adal Sultanate 16th-century Somalian people African women in war Women in 16th-century warfare 16th-century births 1559 deaths 16th-century women rulers {{Somalia-bio-stub