Family Feud for the True Seal

Were the medieval wars between Christian Solomonic kings and Muslim Adal sultans in the Horn of Africa a clash of civilizations, or a centuries-long family feud between two branches of the same elite lineage?

The “Suleymaniyad Vanguard Hypothesis” challenges the traditional narrative of religious warfare in the Horn of Africa, proposing that the Christian Amhara and Muslim Argoba elites were actually two branches of a single family descending from the Banu Hashim (the Prophet Muhammad’s clan). Fleeing persecution in the 8th century, this unified warrior-administrator class settled in the region, controlling the economy through the “Hashemite Gold Sca...