Imamate of Aussa Afar society has traditionally been divided into petty kingdoms, each ruled by its own
Sultan. The
Imamate of Aussa was carved out of the
Adal Sultanate in 1577, when Muhammed Gasa moved his capital from
Harar to
Aussa (Asaita) with the split of the Adal Sultanate into Aussa. In 1647, the rulers of the
Emirate of Harar broke away to form their own polity. The Imamate of Aussa was later destroyed by the local
Mudaito Afar in 1672. Following the Awsa Imamate's demise, the Mudaito Afars founded their own kingdom, the Sultanate of Aussa. At some point after 1672, Aussa declined in conjunction with Imam Umar Din bin Adam's recorded ascension to the throne. This marked the start of a new and more sophisticated polity that would last into the colonial period. The influence of the sultanate extended into the Danakil lowlands of what is now
Eritrea. After 15 years of rule, Kadafo's son, Muhammäd Kadafo, succeeded him as Sultan. Muhammäd Kadafo three decades later bequeathed the throne to his own son, Aydahis, who in turn would reign for another twenty-two years. According to
Richard Pankhurst, these relatively long periods of rule by modern standards pointed to a certain degree of political stability within the state. In the last decade of the 18th century they wished to capture the capital therefore they enlisted in the support of a number of Yemen matchlockmen from Aden. According to Krapf and Isenberg, were no less than a few hundred strong and enjoyed a complete monopoly of firepower. William Cornwallis Harris had stated that the town's defence was organised by the ruler Yusuf ibn Idjahis, a brave and martial sultan, whose armoury boasted several cannons and matchlocks. He claimed that the defenders caught the would-be attackers off guard, while they were sleeping and cut all the throats of "all save one". The Debne-Wemas, according to this account were not intimidated by this reverse returned with fresh allies from the coast that they rallied and had achieved a murderous defeat of the Mudaitos. Yusuf was slain after which the town was sacked and the garrison was put to the sword. Sultan Mahammad ibn Hanfadhe defeated and killed
Werner Munzinger in 1875, who was leading an Egyptian army into Ethiopia.
Colonial period In 1869, the newly unified
Italy bought
Assab from a local Sultan (which became the colony of
Eritrea in 1890), and led Sultan Mahammad to sign several treaties with that country. On 6 December 1889, Aussa signed a treaty with the Italians, agreeing to become a protectorate of Italy. Article 5 of the treaty concluded between the Italians and the Sultan Mahammad Hanfare stated that in a case of any other power trying to occupy Aussa or any parts of his territory, the Sultan must oppose it and declare that his nation is an Italian protectorate and must raise the Italian flag. According to Article 3, the Sultan had recognised the whole Danakil coast from Amphila Bay to Ras Doumeira as an Italian possession and had conceded the territories of Gambo Kona and Ablis as a part of Italian Eritrea. During the
First Italo–Ethiopian War, the Ethiopian Emperor
Menelik II stationed an army near Aussa to "make sure the Sultan of Awsa would not honor his promise of full cooperation with Italy".
Welde Giyorgis Aboye then invaded the sultanate and defeated Sultan Muhammad Hanfare at the battle of Arraddó in January 1896. After this, Aussa became a tributary of the
Ethiopian Empire, Hanfare secured a modicum of autonomy within the Ethiopian Empire by accepting Menelik's indirect rule. Between 1912 and 1917, after many years of internal conflict, Muahmmad Yayyo came to power in the semi independent sultanate, putting an end to years of bloodshed.
Second Italo-Abyssinian War During the
Second Italo-Ethiopian War, Sultan Mahammad Yayyo Ussa, after initially being put to flight by an Italian expedition made up of 350 Yemeni mercenaries under and
Francesco De Martini, cooperated with the Italian invaders, who on 1 April 1936, completely occupied the sultanate. Upon a visit to Rome, Sultan Mohamed Yayyo met
Benito Mussolini and declared a speech of his loyalty towards the Italian Empire in Palazzo Venezia.
Revival within modern Ethiopia After the defeat of the Italians, in 1943 the reinstalled Ethiopian government sent a military expedition that captured Sultan Muhammad Yayyo and replaced him with one of his relatives,
Alimirah Hanfare. Sultan Alimirah often came into conflict with the central government over its encroachment on the authority of the Sultanate. Aussa, which had been more-or-less self-governing until the Sultan's ascension in 1944, had been greatly weakened in power by the centralising forces of Haile Selassie's government. In 1950 he withdrew from Asaita for two years in opposition, returning only two after following mediation by
Fitawrari Yayyo. The Sultan sought to unite the Afar people under an autonomous Sultanate, while remaining part of Ethiopia; they had been divided amongst the provinces of
Hararghe,
Shewa,
Tigray, and
Wollo. of Afar with Emperor Haile Selassie on the right and the Emperor's son Crown Prince Asfaw Wossen on the left|left In 1961, when it was clear the
Eritrean federal arrangement was headed towards its demise, 55 Afar chieftains in Eritrea met and endorsed the idea of an Ethiopian Afar autonomy. Following the dissolution of Eritrea's federal government and its transformation into a centrally-administered province, Afar leaders met again in
Assab in 1963 and supported the creation of an autonomous region. In 1964, Afar leaders went to Addis Ababa to present Haile Selassie with their proposal, but the effort came up empty-handed. In 1975, Sultan
Alimirah Hanfare was exiled to
Saudi Arabia, but returned after the fall of the
Derg regime in 1991. Upon Alimirah Hanfere's death in 2011, his son Hanfere Alimirah was named his successor as sultan. ==Religion==