In 1529, Imam Ahmad's Adal troops defeated a larger Ethiopian contingent at the
Battle of Shimbra Kure. The
Harari cavalry also known as the
Malassay were instrumental in this battle, as the Abyssinian troops were outmaneuvered. The victories that gave the followers of Imam Ahmad the upper hand came in 1531. The first was the
Battle of Antukyah, where cannon fire at the start panicked the Ethiopian soldiers. The second was the
Battle of Amba Sel, where troops under the Imam not only defeated but dispersed the Ethiopian army and captured items of the Imperial regalia. These victories allowed the Adalites to enter the
Ethiopian Highlands, where they began to sack and burn numerous churches, including
Atronsa Maryam, where the remains of several Emperors had been interred. Imam Ahmad defeated the armies of
Agame and
Tembien and marched towards
Aksum to capture the historical Ethiopian city to solidify his rule in Ethiopia, echoing
Mehmed II conquest of
Constantinople, but the locals of Tigray had all assembled to defend their holy city. The Imam defeated and killed a large number of them as
Arab Faqīh states, "Not a single one managed to slip away. They killed them in the forts, in the valleys and in the gorges. The ground was so thickly covered with their corpses, that it was impossible to walk in that place because of the dead bodies." he estimates that over 10,000 Christians were killed. The Imam reached
Aksum he besieged the city in the siege of Axum where upon he destroyed the
Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion. During his invasion of the Tigray region
Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi visited the tomb of
Najashi in Negash to pay his respects. Dawit was stabbed to death in his bed by an unknown assailant at
Debre Damo and his son and future emperor Prince
Menas was captured by the forces of Imam Ahmad; the Empress was unable to react as she was besieged in the capital. During their defeat at the hands of the Ottomans at the
1541 Battle of Suez. The Portuguese forces would also be ambushed by the Adalites at the
Battle of Massawa becoming the first encounter between the two groups. In 1543, a smaller number of Abyssinians soundly defeated the larger Adal-Ottoman army with the help of the Portuguese navy, which brought 400 musketeers led by
Cristóvão da Gama via
Massawa, a port in the province of
Medri Bahri, an important port today in present-day Eritrea. However, Da Gama was captured in the
Battle of Wofla and later executed. The 500 musketeers were led by Bahr Nagash
Yeshaq, king of Medri Bahri. Yeshaq provided the Portuguese with not only provisions and places to camp in his realm but also information about the land. The Bahr Nagash also joined Emperor
Gelawdewos and the Portuguese in the decisive
Battle of Wayna Daga, where tradition states that Imam Ahmad was shot in the chest by a Portuguese musketeer named João de Castilho, who had charged alone into the Muslim lines and died. The wounded Imam was then beheaded by an Ethiopian cavalry commander,
Azmach Calite. Once the Imam's soldiers learned of his death, they fled the battlefield. The death of Imam Ahmad and the victory at Wayna Daga caused a collapse of Ahmad's forces and forced an Adalite retreat from Ethiopia. ==Aftermath==