Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi (Arabic: أحمد بن إبراهيم الغازي, Harari: አሕመድ ኢብራሂም አል-ጋዚ, Somali: Axmed Ibraahim al-Qaasi;[2] c. 21 July 1506 – 10 February 1543) was the Imam of the Adal Sultanate from 1527 to 1543.

[3] Commonly named Ahmed Gragn in Amharic and Gurey in Somali, both meaning the left-handed, he led the invasion and conquest of Abyssinia from the Sultanate of Adal during the Ethiopian-Adal War.

[16] According to sixteenth century Adal writer Arab Faqīh, due to the secular rule of Sultan Abu Bakr ibn Muhammad, Ahmad would leave Harar and return to Hubat.

[17]: 165  After the death of Imam Mahfuz, Garad Abun Adashe would become the most popular ruler of Adal, sparking conflict with the ruling Walashma dynasty for seven years.

Garad Abun, who was astonished by the military valour of Ahmad, arranged for him to marry the late Mahfuz's youngest daughter, Bati del Wambara.

[1]: xxxiii [18][19] The Adal sultan Abu Bakr ibn Muhammad is said to have established his capital at Harar and recruited a large number of Somalis into his army.

It was an indecisive clash that only forced the Sultan to retreat back into the Ogaden and Ahmad remained in Hubat as an independent governor of the rebel province.

Upon hearing that a rebel named Ahmad ibn Ibrahim was in a power struggle with the Adal leaders, the Emperor of Ethiopia Dawit II sent his general Degelhan to confront him.

The Abyssinian campaign originally seemed successful as large amounts of women and children of Adal were captured by Degelhan including the mother of Ahmad's commander Abu Bakr Qatin.

Besides the Somalis, Ahmad had also incorporated into his army other peoples in the area who had been in continuous conflict with the Christian empire ever since the fourteenth century, such as the Harla, the Argobba, the Afar and the Arabs.

By about 1527-9, the Imam was at the head of a strong state, with an ever-increasing sphere of influence in the interior of the Horn, and ready to lead the crucial military offensive against the Christian empire.

The troops were recruited from all over the empire and the list of Christian generals who participated in the battle includes the Bahr-Negash and other officials from Medri Bahri, many district governors from Tigray, Amhara, the Agaw territories, Begemder, Gojjam, Shewa, as well as from the frontier provinces of Ifat, Fatagar, Dawaro, Bali and Damot.

With the help of his advanced weaponry he was able to inflict another crushing defeat on the Abyssinians during the Battle of Antukyah which allowed the Adalites to occupy Fatagar and Shewa.

[24] The Imam would then call an assembly of his Emirs, chieftains and all the Muslim leaders to state his intention of staying in Abyssinia They would then make plans to invade Tigray where the Emperor now resides.

An army division from Adal crossed the Mareb River and conquered Medri Bahri, the subsequent Adalite occupation was bitterly resisted by the locals who killed the Imam's nephew, Vizier 'Addole, sending his head to the Ethiopian Emperor.

The conditions were so dire that many Muslims in Ahmad's army converted to Christianity, realizing the impossibility of his position the Imam soon withdrew to the more fertile province of Begmeder.

The Emperor was forced to live as an outlaw in his own realm constantly hounded by Imam Ahmed's soldiers the Malassay, Dawit then dispatched João Bermudes, who had arrived in Ethiopia with Dom Rodrigo de Lima, to reach out to the King of Portugal for military aid.

[9][22]: 173 The King of Portugal would eventually send ships with 400 Portuguese musketeers, but when they arrived in 1541, Dawit II was dead and his son Gelawdewos had succeeded him.

"[1]: 26f  The first encounter took place during the Battle of Jarte, da Gama formed his troops into an infantry square and marched against the Imam's lines, repelling successive waves of Adalite attacks with musket and cannon.

This battle ended when Imam Ahmad was wounded in the leg by a chance shot; seeing his banners signal retreat, the Portuguese and their Abyssinian allies fell upon them, inflicting immense losses on the Adalites.

Castanhoso laments that "the victory would have been complete this day had we only one hundred horses to finish it, for the King was carried on men's shoulders in a bed, accompanied by horsemen, and they fled in no order.

On the advice of Queen Seble Wongel, da Gama made winter camp at Wofla near Lake Ashenge, still within sight of his opponent.

[1]: 53  Ahmad was forced to retreat further south, where with fortune against him, the local population now openly defied him by refusing to provide him supplies or soldiers.

[22]: 89 [1]: lix f. The Imam successfully petitioned to the Turkish governor of Yemen Eyalet in Zabid, offering "much money" and submission to the official, he received an additional 2,000 musketeers from Arabia, and artillery and 900 picked men from the Ottomans to assist him.

After the rains ended, Imam Ahmad attacked the Portuguese camp at Wolfa and through weight of numbers killed all but 140 of da Gama's troops.

Da Gama himself, badly wounded, was captured with ten of his men and, after refusing an offer to spare his life if he would convert to Islam, was tortured and executed.

[1]: 75  The Imam and his men were apparently stunned that the Portuguese had managed to reassemble and were looking for battle, according to Castanhoso this demoralized the Adalites and put fear into their hearts as "they understood well that we had only come to avenge the past".

[1]: 192 [22]: 89 The Imam's wife Bati del Wambara managed to escape the battlefield with the remnants of the army and retreated back to Harar, abandoning the occupation of Abyssinia.

The corpse of the Imam was beheaded and Gelawdewos ordered his head to be set on a spear, and carried around in all of Abyssinia, so that the people know that the conqueror who had wrought them such evils was indeed dead.

"[31] Haile Selassie referred to him in his memoirs: "I have often had villagers in northern Ethiopia point out sites of towns, forts, churches and monasteries destroyed by Gragn as if these catastrophes had occurred only yesterday.