Jamal ad-Din, as a wise and able ruler dispatched this chief as an envoy to Emperor Yeshaq in an attempt to arrange a compromise peace, but negotiations failed.
A battle then ensued, in which Jamal ad-Din's forces and Harb Jaush fought with the Emperor's men, who reportedly included 7,000 archers and swordsmen.
[2] After the precedent military success of Harb Jaush against the Ethiopians, Jamal ad-Din again sent the former on an expedition to Bali where he was said to have killed and crushed the inhabitants of the region.
Following this success the Adal king collected a larger force than any of his predecessors and then organized another major attack on the Emperor's army.
Making use of a thousand horseman he killed numbers of Yeshaq's soldiers, took innumerable prisoners and seized an extensive amount of loot and inflicted heavy casualties in what was reportedly the largest Adalite army ever fielded.
The Emperor and the remainder of his followers were forced to flee to the Blue Nile, with Jamal's troops in hot pursuit for five months, after which their commander returned home with so much loot that it was impossible to describe.
As a story Maqrizi relates shows: On one occasion when his children were small, one of them while playing is said to have struck a child smaller than himself, and broke his hand.
When his son came forward to suffer the penalty, all the bystanders bewailed loudly, and the injured child's family reiterated that they were in favour of mercy.