First attested in 1093, it quickly profited from its strategic trading location, gaining heavily from being near to Yemen as well as Egypt and India.

After the mid 13th century Dahlak lost its trade monopoly and subsequently started to decline.

After the Umayyads seized Dahlak in 702, they made it a prison and place of forced exile, as did the early Abbasids who succeeded them.

[6] In the mid 13th century, however, the Zagwe kings began to make use of a new trading route in the south, with the port town Zeila as its final destination.

[7] Around the same time, Ibn Sa'id al-Maghribi records that the Dahlak sultans struggled to stay independent from the Rasulids.

[8] From the 12th century the sultans of Dahlak controlled the important trading town of Massawa on the African Red Sea coast,[9] which was governed by a deputy titled the Nai'b.

[11] By the 15th century, the economy of the sultanate was not only in decline, but it was also forced to pay tribute to the emperors of Ethiopia.

[14] Sixteen years later, the islands were occupied by the Ottoman Empire, who made them part of the Habesh Eyalet.