Sultanate of Aussa

Aussa, or Awsa, was the foremost kingdom of the Afar people, centred on an oasis in the hot lowlands of the Afar Triangle, where today's Ethiopia, Eritrea and Djibouti meet. Under the Mudaito dynasty, usually dated from 1734, it outlasted Egyptian ambitions and Ethiopian expansion, and it was ended as an independent state only by the Italian occupation of 1936. Other Afar rulers recognised its sultan as first among them, at least in name.

The town of Aussa, modern Asaita, first rose to importance as the last seat of the Adal Sultanate. In 1577 Muhammad Gasa, who had taken the title of imam, moved the capital there from Harar, founding what is called the Imamate of Aussa. Harar later went its own way as a separate emirate, and the imamate weakened through the seventeenth century. Local Mudaito Afar overthrew it, an event the sources place in 1672, and over time the old Harla population of the area was absorbed into an Afar identity.

The line of sultans begins with Kedafu, also written Kadafo, a Mudaito clan leader who took power in 1734 and reigned until 1749. His son and grandson followed him with long reigns of their own, which the historian Richard Pankhurst read as a sign of political stability. The sultan's chief emblem was a silver baton believed to hold magical power. The state's religion was Sunni Islam, and Arabic and Somali were used alongside Afar.

Aussa's wealth drew envious neighbours. In the 1790s the Debne-Wemas, a southern Afar group, attacked with matchlock-armed hired men from Aden; according to William Cornwallis Harris, Sultan Yusuf was killed and the town sacked. Aussa lost much of its political weight, though it remained a busy market. In 1834 Sultan Hanfadhe won a decisive battle at Darma that secured Mudaito control. In 1875 his son, Sultan Mahammad, defeated and killed Werner Munzinger, who was leading an Egyptian force inland.

Italian expansion along the Red Sea coast pulled Aussa into European diplomacy. On 6 December 1889 Sultan Mahammad signed a treaty making Aussa an Italian protectorate and recognising the Danakil coast as Italian. Emperor Menelik II answered by stationing troops nearby during the First Italo-Ethiopian War, and in January 1896 an Ethiopian army defeated the sultan. Aussa then paid tribute to Ethiopia while keeping much of its autonomy. Mahammad Yayyo came to power between 1912 and 1917, ending years of internal conflict.

During the Second Italo-Ethiopian War, Mahammad Yayyo sided with the invaders after an Italian-led column first drove him off, and on 1 April 1936 Italy occupied the sultanate fully. Yayyo later visited Rome and pledged loyalty to Benito Mussolini. When Ethiopian rule returned, a 1943 expedition removed him and installed his relative Alimirah Hanfare, who pressed for Afar autonomy while staying loyal to Haile Selassie. Alimirah went into exile in Saudi Arabia in 1975 and came back in 1991; the title of sultan survives today without sovereign power.

Our maps label the state Awsa in 1650, 1700, 1715, 1783 and 1800. The 1650 and 1700 outlines predate the Mudaito sultanate's usual 1734 starting date and correspond to the earlier Imamate of Aussa and the period of Afar takeover. Ethiopia borders it on every one of these maps.