Battle of Wofla information

Battle of Wofla
	Part of Ethiopian–Adal war and Somali-Portuguese conflicts
Date	August 28, 1542
Location	Modern day Ofla, Ethiopia
Result	Adal-Ottoman victory
Belligerents
Adal Sultanate; Ottoman Empire	Portuguese Empire; Ethiopian Empire
Commanders and leaders
Ahmad ibn Ibrihim al-Ghazi	Cristóvão da Gama
Strength
2900 arquebusiers (2000 from Arabia and 900 Turks)	400 Portuguese arquebusiers
Casualties and losses
Unknown	200 killed; 50 missing

The Battle of Wofla was fought on August 28, 1542 near Lake Ashenge in Wofla (Ofla) between the Portuguese under Cristóvão da Gama and the forces of Imam Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi. Reinforced with a superiority not only in numbers but in firearms, Imam Ahmad was victorious and forced the Portuguese, along with Queen Seble Wongel and her retinue, to flee their fortified encampment and leave their weapons behind.

While fleeing the battlefield with 14 soldiers, Cristóvão da Gama, with his arm broken from a bullet, was captured that night by followers of Imam Ahmad, who had been led into the brush they had taken refuge in by an old woman.^[5] However other accounts state Gama had stayed behind to look for a woman he had captured at the Battle of the Hill of the Jews with whom he became infatuated.^[6] Nonetheless, he was then brought into the presence of the Imam Ahmad, who tortured and executed his captured opponent.^[7]

A disagreement occurred between Ahmed Gragn and his Ottoman musketeers at this point of victory on handling the Portuguese captured in the battle. The Ottomans wanted to use these prisoners as a negotiating tool in their ongoing talks with Lisbon, therefore they made the following demands that they are delivered unharmed into the care of Yemeni provincial officials. However, Ahmed Gragn turned down this please and killed him with his own hands just hours after capturing da Gama, Furious, the Ottoman commander deserted Ahmed and headed back to Yemen with the majority of his forces.^[8]

Following the death of Cristóvão da Gama and the majority of his soldiers being either captured or slain, the Portuguese were hesitant to make any investments in the area thus making the Adal Sultanate remain as the major power in the Horn of Africa region.^[9]

^ Dennis Showalter, Early Modern Wars 1500–1775
^ Dennis Showalter, Early Modern Wars 1500–1775
^ Giancarlo Casale, The Ottoman Age of Exploration, p. 73
^ J. Bermudez, The Portuguese expedition to Abyssinia in 1541-1543 as narrated by Castanhoso.[1]
^ R.S. Whiteway, editor and translator, The Portuguese Expedition to Abyssinia in 1441–1543, 1902. (Nendeln, Liechtenstein: Kraus Reprint, 1967), pp. 66f
^ Makkham, C. E. (1867). The Portuguese Expeditions to Abyssinia in the Fifteenth, Sixteenth, and Seventeenth Centuries. Royal Geographical Society. p. 6.
^ Whiteway, The Portuguese Expedition, p. 68
^ Giancarlo Casale, The Ottoman Age of Exploration, p. 73
^ Giancarlo Casale, p. 74

[1] Dennis Showalter, Early Modern Wars 1500–1775

[2] Dennis Showalter, Early Modern Wars 1500–1775

[3] Giancarlo Casale, The Ottoman Age of Exploration, p. 73

[4] J. Bermudez, The Portuguese expedition to Abyssinia in 1541-1543 as narrated by Castanhoso.[1]

[5] R.S. Whiteway, editor and translator, The Portuguese Expedition to Abyssinia in 1441–1543, 1902. (Nendeln, Liechtenstein: Kraus Reprint, 1967), pp. 66f

[6] Makkham, C. E. (1867). The Portuguese Expeditions to Abyssinia in the Fifteenth, Sixteenth, and Seventeenth Centuries. Royal Geographical Society. p. 6.

[7] Whiteway, The Portuguese Expedition, p. 68

[8] Giancarlo Casale, The Ottoman Age of Exploration, p. 73

[9] Giancarlo Casale, p. 74

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