Author : Edited by Muḥammad Fāsī, Ivan Hrbek
Year : 1988
Unesco. International Scientific Committee for the Drafting of a General History of Africa
The Horn of Africa (P.85)
Stage in the development Islam and its dissimination:…….
Ethiopia’s relations with the Muslim world by: E. CERULLII (P.575)
“The Sultanate of Ifat:
The Sultanate of Ifat, which thus succeeded that of Shoa in the hegemony over Islam of Southern Ethiopia, was ruled by a dynasty which had the name (of local origin) of Walasma. They came firstly into Ifat as refugees from the ancient Muslim state of Damut, as Ibn Khaldun testifies. However, the Walasma dynasty also boasted a distant Arab origin and, according to the oral tradition preserved to our times, considered it progenitor to be ‘Akil ibn Abi Talib, brother of Caliph ‘Ali and of Djafar ibn Abi Talib who, as we have seen, had been one of the first Muslims to take refuge in Ethiopia……….”