Badlay ibn Sa'ad ad-Din
Quick Facts
Biography
Badlay ibn Sa'ad ad-Din II (Arabic: بادلاي بن سعد الدين) (also known as Sihab ad-Din Ahmad Badlay, Arwe Badlay - "Badlay the Beast") (died 1445) was a Sultan of the Sultanate of Adal and a son of Sa'ad ad-Din II.
Reign
Sultan Badlay moved the capital of Adal to Dakkar (a few miles southeast of Harar) upon his ascension; Richard Pankhurst states that he founded that town. He rebelled against his Ethiopian overlord, leading a jihad and succeeded in capturing the province of Bale. Then in 1443, he invaded the Ethiopian province of Dawaro, and again in 1445, but Emperor Zara Yaqob defeated and killed him in the Battle of Gomit. The Royal Chronicle of Zara Yaqob reports that the Emperor cut Badlay's body into pieces and sent the parts to different parts of his realm: his head to a place called "Amba", and other parts of his body to Axum, Manhadbe (possibly the Manadeley Francisco Álvares visited in the 1520s), Wasel (near modern Dessie), Jejeno (likely Mekane Selassie), Lawo (possibly Lawo Gabaya), and Wiz (location unknown).