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About the beginning of the sixteenth century arose a Moor near the Cape of Gardafui, who, by the assistance of the forces sent him from Moca by the Arabs and Turks, conquered almost all Abyssinia, and founded the kingdom of Adel. He was called Mahomet Gragne, or the Lame.
David followed up his success by invading the lowlands, and, in defiance, struck his spear through the door of the king of Adel. Harar was a mere mass of Bedouin villages during the reign of Mohammed Gragne, the "left-handed" Attila of Adel. Supplied with Arab mercenaries from Mocha, and by the Turks of Yemen with a body of Janissaries and a train of artillery, he burst into Efat and Fatigar.
A prince of many titles: he is generally called Wanag Suggad, "feared amongst the lions," because he spent the latter years of his life in the wild. Yemen submitted to Sulayman Pasha in A.D. 1538. "Gragne," or in the Somali dialect "Guray," means a left-handed man; Father Lobo errs in translating it "the Lame." This exploit has been erroneously attributed to Nur, the successor of Mohammed.
His fellow religionists still relate that when Gragne fell in action, his wife Talwambara , the heroic daughter of Mahfuz, to prevent the destruction and dispersion of the host of Islam, buried the corpse privately, and caused a slave to personate the prince until a retreat to safe lands enabled her to discover the stratagem to the nobles. Father Lobo tells a different tale.
Thence the Portuguese general imprudently marched in the monsoon season, and was soon confronted upon the plain of Ballut by Mohammed Gragne at the head of 10,000 spearmen and a host of cavalry. On the other side stood a rabble rout of Abyssinians, and a little band of 350 Portuguese heroes headed by the most chivalrous soldier of a chivalrous age.
Mohammed Gragne improved his victory by chasing the young Claudius over Abyssinia, where nothing opposed the progress of his arms. At last the few Portuguese survivors repaired to the Christian emperor, who was persuaded to march an army against the King of Adel.
Thus perished, after fourteen years' uninterrupted fighting, the African hero, who dashed to pieces the structure of 2500 years. Like the "Kardillan" of the Holy Land, Mohammed Gragne is still the subject of many a wild and grisly legend. And to the present day the people of Shoa retain an inherited dread of the lowland Moslems.
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