ABSTRACT
Until the late nineteenth century the history of the eastern Horn of Africa is dominated by the protracted Somali expansion from the north, and the rise and decline of Muslim emporia along the coast. To a certain extent each of these two themes has its own particular history, but at no time over the centuries was one entirely independent of the other. About the tenth century while these developments were proceeding on the coast, some areas of southern Somaliland were ccupied by the Zanj, while the land in the centre and north was occupied first by various Oromo tribes and then by the Somali. Somali contingents played a notable part in the Imam's victories and Shihab ad-Din, the Muslim chronicler of the period writing between 1540 and 1560, mentions them frequently. Ahmad Gran's campaigns had at least two major effects on the history of Abyssinia and the Horn.
