Battle of Wofla

Battle of Wofla
Part of the Abyssinian–Adal war and Ottoman–Portuguese conflicts (1538–57)
Date August 28, 1542 Location modern Wofla, Ethiopia Result Decisive Adal Sultanate victory
Belligerents
Adal Sultanate	Portuguese Empire Ethiopian Empire
Commanders and leaders
Ahmad ibn Ibrihim al-Ghazi	Cristóvão da Gama
Strength
600–900 Adal musketeers 20 Adal horsemen several thousand foot	About 290 Portuguese musketeers 23 Ethiopian men
Casualties and losses
unknown	160 Portuguese killed 8 Ethiopians killed

The Battle of Wofla was fought on August 28, 1542 near Lake Ashenge in Wofla (or Ofla) in the modern Ethiopian Region of Tigray (previously part of Wollo; 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 Sabla Wengel and her retinue, to flee their fortified encampment and leave their weapons behind.

While fleeing the battlefield with 14 soldiers, 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.^[1] He was then brought into the presence of the Imam Ahmad, who tortured his captured opponent, then in the end the Imam drew his sword and beheaded Gama.^[2]

References

1. R.S. Whiteway, editor and translator, The Portuguese Expedition to Abyssinia in 1441-1543, 1902. (Nendeln, Liechtenstein: Kraus Reprint, 1967), pp. 66f
2. Whiteway, The Portuguese Expedition, p. 68