sultanate · Horn and East Africa

Sharkha Sultanate

1300 CE – 1450 CE (approx.)

A small Muslim principality of the south-eastern Ethiopian highlands, listed among the seven Muslim states of medieval Abyssinia.

Origins

Sharkha is known almost only from the 14th-century Arab geographer al-Umari, who named it among the seven Muslim kingdoms of Abyssinia. It probably lay in the Arsi highlands, between Hadiya and Bale, in a region of farming and cattle herding settled by Muslim communities along the trade routes.

Rule and society

Al-Umari describes it as a modest state with a small army, whose people grew crops and kept livestock. After the campaigns of Amda Seyon in the 1330s it paid tribute to the Ethiopian Empire, though its local Muslim rulers kept their positions.

Decline and legacy

Sharkha fades from the record in the 15th century. Its lands were later caught up in the wars of the Adal Sultanate and then settled by Oromo groups during the migrations of the 16th century.

Few sources survive for this state; details are uncertain.

Connections (1)

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Cite this page
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Sharkha Sultanate. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/sharkha-sultanate
MLA
“Sharkha Sultanate.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/sharkha-sultanate. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Sharkha Sultanate.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/sharkha-sultanate.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Sharkha Sultanate’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/sharkha-sultanate (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻