Gendebelo

Gendebelo was a Muslim trading city of Ifat under the Walasma dynasty. Camel caravans brought Indian spices through Adal from the port of Zeila, while ginger was grown locally. The city stood at a meeting of different ways of transport: the Venetian Alessandro Zorzi described it as a place where loads were transferred from mules to camels.

The city appears in the sixteenth-century account of Adal's invasion of Ethiopia, the Futuh al-Habasha. Its inhabitants contributed gold that, according to historian Mohammed Hassen, helped the Adalites acquire weapons before their victory at Shimbra Kure. The wealth of the caravan trade thus reached beyond the market into the wars between Adal and the Christian kingdom. Gendebelo's connections brought distant goods deep into the Ethiopian interior.