Portuguese allies led by Cristóvão da Gama. Some scholars argue that this conflict proved, through their use on both sides, the value of firearms such as the matchlock musket, cannons and the arquebus over traditional weapons. Ethnicity The Walashma dynasty of the Ifat and Adal sultanates possessed Somali genealogical traditions. During Adal's early period, when it was centred on the city of Zeila in the present-day northwestern Awdal region, the kingdom was primarily composed of Somalis, Afars, Hararis, and Arabs. Ethiopian historian Bahru Zewde and others however state the Walasma led sultanate primarily included the Ethiopian Semitic speaking Argobba and Harari people, it later expanded to comprise Afar and Somali peoples. Between the late 1400s to mid 1500s there was a large scale migration of Hadhrami people into Adal. Among the earliest mentions of the Somali by name has come through a victory poem written by Emperor Yeshaq I of Abyssinia against the king of Adal, as the Simur are said to have submitted and paid tribute. As Taddesse Tamrat writes: "Dr Enrico Cerulli has shown that Simur was an old Harari name for the Somali, who are still known by them as Tumur. Hence, it is most probable that the mention of the Somali and the Simur in relation to Yishaq refers to the king's military campaigns against Adal, where the Somali seem to have constituted a major section of the population." On his background: According to Leo Africanus (1526) and George Sale (1760), the Adelites were of a tawny brown or olive complexion on the northern littoral, and grew swarthier towards the southern interior. They generally had long, lank hair. Most wore a cotton sarong but no headpiece or sandals, with many glass and amber trinkets around their necks, wrists, arms and ankles. The king and other aristocrats often donned instead a body-length garment topped with a headdress. All were Muslims. In the southern hinterland, the Adelites lived beside pagan "Negroes", with whom they bartered various commodities. Languages Various languages from the Afro-Asiatic family were spoken in the vast Adal Sultanate. Arabic served as a lingua franca, and was used by the ruling Walashma dynasty. According to the 19th-century Ethiopian historian Asma Giyorgis suggests that the Walashma dynasty themselves spoke Arabic. Economy One of the empire's most wealthy provinces was Ifat it was well watered, by the large river Awash. Additionally, besides the surviving Awash River, at least