Ajuran Sultanate

The Ajuran Sultanate, natively known as Ajuuraan, was a Muslim state in the Horn of Africa founded by Somali sultans that rose to prominence during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries and thrived through the late medieval and early modern period. By the fifteenth century it was considered Africa's only hydraulic empire, built on a strong centralized administration with extensive irrigation and water-management works. Ajuran resisted Oromo invasions from the west and fought off Portuguese incursions from the east through an assertive military stance toward outside powers.