The war was a massive military campaign led by , better known as Ahmad Gragn ("the Left-Handed"). Representing the Muslim Sultanate of Adal, Ahmad launched a jihad against the Christian Ethiopian Empire.

The last major conventional battle. Haile Selassie personally led a 31,000-man force against three Italian divisions. Despite Ethiopian bravery, Italian aircraft and chemical shells shattered the imperial army. The Emperor wept before his remaining noblemen, famously lamenting: “Today, the independence of Ethiopia dies.”

The primary historical text titled The Conquest of Abyssinia (originally Futuh al-Habasha a 16th-century Arabic chronicle written by Shihab ad-Din Ahmad bin Abd al-Qader (also known as Arab Faqih . It provides an eyewitness account of the Ethiopian-Adal War (1529–1543)