The Conqueror of the HighlandsThe Horn of Africa · 1529–1543“This is a story of two seas pulling at one mountain.”Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi — the highlanders called him the Left-Handed — rode out of the Adal Sultanate with Ottoman muskets and a storm at his back. At Shimbra Kure the Ethiopian Empire's host broke before him, and for a decade the ancient Christian kingdom bent like grass.The lesson the elders kept: Outside powers come with gifts of fire, and the fire stays long after the givers go home.