Cristóvão da Gama

Common card · No. 437175

Cristóvão da Gama (c. 1516 – 29 August 1542), anglicised as Christopher da Gama, was a Portuguese military commander who led an army of 400 musketeers on a crusade in Ethiopia (1541–1543) against the Muslim Adal army of Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi. He was the son of explorer Vasco da Gama. He, along with the allied Ethiopian army, was victorious against Adal forces in four battles. He was seriously wounded in his last battle and was captured, tortured, and executed by Imam Ahmad. Richard Burton, in his 1856 book First Footsteps in East Africa, called Gama "the most chivalrous soldier of a chivalrous age".

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