Zeila

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Zeila
Saylac
????
Town
19th-century engraving of Zeila
19th-century engraving of Zeila
Zeila is located in SomaliaZeilaZeila
Location in Somalia.
Coordinates: 11�21'14?N 43�28'26?ECoordinates: 11�21'14?N 43�28'26?E
Country Somalia
Region Awdal
District Zeylac
Established ca. 1st century CE
Population (2012)
� Total 18,600[1]
Time zone UTC+3 (EAT)
Climate BWh
Zeila (Somali: Saylac, Arabic: ?????), also known as Zaila or Zeyla, is a port city
in the northwestern Awdal region of Somalia.[2]

In the Middle Ages, the Jewish traveller Benjamin of Tudela identified Zeila (or
Zawilah) with the Biblical location of Havilah.[3] Most modern scholars identify it
with the site of Avalites mentioned in the 1st-century Greco-Roman travelogue the
Periplus of the Erythraean Sea and in Ptolemy, although this is disputed.[4][5] The
town evolved into an early Islamic center with the arrival of Muslims shortly after
the hegira. By the 9th century, Zeila was the capital of the early Adal Kingdom and
Ifat Sultanate in the 13th century, and also a capital for its successor state the
Adal Sultanate, it would attain its height of prosperity a few centuries later in
the 16th century. The city subsequently came under Ottoman and British protection
in the 18th century.

Zeila traditionally belongs to the ancient Somali tribe called Dir who are the
original inhabitants and founders of the ancient city.[6]

Contents
1 Geography
2 History
2.1 Avalites
2.2 Adal kingdom
2.3 Yemenite period
2.4 Ottoman period
2.5 British Somaliland
2.6 Present
3 Demographics
3.1 Education
4 References
5 Further reading
6 External links
Geography
Zeila is situated in the Awdal region in northwest Somalia. Located on the Gulf of
Aden coast near the Djibouti border, the town sits on a sandy spit surrounded by
the sea. It is known for its coral reef, mangroves and offshore islands, which
include the Sa'ad ad-Din archipelago named after the Somali Sultan Sa'ad ad-Din II
of the Sultanate of Ifat.[7] Landward, the terrain is unbroken desert for some
fifty miles. Berbera lies 170 miles (270 km) southeast of Zeila, while the city of
Harar in Ethiopia is 200 miles (320 km) to the west.

History
Avalites
Main article: Maritime history of Somalia
During antiquity Zeila was part of the Somali city-states that in engaged in a
lucrative trade network connecting Somali merchants with Phoenicia, Ptolemaic
Egypt, Greece, Parthian Persia, Saba, Nabataea, and the Roman Empire. Somali
sailors used the ancient Somali maritime vessel known as the beden to transport
their cargo.[8]

Several locations for Havilah are shown, including the Zeila region
Zeila is an ancient city, and has been identified with what was referred to in
classical antiquity as the town of Avalites (Greek: ?�a??te?), situated in the
erstwhile Barbara geographical region on the northern Somali coast. Along with the
neighboring Habash (Habesha or Abyssinians) of Al-Habash to the west, the Barbaroi
or Berber (ancestral Somalis) who inhabited the area are recorded in the 1st
century CE Greek document the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea as engaging in
extensive commercial exchanges with Egypt and pre-Islamic Arabia. The travelogue
mentions the Barbaroi trading frankincense, among various other commodities,
through their port cities such as Avalites (modern Zeila). Competent seamen, the
Periplus' author also indicates that they sailed throughout the Red Sea and Gulf of
Aden for trade. The document describes the Barbaroi's system of governance as
decentralized, and essentially consisting of a collection of autonomous city-
states.[9] It also suggests that "the Berbers who live in the place are very
unruly",[10] an apparent reference to their independent streak.[9]

Adal kingdom
Main article: Adal Sultanate
Islam was introduced to the area early on from the Arabian Peninsula, shortly after
the hegira. Zeila's two-mihrab Masjid al-Qiblatayn dates to the 7th century, and is
the oldest mosque in the city.[11] In the late 9th century, Al-Yaqubi wrote that
Muslims were living along the northern Somali seaboard.[12] He also mentioned that
the Adal kingdom had its capital in the city,[12][13] suggesting that the Adal
Sultanate with Zeila as its headquarters dates back to at least the 9th or 10th
centuries. According to I.M. Lewis, the polity was governed by local dynasties
consisting of Somalized Arabs or Arabized Somalis, who also ruled over the
similarly-established Sultanate of Mogadishu in the Benadir region to the south.
Adal's history from this founding period forth would be characterized by a
succession of battles with neighbouring Abyssinia.[13]

Ruins of the Muslim Sultanate of Adal in Zeila, Somalia

By the year of (1214-17), Ibn Said referred to both Zeila and Berbera. Zeila, as he
tells us, was a wealthy city of considerable size and its inhabitants were
completely Muslims. Ibn Said�s description gives the impression that Berbera was of
much more localized importance, mainly serving the immediate Somali, hinterland
while Zeila was clearly serving more extensive areas. But there is no doubt that
Zeila was also predominantly Somali, and Al-Dimashqi, another thirteen-century Arab
writer, gives the city name its Somali name Awdal (Adal), still known among the
local Somali. By the fourteen century, the significance of this Somali port for the
Ethiopian interior increased so much so that all the Muslim communities established
along the trade routes into central and south-eastern Ethiopia were commonly known
in Egypt and Syria by the collective term of �the country of Zeila�.[14]

In the following century, the Moroccan historian and traveller Ibn Battuta
describes the city being inhabited by Somalis, followers of the Shafi�i school, who
kept large numbers of camels, sheeps and goats. His description thus indicates both
the ingenious nature of the city, as indicated by the composition of its
population, and, by implication through the presence of the livestock, the
existence of the nomads in its vicinity. He also describes Zeila as a big
metropolis city and many great markets filled with many wealthy merchants.[15]

Through extensive trade with Abyssinia and Arabia, Adal attained its height of
prosperity during the 14th century.[16] It sold incense, myrrh, slaves, gold,
silver and camels, among many other commodities. Zeila had by then started to grow
into a huge multicultural metropolis, with Somalis (Predominantly), Afar, Harari,
and even Arabs and Persian inhabitants. The city was also instrumental in bringing
Islam to the Oromo and other Ethiopian ethnic groups.[17]

In 1332, the Zeila-based King of Adal was slain in a military campaign aimed at
halting the Abyssinian Emperor Amda Seyon's march toward the city.[18] When the
last Sultan of Ifat, Sa'ad ad-Din II, was also killed by Dawit I of Ethiopia in
Zeila in 1410, his children escaped to Yemen, before later returning in 1415.[19]
In the early 15th century, Adal's capital was moved further inland to the town of
Dakkar, where Sabr ad-Din II, the eldest son of Sa'ad ad-Din II, established a new
base after his return from Yemen.[20][21] Adal's headquarters were again relocated
the following century, this time to Harar. From this new capital, Adal organised an
effective army led by Imam Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi (Ahmad "Gurey" or "Gran")
that invaded the Abyssinian empire.[21] This campaign is historically known as the
Conquest of Abyssinia (Futuh al Habash). During the war, Imam Ahmad pioneered the
use of cannons supplied by the Ottoman Empire, which he imported through Zeila and
deployed against Abyssinian forces and their Portuguese allies led by Crist�v�o da
Gama.[16] Some scholars argue that this conflict proved, through their use on both
sides, the value of firearms like the matchlock musket, cannons and the arquebus
over traditional weapons.[22]

Travellers' reports, such as the memoirs of the Italian Ludovico di Varthema,

indicate that Zeila continued to be an important marketplace during the 16th
century,[23] despite being sacked by the Portuguese in 1517 and 1528. Later that
century, separate raids by nomads from the interior eventually prompted the port's
then ruler, Garad Lado, to enlist the services of 'Atlya ibn Muhammad to construct
a sturdy wall around the city.[24] Zeila, however, ultimately began to decline in
importance following the short-lived conquest of Abyssinia.[16]

16th century Zeila, along with several other settlements on the East African coast,
had been visited by the Portuguese explorer and writer Duarte Barbosa, describing
the city as such: "Having passed this town of Berbara, and going on, entering the
Red Sea, there is another town of the Moors, which is named Zeyla, which is a good
place of trade, whither many ships navigate and sell their cloths and merchandise.
It is very populous, with good houses of stone and white-wash, and good streets ;
the houses are covered with terraces, the dwellers in them are black. They have
many horses, and breed much cattle of all sorts, which they make use of for milk,
and butter, and meat. There is in this country abundance of wheat, millet, barley,
and fruits, which they carry thence to Aden." [25]

Yemenite period
Beginning in 1630, the city became a dependency of the ruler of Mocha, who, for a
small sum, leased the port to one of the office-holders of Mocha. The latter in
return collected a toll on its trade. Zeila was subsequently ruled by an Emir, whom
Mordechai Abir suggested had "some vague claim to authority over all of the sahil,
but whose real authority did not extend very far beyond the walls of the town."
Assisted by cannons and a few mercenaries armed with matchlocks, the governor
succeeded in fending off incursions by both the disunited nomads of the interior,
who had penetrated the area, as well as brigands in the Gulf of Aden.[26] By the
first half of the 19th century, Zeila was a shadow of its former self, having been
reduced to "a large village surrounded by a low mud wall, with a population that
varied according to the season from 1,000 to 3,000 people."[27] The city continued
to serve as the principal maritime outlet for Harar and beyond it in Shewa.
However, the opening of a new sea route between Tadjoura and Shewa cut further into
Zeila's historic position as the main regional port.[28]

Ottoman period
Main article: Ottoman Zeila
Although part of the Ottoman Empire since 1559, between 1821 and 1841, Muhammad
Ali, Pasha of Egypt, came to control Yemen and the sahil, with Zeila included.[29]
After the Egyptians withdrew from the Yemeni seaboard in 1841, Haj Ali Shermerki, a
successful and ambitious Somali merchant, purchased from them executive rights over
Zeila. Shermerki's governorship had an instant effect on the city, as he maneuvered
to monopolize as much of the regional trade as possible, with his sights set as far
as Harar and the Ogaden. In 1845, Shermerki deployed a few matchlock men to wrest
control of neighboring Berbera from that town's then feuding Somali authorities.
This alarmed the Emir of Harar, who, having already been at loggerheads with
Shermerki over fiscal matters, was concerned about the ramifications that these
movements might ultimately have on his own city's commerce. The Emir consequently
urged Berbera's leaders to reconcile and mount a resistance against Shermerki's
troops.[30] Shermerki was later succeeded as Governor of Zeila by Abu Bakr Pasha, a
local Afar statesman.[31]

Zeila waterfront in 1877, by an Italian visitor

In 1874�75, the Egyptians obtained a firman from the Ottomans by which they secured
claims over the city. At the same time, the Egyptians received British recognition
of their nominal jurisdiction as far east as Cape Guardafui.[29] In actuality,
however, Egypt had little authority over the interior and their period of rule on
the coast was brief, lasting only a few years (1870�84). When the Egyptian garrison
in Harar was evacuated in 1885, Zeila became caught up in the competition between
the Tadjoura-based French and the British for control of the strategic Gulf of Aden
littoral. I. M. Lewis mentions that "by the end of 1885 Britain was preparing to
resist an expected French landing at Zeila."[31] However, the two powers decided
instead to turn to negotiations.

British Somaliland
Main article: British Somaliland

Buralleh (Buralli) Robleh, Sub-Inspector of Police of Zeila, and General Gordon,

Governor of British Somaliland, in Zeila (1921).
On 9 February 1888, France and Britain concluded an agreement defining the boundary
between their respective protectorates.[32] As a result, Zeila and its eastern
neighbor Berbera came to be part of British Somaliland.

The construction of a railway from Djibouti to Addis Ababa in the late 19th century
continued the neglect of Zeila.[33] At the beginning of the next century, the city
was described in the 1911 Encyclop�dia Britannica as having a "good sheltered
anchorage much frequented by Arab sailing craft. However, heavy draught steamers
are obliged to anchor a mile and a half from the shore. Small coasting boats lie
off the pier and there is no difficulty in loading or discharging cargo. The water
supply of the town is drawn from the wells of Takosha, about three miles distant;
every morning camels, in charge of old Somali women and bearing goatskins filled
with water, come into the town in picturesque procession. ... [Zeila's] imports,
which reach Zaila chiefly via Aden, are mainly cotton goods, rice, jowaree, dates
and silk; the exports, 90% of which are from Abyssinia, are principally coffee,
skins, ivory, cattle, ghee and mother-of-pearl".[33]

In August 1940, Zeila was captured by advancing Italian troops. It would remain
under their occupation for over six months.

Present

Ruins of the Adal Sultanate in modern Zeila

In the post-independence period, Zeila was administered as part of the official
Awdal region of Somalia.

Following the outbreak of the civil war in the early 1990s, much of the city's
historic infrastructure was destroyed and many residents left the area. However,
remittance funds sent by relatives abroad have contributed toward reconstruction of
the town, as well as the local trade and fishing industries.

Demographics
As of 2012, Zeila had a population of around 18,600 inhabitants.[1] The broader
Zeila District has a total population of 105,000 residents.[34]

The city of Zeila is inhabited by people from the Somali ethnic group.

Education
Zeila has 5 schools that provide primary education to 484 students.[35]

References
Somalia City & Town Population. Tageo.com. Retrieved on 2013-08-13.
"Districts of Somalia".
Fran�ois-Xavier Fauvelle-Aymar, "Desperately Seeking the Jewish Kingdom of
Ethiopia: Benjamin of Tudela and the Horn of Africa (Twelfth Century)", Speculum,
88.2 (2013): 383�404.
G. W. B. Huntingford (ed.), The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, by an Unknown
Author: With Some Extracts from Agatharkhides �On the Erythraean Sea� (Ashgate,
1980), p. 90.
Lionel Casson (ed.), The Periplus Maris Erythraei: Text with Introduction,
Translation and Commentary (Princeton University Press, 1989), pp. 116�17. Avalites
may be Assab or a village named Abalit near Obock.
Futu? al-?abasha. (n.d.). Christian-Muslim Relations 1500 � 1900.
doi:10.1163/2451-9537_cmrii_com_26077
T. R. McClanahan 2000, p. 273.
Journal of African History pg.50 by John Donnelly Fage and Roland Anthony Oliver
Mohamed Diriye Abdullahi, Culture and Customs of Somalia, (Greenwood Press, 2001),
pp.13�14
Wilfred Harvey Schoff, The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea: travel and trade in the
Indian Ocean, (Longmans, Green, and Co., 1912) p.25
Briggs, Phillip (2012). Somaliland. Bradt Travel Guides. p. 7. ISBN 1841623717.
Encyclopedia Americana, Volume 25. Americana Corporation. 1965. p. 255.
Lewis, I.M. (1955). Peoples of the Horn of Africa: Somali, Afar and Saho.
International African Institute. p. 140.
{{cite web| https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=GWjxR61xAe0C&pg=PA139&dq=ibn+sa
%27id+zeila&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwju-
o6CstLfAhV0oXEKHXmwBfgQ6AEIKjAA#v=onepage&q=ibn%20sa%27id%20zeila&f=false
{{cite web|https://books.google.co.uk/books?
id=frC8SAu9QxQC&pg=PA59&dq=ibn+battuta+zeila&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjSw6CQrtLfAhXWRx
UIHXfIASQQ6AEIMDAB#v=onepage&q=ibn%20battuta%20zeila&f=false
I. M. Lewis, A pastoral democracy: a study of pastoralism and politics among the
Northern Somali of the Horn of Africa, (LIT Verlag M�nster: 1999), p.17
Rayne, Henry A. Sun, sand and somals : leaves from the note-book of a district
commissioner in British Somaliland. London : Witherby. (1921).
https://archive.org/stream/sunsandsomalslea00raynuoft/sunsandsomalslea00raynuoft_dj
vu.txt
Houtsma, M. Th (1987). E.J. Brill's First Encyclopaedia of Islam, 1913�1936.
BRILL. pp. 125�126. ISBN 9004082654.
mbali, mbali (2010). "Somaliland". Basic Reference. London, UK: mbali. 28:
217�229. doi:10.1017/S0020743800063145. Archived from the original on 2012-04-23.
Retrieved 2012-04-27.
Briggs, Philip (2012). Bradt Somaliland: With Addis Ababa & Eastern Ethiopia.
Bradt Travel Guides. p. 10. ISBN 1841623717.
Lewis, I. M. (1999). A Pastoral Democracy: A Study of Pastoralism and Politics
Among the Northern Somali of the Horn of Africa. James Currey Publishers. p. 17.
ISBN 0852552807.
Jeremy Black, Cambridge Illustrated Atlas, Warfare: Renaissance to Revolution,
1492�1792, (Cambridge University Press: 1996), p.9.
"There is an abundance of provisions in this city, and there are many merchants
here." The Travels of Ludovico di Varthema in Egypt, Syria, Arabia Deserta and
Arabia Felix, in Persia, India, and Ethiopia, A.D. 1503 to 1508, translated by John
Winter Jone, and edited by George Percy Badger (London: the Hakluyt Society, 1863),
p. 87
Pankhurst, Richard (1982). History of Ethiopian towns from the Middle Ages to the
early nineteenth century. Steiner. p. 63. ISBN 3515032045.
Dames, L., 1918: The Book of Duarte Barbosa London: Hakluyt Society
Abir, Mordechai (1968). Ethiopia: The Era of the Princes; The Challenge of Islam
and the Re-unification of the Christian Empire (1769�1855). London: Longmans. p.
15. Abir defines the sahil as "the coast", which stretched from the Gulf of
Tadjoura to Cape Guardafui
Abir, Era of the Princes, p. 14
Abir, Era of the Princes, p. 16
E. H. M. Clifford, "The British Somaliland-Ethiopia Boundary", Geographical
Journal, 87 (1936), p. 289
Abir, Mordechai (1968). Ethiopia: the era of the princes: the challenge of Islam
and re-unification of the Christian Empire, 1769�1855. Praeger. p. 18.
I.M. Lewis, A Modern History of the Somali, fourth edition (Oxford: James Currey,
2002), p.43 & 49
Simon Imbert-Vier, Fronti�res et limites � Djibouti durant la p�riode coloniale
(1884�1977), Universit� de Provence, Aix-Marseille, 2008, p. 81.
Wikisource Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Zaila" . Encyclop�dia Britannica. 28 (11th
ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 950.
"Regions, districts, and their populations: Somalia 2005 (draft)" (PDF). UNDP.
Retrieved 21 September 2013.
"2011/2 Primary School Census Statistics Yearbook" (PDF).
Further reading
T. R. McClanahan, C. R. C. Sheppard, D. O. Obura. Coral Reefs of the Indian Ocean:
Their Ecology and Conservation: Their Ecology and Conservation (Oxford University
Press, 2000) ISBN 0-195-35217-3
External links
Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Zeila.
Sir Richard Burton's account of Zeila in the late 19th century
Zeila � coordinates
Authority control Edit this at Wikidata
LCCN: n87930226 VIAF: 137304525 WorldCat Identities (via VIAF): 137304525
Categories: Populated places in AwdalAncient SomaliaHistory of EthiopiaCities of
the Adal SultanateCities in SomalilandCities in Somalia
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