of the eastern coast, and rose to its height of splendour. Taki al-Din Makrizi[1] includes, under the name of Zayla, a territory of forty-three days' march by forty and divides it into seven great provinces, speaking about fifty languages, and ruled by Amirs, subject to the Hati (Hatze) of Abyssinia.
In the fourteenth century it became celebrated by its wars with the kings of Abyssinia: sustaining severe defeats the Moslems retired upon their harbour, which after an obstinate defence fell into the hands of the Christians. The land was laid waste, the mosques were converted into churches, and the Abyssinians returned to their mountains laden with booty. About A.D. 1400, Sa'ad al-Din, the heroic prince of Zayla, was besieged in his city by the Hatze David the Second: slain by a spear-thrust, he left his people powerless in the hands of their enemies, till his sons, Sabr al-Din, Ali, Mansur, and Jamal al-Din retrieved the cause of Al-Islam.
Ibn Batutah, a voyager of the fourteenth century, thus describes the place: "I then went from Aden by sea, and after four days came to the city of Zayla. This is a settlement of the Berbers,[2] a people of Sudan, of the Shafi'a sect. Their country is a desert of two months' extent; the first part is termed Zayla, the last Makdashu. The greatest number of the inhabitants, however, are of the Rafizah sect.[3] Their food is mostly camels' flesh and fish.[4]
- ↑ Historia Regum Islamiticorum in Abyssinia, Lugd. Bat. 1790.
- ↑ The affinity between the Somal and the Berbers of Northern Africa, and their descent from Cana'an, son of Ham, has been learnedly advanced and refuted by several Moslem authors. The theory appears to have arisen from a mistake; Berberah, the great emporium of the Somali country, being confounded with the Berbers of Nubia.
- ↑ Probably Za'idi from Al-Yaman. At present the people of Zayla are all orthodox Sunnites.
- ↑ Fish, as will be seen in these pages, is no longer a favourite article of diet.
