Zeila (Somali: Saylac, Arabic: زيلع, romanized: Zayla), also known as Zaila or Zayla, is a historical port town in the western Awdal region of Somaliland.[2]
In the Middle Ages, the Jewish traveller Benjamin of Tudela identified Zeila 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 Hijrah. By the 9th century, Zeila was the capital of the early Adal Kingdom and Ifat Sultanate in the 13th century, 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.
Up until recently Zeila was surrounded by a large wall with five gates: Bab al Sahil and Bab al-jadd on the North. Bab Abdulqadir on the East: Bab al-Sahil on the west and Bab Ashurbura on the south.[6]
Zeila falls in the traditional territory of the ancient Somali Dir clan. The town of Zeila and the wider Zeila District is inhabited by the Gadabuursi and Issa, both subclans of the Dir clan family.[7][8][9][10]
^Somalia City & Town Population. Tageo.com. Retrieved 2020-03-18.
^"Somalia City & Town Population" (PDF). FAO. Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 February 2015. Retrieved 20 October 2015.
^François-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.
^Historical Dictionary of Somalia
by Mohamed Haji Mukhtar page 268
^Glawion, Tim (2020-01-30). The Security Arena in Africa: Local Order-Making in the Central African Republic, Somaliland, and South Sudan. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-108-65983-3. Three distinct circles can be distinguished based on the way the security arena is composed in and around Zeila: first, Zeila town, the administrative centre, which is home to many government institutions and where the mostly ethnic Gadabuursi/Samaron inhabitants engage in trading or government service activities; second, Tokhoshi, an artisanal salt mining area eight kilometres west of Zeila, where a mixture of clan and state institutions provide security and two large ethnic groups (Ciise and Gadabuursi/Samaron) live alongside one another; third the southern rural areas, which are almost universally inhabited by the Ciise clan, with its long, rigid culture of self-rule.
^Reclus, Elisée (1886). The Earth and its Inhabitants The Universal Geography Vol. X. North-east Africa(PDF). J.S. Virtue & Co, Limited, 294 City Road. Two routes, often blocked by the inroads of plundering hordes, lead from Harrar to Zeila. One crosses a ridge to the north of the town, thence redescending into the basin of the Awash by the Galdessa Pass and valley, and from this point running towards the sea through Issa territory, which is crossed by a chain of trachytic rocks trending southwards. The other and more direct but more rugged route ascends north-eastwards towards the Darmi Pass, crossing the country of the Gadibursis or Gudabursis. The town of Zeila lies south of a small archipelago of islets and reefs on a point of the coast where it is hemmed in by the Gadibursi tribe. It has two ports, one frequented by boats but impracticable for ships, whilst the other, not far south of the town, although very narrow, is from 26 to 33 feet deep, and affords safe shelter to large craft.
^UN (1999) Somaliland: Update to SML26165.E of 14 February 1997 on the situation in Zeila, including who is controlling it, whether there is fighting in the area, and whether refugees are returning. "The Gadabuursi clan dominates Awdal region. As a result, regional politics in Awdal is almost synonymous with Gadabuursi internal clan affairs." p. 5.
Zeila (Somali: Saylac, Arabic: زيلع, romanized: Zayla), also known as Zaila or Zayla, is a historical port town in the western Awdal region of Somaliland...
Ottoman Zeila was a region centered around Zeila that was under intermittent Ottoman control between the 16th and 19th centuries , after the collapse of...
the Zeila Archipelago, are a group of islands off the northwestern coast of Somaliland. They are situated near the ancient city of Zeila. The Zeila Archipelago...
The Battle of Zeila was an armed encounter that took place in the city of Zeila, in modern-day Somaliland, between the forces of the Sultanate of Adal...
Idil Ibrahim (Somali: Idil Ibraahiim; Arabic: إدل إبراهيم) is a Somali-American independent film director, producer, actress, writer. Ibrahim earned a...
Eleni (Ge’ez: እሌኒ, "Helena"; died April 1522) also known as Queen of Zeila was Empress of Ethiopia by marriage to Zara Yaqob (r. 1434–1468), and served...
Zeila District (Somali: Degmada Saylac) is a district in western Somaliland. Its capital is at Zeila. The town of Zeila is primarily inhabited by people...
Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somaliland, was part of the Land of Punt. Nearby Zeila, now in Somaliland, was the seat of the medieval Adal and Ifat Sultanates...
his political influence in the region. He was the governor and ruler of Zeila and Berbera between 1841 and 1861, and for a time was known as the richest...
Sultanate of Ifat, known as Wafāt or Awfāt in Arabic texts, or the Kingdom of Zeila was a medieval Sunni Muslim state in the eastern regions of the Horn of...
twelfth-century Jewish traveler, claimed Zeila region was the land of Havilah confined by Al-Habash on the west. Zeila (Havilah) had been sacked by the Portuguese...
Baki, Lughaya, and Zeila. Awdal (أودل) takes its name from the medieval Adal Sultanate (عَدَل), which was originally centered on Zeila. The area along the...
They are mainly found in cities and towns such as Borama, Baki, Lughaya, Zeila, Dilla, Jarahorato, Amud, Abasa, Fiqi Aadan, Quljeed, Boon and Harirad....
Ottoman architectural buildings. Another equally famous historic city is Zeila. Zeila was once part of the Ottoman Empire, a dependency of Yemen and Egypt...
out to the Egyptians, who had annexed Zeila and Berbera. By 1873, the Egyptians peacefully took control of Zeila, Berbera and Bulhar (which was temporarily...
associates in the city and some of the merchants in control of trade in Zeila and Borama. Students of Sheikh Nuur were also trained in the use of this...
Tigrayan ethnic backgrounds and were shipped from the Somali port city of Zeila. A eunuch of Amhara origin would cost four dinars while a concubine would...
Empire. Sultanate of Adal was alternatively known as the federation of Zeila. Adal is believed to be an abbreviation of Havilah. Eidal or Aw Abdal, was...
Mafudi ; died July 1517) was a Harari Garad, Emir of Harar and Governor of Zeila in the Adal Sultanate. Although he was originally only emir of a small region...
governing Zeila, Berbera and Tadjoura. In 1841 Sharmarke with fifty Matchlock men, two cannons and an army of mounted spearmen managed to invade Zeila and depose...
called the confederated states of Zeila. According to the 12th-century Jewish traveler Benjamin of Tudela, the Zeila was the land of the Havilah, confined...
governing Zeila, Berbera and Tadjoura. In 1841 Sharmarke with fifty Matchlock men, two cannons and an army of mounted spearmen managed to invade Zeila and depose...
as starring as the lead role in Cinderella. In 1952, she voiced Princess Zeila in the English dub of the Italian animated movie La Rosa di Bagdad (renamed...
12th and 15th centuries CE. Some groups continued down the coast up until Zeila where they influenced the political and social configurations and attained...