Slain By A Spear-
Thrust, He Left His People Powerless In The Hands Of Their Enemies, Till
His Sons, Sabr El Din, Ali, Mansur, And Jemal El Din Retrieved The Cause
Of El Islam.
Ibn Batuta, 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 [6], a people of Sudan, of the
Shafia 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. [7] Their food is mostly
camels' flesh and fish. [8] The stench of the country is extreme, as is
also its filth, from the stink of the fish and the blood of camels which
are slaughtered in its streets."
About A.D. 1500 the Turks conquered Yemen, and the lawless Janissaries,
"who lived upon the very bowels of commerce" [9], drove the peaceable Arab
merchants to the opposite shore. The trade of India, flying from the same
enemy, took refuge in Adel, amongst its partners. [10] The Turks of
Arabia, though they were blind to the cause, were sensible of the great
influx of wealth into the opposite kingdoms. They took possession,
therefore, of Zayla, which they made a den of thieves, established there
what they called a custom-house [11], and, by means of that post and
galleys cruising in the narrow straits of Bab el Mandeb, they laid the
Indian trade to Adel under heavy contributions that might indemnify them
for the great desertion their violence and injustice had occasioned in
Arabia.
This step threatened the very existence both of Adel and Abyssinia; and
considering the vigorous government of the one, and the weak politics and
prejudices of the other, it is more than probable that the Turks would
have subdued both, had they not in India, their chief object, met the
Portuguese, strongly established.
Bartema, travelling in A.D. 1503, treats in his 15th chapter of "Zeila in
AEthiopia and the great fruitlessness thereof, and of certain strange
beasts seen there."
"In this city is great frequentation of merchandise, as in a most famous
mart. There is marvellous abundance of gold and iron, and an innumerable
number of black slaves sold for small prices; these are taken in War by
the Mahomedans out of AEthiopia, of the kingdom of Presbyter Johannes, or
Preciosus Johannes, which some also call the king of Jacobins or Abyssins,
being a Christian; and are carried away from thence into Persia, Arabia
Felix, Babylonia of Nilus or Alcair, and Meccah. In this city justice and
good laws are observed. [12] ... It hath an innumerable multitude of
merchants; the walls are greatly decayed, and the haven rude and
despicable. The King or Sultan of the city is a Mahomedan, and
entertaineth in wages a great multitude of footmen and horsemen. They are
greatly given to war, and wear only one loose single vesture:
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