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, Saad el 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 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.
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