Zeila (historical region)

[11] Fourteenth century Arab historian Ibn Fadlallah al-Umari recounted on the usage of the term and its origin being the city of Zeila, a vital port in the region.

This however is only one of their coastal towns and one of their islands, whose name has been extended to the wholeThe Muslim inhabited territories during this period spanned from the commercial port city of Zeila to a place further inland called Walalah.

[16][17][18] Throughout this period the attribution "al-Zaylai" frequently signified an individual from this region however it was not made consistently clear whether it referred to the denizens of city specifically or the Muslims further inland.

[20] One of the earliest accounts of coffee in text is by the sixteenth century Islamic scholar Ibn Hajar al-Haytami who writes about its development from a tree in the Zeila region.

[25] According to Samuel Augustus Mitchell, the neighbouring port of Berbera was flourishing in trade stretching through depths of Ethiopia from the Emirate of Harar whose Sultan ruled over the Somalis.