Place · city

Zeila

Zeila is a port town on the Gulf of Aden coast in present-day Somaliland, historically a major outlet for trade between the Ethiopian highlands and the Red Sea and Indian Ocean. Accounts of the Adal Sultanate record that Sabr ad-Din III reconstituted the Walashma state at Zeila around 1415. This coastal location placed the new sultanate further from Ethiopian power while securing its trade.

Zeila
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Mentioned in 2 profiles

Adal SultanateFoundation, SocioeconomyRepublic of SomalilandDecline

Mentioned in 8 state histories

Sultanate of ShewaHadiya SultanateFatagar SultanateSultanate of DawaroSultanate of IfatHarar EmirateKingdom of ShewaBritish Somaliland

See also

Cite this entry
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Zeila. In The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/zeila
MLA
“Zeila.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/zeila. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Zeila.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/zeila.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Zeila’, The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/zeila (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random entry ↻