Scholars from Zeila and the Horn in medieval Yemen, 1150–1450

In short

This page follows Zacharie Mochtari de Pierrepont, "The Abyssinian Connection? Abyssinian-Related Scholars in the Yemeni and Medieval Red Sea Environment (6th–9th/12th–15th Centuries)", Revue des mondes musulmans et de la Méditerranée 153 (2023): 153–178 (OpenEdition), cited by paragraph (§). He surveys three Yemeni biographical dictionaries, each written as a continuation of the one before: Ibn Samura's Ṭabaqāt al-fuqahāʾ (late 12th century), al-Janadi's Sulūk (al-Janadi died in 1331), and al-Ahdal's Tuḥfat al-zaman (al-Ahdal died in 1451) (§9). For trade between Yemen and the Somali ports in the same years, see Zeila, Berbera and Mogadishu in the records of Rasulid Yemen.

How many, and what they were called

The three works name at least 100 scholars linked to the Horn, against thousands of other scholars. The number grows over time: 6 in Ibn Samura, 30 in al-Janadi and more than 80 in al-Ahdal, though each author repeats some of the earlier ones. The author links the rise to the spread of Islam in the Horn and the strength of the Ifat sultanate in the 14th century (§10, §12).

• Al-Zaylaʿi. Al-Janadi is the first to record the Yemeni custom of calling "most Blacks who come to [the people of Yemen] from Abyssinia" al-Zaylaʿi, whatever their actual home. Ibn Samura uses "Zaylaʿ" only for a place, and already distinguishes the people of Zeila from the people of Mogadishu. Al-Janadi adds that "most of the zayāliʿ are ʿajam" (non-Arabs), which implies some were counted as Arabs by descent (§15).
• Al-Jabarti. Al-Janadi writes that the people of Yemen used al-Jabarti for "most Black people coming to them from Abyssinia, especially to those who were not slaves", while slaves were called al-Habashi. The author reads this as a sign that free people from the Horn, including many scholars, had become a normal presence in Yemen (§16).
• The counts. In Ibn Samura, al-Zaylaʿi and al-Jabarti do not appear; in al-Janadi, al-Zaylaʿi appears 23 times and al-Jabarti 15; in al-Ahdal, each appears 50 times, while al-Habashi falls to 2 (§18).

Students from Zeila and Mogadishu

• The 12th century. Ibn Samura lists among the students of a teacher called Ahmad ibn Matruh al-Habashi several "people of Zaylaʿ", and "Aḥmad al-Mazākibān, from the island of Maqdīsū in the land of Sūdān", as well as a teacher at Kaljur "in the land of Abyssinia" (§41–42).
• Later teachers. Al-Ahdal writes that the students of the Shafiʿi scholar Ahmad ibn Zayd al-Shaghdari came from "Zaylaʿ, al-Jabart and al-Maqdīshuh". He also names "fuqahāʾ from the western coast, such as Zaylaʿ, Barbara, al-Dankalī, and al-Jabart", who travelled to Arabia to study law (§25, §44).
• A mosque in Zabid. Ibrahim ibn ʿUthman al-Jabarti (died 1305) gave his name to the mosque where he prayed in Zabid, the Masjid al-Jabarti (§26).

Yemeni scholars who went to the Horn

At least twelve Yemeni scholars went to the Horn, the author writes, for exile, to spread Islam, or for careers (§21–22):

• Sulayman ibn Musa al-Ashʿari, a Hanafi jurist, left Zabid over "the wrongs" committed at gatherings there called subūt, "administered" a land called Rurah in Abyssinia, and died there in 1254 (§22).
• Ibrahim ibn Muhammad al-Tubbaʿi went to spread Sufism, and Ahmad ibn Muhammad to teach Hanafi law (§22).
• Ahmad ibn Abi Bakr met Sultan Sabr ad-Din in Ifat and later taught at Bayt al-Faqih, where students came "from everywhere, as far as Zayla‛, Jabart and Maqdishū" (§23).
• ʿUmar ibn ʿAli al-Qurashi (died 1418) spread the Shadhiliyya order in the Horn, married the sister of Sultan Saʿd ad-Din of Ifat, and returned to Mocha. He is the last such case the author finds (§24). See The death of Sultan Saʿd ad-Din at Zeila and his sons in Yemen.

Families from the Horn in Yemen

• The Banu al-Zaylaʿi of al-Salama. ʿAli ibn Abi Bakr al-Zaylaʿi (died 1329), born in Yemen to a family from "Baṭa, one of the villages of Abyssinia", was counted in the 15th century among the greatest holy men born in Yemen. Al-Sharji wrote that people came to live near him "until the village became a city". The family ran a mosque teaching Hanafi law and was supported by the mother of the Rasulid sultan al-Mujahid (§33–35).
• The Banu al-Zaylaʿi of al-Luhayya. Ahmad ibn ʿUmar al-Zaylaʿi al-Jabarti (died 1304–1305), born in the Horn, became the holy man of al-Luhayya on the Red Sea coast. His family were important brokers among the tribes of northern Tihama in the 14th and 15th centuries (§37).
• Ismaʿil al-Jabarti of Zabid (died 1404) was the leading Sufi master of Tihama in the late 14th century, head of the Sufis of Zabid and a companion of the Rasulid sultans al-Ashraf Ismaʿil and al-Nasir Ahmad. His descendants stayed among the leading families of Zabid through the 15th century (§38).
• The Banu al-Jabarti of Taizz became prominent Sufis in the Rasulid capital in the 15th century (§39).

The ʿAqili lineage

The author writes that many scholars of Horn origin in Yemen bore the name al-ʿAqili, claiming descent from ʿAqil ibn Abi Talib of the Prophet's clan, and that this was "often a later addition" that does not appear in the earliest notices for some of them. He writes that this helped fit them into the Yemeni scholarly elite. He adds, citing I. M. Lewis, that "a son of Ismāʿīl al-Jabartī (d. 806/1404) is considered the founder of the Darūd clan in Somalia", and, citing Alessandro Gori, that many Somali families still trace their lineage to ʿAqil (§28–30). For the Darod and their traditions of origin, see Darod.

The end of the connection

The author writes that by the mid-15th century, references to the Horn in the dictionaries of Lower Yemen and Tihama "seemed to dwindle", which he reads as a shift in the ties between the two shores (§46).

Related pages

• Scholars from Zeila at al-Azhar and in Cairo, 1300–1500
• Early Zeila before 1300
• Early Mogadishu and the Benadir coast before 1300
• The seven Muslim kingdoms of the Horn: tribute, trade and money