Islam had been introduced to the Horn…

Islam had been introduced to the Horn of Africa early on from the Arabian peninsula, shortly after the hijra.

In the late ninth century, Al-Yaqubi wrote that Muslims were living along the northern Somali seaboard.

He also mentioned that the Adal kingdom had its capital in the city, suggesting that the Adal Sultanate with Zeila as its headquarters dates back to at least the ninth or tenth centuries.

According to I.M. Lewis, the polity was governed by local dynasties consisting of Somalized Arabs or Arabized Somalis, who also ruled over the similarly established Sultanate of Mogadishu in the Benadir region to the south.

Adal's history from this founding period forth will be characterized by a succession of battles with neighboring Abyssinia.