Editing Ibn Battuta (section)

====Somalia====
[[File:Zeila, Somalia.jpg|thumb|right|The port and waterfront of [[Zeila]]]]
From [[Aden]], Ibn Battuta embarked on a ship heading for [[Zeila]] on the coast of [[Somalia]]. He then moved on to [[Cape Guardafui]] further down the Somali seaboard, spending about a week in each location. Later he would visit [[Mogadishu]], the then pre-eminent city of the "[[Land of the Berbers]]" (بلد البربر ''Balad al-Barbar'', the medieval Arabic term for the [[Horn of Africa]]).<ref name="Sanjay">Sanjay Subrahmanyam, ''The Career and Legend of Vasco Da Gama'', (Cambridge University Press: 1998), pp. 120–121.</ref><ref>J. D. Fage, Roland Oliver, Roland Anthony Oliver, ''The Cambridge History of Africa'' (Cambridge University Press: 1977), p. 190.</ref><ref>[[George Wynn Brereton Huntingford]], Agatharchides, ''The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea: With Some Extracts from Agatharkhidēs "On the Erythraean Sea"'' (Hakluyt Society: 1980), p. 83.</ref>

When Ibn Battuta arrived in 1332, Mogadishu stood at the zenith of its prosperity. He described it as "an exceedingly large city" with many rich merchants, noted for its high-quality fabric that was exported to other countries, including [[Egypt]].<ref>{{Cite book |editor=Helen Chapin Metz |editor-link=Helen Chapin Metz |url=https://archive.org/details/somaliacountryst00metz |title=Somalia: A Country Study |publisher=Federal Research Division, Library of Congress |year=1992 |isbn=978-0-8444-0775-3}}</ref> Battuta added that the city was ruled by a [[Somalis|Somali]] sultan, Abu Bakr ibn Shaikh 'Umar.<ref name="Versteegh">{{cite book |last=Versteegh |first=Kees |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OWQOAQAAMAAJ |title=Encyclopedia of Arabic language and linguistics, Volume 4 |publisher=Brill |year=2008 |isbn=978-9004144767 |page=276 |access-date=15 November 2015 |archive-date=16 October 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151016014246/https://books.google.com/books?id=OWQOAQAAMAAJ |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Laisas">David D. Laitin, Said S. Samatar, ''Somalia: Nation in Search of a State'', (Westview Press: 1987), p. 15.</ref> He noted that Sultan Abu Bakr had dark skin complexion and spoke in his native tongue (Somali), but was also fluent in Arabic.<ref name="Bulliet 313">{{cite book |last=Bulliet |first=Richard |title=The Earth and Its Peoples, Brief Edition, Complete |year=2011 |publisher=Cengage Learning |page=313 |isbn=978-1133171102 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Bec8AAAAQBAJ&q=abu+bakr+had+skin+darker+than+his+own+and+spoke+a+different+native+language+%28Somali%29&pg=PA313 |access-date=6 November 2020}}</ref><ref name="Laisas"/><ref>Chapurukha Makokha Kusimba, ''The Rise and Fall of Swahili States'', (AltaMira Press: 1999), p. 58</ref> The Sultan also had a retinue of [[Vizier|wazir]]s (ministers), legal experts, commanders, royal [[eunuch]]s, and other officials at his beck and call.<ref name="Laisas"/>