Title: Somalis were the only non-enslaved Africans in the Arabian Peninsula

[Step a side]

("Zaylaʿi (زيلعي) was a title Yemenis used to call most of the Sudanese (black /africans) coming to them from Abyssinia — especially the ones who weren’t slaves — referring to a port town in Abyssinia.")

Source: Al Suluk fi Dabaqat Al-'Ulamaa Wal Mamluk
Author:Bahaa Ad Din Al Jundi
The author of this work died in 732 AH/1331 AD

 

[Idilinaa]

Is it the same manuscript that was quoted here?

It’s interesting how the text refers to the entire Horn of Africa as al-Habash(Abyssinia), yet still distinguishes between people labeled Habashi and those identified with nisbas like al-Jabarti or al-Zayla‘i.

This is quite similar to how, in many chronicles, people from Bar Sa’adin refer to their enemies (Christian highlanders) and enslaved individuals as Habashi. So, the distinction likely stems from self-ascription or more specifically, how communities (Somalis, by definition) identified themselves at the time.