Zaylaʿ occupied a strategic position on the Gulf of Aden, linking maritime commerce with the inland regions of the Horn of Africa. The port became a center from which Muslim traders and settlers moved toward the Ethiopian interior. Its importance rested not only on religious activity but also on the political and economic networks associated with long-distance trade.

The passage assigns Zaylaʿ a greater role than the Dahlak Islands in the Islamization of southern Ethiopia. Muslim coastal cities and principalities expanded inland along routes connected to the port, founding small communities and political units. These settlements created the social environment in which Muslim clerics could begin to convert local populations.

Zaylaʿ’s hinterland was a frontier contested by Christian and Muslim powers. Religious competition was inseparable from the struggle for political and economic domination, a conflict that continued for many centuries. The port therefore functioned as both a commercial outlet and a base for the expansion of Muslim influence toward the Harar plateau.