Beilul ( gez, በይሉል, Bäylul, ar, بيلول, alternatively, Beylul) is a small
cape
A cape is a clothing accessory or a sleeveless outer garment which drapes the wearer's back, arms, and chest, and connects at the neck.
History
Capes were common in medieval Europe, especially when combined with a hood in the chaperon. Th ...
town in the
Southern Red Sea Region
The Southern Red Sea Region (, it, Regione del Mar Rosso Meridionale, ) is an administrative region of Eritrea. It lies along the southern half of the Red Sea, and contains the coastal city of Assab. It borders the Northern Red Sea Region, and h ...
of
Eritrea
Eritrea ( ; ti, ኤርትራ, Ertra, ; ar, إرتريا, ʾIritriyā), officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa region of Eastern Africa, with its capital and largest city at Asmara. It is bordered by Ethiopia ...
.
Jerónimo Lobo
Jerónimo Lobo (1595 – 29 January 1678) was a Portuguese Jesuit missionary. He took part in the unsuccessful efforts to convert Ethiopia from the native Ethiopian church to Roman Catholicism until the expulsion of the Jesuits in 1643. Aft ...
passed Beilul in 1625 and wrote that it was a small port with no more than 50 inhabitants. The route inland led through virtually waterless land and was dangerous because of hostile tribes.
When
Massawa was occupied by the Ottoman Empire, the Ethiopian Emperor
Fasilides
Fasilides ( Ge'ez: ፋሲልደስ; ''Fāsīladas''; 20 November 1603 – 18 October 1667), also known as Fasil, Basilide, or Basilides (as in the works of Edward Gibbon), was Emperor of Ethiopia from 1632 to his death on 18 October 1667, and a m ...
tried to develop a new trade route via Baylul. His choice fell on Baylul, because this port was beyond the Ottoman sphere of control and directly opposite the harbor of
Mocha in
Yemen
Yemen (; ar, ٱلْيَمَن, al-Yaman), officially the Republic of Yemen,, ) is a country in Western Asia. It is situated on the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, and borders Saudi Arabia to the Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, north and ...
. In 1642 he sent a message to the Imam of Yemen
al-Mu'ayyad Mohammed
Ibrahim ibn Jaʽfar al-Mutawakkil ( ar, ابراهيم بن جعفر المتوكل; died 866), better known by his ''laqab'' al-Mu'ayyad (, was an Abbasid prince, the third son of the Abbasid caliph al-Mutawakkil, and brother of al-Muntasir and ...
to gain his support for this project. Since al-Mu'ayyad Mohammed and his son
al-Mutawakkil Isma'il
Al-Mutawakkil Isma'il (c. 1610 – 15 August 1676) was an Imam of Yemen who ruled the country from 1644 until 1676. He was a son of Al-Mansur al-Qasim. His rule saw the biggest territorial expansion of the Zaidiyyah imamate in Greater Yemen.
E ...
assumed that Fasilides was interested in a conversion to Islam, a Yemeni embassy was sent to
Gondar
Gondar, also spelled Gonder (Amharic: ጎንደር, ''Gonder'' or ''Gondär''; formerly , ''Gʷandar'' or ''Gʷender''), is a city and woreda in Ethiopia. Located in the North Gondar Zone of the Amhara Region, Gondar is north of Lake Tana on t ...
in 1646. However, when the Yemenites understood Fasilides' actual motives, their enthusiasm sank and the project was abandoned.
References
Ras Beilul* Richard Pankhurst: ''Baylūl'', In: Siegbert Uhlig (Hrsg.): ''
Encyclopaedia Aethiopica
The ''Encyclopaedia Aethiopica'' (''EAe'') is a basic English-language encyclopaedia for Ethiopian and Eritrean studies. The ''Encyclopaedia Aethiopica'' provides information in all fields of the discipline, i.e. anthropology, archaeology, ethno ...
'', Band 1, Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2003, .
Southern Red Sea Region
Populated places in Eritrea
{{Eritrea-geo-stub