Traditional education in Somalia

The earliest records of Quran’ic schools in Somalia come from Francisco Alvarez’s description of the port town of Maydh in northern Somalia in 1520. Alvarez describes a large school for children in the middle of the town with ink pots and wooden boards for writing.^[1] The medieval Yemeni chronicler Shihab ad Din Ahmed notes the Somali leader of the Adal Sultanate, Ahmed Gurey, communicated with his governors and subordinates through letters which were exchanged throughout their campaign in Abyssinia. This implies that most Somali elites were literate unlike their Abyssinian peers.^[2]