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keila

1

In the city of Aden in Yemen, 20ᵗʰ century, a unit of dry capacity = the volume enclosing 50 pounds (22.7 kilograms) of grain.

Technical Conversion Factors…, 1972, page 350.

2

In Libya, 20ᵗʰ century, a unit of area, approximately 3,200 square meters.

3

In Egypt, ? – 20ᵗʰ century, a unit of dry capacity, = 16.5 liters. In the 19ᵗʰ century, about 15.29 liters. Also romanized as kèlè, kil�, kêla and kilah.

Socrates Spiro Bey.
An English-Arabic Vocabulary of the Modern and Colloquial Arabic of Egypt. 3rd edition.
Cairo: Elias’ Modern Press, 1929.

Page xi.

4

In Sudan , 20ᵗʰ century, a unit of dry capacity, = 16.50 liters.

United Nations, 1966.

Technical Conversion Factors…, 1972, page 307.

5

In Zanzibar, a quantity of 6 pounds avoirdupois of rice.

Henry James Chaney.
Weights and measures.
Encyclopedia Britannica, vol 28, page 492. (1911)

Chaney says “keila, or pishi”. See pishi, a Swahili word which serves both for capacity and weight.

6

In Arabia, ? –20th century, a unit of dry capacity, about 3 liters.

source

Liquids are generally bought and sold by weight. The only common measure of capacity is the Keila, which varies with the distance from the port of Jeddah in the proportion 18, 24 and 32 for Jeddah, Mecca and Medina.

e.g., a keila of rice at Jeddah = 3 okes weight [about 8¼ pounds avoirdupois]

a keila of rice at Mecca = approximately 2 okes weight

a keila of rice at Medina = approximately 1½ okes weight.

A Jeddah keila is of approximately 5 1/3 pints contents.

In Medina, 4 keilas = 1 mudd.

Consul Bullard to the Marquess Curzon of Kedleston, October 31, 1923.
Foreign Office Annual Reports from Arabia, 1930-1960. Vol. 1, 1930-1934.
Archive Editions, 1993.
Page 58.