Lets Talk African History: Somalis. An underrated history

[Sinnerman]

Good thread.

 

[Nomad1]

 

[Broke Wave]

@Grano-Grano @Karbaash @Broke Wave


"Encyclopaedia of the history of science, technology and medicine in non-western cultures", by Helaine Selin, 1997, pg 761.

Can yall expand on this? Did not know there was Malagasy rulers outside of Madagascar, let alone Yemen. And did not know Somalis invaded Yemen.

They say WE look like THEM... when they never controlled us. THEY look like US (Africans)

 

[Bawon Samedi]

They say WE look like THEM... when they never controlled us. THEY look like US (Africans)

You're referring to Yemenis?

 

[Broke Wave]

You're referring to Yemenis?

Arabs in general

 

[Bawon Samedi]

Arabs in general

Agreed.

 

[Grano-Grano]

South Arabia was conquered by Ethiopians. I knew that. But you bring evidence we conquered them too? Makes sense, as Yemeni tribal culture and cultural behaviors aspect mirror Somali culture. They eat Khat (a East African plant) that none of the other Arabs eats. They also wear macawiis, a sarong only Somali and Yemenis wear, with AKs at their hip. I'm not really surprised

 

[Bawon Samedi]

South Arabia was conquered by Ethiopians. I knew that. But you bring evidence we conquered them too? Makes sense, as Yemeni tribal culture and cultural behaviors aspect mirror Somali culture. They eat Khat (a East African plant) that none of the other Arabs eats. They also wear macawiis, a sarong only Somali and Yemenis wear, with AKs at their hip. I'm not really surprised

I swear Yemenis can never catch a break and still cant. Had a cool ass Jewish Yemeni friend and he was telling me about his peoples history.

Anyways going to post more later.

 

[Grano-Grano]

I swear Yemenis can never catch a break and still cant. Had a cool ass Jewish Yemeni friend and he was telling me about his peoples history.

Anyways going to post more later.

The crazy thing is Yemenis are the oldest and purest Arabs. Them other Arabs are not pure. And they are darker and look like us, East Africans as well. Also, with Ethiopians speaking South Semitic languages. It fukking makes sense brah

 

[Bawon Samedi]

The crazy thing is Yemenis are the oldest and purest Arabs. Them other Arabs are not pure. And they are darker and look like us, East Africans as well. Also, with Ethiopians speaking South Semitic languages. It fukking makes sense brah

The lighter Arabs seem especially near the North seem to have significant Caucasus/Neolithic Iranian DNA.

 

[Grano-Grano]

The lighter Arabs seem especially near the North seem to have significant Caucasus/Neolithic Iranian DNA.

Modern South Arabian languages are known for their apparent archaic Semitic features, especially in their system of phonology. For example, they preserve the lateral fricatives of Proto-Semitic.

Additionally, Militarev identified a Cushytic substratum in Modern South Arabian, which he proposes is evidence that Cushytic speakers originally inhabited the Arabian Peninsula alongside Semitic speakers (Militarev 1984, 18-19; cf. also Belova 2003).

Modern South Arabian languages - Wikipedia

 

[Bawon Samedi]

And now for the Ajuran Empire.

The Wilinwili/ Walashma are and were members of the Ogaden sub-clan of the Somali Darod clan, as their modern descendants make clear and as their genealogy sheds some light upon as well:

"Umar DunyaHuz Aḥmed Mahammad Ḥamid Yūsuf Barkanti Saʿad Muddan Muqābul Ogādēn Absame Kūmade Kablalaḥ Dārōd Ismaʿīl Jaberti"

The emboldened "Ogaden" would make them members of the Ogaden subclan of the Darod clan who form the majority of what are now "Ethiopian Somalis" in the Ogaden/ Somali region of Ethiopia.

The dynasty claims descent from Aqeel Ibn Abi Talib through Ismai'l Ibn Al-Jaberti; this is essentially the genealogy of the entire Somali Darod clan, such "Arabian origins" for the Somali clans are commonplace among the ethnic group though they have no real merit behind them genetically despite there being historical indicators such as evidence compiled by the Arabian chroniclers of the time among other compilers of history.

"According to early Islamic books and Somali tradition, Muhammad ibn Aqil's descendant Abdirahman bin Isma'il al-Jabarti (Darod), a son of the Sufi Sheikh Isma'il al-Jabarti of the Qadiriyyah order, fled his homeland in the Arabian Peninsula after an argument with his uncle. During the 10th or 11th century CE, Abdirahman is believed to have then settled in northern Somalia just across the Red Sea and married Dobira, the daughter of Dagale (Dikalla), the Dir clan chief. This union is said to have given rise to the Darod clan family. An official military survey conducted during the colonial period notes that Dir is in turn held to be the great grand-son of Ram Nag, an Arab migrant who landed in Zeila on the northwestern Somali coast."

"According to the book Aqeeliyoon, his lineage is: Abdirahmaan Bin Ismaa'iil Bin Ibraahim Bin Abdirahmaan Bin Muhammed Bin Abdi Samad Bin Hanbal Bin Mahdi Bin Ahmed Bin Abdallah Bin Muhammed Bin Aqil Bin Abu-Talib Bin Abdul-Mutalib Bin Hashim."- I.M. Lewis, A Modern History of the Somali, fourth edition

Walashma is not a term known to Somali records, it is the name for the dynasty from Ethiopian and Arabic records but not their own name. It's like how Europeans refer to the Marinid dynasty of Morocco from the Arabic المرينيون or al Mariniyun, but they were not Arabs they were Berbers, they called themselves Imrinen. Walashma is similar, it comes from Wali Ashma or Lord of the Awash (river). However, the descendants of the Walashma dynasty today prefer the term "Wilinwiili" Dynasty, after the nickname of ʿUmar DunyaHuz.

Due to being allies with the Ottomans Somalis seem to be the first to use Canons in Africa.

^Especially against Ethiopia.

 

[Bawon Samedi]

@Grano-Grano @Karbaash

Gonna need help. Somali sources are very hard to come by.

 

[Bawon Samedi]

Here are some good quote by Moroccan traveler Ibn Battuta.

“Mogadishu is a very large town. The people are merchants and very rich. They own large herds of camels…and also sheep. Here they manufacture the textiles called after the name of the town; these are of superior quality and are exported to Egypt and other places.”

“Its merchants are possessed of vast resources; they own large numbers of camels, of which they slaughter hundreds every day (for food), and also have quantities of sheep. In this place are manufactured the woven fabrics called after it, which are unequalled and exported from it to Egypt and elsewhere.

 

[Karb]

Most of our pre-Islamic history is kind of murky at this point. I'll post what's available from Greek and Chinese sources, I'll highlight some interesting things:

Periplus of the Erythraean Sea is an ancient text dating to around 50 AD, it talks of the trade routes along the red sea and indian ocean. It is not clear whether the author personally made the voyages or simply collected information from different sailors and merchants who had. However the text gives us a unique perspective in commodities that were being bought and sold in the Somali region.

Below is the section most related to the somali coast, notice here it is mentioned Avalites (Assab in Eritrea) , Malao (Berbera in Somaliland) and Opone (Hafun in Puntland) all of these places are denoted as belonging to the berber coast.

7. From this place the Arabian Gulf trends toward the east and becomes narrowest just before the Gulf of Avalites. After about four thousand stadia, for those sailing eastward along the same coast, there are other Berber market-towns [Berbers = Somalis and other Cushytic people living along the coast such as the Afar in modern Djibouti/Eritrean], known as the “far-side” ports; lying at intervals one after the other, without harbors but having roadsteads where ships can anchor and lie in good weather. The first is called Avalites; to this place the voyage from Arabia to the far-side coast is the shortest. Here there is a small market-town called Avalites, which must be reached by boats and rafts. There are imported into this place, flint glass, assorted; juice of sour grapes from Diospolis; dressed cloth, assorted, made for the Berbers; wheat, wine, and a little tin. There are exported from the same place, and sometimes by the Berbers themselves crossing on rafts to Ocelis and Muza on the opposite shore, spices, a little ivory, tortoise-shell, and a very little myrrh, but better than the rest. And the Berbers who live in the place are very unruly.

8 After Avalites there is another market-town, better than this, called Malao, distant a sail of about eight hundred stadia. The anchorage is an open road-stead, sheltered by a spit running out from the east. Here the natives are more peaceable. There are imported into this place the things already mentioned, and many tunics, cloaks from Arsinoe, dressed and dyed; drinking-cups, sheets of soft copper in small quantity, iron, and gold and silver coin, not much. There are exported from these places myrrh, a little frankincense (that known as “far-side”), the harder cinnamon, duaca, Indian copal and macir, which are imported into Arabia; and slaves, but rarely.

9. Two days’ sail, or three, beyond Malao is the market-town of Mundus, where the ships lie at anchor more safely behind a projecting island close to the shore. There are imported into this place the things previously set forth, and from it likewise are exported the merchandise already stated, and the incense calledmocrotu. And the traders living here are more quarrelsome [Greek sklêros: “tough”—i.e., shrewd traders].

10. Beyond Mundus, sailing toward the east, after another two days’ sail, or three, you reach Mosyllum, on a beach, with a bad anchorage. There are imported here the same things already mentioned, also silver plate, a very little iron, and glass. There are shipped from the place a great quantity of cinnamon, (so that this market-town requires ships of larger size), and fragrant gums, spices, a little tortoise shell, and mocrotu, (poorer than that of Mundus), frankincense [from] the “far-side”, ivory and myrrh in small quantities.

11. Sailing along the coast beyond Mosyllum, after a two days’ course you come to the so-called Little Nile River, and a fine spring, and a small laurel-grove, and Cape Elephant. Then the shore recedes into a bay, and has a river, called Elephant, and a large laurel-grove called Acanna; where alone is produced the far-side frankincense, in great quantity and of the best grade.

12. Beyond this place, the coast trending toward the south, there is the Market and Cape of Spices, an abrupt promontory, at the very end of the Berber coast toward the east. The anchorage is dangerous at times from the ground-swell, because the place is exposed to the north. A sign of an approaching storm which is peculiar to the place, is that the deep water becomes more turbid and changes its color. When this happens they all run to a large promontory called Taba, which offers safe shelter. There are imported into this market-town the things already mentioned; and there are produced in it cinnamon, (and its different varieties, gizir, asypha, arebo, magla, and moto) and frankincense.

13. Beyond Taba, after four hundred stadia, there is the village of Pano. And then, after sailing four hundred stadia along a promontory, toward which place the current also draws you, there is another market-town called Opone, into which the same things are imported as those already mentioned, and in it the greatest quantity of cinnamon is produced, (the arebo and moto), and slaves of the better sort, which are brought to Egypt in increasing numbers; and a great quantity of tortoise-shell, better than that found elsewhere.

Periplus of the Erythraean Sea about somalia

A little history on cinnamon, which the Greeks seem to have thought was produced in the Horn along with other spices ("cape of spices" they called it):

Cinnamon has been known from remote antiquity. It was imported to Egypt as early as 2000 BCE, but those who report it had come from China confuse it with cassia. Cinnamon was so highly prized among ancient nations that it was regarded as a gift fit for monarchs and even for a god; a fine inscription records the gift of cinnamon and cassia to the temple of Apollo at Miletus. Though its source was kept mysterious in the Mediterranean world for centuries by the middlemen who handled the spice trade, to protect their monopoly as suppliers, cinnamon is native to India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh , and Myanmar.

We was finessing these cacs in 50 AD :Hemad:

Spices were probably imported from India and then sold to the Greeks. They weren't produced in East Africa.