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| Prehistory | |
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Ancient rock art depicting a camel.
History of Somalia
Ancient
Laas Geel Culture
Kingdom of Punt
Malaoites · Oponeans
Mosyllonians
Medieval
Kingdom of Ifat
Warsangali Sultanate
Adal Sultanate
Ajuuraan Empire
Early modern
Gobroon Dynasty
Majeerteen Sultanate
Modern
Sultanate of Hobyo
Dervish State
Italian Somaliland
British Somaliland
Independence
Aden Adde Administration
Shermarke Administration
Communist rule
Recent History
Somali maritime history
Somalia has been inhabited since the Palaeolithic period. Cave paintings said to date back to 9000 BC have been found in the northern part of the country.[30] The most famous of these is the Laas Gaal cultural complex, which contains some of the earliest known rock art on the African continent. Undeciphered inscriptions have also been found beneath each of the cave paintings.[31] During the Stone Age, the Doian and the Hargeisan cultures flourished here with their respective industries and factories.[32]
The oldest evidence of burial customs in the Horn of Africa comes from cemeteries in Somalia dating back to the 4th millennium BC.[33] The stone implements from the Jalelo site in northern Somalia were characterized in 1909 as "the most important link in evidence of the universality in palaeolithic times between the East and the West".[34]
Tags:Somali,Eat,So,Horn Of Africa,Warsangali Sultanate,Gobroon Dynasty,British Somaliland,Italian Somaliland,Dervish State,British,Somaliland,Rock Art,Laas Geel Culture,Kingdom Of Punt,Oponeans,Kingdom Of Ifat,Adal Sultanate,Sultanate Of Hobyo,Shermarke Administration,Communist Rule,Palaeolithic,Cave Paintings,9000 Bc,Laas Gaal,Cultural Complex,Inscriptions,Stone Age,Industries,4th Millennium Bc,Stone Implements,Camel,Bc,Opone,Malao,Aden,Adal,King,Hobyo, | |
| Antiquity and classical era | |
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Main article: Architecture of Somalia
The Silk Road extending from southern Europe through Arabia, Somalia, Egypt, Persia, India and Java until it reaches China.
Ancient pyramidal structures, tombs, ruined cities and stone walls such as the Wargaade Wall littered in Somalia are evidence of an ancient sophisticated civilization that once thrived in the Somali peninsula.[35] The findings of archaeological excavations and research in Somalia show that this civilization had an ancient writing system that remains undeciphered,[36] and enjoyed a lucrative trading relationship with Ancient Egypt and Mycenaean Greece since at least the second millennium BC, which supports evidence of Somalia being the ancient Land of Punt.[37] The Puntites "traded not only in their own produce of incense, ebony and short-horned cattle, but also in goods from other neighboring regions, including gold, ivory and animal skins."[38] According to the temple reliefs at Deir el-Bahari, the Land of Punt was ruled at that time by King Parahu and Queen Ati.[39]
Ancient Somalis domesticated the camel somewhere between the third millennium and second millennium BC from where it spread to Ancient Egypt and North Africa.[40] In the classical period, the city states of Mossylon, Opone, Malao, Mundus and Tabae in Somalia developed a lucrative trade network connecting with merchants from Phoenicia, Ptolemaic Egypt, Greece, Parthian Persia, Saba, Nabataea and the Roman Empire. They used the ancient Somali maritime vessel known as the beden to transport their cargo.
Ruins of Qa’ableh.
After the Roman conquest of the Nabataean Empire and the Roman naval presence at Aden to curb piracy, Arab and Somali merchants by agreement barred Indian ships from trading in the free port cities of the Arabian peninsula[41] to protect the interests of Somali and Arab merchants in the extremely lucrative ancient Red Sea–Mediterranean Sea commerce.[42] However, Indian merchants continued to trade in the port cities of the Somali peninsula, which was free from Roman interference.[43]
Ancient cairns in Qombo'ul.
The Indian merchants for centuries brought large quantities of cinnamon from Sri Lanka and Indonesia to Somalia and Arabia. This is said to have been the best kept secret of the Arab and Somali merchants in their trade with the Roman and Greek world. The Romans and Greeks believed the source of cinnamon to have been the Somali peninsula, but in reality, the highly valued product was brought to Somalia by way of Indian ships.[44] Through collusive agreement by Somali and Arab traders, Indian/Chinese cinnamon was also exported for far higher prices to North Africa, the Near East and Europe, which made the cinnamon trade a very profitable revenue generator, especially for the Somali merchants through whose hands large quantities were shipped across ancient sea and land routes.[42]
Tags:Somalis,/,Land Of Punt,Civil,Silk Road,Europe,Egypt,Persia,India,Java,China,Tombs,Ruined Cities,Stone Walls,Writing System,Ancient Egypt,Mycenaean Greece,Incense,Ebony,Short-horned Cattle,Gold,Ivory,Animal Skins.,Deir El-bahari,Third Millennium,North Africa,Classical Period,Mossylon,Phoenicia,Ptolemaic Egypt,Greece,Parthian Persia,Saba,Nabataea,Roman Empire,Beden,Qa’ableh,Piracy,Arab,Indian,Arabian Peninsula,Red Sea,Mediterranean Sea,Somali Peninsula,Cairns,Qombo'ul,Cinnamon,Sri Lanka,Roman,Near East, | |
| Birth of Islam and the Middle Ages | |
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Main articles: Ifat Sultanate, Walashma dynasty, Adal Sultanate, Ajuuraan state, and Warsangali Sultanate
Ruins of the Adal Sultanate in Zeila.
The history of Islam in the Horn of Africa is as old as the religion itself. The early persecuted Muslims fled to the port city of Zeila in modern day northern Somalia to seek protection from the Quraysh at the court of the Aksumite Emperor in present-day Ethiopia. Some of the Muslims that were granted protection are said to have settled in several parts of the Horn of Africa to promote the religion.
The victory of the Muslims over the Quraysh in the 7th century had a significant impact on Somalia's merchants and sailors, as their Arab trading partners had then all adopted Islam, and the major trading routes in the Mediterranean and the Red Sea came under the sway of the Muslim Caliphs. Through commerce, Islam spread amongst the Somali population in the coastal cities of Somalia. Instability in the Arabian peninsula saw several migrations of Arab families to Somalia's coastal cities. These clans came to serve as catalysts, forwarding the faith's prevalence in the Somali peninsula.
13th century Fakr ad-Din mosque
Mogadishu became the center of Islam on the East African coast, and Somali merchants established a colony in Mozambique to extract gold from the Monomopatan mines in Sofala. In northern Somalia, Adal was in its early stages a small trading community established by the newly converted Horn African Muslim merchants, who were predominantly Somali according to Arab and Somali chronicles.
The century between 1150 and 1250 marked a decisive turn in the role of Islam in Somali history. Yaqut al-Hamawi and later Ibn Said noted that the Berbers (Somalis) were a prosperous Muslim nation during that period. The Adal Sultanate was now the center of a commercial empire stretching from Cape Guardafui to Hadiya. The Adalites then came under the influence of the expanding Horn African Ifat Sultanate, and prospered under its patronage.
The capital of Ifat was Zeila, situated in northern present-day Somalia, from where the Ifat army marched to conquer the ancient Kingdom of Shoa in 1270. This conquest ignited a rivalry for supremacy between the Christian Solomonids and the Muslim Ifatites that resulted in several devastating wars, and ultimately ended in a Solomonic victory over the Kingdom of Ifat after the death of the popular Sultan Sa'ad ad-Din II in Zeila by Dawit II. Sa'ad ad-Din II's family was subsequently given safe haven at the court of the King of Yemen, where his sons regrouped and planned their revenge on the Solomonids.
Model of a medieval Mogadishan ship.
At the turn of the 16th century, Adal organised an effective army led by Ahmad ibn Ibrihim al-Ghazi that invaded the Ethiopian Empire. This campaign is historically known as the Conquest of Abyssinia or Futuh al Habash, in which Ahmed pioneered the use of cannons supplied by the Ottoman Empire in Horn African warfare against Solomonic forces and the Portuguese army led by Cristóvão da Gama. At its height, the state controlled large parts of Somalia, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Eritrea. Many of the historic cities in the Horn of Africa such as Maduna, Abasa, Berbera, Borama, Zeila and Harar flourished with courtyard houses, mosques, shrines, walled enclosures, and cisterns during the Adal kingdom's Golden Age.
During the Age of the Ajuuraans, the sultanates and republics of Merca, Mogadishu, Barawa, Hobyo and their respective ports flourished and had a lucrative foreign commerce, with ships sailing to and coming from Arabia, India, Venetia,[45] Persia, Egypt, Portugal and as far away as China. Vasco da Gama, who passed by Mogadishu in the 15th century, noted that it was a large city with houses several storeys high and large palaces in its centre, in addition to many mosques with cylindrical minarets.[46]
In the 16th century, Duarte Barbosa noted that many ships from the Kingdom of Cambaya in modern-day India sailed to Mogadishu with cloth and spices, for which they in return received gold, wax and ivory. Barbosa also highlighted the abundance of meat, wheat, barley, horses, and fruit on the coastal markets, which generated enormous wealth for the merchants.[47] Mogadishu, the center of a thriving textile industry known as toob benadir (specialized for the markets in Egypt, among other places[48]), together with Merca and Barawa, also served as a transit stop for Swahili merchants from Mombasa and Malindi and for the gold trade from Kilwa.[49] Jewish merchants from the Hormuz brought their Indian textile and fruit to the Somali coast in exchange for grain and wood.[50]
Trading relations were established with Malacca in the 15th century,[51] with cloth, ambergris and porcelain being the main commodities of the trade.[52] Giraffes, zebras and incense were exported to the Ming Empire of China, which established Somali merchants as leaders in the commerce between the Asia and Africa[53] and influenced the Chinese language with the Somali language in the process. Hindu merchants from Surat and Southeast African merchants from Pate, seeking to bypass both the Portuguese blockade and Omani meddling, used the Somali ports of Merca and Barawa (which were out of the two powers' jurisdiction) to conduct their trade in safety and without interference.[54]
Tags:Djibouti,Yemen,Ethiopia,Ajuuraan State, | |
| Early Modern Era and the Scramble for Africa | |
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Main articles: Gobroon dynasty, Majeerteen Sultanate, Sultanate of Hobyo, and Dervish state
17th century mosque in Hafun, Somalia.
In the early modern period, successor states of the Adal and Ajuuraan empires began to flourish in Somalia. These included the Warsangali Sultanate, the Bari Dynasties, the Geledi Sultanate (Gobroon Dynasty), the Majeerteen Sultanate (Migiurtinia) and the Sultanate of Hobyo. They continued the tradition of castle-building and seaborne trade established by previous Somali empires.
Sultan Yusuf Mahamud Ibrahim, the third Sultan of the House of Gobroon, started the golden age of the Gobroon Dynasty. His army came out victorious during the Bardheere Jihad, which restored stability in the region and revitalized the East African ivory trade. He also received presents from and had cordial relations with the rulers of neighboring and distant kingdoms such as the Omani, Witu and Yemeni Sultans.
Sultan Ibrahim's son Ahmed Yusuf succeeded him and was one of the most important figures in 19th century East Africa, receiving tribute from Omani governors and creating alliances with important Muslim families on the East African coast. In northern Somalia, the Gerad Dynasty conducted trade with Yemen and Persia and competed with the merchants of the Bari Dynasty. The Gerads and the Bari Sultans built impressive palaces, castles and fortresses and had close relations with many different empires in the Near East.
Somali soldiers board a British naval Tags: | |
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