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Ancient Somali city-states

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In antiquity, ancestors of the Somali people were an important link in the Horn of Africa connecting the region's commerce with the rest of the old world. Proto-Somali sailors and merchants were the main suppliers of frankincense, myrrh and spices, items which were considered valuable luxuries by the Ancient Egyptians, Phoenicians, Mycenaeans and Babylonians.[1][2] During the classical era, several ancient Somali city-states competed with the Sabaeans, Parthians and Axumites for the wealthy Indo-Greco-Roman trade.[3][4]

Ancient Somali city-states
Map showing the extent of the Ancient Somali city-states
The most prominent cities of the Old World from the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea.
Geographical rangeGreater Somalia
PeriodClassical Antiquity
Datesc. 300BC–300AD
Preceded byMacrobia
Followed byBarbaria

History

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The ancient Somali city-states were founded upon an indigenous network involving caravan trades going back approximately four thousand years, and is supported by archaeological and textual evidences.[5] Opone like other city-states such as Avalites, Malao, and Mosylon came into existence with the collapse of the Macrobian kingdom, and should be regarded as successors.[6][7][8] Ancient Greek travelers including the likes of Strabo and Cosmas Indicopleustes made visits to the Somali Peninsula between the first and fifth century CE. The Greeks referred to the Somalis as Barbar (βαρ-βαρ) and to their land as Barbaria.[9][10]

After the Roman conquest of the Nabataean Empire and the Roman naval presence at Aden to curb pillaging, Somali and Gulf Arab merchants by agreement barred Indian ships from trading in the free port cities of the Arabian Peninsula to protect the interests of Somali and Arab merchants in the lucrative ancient Red Sea–Mediterranean Sea commerce. However Indian merchants continued to trade in the port cities of the Somali Peninsula, which was free from Roman interference.[11][12]

For centuries, Indian merchants brought large quantities of cinnamon to Somalia and Arabia from Ceylon and the Spice Islands. The source of the cinnamon and other spices is said to have been the best-kept secret of Arab and Somali merchants in their trade with the Roman and Greek world; the Romans and Greeks believed the source to have been the Somali peninsula.[13] The collusive agreement among Somali and Arab traders inflated the price of Indian and Chinese cinnamon in North Africa, the Near East, and Europe, and made the cinnamon trade a very profitable revenue generator, especially for the Somali merchants through whose hands large quantities were shipped across sea and land routes.[14]

The Monumentum Adulitanum is a 3rd-century monumental inscription by a King of Axum recording his various victories in war, copied in the 6th century by Cosmas Indicopleustes in his Christian Topography.[15] It describes the king's easternmost conquest as the "land of Aromatics",[16][17] also translated "Land of Incense"[18] or "Frankincense Country":[19]

I am the first and only of the kings my predecessors to have subdued all these peoples by the grace given me by my mighty god Ares [Maḥrem], who also engendered me. It is through him that I have submitted to my power all the peoples neighbouring my empire, in the east to the Land of Aromatics, to the west to the land of Ethiopia [Kush] and the Sasou [?Sesea]; some I fought myself, against others I sent my armies.[16][17]

Aromata was one of the ports that lay in a line along the north Somali coast. Aromata was the sixth port after Zeyla (Aualites), Berbera (Malao), Heis (Moundou), Bandar Kasim (Mosullon) and Bandar Alula (Akannai).[20] It is to be identified with Damo, a site protected on the south but exposed on the north.[21]

In ancient times, Somalia was known to the Chinese as the "Country of Pi-p'a-lo", which had four port cities each trying to gain the supremacy over the other. It had twenty thousand troops between them, who wore cuirasses, a protective body armor.[22]

Below is an excerpt from the Book of Tang, offering a glimpse into life in Pi-p'a-lo:

The country of Pi-p'a-lo contains four cities (州); the other (places) are all villages which are (constantly) at feud and fighting with each other.

The inhabitants pray to Heaven and not to the Buddha.

The land produces many camels and sheep, and the people feed themselves with the flesh and milk of camels and with baked cakes (燒餅).

The (other) products are ambergris, big elephants' tusks and big rhinoceros horns. There are elephants' tusks which weigh over one hundred catties, and rhinoceros horns of over ten catties weight.

The land is also rich in putchuck, liquid storax gum, myrrh, and tortoise shell of extraordinary thickness, for which there is a great demand in other countries.

The country brings forth also the (so-called) "camel-crane" (馬它鶴), which measures from the ground to its crown from six to seven feet. It has wings and can fly, but not to any great height.

There is also (in this country) a wild animal called isii-la (但蝶); it resembles a camel in shape, an ox in size, and is of a yellow color. Its fore legs are five feet long, its hind legs only three feet. Its head is high up and turned upwards. Its skin is an inch thick.

There is also (in this country) a kind of mule with brown, white and black stripes around its body. These animals wander about the mountain wilds; they are a variety of the camel (膝馬它之別種也). The inhabitants of this country, who are great huntsmen, hunt these animals with poisoned arrows.[23]

Trade and governance

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An ancient document called the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea describes the political system of the city states as being decentralised and lacking a strong centralised government with each port city administered by a tyrannical chief. The vast majority of the settlements were found inshore, each port city had its own unmistakable character, some were unwelcoming to the Romans, others welcoming depending on the conditions and perspectives of the locals.[24][25] Port cities such as Avalites were described as unruly, whereas other port cities like Malao, the natives were more peaceful.[26][27] During this period, ruler of Saba and Himyar Charibael is said to have extended his influence further down the east African coast in Sarapion and Azania.[28][29] By the 2nd century, forces from Himyar invaded Avalites and put it under siege from which it would not recover until the advent of Islam centuries later.[30][31]

A ship called the Beden was the principal vessel for traders from the different city-states. It was a fast, durable, double masted ship. The Beden was used as the main trading vessel. The boat was used mainly because of its speed.[32]

 
Somali Beden ship from Fra Mauro's map.

The ports of Mosylon, Mundus, Opone, Malao, Avalites and Sarapion, were trading in items such as spices, frankincense, myrrh and cassia. The cities would engage in lucrative trade networks connecting Somali merchants with Phoenicia, Tabae, Ptolemic Egypt, Greece, Parthian Persia, Saba, Nabataea and the Roman Empire. Somali sailors used the ancient Somali maritime vessel Beden to transport their goods.[33][34]

The Somali coast formed a section of the greater incense trade alongside South Asia and Southern Arabia on the Red Sea. Incense was a sought out product in the Mediterranean region where it would be consistently used during strict religious gatherings, and for other everyday uses, which made incense a noteworthy commodity in the Indian Ocean trade.[35][36]

List of city states

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The most prominent cities of the Old World from the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea.

References

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  1. ^ Phoenicia pg 199
  2. ^ The Aromatherapy Book by Jeanne Rose and John Hulburd pg 94
  3. ^ Njoku, Raphael Chijioke (2013). The History of Somalia. ABC-CLIO. pp. 29–31. ISBN 978-0313378577.
  4. ^ Abdel Monem A. H. Sayed, Zahi A. Hawass, ed. (2003). Egyptology at the Dawn of the Twenty-first Century: Archaeology. American Univ in Cairo Press. pp. 432–433. ISBN 9774246748.
  5. ^ Mire, Sada (2020). Divine Fertility: The Continuity in Transformation of an Ideology of Sacred Kinship in Northeast Africa. University College London Institute of Archaeology Publications. Routledge. p. 129. ISBN 978-0-429-76924-5. Archived from the original on 6 June 2023. Retrieved 6 June 2023.
  6. ^ The Chautauquan: organ of the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle. Chautauqua Press. 1881. p. 107.
  7. ^ Ylönen, Aleksi (2024-01-25). The Horn Engaging the Gulf: Economic Diplomacy and Statecraft in Regional Relations. Bloomsbury Academic. p. 111. ISBN 978-0-7556-3515-3.
  8. ^ Josephus, Flavius (1794). The Whole Genuine and Complete Works of Flavius Josephus ... William Durell. p. 687.
  9. ^ Abdullahi, Abdurahman (2017). Making Sense of Somali History. London. p. 47. ISBN 978-1909112797.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  10. ^ Mire, Sada (2015-03-01). "Mapping the Archaeology of Somaliland: Religion, Art, Script, Time, Urbanism, Trade and Empire". African Archaeological Review. 32 (1): 111–136. ISSN 1572-9842.
  11. ^ Eric Herbert Warmington, The Commerce Between the Roman Empire and India, p. 187.
  12. ^ Eric Herbert Warmington, The Commerce Between the Roman Empire and India, p. 54.
  13. ^ Warmington 1995, pp. 185–6.
  14. ^ Warmington 1995, p. 229.
  15. ^ Peter Thonemann, "Gates of Horn", p. 9
  16. ^ a b Stuart Munro-Hay, Aksum: An African Civilization of Late Antiquity (Edinburgh University Press, 1991), p. 187.
  17. ^ a b Stuart Munro-Hay, Ethiopia, the Unknown Land: A Cultural and Historical Guide (I. B. Tauris, 2003), p. 235.
  18. ^ Y. Shitomi (1997), "A New Interpretation of the Monumentum Adulitanum", Memoirs of the Research Department of the Toyo Bunko 55, 81–102.
  19. ^ McCrindle 2010, p. 63.
  20. ^ Huntingford 1980, p. 83.
  21. ^ Neville Chittick (1979), "Early Ports in the Horn of Africa", International Journal of Nautical Archaeology 8(4), 273–277. doi:10.1111/j.1095-9270.1979.tb01131.x
  22. ^ Collins, Robert O. (1990). African History: Eastern African history. M. Wiener. p. 53. ISBN 978-1-55876-016-5.
  23. ^ Chau, Ju-kua (1912). Chau Ju-kua: His Work on the Chinese and Arab Trade in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries, Entitled Chu-fan-chï. Imperial Academy of Sciences. p. 128.
  24. ^ McLaughlin, Raoul (2014-09-11). The Roman Empire and the Indian Ocean: The Ancient World Economy & the Kingdoms of Africa, Arabia & India. Pen and Sword. ISBN 978-1-4738-4095-9.
  25. ^ Mohamed Diriye Abdullahi, Culture and Customs of Somalia, (Greenwood Press, 2001), pp.13–14
  26. ^ Schoff, Wilfred Harvey (1912). The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea: Travel and Trade in the Indian Ocean by a Merchant of the First Century. London, Bombay & Calcutta. Retrieved 7 June 2016.
  27. ^ Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, Schoff's 1912 translation
  28. ^ Oliver, Roland Anthony; Mathew, Gervase (1967). History of East Africa: The Early Period. Oxford University Press. p. 95.
  29. ^ Lionel Casson (ed.), The Periplus Maris Erythraei: Text with Introduction, Translation, and Commentary (Princeton University Press, 1989), p. 45.
  30. ^ Wilfred Harvey, Schoff (1912). The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea: travel and trade in the Indian Ocean". New York : Longmans, Green. pp. 33-35.
  31. ^ Hamilton, David (1967). "Imperialism Ancient and Modern: A Study of British Attitudes to the Claims to Sovereignty to the Northern Somali Coastline" (PDF). Journal of Ethiopian Studies: 12.
  32. ^ Kete, Molefi (18 December 2018). The History of Africa: The Quest for Eternal Harmony. Routledge. ISBN 9781351685153.
  33. ^ Ramzi Rouighi, "The Berbers of the Arabs", Studia Islamica 106, 1 (2011), 49–76. doi:10.1163/19585705-12341252
  34. ^ Lionel Casson, "Barbaria", in Glen W. Bowersock, Peter Brown and Oleg Grabar (eds.), Late Antiquity: A Guide to the Postclassical World (Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1999), p. 334.
  35. ^ Chew, Sing C (2010-05-06). The Southeast Asia Connection: Trade and Polities in the Eurasian World Economy, 500 BC–AD 500. Berghahn Books. ISBN 978-1785337888.
  36. ^ Lionel Casson (ed.), The Periplus Maris Erythraei: Text with Introduction, Translation, and Commentary (Princeton University Press, 1989), p. 45.
  37. ^ Chittick, Neville (1975). An Archaeological Reconnaissance of the Horn: The British-Somali Expedition. pp. 117–133.
  38. ^ The Culture of the East African Coast: In the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries in the Light of Recent Archaeological Discoveries, By Gervase Mathew pg 68

Sources

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  • Warmington, Eric Herbert (1995). The Commerce Between the Roman Empire and India. South Asia Books. ISBN 81-215-0670-0.
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