1.
Somali aristocratic and court titles
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This is a list of Somali aristocratic and court titles that were historically used by the Somali peoples various sultanates, kingdoms and empires. Below is a list of the court titles historically retained by the Somali monarchies and aristocracies. Suldaan, From the Arabic for Sultan or English Chief, very common title for rulers in the pre-colonial and colonial periods, used throughout the Somali territories. The title was employed by the leaders of the influential Ajuran Sultanate. Ughaz, Authentic Somali term for Sultan, the Gadabuursi in particular is the only clan with a longstanding tradition of Sultan. The Gadabursi gave their sultan the title of Ughaz, however, in practice, it is the primus inter pares or King of Kings. The title is derived from one of the Afro-Asiatic Somali language terms for belt. According to Kobishchanow, Boqor is also related to the style Paqar, various Somali honorifics and designations have Boqor as their root. The latter include Boqortooyo, signifying monarchy, kingdom or empire, Boqornimo, meaning royalty, nobility or dignitaries, Historically, the title was mainly used by rulers in the northeastern Puntland region of Somalia. The most prominent Boqor in recent times was Osman Mahamuud, who governed the Majeerteen Sultanate during its 19th-century heyday, also used among the Gadabuursi as the law of the King and the 100 men. Gerad/Garad, Often employed interchangeably with Suldaan to denote a Sultan, etymologically signifies wisdom, mind or understanding. According to Basset, the title corresponds with the honorific Al-Jaraad, Gerad was historically employed throughout northern Somalia. Notable Gerads include Gerad Dhidhin, the founder of the Warsangali Sultanate, and Gerad Lado, imam, Denotes the Head of State. Style was used especially by rulers in the Sultanate of Adal, notable Imams include Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi, also known as Ahmed Gurey or Gran, who led a military campaign during the Middle Ages known as the Conquest of Abyssinia. Emir, Used by leaders in the Adal Sultanate, also employed by commanders in the Ajuran Sultanates armed forces and navy. Prominent Emirs include Nur ibn Mujahid, the Emir of Harar who built the wall around the city. Honorific set aside for the son of the King or Sultan. Notable Princes include Ali Yusuf Kenadid, the son and heir of Sultan Yusuf Ali Kenadid of the Sultanate of Hobyo, ina Boqor, Alternate court style for the Prince
2.
Las Khorey
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Las Khorey is an ancient coastal city in the northern Sanaag region of Somaliland. Situated in the Las Khorey District, it is notable as the capital of the Warsangali Sultanate. The Las Khorey settlement is several centuries old, between the town and El Ayo lies Karinhegane, the site of numerous cave paintings of real and mythical animals. Each painting has an inscription below it, which collectively have been estimated to be around 2,500 years old, around 25 miles from Las Khorey is found Gelweita, another key rock art site. Karinheganes rock art is in the same distinctive Ethiopian-Arabian style as the Laas Gaal cave paintings, beginning in the early Middle Ages, Las Khorey served as the capital of the Warsangali Sultanate s ruling dynasty, including the influential Sultan Mohamoud Ali Shire. Sultan Shire administered his Sultanate from a large palace in the city. He also maintained a fortress, which, though now mostly in ruins, northern Somalia in general is home to numerous such archaeological sites, with similar edifices found at Haylan, Qa’ableh, Qomboul and El Ayo. However, many of old structures have yet to be properly explored. In July 2007, Las Khorey became part of the briefly-extant Maakhir autonomous region of Somalia, the polity was later officially incorporated into Puntland state in January 2009. Las Khorey is a city that is booming and experiencing a period of growth as new small factories are being created and opened. However, this appears to be reversing, as many people have begun working in the citys new factories. The city is surrounded by a mountain range referred to locally as Cal Madow. This is in addition to the overall unique natural habitat. Las Khorey has a seaport, the Port of Las Khorey. Horn Relief, an organization founded by Somali environmentalist Fatima Jibrell, the initiative was later taken up by Faisal Hawar, CEO of the Maakhir Resource Company. In 2012, he brokered an agreement with a Greek investment firm for the development of the commercial Las Khorey Port, a team of engineers was subsequently enlisted by the Puntland authorities to assess the ongoing renovations taking place at the seaport. According to the Minister of Ports, Saeed Mohamed Ragge, the Puntland government intends to launch more such development projects in Las Khorey, the nearest airport to Las Khorey is the Bender Qassim International Airport in Bosaso. Las Khorey has a population of around 8,400 inhabitants, the broader Las Khorey District has a total population of 34,724 residents
3.
Islam
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Islam is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion which professes that there is only one and incomparable God and that Muhammad is the last messenger of God. It is the worlds second-largest religion and the major religion in the world, with over 1.7 billion followers or 23% of the global population. Islam teaches that God is merciful, all-powerful, and unique, and He has guided mankind through revealed scriptures, natural signs, and a line of prophets sealed by Muhammad. The primary scriptures of Islam are the Quran, viewed by Muslims as the word of God. Muslims believe that Islam is the original, complete and universal version of a faith that was revealed many times before through prophets including Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses. As for the Quran, Muslims consider it to be the unaltered, certain religious rites and customs are observed by the Muslims in their family and social life, while social responsibilities to parents, relatives, and neighbors have also been defined. Besides, the Quran and the sunnah of Muhammad prescribe a comprehensive body of moral guidelines for Muslims to be followed in their personal, social, political, Islam began in the early 7th century. Originating in Mecca, it spread in the Arabian Peninsula. The expansion of the Muslim world involved various caliphates and empires, traders, most Muslims are of one of two denominations, Sunni or Shia. Islam is the dominant religion in the Middle East, North Africa, sizable Muslim communities are also found in Horn of Africa, Europe, China, Russia, Mainland Southeast Asia, Philippines, Northern Borneo, Caucasus and the Americas. Converts and immigrant communities are found in almost every part of the world, Islam is a verbal noun originating from the triliteral root s-l-m which forms a large class of words mostly relating to concepts of wholeness, submission, safeness and peace. In a religious context it means voluntary submission to God, Islām is the verbal noun of Form IV of the root, and means submission or surrender. Muslim, the word for an adherent of Islam, is the active participle of the verb form. The word sometimes has connotations in its various occurrences in the Quran. In some verses, there is stress on the quality of Islam as a state, Whomsoever God desires to guide. Other verses connect Islām and dīn, Today, I have perfected your religion for you, I have completed My blessing upon you, still others describe Islam as an action of returning to God—more than just a verbal affirmation of faith. In the Hadith of Gabriel, islām is presented as one part of a triad that also includes imān, Islam was historically called Muhammadanism in Anglophone societies. This term has fallen out of use and is said to be offensive because it suggests that a human being rather than God is central to Muslims religion
4.
Absolute monarchy
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Absolute monarchy, or despotic monarchy, is a form of monarchy in which one ruler has supreme authority that is not restricted by any written laws, legislature, or customs. These are often, but not always, hereditary monarchies, in contrast, in constitutional monarchies, the head of states authority derives from and is legally bounded or restricted by a constitution or legislature. Some monarchies have weak or symbolic legislatures and other bodies that the monarch can alter or dissolve at will. Countries where a monarch still maintains absolute power are Brunei, Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia, the individual emirates composing the United Arab Emirates, Swaziland, in Ancient Egypt, the Pharaoh wielded absolute power over the country and was considered a living god by his people. In ancient Mesopotamia, many rulers of Assyria, Babylonia and Sumer were absolute monarchs as well, in ancient and medieval India, rulers of the Maurya, Satahavana, Gupta and Chalukya Empires, as well as other major and minor empires, were considered absolute monarchs. In the Khmer Empire, the kings were called Devaraja and Chakravartin, in Kingdom of Siam, the kings were esestablished Somburanaya-sittiraj. Throughout Chinese history, many emperors and one empress wielded absolute power through the Mandate of Heaven, in pre-Columbian America, the Inca Empire was ruled by a Sapa Inca, who was considered the son of Inti, the sun god and absolute ruler over the people and nation. Throughout much of European history, the right of kings was the theological justification for absolute monarchy. Many European monarchs, such as those of Russia, claimed supreme autocratic power by right. James VI of Scotland and his son Charles I of Scotland and England tried to import this principle, there is a considerable variety of opinion by historians on the extent of absolutism among European monarchs. Some, such as Perry Anderson, argue that quite a few monarchs achieved levels of absolutist control over their states, a widely held story about Louis XIV of France is that he proclaimed Létat, cest moi. What Louis did say was, The interests of the state come first, when one gives these priority, one labors for ones own good. These advantages to the state redounds to ones glory, although often criticized for his extravagances, such as the Palace of Versailles, he reigned over France for a long period, and some historians consider him a successful absolute monarch. More recently, revisionist historians have questioned whether Louis reign should be considered absolute, the King of France concentrated in his person legislative, executive, and judicial powers. He was the judicial authority. He could condemn men to death without the right of appeal and it was both his duty to punish offenses and stop them from being committed. From his judicial authority followed his power both to make laws and to annul them and this law consequently authorized the king to abolish all other centers of power. Most important was the abolition of the Council of the Realm and his actions largely originated the militaristic streak of the Hohenzollern
5.
Somalia
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Somalia, officially the Federal Republic of Somalia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is bordered by Ethiopia to the west, Djibouti to the northwest, the Gulf of Aden to the north, the Indian Ocean to the east, Somalia has the longest coastline on Africas mainland, and its terrain consists mainly of plateaus, plains and highlands. Climatically, hot conditions prevail year-round, with monsoon winds. Somalia has an population of around 12.3 million. Around 85% of its residents are ethnic Somalis, who have inhabited the northern part of the country. Ethnic minorities are largely concentrated in the southern regions, the official languages of Somalia are Somali and Arabic, both of which belong to the Afroasiatic family. Most people in the country are Muslim, with the majority being Sunni, in antiquity, Somalia was an important commercial centre. It is among the most probable locations of the fabled ancient Land of Punt, during the Middle Ages, several powerful Somali empires dominated the regional trade, including the Ajuran Empire, the Adal Sultanate, the Warsangali Sultanate, and the Geledi Sultanate. The toponym Somalia was coined by the Italian explorer Luigi Robecchi Bricchetti, Italian occupation lasted until 1941, yielding to British military administration. British Somaliland would remain a protectorate, while Italian Somaliland in 1949 became a United Nations Trusteeship under Italian administration, in 1960, the two regions united to form the independent Somali Republic under a civilian government. The Supreme Revolutionary Council seized power in 1969 and established the Somali Democratic Republic, led by Mohamed Siad Barre, this government later collapsed in 1991 as the Somali Civil War broke out. Various armed factions began competing for influence in the power vacuum, during this period, due to the absence of a central government, Somalia was a failed state, and residents returned to customary and religious law in most regions. A few autonomous regions, including the Somaliland and Puntland administrations emerged in the north, the early 2000s saw the creation of fledgling interim federal administrations. The Transitional National Government was established in 2000, followed by the formation of the Transitional Federal Government in 2004, in 2006, the TFG, assisted by Ethiopian troops, assumed control of most of the nations southern conflict zones from the newly formed Islamic Courts Union. The ICU subsequently splintered into more radical groups such as Al-Shabaab, by mid-2012, the insurgents had lost most of the territory that they had seized. In 2011–2012, a political process providing benchmarks for the establishment of permanent democratic institutions was launched, within this administrative framework a new provisional constitution was passed in August 2012, which reformed Somalia as a federation. Somalia has maintained an informal economy, mainly based on livestock, remittances from Somalis working abroad, Somalia has been inhabited since at least the Paleolithic. During the Stone Age, the Doian and Hargeisan cultures flourished here, the oldest evidence of burial customs in the Horn of Africa comes from cemeteries in Somalia dating back to the 4th millennium BCE
6.
United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland, with an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants, together, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The United Kingdom is a monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 6 February 1952, other major urban areas in the United Kingdom include the regions of Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. The United Kingdom consists of four countries—England, Scotland, Wales, the last three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. The relationships among the countries of the UK have changed over time, Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, there are fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a country and has the worlds fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The UK is considered to have an economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index. It was the worlds first industrialised country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th, the UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946 and it has been a leading member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a referendum on the UKs membership of the EU resulted in a decision to leave. The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government
7.
Imperialism
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Imperialism is an action that involves a country extending its power by the acquisition of territories. It may also include the exploitation of these territories, an action that is linked to colonialism, colonialism is generally regarded as an expression of imperialism. However, both are examples of imperialism, the word imperialism originated from the Latin word imperium, which means supreme power. It first became common in Great Britain, during the 1870s and was used with a negative connotation, the term was and is mainly applied to Western political and economic dominance, especially in Asia and Africa, in the 19th and 20th centuries. Its precise meaning continues to be debated by scholars, some writers, such as Edward Said, use the term more broadly to describe any system of domination and subordination organised with an imperial center and a periphery. This definition encompasses both nominal empires and neocolonialism, the word empire comes from the Latin word imperium, for which the closest modern English equivalent would perhaps be sovereignty, or simply rule. The greatest distinction of an empire is through the amount of land that a nation has conquered and expanded, Political power grew from conquering land, however cultural and economic aspects flourished through sea and trade routes. A distinction about empires is that although political empires were built mostly by expansion overland, economic, some of the main aspects of trade that went overseas consisted of animals and plant products. European empires in Asia and Africa have come to be seen as the forms of imperialism. European expansion caused the world to be divided by how developed, the two main regions are the core and the periphery. The core consists of areas of income and profit, the periphery is on the opposing side of the spectrum consisting of areas of low income. These critical theories of Geo-politics have led to increased discussion of the meaning and this idea from Lenin stresses how important new political world order has become in our modern era. Geopolitics now focuses on states becoming major players in the market, some states today are viewed as empires due to their political. The term imperialism is often conflated with colonialism, however scholars have argued that each have their own distinct definition. Imperialism and colonialism have been used in order to describe ones superiority, domination, colonialism in modern usage also tends to imply a degree of geographic separation between the colony and the imperial power. Thus it can be said that imperialism includes some form of colonialism, colonialism is seen to be the architect deciding how to start dominating areas and then imperialism can be seen as creating the idea behind conquest cooperating with colonialism. Colonialism is when the imperial nation begins a conquest over an area, colonialisms core meaning is the exploitation of the valuable assets and supplies of the nation that was conquered and the conquering nation then gaining the benefits from the spoils of the war. The meaning of imperialism is to create an empire, by conquering the states lands
8.
Bosaso
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Bosaso is a city in Somalia, and the most populous city in the state of Puntland. Bosaso, according to a made in 2005, had a population of around 164,906 residents. First settled in the 14th century, it is among the oldest cities in Somalia and it currently serves as the nations main seaport. Bosaso was previously known as Bandar Qasim, a derived from A Somali trader of the same name. It is believed that Qasims favourite camel was called Boosaas, from which derived the current name of the town, the town was thus first called Bandar Qassim after its founder, then later dubbed Bosaso after its founders trusted camel. Local tradition recounts that the massive embankment marks the grave of a community matriarch and it is the largest such structure in the wider Horn region. The town would eventually be administered through the official Bari region in the post-independence period, in recent years, it has served as a refueling station for maritime transport between the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf ports, and has also become an important commercial point of entry. Bosaso is situated in northeastern Somalia, on the Gulf of Aden coast, nearby settlements include to the east Rehiss, to the northeast Mareroo, to the west Baalade Valley, to the southwest Baalade valley, and to the southeast Dureera. The largest cities in the country most proximate to Bosaso are Erigavo, Burao, shimbiris, the highest peak in Somalia, is located some 220 km to the southwest in the Cal Madow mountain range. Bosaso is among the seven cities and towns earmarked for the reforestation initiative, Bosaso has a hot desert climate. It has an annual relative humidity of around 60%. The average daily mean temperature year-round is 30 °C, with an annual high of 35 °C. Average low temperatures are coolest during the months of December to February. The weather slowly heats up in the spring, as the April rainy season begins, average high temperatures later peak during the summer months of June to August, when they consistently exceed 40 °C. Come September, cooler weather starts to set in again, rainfall reaches a high over this period, with an average precipitation of 7 mm in November. Total rainfall year-round is around 19 mm. Bosasos total population is estimated at about 164,906 residents in 2005, an additional 50,000 registered internally displaced people primarily from conflict-stricken parts of southern Somalia have also sought refuge in camps on the outskirts of the city. Furthermore, Bosaso is a port for boats carrying emigrants from within the country as well as adjacent territories across the Gulf of Aden to settle in the Persian Gulf states. Bosaso also has a significant number of Meheri Arabs, known as Arab Salah, Bosaso city affairs are managed by the Bosaso Municipality
9.
Mohammed Abdullah Hassan
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Hajji Hafiz Sayyīd Muhammad Abd Allāh al-Hasan was a Somali religious and patriotic leader. Referred to as the Mad Mullah by the British, he established the Dervish State in Somalia that fought the 20 year Somaliland Campaign against British, Hassan was born in 1856 in the valley of SaMadeeq. Some say he was born in Kirrit in northern Somalia, at the time, this part of Somalia was a protectorate of the United Kingdom. Between 1884 and 1960, the area was known as British Somaliland, Hassan was the eldest son of Sheikh Abdille, who hailed from the Ogaden sub-clan of the Darod major clan. His mother, Timiro Sade, also a Somali, belonged to the Dhulbahante clan, Hassans grandfather, Hasan Nur, in turn, left his home and moved closer to the Dhulbahante stronghold in north-eastern Somalia. There, he founded several centres and devoted himself to the worship of Allah. Following in the footsteps of Hasan Nur, Hassans father Abdille also led a religious life, Abdille married several Dhulbahante women by whom he had about 30 children, of which Hassan was the eldest. Hassans mother, Timiro Sade, came from the Ali Geri sublineage of the Dhulbahante clan, Hassan thus grew up among the Dhulbahante pastoralists, who were good herdsmen and warriors and who tended and used camels as well as horses. Young Hassans hero was his grandfather, Sade Magan, who was a great warrior chief. In addition to being a good horseman, by the age of eleven, Hassan had learned the entire Quran by heart, in 1875, Hassans grandfather died, which came as a shock. That same year, he worked as a Quranic teacher for two years, Hassan received education from as many as seventy-two Somali and Arab religious teachers. In 1891, upon returning home, he married an Ogadeni woman, three years later, along with two uncles and eleven other companions some of whom were his maternal kin, Hassan went to Mecca to perform the Hajj. The party stayed there for a year and a half and came under the influence of the newly-developing Saalihiya order under the leadership of the great Sudanese mystic. Hassan received initiation and very rigorous training under Salih. From this experience, Hassan emerged a changed man — spiritually transformed, shaken and over-awed, in 1895, Hassan returned to Berbera. The British considered Berbera merely Adens butchers shop, since they were interested in getting regular supplies of meat from Somalia through this port for their British India outpost of Aden. The British withdrew from this area of their territory in Somalia, in Berbera, Hassan could not succeed in spreading the teaching of the Saalihiya order due to the hostility of the local Qadiriyyah inhabitants. They did not like him criticising their eating khat, gorging on the fat of sheeps tail, in 1897, he left Berbera to be with his Dulbahante kinsmen
10.
Isaaq
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The Isaaq are one of the main clans of the Somali people. Members principally live in the northwestern Somaliland region of Somalia, the Somali Region of Ethiopia, the populations of five major cities in Somaliland – Hargeisa, Burao, Berbera, Erigavo and Gabiley – are predominantly Isaaq. As of the late 1980s, the Sacad Muuse, Habr Awal and he settled in the coastal town of Maydh in modern-day northeastern Somaliland, where he married into the Magaadle clan, the traditional inhabitants of northeastern Somaliland. A similar tradition exists for the Darod, who are said to have descended from one Sheikh Abdirahman bin Ismail al-Jabarti, another Banu Hashim who came to Somalia around the same time. Besides historical sources, one of the more recent printed biographies of Sheikh Isaaq is the Amjaad of Sheikh Husseen bin Ahmed Darwiish al-Isaaqi as-Soomaali, Sheikh Isaaqs tomb is in Maydh, and is the scene of frequent pilgrimages. Sheikh Darod is buried nearby in the ancient town of Haylaan, Sheikh Isaaqs mawlid is also celebrated every Thursday with a public reading of his manaaqib. These groups were the Habr Awal, the Habr Toljallo, in the Isaaq clan-family, component clans are divided into two uterine divisions, as shown in the genealogy. Indeed most of the largest clans of the clan-family are in fact uterine alliances and this is illustrated in the following structure. Habar Habuusheed Ahmed Muuse Ibrahiim Mahammad 2, habar Magaadle Ayub Awal Arab Ismail There is no clear agreement on the clan and sub-clan structures and many lineages are omitted. The following listing is taken from the World Banks Conflict in Somalia, Drivers and Dynamics from 2005, mo Farah, British 4 time Olympic gold medalist and the most decorated athlete in British athletics history. Mohamed Hasan Abdullahi, former Chief of Staff of Somaliland Armed Forces, mohamed Omar Arte, former Deputy Prime Minister of Somalia. Brought Somalia into the Arab League in 1974 during his term Foreign Minister of Somalia from 1969-1977, former president of UN Security Council, teacher and poet
11.
History of Somalia
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Somalia, officially the Federal Republic of Somalia and formerly known as the Somali Democratic Republic, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. Somalia was an important centre for commerce with the rest of the ancient world and this occupation lasted until 1941 when it was replaced by a British military administration. On 1 July 1960, the two regions united as planned to form the independent Somali Republic under a civilian government, the Somali National Assembly, headed by Haji Bashir Ismail Yusuf, approved the act uniting the former Italian Somaliland with British Somaliland, establishing the Republic of Somalia. Somalia has been inhabited since at least the Paleolithic, when the Doian and Hargeisan cultures flourished, the oldest evidence of burial customs in the Horn of Africa comes from cemeteries in Somalia dating back to the 4th millennium BC. According to linguists, the first Afro-Asiatic-speaking populations arrived in the region during the ensuing Neolithic period from the familys proposed urheimat in the Nile Valley, other scholars propose that the Afro-Asiatic family developed in situ in the Horn, with its speakers subsequently dispersing from there. The Laas Geel complex on the outskirts of Hargeisa in northwestern Somalia dates back around 5,000 years, other cave paintings are found in the northern Dhambalin region, which feature one of the earliest known depictions of a hunter on horseback. The rock art is in the distinctive Ethiopian-Arabian style, dated to 1000 to 3000 BCE, additionally, between the towns of Las Khorey and El Ayo in northern Somalia lies Karinhegane, the site of numerous cave paintings of real and mythical animals. Each painting has an inscription below it, which collectively have been estimated to be around 2,500 years old, Ancient pyramidical structures, mausoleums, ruined cities and stone walls found in Somalia are evidence of an old sophisticated civilization that once thrived in the Somali peninsula. This supports the hypothesis of Somalia and/or the adjacent Horn territories corresponding with the ancient Land of Punt. An Ancient Egyptian expedition sent to Punt by the 18th dynasty Queen Hatshepsut is recorded on the reliefs at Deir el-Bahari, during the reign of the Puntite King Parahu. Ancient Somalis domesticated the camel somewhere between the millennium and second millennium BCE from where it spread to Ancient Egypt and North Africa. They used the ancient Somali maritime vessel known as the beden to transport their cargo, however, Indian merchants continued to trade in the port cities of the Somali peninsula, which was free from Roman interference. For centuries, the Indian merchants brought large quantities of cinnamon from Sri Lanka and this is said to have been the best kept secret of the Somali and Gulf Arab 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, Islam was introduced to the northern Somali coast early on from the Arabian peninsula, shortly after the hijra. Zeilas two-mihrab Masjid al-Qiblatayn dates to the 7th century, and is the oldest mosque in the city, in the late 9th century, Al-Yaqubi wrote that Muslims were living along the northern Somali seaboard. He also mentioned that the Adal kingdom had its capital in the city, according to I. M. Lewis, the polity was governed by local dynasties, who also ruled over the similarly-established Sultanate of Mogadishu in the littoral Benadir region to the south. Adals history from this founding period forth would be characterized by a succession of battles with neighbouring Abyssinia, the Sultanate of Mogadishus first dynasty was established by Sultan Fakr ad-Din. This ruling house was succeeded by the Muzaffar dynasty, and the kingdom subsequently became closely linked with the powerful Somali Ajuran Sultanate, for many years, Mogadishu stood as the pre-eminent city in the بلاد البربر, Bilad-al-Barbar, which was the medieval Arab term for the Somali coast
12.
Ajuran Sultanate
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The Ajuran Sultanate, also spelled Ajuuraan Sultanate, and often simply as Ajuran, was a Somali Muslim sultanate that ruled over large parts of the Horn of Africa in the Middle Ages. The sultanate left an architectural legacy, being one of the major medieval Somali powers engaged in castle. During the Ajuran period, many regions and people in the part of the Horn of Africa converted to Islam because of the theocratic nature of the government. The royal family, the House of Garen, expanded its territories and established its rule through a skillful combination of warfare. As an hydraulic empire, the Ajuran monopolized the water resources of the Shebelle, through hydraulic engineering, it also constructed many of the limestone wells and cisterns of the state that are still operative and in use today. The rulers developed new systems for agriculture and taxation, which continued to be used in parts of the Horn of Africa as late as the 19th century, the Ajuran Sultanates sphere of influence in the Horn of Africa was one of the largest in the region. The sultanate covered much of southern Somalia, with its domain extending from Mareeg in the north, to Qelafo in the west, the House of Garen was the ruling hereditary dynasty of the Ajuran Sultanate. Its origin lies in the Garen Kingdom that during the 13th century ruled parts of the Ogaden, through their genealogical Baraka, which came from the saint Balad, the Garen rulers claimed supremacy and religious legitimacy over other groups in the Horn of Africa. Balads ancestors are said to have come from the northern region of Barbara. The Ajuran nobility used many of the typical Somali aristocratic and court titles and these leaders were the sultanates highest authority, and counted multiple Sultans, Emirs, and Kings as clients or vassals. The Garen rulers also had seasonal palaces in Mareeg, Qelafo and Merca, other important cities in the Sultanate were Mogadishu and Barawa. The state religion was Islam, and thus law was based on Sharia, large wells made out of limestone were constructed throughout the state, which attracted Somali and Oromo nomads with their livestock. The centralized regulations of the wells made it easier for the nomads to settle disputes by taking their queries to government officials who would act as mediators, long distance caravan trade, a long-time practice in the Horn of Africa, continued unchanged in Ajuran times. Today, numerous ruined and abandoned towns throughout the interior of Somalia, with the centralized supervision of the Ajuran, farms in Afgooye, Kismayo and other areas in the Jubba and Shabelle valleys increased their productivity. This irrigation system was supported by numerous dikes and dams, to determine the average size of a farm, a land measurement system was also invented with moos, taraab and guldeed being the terms used. The State collected tribute from the farmers in the form of harvested products like durra, sorghum and bun, the collecting of tribute was done by a wazir. Luxury goods imported from foreign lands were presented as gifts to the Garen rulers by the coastal sultans of the state. The rulers would also claim a portion of the brides wealth
Somalia
