The founders of Moqdishu the persian Bazrangids

[KEYNAN22]

Bazrangids

 

The Bazrangids (also known as Bazrangi or Badhrangids) were an ancient mountain-dwelling Iranian tribe that established a maritime empire outside the Iranian plateau. Their first major overseas possession entailed Mazun (present-day Oman) and the port of Suhar became the region's capital. By the end of the 1st century BC, most of the islands of East Africa were annexed by the Bazrangids. These islands entailed Socotra, Zanzibar, Pemba, Mafia, Combolo/Comoros and Madagascar. By the 1st century AD, they became the dominant maritime power in the Indian Ocean with headquarters at newly-founded ports from Madagascar to Somalia.

 

Origin and history

 

The Bazrangids were the local rulers of Persis (present-day Fars) and Carmania (present-day Kerman) as clients of the Arsacids (Parthians). They were expelled from their original home in the Middle East by the Parthians. Gocihr, the last king of the Bazrangids, was deposed by King Papag in 205 AD. In the late 3rd century AD up until the early 4th century AD, the Sassanians conquered Mazun and other regions on the southern coast of the Persian Gulf. Eventually, the Sassanid Empire managed to push the Bazrangids into East Africa. The Bazrangids managed to survive in East Africa for 500 years after their exile, but not without complications.

 

As a result of their exile, the Bazrangids had difficulties establishing new trading outposts in the Persian Gulf Basin and the Arabian Sea Basin. In order to overcome their losses, the Bazrangids began to expand eastward. They established maritime outposts on the coastal regions of India, Indochina, southern China, and the eastern Pacific Ocean. Navigation logs that date back to 110 AD indicate brisk levels of trade between the Bazrangi ports located on the Persian Gulf, the Sea of Oman, and in East Africa.[1]

 

Colonies of Iranian peoples settled extensively on the East African coast and established commercial settlements on the islands during pre-Islamic times.[2] Due to the dominance the Bazrangids had over East Africa, the area they settled became known as Bazrangibar, which means "Bazrangi coast". The name was eventually shortened to Zangibar and was slightly altered etymologically to produce the word "Zanzibar". The African slaves that were marketed from Bazrangibar were known as zangi or zingi, which means "a native from Zangibar". Today, both words are seen as pejoratives for black Africans who speak Middle Eastern languages.

 

In East Africa, the Bazrangids founded many colonial cities in the Zanzibar archipelago, as well as on the mainland. The cities of Zangibar and Manda were soon rivaled and surpassed by cities like Mombasa, Malindi, Brava, Mogadishu, Kisimayu, and the Bazrangi colonial capital of Kilwa Kisiwani. The capital city was located south of modern-day Dar es Salaam. The Kilwa Empire stretched from the Horn of Africa to Mozambique and included settlements from Madagascar, the Comoros, the Seychelles, and the Zanzibar archipelago.

 

The Kilwa Empire became an independent entity after Ardashir I of the Sassanid dynasty conquered its parent Bazrangi state in southern Persia in 224 AD. Emperor Ardashir's successor, Shapur I, annexed the southern shores of the Persian Gulf, as well as the region of Muscat on the Indian Ocean. This led to the removal of all final vestiges of Bazrangi independence on the Asian continent.

 

In the middle of the 5th century AD, the Sassanians took great interest in continuing the Bazrangi maritime enterprise. The Sassanians gained from the Bazrangis control of the sea routes in the western half of the Indian Ocean.[3] This continuing interest, however, would have certain negative implications for the Bazrangids.

 

In the middle of the 6th century AD, the Sassanid Empire managed to conquer Yemen from the Ethiopian Empire. This conquest effectively cut off the East African Bazrangids from all of their Middle Eastern trade routes. Afterwards, the Bazrangids of the Kilwa Empire began to search for new markets since the Sassanians controlled the ports and markets of Persia and Arabia. By the 7th century AD, Persian colonies were flourishing in south China, the East Indies, south India, and East Africa.

 

Currently, there is little evidence to prove whether the Sassanians dominated the maritime trade and the colonies in East Africa, south China, and Southeast Asia. The numismatic evidence on exhibit at the Beit al-Amani Museum at Zanzibar city includes four Parthian coins and one Sassanian coin with Ardashir I from the mint at Ctesiphon.

 

The Bazrangids expanded eastward and engaged in commerce with India, the Malay archipelago, and even regions of south China. The Malabar coast in India etymologically means "Malay coast" in modern Iranian languages, such as Persian and Kurdish, and has a parallel meaning to the word "Zanzibar". The extent of the Kilwa Empire could have very well reached the Philippines. The name of the third largest island in the entire Filipino archipelago is called "Palawan/Pahlawan", which means "hero" in Middle Persian. This word is used in all of the languages of Southeast Asia.

 

Zoroastrian fire temples within the Kilwa Empire were preserved as a result of Bazrangi custodians. Sassanian sources, which include rock inscriptions and documents, discuss how the Bazrangids served important custodial functions at the Great Temple of the goddess Anahita in Istakhr (near Persepolis). The Kilwa Empire prospered even during the early Islamic era. However, the capital city of Kilwa was under siege by members of the native populations of East Africa. The city fell and nearly 2000 of its inhabitants were devoured in a single week. In 980 AD, the Zanj Empire was founded by Ali ibn Hasan and succeeded the Kilwa Empire.

 

Recent archaeological excavations in the old Kilwa imperial sites such as Unguja Ukuu, Tumbatu, Mtambwe, and Mkumbuu are shedding new light on the history of the Bazrangid founded Kilwa Empire and its status as a maritime power.

.................................................

Btw Moqdishu's initial name was mak-da-shah, which litteraly meant in the bazrangid language "The seat of the shah".

[KEYNAN22]

[Chimera]

How could they be the founders of a Trading Empire that predates their existance as a polity?

 

“Opone” and “Essina” were “emporia”, “Niki” had become a “metropolis”and “Serapion” emerged as the new center in the northern coast.-Potelmy

 

let's continue

 

Beyond Opone, the shore trending more towards the south, first there are the smaller and greater bluffs of Azania; this coast is destitute of harbors, but there are places where ships can lie at anchor, the shore being abrupt; and this course is of six days, the direction being south-west. Then come the small and great beach for another six days course and after that in order, the course of Azania, the first being called Serapion (Mogadishu) -Ariano di Nicomedia (60 A. D.)

 

Mogadishu's Trading Empire at it's height

 

“We sailed on from there (Zeila) for fifteen nights, and came to Magadashaw, which is a town of enormous size. It's inhabitants are merchants, possessors of vast resources; they own large numbers of camels, of which slaughter hundreds everyday (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.

 

The Sultan is, called only by the title of the Sheikh. His name is Abu-Bakr, son of the Sheikh Omar; he is by the origin of the Berbers, and he speaks in Maqdishi -Ibn Battuta 1333 AD

 

What do we process from this info?

 

A Mogadishu as a Trading community dates back to B.C so attributing people from A.D as the founders of something from B.C is oxymoronic

 

 

B At it's height it was controlled by Berbers ( Somalis and fellow cushites were known as Black berbers or Berberi's)

 

 

C the language that was spoken was a native language -not Arabic -Not Persian

 

 

Said S. Samatar, writing with David Laitin, notes that the Ajuuran sultanate "represents one of the rare occasions in Somali history when a pastoral state achieved large-scale centralization", and notes that it grew larger and more powerful than coastal city-states of Mogadishu, Merka and Baraawe combined.

 

from the 14th century till the 17/18th century Mogadishu came under the influence of the A-juuraan Empire the fact that the Imamaate that eventually caused the collapse of A-juuraan rebelled from Mogadishu speaks for itself

 

A-juuraan Hegemony was over multiple different clans

 

from Hargeisa to Mogadishu is my land i will counter all of this garbage, just because todays Somali intellectuals and historians are to busy with other stuff don't mean they can get away with this :cool:

[KEYNAN22]

David letterman:

How could they be the founders of a Trading Empire that predates their existance as a polity?

You do know that the southern half of somalia was a swahili entity and wasn't inhabitated by somali nomads before the 15th century? The somali expansion south and east came very quickly and recently. The swahilis however have been in this region way before the 6th century AD.

 

PS. those greek names from the peripulas of the Aerythrean sea are from the first century AD and it doesn't name the ethnicity in this region of somalia, so we can't be for certain that these people who inhabitated the land were the same as modern somalis who today live there.

[Chimera]

Originally posted by KEYNAN22:

You do know that the southern half of somalia was a swahili entity

Swahili was not a centralized polity and Swahili people were not a homogeneous stock of people. The horn of Africa was also know as Al Habash or Zanji, it was a geographic name not a Kingdom or an Empire just like bilad Al Sudan ment the land of the blacks and Ethiopia in ancient times ment everything South of Egypt

 

and wasn't inhabitated by somali nomads before the 15th century?

Nonsense stop being so submissive to these colonial writers

 

Ibn Battuta identified the Sultan as a Berberi Somalia was known as the land of the Berber north of Zanji. Ajuuranites were there since the 14th century, the people claiming we weren't there are the same people claiming we are a hybrid race because of their own sinister reasons

 

The somali expansion south and east came very quickly and recently.

The swahilis however have been in this region way before the 6th century AD.

but Somalis not?

 

So let me get this straight; remains of Ancient Somalis are found in NFD, ruins of Ancient graves and tombs are found in Northern Somalia with the same phenotypes as Somali people,explorers differentiate between the Berberi's and others and call it the Land of the Berbers, yet you want to claim we weren't there despite the area on the far South of Southern Somalia and on the North of Southern Somalia were inhabited by Somali people and tottally surrounded Mogadishu?

 

Based on what? on geographic names? on 19th century racist Eurocentric scholarship? please give me a break

 

 

PS. those greek names from the peripulas of the Aerythrean sea are from the first century AD

ow i see those trading communities sprung up a day before they arrived didn't they?

 

and it doesn't name the ethnicity in this region of somalia, so we can't be for certain that these people who inhabitated the land were the same as modern somalis who today live there.

Somalis are a ancient people

 

The Somalis form a subgroup of the Omo-Tana called Sam. Having split from the main stream of Cushite peoples about the first half of the first millennium B.C., the proto-Sam appear to have spread to the grazing plains of northern Kenya, where proto Sam communities seem to have followed the Tana River and to have reached the Indian Ocean coast well before the first century A.D. On the coast, the proto-Sam splintered further; one group (the Boni) remained on the Lamu Archipelago, and the other moved northward to populate southern Somalia. There the group's members eventually developed a mixed economy based on farming and animal husbandry, a mode of life still common in southern Somalia. Members of the proto-Sam who came to occupy the Somali Peninsula were known as the so-called Samaale, or Somaal, a clear reference to the mythical father figure of the main Somali clan-families, whose name gave rise to the term Somali.

 

The Samaale again moved farther north in search of water and pasturelands. They swept into the vast O-gaden plains, reaching the southern shore of the Red Sea by the first century A.D. German scholar Bernard Heine, who wrote in the 1970s on early Somali history, observed that the Samaale had occupied the entire Horn of Africa by approximately 100 A.D

 

before the civil war they were just getting warmed to do some explorations on proven archeological sites like Las Khorey and Ras Xafuun

 

truth will come out one way or another, i piety you if you don't question the motives of those that tried to link everything great with foreigners and exclude the natives

[KEYNAN22]

David letterman you're too emotional, and it's never a wise thing to have a discussion with people controled by emotions rather than reason and wisdom, but i'll try anyway.

 

Swahili was not a centralized polity and Swahili people were not a homogeneous stock of people.

Well it doesn't really matter if swahilis were not unified or homogeneous people, the point here is that southern half of somalia was runned by swahilis, and somali nomads had no impact be it socially or economically on these mini swahili states. Infact it wasn't untill post 15th century that somali nomads appeared on the scene. Or are you claiming that cities like Brava, kismayu and Moqdishu were established by somali nomads?

 

The horn of Africa was also know as Al Habash or Zanji, it was a geographic name not a Kingdom or an Empire just like bilad Al Sudan ment the land of the blacks and Ethiopia in ancient times ment everything South of Egypt

Yes habash but not Zanj. Zanj is a´ctually a pejerotive term that describes the negroid slaves from mozambique, tanzania and kenya. It basically denotes the bantu slaves and is derived from zanzibar, which was a notorious slave outlet for arabs who needed slaves. Somalis were not known as Zanji.

 

Ibn Battuta identified the Sultan as a Berberi Somalia was known as the land of the Berber north of Zanji. Ajuuranites were there since the 14th century, the people claiming we weren't there are the same people claiming we are a hybrid race because of their own sinister reasons

Berberi is anyone who looks afro-asiatic and not negroid, the somalis fit in to this description, and so do the swahilis, so this doesn't tell us much does it? The benadir coast was controlled by the persians, omanis and mixed with some native stock.

 

the people claiming we weren't there are the same people claiming we are a hybrid race because of their own sinister reasons

Relax, no one is trying or interested in conspiring against somali nomads, these swahili states havent had no real impact on the overall global history, they are not that significant for anyone to bother going through such an effort.

 

So let me get this straight; remains of Ancient Somalis are found in NFD, ruins of Ancient graves and tombs are found in Northern Somalia with the same phenotypes as Somali people,explorers differentiate between the Berberi's and others and call it the Land of the Berbers, yet you want to claim we weren't there despite the area on the far South of Southern Somalia and on the North of Southern Somalia were inhabited by Somali people and tottally surrounded Mogadishu?

How do you know that these remains are from "ancient somalis"? Oromos in particular the boraan have been roaming around in somalia waay before somali nomad started expanding from Ethiopian region. And there is no real difference in cranial morphology between inhabitant in this horn region.

 

truth will come out one way or another, i piety you if you don't question the motives of those that tried to link everything great with foreigners and exclude the natives

There is nothing to pitty, facts are facts regardless if you don't like them. You on the other hand need to be less emotional, and try to appeal to your logic when analyzing historical incidents.

[Chimera]

Originally posted by KEYNAN22:

David letterman you're too emotional, and it's never a wise thing to have a discussion with people controled by emotions rather than reason and wisdom,

Please don't try that stuff with me, just give me one example of a ad hominem being projected at you originating from me in my last two replies, if you can't just leave it at that

 

I must say i do question your submissiveness( do not translate this as an ad hominem) to Colonial writers and the continues regurgitation of their writings

 

there was once a fellow Puntlander i had this same discussion with on a different forum only he attributed everything in Somaliland to foreigners when i asked him his real motives he confessed to me

 

i have a question to you before we continue are you accepting this colonial crap simply because your from a different region?(P-land) or is it something else?

 

let's continue

 

Well it doesn't really matter if swahilis were not unified or homogeneous people,

of course it matters especially when you claim the following

 

the point here is that southern half of somalia was runned by swahilis,

biladu 's-sawahili (towns of the coastal people)

 

where does it say Bantu? where does it say non Somali? so Somalis can't be people of the coast? is that what your saying?

 

and somali nomads had no impact be it socially or economically on these mini swahili states. Infact it wasn't untill post 15th century that somali nomads appeared on the scene. Or are you claiming that cities like Brava, kismayu and Moqdishu were established by somali nomads?

- these Trading communities were known by different names a millenia before the so-called foundation dates

 

- Recent scholarship says Somali people inhabited the whole Horn of Africa since the 1 century Ad

 

- Archeological evidence supports this.

 

-Ibn Battuta the man that knows the terminologies -Zanji and Swahili called the Sultan of Mogadishu a Berberi

 

- Arab explorers called Somali people Berberi's

 

- Siad S. Samater Indicates Ajuuran presence and hegemony long before this so-called Somali expansion you claim

 

It's very simple it's our land always has been

 

Yes habash but not Zanj. Zanj is a´ctually a pejerotive term that describes the negroid slaves from mozambique, tanzania and kenya, it's basically denotes the bantu slaves and is derived from zanzibar, which was a notorious slave outlet for arabs who needed slaves. Somalis were not known as Zanji.

Zanji -''Land of the Blacks'' are Somalis white?

 

again it was a geographic name which later became the favourite definition of a bantu slave from East Africa

 

Berberi is anyone who looks afro-asiatic and not negroid, the somalis fit in to this description, and so do the swahilis, so this doesn't tell us much does it?

if the Swahilis fit into the berberi description how could Somalis not fit in the term ''Swahili''

 

it ment coast simple as that

 

The benadir coast was controlled by the The benadir coast was controlled by the persians, omanis and mixed with some native stock.

Muzzafar persians were vassals of the Ajuuranites and eventually were expelled

 

the Omanis didn't controll parts of the Benadir coast untill the 18th century

 

Relax, no one is trying or interested in conspiring against somali nomads,

then why are the same Somali nomads who were powerfull traders and sultans Hybridized or excluded from their own history?

 

you just relax and let people like me do their thing

 

How do you know that these remains are from "ancient somalis"? Oromos in particular the boraan have been roaming around in somalia waay before somali nomad started expanding from Ethiopian region.

And there is no real difference in cranial morphology between inhabitant in this horn region.

then you should realize by now you just answered your own question Serbs and Bosniaks might be enemies or have different religions and languages today they still come from the same proto-group

 

so i'm in my right to call them Ancient Somalis

 

The South is my Land

 

P-land is my Land

 

S-land is my Land

 

NFD is my Land

 

-S-galbeed is my Land

 

past,present and Future

 

There is nothing to pitty, facts are facts regardless if you don't like them. You on the other hand need to be less emotional, and try to appeal to your logic when analyzing historical incidents.

these are not facts they are theories based on speculation and myths, and the one that does not question these theories from a Supremecist era but simply goes in a regurgitation mode is definitly someone i piety, for he preaches logical thinking yet he blindly takes for granted the info he found and processed are from an era where the ones that were written about were 2 steps below in the minds of the ones doing the writing, therefore classifying this person's method of thinking and believes regarding the history of Africa as illogical

 

One should read their work and filther out all the biased hearsay and myth derived dogma

[KEYNAN22]

These are the real Swahili

 

Swahilis of zanzibar

 

 

 

 

 

[KEYNAN22]

Swahilis of Somalia

 

Their ancestors are the ones that founded these ancient trading cities in southern somalia, that's the way it is David letterman.

[Chimera]

what a lame comeback Zanzibar didn't come under Omani rule untill 1698 long before that place was founded as a trading city and Benadir coast rule only started in the 18th century

 

fact of the matter is when Mogadishu was included in the Name ''Swahili'' it's definition was the original arab word for coast or ''shore'' it was simply a geographic sobriquet covering multiple groups of people and not a ethnic name of a single group like it is today

 

At it's height the famous explorer that visited the Trading civilization of Mogadishu in the 13th century identified the ruler as a Berberi( the named used exclusivly for cushites) and not by a different name

 

coming with Pictures of Somali citizens who are descendants of recent migrants and portraying them as the founders of trading communities that were present in that area long before there ancestors in Omani knew the skills of maritiming is the same as me claiming the Rashaida arabs of Eritrea are the ones who built the Axumite Obelisks

 

 

that's the way it is David letterman.

Sure in a world where the Ptolemy dynasty erected the Sphinx it is indeed!

 

i have alot of work to do today so i'm out you just keep regurgitating colonial myths

 

lies run sprints but the truth runs marathons

 

have a nice day

[Fabregas]

East African Coastal Historical Towns. Asiatic or African?

 

Jacob L. Kimaryo*

 

Abstract

 

The East African coast is dotted with ruined and extant historical towns of significant cultural importance. Albeit the builders and inhabitants of these towns are known to have been the Swahili, who these historic people were in terms of their origin has been a matter of serious debate since the beginning of the 20th century. So far two perspectives have emerged out of this debate, which respectively advocate for Asiatic and African ancestries of the historic Swahili.

 

This paper makes a critical review of the two perspectives about the founders and dwellers of East African coastal historical towns. The review shows that the Asiatic perspective is based on the colonial deliberate falsification of African history, and to certain extents limited historical understanding about the East African coast. The African perspective on the contrary, is founded on credible evidence from historical records and recent archaeological findings and interpretations. The evidence strongly suggests that historical Swahili people are descendants of Bantu and Cushitic speaking people who settled along the East African coast in the first millennium . These Africans are believed to have attained a common cultural and linguistic base hence became Swahili per se around the 11th century through the medium of Islam. This cultural and linguistic transformation is believed to have originated in Shungwaya alias Shirazi in the northern coast of Kenya from where it spread southwards to the rest of the East African coast. To conclude, the review shows that although some non-Africans particularly Arabs and Persians were absorbed into Swahili population over the different historical epochs of the East African coast, historic Swahili people remained decidedly African in ancestry and culture.

 

Introduction

 

The East African coast which stretches more than a thousand kilometres from the northern end of Kenya to the southern end of Tanzania, is dotted with ruined and extant historical towns of significant cultural importance. The builders and inhabitants of these towns have generally been referred to as the Swahili (Sík, 1970; Sutton, 1992; Allen, 1982, 1993; Fage, 1995; Horton, 1996; Romero, 1997; Chami, 1998; etc.). However, what constitutes this population group in terms of origin thus ethnic composition in different historical epochs of the East African coast has so far been a matter of serious debate since the beginning of the 20th century. Out of this debate, two perspectives about the identity of historic Swahili have emerged which advocate for Asiatic and African ancestries respectively. This paper which is based on an ongoing research project financed by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), makes a critical review of the two perspectives about the founders and dwellers of East African coastal historical towns. It is expected that the review would contribute to more understanding about the realisation and evolution of Swahili as a cultural population group and builders of East African coastal historical towns.

 

Asiatic Perspective: Swahili as Predominantly Asiatic

 

Proponents of this view, e.g. Coupland (1956), Hollingsworth (1951), Kickman (1963, 1974), Chittick (1965, 1984), etc., see the historical Swahili as consisting of people of Arabic and Persian origin and from intermarriages between the Asians and African women.

 

Coupland (1956) portrayed the whole of historic East African coast as a colony of immigrants from the Middle East. Coupland further observed that, indigenous inhabitants of the region were relegated to the roles of wives and slaves for the immigrants. Earlier, Hollingsworth (1951) had alleged an existence of a Persian or Arab-Persian Empire called Zenj Empire along the East African coast before the 15th century. Accordingly, he argued that civilization that took place in the region during that time was inherent in the Asian settlers. Coupland and Hollingsworth observations were based purely on historical and cultural narratives and assumptions.

 

The Asiatic perspective was supported further by Kirkman (1963, 1964), and Chittick (1965, 1984). Kirkman (1963) in correlating physical evidence from his archaeological excavations in Gedi and other sites of historical towns along the Kenyan coast with cultural and historical narratives concluded that the sites were Arabic colonial settlements. A year later, James Kirkman in his Men and Monuments on the East African Coast, reiterated the Asiatic view as thus:

 

The historical monuments of East Africa belong, not to the Africans but to Arabs and Arabised Persians, mixed in blood with the African but in culture utterly apart from the Africans who surround them. (Kirkman, 1964)

 

A similar historical interpretation was suggested by Neville Chittick in his archaeological works in Kilwa Kisiwani (Chittick, 1965) and Manda in the Lamu archipelago (Chittick, 1984).

 

In Kilwa Kisiwani, Chittick implied Asiatic connection of the towns’ inhabitants from the names of a number of Kilwa rulers engraved on excavated locally minted coins. On the basis of dynastic history, he claimed that the rulers were from a Persian city called Shiraz. To Chittick, Kilwa Kisiwani was a Persian colonial settlement. He argued that the Persians had a period of settlement in southern Somalia before they landed in Kilwa Kisiwani (Horton, 1996). It is important to note here that for some unknown reasons, Chittick in his later two volumes work on Kilwa (Chittick, 1974) avoided association of the towns’ population with Persians. Instead he advanced the town’s population as an amalgamation of Arabs and Africans by which albeit the latter constituted the greater part of the amalgam, they were however absorbed into the society as wives, slaves or otherwise (ibid:245). In Manda, Chittick revived his old idea of colonisers from Shiraz in Persia. That he did on the basis of mainly excavated imported pottery. He modified the idea a little bit by arguing that, the initial point of settlement of the Shiraz Persians was not southern Somalia as earlier contended but the Lamu archipelago (Chittick, 1984; Horton, 1996).

 

Chittick’s position and perhaps that of Hollingsworth on the origin of historic Swahili could have been partly influenced by the Kilwa Chronicles. The latter is a controversial compilation in Arabic language of what was essentially an oral-historical composition about Kilwa from its foundation to about 1550 when the compilation was made. According to the compilation, the founders of Kilwa originated from Shiraz in the land of Persia. They arrived in Kilwa in a ship led by Ali bin al-Hasan one of sons of the sultan of Shiraz. The story goes on to suggest that in addition to the ship that landed in Kilwa there were six other ships each led by one of five other sons of the sultan and himself. Five of the ships landed in different points along the East African coast including Mombasa, Pemba, and perhaps Shanga. The last ship landed in the Comoro islands. Interestingly, the chronicles gave the reason for the immigration of the whole sultanate to East Africa as being a bad dream the sultan had which he claimed to have correctly interpreted as a prophecy of destruction of his country. From the Kilwa Chronicles therefore, most of the early urban civilisations that sprang along the East African coast before about the 16th century were a result of the immigrants from Shiraz in Persia.

 

The Asiatic perspective about historical Swahili people has also been defended linguistically. Most such defences have been centred round a popular assumption that earlier Swahili language was an ancient mixture of Arabic and Bantu languages (see Horton, 1996).

 

African Perspective: Swahili as Predominantly African

 

By denying Africans any significant link with historic Swahili people, the Asiatic perspective implies that Africans per se had little to do if any with the evolution of historical towns in their own region. This contradicts sharply with records of ancient travellers and geographers who visited the East African coast and recent archaeological findings. For example, during his visit to Mombasa and Kilwa in 1331, Ibn Battuta, a famous Moroccan traveller, described Kilwa as a large city along the coast whose inhabitants were black meaning Africans (see Sutton, 1990:81). Ibn Battuta went even further to mentioning that the inhabitants had tattoos on their faces, a facial feature which is common in a number of Bantu speaking tribes including the Makonde who resides in the area around Tanzania and Mozambique border which is within very close proximity of Kilwa. Some Chinese descriptions of inhabitants of early settlements along the East African coast also indicate strongly that the inhabitants were Africans (see Allen, 1993:21-26).

 

Perhaps the most interesting and credible evidence against the Asiatic view is founded in findings from recent archaeological surveys and excavations. For instance, an archaeological interpretation based on recent archaeological excavations on the Kenyan north coast suggests that historic Swahili were offspring of a Pastoral-Cushitic group from the Rift Valley and northern part of Kenya (see Horton, 1984, 1987, 1990; Abungu, 1989, 1994). On the basis of excavated cattle and camel bones, Horton (1984, 1987) argued that the Pastoral-Cushitic people founded a number of settlements in the northern coast of Kenya between the 8th and 10th century. He envisaged that the settlements were market centres that provided opportunity for the African inhabitants to come into contact with foreign traders. The contact is believed to have resulted in increased knowledge about trade to the inhabitants and some inter-marriages. According to Horton, the early coastal Cushitic settlements were the origin of Swahili urbanisation. From the Kenyan northern coast, it spread southwards to the rest of the East African coast through Cushitic immigrants or influence.

 

There is reasonable consensus that some early coastal settlements along the northern coast of Kenya were of Pastoral-Cushitic origin. However, the theory that there were these settlements that provided the beginning of Swahili urbanisation for the whole East African coast has been questioned and even refuted all together (see Chami, 1998; Haaland, 1994; Schmidt, 1994; etc.). Chami (1998) using materials from recent archaeological surveys and excavations in the central coast of Tanzania asserted the existence of Bantu settlements along the coast as early as the first five centuries of the first millennium. He continued that the Bantu settlements evolved between the 6th and 10th century with changing trading opportunities, new technologies, and population growth giving rise to a new form of coastal urbanisation that spread to the northern and southern coasts of East Africa. According to Chami therefore, the early urbanisation along the Kenyan northern coast was influenced by the Bantu urbanisation in the central coast of Tanzania during the second half of the first millennium.

 

The findings from recent archaeological excavations indeed suggest that the inhabitants of early settlements along the East African coast during the first millennium were Africans. However, what have remained unresolved are the conflicting claims about where the early African urbanisation along the East African coast started and its subsequent spreading to other parts of the coast. The main argument so far has been on whether it originated in the northern Kenyan coast or the central Tanzanian coast by Cushitic and Bantu speaking people respectively. My belief is that such point of influence is unlikely to have existed at that stage of the urbanisation of the East African coast. In other words, African settlements that existed along the East African coast before about 10th century are likely to have evolved independently involving different Bantu and Cushitic groups that had no common cultural or linguistic bases. It is this lack of common cultural tradition that the African settlers of the early settlements along the East African coast are not classified as Swahili but rather the precedents of Swahili people.

 

If as it is now indicated that Swahili people are descendants of the Africans who settled along the East African coast in the first millennium, the question then is how and when did this process of metamorphosis from non-Swahili to Swahili took place? How did the identity of Swahili people evolve over different historical epochs of the East African coast? Why were the African roots of Swahili people suppressed by the proponents of the Asiatic perspective? These crucial questions about the builders of East African coastal historical towns would be addressed in the proceeding sections of this paper.

 

Realisation and Evolution of Swahili Identity

 

As indicated elsewhere, e.g. Allen (1993), Chami (1998), etc; pre-Swahili settlements attained a common cultural and linguistic base hence became Swahili per se with the spread of Islam. There is some archaeological evidence that suggests existence of some Muslim population along the East African coast by the 8th century. Horton (1996:419-421) in his recent archaeological surveys and excavation of Shanga in the Lamu archipelago unveiled a small mosque built at the town centre during the late 8th century with capacity of accommodating only a fraction of the town population. Albeit each generation replaced the mosque with a building a little larger thus indicating a growing Muslim population, the latter still represented a small portion of the overall town population. Horton drew a logical conclusion that only a small number of Shanga inhabitants were Muslim by the 8th century and that the few Muslims seem to have been local traders who converted through contact with overseas merchants. It is very likely that such small groups of local Muslims existed in other towns along the East African coast during that time as well. That, however, does not in strict terms make the towns Muslim.

 

It was from the 11th century onwards, when Islam was introduced in full-scale and consolidated along the East African coast (Allen, 1993; Romero, 1997; etc.). It is strongly believed that the first propagators of Islam were a group of citizens of Great Shungwaya, a ruined settlement opposite Pate Island in Kenya on the northern coast (ibid; Horton, 1996). According to Allen (1993), the Shungwaya alias Shirazi propagators became Muslim converts after had spent some time in the Muslim world especially Shiraz in Persia under the Buwayhid rule. On their return home, they spread their new faith in their homeland and the region as a whole. While the Shungwaya Muslims could have been inspired with Shiraz Shiite Islam and particularly the Buwayhid court, on returning home did not adopt Shiite Islam wholesale. Instead they modified the Middle Eastern Islam to suit the society of Great Shungwaya and other Eastern African coastal settlements resulting in an East African variant of Islam or what is known as the Shirazi Islam.

 

Naturally, the northern coast was the first to adopt Islam under the influence of the Shungwaya Muslims. Islam provided the medium to the different African communities to build up a common cultural tradition and language known as Swahili. By the beginning of the 14th century, Islam and the inherent Swahili cultural package had spread all over the East African coast. This point of maturity of Swahili culture and language, is confirmed by the earlier mentioned Ibn Battuta who during his visit to the East African coast in the early 1330s referred to the coast as Sawahil country (Allen, 1993:138; Chami, 1998). The early Swahili people were known as Shirazi Swahili on the virtue of their association with Shirazi Islam and traditions.

 

Albeit Shirazi Islam originated in northern coast, it was, however, in the southern coast where it survived and flourished. In the northern coast, Shirazi Islamic system was interrupted almost as soon as it was adopted, by what is known as the Waungwana system (see Horton, 1996; Allen, 1993). For example, while the Shirazi Islamic system became dominant in Mombasa, Zanzibar, Kilwa Kisiwani and Songo Mnara, in Lamu the Waungwana system replaced it almost totally.

 

Ethnic Composition

 

The ethnic composition of Swahili people has changed considerably over time. The early Swahili population comprised mainly of Africans and perhaps some few mixed people from short-term sexual relations between African women and foreign traders (see Romero, 1997:3). The population grew by natural increase and absorption of mainly non-Swahili African immigrants until the beginning of 14th century, after which time significant numbers of non-African immigrants started getting absorbed. Absorbed non-Africans were mainly Arabs from Oman. Some Persians were also absorbed but were relatively few in numbers until an influx of them into Zanzibar in the 18th and 19th century (see Allen, 1993:118). Some Indian immigrants were also absorbed during the 19th and 20th century particularly in Zanzibar and Mombasa. Nevertheless, despite this absorption over time of non-African immigrants, Swahili people have remained decidedly African in ancestry and culture.

 

So far, I have treated the African ancestry of Swahili people without specification into tribes. Prior to the 17th century, such specification could only be guessed. This is because nothing much is known about African tribes along the East African coast before this time due to the fact that tribes in the region before then did not exist as significant social units (see Allen, 1993:82). Specifications that have been attempted prior to the 17thcentury have been through relating recent tribal traditions along the coast to those of pre 17th century Swahili and pre-Swahili Africans. It is in this way Allen (1993) for example, associated Segeju and Katwa tribes with the inhabitants of Great Shungwaya hence implying that early Swahili population particularly in the northern coast could have comprised people or descendants from the two tribes. More reliable African tribal specification of the Swahili people could only be made from the 17th century onwards following the evolution of tribal consciousness.

 

Prejudice and Limited Historical Understanding

 

At this juncture, one would wonder why the proponents of the Asiatic perspective fell short of recognising the African roots of the Swahili people. To the largest extent, the reason could be considered a matter of mere prejudice and perhaps limited historical understanding of the East African coastal settlements.

 

The prejudicial background of the Asiatic perspective is rooted in the perception of Africa by Western imperialists, colonialists and even neo-colonialists who came to the continent during the 19th and 20th century. Most of the imperialists and colonialists came to Africa with the conviction that the continent was far behind human progress and had therefore no urban civilisation past. Simple arguments like absence of well articulated social structures consisting lets say nobility, bourgeoisie, peasantry and proletariat, were used to rationalise their position. Accordingly, any remains of such civilisations whenever encountered were simply attributed to some non-African groups which were deemed to be superior to Africans (see Allen, 1993). This falsification of African history was embraced in the colonial doctrine with the purpose for stripping Africans their confidence so as to make them vulnerable to colonial patronisation and control.

 

Precursors of the Asiatic perspective most of whom being Westerners themselves, either shared the above colonial perception of Africa or were influenced by it. Accordingly, their efforts were more or less geared towards only providing evidence in support of the perception. It is not surprising therefore that they received greatest intellectual respectability from colonial administrations in East Africa. Some of their works were even adopted by colonial governments as standard history textbooks for schools (see ibid). Neither is it surprising that archaeological excavations and interpretations by some of the precursors, e.g. Chittick (1965, 1984), deliberately focused only on imported materials. Furthermore, other non-Africans like Arabs and Persians seized the opportunity provided by the colonial attitude to elevate their status along the East African coast through fabricating stories and exaggerating their contribution to the coastal civilisation.

 

Prejudice that denies Africans ties to their own historical urban spatial forms has been observed elsewhere, e.g. Elleh (1997). Elleh questions the rationality of associating Egyptian pyramids with Arabs whilst there is reasonable evidence that their construction took place long before the Arabic migration into Northern Africa. It is also only after highly publicised evidence from some recent archaeological works like those by Reisner and Freidrich Hinkel that Sudan’s Nubian historical towns along the Nile, e.g. Gebel Barkal and Meroe, were recognised as having African origins. The archaeological findings in Sudan and particularly contents of tombs, paintings and engravings in building structures suggested firmly that the rulers - pharaohs of the ancient Sudanese towns, like Taharka, were Africans. Hitherto these findings, the Sudanese towns despite their geographical location were unquestionably taken to be Arabic. Even the ruins of the large stone built complex of Great Zimbabwe in the heart of the African continent had until recently been regarded as Phoenician (Allen, 1993).

 

Limited historical understanding has been argued by some more moderate critics of the Asiatic perspective, e.g. Sutton (1990), as being the cause of its shortcoming. Lack of adequate and appropriate archaeological data during the largest part of the last century, about historical settlements along the East African coast has particularly been cited. But again, while this could have been so, one has to however realise as indicated earlier the contribution of prejudice to the situation. According to Sutton (1990), in addition to limited historical knowledge, the Asiatic perspective was also influenced by tendency of some modern time Swahili people of associating their family trees to imaginary Arabic ancestors. Sutton observes that as follows:

 

The misapprehension that the Swahili and their cultural history are Arab or ‘half Arab’ is based on a shallow historical understanding. The claims of many Swahili families, for reasons of prestige within Muslim society, to a distant Arab origin have encouraged an exaggerated notion of Arab settlement of the coast in earlier centuries. The contacts and variety of influences deriving from them are undeniable; yet the Swahili remain an East African people. (Sutton, 1990:60)

 

Concluding Summary

 

This paper has provided a concise review of the Asiatic and African perspectives about the origins of historic Swahili people hence the builders of East African coastal historical towns. Specifically, the review has shown that the Asiatic perspective is based on the colonial deliberate falsification of African history, and to certain extents limited historical understanding about the East African coast. The African perspective on the contrary, is founded on credible evidence from historical records and recent archaeological findings and interpretations. The evidence strongly suggests that historical Swahili people are descendants of Bantu and Cushitic speaking people who settled along the East African coast in the first millennium. These Africans are believed to have attained a common cultural and linguistic base hence became Swahili per se around the 11th century through the medium of Islam. This cultural and linguistic transformation is believed to have originated in Shungwaya alias Shirazi in the northern coast of Kenya from where it spread southwards to the rest of the East African coast. To conclude, the review has shown that although some non-Africans particularly Arabs and Persians were absorbed into Swahili population over different historical epochs of the East African coast, historic Swahili people remained decidedly African in ancestry and culture.

 

References

 

Abungu, G. (1989), Communities on the River Tana, Kenya. An Archaeological Study of Relations Between the Delta and River Basin 700–800 AD, Unpublished PhD Thesis, Cambridge University, Cambridge.

 

Abungu, G. (1994), Agriculture and Settlement Formation along the East African Coast, Azania 29-30: 248-256.

 

Allen, J. de V. (1993), Swahili Origins, London: James Currey Ltd.

 

Chami, F. (1994), The Tanzanian Coast in the First Millennium AD: An Archaeology of the iron Working, Farming Communities, Uppsala: Societas Archaeological Upsaliensis.

 

Chami, F. (1998), A Review of Swahili Archaeology, African Archaeological Review 15/3:199-221.

 

Chittick, N. (1965), The “Shirazi” Colonisation of East African, Journal of African History 6:275-294.

 

Chittick, N. (1974), Kilwa. An Islamic Trading City on the East African Coast, Two Volumes, Nairobi: The British Institute in Eastern Africa.

 

Chittick, N. (1984), Manda. Excavations at an Island Port on the Kenyan Coast, Nairobi: British Institute in Eastern Africa, Memoir 9.

 

Coupland, R. (1956), East Africa and its Invaders, Oxford: Clarendon Press.

 

Elleh, N. (1997), African Architecture, New York: McGraw-Hill.

 

Fage, J. D. (1995), A History of Africa, Third Edition, London: Routledge.

 

Garlake, P. S. (1966), The Early Islamic Architecture of the East African Coast, London: Oxford University Press.

 

Freeman-Grenville, G. S. P. (1962), The East African Coast. Select Documents from the First to the Early Nineteenth Century, Oxford: Clarendon Press.

 

Haaland, R. (1994), Dakawa. An Early Iron Age Site in the Tanzanian Hinterland, Azania 29-30: 238-247.

 

Hollingsworth,L. (1951), A Short History of the East Coast of Africa, London: Macmillan.

 

Horton, M. (1984), The Early Settlements of the Northern Swahili Coast, Unpublished PhD Thesis, Cambridge University, Cambridge.

 

Horton, M. (1987), Early Muslim Trading Settlements on the East African Coast. New Evidence from Shanga, Antiquaries Journal 67:290-323.

 

Horton, M. (1996), Shanga.The Archaeology of a Muslim Trading Community on the Coast of East Africa , London: British Institute in Eastern Africa.

 

Kirkman, J. S. (1963), Gedi, the Palace, The Hague: Mouton.

 

Kirkman, J. S. (1964), Men and Monuments on the East African Coast, London: Lutterworth.

 

Romero, P. W. (1997), Lamu. History, Society, and Family in an East African Port City, Princeton: Markus Winer Publishers.

 

Schmidt, P. (1994), The Agricultural Hinterland and Settlement in Tanzania, Azania 29-30.

 

Sík, E. (1970), The History of Black Africa , Volume 1, Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó.

 

Sutton, J. (1990), A Thousand Years of East Africa, Nairobi: British Institute in Eastern Africa.

 

_____

 

Cited as “EAST AFRICAN COASTAL HISTORICAL TOWNS” This Paper Was Presented to the Conference: U-landsforskning 2000, January 13-15, 2000, University of Göteborg, Göteborg, Sweden

 

(This web version of the paper does not contain graphics and footnotes. To obtain a full version, please contact the author)

 

*Dr Jacob Kimaryo is currently a Principal Consultant, Urban Research and Training Consultancy Ltd, Unit 2C, Waverley House, 10 Joiner Street, Sheffield, S3 8GW, United Kingdom. E-mail: m2jk at urban-research.net

[Fabregas]

Quote:The Somalis form a subgroup of the Omo-Tana called Sam. Having split from the main stream of Cushite peoples about the first half of the first millennium B.C., the proto-Sam appear to have spread to the grazing plains of northern Kenya, where protoSam communities seem to have followed the Tana River and to have reached the Indian Ocean coast well before the first century A.D. On the coast, the proto-Sam splintered further; one group (the Boni) remained on the Lamu Archipelago, and the other moved northward to populate southern Somalia. There the group's members eventually developed a mixed economy based on farming and animal husbandry, a mode of life still common in southern Somalia. Members of the proto-Sam who came to occupy the Somali Peninsula were known as the so-called Samaale, or Somaal, a clear reference to the mythical father figure of the main Somali clan-families, whose name gave rise to the term Somali.

 

The Samaale again moved farther north in search of water and pasturelands. They swept into the vast ****** (********) plains, reaching the southern shore of the Red Sea by the first century A.D. German scholar Bernd Heine, who wrote in the 1970s on early Somali history, observed that the Samaale had occupied the entire Horn of Africa by approximately 100 A.D.

[KEYNAN22]

David letterman:

what a lame comeback Zanzibar didn't come under Omani rule untill 1698 long before that place was founded as a trading city and Benadir coast rule only started in the 18th century

yes, but the swahilis existed before omanis colonizing those coasts. Todays swahilis are an amalgation of persians, arabs and native stock. Didn't you read the parent post about the Bazrangi persians who settled in east Africa before the advent of islam?

 

fact of the matter is when Mogadishu was included in the Name ''Swahili'' it's definition was the original arab word for coast or ''shore'' it was simply a geographic sobriquet covering multiple groups of people and not a ethnic name of a single group like it is today

Again moqdishu is a name derived from the persian language and existed way before the arabs settled their (before islam). The bazraghi family that were expelled by the pathans from persia were the first people who founded communities in this area which latter flourished and became the powerfull trading cities of Moqdishu, brava and kismayo among others during the middle ages. Somali n9omads were no where to be seen at that time. however the northern regions of todays somalia was inhabitated by somalis, such as Zeyla, Bender khasim etc. And also the muslim states of Ifatand Adal before being destroyed or annexed by the Abyssinians.

 

At it's height the famous explorer that visited the Trading civilization of Mogadishu in the 13th century identified the ruler as a Berberi( the named used exclusivly for cushites) and not by a different name

First of all "cushitic" in modern times is a linguistic term not ethnical/racial and was coined by joseph greenberg in the 19th century so to describe non-semetic speaking groups in the horn, and for sure Ibn battuta never used this word in his accounts when he came to somalia in the 13th century. Secondly Berber was a very broad name used by arabs so to distinguish the non-arabic speaking people of africa who were not negroids. This included northern sudanese the maghrebians, tuaregs and even somalis be it the settlers of the swahili coast and the pastoralist somalis, there is no single passage in his book where he goes into physical details which could tell us that this were somali nomads rather than the somali swahilis.

 

coming with Pictures of Somali citizens who are descendants of recent migrants and portraying them as the founders of trading communities that were present in that area long before there ancestors in Omani knew the skills of maritiming is the same as me claiming the Rashaida arabs of Eritrea are the ones who built the Axumite Obelisks

very poor analogy, the rashaida of eritrea have the same lifestyle as ethnic somalis, both are nomads who don't have the incentive to settle and create cities unlike the axumites and the swahilis who had sedentary societies. Also the rashaida fled to Sudan and eritrea less than a century ago after the Saud clan captured the whole of todays Saudi arabia and the Rashaida clan belonged to one of the Sauds rival clans.

 

Anyway the persians didn't only settle in east africa, they also colonized part of spain. This was by the shirazi family during the sasanian period. Another shirazi group also migrated to the eastern african coasts, the stream of people was always taking place to the swahilli coast from the Bazrangids who first settled to the Shirazis, and latter different arabs tribes including the omanis.

 

The Persian Empire was ostensibly replaced by a sort of a “Federation of Islamic States” (FIS) in East Africa. It is ethnically known as the Shirazi city-states or Daulat Zinjibar (The Zanj Empire), otherwise the Swahili city-states. The FIS started after the migration of Shirazis from the southern part of Iran to the East African islands. Their migration to Zanzibar is supported by the ceramics excavated by Neville H. Chittick (1923-1984) at Unguja Ukuu, the oldest city like Shiraz, the oldest city in the province of Fars before Tehran in Iran. The present Zanzibar city was first settled by Sultan (Mwinyi Mkuu) called Hassan bin Abdullah and later modernized by Sayyid Said bin Sultan (1791-1856) from Oman. Centuries before Chittick's excavation, a series of the Shirazi migration is supported by the Kilwa Chronicle. It reports that the Muslims, who fled from Shiraz due to severe famine, settled in Kilwa where they found mosques and Muslim families already settled there. Ali bin Hassan al-Shirazy found a mosque where a Muslim, Muriri bin Bari was buried. Other Shirazis settled in Zanzibar, Pemba, Tumbatu and the Comoro islands.

Professor Thomas Irving stated that the Daykes from Borneo made settlements in Madagascar, now called Malagasy or Malay Republic. The leader of the Shirazi immigrant Muslims to the East African islands was Hassan bin Ali, the former Sultan of Shiraz. He came with his Ethiopian mother and seven sons, according to Arabic text but six sons in the Portuguese version. He also came with his friends and neighbors. Among his sons were Ali, Muhammad, Bashat, Sulayman, Hussain and Daud. When Ali bin Hassan became the Sultan of Kilwa in 956, he established the FIS with his brothers who settled in other East African islands,

similar to another Shirazi group as Professor Thomas Irving said that they founded the city of Shiraz or modern Jerez in southern Spain between Cãdiz and Seville, deriving their strength from the eighth century Persian regiment which was sent to suppress the Great Berber Revolt of 740 in North Africa

You can see shirazi from the map, which was kinda of the same persian city/state as Moqdishu.

[Fabregas]

Quote:eritrea have the same lifestyle as ethnic somalis, both are nomads who don't have the incentive to settle and create cities

 

What about the Ajuraan state, Geledi, Zeila, and many other cities created/founded by nomadic Somalis?What about the ancient trading post of opone, believed to be in todays ras Hafun?If there is evidence to show that pastoral cushites involved in this civilization, why can't they be somalis?

 

again, Quote:

Pastoral-Cushitic group from the Rift Valley and northern part of Kenya (see Horton, 1984, 1987, 1990; Abungu, 1989, 1994). On the basis of excavated cattle and camel bones, Horton (1984, 1987) argued that the Pastoral-Cushitic people founded a number of settlements in the northern coast of Kenya between the 8th and 10th century.

[Socod_badne]

Kenyan22,

 

Your original contention -- that Mogadishu was founded by Persians -- has been emphatically disproven. Rather than own up you then launch into this red herring about Swahili presence in Southern Somalia banking on us not noticing. We noticed!

 

 

Originally posted by KEYNAN22:

You do know that the southern half of somalia was a swahili entity and wasn't inhabitated by somali nomads before the 15th century?

It would be helpfull if you tell us what you mean by Southern half of Somalia. Does it include the NFD? We are afterall discussing the history of Somalia at a time when there were no clearly defined borders of Somalia.

 

If you mean the area near and around the 2 rivers, than you couldn't be further from truth. There was no Swahili presence in Southern Somalia -- specially in the hinterland -- aside from coastal regions. And even in the coastal regions their presence was minimal at best. Indeed, all the Swahili presence/influence yields today only the names of coastal cities (Kismaayu, Brava, Marka(?), Mogadishu) and few Swahili dialects like Bravanese spoken by exceedingly small groups. There's no evidence for substantial intermixing with local population appearing in the genetic or linguistic makeup of the locals. No cultural infusion suggestive of substantial Swahili contribution. In actuality if you study the overwhelming Somalis living in that region today, you would not find any traceable vestiges of Swahili history. From whence then do we deduce Swahili presence in Southern Somalia? Also, is it true that there were no Somalis in Southern Somalia prior to 1500 AD?

 

Of course not. Linguistic analysis (Fleming, Habarland et al) firmly puts Somalis in that part of the world at least by 500 AD if not earlier. More pertinent to this discusion, there are references of Somali clans -- hence documentation of Somali presence -- for the first time in history by the 13th century arab traveller Ibn Said (1214-87 AD). According to Ibn Said Marka was in the land of a particular Somali clan that still lives in that part of the world. He goes on to mention that the clan lived in 50 or so villiages as well as the landscape describing the Shabelle river in vivid terms. You can even go back a hundred years relying on Al-Idrisi (1100-1166 AD), in the Nuzhat, where he mentions the presence of Somali clans in the same vicinity. Evidently Somalis lived in Southern Somalia at least since 500 AD which discredits your assertion that there were no Somalis in that part of the world prior to 1500 AD.