A chronological divison of post islsmic somalia

[Midas]

I've recently been reading about how the mongo invasion led to the shifting of the center of islamix civilization from bagdhad and the fall of the caliphate model to a new model of islamic governance focused more on sultans and control of the hejaz as giving legitimacy. This has me wondering about how socioeconomic transformations in somalia led to new modes of governance and how we can divided it I've roughly an idea that goes like this.

1) clan states( 700-1100)
This is the period when islam arrives and the synthesis between somali traditions and islam happen and towards the end of this period is when start getting clan patriarchs and saints

2) city based sultanates (1200-1600)
This seems like the golden age where trade is at its highest and when urbanization was likely at its peak and scholars go overseas to places like cauro and yemen and become well established there and sultana seem to govern from spefici towns there's porbaly more going on that we have no idea but power seems to be concentrated in cities and towns

3) remergence of clan staes (1650- 1850)
This seems to be a period of decline and I susoects that the clans were probaly far more nomadic than the (700-1100) period due to a more drier climate. This is also when a lot of bendarirs likely came since the ones who claim to he the oldest trace their heritage back to arabc clans from hadramqwt who began migrating at this time. This period is likely in the first half marked by intense clashes with oromos and clan raids as resources dry up. The second half seems to have likely more connection with the strengthening of sufi orders and the clans sultanates seem to be shifting more towards city sultanates again when colonization began

I'll end with two questions that i think are important
1) What is the connection between sufi orders and clan shrines
2) what was the ruling ideaology in the city sultanates period (1200-1600)

 

[Zak12]

Imo
1) Islamization era (700-1100)
introduction of Islam by Arab traders and migrants led to a rise of new cities and kingdoms (Mogadishu, Merca, Barawe, Zeila, Ifat) with greater power and influence, moving away from the decentralized city state model of antiquity. Old traditions stay and others are mixed in with Islam where new legends form around Somali patriarchs that have ties to Prophet Muhammad's family thus starting the 5 main clans.

2) Golden age era (1100-1450
The era that saw peak prosperity in urbanism and trade, where commercial centers like Mogadishu were famous for its texiles exports and had enough sway to flex their muscles and colonize places like Sofala and islands in the Maldives. However this period was also marked by brutal wars in northwestern Somaliweyn between the Ifat/Adal sultanate and Ethiopian Empire.

3) Imperial era (1450-1650)
By the 16th century, Somaliweyn was mostly dominated by two main states, Adal in the north and Ajuran to the south. Both were large multi-clan, multi-ethnic entities with unprecendented political, economic and military might. The Ajurans inherited the rich Benadir city states while Adal delivered a crushing blow to its Solomonid rivals. While this era could also be seen as a golden age, it led to the decline of Adal due to Oromo migrations and in the south, the new Portuguese were disrupting old trade routes and forced the Ajuran into bitter wars, although they did managed to repel the Oromos.

4) Dark Ages (1650-1850)
The Adal sultanate had collapsed by this point and was succeeded by the Harar Emirate while Ajuran fell due to tyrannical sultans that oppressed and overtaxed their subjects, leading to an overthrow. Overall this era is defined by a rise of strictly clan based entities and nomadism due to the decline of urbanism and trade from warfare. However, things do start to pick up by the mid 19th century that saw figures like Haji Shermarke kicking out the Ottomans from Zeila and establishing himself as a rich businessman and Yusuf Mahamud Ibrahim who was defacto the most powerful man in Somalia and extracted tribute from Oman.

 

[Idilinaa]

States by default are non-clanal in the Somali case and in all cases. There was no clan states in any given time, not even the cities who's populations and clans were of diverse origins. Clan chieftainships are not states.

States are complex, centralized, and often bureaucratic entities with a formal legal system, social stratification, and a defined territory.
Divided into distinct social classes such as nobility, clergy, merchants, and commoners/peasants. Have a more diversified economy, including agriculture, trade, manufacturing, and services.
They have administrating officials , ministers, judges, governors, secrataries etc.
States also collect taxes or tribute to support the government, military, and other state functions. They have formal institutions, such as laws, courts, and professional military forces.

Chiefdoms are simpler, with authority vested in a single leader who governs based on kinship/lineage and tradition, with less formal social stratification and economic complexity. There are no real social clases other than the chief and their family or close allies at the top. the economy is usually simpler and more focused on subsistence agriculture or pastoralism.
Cheifs neither collect taxes or tributes but redistributes resources and goods to maintain power and ensure the well being of their community.


City states to Kingdoms to Empire is this chronology that typified Somalia in the middle ages.

Mareeg -Mogadishu - Merca and Qalafo emerged as city states that coalesced into a unified Kingdom/Sultanate. That's kinda the picture i get when reading medieval sources and interestingly enough local traditions are in agreement with it .

Barawa remained as a city state , a republic governed by a council without a monarch.

Mareeg is often left out of important mention when it was a prominent city , a lot of the old is submerged under sand dunes tho. And it also had villages enjoining it. Local coinages as well.

Probably same with Qallafo on the upper shabelle river a much more prominent town in the past.


Zeyla/Awdal - Hobaad, Bale -Dawaro-Hadiya, Badaa/Bari-Nugaal and later Awfat emerged as city states that turned into Kingdoms/sultanates which later became considered provinces/emirates and that coalesed into an Empire under a loose imperial auhtority. This is the picture you get from medieval descriptions.


1) Initial Islamization - 700-800

2) City states and Kingdoms/Sultanates formations - 800-1200

3) Empire, city state and Kingdom/Sultanate - 1295-1650

4) City states, Clan chiefdoms, Sufi Orders and Sultanates/Kingdoms - 1650- 1927

 

[Idilinaa]

I'll end with two questions that i think are important
1) What is the connection between sufi orders and clan shrines
2) what was the ruling ideaology in the city sultanates period (1200-1600)

With the collapse of the central state authority , organized religion in the form sufi orders/tariqas rose to fill the void left behind by the power vaccum. Not unlike what happened to Ethiopia and Europe with the fall of Rome/Axum led to the rise of the catholic church and decentralization.

When governmental and administrative institutions seized to exist, organized religion was the sole surviving formal institution that could bring order and security in the midst of political chaos and economic hardships.

Central state administrators such as Viziers, Amirs , Naibs/Wakils, Sharifs etc dominated to political and economic developments in the region during the medieval period.

You see ''Sheikhs'' mentioned frequently in the Futuh and other surviving Awdal chronicles but they are not the ones undertaking development or are important functionaries but rather it's state officials like the Sultan, Wazirs, Emirs/Garaads , Naibs/Wakils and Qadis etc.
Sheikhs were relegated to secondary mediators, and as scribes and educators. They are not mentioned to lead any armies either or with direct ruling.

Similar picture in South-Central Somalia:

The local nickname Ajuuran is reflection of that legacy, which means the ''The Taxers''(Ashuur-an) , remembering the taxation exacted by state administrators and their cordination.

After the collapse it was Sheikhs via Tariqas who dominated the political and economic developments in Somalia from then on and not state admins.

It's the reason why Somali historians like Abdurrahman Badiyow and Abdi Samatar call the early modern period the ''Era of Sheikhs''. Sufi orders in a way produced some of the greatest teachers and leaders known to modern Somali history

 

[Idilinaa]

I don't think Somalia became drier either. The picture of the environment given in medieval sources is pretty similar to how it was in the early modern period.

The Southern -Central coast was pretty unfarmable, as it was surounded by sand dunes on all sides, so much so that you have large blocks of stone ruins , walls etc buried under them after being abandoned and there is no pastures to graze animals. So they had to depend on the far interior for pastoral and agricultural products and could only produce marine resources. The growth of those towns owed themselves to the production of the interior.
This is confirmed by Chinese descriptions as well, they didn't really farm the coastal plains.

Northern Western Somali coast Berbera and Zayla on the other hand people are mentioned to farm and kept many livestock but it is emphasized that the land was poor and barren, yet people yielded a lot of grain inspite of it. So they probably used water harvesting systems and irrigation methods to circumvent it based on archeology and they also fished.

In all periods there was a always large pastoral or semi-nomadic population. There was also sedentary agricultural-urban population as well depending on the location and composite of the land and they were often just an extension of eachother, same clans, even same families.

So it's not a matter of nomadism , the whole of Somalia could have been more fertile or farmable and still a state service collapse would have de-populated all areas and made people more rural and subsistence oriented.

The Sufi orders on the other hand were a catalyst for positive developments and reforms they assumed the position of a state, they coordinated agricultural production into agricultural communes, management of wells/water resources to nomads and farmers, founded towns , founded learning centers, and connected trade, they were non-clanal and united people of various clan backgrounds on faith basis and even built armies. i.e Dervishes.

 

[ibrahym]

Mareeg is often left out of important mention when it was a prominent city , a lot of the old is submerged under sand dunes tho. And it also had villages enjoining it. Local coinages as well

Interesting
what time period these coins belong to ؟

 

[Idilinaa]

Interesting
what time period these coins belong to ؟

I am curious about that as well, tried looking for the citation reference to it for more information .

It be cool if anyone can find this archeological text called: ''Benardelli, 'Uno scavo compiuto nella zona archaeologica di Hamar Gergeb nel territoria di Meregh durante l'agosto 1932''

 

[Midas]

I don't think Somalia became drier either. The picture of the environment given in medieval sources is pretty similar to how it was in the early modern period.

The Southern -Central coast was pretty unfarmable, as it was surounded by sand dunes on all sides, so much so that you have large blocks of stone ruins , walls etc buried under them after being abandoned and there is no pastures to graze animals. So they had to depend on the far interior for pastoral and agricultural products and could only produce marine resources. The growth of those towns owed themselves to the production of the interior.
This is confirmed by Chinese descriptions as well, they didn't really farm the coastal plains.

Northern Western Somali coast Berbera and Zayla on the other hand people are mentioned to farm and kept many livestock but it is emphasized that the land was poor and barren, yet people yielded a lot of grain inspite of it. So they probably used water harvesting systems and irrigation methods to circumvent it based on archeology and they also fished.

In all periods there was a always large pastoral or semi-nomadic population. There was also sedentary agricultural-urban population as well depending on the location and composite of the land and they were often just an extension of eachother, same clans, even same families.

So it's not a matter of nomadism , the whole of Somalia could have been more fertile or farmable and still a state service collapse would have de-populated all areas and made people more rural and subsistence oriented.

The Sufi orders on the other hand were a catalyst for positive developments and reforms they assumed the position of a state, they coordinated agricultural production into agricultural communes, management of wells/water resources to nomads and farmers, founded towns , founded learning centers, and connected trade, they were non-clanal and united people of various clan backgrounds on faith basis and even built armies. i.e Dervishes.

The way you describe somali urbanization it was at least on par with the swahili coast. But considering how our pouplation was even larger and more integrated than theirs. Why do you suppose we have no non-relegious written literary tradition in somali or arabic besides these chronicles .

 

[Idilinaa]

The way you describe somali urbanization it was at least on par with the swahili coast. But considering how our pouplation was even larger and more integrated than theirs. Why do you suppose we have no non-relegious written literary tradition in somali or arabic besides these chronicles .

Arabic was more like a liturgical language or a sacred written language/priestly writing, it was similar for Ethiopians and Swahilis who also used Geez & Arabic for the same purposes and therefore production was most often more religious in nature. Another example is Latin and Koine for Europeans.

Sacred language - Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

simple.wikipedia.org

A liturgical language or sacred language or holy language is any language that is used in the religious service, by people who speak another primary language in their daily lives.

Somali written literature also features not just chronicles but also autobiographies, hagiographies(which carry a lot of social and cultural histories) etc and various religious scholarly publications, not to mention religious poems. Literary art also includes calligraphy.

Outside of that there was record books, legal codexs(jurisprudence) and written genealogies.

Examples i have seen recently posted on social media:





@Shimbiris peep the camel bone tusbaax included with it lool.

I think Aziz bought it from this antiques collector, i am not sure since its still up.

https://www.lot-art.com/auction-lot...-1900/52792169-jazolipar_un-13.12.21-catawiki

Ancient manuscript of Al-Jazuli's "Dala'il al-khayrat" (beacons of benefits) written by a Somali scribe, Somalia It was a popular didactic text in Islamic schools in West and East Africa and included in the West African core curriculum. All decorations for designs with natural dyeing of different colors, in the tradition of ancient SomaliA manuscript containing 282 pages of linen paper Drawings containing the pulpit of the Prophet in Medina, as well as his tomb and the tombs of his companions Abu Bakr and Omar Writing in different colors, including the golden color, expresses the beautiful ancient art of Somali calligraphy

 

[Idilinaa]

1) Initial Islamization - 700-800

2) City states and Kingdoms/Sultanates formations - 800-1200

3) Empire, city state and Kingdom/Sultanate - 1295-1650

4) City states, Clan chiefdoms, Sufi Orders and Sultanates/Kingdoms - 1650- 1927

If i were to simplify this division it would be grouped into two periods.

The Era of Amirs - 800-1650
(Period where states led by Emirs dominated the political and economic developments)

An emir was like a mini-sultan who presided over his region/or district.

One of the supremacy battles between Emir Mansur and Emir Abun, with Emir Abun being victorious

The Era of Shayukhs - 1650-1927
(Period where Sufi orders led by Sheikhs dominated the political and economic developments)

I wouldn't call this period a dark age. There was a decline and then a re-emergence but a Dark Age implies some kind of sustained underdevelopment or lack of progress or repressiveness, which this wasn't.

 

[Midas]

Arabic was more like a liturgical language or a sacred written language/priestly writing, it was similar for Ethiopians and Swahilis who also used Geez & Arabic for the same purposes and therefore production was most often more religious in nature. Another example is Latin and Koine for Europeans.

Sacred language - Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

simple.wikipedia.org

Somali written literature also features not just chronicles but also autobiographies, hagiographies(which carry a lot of social and cultural histories) etc and various religious scholarly publications, not to mention religious poems. Literary art also includes calligraphy.

Outside of that there was record books, legal codexs(jurisprudence) and written genealogies.

Examples i have seen recently posted on social media:





@Shimbiris peep the camel bone tusbaax included with it lool.

I think Aziz bought it from this antiques collector, i am not sure since its still up.

https://www.lot-art.com/auction-lot...-1900/52792169-jazolipar_un-13.12.21-catawiki

What about like a somali ajami literature. And if not do you have any speculation as too why they didn't develop a somali ajami script considering how localized islam was. Like I can't think of another place outside somalia were people were (non arabic speaking ) muslims for more than couple centuries and didn't have a literature in ajami.

 

[Idilinaa]

What about like a somali ajami literature. And if not do you have any speculation as too why they didn't develop a somali ajami script considering how localized islam was. Like I can't think of another place outside somalia were people were (non arabic speaking ) muslims for more than couple centuries and didn't have a literature in ajami.

You asked me this same question before

My answer:

They had no need for it, Somalis were pretty much bilingual in both Arabic and Somali. So they wrote things down in Arabic, that also acted as both a written and a liturgical language.
Not much different than what Latin was for Europeans during the early middle ages, Aramaic for Nabatean Arabs (Pre-Islam) ''a written language'' and Geez was for Ethiopians, the only difference is that literacy was not restricted to a small clergy via a learning system called ''Laqbo''

They didn't just learn writing and reading the quran. There was an indigenous system of teaching Arabic known as ''Laqbo'' that developed over centuries in Somalia. This was done in both the rural and urban areas. Students pretty much became bilingual.

Coming out of a decline in the period i spoke of in the mid-late 1800s-1900s where they was experiencing a food production boom and population increases , there was an increase in literary production accompanying it. As well as much of the collection history on Somalis was based on those written sources.

You can read more about how widely spread Arabic, learning , literacy was in the rural areas in the 19th century in this piece : Tradition to Text: Writing Local Somali History in Mid 19th century

Not only that Somalis started to mass producing arabic books via publishing houses in East Africa and Cairo during this period, started to form a print culture

 

[Shimbiris]

What about like a somali ajami literature. And if not do you have any speculation as too why they didn't develop a somali ajami script considering how localized islam was. Like I can't think of another place outside somalia were people were (non arabic speaking ) muslims for more than couple centuries and didn't have a literature in ajami.

That's a bit of an over the top statement, walaalkiis. There is the case of Far Wadaad which could very well date back to the 12th-13th centuries and seems at least fairly mature by 19th-20th centuries but even without that, there are plenty of similar places to Somalia in not having much of an "Ajami script". A GREAT many in fact. The peoples of Southern Yemen on the other side of the Gulf of Aden like the Mehris, Soqotris and Shehris all pretty much never wrote down their own languages but used them day to day to speak whilst writing exclusively in Arabic.

Our own neighbors and relatives the Xabashis are a good non-Muslim example as well. For hundreds of years there are only extremely rare and sparse examples of Ge'ez script writing in their own languages. 90%+ of the literature is chronicles, religious texts and such in Ge'ez. It makes sense. The Horn seems to have mostly lacked any real sense of nationalism until we made contact with Europeans. It's no coincidence that you suddenly see languages like Somali, Amharic, Harari and Tigrinya suddenly being enthusiastically written over Arabic and Ge'ez from the 17th to 20th centuries when contact with cadaans really ramps up. Before that the Horn was largely ruled on religious and dynastic lines and none of these rulers seemed to truly care that much about being Amhara or Somali or what have you. Hell, Amda Seyon is trying to depict himself as an unbroken descendant of the Aksum, non-Amhara, Kings and most Somali rulers are trying to come off as Banu Hashim. Their rule was focused along religious and economic lines.

 

[Idilinaa]

I wanna add also that it was not due to a lack of literacy or localized learning.

Literacy and localized learning was extensive in the early modern period both in the hinterland and on the coast, not limited a elite/rich or the clergy.

Notice he mentions women teachers.

A good indicator of the high literacy rates and learning in medieval period can be indicated by how available learning was so much so that you had women scholars and teachers . A few examples :

This also can be seen in the number of female saints/sheikhas ''Ay's'', tombs/graves in the ruined medieval town of Dogor in Northern Western Somalia

 

[Idilinaa]

Arabic was more like a liturgical language or a sacred written language/priestly writing, it was similar for Ethiopians and Swahilis who also used Geez & Arabic for the same purposes and therefore production was most often more religious in nature. Another example is Latin and Koine for Europeans.

Sacred language - Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

simple.wikipedia.org

Somali written literature also features not just chronicles but also autobiographies, hagiographies(which carry a lot of social and cultural histories) etc and various religious scholarly publications, not to mention religious poems. Literary art also includes calligraphy.

Outside of that there was record books, legal codexs(jurisprudence) and written genealogies.

Examples i have seen recently posted on social media:





@Shimbiris peep the camel bone tusbaax included with it lool.

I think Aziz bought it from this antiques collector, i am not sure since its still up.

https://www.lot-art.com/auction-lot...-1900/52792169-jazolipar_un-13.12.21-catawiki

Thought i should include this one last one @Shimbiris @Midas
Another example i came across is this manuscript locally produced in Lamu by a Somali scribe.

Which was the oldest one in their collection :

5. Localising Islamic knowledge: acquisition and copying of the Riyadha Mosque manuscript collection in Lamu, Kenya

In Lamu, Islamic practice and intellectual traditions in the late nineteenth century were strongly marked by the foundation of the Riyadha Mosque, established by Ṣāliḥ b. ʿAlawī Jamal al-Layl, known in East Africa as Habib Saleh (1853-1936).2 He was a descendant of early migrants from Ḥaḍramawt...

books.openedition.org

''Some of the manuscripts features and historical context of their production also suggests influences from the southern Somali coast''

Another thing is that Richard Burton visited Harrar which he called the ''Alma Mater of Somali lands''

The most important ulema at the time in Harar was Somali Shaykh Jami Al-Bartirri who invited him to his home and showed him his collection of Books.

He echoes something i said before that after reading what other scholar have said, a lot of the books in Harar are not local copies, but mostly antiques.

Harar in many cases acted as a central collection place where they binded and preserved manuscripts and books.

 

[Midas]

Thought i should include this one last one @Shimbiris @Midas
Another example i came across is this manuscript locally produced in Lamu by a Somali scribe.

Which was the oldest one in their collection :

5. Localising Islamic knowledge: acquisition and copying of the Riyadha Mosque manuscript collection in Lamu, Kenya

In Lamu, Islamic practice and intellectual traditions in the late nineteenth century were strongly marked by the foundation of the Riyadha Mosque, established by Ṣāliḥ b. ʿAlawī Jamal al-Layl, known in East Africa as Habib Saleh (1853-1936).2 He was a descendant of early migrants from Ḥaḍramawt...

books.openedition.org

''Some of the manuscripts features and historical context of their production also suggests influences from the southern Somali coast''

Another thing is that Richard Burton visited Harrar which he called the ''Alma Mater of Somali lands''

The most important ulema at the time in Harar was Somali Shaykh Jami Al-Bartirri who invited him to his home and showed him his collection of Books.

He echoes something i said before that after reading what other scholar have said, a lot of the books in Harar are not local copies, but mostly antiques.

Harar in many cases acted as a central collection place where they binded and preserved manuscripts and books.

Intresting. I'm curious to here your take on one of thes sources @Emir of Zayla posted called translocation links. And this spefeix chaoter talking about brava. Maybe I'm being a but sensitive but while this chapter seems mostly impartial and I don't have any problems wuth brava being part of the swahili coast. It still feels like even with the obvious evidence of tunni being the majority and the clans around the area being them points to them having established the town. Their trying to craft a narrative that somalis just settled in this already established swahili towns. When the obvious conclusion is that these bravanese speakers are descended from foreign traders marrying their swahili slaves and the lanaguge being passed to their children

 

[Midas]

Here is the chapter right after where this guys repeats the claim about the zanzibar sultan having suzerainty over bendair.

 

[Idilinaa]

Intresting. I'm curious to here your take on one of thes sources @Emir of Zayla posted called translocation links. And this spefeix chaoter talking about brava. Maybe I'm being a but sensitive but while this chapter seems mostly impartial and I don't have any problems wuth brava being part of the swahili coast. It still feels like even with the obvious evidence of tunni being the majority and the clans around the area being them points to them having established the town. Their trying to craft a narrative that somalis just settled in this already established swahili towns. When the obvious conclusion is that these bravanese speakers are descended from foreign traders marrying their swahili slaves and the lanaguge being passed to their children

I've read that book. One small correction to what he says, Tunnis are not a mixture but a clan confederacy of different Somali clans. The name Tunni means ''united' in the Somali language. There is a difference between clan confederacy in Somali culture which includes the core founding group and other adopted clans and a clan family.

In the book he talks about talked about the Translocalism element of the Town, particularly with Reer Barawa. In the other link i shared he mentions nisba Al-Barawi alongside Al-Sumal, Al-Hadrami and other local scribes in Lamu.
Another example is a local Qadi in Mombasa in the multi Judge Swahili confederation, mentions nisba Al-Barawi most likely a Hatimi/Bida

Interesting. A Qadi(Judge) in Mombasa was also from Barawa, when the Europeans visited the towns in the early 1800s.

It speaks to the translocality of Barawa as a town.

These links also existed not just with the coast of Southern Somalia but also with the Southern interior. There was political and cultural links between Sultans of Geledi and Bardheera Jama with the northern Swahili coast particularly with Witu and Lamu.

The city State of Siyu, for example was revived from the 1700s by a new stream of Somali Shayukhs who joint ruled it and intitiated it into a center for learning and book production

The influence in book production can be seen in the Somali leathermaking for book binding and woodcarving, motifs etc

@Midas @Shimbiris So when i say the early modern period was an ''Era of Shayukhs'' it's not a hyper bole. Somali Sheikhs wielded political power and in large parts spearheaded developments in the region.

Even Shaykh Jami of Harar i mentioned earlier was active in politics and at times wielded more influence and reach than the Emir.

''gave him some authourity over the Amir and he has often been employed on political missions amongst the different chiefs''

This sums up the importance of seeing the Indian ocean communities as trade based societies built on exchanges and translocalism and not through the lens of colonial settlerism to explain them , so i am more inclined to say it's not just Somalis or 1 specific people who established the settlements, they may have initiated it and played a large role but it was different surrounding groups or clans and later overseas immigrants brought together.

And i am not sure if Chimini is a language product of slave marriages, it could have been more so a product of the trans local communication, they picked up to communicate with their clients and business/religious contacts south of them as they moved back and forth. Which sounds more likely the case. Reer Barawe Hatimi/Bida descend from immigrants who married into local coastal people/clans and coastal Tunni descend from Somali clans from the interior who extended across the coast down all over Lamu Archipelago.

 

[Idilinaa]

I've read that book. One small correction to what he says, Tunnis are not a mixture but a clan confederacy of different Somali clans. The name Tunni means ''united' in the Somali language. There is a difference between clan confederacy in Somali culture which includes the core founding group and other adopted clans and a clan family.

In the book he talks about talked about the Translocalism element of the Town, particularly with Reer Barawa. In the other link i shared he mentions nisba Al-Barawi alongside Al-Sumal, Al-Hadrami and other local scribes in Lamu.
Another example is a local Qadi in Mombasa in the multi Judge Swahili confederation, mentions nisba Al-Barawi most likely a Hatimi/Bida



These links also existed not just with the coast of Southern Somalia but also with the Southern interior. There was political and cultural links between Sultans of Geledi and Bardheera Jama with the northern Swahili coast particularly with Witu and Lamu.

The city State of Siyu, for example was revived from the 1700s by a new stream of Somali Shayukhs who joint ruled it and intitiated it into a center for learning and book production

The influence in book production can be seen in the Somali leathermaking for book binding and woodcarving, motifs etc

@Midas @Shimbiris So when i say the early modern period was an ''Era of Shayukhs'' it's not a hyper bole. Somali Sheikhs wielded political power and in large parts spearheaded developments in the region.

Even Shaykh Jami of Harar i mentioned earlier was active in politics and at times wielded more influence and reach than the Emir.

''gave him some authourity over the Amir and he has often been employed on political missions amongst the different chiefs''

This sums up the importance of seeing the Indian ocean communities as trade based societies built on exchanges and translocalism and not through the lens of colonial settlerism to explain them , so i am more inclined to say it's not just Somalis or 1 specific people who established the settlements, they may have initiated it and played a large role but it was different surrounding groups or clans and later overseas immigrants brought together.

And i am not sure if Chimini is a language product of slave marriages, it could have been more so a product of the trans local communication, they picked up to communicate with their clients and business/religious contacts south of them as they moved back and forth. Which sounds more likely the case. Reer Barawe Hatimi/Bida descend from immigrants who married into local coastal people/clans and coastal Tunni descend from Somali clans from the interior who extended across the coast down all over Lamu Archipelago.

I copied the same text twice
Meant to add this one next to the other one about the Mombasa Qadi.

It speaks to the translocality of Barawa as a town.

 

[Awdalite]

I've recently been reading about how the mongo invasion led to the shifting of the center of islamix civilization from bagdhad and the fall of the caliphate model to a new model of islamic governance focused more on sultans and control of the hejaz as giving legitimacy. This has me wondering about how socioeconomic transformations in somalia led to new modes of governance and how we can divided it I've roughly an idea that goes like this.

1) clan states( 700-1100)
This is the period when islam arrives and the synthesis between somali traditions and islam happen and towards the end of this period is when start getting clan patriarchs and saints

2) city based sultanates (1200-1600)
This seems like the golden age where trade is at its highest and when urbanization was likely at its peak and scholars go overseas to places like cauro and yemen and become well established there and sultana seem to govern from spefici towns there's porbaly more going on that we have no idea but power seems to be concentrated in cities and towns

3) remergence of clan staes (1650- 1850)
This seems to be a period of decline and I susoects that the clans were probaly far more nomadic than the (700-1100) period due to a more drier climate. This is also when a lot of bendarirs likely came since the ones who claim to he the oldest trace their heritage back to arabc clans from hadramqwt who began migrating at this time. This period is likely in the first half marked by intense clashes with oromos and clan raids as resources dry up. The second half seems to have likely more connection with the strengthening of sufi orders and the clans sultanates seem to be shifting more towards city sultanates again when colonization began

I'll end with two questions that i think are important
1) What is the connection between sufi orders and clan shrines
2) what was the ruling ideaology in the city sultanates period (1200-1600)

Why don't we have surviving infrastructure from the early Islamic period? Clan shrines are about it