Kekekeke, praise from you is always a glowing endorsement, walaal. And thank you for the additions. All very interesting and good food for thought.
You say I cooked but I only lightly seared, walaal. This man
@The alchemist came in here and deep fried the rest of the dish. Bringing in archaeological receipts... Bismillah. I knew several of you here would have things to add and I am not left dissappointed.
I recall what you're referencing. Good catch. Personally, I would not say it's much of a hiccup, however. Let me substitute in Bedouin wherever "Somali" is written and notice that it still pretty much makes sense:
It actually reads a lot like he's just subduing an unruly nomadic tribe (the Samaroon in this case), hence why they cause people trouble on the roads and loot and plunder as nomads are wont to do. "Somali" at the end of the day would probably designate a tribe or person that is mostly nomadic in lifestyle. Similar to how the "Sab" in Koonfur called the majority pastoral nomadic tribes "Somali"
even though we know those tribes had settled farmers in their own ranks (I actually wanted to share a cool source outlining a lot about Hawiye settled farmers found in the Ogaden during the 18th or 19th century but lost the link. Gonna have to message the chap who originally gave it to me).
It also doesn't have to mean towns could not exist in a territory dominated by nomads. Bedouin "countries" or territories in neighboring Arabia were still littered with villages and towns. And we know through the 19th century that these Somali nomads themselves were fairly fluid when the situation called for it. Being mostly nomadic but flowing in and out of nomadism, towns and lifestyles like sailing at the drop of a hat when the need arose:
(quote by speke)
The Southern Ethiosemitic loans in Somali aren't solidly attributed to Harari or at all to Argobba, which are the ones you'd want if it really came from Southern Ethiosemites who were theoretically in our territories as some like to think. It's also not really dated and could have entered the Northern Somali dialects at any point, from what I know. Finally, what the Futuh shows (them not really seeming to appear in it or having any tribal connections with the Harla tribes mentioned) along with the utter lack of Southern Ethiosemitic genetic influences in Northwestern Somalis and what Alchemist points out about the archaeology really put a lot of dents in the idea that they somehow predated us in those areas or were there from very early on alongside us.
As for Harari in particular, I was not joking about how they seem to get their word for "city" itself from Somalis. Do you know what they historically called an entry way into Harar?
source: British Policy in ethiopia 1909-17 by Andrew Caplan
"Faras Magala"
It is, in my humble opinion, plausible that Somalis settled them into the town as the Nur Ibn Mujahid stories often go if they're seriously getting their word for city from Af-Soomaali. It also fits with how Abyssinian civilization, particularly Southern Ethiosemitic Abyssinian civilization, was at its core "a civilization without cities":
A Civilization Without Cities
Actually, we have records of Somalis mentioning Harlas and Harlas constructing things like towns and wells as far as Sanaag and Bari, walaal. I'd have to take the time to dig up the links but if you do some google book searching for a while you should stumble upon them yourself. I remember an cadaan mentioning that the Dhulbahante attributed some ruins even in Sool to them. They were seemingly everywhere from Galbeed to Bari. But not in Koonfur where, interestingly, those sorts of construction stories are often attributed instead to the "Ajuran".
