Historically weak xabashi army - How somalis conquered most of Ethiopia

[Canuck]

Axum/Abyssinia/Ethiopia = historical China
Somali nomads = historical Mongols

Civilized people vs the steppe hordes.

Stop insulting Somalis @Amun I know your subclan and with couple of phone calls I find your family and will make them disown you. (If you want to test it, send me your email and you will surprise) IT ME Canuck. Don't get paranoid I am Your fellow harti.

 

[DuctTape]

Axum/Abyssinia/Ethiopia = historical China
Somali nomads = historical Mongols

Civilized people vs the steppe hordes.

I mean you're probably taking the piss but that's probably the worst comparison I've ever seen.
The only thing Somali nomads and the Mongols had in common is that they were both largely nomadic societies.
One of these groups went on to conquer the largest contiguous land empire of all time, and the other group stuck to trading, building city states and sultanates that, in later history, pretty much trumped Abyssinia in terms of infrastructure, economic clout and arguably military, while at the same time also still having many nomadic societies living in the hinterland.

Abyssinia and China is also not a great comparison, since ancient China, historically speaking split up and fragmented so many times into smaller kingdoms that it would be more accurate to compare it to the Somali historical tendency to break off into clan-based regions/kingdoms.

 

[Prince Abubu]

Comparing China to Ethiopia is like comparing a brand new Audi to a pile of shit with bicycle wheels.

 

[black]

Stop insulting Somalis @Amun I know your subclan and with couple of phone calls I find your family and will make them disown you. (If you want to test it, send me your email and you will surprise) IT ME Canuck. Don't get paranoid I am Your fellow harti.

What is his qabil

 

[Canuck]

What is his qabil

I Don't rat on my fellow hartis.

 

[black]

I Don't rat on my fellow hartis.

Oh, so MJ? got it

 

[Canuck]

Oh, so MJ? got it

I don't rat.

 

[Menelik III]

I mean you're probably taking the piss but that's probably the worst comparison I've ever seen.
The only thing Somali nomads and the Mongols had in common is that they were both largely nomadic societies.
One of these groups went on to conquer the largest contiguous land empire of all time, and the other group stuck to trading, building city states and sultanates that, in later history, pretty much trumped Abyssinia in terms of infrastructure, economic clout and arguably military, while at the same time also still having many nomadic societies living in the hinterland.

Abyssinia and China is also not a great comparison, since ancient China, historically speaking split up and fragmented so many times into smaller kingdoms that it would be more accurate to compare it to the Somali historical tendency to break off into clan-based regions/kingdoms.

Amun had a good comparison, since Ethiopian civilization has had massive cities, large swaths of land under a centralized rule, a writing script, books, religion, and so on. This is vastly different compared to the nomadic Somali kingdoms who only established cities with the help of arabs/Swahili/Omani peoples. Just like how monguls adopted the cultures of people they went on to meet/conquer.

There was never a united somalia before the arrival of Europeans. "Yew wuz neva kangz and shiet, lil neega"

 

[Grant]

History that changes with politics is probably best called propaganda. This was certainly true of most of the history written in support of Somali unity and nationalism in the 1960's. I.M. Lewis wrote based on the northern oral tradition, which has now been discarded in favor of the DNA evidence. More recent work by Herbert Lewis and others reversed the direction of migration, connecting the Samaales to the other Southeastern Cushites, and adding the history of the South. There is nothing in any of this to indicate the unity of the independence and Kacaan periods was anything more than an aberration. The nomads encircled the setttled folks, intimidated them and then expropriated all the lands not infected with tse-tse. Frankly, I am struck by the parallels to American history, with the plantation economy in the Shabelli valley and the decline of the minority populations. Much of this gets ignored, as do many of the actual divisions of the Somali peoples.