Talked about this in another thread once:
Some ancestral Somalis of the classical era (0-300 BCE to before Islam) probably did know how to write in Musnad, I'd wager.
apparently we used this script called sumado
Is this real? Looks like the Igbo/Voodoo scriptsapparently we used this script called sumado
idk too much about this script tbh i found out about it from a past post
Clllam
Æ
Those are tribal symbols similar to what’s found in West Africa.apparently we used this script called sumado
Clllam
Æ
Yes and No. Like Bird just mentioned, for the Sabeans to have Come and made inscriptions in Northern Somalia meant that they would’ve impacted genealogy and settled in the long term. As we know, Somalis have no connection to ancient Yemenis. In short, the lack of studies on a pre-islamic native script makes this topic unclear to say the least. It’s said that the Museum in Mogadishu contained some artefacts illustrating a supposed native script while they also mentioned the locations were they can be found. Still an issue up for debate.
(Note that I’m referring to a extant script, the Peripuls book by some greek guy does talk of an inscripted stelae at zeila, a German Explorer also confirmed the existence of an undecifered native script)
(Note that I’m referring to a extant script, the Peripuls book by some greek guy does talk of an inscripted stelae at zeila, a German Explorer also confirmed the existence of an undecifered native script)
I remember a Puntland Minister once talked about finding large bones and also ancient texts, I'll post the article if I ever find it.
Can you show me where you seen that bro?
Short answer NO.
Long answer : it's complicated.
The somali language doesn't have a long written tradition, literacy was mainly in Arabic and we can safely assume educated somalis used Arabic to write. There are scholars from medieval Somalia who traveled in the Arab world and produced religious treaties in Arabic. We have some sabean writing in present day Somaliland, as far as I know the meaning of the inscription wasn't deciphered so it could be an early form of writing in Somali but we don't know, it could also be a south Arabian language. Saada Mire and even European explorers mention undeciphered scripts and symbols in caves but again we don't know what the language is. Even if it's confirmed to be an early form of Somali it would still be very isolated. Af soomaali simply wasn't a written language before the modern era, this isn't surprising or rare. There are plenty of languages in Asia and Africa that were never used in the written from because elites adopted Arabic to write. Arabic was kinda like latin in Europe
Long answer : it's complicated.
The somali language doesn't have a long written tradition, literacy was mainly in Arabic and we can safely assume educated somalis used Arabic to write. There are scholars from medieval Somalia who traveled in the Arab world and produced religious treaties in Arabic. We have some sabean writing in present day Somaliland, as far as I know the meaning of the inscription wasn't deciphered so it could be an early form of writing in Somali but we don't know, it could also be a south Arabian language. Saada Mire and even European explorers mention undeciphered scripts and symbols in caves but again we don't know what the language is. Even if it's confirmed to be an early form of Somali it would still be very isolated. Af soomaali simply wasn't a written language before the modern era, this isn't surprising or rare. There are plenty of languages in Asia and Africa that were never used in the written from because elites adopted Arabic to write. Arabic was kinda like latin in Europe
Please let's be serious. This is some random stuff found online. There are no legit studies on this script and no sources expect random google picsapparently we used this script called sumado
Somali city states traded extensively and as we know writing always emerged from commercial needs, people needed to write how much stuff they buyed, sold etc. So my suugo science hypothesis is that locals may have used other scripts such as sabean to conduct trade, but there's no proof
apparently we used this script called sumado
Those are actually camel brands and brand symbols called Sumad.
They also mark sumad brands on trees and places to indicate territorial ownership and on graves.
The short answer is: Possibly .
We know thanks to a Greek document like The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea that there was extensive commerical activity along the Somali coast and multiple port towns. And writing is needed for record keeping for trade ,business, and to keep lists, inventory etc . And we soon get a confirmation on this by a Roman writer about one of the port towns:
We also know through archeological observations there are inscriptions across the interior of the region. In Laas Gaal, near Hargeysa, there are as many as 600 inscriptions in the scene; and in the Lag Oda, near Dirir Dhabe, there are about 800 of them. But these are only a few places that are investigated.
They are also all over the different place inside Somaliland & Puntland found on different Taalos(Stone mounds) , rocks and ancient burials etc , and in other caves.
Wouldn't be surprising if they wrote on some earlier Musnad script, as some inscriptions have been found but i'm uncertain if these are the same ones. It makes sense considering the geography and their neighbors. But we don't know the language content of it
Some more research and investigations need to be done on this, to know more.
To correct another poster and expand on, Somali language does have a written tradition. Somali clergy, students, merchants, elites etc mainly wrote in Arabic as a form of liturgical language kinda similar to how Geez was for Abyssinian and Latin was for Europeans in the middle ages, Aramaic was Arabs in pre-Islam but they also used it to transcripe Somali in Arabic script and communicate with eachother in letters with it and we have some examples of it and this was also noted by earlier explorers and visitors:
Believe it or not a lot of the oral tradition & histories foreign visitors and writers documented was partly based on written local sources and texts. So it wasn't necessarily something transmitted to them by some illiterate people in some bush somewhere.
The long answer to the written tradition is a complicated one due the fact that the socio-political-economic situation across the peninsuala have not always remain stabile throughout history and has invariably varied.
Literacy seems to have been more widely spread pre-late 16th century decline and then there was a revival during the 1800s and up.
We know thanks to a Greek document like The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea that there was extensive commerical activity along the Somali coast and multiple port towns. And writing is needed for record keeping for trade ,business, and to keep lists, inventory etc . And we soon get a confirmation on this by a Roman writer about one of the port towns:
We also know through archeological observations there are inscriptions across the interior of the region. In Laas Gaal, near Hargeysa, there are as many as 600 inscriptions in the scene; and in the Lag Oda, near Dirir Dhabe, there are about 800 of them. But these are only a few places that are investigated.
They are also all over the different place inside Somaliland & Puntland found on different Taalos(Stone mounds) , rocks and ancient burials etc , and in other caves.
Wouldn't be surprising if they wrote on some earlier Musnad script, as some inscriptions have been found but i'm uncertain if these are the same ones. It makes sense considering the geography and their neighbors. But we don't know the language content of it
Some more research and investigations need to be done on this, to know more.
To correct another poster and expand on, Somali language does have a written tradition. Somali clergy, students, merchants, elites etc mainly wrote in Arabic as a form of liturgical language kinda similar to how Geez was for Abyssinian and Latin was for Europeans in the middle ages, Aramaic was Arabs in pre-Islam but they also used it to transcripe Somali in Arabic script and communicate with eachother in letters with it and we have some examples of it and this was also noted by earlier explorers and visitors:
Believe it or not a lot of the oral tradition & histories foreign visitors and writers documented was partly based on written local sources and texts. So it wasn't necessarily something transmitted to them by some illiterate people in some bush somewhere.
The long answer to the written tradition is a complicated one due the fact that the socio-political-economic situation across the peninsuala have not always remain stabile throughout history and has invariably varied.
Literacy seems to have been more widely spread pre-late 16th century decline and then there was a revival during the 1800s and up.
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Interesting, so they're the Somali version of Tamga
Interesting, so they're the Somali version of Tamga
Some of these brands/symbols might hold some interesting cultural information/meaning , for example i've read that Sheekhal clan in the western regions(Eastern Ethiopia) brand their camels and graves with a cross. Some have take it to be a vestige from a Christian past:
This is particularly notable because they are a priestly lineage that is tasked with teaching religion.
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Hamzza
VIP
Far wadaad is not the oldest.
Far sheekh uweys is the oldest script written in somali language.
