Was this ancient greek traveller captured by proto-somalis?

[silentshimbir]

Given we know that southern arabia and somalis had the roman/greeks thinking they where the source of spices, the bellow map from 100BC shows what they believed the somali cost

you guys can read more here https://archive.org/stream/jstor-1798092/1798092_djvu.txt

but there was a greek traveler called Iambulus who got captured by Aethopians in southern arabia *greeks called everyone from aswan and southern an aethopians* , was sent to their city costal states across the sea,

they eventually reached the island Taprobana, which was modern day Sri Lanka, and learned alot and returned back to greece via indus->persia->greece. They then discovered the location of where the spices ordinally came from

What interested me was the customs and worship of these coastal "Ethiopians"

The story of of Iambulus was written third century BCE , and then preserved and retold in the above screenshots of the book Bibliotheca historica written by y Diodorus Siculus in first century BCE

more reference:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bibliotheca_historica

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iambulus

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islands_of_the_Sun

 

[Garaad diinle]

What a great read, thanks for sharing. I specially liked this part of the book where it said the following.

The somali coast was known by many names one of them being the troglodytae and the text explicitly mentioned it. Following this they add.

I've previously spoken of how al-mas'udi wrote of the omanis singing about the land of berbera and hafooni and it's great wave souring in the sky like a mountains. Hafooni itself properly being a translation of opone which is the greek pronunciation of the egyption name pwene/pwent writing in hieroglyphs as punt.

With a bit of archaeology in northern somalia i'm sure we'll find evidence that might confirm the ancient trade between the true horn of africa and ancient egypt.

 

[silentshimbir]

What a great read, thanks for sharing. I specially liked this part of the book where it said the following.

The somali coast was known by many names one of them being the troglodytae and the text explicitly mentioned it. Following this they add.

I've previously spoken of how al-mas'udi wrote of the omanis singing about the land of berbera and hafooni and it's great wave souring in the sky like a mountains. Hafooni itself properly being a translation of opone which is the greek pronunciation of the egyption name pwene/pwent writing in hieroglyphs as punt.

With a bit of archaeology in northern somalia i'm sure we'll find evidence that might confirm the ancient trade between the true horn of africa and ancient egypt.

I dont think troglodytae was Somalis but afars/soha and bilens, cause in Cladius Ptolemy mappings, he has them north of Dire and Zaylac/Avalite

 

[silentshimbir]

after further reading on who he describes is the generic camel nomad, seems most likely Somali since he mentioned the magabareans which i assume is Macrobians , but the suicide practice when reaching old age is weird . In the map previous it show's the elephant mountains which i believe is Bale where karanle live or the north coast? because author says they where always at war killing elephants there, im guessing they killed them all to extinction today since no elephants live in that region

 

[silentshimbir]

Yea kept reading , confirmed its all somali

Reading Claudius Ptolemy The Geography page 108, he says
"The land which is near the Arabian bay and the Aualites gulf, along the sea is called Troglodytica as far as Elephantas mountains, in which region are the Adulitae, and the Aualitae near a bay of this name, and the Mosyli above the promontory with a market place of this name. The entire maritime coast to the Rhaptum promontory is called Azania; the interior region is called Barbaria, in which there are many elephants."

That being said, if Claudis Ptolemy from 1st BCE called that "the Adulitae" then the Adal islamic empire wasnt the first time it was called that in the regions history

 

[silentshimbir]

If you guys want higher resolution the book is The Geography Claudius Ptolemy https://archive.org/details/claudius-ptolemy-the-geography_202105
Map1 page 235/288
Map2 page 283/288

 

[Garaad diinle]

That being said, if Claudis Ptolemy from 1st BCE called that "the Adulitae" then the Adal islamic empire wasnt the first time it was called that in the regions history

Defiantly awdal is a pre-islamic name. We have au-alites and aw-dalites with the only difference being the letter d. Also we've got the strait of dire from a town on the coast by the name of dire and finally if one would to look at the approximate location of dire in jabuuti you'd find this.

A lot of somalis also trace their origin from jabuuti too. There might've been an unknown history in jabuuti 2000 years ago that included a number of major somali clans.

 

[awsaleban667]

Yea kept reading , confirmed its all somali

Reading Claudius Ptolemy The Geography page 108, he says
"The land which is near the Arabian bay and the Aualites gulf, along the sea is called Troglodytica as far as Elephantas mountains, in which region are the Adulitae, and the Aualitae near a bay of this name, and the Mosyli above the promontory with a market place of this name. The entire maritime coast to the Rhaptum promontory is called Azania; the interior region is called Barbaria, in which there are many elephants."

View attachment 294129View attachment 294130


That being said, if Claudis Ptolemy from 1st BCE called that "the Adulitae" then the Adal islamic empire wasnt the first time it was called that in the regions history

Asc wll can you link me the sources

 

[mohammdov]

after further reading on who he describes is the generic camel nomad, seems most likely Somali since he mentioned the magabareans which i assume is Macrobians , but the suicide practice when reaching old age is weird . In the map previous it show's the elephant mountains which i believe is Bale where karanle live or the north coast? because author says they where always at war killing elephants there, im guessing they killed them all to extinction today since no elephants live in that region View attachment 294118View attachment 294120View attachment 294121View attachment 294122View attachment 294123View attachment 294124

There is an area called Ras El fayal in Arabic It means elephant mountain on the coast of Puntland. This area is the destination, and elephants were spread throughout, but after the arrival of guns and the ease of killing them, they became extinct in most areas.

 

[NidarNidar]

If you guys want higher resolution the book is The Geography Claudius Ptolemy https://archive.org/details/claudius-ptolemy-the-geography_202105
Map1 page 235/288
Map2 page 283/288


View attachment 294133View attachment 294135

Found this older map, look at the amount of coastal cities on the NEA.

 

[silentshimbir]

View attachment 296074

Found this older map, look at the amount of coastal cities on the NEA.

got a link to the HD version?

 

[Emir of Zayla]

View attachment 296074

Found this older map, look at the amount of coastal cities on the NEA.

That’s a hella a lot of cities

 

[NidarNidar]

got a link to the HD version?

I grabbed it from a YouTube video talking about lakes in the Sahara during African humid period, this map is composed of many older maps, these cities around the coast might be different names for the same cities.