SomaliNet Forums

It's relatively easy to find sources that corroborate both the Periplus of the Erythrean Sea and other ancient texts regarding ancient Somali port-cities and their extensive trade network.

Somali Red Sea trade network and their collusion with Arabs to prevent Indian-Roman contact in the first century (I've only posted a few tidbits, you can find more info in the link below):






https://books.google.com/books?id=u9w8A ... ia&f=false


Here's the full text of the Periplus and its description of the country of the "Berbers", as Somalis were commonly referred to.

http://legacy.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/periplus.asp

The Omanis, Portuguese, Italians et al. of the Swahili coast were much later developments.

Thank you guys for the information!!!

the hawiye fufu destroyed them like they did everything else

I'm not denying that Somalis lived in coastal towns. Our influence was dwarfed by the people who actually built and ruled these cities over the centuries. Mogadishu is not a Somali word, it's Persian, just as many other towns and areas on the coast like all the Bandars (like Bandar Qaasim) and Shingaani. We unfortunately know almost nothing about Somalia prior to the Islamic period, and that book on the Eritrean sea is one of the very few sources that *barely* mentions our area. We *do* however have a lot more material detailing the state of the coast from the last 500-1000 years.

The Periplus is one of the most prominent historical documents of the era (1st century c.e.) that describes much of the world's trade routes known to the Roman Empire. Along with Ptolemy's 2nd century work Geography, it names all of the Somali ports and unequivocally describes the rulers and populace as "Berbers" (Barbaroi) and the area as the Country of the Berbers or Regio Aromatica. With later Chinese and medieval Arab sources that name the Berbers the inhabitants of these port cities, there really isn't much of a debate as to who ruled the city-states.

More sources if you'd like:
https://books.google.com/books?id=mmwUM ... oi&f=false
https://books.google.com/books?id=WmZtB ... oi&f=false
https://books.google.com/books?id=gzJf1 ... oi&f=false

Can you tell me the names or lineage of any of the rulers from 1st CE Somalia? Any artifacts or structures from that period? The sad answer is we just don't know.

We *do* know these things about the last 500-1000 years of Somali coastal history, and it's not particularly Somali. At least, not as we know what being Somali means today.

As I said, both classical and medieval sources are clear and identify the region's inhabitants as Barbaroi/Po Pa li and there's a clear consensus among modern historians that the aforementioned Berbers are synonymous with present-day Somalis. There's no denying the enormous influence of Middle Eastern migrants on the Benadiri coast following the birth of Islam, but to simply attribute nearly a half millennia of documented history prior to the advent of Islam to them seems to conflict with all known sources from the time period, as present-day historians can attest.

I never said pre-Islamic Somali coasts were Benadiri, just that we have no clue what they were at all.

On Ba Ba Li, I wonder if said Chinese mentioned if it was a coastal settlement or inland. Because there's an ancient town near Harar in Ethiopia with a strikingly similar name. An area that could actually support the 200,000 man strong army (if it's not exaggeration) mentioned, something I really doubt for Berbera.