Darood origin and his relatives; research

[Adali]

Arab Salah or Meheri(Al-mahra) is the brother of Darood and it is this man and his descendants i have been researching. we all know the character Darood and his descendants but know little about his brothers and where exactly he came from. My research let me to southern Arabia that is Yemen, Oman and Qatar, and i came across some historical data that shocked me, apparently that area used to be a non-arabic speaking society. a millennium ago arabs started moving south and settling in what is today know as Yemen, Oman and Qatar, this incursion was entirely peaceful but it lead to arabization of the people. The non-arabic speaking people who are known as Al-Qara and Khatiri still survive though although most of them speak only arabic today. Explores described them as beardless, dark skinned people who are camel herders, they live amongst arab Shia people but are themselves Suni-Shafi, their society is on decline as they lose their language and their influence due to arab speaking tribes establishing their kingdoms in their land during the 1700-1800.
The historians of last century could not explain the origin of these people including Al-Qara, but described the similarity they had with Somali and Ethiopian people, the Al-Qara which is the largest of these tribes and the Khatiri have the longest lineages, but the Al-Mahra(Arab Salah) the Arab say has only been noticed as a tribe for the past 700 years, being a tribe for the last 700 years means Arab Salah himself was more than 700 years ago as his descendants were a noticeable tribe at that time. Darood is roughly a 1000 years old and was noticed as tribe roughly 300 years later which is the same time Arab Salah was noticed as a tribe. Another interesting fact, Arabs(this term is becoming misleading) consider Al-Mahri(Arab Salah) as native to the land and they consider themselves immigrants, this is especially true in Oman where there is a large population of slave descendants who speak only arabic(the Rer Hamar of Oman).




also Al-Mahri settle in Socotra and speak both Arabic and a dying language known as Meheri. Al-Mahri tribe in Arabia is several hundred thousands numbers and they live in Saudi Arabia, Yemen(hadramout), Oman(dhofar) and also Qatar, Dubai. They are held at high esteem amongst arabs and respected very highly, but most of the power of Oman and Yemen goes to the Arab and the slave descendants who have been instilled by European imperialist, similar to what happened in Somalia, but these people are not disturbed infact their lands are ruled by their own Shiekhs and not government.

apart from language differences(arabic and meheri) they have a strong distinct culture in the region, a culture similar to Somali, for example their women are not subject to arranged marriage, they herd camels and ari, arabs do not herd camels they use them for transport only, they also eat digir during rainy season, they practice fircooni circumcision, their tribal structure is identical to Somali Darood tribal structure and slightly different from arabs etc. You may ask how they have kept their culture, well the area they live in is surrounded by mountains and deserts and ocean, they travel through sea only.

their connection to their Darood brethren is one that is alive, they recognize Al-Jabarti, infact you may have confused a proud Al-mahri with an arab, the Al-mahri who live in Somalia are known as Arab Salah, Daroods have also welcomed them to Somalia in Nugaal, Mudug etc.
here is a promotional video of Dhofar the strong hold of Al-mahri and traditional land.

[Alphanumeric]

cool.

[Adali]

Indeed brother, the Kacaan government(1969-1991) claimed Socotra which is part of Al-mahara tribal land, and Yemen could not say anything because it was close to Somalia Bari region. But Yemen also did not say anything because they knew that Al-mahara are ethnically related to the people of Bari and the Daroods who are a large pillar of Somali society thus they were fearful. Yemen took a anti-Somalia stance in the Somalia-Ethio war, people have explained this as Yemeni being racist and taking the orders of their Russian masters, but the truth is far from that, Yemen leader was encouraged to take anti-Somali stance by British colonial rulers who did not wish Somalia to succeed in Ogaden and later take control of Gulf of Aden, Al-Mahara coast and exert dominance on Gulf of Aden and therefor West-East trade. two consecutive Yemeni president were assassinated prior to the Somali-Ethio, which had to do with the South-North Yemen conflict but also to do with Somali-Ethio war. A puppet was instilled who supported Soviet war against Somalia. In 1991 when the Kacaan government was defeated by a coalition of tribal rebels, the Yemeni government swiftly colonised Socotra.

here is a map of Al-Mahara in Yemen


here is map of Al-Mahara tribal land. (Yemen, Oman and Socotra)


Al-Mahara people





there are also other tribes who have dark pigmentation but they are not related to Al-Mahara, but interestingly enough people refer to them as the original arabs (non-Ishmaelite), they are called Kathiris etcs, and they rarely mix with the Al-Mahara who do not have any arabic features but are more Cushitic in appearance, whiles Kathiris although dark skinned resemble Arabs.

[Based]

Bro, it's more likely that these pseudo-Arabs are descendants of Horn Africans rather than the other way around imo. Nearly every genetic study (even the one on snet) confirms Somali common ancestry, regardless of qabiil. Interestingly enough, I read something once claiming that ancient Somalis colonized parts of Yemen once.

Read the footnote:

[Alphanumeric]

based, i dont think he's talking about a general descent, but specific to a tribe. to me, they go hand in hand. and perhaps the proper term would be proto-arab as opposed to pseudo, no?

[Based]

I meant that the Daarood clan, purportedly descended from some Arab guy, shares a common ancestry with every other Somali clan and nearly every Cushitic-speaking ethnic group in the Horn of Africa. We overwhelmingly belong to the same haplogroup that's believed to have been introduced 4-5 kya.

proto-Arab is probably a better way to put it

[abdirisak22]

There were half dozen different black tribes in that part of the world, it is understandable to say they are related to Somalis but to say Meher was brother of Daarood is laughable. those people lived in Arabia before Arabs, check out one of the black tribe in Arabia is called Hobyot or Hobyo and under two thousand of them are still in Yemen, Oman and UAE is that mean the people who live in Hobyo today are Hobyot?

[Alphanumeric]

I meant that the Daarood clan, purportedly descended from some Arab guy, shares a common ancestry with every other Somali clan and nearly every Cushitic-speaking ethnic group in the Horn of Africa. We overwhelmingly belong to the same haplogroup that's believed to have been introduced 4-5 kya.

proto-Arab is probably a better way to put it

but why would this conflict with whats being shared? perhaps im not seeing or understanding correctly.

[Based]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the OP saying that the Daarood clan descend from these Yemeni folks?

Unless he's implying that the origin of the Al-Mara are in Somalia, I don't see how one Somali clan exclusively descends from an ancient Arab line because they happen to share a somewhat similar phenotype to Horn Africans, since all Somalis and most Horn Africans directly descend from the same ancestral group. Unless the Al-Mara belong to the dominant Horn African haplogroup by way of ancient colonies, I'm not sure how we can say they're related to any Horn Africans let alone a specific Somali clan.

Or is there something I missed, since it's 2 am and I'm getting pretty tired

[Alphanumeric]

the way ive understood it is these particular proto-arab groups being examined descended from horn africans and members of one of these groups (al-Mara) traveled to somalia relatively recently and settled/interbred. hand in hand, no?

i cant recall him mention their origin. but hey, 2am and all lol

[Adali]

Alphanumeric your right brother, i haven't mentioned anything about Daroods origin, but we might get an idea of how he looked like by turning towards the isolated Al Mahara tribe, unile Darood descendant Al-Mahara were completely isolated for many years until a few hundred years ago.

my understanding is that approximately a thousand years ago Darood remigrated to the Horn which probably at some point was his ancestral home, his brother Al Mahara(Arab Salah) stayed in Yemen. The origin of Arab Salah and Darood is a bit of a mystery, but the fact that they are brothers is claimed by both parties and historical records, oral history as well as genealogy support this claim. Modern Somalis of Darood descent say he was arab(he could be proto-arab or arab by tongue), well he probably was considered Arab(whatever that is) but who knows if his great great..etc grandfather was from the horn or if he was a descendant of a proto-arab, we really cannot say. Similar to Darood the Al-Mahara cannot prove their origin past the 1000 year point they claim Quraish like all Jabartis(Darood+Al-mahara) do, but ironically Al-Mahara are believed to have moved from the Horn whiles Darood is believed to come moved from Southern Arabia the exact same time.

The big elephant in the room is also the language, Daroods are Somali speakers and Al-mahara are arabic speakers but also Meheri which is a language named after them recently, Meheri(semetic language) and Somali(cushetic language) share vocabulary but more interestingly they share vocabulary that is unique to ancient arabic found in very old poems. there is a long list of words we share that are not found in modern-arabic, this tells us that Meheri language predates modern arabic and so does aspects of Somali language, the tribe it was named after only existed 700 years. If Meheri is that all it probably was the language Jabartis in the horn spoke early on and the ancient Arabic influence in Somali could be as a result of Darood influence on the Somali language.
spoken Meheri 4:36-5:48
[youtube]dgL5snJZUco&f[/youtube]
This language is dying but the old man is trying to chat the younger lad in Meheri. It sounds nothing like Arabic.

Abdirisak, i do not know Hawiyo genealogy laakin not every dark skinned person in Southern Arabia is Al-Mahara, there are two other tribes who are also dark skin but look nothing like Al-Mahara, they are called Al-Qara and Katheris, these last two inter-marry a lot and are considered almost a confederation called Jebalis rather than two different tribes, Al-Mahara(Arab Salax) do not marry their daughters to these tribes much and they never allow Shahara people to marry their daughters. This leave Arabs and themselves, Daroods also married Dir and themselves mostly, and sometimes other muslim tribes in Harar. apart from Al-Mahara, Katheri, Al-Qara the rest were considered untouchables including the powerful slave descendants of Oman, the weird thing is in southern Yemen slave descendants are Al-Akhdam, they are weak and also discriminated against but in Oman they hold political offices and are rich and dignified. I believe Hawiyo and Darood probably share ancient ancestry, but as far as genealogy is concerned i do not see any connection so far.

again Hawiyos are not Al-Mahara and they cannot be the Jebalis because the Jebalis have the big hooked nose like Arabs, Somali Hawiyo have same nose as Darood which is Cushetic nose. Hawiyo are sedentary folk, i don't believe they came from Arabia, their oral history do not say and historical records of Hawiyo do not show a great deal of movement.

more pictures.
Jebalis(katheris-Al qara mix)




Al-Mahara herders

[Murax]

Southern Arabians and Somalis do not share any ethnicity whatsoever. Just because they're dark, doesn't mean they're related to Somalis. Also Meheri are by no means related to Somalis and the ones that claim meheri in Somalia are not the Meheri in Yemen. I've met Yemenis from that tribe.

[mudugawi]

Very interesting indeed. From my personal observation I went to Oman I have seen many Dhofari tribes people which were originally Somali tribes like Siwaaqroon, Ali Saleeban, Warsangeli and other Darod qabils.

[Murax]

Very interesting indeed. From my personal observation I went to Oman I have seen many Dhofari tribes people which were originally Somali tribes like Siwaaqroon, Ali Saleeban, Warsangeli and other Darod qabils.

This is actually true. I think they are Seafarers who ended up on that side of the sea and settled. I don't think it proves Darood was Arab though.

[mudugawi]

Very interesting indeed. From my personal observation I went to Oman I have seen many Dhofari tribes people which were originally Somali tribes like Siwaaqroon, Ali Saleeban, Warsangeli and other Darod qabils.

This is actually true. I think they are Seafarers who ended up on that side of the sea and settled. I don't think it proves Darood was Arab though.

I agree . I mean one or two Dhofari might have Somali ancestory or one or two Somali might have Dhofari/Meheri ancestory. But generally speaking we are different people though sharing many customs, religion, vocabulary, physical features and traditions. Same case with Soqatra I believe. I read somewhere that the South Arabian tribes were actually descended from Horn of Africans and not the other way round.