Christianity in the North

What do we know about the type of Masiixi community in North during Jaahiliya before becoming Muslimiin? Specifically their Christology what sect they belonged to what Churches were in communion with them like say the Abyssinian Church the Egyptian Church etc
 
What do you mean by north? Are you talking about North Somalia?

NorthSomaliland NorthSomalia plus Hawd andReservedAreas. Broadly speaking, everywhere they use standard pronunciation of AfMaxaaTiDHi not AfMaxaaTiRi but feel free to expand that meaning of North. Hararga plus Ogaadeeniya maybe even Mudug.

The whole SomaliPeninsula if you have info about their Masiixi Jaahiliya history add that too
 

Toriye

Sheekhaagu waa kuma?
They are my ancestors too. They were not Muslimiin that Jaahiliya

You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.

What were their Xtian beliefs? their church who was in cummunion with them their type of christology etc
Maybe your ancestors were jaahils, but mine were hard-working, decent and cultures people. Church is for Christians, my ancestors never had anything like that.
 
Maybe your ancestors were jaahils, but mine were hard-working, decent and cultures people. Church is for Christians, my ancestors never had anything like that.

Does it matter whether they were Waaqist Gaalo or Xtian Gaalo? Both are nonMuslim

Jaahiliya is just nonPC refering to preIslamic era just forget that word

Besides semantics is not important. Can you elaborate on the above info I asked for regarding the ERUDITE ancestors of Northerners like me and you?
 
Last edited:
NorthSomaliland NorthSomalia plus Hawd andReservedAreas. Broadly speaking, everywhere they use standard pronunciation of AfMaxaaTiDHi not AfMaxaaTiRi but feel free to expand that meaning of North. Hararga plus Ogaadeeniya maybe even Mudug.

The whole SomaliPeninsula if you have info about their Masiixi Jaahiliya history add that too
There's no records of any Somali Christians in our history except a few rare cases in the 20th century like Michael Mariano. Before Islam, we most likely had traditional Cushitic religions but it's still debated on what pre Islamic Somalis believed. Some say they were polytheists who use to worship cows and spirits, others say they believed in one God called Waaq and had similarities to Islam which they later embraced. Don't know the details of pre Islamic Somalis but this is what I heard.
 

Apollo

VIP
Somalis were Waaqists before Islam, possibly only a few urban trading areas may have had a small number of Christians but it was never the dominant religion among pre-Islamic Somalis.
 
Coptic Orthodox Christianity was practiced in Woqoyi Galbeed pre 1300 ad.

If Northern Somalis were Christians up until the 14th century CE, how do you explain the Masjid Al Qiblatayn in Zeila, then? Also, if we were Coptic/orthodox Christians right up until the 1300s CE, there would be huge evidence of this in the form of churches and monasteries, the 1300s is the middle-ages!

I agree with @Apollo . Most likely there were a handful of Christians (perhaps traders) in amongst a bunch of Somalis who had their own traditional beliefs.

I don't know about Waaq either. We shouldn't use Oromo beliefs as an analogue for whatever our ancestors believed either. Somalis are very divergent from Oromos in many things, why not also in religion as well?
 
A map on the Mire article shows Xtian burial sites concentrated around the interior regions between Burco and Shiikh

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-015-9184-9/figures/4?shared-article-renderer

The article claims the crosses are "orthodox" but so many sects put that label in their name while anethimizing and calling othet sects heretical. Are they Coptic/Abyssinian/Syrian Orthodox or Byzantine/Eastern Orthodox? Those are the main "orthodox" kaanisad groups the rest are derived from them, I think.

SamaaleOrthodox?

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-015-9184-9/figures/4?shared-article-renderer

Looks like Shiikh Isxaaq may have met Xtians in the North


Good article. It looks like the Mire study may just be the beginning. More work needs to be done, hopefully by local scholars

Somalis were Waaqists before Islam, possibly only a few urban trading areas may have had a small number of Christians but it was never the dominant religion among pre-Islamic Somalis.

Whether they were coastal Masiixi might depend on their kaanisad origin and maybe it could be there was no dominant religion, or atleast Xtianity was dominant in some communities but not others. We need to learn more about the Jaahiliya era culture and religion

If Northern Somalis were Christians up until the 14th century CE, how do you explain the Masjid Al Qiblatayn in Zeila, then? Also, if we were Coptic/orthodox Christians right up until the 1300s CE, there would be huge evidence of this in the form of churches and monasteries, the 1300s is the middle-ages!

I agree with @Apollo . Most likely there were a handful of Christians (perhaps traders) in amongst a bunch of Somalis who had their own traditional beliefs.

I don't know about Waaq either. We shouldn't use Oromo beliefs as an analogue for whatever our ancestors believed either. Somalis are very divergent from Oromos in many things, why not also in religion as well?

Are we sure about Waaqism being dominant in the whole North?

Speaking of divergence from Qoti, do Soomaalida have any anakogues to Gadaa and Qoti age system?
 
Who is to say those Christians were Somali? They could have been Harla.

Anyway, I heard there were Christians living in Eastern Waqooyi. Somali's called them "dadki hore" (the previous people).
 
The mosque of two qiblas was built by Arabs fleeing persecution in Mecca, prior to the Hejira, in the 7th century.

Darood arrives in the 10th or 11th century, Aw Barkhadle/Bu‘ur Ba‘ayr is 12th century. Shaykh Isaaq arrives in the 13th or 14th.

Check your abtirses, boys. Somali names don't become Arabized until the 14th-15th centuries.

The Dadka Hore were at least partly Ethio-Semites/Harla, and they got at least as far south and east as the eastern Nugaal.
 

Timo Jareer and proud

2nd Emir of the Akh Right Movement
If Northern Somalis were Christians up until the 14th century CE, how do you explain the Masjid Al Qiblatayn in Zeila, then? Also, if we were Coptic/orthodox Christians right up until the 1300s CE, there would be huge evidence of this in the form of churches and monasteries, the 1300s is the middle-ages!

I agree with @Apollo . Most likely there were a handful of Christians (perhaps traders) in amongst a bunch of Somalis who had their own traditional beliefs.

I don't know about Waaq either. We shouldn't use Oromo beliefs as an analogue for whatever our ancestors believed either. Somalis are very divergent from Oromos in many things, why not also in religion as well?
Somalis never lived in Saylac when the Labo Qilba musjid was constructed. Harla, were the original inhabitants of Awdal. Somalis migrated to the area later on in the middle ages. Gadabuursi and Cisse were founded in Sanaag, they are expansionist not indigenous.


Ruins of churches have been found in Woqoyi Galbeed. It could be "traders" or it could be ethnic groups in that area who knows. All we know for certain is that Christianity was practiced in Woqoyi Galbeed and Yibir were formerly Jews.
 
Top