Walaal, our ancestors literally refused to eat with them at a table or marry them. Then we find the exact same custom in neighboring Ethiopia and Arabia as well as other parts of Africa like the Maghreb. No marriage, derogatorily speaking of these people, and even refusing to eat with them or use the same plate they did. Cadaans simply used the term "caste" because that sort of exclusionary behavior reminded them of the Indian caste system.
Now, it's true that these roles were more fluid than people like to think and probably members of the "noble" tribes often moved in and out of these groups as you've shown me, and it was probably even further fluid during the more fertile and prosperous middle ages, then there are interesting exceptions like how the Tunni in Koonfur are not ostracized or looked down upon despite being credited as the main builders and masons of the region. You're probably right that this may have been more like a bondsman situation historically.
Nevertheless, I think one is being disingenuous if they try to pretend that Somalis do not have a clear culturally ingrained dislike for any laborious work that isn't shepherding or farming and then practice marriage exclusion and social ostracization toward people who take on such roles. Europeans didn't somehow magically teach the entire Arabian peninsula, Horn of Africa and Maghreb this way of behaving or make it up, walaal. It's clearly ancient and ingrained.
I actually think that's an orientalist exaggeration and mythmaking , although there was separation between them especially in the rural country side to enforce and make people keep to seperate role for survival purposes, much like the gender segragated roles i have spoken about , it was wasn't as rigid as people make them out to be.
The roles were based on subsistence economics. Most Somalis had to focus on food production while delegating other tasks to a minority few for survival sake. This could change as well during periods of surplus that just like the female roles expanded in time of wealth and in less resource scarce areas , other roles would have the liberty to expand.
There were several recorded cases in past where other clans actually married them, especially Tumaal in the Northeast.
and the clans that made up Madhiban/midgaan/sab/gaboye etc were not related to eachother at all and hailed seperate lineage within the main 5/6 lineages.
The sab live scatttered all over Northern Somalilan in real or putative patri lineages on a pattern similar, though reduced, to those of their noble Somali (Ajji) protectors. In different regions they are known locally by the names of the eponyms of the small agnatic lineage groups into which they are divided, rather than their occupational classification as Midgan, Tumaal and Yibir. Ultimitely, however iti is as these and, collectively, as sab, that they are described. In the north the two largest Midgaan lineage groups are the Muuse Diiriye in the west and Midhiban in the east.
In support of these claims, Midgaan informants have produced genealogies tracing descent from Dir, the founder of the Dir clan familiy. Some Tumaal race descent from Darood founder of the noble Darood Somali clan family''
The only collective genetic data done on them is the one done by I.M Lewis and Goldsmith:
Goldsmith and I. M. Lewis (1958) say that the hunter and artisan castes among the Somali show no obvious physical differences from the “noble” Somali, speak the same language, are culturally similar, and that there are no “strong traditions” of their having had a separate origin. In addition, these authors report no significant differences between the Somali and their associated castes (called sub) in ABO, MN, and Rhesus blood group distribution, although the castes are endogamous and have presumably long been so.
And they concluded that their Bondsmen (Sab) sample was identitical to the other Somali clans:
our sab sample is thus virtually identical with that of the Somali....our results suggest that in serological characters there is no difference between those of the sab and those of noble Somali.
The same goes for the Urban ones, they all came from diverse lineage, hawiye, bimaal (Kafaari, Giungi for example in Merka/Mogadishu etc) and Tunnis themselves are just a confederation of clans whom also includes hawiye, ajuuran and bimaal clans among them.
I also don't agree with you about Somalis having a particular dislike for laborous work. It is rooted in two misconceptions and closely linked to ''Hamitic'' fiction. First is the attitude towards farming which is largely based on how it's economically inferior it is to pastoralism and how unsustainable it was in comparison. Pastoral products produced more wealth and fetched higher prices and farming was unsustainable in semi arid climate and when they did farm they had to combine it with herding and employ grain storage systems as we have seen in the south to secure themselves.
2nd is the outsourcing of labour in the south to slaves. This is also entirely economical and based in international capitalist market demand in the 1800s prior to this they didn't use slaves , aimed at maximizing their profit and productivity, not much different from how people outsource unskilled cheap labor today and slave labor and serfdom diminished in the western european world with industrialization, instead of human labor they could use machines. You can tell that this is the case because the Northern/Western Somalis had lower purchasing power and less access to slave markets on the swahili coast, so they didn't use slaves for their farming and labor, it was just generational Somali clans that continued the practice and nomads who picked it up doing the work themselves.
So it begs the question. If labor and artisan work was taboo why are Somalis whooly the ones doing the work in the north and west?. Why do Somalis immediately take up artisan work when they move into major cities? why are the clans in the city that take those roles elevated? even included in the town councils and formed formal guilds etc.
He might have written it differently as "مديجان" if this was the case. But if you're correct which is entirely possible, it still illustrates the point I was making in that here a source is naming a Somali group differently from Somalis during the same period as the writing of the Futuh, probably because this group, regardless of who they were, were not principally nomadic pastoralists. It makes a lot more sense if it's referencing the Madhiban as a result.
It is furthermore interesting what
@Midas points out regarding the Hawiye, for example, because in those historical accounts of them they're described as having "villages" along the Shabelle river, implying a farmer and settled way of life which maybe why they're not being referred to as Somalis.
That could be true.
If they could name Harla , Hawiye etc in certain arabic texts wouldn't be farfetched for them to name Madigaan as a clan or even an occupational name like Madhibaan.
