If you have any sources about Somali history, please share them.

[Cali Maxamed]

Please share your sources without engaging in lengthy debates. Our goal is to write Somali history and publish it on Wikipedia.

I will begin by documenting the ethnic origins and original homeland, and then we’ll move on to other aspects such as history, culture, civilization, cuisine, and everything else a beginner needs to understand their identity.

I may not succeed in finding all the necessary sources, so if you have any reliable ones, please share them here.
I’m honestly tired of foreigners contributing to the Somali section on Wikipedia with shallow, incorrect, and sometimes misleading information—causing a real identity crisis for the new Somali generations.

Note: It is extremely important to include reliable sources so that the published material holds scholarly credibility and can serve as a trustworthy reference.

 

[balanbalis]

Having access to jstor will be useful, and a lot of colonial era books are free to read online i guess the copyrights ran out

 

[Cali Maxamed]

The ethnic origins of the Somali people :

Al-Mas‘udi’s Akhbar al-Zaman :

[Mention of the Kings of Egypt after the Flood]

The people of Egypt unanimously agree that the first to rule Egypt after the Flood was Misraim son of Beisr, son of Ham, son of Noah (peace be upon him), due to a supplication that had previously been made for him by his grandfather.

--------------------------------------------

Ibn al-Kathir says in his book Al-Kamil fi al-Tarikh (The Complete History) that Misraim fathered the Copts and the Berbers.

--------------------------------------------

Imam Abu ‘Umar Ibn ‘Abd al-Barr, the author of Al-Tamhid, said in the book of genealogies:

“The Berbers are from the Copts, and the Copts are the descendants of Qibt, the son of Ham, the son of Noah, peace be upon him. Qibt was the first to settle in Egypt, and he passed it down to his children. They are the Copts whose kings were the Pharaohs, and from them the Berbers branched out.”

-------------------------------------------

The Berbers are the ancestors of the Somalis, and this book below provides a detailed examination of that, bringing together all the sources that support it:

Somalia: The Land of the Berbers in East Africa in the Writings of Muslim Geographers and Travelers from the 3rd to the 8th Century AH (9th to 14th Century CE)

Book link: https://hja.journals.ekb.eg/article_137128.html

 

[Barkhadle1520]

Please share your sources without engaging in lengthy debates. Our goal is to write Somali history and publish it on Wikipedia.

I will begin by documenting the ethnic origins and original homeland, and then we’ll move on to other aspects such as history, culture, civilization, cuisine, and everything else a beginner needs to understand their identity.

I may not succeed in finding all the necessary sources, so if you have any reliable ones, please share them here.
I’m honestly tired of foreigners contributing to the Somali section on Wikipedia with shallow, incorrect, and sometimes misleading information—causing a real identity crisis for the new Somali generations.

Note: It is extremely important to include reliable sources so that the published material holds scholarly credibility and can serve as a trustworthy reference.

Forget about it, if you want to write about Somali history on wikipedia half of your changes will be deleted by a Harari guy and another Oromo one, they get paid to keep pages like Adal sultanate etc filled with Ethio Semitic theories, and there are no somali books or historians to counter their arguments

Last year we were 5 and we tried for months but it was just a waste of time except some changes here and there, they basically out-source you, the Harari guy has a twitter and when confronted he admitted to avoid talking in private cause he doesnt get paid for that

I remember once a guy I know wrote and published 10 pages on medieval history events, all deleted in a week because he used primary sources and there were no secondary books of the events written by historians.

And its not only medieval history, they also try to vandalize pages on modern history like ICU and the 2006 invasion or even 77'

The oromo guy's page says semi-retired but its probably because we also gave up lol
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Socialwave597

 

[Cali Maxamed]

The ethnic origins of the Somali people :

View attachment 365526
Al-Mas‘udi’s Akhbar al-Zaman :

[Mention of the Kings of Egypt after the Flood]

The people of Egypt unanimously agree that the first to rule Egypt after the Flood was Misraim son of Beisr, son of Ham, son of Noah (peace be upon him), due to a supplication that had previously been made for him by his grandfather.

--------------------------------------------


View attachment 365527
Ibn al-Kathir says in his book Al-Kamil fi al-Tarikh (The Complete History) that Misraim fathered the Copts and the Berbers.

--------------------------------------------

View attachment 365528
Imam Abu ‘Umar Ibn ‘Abd al-Barr, the author of Al-Tamhid, said in the book of genealogies:

“The Berbers are from the Copts, and the Copts are the descendants of Qibt, the son of Ham, the son of Noah, peace be upon him. Qibt was the first to settle in Egypt, and he passed it down to his children. They are the Copts whose kings were the Pharaohs, and from them the Berbers branched out.”

-------------------------------------------

The Berbers are the ancestors of the Somalis, and this book below provides a detailed examination of that, bringing together all the sources that support it:

Somalia: The Land of the Berbers in East Africa in the Writings of Muslim Geographers and Travelers from the 3rd to the 8th Century AH (9th to 14th Century CE)

Book link: https://hja.journals.ekb.eg/article_137128.html

What the Arabic sources mention is summarized in this chart :

 

[Barkhadle1520]

The ethnic origins of the Somali people :

View attachment 365526
Al-Mas‘udi’s Akhbar al-Zaman :

[Mention of the Kings of Egypt after the Flood]

The people of Egypt unanimously agree that the first to rule Egypt after the Flood was Misraim son of Beisr, son of Ham, son of Noah (peace be upon him), due to a supplication that had previously been made for him by his grandfather.

--------------------------------------------


View attachment 365527
Ibn al-Kathir says in his book Al-Kamil fi al-Tarikh (The Complete History) that Misraim fathered the Copts and the Berbers.

--------------------------------------------

View attachment 365528
Imam Abu ‘Umar Ibn ‘Abd al-Barr, the author of Al-Tamhid, said in the book of genealogies:

“The Berbers are from the Copts, and the Copts are the descendants of Qibt, the son of Ham, the son of Noah, peace be upon him. Qibt was the first to settle in Egypt, and he passed it down to his children. They are the Copts whose kings were the Pharaohs, and from them the Berbers branched out.”

-------------------------------------------

The Berbers are the ancestors of the Somalis, and this book below provides a detailed examination of that, bringing together all the sources that support it:

Somalia: The Land of the Berbers in East Africa in the Writings of Muslim Geographers and Travelers from the 3rd to the 8th Century AH (9th to 14th Century CE)

Book link: https://hja.journals.ekb.eg/article_137128.html

These berbers are clearly North African, Ive seen other manuscripts where they actually include Zayla'i and berbers are also counted as descendants of the copts

Most mentions of berbers in arabic sources are north african, usually the author makes it clear whenever its horn african berbers

 

[Cali Maxamed]

Forget about it, if you want to write about Somali history on wikipedia half of your changes will be deleted by a Harari guy and another Oromo one, they get paid to keep pages like Adal sultanate etc filled with Ethio Semitic theories, and there are no somali books or historians to counter their arguments

Last year we were 5 and we tried for months but it was just a waste of time except some changes here and there, they basically out-source you, the Harari guy has a twitter and when confronted he admitted to avoid talking in private cause he doesnt get paid for that

I remember once a guy I know wrote and published 10 pages on medieval history events, all deleted in a week because he used primary sources and there were no secondary books of the events written by historians.

The oromo guy's page says semi-retired but its probably because we also gave up lol
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Socialwave597

We will publish our research in languages other than English to start with—most importantly Arabic, French, Chinese, Russian, Japanese, Persian, and German.

After that, we will form a team and begin an edit war on the English branch of Wikipedia.

 

[Barkhadle1520]

Forget about it, if you want to write about Somali history on wikipedia half of your changes will be deleted by a Harari guy and another Oromo one, they get paid to keep pages like Adal sultanate etc filled with Ethio Semitic theories, and there are no somali books or historians to counter their arguments

Last year we were 5 and we tried for months but it was just a waste of time except some changes here and there, they basically out-source you, the Harari guy has a twitter and when confronted he admitted to avoid talking in private cause he doesnt get paid for that

I remember once a guy I know wrote and published 10 pages on medieval history events, all deleted in a week because he used primary sources and there were no secondary books of the events written by historians.

And its not only medieval history, they also try to vandalize pages on modern history like ICU and the 2006 invasion or even 77'

The oromo guy's page says semi-retired but its probably because we also gave up lol
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Socialwave597

These are some examples of what they do

Look at this too lmao, this is the harari guy, active since 2012

 

[Cali Maxamed]

These berbers are clearly North African, Ive seen other manuscripts where they actually include Zayla'i and berbers are also counted as descendants of the copts

Most mentions of berbers in arabic sources are north african, usually the author makes it clear whenever its horn african berbers

Sorry, bro, but lengthy discussions will only derail this topic. I’ve attached a book that goes into detail on the matter, along with a download link.

Somalia: The Land of the Berbers in East Africa in the Writings of Muslim Geographers and Travelers from the 3rd to the 8th Century AH (9th to 14th Century CE)

Book link: https://hja.journals.ekb.eg/article_137128.html

 

[Barkhadle1520]

We will publish our research in languages other than English to start with—most importantly Arabic, French, Chinese, Russian, Japanese, Persian, and German.

After that, we will form a team and begin an edit war on the English branch of Wikipedia.

This is a waste of time wallahi, who would even check persian wikipedia

 

[Cali Maxamed]

We need sources from archaeologists that link the Land of Punt to the Somali people.

 

[Barkhadle1520]

We need sources from archaeologists that link the Land of Punt to the Somali people.

Archeology is not the way to go when searching about this Punt stuff, early puntites didnt build with stone, punt was used from 3000BC to the ptolemaic era in egypt, the people that the egyptians called puntites didnt call themselves that either

 

[Bursalah]

These are some examples of what they do

View attachment 365532
View attachment 365533

Look at this too lmao, this is the harari guy, active since 2012
View attachment 365531

Reminds me of this
This guy went on to become prime minister of isreal lol

 

[Barkhadle1520]

Reminds me of this
This guy went on to become prime minister of isreal lol

people dont realize how normal this is, the average dude who looks up something about history will find wikipedia at the top of their search 99% of the time, wikipedia is a really powerful tool especially for PR

 

[Midas]

These are some examples of what they do

View attachment 365532
View attachment 365533

Look at this too lmao, this is the harari guy, active since 2012
View attachment 365531

Wtf ?? Why are an oromo and harari dude able to block our efforts

 

[Barkhadle1520]

Wtf ?? Why are an oromo and harari dude able to block our efforts

Why not lol

If we get to claim Harar so called Hararis lose all their history

 

[Cali Maxamed]

We need sources from archaeologists that link the Land of Punt to the Somali people.

• Richard Pankhurst, The Ethiopian Borderlands (Red Sea Press, 1997, p.17 onward):
“Most of the Land of Punt was located along the Somali coast, especially in modern Somaliland and northeastern Somalia. It was known for trade in frankincense and myrrh.”

• B.M. Fagan, The Oxford Companion to Archaeology (Oxford Univ. Press, 1996):
“Many scholars locate Punt on the African side of the Red Sea, particularly in Somalia or Eritrea.”

• Derek A. Welsby, The Kingdom of Kush (British Museum Press, 1996) – discusses trade routes and interactions across the Red Sea with regions that fit Somalia’s geography.

• J.H. Breasted, Ancient Records of Egypt (University of Chicago):
“The incense-producing regions, as well as the trees, correspond to those in present-day Somalia.”

• E.A. Wallis Budge, A History of Ethiopia: Nubia and Abyssinia – describes Punt as being located in the Horn of Africa, including Somalia.

• There’s also an interesting historical article (in Arabic, with an English abstract) published in the Journal of Historical and Archaeological Studies (HJA), which analyzes old Muslim and Egyptian geographical texts and supports the Somalia–Punt connection.

From the Egyptology side:

• Dr. Kathryn A. Bard (Boston University), in her work on ancient Red Sea ports, wrote:
“The ancient Egyptians conducted trade expeditions to Punt, which was most likely located in the southern Red Sea region—modern Somalia or Eritrea.”

• Prof. Donald B. Redford (Penn State), Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times:
“The Land of Punt is best placed in the southern Red Sea area, corresponding to modern Somalia or its immediate region.”

• Dr. David O’Connor (NYU):
“Punt was not simply mythological; it was real and probably located in the Somali peninsula.”
(He’s written and lectured on this topic extensively.)

• Prof. James Henry Breasted (University of Chicago):
“Descriptions of Punt's landscape and its trade products—especially frankincense trees—correspond closely to conditions in present-day Somalia.”

• E.A. Wallis Budge, again, in The Dwellers on the Nile:
“The people of Punt depicted in Egyptian art have African features, and the land was known for incense, ebony, and exotic animals—all of which are abundant in Somalia.”

• Toby Wilkinson (University of Cambridge), The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt:
“The famous expedition of Queen Hatshepsut to Punt was likely to the Somali coast—matching archaeological, ecological, and iconographic evidence.”

Finally, I found this independent blog (https://landofpunt.wordpress.com/tag/barbaria/) that has a deep dive into the identification of Punt with Somalia. Not sure if it's suitable for Wikipedia directly, but it’s definitely worth reading for context and further sources.

 

[Cali Maxamed]

Frankincense and Coffee: The Global Spread of Somali Products

Frankincense

• Groom, Nigel (1981). Frankincense and Myrrh: A Study of the Arabian Incense Trade. Longman.
Discusses the historical incense trade from the Horn of Africa, especially from Somalia.

• Dhaifalah, N., & Purohit, A. (2019).
The genus Boswellia: Ethnobotany, pharmacological and phytochemical review. Pharmaceutical Biology, 57(1), 110–120.
DOI: 10.1080/13880209.2018.1561728
Confirms Somalia as a key growing region for Boswellia species.

• Wickens, G.E. (2003). Economic Botany: Principles and Practices. Springer.
Provides historical and botanical data about the origin and trade of frankincense and myrrh, including from Somali regions.

• Richard Pankhurst (1997). The Ethiopian Borderlands: Essays in Regional History from Ancient Times to the End of the 18th Century. Red Sea Press.
Page 17 onward: Identifies much of the ancient Land of Punt with present-day Somalia and mentions the export of incense and myrrh.

• UNESCO (1981). The African Iron Age South of the Sahara.
• Mentions the ancient trade routes from the Somali coast and the importance of incense commodities in early transoceanic trade.


Coffee

The Somali Origins of Coffee

 

[Cali Maxamed]

Etymology

The name “Somali” (and by extension “Somalia”) is traditionally believed to derive from Samaale—a common ancestor of Somali clans.

Lewis, Ioan M. (1961). A Pastoral Democracy: A Study of Pastoralism and Politics Among the Northern Somali of the Horn of Africa. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

 

[Cali Maxamed]

What remains is to write about the Somali kingdoms from before the advent of Islam up to the year 1920 — listing their names and providing sources for each.