The Earliest Surviving Manuscript Known Written By A Somali From 1692

[Shimbiris]

Should've made a thread on this ages ago and inshallah I'll do a blog post and maybe a YouTube video on it someday but here we are:

Migration, Digitization, and Preservation - A Case Study of a Somali Manuscript

The oday who wrote that was of the Leelkase and this is his descendant. There will probably be even older ones once more families like this come forward with the manuscripts they're holding and private collectors return or reveal what looters in places like Xamar sold them during the civil war as there were supposedly hundreds of manuscripts stored in the city before the looting that were lost like what this guy mentions in the comments:

Ancient Manuscript Review 32 : Antique Somali Quran ( 250 years old)

These are 7 volumes of full Quran from Somalia!! I used to have similar set but was confiscated by Abu Dhabi custom. Alhamdulillah these...

abudervish.blogspot.com

When people like Revoil were in Xamar they note that a lot of the "oral traditions" and tribal genealogies are actually written down and several of the people who tell them about these traditions would routinely stop to consult manuscripts:

Tradition to Text: Writing Local Somali History in the Travel Narrative of Charles Guillain (1846-48) on JSTOR

Lee Cassanelli, Tradition to Text: Writing Local Somali History in the Travel Narrative of Charles Guillain (1846-48), Journal of African Cultural Studies, Vol. 18, No. 1, Language, Power and Society: Orality and Literacy in the Horn of Africa (Jun., 2006), pp. 57-71

www.jstor.org

It will be very interesting, god-willing, if and when we recover many of these historic manuscripts now lost. If anything I hope this thread inspires some of you to go looking for such and share them with us as this fine young man did. It seems legit and verified. He even got it checked at a University. His family were basically wadaado/qadis. There were lots of these in the coastal towns across Somaliweyn and even some of the tuulo. They kept records, wrote treatises on the Qur'an and Xadiths, sent letters for elites and so on. If you look up the wiki page on Xeer you'll notice they're mentioned. Wadaads generally wandered the whole country during the early modern era and probably the middle ages as well. And they all seemed to have been literate.

 

[Saciid]

Should've made a thread on this ages ago and inshallah I'll do a blog post and maybe a YouTube video on it someday but here we are:

Migration, Digitization, and Preservation - A Case Study of a Somali Manuscript

The oday who wrote that was of the Leelkase and this is his descendant. There will probably be even older ones once more families like this come forward with the manuscripts they're holding and private collectors return or reveal what looters in places like Xamar sold them during the civil war as there were supposedly hundreds of manuscripts stored in the city before the looting that were lost like what this guy mentions in the comments:

Ancient Manuscript Review 32 : Antique Somali Quran ( 250 years old)

These are 7 volumes of full Quran from Somalia!! I used to have similar set but was confiscated by Abu Dhabi custom. Alhamdulillah these...

abudervish.blogspot.com

When people like Revoil were in Xamar they note that a lot of the "oral traditions" and tribal genealogies are actually written down and several of the people who tell them about these traditions would routinely stop to consult manuscripts:

Tradition to Text: Writing Local Somali History in the Travel Narrative of Charles Guillain (1846-48) on JSTOR

Lee Cassanelli, Tradition to Text: Writing Local Somali History in the Travel Narrative of Charles Guillain (1846-48), Journal of African Cultural Studies, Vol. 18, No. 1, Language, Power and Society: Orality and Literacy in the Horn of Africa (Jun., 2006), pp. 57-71

www.jstor.org

It will be very interesting, god-willing, if and when we recover many of these historic manuscripts now lost. If anything I hope this thread inspires some of you to go looking for such and share them with us as this fine young man did. It seems legit and verified. He even got it checked at a University. His family were basically wadaado/qadis. There were lots of these in the coastal towns across Somaliweyn and even some of the tuulo. They kept records, wrote treatises on the Qur'an and Xadiths, sent letters for elites and so on. If you look up the wiki page on Xeer you'll notice they're mentioned. Wadaads generally wandered the whole country during the early modern era and probably the middle ages as well. And they all seemed to have been literate.

Would love to find manuscripts that talks ab legendary 16th-18th century wadaados like Sheekh Mumin, Xasan Buraale, Umar Araag, Sagaal Hajile, Sheek Usmaan Shariif Dalwaaq, Qiyaasjele etc. Highly likely and something even Cassanelli believed was possible

 

[Chaseyourdreamzz]

This is super dope it’s great that Somalis are collecting our history xamar,barawe,marka etc are probably filled with valuable information

 

[Poets]

Very interesting!

If I am not mistaken, however, the text says it was written in 1139AH (i.e. 1727 in the gregorian calender). It says:

"وسنتها سنة الجمعة بعد ألف ومائة وثلث من الهجرة المباركة"

Which means "And the year (i.e. in which the book was completed) was the year of Friday after one thousand and one hundred and a third counting from the blessed hijra...".

It was common back in the days to use the weekdays as substitutes for certain numbers, where Axad means exactly Axad, i.e. one. Ithnayn (or Isniin as we say it) stands for two and so on. Jumu'ah is the 6th day counting from Sunday (Axad) and would therefore stand for number 6.

Pay attention to the "ثلث" as well which means a third, not three (in which case it would have an extra alif after the laam).

In summary, you have 1000 + (100 and one third of it i.e. 100 + 33) + 6 = 1139 AH

 

[Shimbiris]

Very interesting!

If I am not mistaken, however, the text says it was written in 1139AH (i.e. 1727 in the gregorian calender). It says:

"وسنتها سنة الجمعة بعد ألف ومائة وثلث من الهجرة المباركة"

Which means "And the year (i.e. in which the book was completed) was the year of Friday after one thousand and one hundred and a third counting from the blessed hijra...".

It was common back in the days to use the weekdays as substitutes for certain numbers, where Axad means exactly Axad, i.e. one. Ithnayn (or Isniin as we say it) stands for two and so on. Jumu'ah is the 6th day counting from Sunday (Axad) and would therefore stand for number 6.

Pay attention to the "ثلث" as well which means a third, not three (in which case it would have an extra alif after the laam).

In summary, you have 1000 + (100 and one third of it i.e. 100 + 33) + 6 = 1139 AH

View attachment 245933

In the article it says:

An excerpt from the colophon:

“…completed on Monday, 24th of Shaʻbān after Duhur (noon prayer), 1103 AH/May 12, 1692.”

The colophon in this manuscript does three things:

• It establishes a concrete chronology to a previously “semi-mythical” progenitor.
• It provides a genealogical starting point that will help to corroborate other contours and accounts of the life of this scholar and his descendants, many of whom were active in the propagation of Islam across Somalia.
• It makes the author of the manuscript’s positionality clear via his alqāb (agnomen, cognomen) Muḥammad ibn Muʾmin ibn Ādam ibn ʿUthmān ibn ʻAlī al-Laylkasī al-Shāfiʿī, revealing that central to his identity was both his standing as a member of the Laylkase but also his membership in the Shafiʽi school of law. The interplay between these two identities could well reveal a wealth of previously understudied scholarship.

So what you quoted seems to be speaking of a different completion. The actual document is dated to 1692, apparently, if I'm not mistaken.

 

[Garaad diinle]

There are probably a number of somali manuscript hidden all over Soomaaliweyn.

This is a manuscript on biimaal geneology writing around 200 years ago i think it wa copied from an older version.

This is a manuscript said to be writing in far wadaad.

This is a manuscript about sheikh hussein al-marki of bale most likely.

 

[Saciid]

There are probably a number of somali manuscript hidden all over Soomaaliweyn.

This is a manuscript on biimaal geneology writing around 200 years ago i think it wa copied from an older version.

This is a manuscript said to be writing in far wadaad.

This is a manuscript about sheikh hussein al-marki of bale most likely.

What does they say? Especially the Biimaal record?

 

[Garaad diinle]

What does they say? Especially the Biimaal record?

The biimaal one is about abtiris at the very least this one page we have the rest might be about other stuff. It's hard to read and it's all over the place but i picked on


Biimaal.

Dir.

AJ or aji and hawiya.

Aj or aji had to sons and they were dir and da ??? blank and his name was Yaxya.

Samale and his nine sons.

I think if i recall correctly it's one of the oldest if not the oldes account of a somali geneology.


The one writing in far wadaad i have no idea what it's all about all i read was that the chunky
book is somali using arabic alphabet.

The third one is about sheikh hussein al-marki from marka and his karamat and some adventures. I think i read some oral stories about him but it's hard to remember the detailes.

 

[Saciid]

Aj or Aji had to sons and they were dir and da ??? blank and his name was Yaxya.

Daqalle?

Samale and his nine sons.

What names does it say for his sons? Some disagreements

I think if i recall correctly it's one of the oldest if not the oldes account of a somali geneology.

How old is it? 1700s?

 

[Garaad diinle]

Daqalle

Can't say i don't know much about somali clan. Is daqalle also named yaxya.

What names does it say for his sons? Some disagreements

It's a mess but the first one is erer.

How old is it? 1700s?

This one is said to have been writing in early 19th century around 1800 ad. It's supposed to be
a copy of an older manuscript if i remember correctly.

 

[Garaad diinle]

What names does it say for his sons? Some disagreements

I think there are also at the last line xamare, harire. There are mayle and maaqar or maaqare at the line before the last. The line above that might be gardere but allahu aclam. The line above it is karor.

 

[killerxsmoke]

The biimaal one is about abtiris at the very least this one page we have the rest might be about other stuff. It's hard to read and it's all over the place but i picked on


Biimaal.

Dir.

AJ or aji and hawiya.

Aj or aji had to sons and they were dir and da ??? blank and his name was Yaxya.

Samale and his nine sons.

I think if i recall correctly it's one of the oldest if not the oldes account of a somali geneology.


The one writing in far wadaad i have no idea what it's all about all i read was that the chunky
book is somali using arabic alphabet.

The third one is about sheikh hussein al-marki from marka and his karamat and some adventures. I think i read some oral stories about him but it's hard to remember the detailes.

So basically the samaale theory of it being made up can be debunked?

 

[Garaad diinle]

So basically the samaale theory of it being made up can be debunked?

This manuscript was acquired by colonial powers in southern somalia and there is another manuscript acquired by the colonial powers in northern somali. The gadabursi chronicles which was writing around 1826 ad also have a samaale geneology that goes further into weird names such as loxan.

 

[killerxsmoke]

This manuscript was acquired by colonial powers in southern somalia and there is another manuscript acquired by the colonial powers in northern somali. The gadabursi chronicles which was writing around 1826 ad also have a samaale geneology that goes further into weird names such as loxan.

People say samaale was arab but names like hill and Loxan ain't arab names, this man is most likely a proper somali

 

[killerxsmoke]

This is an interesting thread I made 2 months ago

https://www.somalispot.com/threads/somali-quran-manuscripts.138120/

 

[Garaad diinle]

People say samaale was arab but names like hill and Loxan ain't arab names, this man is most likely a proper somali

Yeah i've heard that story i think they said he was a hadrami from yemen. Every somali clan claimed to be of arab origin even digil iyo mirifle. If every somali clan said that they were of arab origin that intermarried with local people who are these locals people supposed to be since nobody clamies them. I had some stuff i wanted to share but I'm afraid it'll be misunderstod and misinterberted by people around here. We ought to be a little more proud of our afro-asiatic heritage.

 

[Poets]

In the article it says:

An excerpt from the colophon:


The colophon in this manuscript does three things:

• It establishes a concrete chronology to a previously “semi-mythical” progenitor.
• It provides a genealogical starting point that will help to corroborate other contours and accounts of the life of this scholar and his descendants, many of whom were active in the propagation of Islam across Somalia.
• It makes the author of the manuscript’s positionality clear via his alqāb (agnomen, cognomen) Muḥammad ibn Muʾmin ibn Ādam ibn ʿUthmān ibn ʻAlī al-Laylkasī al-Shāfiʿī, revealing that central to his identity was both his standing as a member of the Laylkase but also his membership in the Shafiʽi school of law. The interplay between these two identities could well reveal a wealth of previously understudied scholarship.

So what you quoted seems to be speaking of a different completion. The actual document is dated to 1692, apparently, if I'm not mistaken.

The gregorian date is estimated based upon the hijri date named therein, which is what I highlighted in yellow ( and amounts to 1139AH, as I've explained). 1692 is not mentioned in the original text but deduced by means of the hijri date, for which I believe the translation is wrong. If you have any contact with the author, please send what I wrote and check with him or her.

 

[killerxsmoke]

What did the man write?

 

[Shimbiris]

The gregorian date is estimated based upon the hijri date named therein, which is what I highlighted in yellow ( and amounts to 1139AH, as I've explained). 1692 is not mentioned in the original text but deduced by means of the hijri date, for which I believe the translation is wrong. If you have any contact with the author, please send what I wrote and check with him or her.

Apologies. I only skimmed your previous post. Kinda busy. But anyway, I don't know. The stuff about the day of the week seems a leap to me. It just seems to me like it says "Its year is Friday, after one thousand one hundred and one-third of the blessed Hijrah". I see your point about "Thlth" though I have not quite seen anyone write days like "One thousand, one hundred and one-third" so it could very well just mean 1103 but it's possible it means 1133 or so which would be 1720. I'll message the author of the article and ask, inshallah.

 

[Saciid]

So basically the samaale theory of it being made up can be debunked?

It was obvs constructed, but if u mean that it was during modern era, than that was an dumb theory any knowledgeable would dismiss right away

I think there are also at the last line xamare, harire. There are mayle and maaqar or maaqare at the line before the last. The line above that might be gardere but allahu aclam. The line above it is karor.

So
1. Irir
2&3 Yahabuur & Gariire
4. Karuur
5. Gardheere
6&7. Maaqare & Mayle
8&9. Xamar & Xariir

In another version I read it goes like this
1. Gardheere
2&3. Maqar & Mayle
4&5. Gurre & Gariire
6&7. Irir & Yahabur
8&9. Xamar & Xariir

With those combined sharing mother.