What year did Islam come to Somalia?
Were Somalis Pagans before Islam or did we have a history of following other Abrahamic faiths?
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Nurse is interesting, and I don't doubt your Arabic for a moment. But there are others. This guy has spent a lifetime collecting and translating the early texts, including the Chinese and more.
His site is a major resource, including literally hundreds of authors..
Here is Yakut:
Yakut (or Jakut) al Hamawi 1220
Back to Table of Contents (5)To next page Yakut (or Jakut) al Hamawi (1220) Kitab Mu'jam al-buldan (geographical directory) Baghdad--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yaqut Shihab al-Din ibn-Abdullah al-Rumi al-Hamawi...
This was written about 1220 AD, Note the geographical divisions and the cultures described.
"Cities are found on Bahr az-Zanj (He is the first to use the word Zandj-bar), the most important being Maqdishu. Their inhabitants are foreigners (ghuraba) who settled on that region. They are Muslims, tribal sections, having no sultan but each clan having a shaikh whose orders they carry out. It (Mogadishu) is situated on the mainland of the Barbar who are a tribe of nomads (urban) not those whose country is the Maghrib, (but intermediary) between the Habasha and the Zunuj."
"Berbera: Is a town situated between Abyssinia, the land of the Zendjs and Yemen. The people are very black and speak a language that only they can understand. They are nomadic and eat wild animals. In their country you find strange animals only found there, among them; the giraffe, the leopard, the rhino, the panther, elephant, ... The people of Berbera practice emasculation, which is mentioned in the article on Zeila. El-Hasan ben Ahmed ben Yaqoub el Hamadani of Yemen tells the following: among the islands close to the shore of Yemen is that of Berbera. at the end of the shore of Abyan. It is in the sea towards Aden, on the side where Canopy appears on the western side, you have in front of you the mountain of smoke, that is Soqoutara. About the description of their hunting. Several of the people who penetrated their country (of Zendj) say that those people have a kind of plant mauve from color, they boil it and take out the juice. That is boiled till it becomes like resin. To check if it is very poisonous, somebody makes himself a small wound, and when the blood starts running, they bring the poison close, on the point of a knife, if the poison is strong, the blood will get back into the wound. The man has to stop it because it might bring some of the poison into the wound, what will kill him. If the blood does not go back into the wound, they have to make new poison. The poison once prepared is put in a small box put on the belt. They sit in ambush in the trees, and when they see a wild animal, the hunter puts a little bit on top of his arrows. If the poison mixes with the blood, every animal dies, the people then go and take the skin, the horns or the ivory and sell them. One can eat the meat, it does not hurt. This is the land that they call Souah'il Berbera."
"Zeila.....(when talking about Zeila)....Le Cheikh Ouelid el Bacri, who had traveled in many countries, told me the following. Berber is the name of a tribe of Negroes, between the land of the Zendjs and Abyssinia. They have a strange custom, even though they attach their genealogy to El-Akta, and they are reckoned among his family. They live in the desert in huts made of dried grass. If one among them loves a women and wants to marry her, and she is socially not of the same standing as he, he will take among the cows of the father of the women, a cow close to give bird, cuts the hair of the tail and lets her go. Then he himself flies looking for someone he can emasculate. When the one who was herding the cattle comes back and tells the story to the father of the women, or to someone of the relatives who have to look after her, they go and chase him. If they catch him, they kill him. If not he continues till he meets someone that he castrates and he brings the trophy. But if the cow has delivered the calve before that, he has missed his chance. He never comes back to his tribe and lives in places where he is unknown, because if he returns home he is killed. If he reaches his goal however, he becomes the owner of the girl without anybody being able to stop him, whoever the women might be..."
"Merca is a town on the coast of the Zanj (Zandschabar), belonging to the Berbers of the Blacks, not the Berbers of the Maghrib."
"Maqdishu is a city at the beginning of the country of the Zanj to the south of Yemen on the mainland of the Barbar in the midst of their country. These Barbar are not Barbar who live in the Maghrib for these are blacks resembling the Zunuj, a type intermediary between the Habash and the Zunuj. It is a city on the seacoast. Its inhabitants are all foreigners (ghuraba), not blacks. They have no king but their affairs are regulated by elders (mutaqaddimun) (mouteqaddamoum) (m'kaddem) according to their customs. When a merchant goes to them he must stay with one of them who will sponsor him in his dealings. From there is exported sandalwood, ebony, ambergris, and ivory - these forming the bulk of their merchandise - which they exchange for other kinds of imports."
----------------------------------------------
"And besides, there is no evidence of Bantu substrates in any of the Southern Somali languages/dialects. Nada. Meaning they did not assimilate and encroach upon some prior "native" element. They are the native element. Unless you want to count now non-existent pre-historic hunter-gatherer groups in Koonfur."
Bajunni, Chimini?
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Nah he was black this ancient not Semitic or Cushitic. Plus bani Israel was mixedNabi musa was an semite he was not a cushite
Here is Yakut:
Yakut (or Jakut) al Hamawi 1220
Back to Table of Contents (5)To next page Yakut (or Jakut) al Hamawi (1220) Kitab Mu'jam al-buldan (geographical directory) Baghdad--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yaqut Shihab al-Din ibn-Abdullah al-Rumi al-Hamawi...pieterderideaux.jimdofree.com
This was written about 1220 AD, Note the geographical divisions and the cultures described.
"Cities are found on Bahr az-Zanj (He is the first to use the word Zandj-bar), the most important being Maqdishu. Their inhabitants are foreigners (ghuraba) who settled on that region. They are Muslims, tribal sections, having no sultan but each clan having a shaikh whose orders they carry out. It (Mogadishu) is situated on the mainland of the Barbar who are a tribe of nomads (urban) not those whose country is the Maghrib, (but intermediary) between the Habasha and the Zunuj."
"Berbera: Is a town situated between Abyssinia, the land of the Zendjs and Yemen. The people are very black and speak a language that only they can understand. They are nomadic and eat wild animals. In their country you find strange animals only found there, among them; the giraffe, the leopard, the rhino, the panther, elephant, ... The people of Berbera practice emasculation, which is mentioned in the article on Zeila. El-Hasan ben Ahmed ben Yaqoub el Hamadani of Yemen tells the following: among the islands close to the shore of Yemen is that of Berbera. at the end of the shore of Abyan. It is in the sea towards Aden, on the side where Canopy appears on the western side, you have in front of you the mountain of smoke, that is Soqoutara. About the description of their hunting. Several of the people who penetrated their country (of Zendj) say that those people have a kind of plant mauve from color, they boil it and take out the juice. That is boiled till it becomes like resin. To check if it is very poisonous, somebody makes himself a small wound, and when the blood starts running, they bring the poison close, on the point of a knife, if the poison is strong, the blood will get back into the wound. The man has to stop it because it might bring some of the poison into the wound, what will kill him. If the blood does not go back into the wound, they have to make new poison. The poison once prepared is put in a small box put on the belt. They sit in ambush in the trees, and when they see a wild animal, the hunter puts a little bit on top of his arrows. If the poison mixes with the blood, every animal dies, the people then go and take the skin, the horns or the ivory and sell them. One can eat the meat, it does not hurt. This is the land that they call Souah'il Berbera."
"Zeila.....(when talking about Zeila)....Le Cheikh Ouelid el Bacri, who had traveled in many countries, told me the following. Berber is the name of a tribe of Negroes, between the land of the Zendjs and Abyssinia. They have a strange custom, even though they attach their genealogy to El-Akta, and they are reckoned among his family. They live in the desert in huts made of dried grass. If one among them loves a women and wants to marry her, and she is socially not of the same standing as he, he will take among the cows of the father of the women, a cow close to give bird, cuts the hair of the tail and lets her go. Then he himself flies looking for someone he can emasculate. When the one who was herding the cattle comes back and tells the story to the father of the women, or to someone of the relatives who have to look after her, they go and chase him. If they catch him, they kill him. If not he continues till he meets someone that he castrates and he brings the trophy. But if the cow has delivered the calve before that, he has missed his chance. He never comes back to his tribe and lives in places where he is unknown, because if he returns home he is killed. If he reaches his goal however, he becomes the owner of the girl without anybody being able to stop him, whoever the women might be..."
"Merca is a town on the coast of the Zanj (Zandschabar), belonging to the Berbers of the Blacks, not the Berbers of the Maghrib."
"Maqdishu is a city at the beginning of the country of the Zanj to the south of Yemen on the mainland of the Barbar in the midst of their country. These Barbar are not Barbar who live in the Maghrib for these are blacks resembling the Zunuj, a type intermediary between the Habash and the Zunuj. It is a city on the seacoast. Its inhabitants are all foreigners (ghuraba), not blacks. They have no king but their affairs are regulated by elders (mutaqaddimun) (mouteqaddamoum) (m'kaddem) according to their customs. When a merchant goes to them he must stay with one of them who will sponsor him in his dealings. From there is exported sandalwood, ebony, ambergris, and ivory - these forming the bulk of their merchandise - which they exchange for other kinds of imports."
I'm confused that you're using this as a source to prove your notion that Bantus are native to Koonfur because it basically proves that even to a man like Yakut who, as far as I remember, had not actually been to these places unlike Battuta, Mogadishu and Merca are clearly of the lands of the Barbar:
In the first quote he even flatout points out what I more or less said earlier when I pointed out that Bilad al-Zanj begins south of Mogadishu along what is basically the Swahili coast. I think you're confused because you're not understanding the difference between Bahr al-Zanj and Bilad al-Zanj. Bahr al-Zanj means "Sea of the Zanj" which I think your source at one point translates as basically "Zanj coast" similar to "Swahili coast" but that isn't an accurate translation. It simply means sea. I guess what Yakut is revealing to us is that the sea off the coast of Koonfur might have been known as The Zanj Sea to Arabs like him or he's just confusing things since he's never been to these places and is taking accounts from other people.
When he speaks of actual territories/countries, he seems to make it apparent that Zanj territories are south of towns like Merca and Mogadishu as you can see above, and that Barbars lay between Ard al-Xabash and Bilad al-Zanj:
"Zeila.....(when talking about Zeila)....Le Cheikh Ouelid el Bacri, who had traveled in many countries, told me the following. Berber is the name of a tribe of Negroes, between the land of the Zendjs and Abyssinia."
And then things are finally made more clear by someone who's actually been there about a century later (Ibn Battuta) who makes it clear that Bilad al-Zanj means a territory south of Bilad al-Barbar that stretches as far south as Mogadishu and beyond with Zanj starting further south along what is basically the Kenyan coast from reading his accounts.
As far as I know, there is no Bantu substrate in any Somali dialects/sublanguages. In fact, that source I shared seems to try and establish how early on some Bantus were in areas like the Kenyan coast through establishing contact with Somalis that went more like Somalis -> Bantus (loanwords). Cushites are the native element of Koonfur, saaxiib. They even predate Bantus in Kenya. This has been known in academia for quite some time.
I am trying to show that early Arabs had a different sense of geography than modern Somalis do, and that both it and the country changed over time.
By Ibn Batuta's time Mog was black and had a sultan
Chimini and Bajunni are Swahilli languages, straight up Bantu base.
The rest of that is some REALLY creative reading!
Is it not clear in the text that Mogadishu and Marka are part of Barbar lands and not Bilad al-Zanj:
"Maqdishu is a city at the beginning of the country of the Zanj to the south of Yemen on the mainland of the Barbar in the midst of their country. These Barbar are not Barbar who live in the Maghrib for these are blacks resembling the Zunuj, a type intermediary between the Habash and the Zunuj."
"Merca is a town on the coast of the Zanj (Zandschabar), belonging to the Berbers of the Blacks, not the Berbers of the Maghrib."
?
And what are you finding hard to understand regarding the difference between Bahr and Bilad. One means sea, the other means country. He never at any point claims Mogadishu or Merca are part of Zanj country or territories. Just read this, for god's sake:
"Cities are found on Bahr az-Zanj (He is the first to use the word Zandj-bar), the most important being Maqdishu. Their inhabitants are foreigners (ghuraba) who settled on that region. They are Muslims, tribal sections, having no sultan but each clan having a shaikh whose orders they carry out. It (Mogadishu) is situated on the mainland of the Barbar who are a tribe of nomads (urban) not those whose country is the Maghrib, (but intermediary) between the Habasha and the Zunuj.
Then the country of Berbera stretches up to Zeng and the sea goes up to Aden, and this sea stretches further, till it reaches the Ocean."
If we use your idiotic logic that he is claiming Mogadishu and Merca are part of Zanj then he apparently repeatedly contradicts himself by claiming it is a part of two lands? Except he doesn't at all. He says BAHR (SEA) of Zanj but the actual lands they exist on is Barbar. What is creative about that reading. It's right there, for god's sake.
How does that have anything to do with what I said? You asked if there are Bantu substrates in local Cushitic/Somali/Eastern Omo-Tana languages. There are not and linguists clearly seem to believe Cushites predate Bantus in Koonfur and frankly even Kenya as I've shown you with those two sources above.
Do you even understand what substrates means? It means that when you study a language you can notice that it is grafted onto a prior existing foreign language. For example, you can notice that Amharic has an Agaw (Central Cushitic) substratum because Amharas' ancestors used to speak Agaw. There is no such evidence in any of the southern dialects/languages in relation to Bantu.
Also, here is a more detailed source from around the same time as Yakut (Ibn Sa'id al-Maghribi 1250) that makes it clear that the Jubba is the boundary between Bilad al-Barbara and Bilad al-Zanj:
Clear enough for you? Although your own source should have been clear enough, quite frankly.
In this section among the towns of Berbera and after Berbera, which is the capital, one finds on the Indian Ocean shore: Serfouna or Carfouna (or Qarquna/Farfuna), which is placed in a bay at the beginning of that sea, 64 deg 30 min longitude and 0 deg 20 min latitude. More to the east is another town of the Berbers, called Berma, (Barma) also located in a bay at 66 deg longitude and 1 deg latitude. Further to the east is Llhafouny (Hafuni, Ras Hafun), a big mountain very well known by travelers. It seems like it goes into the lands towards the south for a distance of 100 miles. At the same time it also goes into the sea for about 140 miles, in a northerly direction, with an inclination to the east. In that part that you can see, there are 7 peaks, the sailors count them and are happy when they are past. Marka, to the east (south) of Hafuni, in the celebrated land of Barbara, on the seacoast is found Marka whose inhabitants are Muslim. It is the Capital of the country of the Hawiya which contains more than 50 villages on the banks of the river branching out from the Nil Maqdishu 69 degrees 30 min longitude 1 degrees 10 min North latitude It is placed on the side of a river that comes out of the Nile of Magdachou and has its mouth at 2 marhala to the east of the town. Out of that river comes an arm that forms close to Meurka a sort of gulf. At the east of Meurka is the Muslim town of Magdachou (madinat al Islam) celebrated in this region whose name Maqdishu occurs frequently on the lips of travellers. It is at 72 degrees longitude, 2 degrees latitude at the Indian Ocean shore, its harbor offers little security during the rainy season.
At the beginning of this section at 0 deg, 10 min (still of the former section ) and at 2 deg latitude is the mouth of Nil Maqdishu, which flows through the lands that belong to the town with the same name. At about 12 miles from it and then mouths into the sea. Close to Maqdishu it looks like the river is less big then the Nile of Egypt, but it is deep and it lost lots of water on the way, giving birth to other rivers. Ibn Fathima says: This Nile comes from lake Koura, situated under the equator, and out of the mountain El-Moquecem. This Nile then becomes a twin river to the Nile of Egypt, the bifurcation is at 51 deg longitude and 0 deg 30 min latitude in the first climate to the north of the equator. The river is curving around instead of going strait, other rivers leave it who go and make the surrounding country more rich as happens in Egypt for the sugarcane and the banana and in India for the pepper the m'qeul (the cocoa-tree) the foufeul (palm-tree) and others. The people of the land plant twice a year: once just after the floods of the river, one uses this water to irrigate the terraces, the other, when the rain season has arrived. The river after running for about 2,000 miles mouths at the east of Magdachou. At the eastern side of the Nile ends the land of Berbera (Bilad al Barbariyya) and begins the land of the Zendj. (Bilad az-Zanj).
Ibn Said al Maghribi - History of East Africa
sites.google.com
Clear enough for you? Although your own source should have been clear enough, quite frankly.
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Semitic is thousands of years older than Moses and Judaism.
Sub-Saharan admixture in the Levant was rare before Islam. There was no multiracialism among Ancient Hebrews, all of them were the same race.
Most of the biblical prophets looked like this:
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It was "Barbara" and not just "Black":
I arrived at the city of Zeila, the city of the Barbar, who are a people of the blacks; Shafi'i [following Sunni Muslim laws] by rite. Their country is a desert which extends for two months' journey, its beginning is at Zeila and its ending is at Mogadishu. Their livestock are camels and their sheep are famed for their fatness. The inhabitants are black in color and the majority are Rejecters. It is a big city and has a great market but it is the dirtiest, most desolate and smelliest town in the world. The reason for its stink is the quantity of fish and the blood of the camels they butcher in its alleyways. ... We did not spend the night in the town because of its squalor.
...
[to Mogadishu] a town endless in its size. Its people have many camels, of which they slaughter hundreds every day and they have many sheep. Its people are powerful merchants. In it are manufactured cloths named after it which have no rival, and are transported as far as Egypt and elsewhere.
...
His name is Abu Bakr son of shaikh 'Umar. He is in origin from the Barbara, and his speech is Maqdishi [Somali?], but he knows the Arabic tongue.
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This is the most reliable source we have as Ibn Battuta had actually been to Xamar and stayed there and it's also the source that fits the most with local traditions of the Gibil-madow and Gibil-cad Benadiri subtribes that seem to stipulate the town, like Marka and Barawe, was founded by an intermingling of local Somaloid people and ajanabis. In Marka it seems the base Somaloid folk were Hawiyes, in Xamar it seems it was reer Maay and the Ajuuraan whereas in Barawe it was the Tunni.
If you feel I'm being unfair about how other sources had not stepped foot in Xamar. Well, just take into account that al-Dimashqi, in 1325 which is just 6 years before Ibn Battuta shows up, claims Xamar is a city of the Zanj:
And al-Idrisi (1150) from a century before Yakut al-Hammawi doesn't even mention Xamar but mentions Marka and that the border goes down to close to the Jubba river, well beyond Xamar's location:
Interestingly, a lot of these guys repeat some of the same details like Marka or the area around it being associated with the Hawiye, the border with Bilad al-Zanj being either at Mogadishu or south of it at around the Jubba and the sea off the coast of Koonfur and Southeast Africa being called the "Sea of the Zanj" (or in one case "of the Barbara"). Seemingly all just repeating what they've probably read or heard elsewhere from people who actually went to the Somali and Swahili coasts. Battuta is the most reliable since he actually went there. I doubt Xamar didn't exist in 1150 (archaeologically doesn't make sense), got quickly founded a century later by foreign settlers in a country the authors all admit is largely inhabited by "Barbari" (Somalis) who control a nearby port (Marka), then a century later it's a Zanj city and 6 years later it is firmly Somali with an ajanabi presence? Doesn't add up. This picture the locals paint is probably the case:
stipulate the town, like Marka and Barawe, was founded by an intermingling of local Somaloid people and ajanabis. In Marka it seems the base Somaloid folk were Hawiyes, in Xamar it seems it was reer Maay and the Ajuuraan whereas in Barawe it was the Tunni.
The foreign elements in Benadiris is very diverse based on genome sequencing, by the way:
And you ultimately get a lot of extra holes filled in with linguistics which makes it quite seem like the Bantu speakers came later and were outnumbered in more southerly parts of Koonfur:
But anyway, you're still going to have to explain to me how seeing that Yakut calls Mogadishu and Marka within "Barbar" lands/country is a "creative reading":
Seems very clear to me so I don't what you're talking about. He never claims any of these settlements are part of the country (Bilad) of the Zanj but just along the Sea of the Zanj (Bahr al Zanj) which we see other authors use and in one instance interchangeably with "Bahr al-Barbara" as you can see above. You're claiming you don't see this?
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