what ibn Batuta wrote about Somalia

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In the spring of 1331, Ibn Battuta traveled south along the East African coast from Aden to Mogadishu, Mombasa and Kilwa. He left Aden by ship in mid-late January 1331.

His first landfall in Africa was the city of "Zaila," four days journey from Aden (The modern city of Zeila is 40km southeast of Djibouti along the coast). He described the inhabitants as "Barbara," Muslim blacks who were followers of the Imam al- Shafi'i, although Battuta notes that the majority were "rejectors," i.e. (Shi'ite) people who rejected the first three caliphs. They herded camels and sheep.

From Zeila to Mogadishu, the land was all desert and the [overland] trip took two months. The city of Zeila was "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." To avoid the smell, Battuta spend the nights on his ship, even though the water was rough.

The next leg of the sea voyage lasted fifteen nights and brought Battuta to Maqdashaw (Mogadishu). He described the town as "endless in its size" and mentioned the large number of camels and sheep slaughtered there. Mogadishu was also famous for its cloth, which was sold as far away as Egypt. [COMMENT: If the sea voyage took fifteen days and the land voyage took two months, then a ship traveled four times as fast as a person could walk. The distance along the coast from Zeila to Mogadishu is about 1,200 miles (2,000 kilometers) and the overland distance is about 800 miles (1,200 kilometers) so a boat covered eighty miles a day and a caravan covered thirteen miles.

Upon arrival in Mogadishu harbor, it was the custom for small native boats ("sunbuqs") to approach the arriving vessel, and their occupants to offer food and hospitality to the merchants on the ship. If a merchant accepted such an offer, then he was obligated to lodge in that person's house and to accept their services as sales agent for whatever business they transacted in Mogadishu. According to Battuta, "there is profit for them [local people] in this custom." [COMMENT: This was a way for the local people to benefit from long distance trade that passed through their city.]

Because Battuta was a learned man and not a merchant, he was invited directly to the house of the "qadi" of Mogdishu.

An Account of the Sultan of Maqdashaw (page 17)

The sultan of Mogadishu was Abu Bakr ibn Shaikh Umar. He was Barbara amd spoke the local language of Mogadishu, but he also knew Arabic. Battuta was introduced to the Sultan by the "qadi" Ibn al-Burhãn, an Egyptian. After sending a message via a student to the Sultan, the student returned with a plate containing betel leaves and areca nuts, and a sprinkler that contained Damascas rose water.

The Sultan ordered Battuta to stay in the house reserved for Islamic students, and sent him food. Battuta described the food in detail as rice topped with butter ("ghee") and a sauce containing meat, chicken, fish and vegetables. They also served unripened banana cooked in milk. sour milk with pickled lemon, bunches of pickled chillies with vinegar and salt, green ginger, and mangoes. [COMMENT: Butter (ghee) was the best method for preserving milk in areas that had no refrigeration.]

Battuta noted that the people of Mogadishu ate as much as a whole group from Arabia, and they were "extremely large and fat of body." During the three days that they were the guest of the Sultan, they were fed thrice daily.

On the fourth day of their stay, a Friday, the Sultan sent clothing for them to wear to the mosque. The clothing consisted of a silk wrapper (trousers were unknown), "an upper garment of Egyptian linen with markings, a lined gown of Jerusalem material, and an Egyptian turban with embroideries."

They went to the mosque and prayed with the sultan in his royal enclosure. After the service, the Sultan stopped at the grave of his father, and then greeted his "wazirs", "amirs", and the commanders of his soldiers. Battuta observed that the customary greeting resembled that used in Yemen: touch one finger to the ground, then to one's head, and wish "May God prolong your might."

Battuta described the procession that accompanied the Sultan from the mosque to his house, which was nearby. In addition to men who carried four canopies over his head, there were crowds of barefoot people, groups of soldiers, and musicians who played drums, pipes and trumpets.

Once he arrived at his house, the Sultan held court in the council room. He was first to enter the room and then the others followed in order of precedence: wazirs, amirs and commanders, who were then seated. The "qadi", "faqihs" and "sharifs" were seated together on mats. During the afternoon prayer (the "`asr"), the soldiers joined them and stood in lines according to their rank. Battuta observed that whenever the drums, flutes and trumpets played, no one dared move.

On Saturday, the Sultan (Battuta called him a "shaikh") held audience at his home and people came to wait outside. Religious leaders occupied the second council room where they sat on wooden platforms. The "qadi" had his own platforms and each of the other groups--"faqihs", "sharifs", "imams", "shaikhs", and "hadji"--had their own platform. Guests were seated to the right of the "shaikh".

A meal is served and it is a sign of honor when people were invited to join the meal. Afterwards, the court session began. The Sultan retired to his house while the "qadi" heard cases involving the "shari'a" (religious law) and the council of ministers ("waziers" and "amirs") heard civil cases. When the Sultan's opinion was required, the court sent a written request and he replied by writing on the back of the note and returning it.

Battuta left Mogadishu by sailing south towards the land of the "Sawãhil" (coasts) and the city of Kilwa, "which is one of the cities of the land of the Zunüj." He arrived at the island of Mombasa, which he described as "a large island with two days journey by sea between it and the land of the "Sawãhil". It has no mainland. Its trees are the banana, the lemon, and the citron. They have fruit which they call the "jammun", which is similar to the olive and its [jammun] stone is like its [olive] stone except that it is extremely sweet."

There was no grain cultivated at Mombasa; all grain was imported from the "Sawãhil" coast. Most of their diet consisted of bananas and fish.

The people of Mombasa were "Shãfi'i" Muslims, "a religious people, trustworthy and righteous. Their mosques are made of wood, expertly built. At every door of the mosques there are one or two wells. The depth of the wells is a cubit or two." [COMMENT: What is the quality of water taken from a depth of two cubits (one cubit == roughly 18 inches) in a city on an island in the ocean?]

Battuta goes on in a stream-of-consciousness to describe the wooden device used to get water from the wells, the practice of feet-washing prior to entering the mosque. Apparently, everyone goes barefoot.

After an overnight stay in the town, Battuta continued on to Kilwa by ship. Most of the inhabitants of Kilwa were black ("Zunüj") and many had decorative scars on their faces, like those worn by the people of "the Limiyyin of Jan da." [COMMENT: Battuta actually wrote "j-n-d" and some authors have translated it to be the word from which the European word "Guinea" was derived.]

A merchant told Battuta that another great city, Sofala, was a half-month sail to the south, and that a third town, Yufi, was located a month's journey inland from Sofala. Yufi was the source of the gold dust that was traded through Sofala. [COMMENT: Sofala was located on the coast just south of the mouth of the Zambezi River, and Yufi must have been in the region of eastern Zimbabwe.]

According to Battuta, the city of Kilwa was beautiful and its houses were built of wood with reed ceilings. There was plentiful rain in the region. The people were devout "Shafi'i" Muslims and engaged in a continuous Holy War against the pagan "Zunüj" of the mainland.
 
Ibn Battuta lived a good life, well respected wherever he went.

image1320349314-2655-PlaceID-0_s660x390.jpg


His accounts of Maldives, when the Somali people once ruled this majestic island.



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We (post 1991 Somalis) are a disgrace compared to our maritime forefathers. :wow:
 

MadNomad

As i live and breathe
I do wonder at times on what the city states were using to record their civic duties. Judging from our neighbours, I wouldn't be surprised if our ancient script were to look similar or be influenced by the South Arabian Alphabet.

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Do we even any recordable written accounts from the various key medieval governments of the Ifat Sultanate? Adal Sultanate? Ajuuran sultanate? Mogadishu Sultanate?

All we have is this 14th century tablet
Somali_Stone.jpg


And the various coins depicting the names of the names of the Sultanate of Mogadishu.

mogadishu-al-sultan-muhammad-al-mujahid.jpg


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For example.

Huge mystery, just shows you how pathetic the Somalis were in recording history.

Allah S.W.T knows best.

True. The Ethiopians did a much better job at recording their history, and they were living right there next to us. Whatever written record that might have existed in Somalia at some point is gone now. :francis:
 
Ibn Battuta lived a good life, well respected wherever he went.

image1320349314-2655-PlaceID-0_s660x390.jpg


His accounts of Maldives, when the Somali people once ruled this majestic island.



2144574_image_jpeg9f360c5ab7736510df54c882e9dbf188



We (post 1991 Somalis) are a disgrace compared to our maritime forefathers. :wow:
Yes wallahi we hit rock bottom, this is the worst time in somalias history
 
True. The Ethiopians did a much better job at recording their history, and they were living right there next to us. Whatever written record that might have existed in Somalia at some point is gone now. :francis:
Well i guess the reason why our ancestors didn't really record much history is because they were mostly wandering nomads & the only element in Somali society that knew how to read & write were Wadaads & they used a foreign script (Arabic), everyone else was uneducated & illiterate. Whereas, the Habesha had an organised aristocratic society based on social classes not clans, feudalism, farming, and they had their own indigenous script (Ge'ez) to record laws, taxes, family accounts etc. Clearly they were more advanced than us in the old days.
:francis:
 
Well i guess the reason why our ancestors didn't really record much history is because they were mostly wandering nomads & the only element in Somali society that knew how to read & write were Wadaads & they used a foreign script (Arabic), everyone else was uneducated & illiterate. Whereas, the Habesha had an organised aristocratic society based on feudalism & farming, and they had their own indigenous script (Ge'ez) to record laws, taxes, family accounts etc. Clearly they were more advanced than us in the old days.
:francis:
This. We were mostly nomadic. Our most advanced civilisations came thanks to Islam. If we had an agricultural society, we would have empires like Ajuraan be commonplace. Though it was very advanced, we could have done so much better
 

MadNomad

As i live and breathe
Well i guess the reason why our ancestors didn't really record much history is because they were mostly wandering nomads & the only element in Somali society that knew how to read & write were Wadaads & they used a foreign script (Arabic), everyone else was uneducated & illiterate. Whereas, the Habesha had an organised aristocratic society based on social classes not clans, feudalism, farming, and they had their own indigenous script (Ge'ez) to record laws, taxes, family accounts etc. Clearly they were more advanced than us in the old days.
:francis:

Why did they stop advancing though :hemad:
 
This. We were mostly nomadic. Our most advanced civilisations came thanks to Islam. If we had an agricultural society, we would have empires like Ajuraan be commonplace. Though it was very advanced, we could have done so much better
Exactly sxb. If we adopted farming, abandoned qabiil, developed social classes, developed our own script & united under one King we would have been a bigger threat to the Habesha empire.
 
Political power was thus widely dispersed in Somali society, almost pluralistically. But without the authority of a centralized state to enforce order, let alone property rights, this led not to inclusive institutions the British colonial state when it eventually arrived, was able to impose order. The lack of political centralization made it impossible for Somalia to benefit from the Industrial revolution.

Also more related to the thread

The Somalis also had a written script, but unlike the Ethiopians, they did not use it. We have already seen the instances of this in African history. African societies may not have used wheels or plows, but they certainly knew about them. In the case of the Kingdom of Kongo, as we have seen, this was fundamentally due to the fact that the economic institutions created no incentives for people to adopt these technologies. Could the same issues arise with the adoption of writing?

This is an extract of a book titled 'Why nations fail'

We can conclude from this that writing served no benefit for Somali society, specifically the Somali economy.

We could put Somalis in two categories. Nomads and city dwellers.

It wouldn't have been a benefit to the nomads, but rather the city dwellers. We can see this is the Somali political elite such as the aristocracy who knew both Arabic and Somali.

The Ethiopians, on the other hand, were united under one close and tight-knit society, and share a common history with southern Arabia, that also had many kingdoms and writing scripts.

We must not be angry at our past. Our oral heritage is the best in the world, we are a nation of poets.

What is now needed is the Somali Revolution, not political, but industrial and cultural.

@government
 
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