When did we start calling ourselves Somali?

[al-Mu'tamid المعتمد]

If anyone has any information on this let me know.

 

[Khaemwaset]

If anyone has any information on this let me know.

Somali is a very old name but what we're looking for is written records - previously the oldest record of the word Somali was in a 1300s Ethiopian emperor's poem where he boasted about all the tribes he defeated.

But recently someone went digging through Chinese records and found the earliest known use of Somali referencing us. It talks about Chinses merchants going to i believe Zelia port and they called the north the "Samalan Kingdom" during the 700sAD

@Garaad diinle made a post on it earlier

早在八世纪,中国已和泽拉港通航,当时在贾耽( 730 年— 805 年)记录的航线中叫三兰国,被当作印度洋西部地区中国帆船航线最南的终点港。所以三麻兰国的中心是泽拉。

Translation:

As early as the eighth century, China had opened navigation to the Port of Zela. At that time, it was called sanlan/samlan Kingdom in the route recorded by Jia Dan (730-805), and it was regarded as the southernmost terminal port for Chinese sailing routes in the western Indian Ocean. Therefore, the center of the sammaran/sammalan Kingdom is zeira/zeila.

Romanization of the kingdom.

三麻兰国的中心是泽拉。

Sān má lán guó de zhōngxīn shì zé lā.

The center of the Sammaran/sammalan Kingdom is Zela.

Li shi xue

www.google.se

https://www.somalispot.com/posts/3834479/react?reaction_id=1

So basically:
- Earliest record of Somali is during the 700sAD
- There was a "Somali Kingdom" in the north during this time and it's capital was Zelia


It's also worth noting that tribes like Amhara were earliest recorded in 1128AD - in the middle of the Zagwe Dynasty, when the Amhara were recorded of being in conflict in the land of Wargih.
Oromo's earliest record is during the 1500s.