Why did somalis adopt islam instead of christianity or judaism?
- Thread starter Diophantus
- Start date
Check out Sada Mire's "Divine Fertility", we don't have any statistics or even estimates in terms of adherents but there's archaeological evidence of Jewish/Christian practice in Somaliland at the very least. The Arabian peninsula had a long maritime history with the Somali coast going back to antiquity, it was inevitable that Islam would spread due to trade relations and the missionary efforts of Sufi shaykhs. People like to talk about the idea of pre-Islamic Waaq beliefs being monotheistic, hence Somalis having an affinity for Tawhid when they encountered it -- I don't buy this, because that tradition wasn't monotheistic (it was henotheistic) and engaged in ancestor worship. An important notion that was latched on to was engaging in Ziyara and receiving Barakah from the tombs of these shaykhs, who went on to become the 'ancestors' of the major clans.
Riftvalley
VIP
While Waaqism was not certainly completely monotheistic, you can find similarities with East African religions and Islamic monotheism due to our afroasiatic heritage. I think even some nilo saharan pastoral religions are less idolatry driven than other African religions. In other words, a lot of beliefs about Waaq correlated with Islam. Hunter schlee, the German who researched the Rendille, remarked how a few of their beliefs were similar to Islamic and Middle East beliefs about God.
Trade was also an important factor as you have said. The Somali traders probably bought back Islam with them. I don’t buy into the notion Arab sheikhs randomly turned up and start preaching to non Arabic speakers. A lot of the supposed Arab sheikhs of the medieval era like Abdulrahman Jabarti were actually Somalis who settled in Yemen. Secondly, Islam would have cemented our place in a new cosmopolitan religious based trade system.
Lastly, those T haplogroup people who came to Somalia before Islam to found a major Somali lineage, probably had a more profound on our culture than we think. I think they might made it easier for Somalis to adopt practices from the Middle East, as we had already done so in the past. Those Sabaens tablets found in the north hints at close contact between ancient Somali elites and the Arabian peninsula. You will have the introduction of the camel, another big Somali cultural revolution of the time.
