In 1848 Zaila was farmed out to Haj Shermarke by the Turkish Governor of Mocha and Hodeida.
In July 1875 Zaila was ceded to Egypt by the Porte.
When the evacuation of Harrar by the Egyptians became necessary, Zaila was occupied on August 18, 1884 by a small British force of half a camel battery, 50 sabres of the Aden troop, and 150 rank and file of the 4th Bombay Rifles. Lieutenant Peyton was appointed Vice-Consul.
Major Hunter, First Assistant Resident, was deputed to Harrar with Lieutenant Fullerton in February 1884 to report on the garrison and general condition of the town.
They returned in April. In November Major Hunter submitted his proposal for the future Government of Harrar. On his recommendation, Abdillahi, a son of the last reigning Amir, was chosen as its ruler.
On April 3, 1885, Major Hunter, the then British Consul for the Somali Coast, sent to the British Consul-General in Egypt, Major Sir E. Baring, the following Agreement made by the Ameer of Harrar with these nine tribes (1. Nonno; 2. Nolay; 3. Abaddo; 4. Mettah; 5.
Fiddish; 6. Bubbassa; 7. Babillay; 8. Jarso Geri; 9.
Manatayo):
The agreement was as follows:
“Whereas it has been decided that the Province of Harrar should be evacuated by the Egyptian Government, and that the surrounding Galla and Somali tribes should return to their former autonomy and independence, Harrar reverting to the rule of the descendant of its former Ameer, we, the undersigned Akils of the tribe, bind ourselves and successors to observe the following con-ditions, and to retain the relations herein set forth with the Ameer of Harrar and his
successors:-1. We promise and agree to keep open the trade routes passing through our territory, and that all kafilas and individuals using such routes shall be free from molestation of any kind. Any loss
accruing to such kafilas or individuals while in our country shall be made good by us.
2. We promise to respect the independence and pro-perty of our neighbouring tribes, and to prevent our people from raiding, looting, or with injurious intent entering their territory.
3. We bind ourselves to maintain a firm friendship with Abdillahi, Ameer of Harrar, and his succes-sors, and recognizing the benefit we receive from the city of Harrar as the market for our products and source of many of our supplies, we promise never in any way to attempt to molest, injure, or disturb the peace of the said city or its environs.
We agree to pay to the said Abdillahi and his succes-sors the small yearly tribute comprised under the terms
“Zecca” and “Arifa,” which tribute was always paid by us to the former Ameers before the Egyptian occupation.
It being agreed that on our bringing in and presenting such tribute we shall receive from the Ameer of Harrar such recognition of our having preserved, the conditions of this Treaty in all its terms as will be commensurate with our faithfulness in doing so, and proportionate to the value of yearly tribute collected and paid by us.
Signed at Harrar this 21st day of March 1885”.
(Signatures of the Akils of the tribes mentioned in letter of the 3rd April 1885, from her Majesty’s Consul for Somali Coast to Her Majesty’s Consul-General at Cairo.) Following is the letter from Haj Abdullahi, son of the late Ameer Muhammad bin Ali bin Nasr Abd-Shakur, to Major Hunter, Her Majesty’s Consul for the Somali Coast, dated 5 Jamadi II, 1302 (22nd March 1885):
“After compliments—After inquiring about your health, we hope that you are perfectly well.
“We have received your letter and understood its contents. We are thankful to the great British Govern-ment for the assistance they afforded in restoring to us
the right of our late father, which God decreed to be done by the hand of your Government.
“We hope in God to pacify our part, and to lead it on the right way. As regards Lieutenant Peyton, he has done nothing but good since his arrival. Hereafter, no such thing will take place as will not please you as directed by you.
“As for the subjects (God willing), no oppression or molestation will be practised against them according to our Muhammad sacred law “Shariyah”. We solicit the almighty to pardon us and grant health, which is neces-sary. In respect to the foreigners, we will do our best endeavours to promote their welfare, which is important for trade. In the same way we will reduce taxes which would be a burden on the people. This is what is necessary to inform you at present.”*
Lieutenant Peyton was sent to make the necessary arrangements. Major Heath, British Officer of the Somali Coast accompanied him in order to expedite the removal of the Egyptian garrison. They left Harrar in June 1885 when the last detachment of the Egyptian garrison sailed from Zaila.
The French occupied Jibuti in December 1887. In February 1888, the British concluded a convention with French by which the boundary line was fixed. Since that date the exclusive British administration of Zaila has continued and a small garrison occupied the town. These districts (Berbera and Bulhar) and those lying to the east have always been, as far as is known, independent. The British Government, as far back as 1827, recognised the independence of the Somalis and entered in to treaties with them.
In February 1885 the establishment of a British Protectorate from Gubbet Kharab to Ras Galweni and the
* Foreign Department, Secret–E 1885, No. 55/190, NAI, New Delhi.
conclusion of agreements with the several Somali tribes was communicated to France, and in July 1887 to the other Powers.
The Foreign Office document, British Somaliland and Sokotra dated March, 1919 describes British Somaliland’s Position and Frontiers as follows:
“BRITISH SOMALILAND, which has a area of about 58,000 square miles, lies between 11o27' and 8o north latitude and 42o 35' and 49o east longitude. It is bounded on the north by the Gulf of Aden, and on all other sides by land. The great sea-routes leading from the Suez Canal to the East, to Australasia, and to East Africa pass close to its coast. Its land frontiers march with Italian Somaliland in the east and south-east, with Abyssinia in the north-west, and with French Somaliland in the west. Almost all its boundaries are artificial lines, which have not been demarcated. In the east the line follows the meridian of 49° east ( a short distance east of Bandar Ziada) from the sea to its junction with 9° north latitude. From this point the line goes south-west to the intersection of 48° east longitude with the eighth parrallel of north latitude, which it then follows as far as 47° east longitude. It then turns west-north-west to Arran Arrhe (about 9°4’ N, and 43°53' E), whence it goes in a north-north-westerly direc-tion to the mountain of Jifa medir (about 9°42' N43°15' E). Here it turns almost due north and runs for about ten miles to mount Egu, next west-north-west for about the same distance along the Sau range, and then north-north-west via Bia Anot to Mount Somadu. From here it follows the caravan-route from Bia-Kaboba to Zeila as far as Abaswein, and then a straight line, passing a short distance west of Jallelo (about 10°59' N, and 43° E), to Loyi Ada on the Gulf of Aden . The seasonal migrations of the nomadic tribes compel some of them to cross and recross the south-west frontiers at least once a year, but in practice this custom occasions no trouble. The only
remedy would be a vast readjustment of boundaries, which would add enormously to the area of the Protectorate.
The Protectorate owes its origin to the capture and occupation of Aden by the British in 1839. In the following year the East India Company made treaties with the Sultan of Tajura (now in French Somaliland) and the Governor of Zeila, binding each of them, in effect, not to enter into treaty relations with other Powers, and secu-ring the cession of small islands off these two harbours.
On September 7, 1877, an agreement was concluded between the British and Egyptian Governments, which recognized Egyptian jurisdiction over the Somali coast, subject to the following condition, embodied in Article V:
“The present Agreement shall definitely come into operation soon as His Imperial Majesty the Sultan shall have given a formal assurance to Her Majesty’s Govern-ment that no portion of the territory of the Somali coast, a territory which, together with all other countries in-corporated with Egypt and forming an integral part of the Empire, shall be the countries placed under His Highness’ hereditary rule, be ceded on any pretence whatever to a foreign Power.”
According to the Handbook this assurance was never given, and the agreement remained inoperative. The Egyptian Government, however, exercised de facto juris-diction over the whole Somali coast till 1884, when in consequence of the collapse of Egyptian authority in Sudan, it was decided that the Egyptian should retire from the whole of the coast, between the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb and Ras Hafun, on the Indian Ocean, south of Cape Guardafui.
MOGADISHU MOGADISHUMOGADISHU MOGADISHU MOGADISHU
Mogadishu, the capital of the Somali Republic,
inde-pendent since 1960, comprising the former Italian and British Somalilands.
Although it is not specifically mentioned in the Peri-plus of the Erythraean Sea (ca. A.D. 106), this Alexandrine report attests the presence of Arab and Egyptian traders on the coast. The principal exports were cinnamon, frankincense, tortoise-shell and “slave of the better sort, which are brought to Egypt in increasing numbers.” Recent excavation at Ras Hafun by H.N. Chit-tick, as yet unpublished, disclosed Egyptian pottery of Roman Imperial period, probably 2nd to 3rd century A.D.
Apart from some ruins of uncertain date that are possibly South Arabian, Makdishu is stated by a 16th century Chronica dos Reyes del Quiloa, preserved in a summary form by Joao de Barros, to have been founded by the “first people of the coast who came to the land of Sofala (q.a.) in quest of gold.”
This date is uncertain, but it was at some time bet-ween the 10th and 12th centuries A.D., when the Sofala gold trade became the monopoly of Kilwa (Port Quiloa) (see Kilwa). It is not to be thought that there was any single immigration of Arabs; rather, they came in trickles, and from different regions of the Arabian peninsula; the most remarkable one came from al-Ahsa on the Gulf, probably during the struggles of the caliphate with the Karmatians. Probably at the same time, Persian groups emigrated to Makdishu, for inscriptions found in the town refer to Persians from Shiraz and Naysabur dwelling there during the Middle Ages. In the 10th century A.D. a federation was formed of 39 clans: 12 from Mukri tribe;
12 from the Djid‘ati tribe; 6 from the ‘Akabi, 6 from the Isma’ili and 3 from the ‘Afifi. Under conditions of internal peace, trade developed; and the Mukri clans, after acquiring a religious supremacy and adopting the nisba of al-Kahtani, formed a kind a dynasty of ‘ulama’ and obtained from the other tribes the privilege that the kadi
of the federation should be elected only from among themselves. It is not known at what period Islam became established but the earliest known dated inscription in Arabic in Somalia is an epitaph at Barawa of 498/1105.
In the second half of the 7th/12th century, Abu Bakr b. Fakhr al-Din established in Makdishu an hereditary sultanate with the aide of the Mukri clans, to whom the new ruler recognised again the privilege of giving the kadi to the town. In 722/1322-3 the ruler was Abu Bakr b.
Muhammad. In that year he struck billion coins in his name, but without title. During the reign of Abu Bakr b.
‘Umar, Makdishu was visited by Ibn Battuta, who des-cribes the town in his Rihla. The relationship of this Sultan with his predecessors is not known but he was probably from the family of Abu Bakr b. Fakhr al-Din and under this dynasty Makdishu reached, in the 8th/14th and 9th /15th centuries the highest degree of prosperity.
Its name is mentioned in the Mashafa Milad, a work by the Ethiopian ruler Zare’a Ya’kob, who refers to a battle fought against him at Gomut, or Gomit, Dawaro by the Muslims on December 25, 1445.
In the 10th /16th century, the Fakhr al-Din dynasty was succeeded by that of Muzaffar. It is possible that one copper issue refers to a ruler of this dynasty. In the region of the Webi Shabella, the true commercial hinterland of Makdishu, the Adjuran (Somali), who had continued there another sultanate which was friendly with and allied to Makdishu, were defeated by the nomadic Hawiya who thus conquered the territory. In this way, Makdishu was separated by the nomads from the interior, and began to decline from its prosperity, a process which was hastened by Portuguese colonial enterprise in the Indian Ocean and later by the Italian and the British.
When Vasco da Gama returned from his first voyage to India in 1499, he attacked Makdishu but without success. Similarly, in 1507 Da Cunha failed to occupy it.
In 1532 Estavao da Gama, son of Vasco came there to buy a ship. In 1585 Makdishu surrendered to the Ottoman Amir ‘Ali Bey, who came down the coast in that year with two galleys as far as Mombasa; all along the coast, the suzerainty of the Ottoman Sultan was recognised. In 1587, however, the Portuguese re-asserted their authority with a strong fleet but no attempt was made to attack Makdishu. Their wrath fell on Faza, where large number of people were slaughtered and 10,000 palm trees des-troyed. ‘Ali Bey returned with five ships in 1589, but although the coast again declared for the Ottomans, he was himself defeated and captured in Mombasa harbour, from where he was deported to Lisbon. Although this was the end of Ottoman attacks on the eastern African coast, at Makdishu new copper coins were issued by no less than eleven rulers.
In 1700 a British squadron of men-of-war halted before Makdishu for several days but did not land. After the ‘Umani Arabs had taken Mombasa from the Portu-guese in 1698 Makdishu and other towns on the Somali coast were occupied at uncertain dates but after a while their troops were ordered to withdraw to ‘Uman.
The Sultanate of Makdishu continued to decline and civil wars divided the town into two quarters, Hamar-wen and Shangani. Little by little the nomads penetrated into the ancient Arabian town and clans of Makdishu changed their Arabic names for Somali appellatives. The ‘Akabi became rer Shekh, the Djid’ati the Shanshiya, the ‘Afifi the Gudmana and even the Mukri (Kahtani) changed their name to rer-Fakih. In the 12th/18th century the Darandolla nomads, excited by exaggerated traditions of urban wealth, attacked and conquered the town. The Darandolla chief, who had the title of Imam, set himself up in the Shangani quarter.
In 1823 Sayyid Sa’id of ‘Uman attempted to assert his authority over Makdishu and arrested two of its notables.
It was not until 1843 that he was able to appoint a governor. He chose a Somali but the new governor shortly retired inland to his own people. It was only at the end of the century, during the reign of Sa’id’s son Barghash (1870-88), that Zanzibar authority was finally established over Makdishu, only to be ceded to Italy along with Barawa, Merca and Warsheikh, for an annual rent of 160.00 rupees, in 1892.*
Said Barghash died on March 27, 1888. The Acting British Consul in Zanzibar, Mathews, tried to help the fourteen-year-old son of the deceased Sultan to succeed the father but on the same day, Said Khalifa, the brother of Barghash, supported by Arab forces, proclaimed him-self as the Sultan of Zanzibar.**
Giuseppe Caniglia, in his book Genti di Somalia (1921) (The Peoples of Somalia) stated: “The population is divided in tribes with each one with its own Chief and an organisation, all special, which deserves careful examination:
Following tribes are the inhabitants of the Shingani District: Jacub, Asceraf, Amudi, Bafadal, Rer Scek, Sedda Ghedi, Mursola.
Following tribes are the inhabitants of the Hamar Wen District: Scianscia, Calmusciua, Gudmani, Dauar-Uena, Morscia, Iscasciat, Baidabo.
The two tribes of Rer Magno and Rer Fachi inhabit part in one and part in the other sector.
IBN BATTUTA’S VISIT TO SOMALIA IBN BATTUTA’S VISIT TO SOMALIAIBN BATTUTA’S VISIT TO SOMALIA IBN BATTUTA’S VISIT TO SOMALIA IBN BATTUTA’S VISIT TO SOMALIA
The date of arrival of Ibn Batuta at Mogadishu is most probably after mid-January 1330 (1328). M. Guillain (II,
* Encyclopaedia of Islam, Vol. VI, pp. 128-9.
** Somalia, Vol. I, Dalle Origini al 1914—Ministers della Guerra, Comando Del Corpo di S. M. Ufficio Storico. Roma 1938-Roma 1938- XVI, p. 53.
548-9) on the other hand believes that the violence of the north-east monsoon in December and January made communication with the coast at Mogadishu practicable only in September-October and after February.* The Arab explorer wrote:
I traveled from the city of ‘Aden by sea for four days and arrived at the city of Zaila’, the city of the Barbara, who are a people of negroes, Shafi’ites in rite. Their country is a desert extending for two months’ journey, beginning at Zaila’ and ending at Maqdashaw. Their cattle are camels and they also have sheep which are famed for their fat. The inhabitants of Zaila’ are black in colour, and the majority of them are Rafidis. It is a large city with a great bazaar but it is the dirtiest, most dis-agreeable, and most stinking town in the world. The reason for its stench is the quantity of its fish and the blood of the camels that they slaughter in the streets.
When we arrived there we chose to spend the night at sea in spite of its extreme roughness, rather than pass a night in the town, because of its filth.
Ibn Battuta sailed from Zaila for fifteen nights and reached Maqdishaw, which he said was “a town of enor-mous size.” He said: “Its inhabitants are merchants possessed of vast resources; they own large numbers of camels, of which they slaughter hundreds every day (for food), and also have large quantities of sheep. In this place (is ) manufactured the woven fabrics called after it, which are unequaled and exported from it to Egypt and else-where. (The continuing importance of the cotton industry at Mogadishu is confirmed by Guillain).”**
Mogadishu was founded in the tenth century as a trading colony by Arabs from the Persian Gulf, the prin-cipal group being from al-Hasa. The fidelity of Ibn
* H.A. R. Gibb, et.al. (eds.) The Travels of Ibn Batuta, AD. 1325-1354, Vol. II.
** Documents Sur l’ Afrique Orientale, Paris,1856, Vol.II, p 531.
Battuta’s account of this place is attested by Guillain.*
The Arab Geographer remarked: “It is the custom of the people of this town that, when a vessel reaches the anchorage, the sumbuqs, which are small boats, come out to it. In each sumbuq there are a number of young men of the town, each one of whom brings a covered platter containing food and presents it to one of the merchants on the ship saying ‘This is my guest,’ and each of the others does the same. The merchant, on disembarking, goes only to the house of his host among the young men, except those of them who have made frequent journeys to the town and have gained some acquaintance with its in-habitants; these lodge where they please. When he takes up residence with his host, the latter sells his goods for him and buys for him; and if anyone buys anything from him at too low price or sells to him in the absence of his host, that sale is held invalid by them. This practice is a profitable one for them.”
Ibn Battuta continues: “ When the young men came on board the vessels in which I was, one of them came up to me. My companions said to him ‘This man is not a merchant, but a doctor of the law,’ where-upon he called out to his friends and said to them ‘This is the guest of the qadi.’ There was among them one of the qadi’s men, who informed him of this, and he came down to the beach with a number of students and sent one of them to me. I then disembarked with my companions and saluted him and his party. He said to me ‘In the name of God, let us go to salute the Shaikh.’ ‘And who is the Shaikh?’ I said, and he answered, ‘The Sultan,’ for it is their custom to call the sultan ‘the Shaikh’. Then I said to him ‘When I am lodged, I shall go to him,’ but he said to me, ‘It is the custom that whenever there comes a jurist or a sharif or a man of religion, he must first see the Sultan before taking a
* Ibid. II, pp. 531, 539.