Samawade's Take

  The ancient Somali history is a long and rich one. The Somali people have been living in the Horn of Africa for thousands of years, and their history is closely intertwined with the history of the region. The earliest evidence of human habitation in Somalia dates back to the Paleolithic period. The Paleolithic period is a fascinating time in human history. It is the time when humans first began to use tools and to develop complex societies. It is also the time when humans first began to explore the world around them. During this time, the Somali people were hunter-gatherers who lived in small groups. They were later joined by farmers and herders, who began to settle in permanent communities In the early centuries AD, the Somali people came into contact with the Roman Empire. The Romans were interested in the Somali coast for its strategic location and its valuable resources, such as frankincense and myrrh. The Romans established a number of trading posts along the Somali coast, and t

  Somali Sultanates And Islam During the Middle Ages, Somalia’s territory witnessed the emergence and decline of several powerful sultanates that dominated the regional trade. At no point was the region centralized as one state, and the development of all the sultanates was linked to the central role that Islam played in the area since the 7th century. Islam was introduced to the northern Somali coast from the Arabian Peninsula early on, shortly after the hijra (also hegira), or the journey of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and his followers from Mecca to Yathrib, later renamed Medina, in 622 CE. The oldest mosque in the city of Zeila, a major port/trading center, dates to the 7th century. In the late 9th century, Muslims were living along the northern Somali seaboard, and evidence suggests that Zeila was already the headquarters of a Muslim sultanate in the 9th or 10th century. According to I.M. Lewis, the polity was governed by local dynasties consisting of Somalized Arabs or Arabized