User:Kagamid

15th-century map of Northeast Africa, the Red Sea, and Arabia based on Claudius Ptolemy’s Geographia. The map depicts the northern Somali coast (Puntland, Somaliland, and Djibouti) and the western Indian Ocean (southern Somalia). It includes ancient Somali city-states stretching from Ras Siyan (referred to as Diera or Dera [Dire] near the Bab-el-Mandeb and Red Sea coast in present-day Djibouti) in the northwest, to the ancient emporium and marketplace of Toniki (modern-day Barawa District in southern Somalia) in the southeast, along the western Indian Ocean.

Ancient Somali city-states were a network of autonomous coastal settlements and independent polities that flourished along the shores of Greater Somalia. Stretching from Ras Siyyan in the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait and the Red Sea coast of present-day Djibouti down to Bur Gao in southern Somalia near the Kenyan border, these cities occupied strategic position along the Somali coast. Following the collapse of the Kingdom of Macrobia, new coastal communities gradually emerged and evolved into city-states that took advantage of their maritime position to become major trade hubs in the Horn of Africa. By the Classical and Late Antiquity periods, they were deeply integrated into the Red Sea and Indian Ocean trade networks, linking East Africa with Arabia, South Asia, Persia, the Far East, and the Mediterranean world. These city-states played a vital role in long-distance commerce—exporting frankincense,myrrh, spices, ivory,incense, ebony and tortoiseshell, while importing luxury goods,textiles, and precious metals from the Near East and the Indian subcontinent. Over time, they developed into significant maritime powers rivaling regional states such as the Aksumite Kingdom , the Sabaeans, the Nabataeans , and the Parthian-Sasanian empires for control over key trade routes, including the Indo-Roman trade, the Spice Trade, and the Silk Road.

Their importance is well documented in classical works such as the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea,Pliny the Elder’s Natural History, and Ptolemy’s Geography. These ancient ports laid the foundation for the later rise of Islamic cities like Zeila,Berbera and Mogadishu, which inherited and expanded their commercial traditions during the Middle Ages. The classical era of the Somali city-states gradually came to an end with the arrival of Islam, beginning in Zeila, marking the region’s integration into the wider Islamic world and the end of antiquity. Though during the 7th to 8th century they continued to exist as city-states, these settlements eventually transitioned into politically Islamic centers. By the 9th and early 10th centuries, they became the foundation of emerging Islamic polities most notably the Sultanate of Mogadishu, which evolved into a maritime empire. Zeila became the political center of the northern Somali coast (present-day Djibouti, Somaliland, Puntland, and the Ogaden region) and served as the capital of the Awdal/Cadal Kingdom, which emerged in the 9th century AD and governed the northern territories. This transformation marked the end of the city-state era and the beginning of the Islamic period in Somalia’s history and in the broader Greater Somalia. It was also during this time that Muslim Somali scholars began to flourish, helping to revive and spread Islamic knowledge and teachings—exemplified by the rise of notable scholars such as Saint Aw Barkhadle.