Post by Noah on Aug 26, 2011 5:15:02 GMT -5
Bilad al-Barbar (Barbara) was the term that medieval Arab geographers and scholars reserved for the northern half of the Horn of Africa. The Arabs had the habit of naming a particular geographical area according to whatever the inhabitants of that landmass happened to be. Due to its core Hamitic inhabitants, this part of Northeastern Africa was thus referred to as the "Land of the Berbers".
In labeling the northern Horn as such, the Arabs were also further differentiating the region's predominant Hamitic inhabitants from the Black Africans to their immediate south. The Blacks of East Africa by consequence lived in an area that the Arabs contrasted as Sawahil as-Sudan or "The Shore of the Blacks" along the coast and Bilad al-Zanj or "Land of the Blacks" in general, so named after the Zanj/Zenj/Zinj (Negroid peoples) that constituted the principal population element.
Although the Arabs were the most prolific foreign explorers and describers of the Northeastern Africa region, they were not the first. Ancient Chinese documents from centuries earlier also profile the area's inhabitants, customs, lifestyle and commodities. For example, in his book Miscellaneous Notes in Chronicle Years ("you yang za zu"), the 9th century merchant Duan Chengshi wrote the following about the northern Horn coast, a region he referred to as "Bo-ba-li":
From this we can glean three essential bits of information:
*The local inhabitants had an autonomous polity of some sort.
*They had a quite large and relatively strong army.
*They were a distinct group from the Tazi, which was a popular reference during the Tang dynasty for the Arab empire.
We can also be fairly certain that this was not a reference to the Abyssinians since the Chinese referred to their area of inhabitation as Laobosa (an obvious corruption of the Arabic term "al-Habasha" for the Abyssinian highlands).
Duan Chengshi's book above, which is sometimes transliterated as Assorted Dishes from Yu-yang, also incorporates "an account of an extended "Berbera", which seems here to have subsumed all the Hamitic tribes of the Horn".
Perhaps most intriguing of all, Chengshi leaves us with the following description of the people in the area, whom he suggests were the principal suppliers of ambergis:
From the above, it's clear that Chengshi is indeed talking about Hamitic people since the bleeding of cattle is a common custom amongst nomadic Hamitic herders such as the Somali and Beja. He, of course, is not talking about certain Cushitic-admixed Nilotic tribes like the Maasai who, while also practicing cattle-bleeding a) have never inhabited the northern Somali coast; b) in any case do not fit the physical description of the Berbers in question; and c) adopted the custom from their Cushitic neighbors, as they have many others.
The most interesting part about Dengshi's narrative, though, is obviously his reference to the women of the area as being "immaculately white". This is one of the first clear written references to not just a people of Hamitic culture in the Horn, but ostensibly a fairly light-skinned folk too.
As we know, Hamitic people tend to vary in color. Fair skin enjoys a moderate incidence amongst the Western/Northern Hamites such as the Berbers and Tuareg, right alongside the latter's characteristic brown hue. The most frequently observed skin color amongst the Eastern Hamites, such as the Egyptians and the Cushitic and Semitic-speaking groups of the Horn, tends more toward a reddish-brown. This early testimony from Duan Chengshi illustrates that, as with the Western/Northern Hamites, light skin also at the very least had a presence amongst the local Eastern Hamitic peoples as recently as the first few centuries of the Common Era.
In labeling the northern Horn as such, the Arabs were also further differentiating the region's predominant Hamitic inhabitants from the Black Africans to their immediate south. The Blacks of East Africa by consequence lived in an area that the Arabs contrasted as Sawahil as-Sudan or "The Shore of the Blacks" along the coast and Bilad al-Zanj or "Land of the Blacks" in general, so named after the Zanj/Zenj/Zinj (Negroid peoples) that constituted the principal population element.
"The beginnings of Arab navigation in the Indian Ocean are lost in antiquity. The Omanis and other inhabitants of South Arabia were the most adventuresome sailors. To them the coast of Africa was known as Sawahil as-Sudan, the "Shore of the Blacks," which is the origin of the name of the language which is now the lingua franca of East Africa, Swahili. The interior of the Horn region was called Bilad al-Barbar, the "Land of the Berbers" and recent scholarly opinion holds that it was already inhabited by people who were at least in part the ancestors of the Somalis."
books.google.ca/books?id=G_8NAQAAMAAJ&q=%22The+interior+of+the+Horn+region+was+called+Bilad+al-Barbar%22&dq=%22The+interior+of+the+Horn+region+was+called+Bilad+al-Barbar%22&hl=en&ei=ZkNXTuCRF8Pu0gGA27mXDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CC0Q6AEwAA
"Generally speaking, Arab authors seem to have regarded Barbara as synonymous with the Hamitic tribes of the Horn. Cf. Ibn Khaldun: 'To the south of Zeila on the western coast of the Indian Ocean are the villages of Berbera, which extend one after the other all along the southern coast [of the Indian Ocean] to the end of the sixth section. There, to the east, the country of the Zanj adjoins them'"
books.google.ca/books?id=8d0cAAAAIAAJ&q=%22Arab+authors+seem+to+have+regarded+Barbara+as+synonymous+with+the+Hamitic+tribes+of+the+Horn%22&dq=%22Arab+authors+seem+to+have+regarded+Barbara+as+synonymous+with+the+Hamitic+tribes+of+the+Horn%22&hl=en&ei=r_xWTonUFa3E0AGF0rS2DA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCoQ6AEwAA
Although the Arabs were the most prolific foreign explorers and describers of the Northeastern Africa region, they were not the first. Ancient Chinese documents from centuries earlier also profile the area's inhabitants, customs, lifestyle and commodities. For example, in his book Miscellaneous Notes in Chronicle Years ("you yang za zu"), the 9th century merchant Duan Chengshi wrote the following about the northern Horn coast, a region he referred to as "Bo-ba-li":
"[it is] an independent country with an infantry of over 200 thousand men, strong enough to defy the powerful Tazi (the Arab Empire)."
books.google.ca/books?id=cMCu0eIcDd0C&pg=PA21#v=onepage&q&f=false
From this we can glean three essential bits of information:
*The local inhabitants had an autonomous polity of some sort.
*They had a quite large and relatively strong army.
*They were a distinct group from the Tazi, which was a popular reference during the Tang dynasty for the Arab empire.
We can also be fairly certain that this was not a reference to the Abyssinians since the Chinese referred to their area of inhabitation as Laobosa (an obvious corruption of the Arabic term "al-Habasha" for the Abyssinian highlands).
Duan Chengshi's book above, which is sometimes transliterated as Assorted Dishes from Yu-yang, also incorporates "an account of an extended "Berbera", which seems here to have subsumed all the Hamitic tribes of the Horn".
Perhaps most intriguing of all, Chengshi leaves us with the following description of the people in the area, whom he suggests were the principal suppliers of ambergis:
"The country of Berbera is in the sea to the southwest of us. They are unfamiliar with the Five Cereals there, but they are accustomed to puncture the veins of their domestic cattle and take their blood, which they blend with milk and drink raw. They have neither dress nor costume, using only some sheepskin below the waist to cover themselves. Their women are immaculately white, straight and upright..."
books.google.ca/books?id=9Z7cZ77SqEQC&pg=PA174#v=onepage&q&f=false
From the above, it's clear that Chengshi is indeed talking about Hamitic people since the bleeding of cattle is a common custom amongst nomadic Hamitic herders such as the Somali and Beja. He, of course, is not talking about certain Cushitic-admixed Nilotic tribes like the Maasai who, while also practicing cattle-bleeding a) have never inhabited the northern Somali coast; b) in any case do not fit the physical description of the Berbers in question; and c) adopted the custom from their Cushitic neighbors, as they have many others.
"But long before that the Southern Nilotes had come into fruitful contact in Kenya's western highlands with people of Ethiopian origin who are generally known as the Southern Cushites. Most likely the Cushites came from southern Ethiopia. They are known to have influenced the Southern Nilotes in a number of important ways such as the circumcision of both sexes, the drinking of fresh animal blood (drawn from the necks of living animals) and various aspects of the age-grade system. The Southern Nilotes in turn passed on some of these cultural features, after some modification, to the Bantu ancestors of some of the Bagisu and Abaluyia."
books.google.ca/books?id=Ki0OAQAAMAAJ&q=%22They+are+known+to+have+influenced+the+Southern+Nilotes%22&dq=%22They+are+known+to+have+influenced+the+Southern+Nilotes%22&hl=en&ei=jGl5TrTjNIjv0gG_zZ3gAg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCwQ6AEwAA
The most interesting part about Dengshi's narrative, though, is obviously his reference to the women of the area as being "immaculately white". This is one of the first clear written references to not just a people of Hamitic culture in the Horn, but ostensibly a fairly light-skinned folk too.
As we know, Hamitic people tend to vary in color. Fair skin enjoys a moderate incidence amongst the Western/Northern Hamites such as the Berbers and Tuareg, right alongside the latter's characteristic brown hue. The most frequently observed skin color amongst the Eastern Hamites, such as the Egyptians and the Cushitic and Semitic-speaking groups of the Horn, tends more toward a reddish-brown. This early testimony from Duan Chengshi illustrates that, as with the Western/Northern Hamites, light skin also at the very least had a presence amongst the local Eastern Hamitic peoples as recently as the first few centuries of the Common Era.
