SOMALI SULTANATES | IFAT | ADAL | AJURAN | THE HISTORY OF THE SOMALI PENINSULA FROM ANCIENT TIMES...

Greek historian Herodotus, known as the father of history in the western traditions, refers to a race called the Macrobians who dwelled in the south of Egypt. These people were famous for their longevity, an average of 120 years, due to their diet that mainly comprised meat and milk. They were also, according to Herodotus, the tallest and handsomest of all men. All descriptions of the people concur pastoral Somali figures, who are tall, handsome warriors, with a diet predominantly consisting of meat and milk. This point of view was affirmed by the Indian scholar Mamta Agarwal, who wrote that, These people were none but the inhabitants of Somalia, opposite the Red Sea. Ancient Greek travelers the likes of Strabo, Pliny, Ptolemy, and Cosmos Indicopleustus also visited the Somali peninsula between the 1st and 5th centuries AD. These travelers called the Somali people the Barbaria and their land as Barbers. It seems that the name derived from the current town of Barbera in the northern Somali territory. Finally, several city-states flourished along the littorals of the Indian Ocean in the ancient times, such as Opone, Essina, Sarapion, Nokon, Malao, Damo, and Mosolon. The names of these cities and their locations were reported in the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, a travelogue of a Greek explorer dating back to the 1st century AD. This travelogue is a first-hand description of the region, written by Maris Erythrae, who was familiar with the sea routes of the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean. According to the Periplus, trade was flourishing in the region along the coastline of the Indian Ocean. The ancient Indian Ocean cities, as recorded in the Periplus, correspond to the modern Somali cities along the littorals of the Indian Ocean. For instance, Sarapion, Nikon, and Opone correspond to Mogadishu, Barawe, and Hafun, respectively. Moreover, Somali-Indian trade intensified following the annexation of the Roman Empire in the Nabataean Kingdom in 106 AD. The Nabataeans occupied northern Hejaz and the Negev into the Mediterranean Sea, stretching along the coast of the Red Sea. The Indians traded cinnamon with Somali merchants, who re-exported it to the Roman and Greek empires. The following section begins in the 7th century, which is the onset of the medieval Islamic period. The six centuries between the two periods mark a historical gap in which historic documents and written materials are still absent. As a result, nobody knows what happened to the flourishing cities and civilizations in the Somali peninsula during this period. The Medieval Islamic Period The medieval Islamic period in Somali history begins in the 7th century, during which Islam was introduced to Somalia. Some hagiological sources ponder that Islam reached the northern Somali coast shortly after the first Muslim migration to Abyssinia, before Islam even reached Medina in 624 AD. The first Muslim migration occurred when the Muslim minority in Mecca were persecuted, and the prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, directed his companions to migrate to Abyssinia, the land of truth, which was ruled by a king under whose domain no one will be wronged. As expected, the Abyssinian king of Negus, headquartered in the city of Aksum, whom under the Arabic tradition was named Ashama ibn Abjar, extended Muslim migrants his full protection and utterly rejected the Quraysh emissaries' demand for repatriation to Mecca. The companions enjoyed and lived peacefully in the custody of the emperor for about 13 years 615-628 AD. During these long years, it is plausible to have some Abyssinian conversion to Islam in a favorable environment of freedom and friendship. However, this proposition remains sheer speculation, since we lack reliable historical evidence that ascertains the occurrence of such conversion. With respect to the early Somali conversion, it is even harder to accept this fact as accurate, because the distance between Aksum and the town of Zayla, the center of the Somalis, is more than 1,000 km by land and even further by sea. The other possible scenario regarding the early Somali conversion to Islam is related to the early Yemeni Muslims who reached Abyssinia during the first migration. It is known that a group of early Yemeni Muslims undertook a voyage across the Red Sea to meet the Prophet after migration to Medina. However, due to strong waves, the group was forced to land on the western coast of the Red Sea. From there, they decided to join their Muslim companions in Aksum. The Yemeni Muslims may have reached Zayla after they had returned to Yemen. Regarding the Muslim migrants to Abyssinia, it was reported that some of them had returned earlier to Mecca and participated in the migration to Medina in 622 AD, and those who remained behind also returned later to Medina in 628 AD. Somali historians are in agreement with the lack of evidence of the early Somali conversion to Islam before Islam reached Medina, as generally believed. For instance, Saeed Samatar questioned the possibility of some of the migrants remaining in the region, writing that, "...might some have remained behind to plant the seed of the new religion in the soil of the horn?" Moreover, Muhammad Mukhtar asserts a lack of evidence of early Somali converts to Islam before the Muslim migration to Medina. The story of the mosque of the two mihrab is indeed puzzling and requires comprehensive examination, which sheds some light in the early history of Islam in Somalia. This undertaking is very crucial to avoid mythological hearsay or idle superstition and uncritical acceptance of historical data, as Ibn Khaldun repeatedly warned against. The early introduction of Islam in Somalia usually took place in Zayla and Berbera in northern Somalia and Mogadishu in southern Somalia, usually in the form of commercial outlets. Mukhtar speculates that the first wave of Muslim migrants was most probably Umani tribes who were defeated and severely persecuted during the apostasy war, Hurub al-Rida. The easiest escape route and the closest geographic location was the Somali Peninsula, which was historically connected through trade. Mukhtar concludes, "...thus, there is good reason to believe that the earliest wave of Muslim immigrants to the Somali coast occurred as early as the period of Abu Bakr, the first caliph of Islam." Other pieces of historical evidence show that the early Islamization of Mogadishu may have taken place during the caliphate of Omar ibn Kitab, 634-644 A.D., meaning the first half of the 7th century A.D. Moreover, the migration of an Omani group led by brothers Sulayman and Sa'id of Juland settled on the East African Zanj coast in 695. This account is very close to the historical facts witnessed by the inscription on the tombstone of Fatima bint Abdisamad Yaqub, who died in Mogadishu in year 101 of the Islamic calendar. This evidence is strengthened by the records reports in Kitab al-Zunuj, an anonymously authored book discovered by Italian scholar Enrico Garulli in Somalia, which reveals the presence of Muslims in Mogadishu during the caliphate Abdul Malik bin Marwan, 685-705 A.D. The caliph dispatched an expedition under the command of Musa ibn Umar al-Kath'ami to Mogadishu and Kilwa, who reported that these city-states accepted Islam during the caliphate of Omar ibn Kitab, 634-644 A.D., and swore their allegiance to the caliphate. Mogadishu continued as part of the caliphate during the reign of Abu Jafar al-Mansur as Yahya ibn Umar al-Anzi, a representative of the caliph in the East African region, reported. However, many East African cities, including Mogadishu, rebelled against the Harun al-Rashid caliphate, 786-809 A.D., and his son al-Mamun, 813-833 A.D., sent two punitive expeditions to them. It was also reported that a group led by the Seven Brothers of al-Assa from the Persian Gulf settled in Mogadishu and Barawa, Somalia in 920, and other large group from Persia led by Hassan ibn Ali al-Shirazi migrated to East Africa in 1000. In the medieval Islamic period, explorers from China, the Arab-Islamic world, and Portugal disembarked on the Somali peninsula, writing detailed descriptions of its people, cities, and trade linkages with the Asian and Arab states and empires. As African travel specialist Philip Briggs illustrates, the earliest medieval description of the Somali region, and arguably the most detailed, was penned by the Chinese explorer and writer Tuan Chengsbib in the mid-ninth century. Tuan named where he visited as Popali, and provided a detailed description of the customs of the inhabitants, which most historians assumed to be the town of Berbera. A similar description of the Somali people was provided by another Chinese writer, Cho Jukwa, which dates back to approximately 1225 AD. Moreover, another Chinese explorer, Zheng, visited Somali cities such as Mogadishu, Zaila, Mirka, and Berbera in 1430. On the other hand, a Somali Islamic scholar and explorer from Mogadishu called Imam Sayyid al-Muqtishawi traveled to China in the 14th century during the Yuan dynasty, 1271 to 1368 AD. Historical records affirm that Sayyid traveled from Mogadishu and studied in Mecca and Medina for 28 years. He traveled across the Muslim world and visited Bengal and China. He met Ibn Battuta on the west coast of India, to whom he is said to have shared accounts of his travels in China, which were most probably included in the Ibn Battuta chronicles. In the medieval period, the Somali peninsula exported giraffes, zebras, horses, exotic animals, ivory, and other goods to the Ming Empire of China, 1368-1644 AD, in exchange for ceramics, spices, and muskets. Arab Islamic geographer Ibn Sayyid al-Maghribi, D. 1286, produced detailed written account on Somalia in the Islamic medieval period and described that southern Somalia was predominantly populated by Sunni Muslims and called Mogadishu, the city of Islam, Dar al-Islam. Moreover, al-Idrisi, 1100-1166, described the commercial coastal cities of Merca, Baraway, and Mogadishu, as well as the inland commercial routes. Furthermore, al-Hamawi, D. 1229 AD, describes Somalis as black, to distinguish them from the migrant Asian population, and describes Mogadishu as predominantly populated by foreigners and not blacks. He also reports the presence of strange animals not found elsewhere in the world, such as the giraffe, leopard, and rhinoceros. Finally, Ibn Battuta's 1304-1369 visit to Mogadishu in 1331 revealed that the city was at the zenith of prosperity and was an exceedingly large city, with many rich merchants, which was famous for its high-quality textile fabric that it exported to Egypt. The remarkable description of Mogadishu by Ibn Battuta indicates that the city was highly advanced as a center of trade and Islamic learning. Ibn Battuta was puzzled by Somali Sultan Abu Bakr bin Muhammad and his judicial Islamic system, which he considered to be a highly advanced hierarchical system of governance. Ibn Battuta, in his travelogue, described how he was welcomed in Mogadishu. He noted that, The qadi took my hand and we came to that house which is near the Sheikh's house, and it was bedded out and set up with what is necessary. Then he came with food from the Sheikh's house. With him was one of his wazirs who was in charge of guests. He said, Molana gives you al-salamu alaykum, i.e. peace be unto you, and he says to you, You are most welcome. Then he put down the food and we ate. Medieval Arab writers like al-Masudi and al-Hamawi also visited northern cities such as Zayla and Berbera and described their population as comprising blacks and Arab emigrants, who were not highly visible as compared to Mogadishu. The city of Zayla, the Somali gateway to the Arabian Peninsula, became the capital of the multi-ethnic Eid al-Sultanate, which flourished from 1415 to 1577 A.D. Adal Sultanate succeeded the Sultanate of Ifat, who was later defeated by Emperor Amday Siyan of Abyssinia in 1332. The Muslim-Christian relations were cordial since the early Muslim migration to Abyssinia and the subsequent centuries. This relation was bolstered with the Prophet's high regard to Abyssinia, relating that Abyssinia is a land of justice in which nobody is oppressed, which spared Ethiopia from jihad. The early historiography of Muslims relates the history of the Abyssinian king converting to Islam and exchanging presents with the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him. Also, when the news of the death of the Abyssinian king reached the he performed a funeral prayer, janazah, for him in absentia. Such friendly relations continued until the 16th century. However, this relationship later became marred because of the interest in controlling the trade routes, in addition to the growing fear of religious rivalry. Islam had been growing in Abyssinia, and since the 9th century, Sultanates being established. The first such Sultanate was the Makhzumi dynasty, 896-1285, in Shewa, followed by the Ifat, 1285-1415 A.D., and Adal Sultanates, 1415-1577 A.D., headquartered in Zaila. The Muslim Sultanates controlled the trade routes between the Christian highland and the coastal cities of the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean, and had cordial agreements with Ethiopian highlanders to share part of the trade revenues. Sometimes their relations soured and they engaged in economic push-pull wars given religious coloring. Islam versus Christianity. When cities changed hands between Muslim Sultanates and the Abyssinian Empire, the Muslims lived peacefully with the Christians until the period of Imam Ahmed Ibrahim's later jihad. Conversely, when the Abyssinian king Negus Yakuno Amlak, 1270-1285, conquered Salak, Zaila, he killed many Muslims and forcibly converted survivors to Christianity and converted mosques to churches. The most dramatic episode of wars between the Muslim Sultanate and Abyssinian Empire took place during the reign of Imam Ahmed Ibrahim al-Ghazi, 1506-1543, and the Ethiopian emperor Lebna Dangal Dawit II, 1501-1540. It seems that the Muslims who played a subservient role to the Ethiopian Empire for centuries were eager to liberate themselves, refusing to pay tribute and avenge for the past wrongs. It is also important to mention the inspiring slogan of war as Islamic Jihad against Christian Abyssinians. This is an indication of the change of power relations between Muslims and Christians in Abyssinia and growing conception from the Muslim side as the war being legitimate against the century's aggressive Christian Abyssinians. The confrontation that began earlier continued during the reign of Emperor Gelaudawos, 1521-1559. The magnitude of the war was so massive that it had attracted the intervention of the two superpowers, the Portuguese and Ottoman Empires. These two superpower empires had intervened the conflict by allying the Abyssinian Christians and the Atal Muslim Sultanate, respectively. In this period, the campaign known as the Conquest of Abyssinia, Futu al-Habasha, took place, which started around 1527. Iman Ahmed started his campaign to conquer the Abyssinian Empire and succeeded to conquer more than a half of its territory, thereby inflicting massive devastation on Abyssinian Empire and converting many Christians into Islam. Nevertheless, complete seizure of Abyssinian Christian Empire was thwarted by a timely intervention from the Portuguese, led by Cristóvão de Gama, the brother of Vasco de Gama, the famous Portuguese explorer and the first European to reach India. The Portuguese military expedition included 400 musketeers, as well as a number of artisans and other non-combatants, while the Imam requested the Ottoman Empire for help and received 700 Turkish troops. The Conquest of Abyssinia remains in the memory of many generations of Ethiopians. In Ethiopia, the damage which Ahmad Gran, Imam Ahmed Ibrahim did, has never been forgotten, wrote Paul B. Henze. Every Christian highlander still hears the tales of Gran in his childhood. Haile Selassie referred to him in his memoirs, I have often had villagers in northern Ethiopia point out the sites of towns, forts, churches and monasteries destroyed by Gran, as if these catastrophes had occurred only yesterday. The military campaign between the two camps was temporarily halted in 1543, when Imam Ahmed was killed in the Battle of Waynadaga. Nonetheless, the wife of Imam Ahmed Bati del Wambara repudiated to accept defeat and was highly committed to avenging her husband. As a result, she married his nephew, Nur ibn Mujahid, on the condition that he would avenge Imam Ahmed's death. Thus, the hostilities between the two camps continued under the successor, Iman Nur ibn Mujahid, who reignited the war in 1554 and fulfilling his wife's condition, he avenged for Imam Ahmed by killing Ethiopian Emperor Galawdawos in 1559. Historiography of the early wars between the Abyssinian Empire and the emerging Muslim Emirates was depicted as though Abyssinia was a beleaguered fortress in the midst of a sea of Islam. This conception was originally forwarded by J.S. Trimingham, an Orientalist historian who was criticized by the lack of evidence and a counter-argument was produced. The contesting narrative was articulated by Travis J. Owens, who wrote that the Muslim neighbors of the Ethiopian Empire were besieged by Christian Ethiopia throughout the medieval period. Moreover, Travis considered the wars between the two camps as a legitimate Muslim reaction to the expansionist Ethiopia. Expressing this position, he wrote, The jihads of Imam Gran and Amir Mahfuz before him were reactions to the expansionary policies of the empire that continually subjugated its neighbors. Furthermore, Tavis concluded his analysis that, The Muslim threat of violence rose as the empire increasingly subjected the sultanates to violence, taxes, and loss of control of trade. The Muslim sultanates were a threat to the Ethiopians not because they wanted to overthrow Christian territory, but because they desired to reclaim their own territory, trade routes, and independence. Tavis' narrative was in support of an earlier position of Ethiopian historian Ahmed Hussain, who published a paper in 1992 titled The Historiography of Islam in Ethiopia in the Journal of Islamic Studies, in which he challenged the Orientalist view of Islam in Ethiopia. Other scholars have studied the medieval history of this region, such as Kapteyns, who argues that the 16th century war between the Christian Empire of Ethiopia and the Muslim Emirates was an indigenous civil war between Ethiopians. This means that the war was not between indigenous Christian power defending herself from the intrusion of immigrant Muslims. In medieval Europe, Portugal ascended as an imperial power during what was called the Age of Discovery. As part of such venture, the Portuguese were the first European explorers to visit Somalia. Portuguese writer and officer Duarte Barbarossa, 1480 to 1521, who participated in the expedition of Ferdinand Magellan, the first circumnavigator of the earth, noted the many ships arriving from India to Mogadishu with clothes and spices to exchange gold, wax, and ivory. Vasco da Gama, 1460 to 1524, a Portuguese explorer who passed the coast of Mogadishu on January 2, 1499, in his return from his first trip to India, observed that Mogadishu was a large city with houses of four or five stories high, with big palaces in its center, and many mosques with cylindrical minarets. Moreover, Indian merchants bypassed both the Portuguese blockade of the Somali coast in the 16th century, with Omani traders using the Somali ports of Merca and Barrawe, which were out of their jurisdiction, to conduct their trade in safety and without interference. In the medieval Islamic period, Somalis developed a new culture of state-building. The first native state they established was the Ajuran Sultanate, the largest multi-clan and long-standing Somali state that emerged in the 14th century. Its headquarters was the city of Merca, and its territory included much of southern Somalia, extending from Marig in the north, elder district in Galmudug state of Somalia, to Calafo in the west, to Kismayo in the south, from the 13th to 17th centuries. The Sultanate secured trading routes and promoted foreign trade, which flourished in the coastal provinces. Large ships loaded with a variety of commercial goods were coming from Arabia, India, Venetia, Persia, Egypt, and as far away as China. The Ajuran Sultanate instituted a strong standing army, which successfully resisted the Oromo invasion migration from the west, as well as the Portuguese incursion from the Indian Ocean. The Oromo invasion, also known as the Black Infidel War, Dagalki-Galamadau, which took place in the mid-17th century, was defeated, with some of the migrants converted to Islam, while others shifted their migration away from the Ajuran territory. Under the rule of Ajuran, many clans of East Africa were converted to Islam and defended its territory from the Portuguese incursion that initially burned and looted Barava under the command of Tristão da Cunha. The Portuguese plan to attack Mogadishu was averted due to the preparedness of the Ajuran-Mogadishu province under the rule of Muzaffar dynasty, which mobilized large troops that included many horsemen and battleships in defense of the city. Nonetheless, the Portuguese did not abandon the plan of conquering Mogadishu, and several decades after their earlier attempt, they sent a punitive expedition against Mogadishu under the command of Joao de Sepulveda, who also failed to conquer Mogadishu. As a reaction to the Portuguese threat, the Ajuran Sultanate strengthened its relations with the Ottoman Empire in Istanbul. As a result, a military pact was established to collectively thwart the Portuguese threat in the Indian Ocean. Therefore, the marine forces of Ajuran and the Ottoman Navy organized common expeditions to break the Portuguese blockades of the coastal towns of the Indian Ocean. This cooperation reached its peak in the 1580s during Mir Ali Bey's command of the Turkish fleet in the Indian Ocean, when a Somali-Turkish expedition was sent as far as Southeast Asia. Historical records of the Ajuran Sultanate and its encounter with Oromo and the Portuguese is very limited. Certainly, the Ajuran Sultanates had played an important role in defending the southern Somali territory and spreading Islam in the whole region of East Africa. Alas, the history of the formation of the Somali state, as symbolized by the Ajuran Sultanate, was not given deserved attention. One of the reasons may be that a major Somali nationalist movement, the SIL, were shying away from clan names, and since the Sultanate were carrying a clan name, they were simply neglected. Another possibility is the lack of historical awareness and deficiency of the historical records. However, another reason that is more plausible may be the dominance of the colonial historiography imaging, in that the Somalis were fragmented clans with only a colonial history in its production and implication. The Adal Sultanate was weakened after the death of Amir Nur due to the Oromo raids in 1577, and its headquarters were relocated to the oasis of Ausa in the Danakil Desert under the leadership of Muhammad Jassa. The Sultanate of Ausa, Afar Sultanate, declined gradually in the next century and was destroyed by the local Afar nomads in 1672. Conversely, Harar flourished and established a new dynasty under Ali bin Daud in 1647, which was the ruling dynasty until the city was conquered by Egypt in 1875. After the hurried Egyptian evacuation, the city gained short-lived independence, after which Emperor Menelik took over the city and incorporated it into its empire in 1887. On the other hand, the Ajuran Sultanate declined in the 17th century after the defeat in its major provinces, the Marig Province, the Muzaffar Dynasty in Mogadishu in 1624, and the Silis Sultanate in Afgoyi. In the pre-colonial history, the Hirab Imamate and the Galedi Sultanate succeeded the Ajuran Sultanate in Mogadishu and its surrounding regions. The Sultanate of the Galedi ruled parts of southern Somalia during the late 17th and 19th centuries. It was founded by Ibrahim Adir, who defeated the Silis Dynasty and made its headquarters in the city of Afgoye, 30 kilometers south of Mogadishu. The Sultanate was incorporated into an Italian Somali colony in 1908. On the other hand, the Hirab Imamate that revolted against the Ajuran Sultanate on the watering rights and established an independent rule from 1624 and onwards. The rest of the previous Ajuran territories in southern Somalia were segmented into independent clan sultanates, while the entire region was occupied by Italy at the beginning of the 20th century. At this time in northeastern Somalia, the Warsangali Sultanate and the Magyartin Kingdom became highly visible. The Sultanate of Hobyo, an offshoot of the Magyartin Kingdom, under the rule of Sultan Yusuf Ali Kenindid, entered into a treaty with the Italians in 1888, while the Kingdom of Magyartin, which controlled much of the current Puntland state of Somalia, also entered such treaties in 1889. Both territories of these many states were incorporated into the Italian colony by 1927. The Warsangali Sultanate was one of the largest sultanates that included the Sanag region and parts of the northeastern Bari region, an area historically known as the Makhir coast. The Sultan of Warsangali signed the first treaty of the Protectorate in 1884, with Britain heralding the new era of British Protectorate in the northern Somali peninsula. The British government signed protection treaties with the other five clans residing in the British Somaliland, the Gadabursi, Issa, Habar-Gerhajis, Habar-Toljala, and Habar-Awal in 1984 and early 1885. In such a situation of clan fragmentation, expanding European and Ethiopian powers took the opportunity to seize the strategic Somali peninsula. This paper undertook a concise overview of the ancient history of the Somali peninsula and exposed that the region was the which traded with other world civilizations of the time, including the ancient Egyptians, Phoenicians, Mycenaeans, and Babylonians. Archaeological studies and historic linguistics revealed the original homeland of the Cushitic-speaking people, to whom Somalia belongs, and who have been indigenous people in northeast Africa for the last 7,000 years. The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea was the first written document in the 1st century AD, which describes the coastal ports in the littorals of the Indian Ocean. The history of Somali peninsula experienced six centuries of historical gap from the 1st century to the 7th century, in which we do not know anything about what happened during this period. Since the 7th century of the medieval Islamic period and onward, Somalia entered a new phase of its history. The historiography of the Somali peninsula began to receive fresh historical sources from various writers and explorers, such as the Chinese, the Arab Islamic people, and the Portuguese. These travelers left behind some records describing their people, religion, and their commercial connections with world communities. Their description depicts that Somali people accepted Islam since 1st century and their total conversion may have occurred from the 11th to the 13th centuries. The Somali-speaking people were incorporated in the emerging Muslim sultanates of Ifat, 1285-1415, and Adal, 1415-1577, in the northern part of the peninsula. Moreover, the Somalis established their own state, the Ajuran Sultanate, the largest and longest standing Somali state that emerged in the 14th century. Somali history since the medieval period revolves around two poles, Islam and colonialism. During this period, the early history of Somalia is mainly the history of introduction of Islam, spreading Islamic education and conflict with the Christian Abyssinian Empire and other ethnic communities that believed in African religions. The Ajuran Sultanate was the first Somali Islamic state, ruling a large territory extending from the central regions to the far southern Somali territories. Regrettably, studies on this embryonic formation of the Somali state are scant. The little available records depict that the Sultanate was headquartered in Merka, applied Islamic Sharia, established a strong standing army, and gave priority to building water supplies and building fortifications. The Ajuran Sultanate is credited with defending the Somalian territory from the Oromo and Portuguese raids and spreading Islam across the whole region. However, the later Ajuran rulers abandoned Sharia law, became oppressive, and introduced heavy taxation, which were the main catalysts for the revolts against the Ajuran rulers in the 17th century. All Islamic Sultanates in the Islamic medieval period was invaded by nomadic clans who dismembered them into a patchwork of smaller mini-states in the 17th century. After two centuries of setbacks in creating different states, the advent of colonialism created the second historical theme with revolves around colonialism and its impact, the period in which an abundance of literature was produced. The historiography of ancient and medieval Islamic history exhibits a historical gap in which we barely know anything about, in addition to a number of contested narratives. The historical gap is the period between the first century, with its flourishing civilization and commercial cities, as reported in the and the introduction of Islam in the 7th century. The first contested narrative is the origin of the Somali people, who are theorized to be immigrants from the southern Ethiopia or from the Arabian Peninsula. The new narrative deriving from archaeological evidence puts forth that the people of Somalia are the indigenous dwellers of their current habitat for the last 7,000 years. The second contested narrative is the time of the introduction of Islam to Somalia. The narrative of the venture of Islam during the first Muslim migration to Abyssinia was questioned because reliable evidence is missing. However, the puzzle that complicates the case is the presence of a mosque of two niches in Zeila, which alludes that it was built before 624, at least two years after the migration to Medina. The third contested narrative was Trimingham's depiction that the Abyssinian Christian Empire was a beleaguered fortress in the midst of a sea of Islam. The counter-narrative was articulated by Travis J. Owens, who articulated that the Muslim neighbors of the Ethiopian Empire were besieged by Christian Ethiopia throughout the medieval period. All in all, the ancient and medieval Islamic history of the Somali Peninsula demands more research and attention.