Siyara
Siyara
Siyaara | |
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Siyara (
Etymology
The name of Siyara derives from the Somali word Siyaaro, a term used to describe a localized annual pilgrimage to a holy site where the ancestor of a clan or a saint is buried. The Somali word ultimately derives from the Arabic word of the same meaning: ziyārah (زيارة).
History
Medieval
Siyara was the site of the return of the
Legendary 15th century Arab explorer
Early Modern
In early modern times Siyara was a seasonal trading post located some 30 km east of Berbera, where the local Makahil branch of the Sa’ad Musa, Habr Awal operated a fort there and derived a regular revenue from ships calling at Siyara to replenish their fresh water reserves on the way to the Berbera trading fair:
Siyareh, a fort and small village belonging to the Makahil branch of the Habr Awal, is the watering-place of Berbera, and derives a small revenue from the boats which touch there en route to, and returning from, the Berbera fair.[6]
In the year 1845, Sharmarke Ali Saleh – who was by then the Governor of Zeila – chartered four Somali ships from Siyara with men and building material for the erection of his tower forts to solidify his takeover of Berbera, which lasted from 1845 to 1852.[7][8]
The Habr Awal massacre of Richard Burton's travel party and death of a number of British officers in 1854 led the Royal Navy to blockade the Habr Awal coast. The blockade was established from Mount Almis/El-Sheikh to Siyara, which adversely affected trade in Berbera and Bulhar. A settlement was finally reached in 1856 that allowed trade to continue moving again.[9] In 1869 the Royal Navy was enforcing a ban on slave trading in the Gulf of Aden and intercepted over 100 Galla slaves that were illegally shipped to Aden from Berbera. Soon after more slaves were discovered at Siyara and Lieutenant Colonel Playfair with the steamer 'Lady Canning' implored the Makahil elders to surrender the slaves. Upon their refusal the Lady Canning would open fire shooting deliberately near the important fort of Siyara. This act of intimidation led the elders to oblige and free the slaves held in the area.[10]
The port town was later on described as being under the possession of the Habr Je'lo:[11]
“The last branch of the Western tribes is the Haber el Jahleh, who possess the sea-ports from Seyareh to the ruined village of Rukudah, and as far as the town of Heis. Of these towns, Kurrum is the most important, from its possessing a tolerable harbour, and from its being the nearest point from Aden, the course to which place is N.N.W., consequently the wind is fair, and the boats laden with sheep for the Aden market pass but one night at sea, whilst those from Berbera are generally three. What greatly enhances the value of Kurrum however is its proximity to the country of the Dulbahanta, who approach within four days of Kurrum, and who therefore naturally have their chief trade through that port.
Archaeology
In 2016 and again in 2020, the Incipit (Instituto de Ciencias del Patrimonio) Spanish-lead archaeological team surveyed the site of Siyara and made a number of new archeological finds, including stone buildings made of coral masonry and several hundred Muslim burial graves and tumuli. The team also uncovered amounts of imported and local potteries, glass, stone vessels and accumulations of bones and ashes (which indicates large feasts and gatherings).[12]
Demographics
Previously inhabited by the Sa'ad Musa sub-division of the Habr Awal Isaaq, the town is nowadays inhabited by members of the Mohamed Abokor subdivision of the Habr Je'lo Isaaq.[13]
See also
References
- ^ a b c Pankhurst, Richard. The Ethiopian Borderlands: Essays in Regional History from Ancient Times to the End of the 18th Century (Asmara, Eritrea: Red Sea Press, 1997), pp.56
- S2CID 145738572.
- ^ Pankhurst. Ethiopian Borderlands, pp.57
- ^ Budge, A History of Ethiopia: Nubia and Abyssinia, 1928 (Oosterhout, the Netherlands: Anthropological Publications, 1970), p. 302.
- ISBN 978-1-135-45932-1.
- ^ Hanning Speke, John (1864). What Led to the Discovery of the Source of the Nile. Blackwood. p. 123.
- ^ Burton. F., Richard (1856). First Footsteps in East Africa. p. 448.
- ^ Africa in the Nineteenth Century Until the 1880s. Unesco. 1989. pp. 386.
- ISBN 9780460000505.
- ^ Cyclopædia of India and of Eastern and Southern Asia, Commercial, Industrial and Scientific: Products of the Mineral, Vegetable and Animal Kingdoms, Useful Arts and Manufactures, Volume 5, p.425
- ^ Society, Royal Geographical (1849). The Journal of the Royal Geographical Society: JRGS. Murray. p. 63.
- ^ de Torres, Jorge (2020). "Trading by the sea: the post of Siyaara". StateHorn Project.
- ^ A General Survey of the Somaliland protectorate 1944-1950, p.164-165