Avalites

Avalites (Ancient Greek: Αβαλίτες) was a small port in what is today Somalia that dominated trade in the Red Sea and Mediterranean.[1][2][3]

Map
Avalites
Location Somaliland
City-state existed: 1st century AD

Location

There has been a series of disputes as to the location of Avalites According to the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea,[4] Avalites was located west of Adulis near the strait of Bab-el-Mandeb.[5] Now called Zeila, it is located in western Somaliland, near the border with Djibouti.[6] Avalites was a small port located in the east of Barbara, very close to neighbouring Arabian city-states such as Muza and Ocelis.[7]

However, early Arab historians disagree with Periplus, they say that Avalites wasn’t located in the Barbra region, but it was located in the heart of Axum, Assab.[8]

Periplus mentions that Avalites was the first port in the Barbar region, followed by Malao, Mundus and Mosylon.[9][10] Jewish traveller Benjamin Tudela identified Avalites as a possible location of Havila.[11]

Several locations for Havilah are shown, including Avalites

Origins

The people of Avalites were probably proto-Somalis, called Barbaras.[12] Al-Waqidi described the Barbar as Sudanese people who used elephants in warfare, neighbours of the Bujuwa and Nuba. He notes that they came from Kush and their land extended from Aswan to modern Tanzania.[13][14]

Political structure

Each port city on the northern East African coast had its own tribal chief[15] and its own unmistakable character. Some were unwelcoming to the Romans, others welcoming, depending on the conditions and perspectives of the locals.[16]

Collapse

By the early 2nd century, Avalites was destroyed by the Himyarite Kingdom. According to Al-Waqidi, Nuh Ifriqs, expanded his kingdom all the way to the Amazigh, and Barbaria.[17][18] During the mid-2nd century, King Charibael of Himyar is said to have extended his influence on the African coast from Avalites to Rhapta.[19][20] According to Periplus, Avalites, Mondus, and Mosullon were unruly and unjust, whilst the people of Malao were peaceful.[21][22]

Trade
Somali Beden ship from Fra Mauro's map.

According to Periplus, the Barbaras used ships called baden, similar to the Arab beden, to transport their cargo.[23][24] The people of Avalites used rafts to cross the Red Sea to trade with the Romans.[25][26] Avalites exported spices, myrrh, incense, and ivory,[27] and mostly traded with the Arabians of Muza,[28] but also with other small ports in southern Arabia.

The Somali coast was in important part of the global incense trade, alongside Southeast Asia, South Asia, and southern Arabia on the Red Sea. Incense was widely used in the Mediterranean region and all of Europe, used for religious and everyday purposes. This made incense a noteworthy commodity in the Indian Ocean trade.[29]

See also

References
  1. Michael Peppard, "A Letter Concerning Boats in Berenike and Trade on the Red Sea", Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 171 (2009).
  2. G. W. B. Huntingford (ed.), The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, by an Unknown Author: With Some Extracts from Agatharkhides 'On the Erythraean Sea' (Ashgate, 1980), p. 90.
  3. Lionel Casson (ed.), The Periplus Maris Erythraei: Text with Introduction, Translation and Commentary (Princeton University Press, 1989), pp. 116–17. Avalites may be Assab or a village named Abalit near Obock.
  4. The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea: Schoff's 1912 Translation.
  5. The Roman Empire and the Indian Ocean: The Ancient World Economy. Raul McLaughlin. p. 122.
  6. The Origins and Development of Mogadishu. Ahmed Dualleh. 1996. p. 7.
  7. Continuing the Perspective on the Black Diaspora. Aubrey W. Bunnet. 2009. p. 10. ISBN 9780761846628.
  8. Meyer, Carol (1992). Glass from Quseir Al-Qadim and the Indian Ocean Trade. Oriental Institute of The University of Chicago. ISBN 978-0-918986-87-0.
  9. Huntingford 1980, p. 83.
  10. The Periplus of the Erythreaan Sea: Schoff's 1912 Translation.
  11. François-Xavier Fauvelle-Aymar, "Desperately Seeking the Jewish Kingdom of Ethiopia: Benjamin of Tudela and the Horn of Africa (Twelfth Century)", Speculum, 88.2 (2013): 383–404.
  12. Asante, Molefi Kete (18 December 2018). Avalites. ISBN 9781351685153.
  13. Inventing the Berbers history and ideology of Maghrib. University of Pennsylvania press: Ramzi Roughi. 2019. p. 16.
  14. Late Antiquity: A Guide to the Postclassical World. Harvard University Press: Glen Bowersock. 1999. p. 334. ISBN 9780674511736.
  15. Mohamed Diriye Abdullahi, Culture and Customs of Somalia, (Greenwood Press, 2001), pp.13–14.
  16. The Roman Empire and the Indian: The Ancient World and Economy. Raul McLaughlin. 2014. ISBN 9781783463817.
  17. Kings of Adulis.
  18. Alwaqidi.
  19. Article on king Charibael.
  20. Wilfred Harvey, Schoff (1912). The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea: travel and trade in the Indian Ocean". New York : Longmans, Green. pp. 33-35.
  21. The Periplus of the Erythraen Sea: Travel and Trade in the Indian Ocean and Trade in the Indian ocean, by a merchant of the first century. London Bombay Calcutta: Wilfred Harvey. 2016.
  22. Periplus.
  23. Periplus.
  24. Asante, Molefi Kete (18 December 2018). The Beden. ISBN 9781351685153.
  25. The Quseir. p. 57.
  26. Avalites.
  27. Lunde, Paul; Porter, Alexandra (2004). Trade in the Red Sea. ISBN 9781841716220.
  28. Trade and Travel in the Red Sea.
  29. South east Asia Trade and Polities.
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