Amud
Archaeological site
Triangular headed niches in the wall of an old uninhabited house at Amud
Triangular headed niches in the wall of an old uninhabited house at Amud
Amud is located in Awdal
Amud
Amud
Location in Somaliland
Amud is located in Somaliland
Amud
Amud
Amud (Somaliland)
Coordinates: 9°59′57″N 43°13′56″E / 9.99917°N 43.23222°E / 9.99917; 43.23222
Country Somaliland
RegionAwdal
Time zoneUTC+3 (EAT)

Amud or Amoud (Somali: Camuud, Arabic: عمود) is an ancient, ruined town in the Awdal region of Somaliland.[1] Named after its patron Saint Amud[2] it was a center of activity during the Golden Age of the Adal Kingdom. The archaeological site is situated 1,000 metres (3,300 ft) above sea level, around 10 km southeast of the regional capital Borama.[3][4]

History

The historian G.W.B. Huntingford (1930) gives a detailed description of the ancient town in The town of Amud, Somaliland:

"The house are scattered around without any apparent plan; there are no streets and no trace of a surrounding wall. There is a mosque in the southern half of the dwelling area... [with a] rather oddly built mihrab facing the entrance... and immediately to the south... is the cemetery. There are upwards of two hundred houses, all well-built of stone [and] as much as 2.6m in height... The number of rooms ranges from two to four... there is sometimes no sign of an entrance to the inner rooms. This implies that entry was made from the roof, which was doubtless flat and reached by teps now vanished... There are many niches or cupboards in the inner walls."[5]

Dr. A. G. Mathew (1956) who travelled to Amud attributed the history of the ancient settlement into two different periods as reported in his findings in the Somaliland Protectorate Report:

"The scattered ruins of the site at Amud cover an area of approximately 1½ miles in circumference. They would seem to belong to two different periods, Amud I and Amud II. It now seems possible to reconstruct much of the history of Amud II."[6]

Dr. A. G. Mathew (1956) reports some of the valuabes that were discovered at the site:

"The site was deserted by the middle of the 19th century when Sir Richard Burton, passing from Zeila to Harar, heard of it as a ruined city. But it seems clear that it was still inhabited at least as late as the 18th century, for the fragments of Chinese porcelain found there include a broken plate with violet-toned sunflowers, which is almost certainly of the period of the Emperor Kiang Hsi (1662-1723) or of his successor, and broken bowls of the blue and white willow pattern commonly exported from 18th century China. There was also a considerable quantity of the currency beads used along the African coast and in the interior, some of which I am inclined to believe to be of European manufacture and not earlier than the beginning of the 19th century."[7]

Dr. A. G. Mathew (1956) suggests there is strong evidence that Amud was a powerful trading settlement and a slave route from Harar to Zeila:

"Amud II was therefore a trading settlement. It lay between Aw Barreh and Abassa on the road from Harar to Zeila which was also the caravan route between the cities of the Upper Niger and the Gulf of Tajura. This was obviously a slave route and around the edge of the town there are remains of a number of large pens built roughly from stones placed loosely one upon the other without mortar; it seems probable that these were slave pens. Yet it is clear that Amud II was only a settlement in one part of an already ruined city (Amud I). It is at least not impossible that Amud I was pre-Islamic, an Axumite town like that of Colloe in Eritrea which dated between the second and seventh centuries."[8]

Amud is situated over 1,000 m above sea level. The old town contained over 200 houses, each built with stone walls and mason ranging from single room to multi-roomed courtyard houses. Niches were cut in the walls for storage, and they were roofed with brushwood laid over wooden rafters. The mosques were more ambitiously planned.[9]

The old section of Amud spans 25 acres (100,000 m2) and contains hundreds of ancient ruins of multi-roomed courtyard houses, stone walls, complex mosques, and other archaeological remains, including intricate colored glass bracelets and Chinese ceramics.[10]

According to Sonia Mary Cole, the town features 250 to 300 houses and an ancient temple. The temple was constructed from carefully dressed stone, and was later transformed into a mosque. It also features pottery lamps. Altogether, the building techniques, among other factors, point to a close association with Aksumite archaeological sites from the 2nd to 5th centuries AD.[11]

Curle in 1937 identified jars in Amud resembling honey jars still common in Harar however no longer used in Somaliland.[12]

Amud is home to several historic pilgrimage sites belonging to celebrated Somali Saints, the most prominent being Saint Sau, Saint Amud and Saint Sharlagamadi, some sources associate these Saints with a proto-Somali ethnic group that lived in the region,[13][14] where another source associates Amud with the Harla people.[15] Another source states that Amud was an Aksumite town.[11] During his research in the area, the historian G.W.B. Huntingford noticed that whenever a historic site had the prefix Aw in its name (such as the ruins of Awbare and Awbube), it denoted the final resting place of a local Saint.[4] The patron Saint Amud is buried in the vicinity of the ancient town.[16]

The Amoud University in Borama is named after the archaeological site.

Demographics

Amoud University

The region around the ancient town and university is inhabited by the Faarah Nuur, one of the two sub divisions of Reer Nuur, a subclan of the Gadabuursi Dir clan.[17]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Damtew Teferra, African higher education: an international reference handbook, (Indiana University Press: 2003)
  2. ↑ Somaliland: With Addis Ababa and Eastern Ethiopia
  3. ↑ Somaliland: With Addis Ababa and Eastern Ethiopia, p. 148
  4. 1 2 Huntingford, "The town of Amud, Somalia", Azania, 13 (1978), p. 184
  5. ↑ Briggs, Philip (2012). Somaliland: with the overland route from Addis Ababa via eastern Ethiopia (1st ed.). Bradt Travel Guides. ISBN 9781784776053. The house are scattered around without any apparent plan; there are no streets and no trace of a surrounding wall. There is a mosque in the southern half of the dwelling area... [with a] rather oddly built mihrab facing the entrance... and immediately to the south... is the cemetery. There are upwards of two hundred houses, all well-built of stone [and] as much as 2.6m in height... The number of rooms ranges from two to four... there is sometimes no sign of an entrance to the inner rooms. This implies that entry was made from the roof, which was doubtless flat and reached by teps now vanished... There are many niches or cupboards in the inner walls.
  6. ↑ Mathew, A. G.(1956) (1956). Somaliland Protectorate: Report. p. 5. The scattered ruins of the site at Amud cover an area of approximately 1½ miles in circumference. They would seem to belong to two different periods, Amud I and Amud II. It now seems possible to reconstruct much of the history of Amud II.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  7. ↑ Mathew, A. G.(1956) (1956). Somaliland Protectorate: Report. p. 5. The site was deserted by the middle of the 19th century when Sir Richard Burton, passing from Zeila to Harar, heard of it as a ruined city. But it seems clear that it was still inhabited at least as late as the 18th century, for the fragments of Chinese porcelain found there include a broken plate with violet-toned sunflowers, which is almost certainly of the period of the Emperor Kiang Hsi (1662-1723) or of his successor, and broken bowls of the blue and white willow pattern commonly exported from 18th century China. There was also a considerable quantity of the currency beads used along the African coast and in the interior, some of which I am inclined to believe to be of European manufacture and not earlier than the beginning of the 19th century.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  8. ↑ Mathew, A. G.(1956) (1956). Somaliland Protectorate: Report. p. 5. Amud II was therefore a trading settlement. It lay between Aw Barreh and Abassa on the road from Harar to Zeila which was also the caravan route between the cities of the Upper Niger and the Gulf of Tajura. This was obviously a slave route and around the edge of the town there are remains of a number of large pens built roughly from stones placed loosely one upon the other without mortar; it seems probable that these were slave pens. Yet it is clear that Amud II was only a settlement in one part of an already ruined city (Amud I). It is at least not impossible that Amud I was pre-Islamic, an Axumite town like that of Colloe in Eritrea which dated between the second and seventh centuries.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  9. ↑ Insoll, Timothy (2003). The Archaeology of Islam in Sub-Saharan Africa (1st ed.). Cambridge World Archaeology. ISBN 9780521657020.
  10. ↑ The Archaeology of Islam in Sub Saharan Africa, p. 72/73
  11. 1 2 Cole, Sonia Mary (1964). The Prehistory of East Africa. Weidenfeld & Nicolson. p. 275.
  12. ↑ Curle, A.T. The Ruined Towns of Somaliland (PDF). Antiquity Publications. p. 321.
  13. ↑ Nur, Sheikh Abdurahman 1993 "Ilbaxnimadii Adal Iyo Sooyaalkii Soomaaliyeed: The Renaissance of Adal Somali history". 1993.
  14. ↑ Walker, Bethany (2020). The Oxford Handbook of Islamic Archaeology. Oxford University Press. p. 435. ISBN 978-0-19-998788-7.
  15. ↑ Rayne, Henry. QUEEN ARAWEILO. Blackwoods Magazine. Archived from the original on 2001-06-27. Amud? Yes, we know Amud, Sahib." "Who lived there ? Have you Somalis no stories about the people?" "The 'Old People,' the Harla; we know not whence they came nor whither they went. They had a Queen." "What was her name? " "Araweilo. She was a great warrior, and her people withstood the pagan invaders from the east until Sherlahgamahdi's daughter was burned." "And why did they burn gubadi (the daughter of ) Sherlahgamahdi?
  16. ↑ Somaliland: With Addis Ababa and Eastern Ethiopia,
  17. ↑ Hayward, R. J.; Lewis, I. M. (2005-08-17). Voice and Power. Routledge. ISBN 9781135751753.
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