Back سلطنة أجوران Arabic Sultanatu Ajuran AST Ajuran dövləti Azerbaijani Аджуран (дәүләт) Bashkir Ajuuraan Catalan Sultanát Ajuuraan Czech Sultanat Ajuran German Ajurana Sultanlando Esperanto Sultanato Ajuran Spanish Ajuuraan Basque
Ajuuraan Sultanate | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13th century–17th century[1][2] | |||||||||||||
_flag_according_to_1576_Portuguese_map.svg) Flag shown next to the Mogadishu area on a 1576 Fernão Vaz Dourado map | |||||||||||||
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| Capital | |||||||||||||
| Common languages | |||||||||||||
| Religion | Sunni Islam (state) | ||||||||||||
| Government | Monarchy | ||||||||||||
| Sultan, Imam | |||||||||||||
| History | |||||||||||||
• Established | 13th century | ||||||||||||
| 16th century | |||||||||||||
| 16th century | |||||||||||||
• Decline | 17th century[1][2] | ||||||||||||
| Currency | |||||||||||||
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| Today part of | Somalia Ethiopia | ||||||||||||
The Ajuran Sultanate (Somali: Saldanadda Ajuuraan, Arabic: سلطنة الأجورانية), natively referred to as Ajuuraan,[5] and often simply Ajuran/Ajur,[6] was a Muslim Empire in the Horn of Africa that thrived from the late medieval and early modern period.[7] Founded by Somali Sultans[8][9] it ruled over large parts of the Greater Somalia region during the Middle Ages. Its rise to prominence began during the 13th century and by the 15th century, it was Africa's only 'hydraulic empire'.[10] Through a strong centralized administration and an aggressive military stance towards invaders, the Ajuran Empire successfully resisted Oromo invasions from the west and fought against Portuguese incursions from the east.[11][5][12]
The Ajuran were among the great centres of commerce in the contemporary African world.[13] Trading routes dating from ancient and early medieval periods of Somali maritime enterprise were strengthened and re-established, foreign trade and commerce in the coastal provinces flourished with ships sailing to and from kingdoms and empires in the Near East, East Asia, and the wider world.[14][15] The Ajuran are believed to be the first Africans to have contact with China.[16]
- ^ Furlow, Richard Bennett (2013). The spectre of colony: colonialism, Islamism, and state in Somalia (PDF). Arizona State University.
The peak of Somali culture and power in the pre-colonial years came during the Ajuuraan Sultanate from the fourteenth through seventeenth centuries
- ^ Pearce, Jeff (15 April 2022). The Gifts of Africa: How a Continent and Its People Changed the World. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 60. ISBN 978-1-63388-771-8.
- ^ Caulfield, J. Benjamin (1850). Mathematical & physical geography. Edwards & Hughes, 12, Ave Maria Lane. p. 190.
- ^ Reid, Hugo (1853). A System of Modern Geography ... with Exercises of Examination. To which are Added Treatises on Astronomy and Physical Geography. p. 166.
- ^ a b Njoku 2013, p. 40.
- ^ "Ajuran | historical state, Africa". Encyclopedia Britannica.
- ^ Mukhtar, Mohamed Haji (1989). "The Emergence and Role of Political Parties in the Inter-River Region of Somalia from 1947–1960". Ufahamu. 17 (2): 98. doi:10.5070/F7172016882.
- ^ Luling, Virginia (2002). Somali Sultanate: the Geledi city-state over 150 years. Transaction Publishers. p. 17. ISBN 978-1-874209-98-0.
- ^ Luc Cambrézy, Populations réfugiées: de l'exil au retour, p.316
- ^ Guo, Rongxing (16 May 2018). Human-Earth System Dynamics: Implications to Civilizations. Springer. p. 83. ISBN 978-981-13-0547-4.
- ^ Abdurahman, Abdullahi (18 September 2017). Making Sense of Somali History: Volume 1. Adonis and Abbey Publishers. p. 64. ISBN 978-1-909112-79-7.
- ^ Furlow, Richard Bennett (2013). The spectre of colony: colonialism, Islamism, and state in Somalia (Report). Arizona State University. p. 7.
- ^ McManus, Robert M.; Perruci, Gamaliel (9 December 2019). Understanding Leadership: An Arts and Humanities Perspective. Routledge. p. 151. ISBN 978-0-429-62138-3.
- ^ Shelley, Fred M. (2013). Nation Shapes: The Story behind the World's Borders. ABC-CLIO. p. 358. ISBN 978-1-61069-106-2.
- ^ Rodriguez, Jorge de Torres (18 May 2022), "The Medieval Archaeology of Somaliland", Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Anthropology, ISBN 978-0-19-085458-4
- ^ Abidde, Sabella; Ayoola, Tokunbo A. (3 February 2021). China in Africa: Between Imperialism and Partnership in Humanitarian Development. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 142. ISBN 978-1-7936-1233-5.