Polity Language List
A viewset for viewing and editing Polity Languages.
GET /api/general/polity-languages/?format=api&page=11
{ "count": 630, "next": "https://seshat-db.com/api/general/polity-languages/?format=api&page=12", "previous": "https://seshat-db.com/api/general/polity-languages/?format=api&page=10", "results": [ { "id": 501, "polity": { "id": 638, "name": "so_tunni_sultanate", "long_name": "Tunni Sultanate", "start_year": 800, "end_year": 1200 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_language", "language": "Maay", "comment": null, "description": "In Barawa (also known as Brava) on the Benadir coast, there are various examples of Arabic inscriptions from the early 12th Century. “Cerulli reports an Arabic inscription from Brava, commemorating the death of a Muslim resident in 1104/5, which certainly indicates the existence of a highly developed Muslim community there in the eleventh century.” §REF§ (Tamrat 2008, 137) Tamrat, Taddesse. 2008. ‘Ethiopia, the Red Sea and the Horn’ In the Cambridge History of Africa: c. 1050 – c.1600 vol. 3. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pp 98-182. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/TWITJWK4/search/tam/titleCreatorYear/items/A68FCWWI/item-list §REF§ Also spoken on the Benadir coast is the Af-Maay language. “Known also as ‘Maaymaay’ or ‘Maayteri’ or Af-Reewin. The language of most Somalis south of the Shabelle valley, in the Middle and Lower Shabelle regions, Bakook, Bay, Gedo, Middle and most of Lower Juba regions, and most of Banadir.” §REF§ (Mukhtar 2003, 30) Mukhtar, Mohamed H. 2003. Historical Dictionary of Somalia. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/TWITJWK4/items/J8WZB6VI/collection §REF§" }, { "id": 502, "polity": { "id": 639, "name": "so_ajuran_sultanate", "long_name": "Ajuran Sultanate", "start_year": 1250, "end_year": 1700 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_language", "language": "Arabic", "comment": null, "description": null }, { "id": 503, "polity": { "id": 640, "name": "so_habr_yunis", "long_name": "Habr Yunis", "start_year": 1300, "end_year": 1886 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_language", "language": "Arabic", "comment": null, "description": "“Access to asraar (sacred mysteries) was commonly associated with the saints' ability, however rudimentary, to read and write Arabic. With these gifts, the saints were enabled not only to perceive the forces of the supernatural world but also, in a limited sense, to control them.” §REF§ (Cassanelli 1982, 124) Cassanelli, Lee. V. 1982. The Shaping of Somali Society: Reconstructing the History of a Pastoral People, 1600-1900. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/TKPH7Z89/library §REF§ “The language is Cushitic, and is related (as are, of course, the Somalis themselves) to Arabic…” §REF§ (Irons 2013, 3) Irons, Roy. 2013. Churchill and the Mad Mullah of Somaliland: Betrayal and Redemption 1899-1921. Barnsley: Pen and Sword Military. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/R4RVAR38/collection §REF§" }, { "id": 504, "polity": { "id": 640, "name": "so_habr_yunis", "long_name": "Habr Yunis", "start_year": 1300, "end_year": 1886 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_language", "language": "Somali", "comment": null, "description": "“Access to asraar (sacred mysteries) was commonly associated with the saints' ability, however rudimentary, to read and write Arabic. With these gifts, the saints were enabled not only to perceive the forces of the supernatural world but also, in a limited sense, to control them.” §REF§ (Cassanelli 1982, 124) Cassanelli, Lee. V. 1982. The Shaping of Somali Society: Reconstructing the History of a Pastoral People, 1600-1900. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/TKPH7Z89/library §REF§ “The language is Cushitic, and is related (as are, of course, the Somalis themselves) to Arabic…” §REF§ (Irons 2013, 3) Irons, Roy. 2013. Churchill and the Mad Mullah of Somaliland: Betrayal and Redemption 1899-1921. Barnsley: Pen and Sword Military. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/R4RVAR38/collection §REF§" }, { "id": 505, "polity": { "id": 641, "name": "et_gomma_k", "long_name": "Kingdom of Gomma", "start_year": 1780, "end_year": 1886 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_language", "language": "Oromo", "comment": null, "description": "“The Oromo are a Cushitic-speaking people who are related to the Konso, Afar, Somali, and Sidama among others. Until fairly recently, outsiders referred to them as Galla, a term the Oromo never used themselves.” §REF§ (Shinn and Ofcansky 2013, 318) Shinn, David and Thomas Ofcansky. 2013. Historical Dictionary of Ethiopia. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/TWITJWK4/items/29MS79PA/collection §REF§" }, { "id": 506, "polity": { "id": 642, "name": "so_geledi_sultanate", "long_name": "Sultanate of Geledi", "start_year": 1750, "end_year": 1911 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_language", "language": "Arabic", "comment": null, "description": "“Access to asraar (sacred mysteries) was commonly associated with the saints' ability, however rudimentary, to read and write Arabic. With these gifts, the saints were enabled not only to perceive the forces of the supernatural world but also, in a limited sense, to control them.” §REF§ (Cassanelli 1982, 124) Cassanelli, Lee. V. 1982. The Shaping of Somali Society: Reconstructing the History of a Pastoral People, 1600-1900. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/TKPH7Z89/library §REF§ “The Hawiye of this area speak the Benadir dialect. The Geledi speak Digil; in common parlance the two speeches are designated by their respective phrases for ‘what did you say’?- mahaa tiri and may tiri. Digil is generally just known as may-may, which in the mouth of a speaker of another dialect has a tone of mockery, amiable or otherwise.” §REF§ (Luling 1971, 41) Luling, Virginia. 1971. The Social Structure of Southern Somali Tribes. (Thesis). University of London (University College London). Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/TWITJWK4/items/5BTAQ3DM/collection §REF§" }, { "id": 507, "polity": { "id": 642, "name": "so_geledi_sultanate", "long_name": "Sultanate of Geledi", "start_year": 1750, "end_year": 1911 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_language", "language": "Maay", "comment": null, "description": "“Access to asraar (sacred mysteries) was commonly associated with the saints' ability, however rudimentary, to read and write Arabic. With these gifts, the saints were enabled not only to perceive the forces of the supernatural world but also, in a limited sense, to control them.” §REF§ (Cassanelli 1982, 124) Cassanelli, Lee. V. 1982. The Shaping of Somali Society: Reconstructing the History of a Pastoral People, 1600-1900. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/TKPH7Z89/library §REF§ “The Hawiye of this area speak the Benadir dialect. The Geledi speak Digil; in common parlance the two speeches are designated by their respective phrases for ‘what did you say’?- mahaa tiri and may tiri. Digil is generally just known as may-may, which in the mouth of a speaker of another dialect has a tone of mockery, amiable or otherwise.” §REF§ (Luling 1971, 41) Luling, Virginia. 1971. The Social Structure of Southern Somali Tribes. (Thesis). University of London (University College London). Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/TWITJWK4/items/5BTAQ3DM/collection §REF§" }, { "id": 508, "polity": { "id": 643, "name": "et_showa_sultanate", "long_name": "Shoa Sultanate", "start_year": 1108, "end_year": 1285 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_language", "language": "Arabic", "comment": null, "description": "\"The precise use of the Islamic calendar and of Arabic script and language are strong evidence of the presence of an Islamic scholarly elite. This literate elite is represented by the faqīh Ibrāhīm b. al-Ḥasan, “ qāḍī al-quḍā (lit. “cadi of the cadis”) of Šawah” whose death occurred in 1255. The title “cadi of the cadis” refers to the judge at the head of the judiciary of a state or of a city, and therefore presupposes a sophisticated judicial hierarchy.\"§REF§(Chekroun and Hirsch 2020: 94-95) Seshat url: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/SU25S5BX/items/TA84VGHX/item-list§REF§ “A local Arabic chronicle, edited and translated by Enrico Cerulli in 1941, preserves the tradition that the first Mahzumite prince of the so-called 'sultanate of Shoa' began to rule in the last decade of the ninth century [...] Despite the above tradition of the chronicle, it is improbable that the state was actually formed as early as the ninth century.” §REF§ (Tamrat 2008, 106) Tamrat, Taddesse. 2008. ‘Ethiopia, the Red Sea and the Horn’ In the Cambridge History of Africa: c. 1050 – c.1600 vol. 3. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pp 98-182. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/search/Tamrat/titleCreatorYear/items/A68FCWWI/item-list §REF§ “Then, in the year 1108, it is reported that there took place ‘the conversion of Gbbah’ to Islam, in the reign of Sultan Harab’ir. It has not been possible to give a secure identification of the area (or people) called Gbbah. But Trimingham has recently made an interesting suggestion that the term may refer to a people who were probably ancestral to those later known as Argobba. This is a very tempting suggestion and, geographically, it makes very good sense. The Argobba were a Semitic-speaking group who lived in the eastern foothills of the Shoan plateau in the Harar area. Their Semitic language also makes them a very good candidate for the proposed identification, because an analysis of the names of the princes in the chronical has also convinced Cerulli that an Ethiopian Semitic language was spoke in the Sultanate of Shoa.” §REF§ (Tamrat 2008, 107) Tamrat, Taddesse. 2008. ‘Ethiopia, the Red Sea and the Horn’ In the Cambridge History of Africa: c. 1050 – c.1600 vol. 3. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pp 98-182. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/search/Tamrat/titleCreatorYear/items/A68FCWWI/item-list §REF§" }, { "id": 509, "polity": { "id": 643, "name": "et_showa_sultanate", "long_name": "Shoa Sultanate", "start_year": 1108, "end_year": 1285 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_language", "language": "Harari", "comment": null, "description": "\"The precise use of the Islamic calendar and of Arabic script and language are strong evidence of the presence of an Islamic scholarly elite. This literate elite is represented by the faqīh Ibrāhīm b. al-Ḥasan, “ qāḍī al-quḍā (lit. “cadi of the cadis”) of Šawah” whose death occurred in 1255. The title “cadi of the cadis” refers to the judge at the head of the judiciary of a state or of a city, and therefore presupposes a sophisticated judicial hierarchy.\"§REF§(Chekroun and Hirsch 2020: 94-95) Seshat url: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/SU25S5BX/items/TA84VGHX/item-list§REF§ “A local Arabic chronicle, edited and translated by Enrico Cerulli in 1941, preserves the tradition that the first Mahzumite prince of the so-called 'sultanate of Shoa' began to rule in the last decade of the ninth century [...] Despite the above tradition of the chronicle, it is improbable that the state was actually formed as early as the ninth century.” §REF§ (Tamrat 2008, 106) Tamrat, Taddesse. 2008. ‘Ethiopia, the Red Sea and the Horn’ In the Cambridge History of Africa: c. 1050 – c.1600 vol. 3. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pp 98-182. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/search/Tamrat/titleCreatorYear/items/A68FCWWI/item-list §REF§ “Then, in the year 1108, it is reported that there took place ‘the conversion of Gbbah’ to Islam, in the reign of Sultan Harab’ir. It has not been possible to give a secure identification of the area (or people) called Gbbah. But Trimingham has recently made an interesting suggestion that the term may refer to a people who were probably ancestral to those later known as Argobba. This is a very tempting suggestion and, geographically, it makes very good sense. The Argobba were a Semitic-speaking group who lived in the eastern foothills of the Shoan plateau in the Harar area. Their Semitic language also makes them a very good candidate for the proposed identification, because an analysis of the names of the princes in the chronical has also convinced Cerulli that an Ethiopian Semitic language was spoke in the Sultanate of Shoa.” §REF§ (Tamrat 2008, 107) Tamrat, Taddesse. 2008. ‘Ethiopia, the Red Sea and the Horn’ In the Cambridge History of Africa: c. 1050 – c.1600 vol. 3. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pp 98-182. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/search/Tamrat/titleCreatorYear/items/A68FCWWI/item-list §REF§" }, { "id": 510, "polity": { "id": 643, "name": "et_showa_sultanate", "long_name": "Shoa Sultanate", "start_year": 1108, "end_year": 1285 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_language", "language": "Argobba", "comment": null, "description": "\"The precise use of the Islamic calendar and of Arabic script and language are strong evidence of the presence of an Islamic scholarly elite. This literate elite is represented by the faqīh Ibrāhīm b. al-Ḥasan, “ qāḍī al-quḍā (lit. “cadi of the cadis”) of Šawah” whose death occurred in 1255. The title “cadi of the cadis” refers to the judge at the head of the judiciary of a state or of a city, and therefore presupposes a sophisticated judicial hierarchy.\"§REF§(Chekroun and Hirsch 2020: 94-95) Seshat url: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/SU25S5BX/items/TA84VGHX/item-list§REF§ “A local Arabic chronicle, edited and translated by Enrico Cerulli in 1941, preserves the tradition that the first Mahzumite prince of the so-called 'sultanate of Shoa' began to rule in the last decade of the ninth century [...] Despite the above tradition of the chronicle, it is improbable that the state was actually formed as early as the ninth century.” §REF§ (Tamrat 2008, 106) Tamrat, Taddesse. 2008. ‘Ethiopia, the Red Sea and the Horn’ In the Cambridge History of Africa: c. 1050 – c.1600 vol. 3. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pp 98-182. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/search/Tamrat/titleCreatorYear/items/A68FCWWI/item-list §REF§ “Then, in the year 1108, it is reported that there took place ‘the conversion of Gbbah’ to Islam, in the reign of Sultan Harab’ir. It has not been possible to give a secure identification of the area (or people) called Gbbah. But Trimingham has recently made an interesting suggestion that the term may refer to a people who were probably ancestral to those later known as Argobba. This is a very tempting suggestion and, geographically, it makes very good sense. The Argobba were a Semitic-speaking group who lived in the eastern foothills of the Shoan plateau in the Harar area. Their Semitic language also makes them a very good candidate for the proposed identification, because an analysis of the names of the princes in the chronical has also convinced Cerulli that an Ethiopian Semitic language was spoke in the Sultanate of Shoa.” §REF§ (Tamrat 2008, 107) Tamrat, Taddesse. 2008. ‘Ethiopia, the Red Sea and the Horn’ In the Cambridge History of Africa: c. 1050 – c.1600 vol. 3. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pp 98-182. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/search/Tamrat/titleCreatorYear/items/A68FCWWI/item-list §REF§" }, { "id": 511, "polity": { "id": 644, "name": "et_harla_k", "long_name": "Harla Kingdom", "start_year": 500, "end_year": 1500 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_language", "language": "Harla", "comment": null, "description": "“The Harla were Semitic-speaking people, who lived in the region of Harargue as early as the tenth century. They were sedentary farmers, town dwellers, merchants and great warriors, who provided leadership for the jihadic war of the sixteenth century, including Imam Ahmad and several other prominent generals.” §REF§ (Hassen 2015, 145) Hassen, Mohammed. 2015. The Oromo and the Christian Kingdom of Ethiopia 1300-1700. Melton: James Curry. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/9HR4GK4D/collection §REF§ “A Muslim community was also indicated by the recovery of 2 undated Arabic inscriptions, one part on an inscription from the Quran 48:31-1, which if complete would read ‘In the name of the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful’ and on the second line, ‘We have given you a glorious victory’, the other only bearing the words ‘on God’”. §REF§ (Insoll 2017, 209) Insoll, Timothy. 2017. ‘First Footsteps in Archaeology of Harar, Ethiopia’. Journal of Islamic Archaeology. Vol 4:2. Pp 189-215. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/VQ38B374/collection §REF§" }, { "id": 512, "polity": { "id": 644, "name": "et_harla_k", "long_name": "Harla Kingdom", "start_year": 500, "end_year": 1500 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_language", "language": "Arabic", "comment": null, "description": "“The Harla were Semitic-speaking people, who lived in the region of Harargue as early as the tenth century. They were sedentary farmers, town dwellers, merchants and great warriors, who provided leadership for the jihadic war of the sixteenth century, including Imam Ahmad and several other prominent generals.” §REF§ (Hassen 2015, 145) Hassen, Mohammed. 2015. The Oromo and the Christian Kingdom of Ethiopia 1300-1700. Melton: James Curry. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/9HR4GK4D/collection §REF§ “A Muslim community was also indicated by the recovery of 2 undated Arabic inscriptions, one part on an inscription from the Quran 48:31-1, which if complete would read ‘In the name of the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful’ and on the second line, ‘We have given you a glorious victory’, the other only bearing the words ‘on God’”. §REF§ (Insoll 2017, 209) Insoll, Timothy. 2017. ‘First Footsteps in Archaeology of Harar, Ethiopia’. Journal of Islamic Archaeology. Vol 4:2. Pp 189-215. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/VQ38B374/collection §REF§" }, { "id": 513, "polity": { "id": 645, "name": "et_hadiya_sultanate", "long_name": "Hadiya Sultanate", "start_year": 1300, "end_year": 1680 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_language", "language": "Hadiyya", "comment": null, "description": "“Hadiyya is an east Cushitic language that has 82 percent lexical similarity with Libido, 56 percent with Kambaata, 54 percent with Alaba, and 53 percent with Sidamo.” §REF§ (Shinn and Ofcansky 2013, 201) Shinn, David and Thomas Ofcansky. 2013. Historical Dictionary of Ethiopia. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/TWITJWK4/items/29MS79PA/collection §REF§" }, { "id": 514, "polity": { "id": 646, "name": "so_ifat_sultanate", "long_name": "Ifat Sultanate", "start_year": 1280, "end_year": 1375 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_language", "language": "Arabic", "comment": null, "description": "Arab historians clearly state that inheritance of Ifat spoke Arabic and local languages. “This seems to be clear from al-‘Umari’s description of Ifat, whose language he tells us was ‘Abyssinian’ and ‘Arabic.’” §REF§ (Tamrat 2008, 146) Tamrat, Taddesse. 2008. ‘Ethiopia, the Red Sea and the Horn’ In the Cambridge History of Africa: c. 1050 – c.1600 vol. 3. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pp 98-182. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/search/Tamrat/titleCreatorYear/items/A68FCWWI/item-list §REF§“In the fourteenth century, the Arab historian al-‘Umari also tells us that a local Semitic language was spoken in the Kingdom of Ifat, which, as we shall see, later replaced the sultanate of Shoa.” §REF§ (Tamrat 2008, 107) Tamrat, Taddesse. 2008. ‘Ethiopia, the Red Sea and the Horn’ In the Cambridge History of Africa: c. 1050 – c.1600 vol. 3. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pp 98-182. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/search/Tamrat/titleCreatorYear/items/A68FCWWI/item-list §REF§" }, { "id": 515, "polity": { "id": 646, "name": "so_ifat_sultanate", "long_name": "Ifat Sultanate", "start_year": 1280, "end_year": 1375 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_language", "language": "Harari", "comment": null, "description": "Arab historians clearly state that inheritance of Ifat spoke Arabic and local languages. “This seems to be clear from al-‘Umari’s description of Ifat, whose language he tells us was ‘Abyssinian’ and ‘Arabic.’” §REF§ (Tamrat 2008, 146) Tamrat, Taddesse. 2008. ‘Ethiopia, the Red Sea and the Horn’ In the Cambridge History of Africa: c. 1050 – c.1600 vol. 3. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pp 98-182. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/search/Tamrat/titleCreatorYear/items/A68FCWWI/item-list §REF§“In the fourteenth century, the Arab historian al-‘Umari also tells us that a local Semitic language was spoken in the Kingdom of Ifat, which, as we shall see, later replaced the sultanate of Shoa.” §REF§ (Tamrat 2008, 107) Tamrat, Taddesse. 2008. ‘Ethiopia, the Red Sea and the Horn’ In the Cambridge History of Africa: c. 1050 – c.1600 vol. 3. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pp 98-182. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/search/Tamrat/titleCreatorYear/items/A68FCWWI/item-list §REF§" }, { "id": 516, "polity": { "id": 646, "name": "so_ifat_sultanate", "long_name": "Ifat Sultanate", "start_year": 1280, "end_year": 1375 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_language", "language": "Argobba", "comment": null, "description": "Arab historians clearly state that inheritance of Ifat spoke Arabic and local languages. “This seems to be clear from al-‘Umari’s description of Ifat, whose language he tells us was ‘Abyssinian’ and ‘Arabic.’” §REF§ (Tamrat 2008, 146) Tamrat, Taddesse. 2008. ‘Ethiopia, the Red Sea and the Horn’ In the Cambridge History of Africa: c. 1050 – c.1600 vol. 3. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pp 98-182. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/search/Tamrat/titleCreatorYear/items/A68FCWWI/item-list §REF§“In the fourteenth century, the Arab historian al-‘Umari also tells us that a local Semitic language was spoken in the Kingdom of Ifat, which, as we shall see, later replaced the sultanate of Shoa.” §REF§ (Tamrat 2008, 107) Tamrat, Taddesse. 2008. ‘Ethiopia, the Red Sea and the Horn’ In the Cambridge History of Africa: c. 1050 – c.1600 vol. 3. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pp 98-182. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/search/Tamrat/titleCreatorYear/items/A68FCWWI/item-list §REF§" }, { "id": 517, "polity": { "id": 647, "name": "er_medri_bahri", "long_name": "Medri Bahri", "start_year": 1310, "end_year": 1889 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_language", "language": "Tigrinya", "comment": null, "description": "“The common language and culture of the Tigrinya-speaking people on both sides of the Mareb River was reinforced by continual population movement between the Eritrean and Tigray regions, with many Tigrayans immigrating to the Kebess during the medieval period and again in the Italian colonial period.” §REF§ (Connell and Killion 2011, 500) Connell, Dan and Killion, Tom. 2011. Historical Dictionary of Eritrea. Second Edition. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/24ZMGPAA/collection §REF§" }, { "id": 518, "polity": { "id": 648, "name": "so_majeerteen_sultanate", "long_name": "Majeerteen Sultanate", "start_year": 1750, "end_year": 1926 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_language", "language": "Arabic", "comment": null, "description": "In the Majeerteen Sultanate there were some individuals who could write in Arabic but most used Somali Cushitic languages. “They likewise worshipped Islamic saints from the Arabian Peninsula, intermarried, and sometimes used Arabic scripts, since Somali Cushitic remained oral.” §REF§ (Smith 2021, 41) Smith, Nicholas W.S. 2021. Colonial Chaos in the Southern Red Sea: A History of Violence from 1830 to the Twentieth Century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/TWITJWK4/items/K6HVJ7X4/collection §REF§" }, { "id": 519, "polity": { "id": 648, "name": "so_majeerteen_sultanate", "long_name": "Majeerteen Sultanate", "start_year": 1750, "end_year": 1926 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_language", "language": "Somali", "comment": null, "description": "In the Majeerteen Sultanate there were some individuals who could write in Arabic but most used Somali Cushitic languages. “They likewise worshipped Islamic saints from the Arabian Peninsula, intermarried, and sometimes used Arabic scripts, since Somali Cushitic remained oral.” §REF§ (Smith 2021, 41) Smith, Nicholas W.S. 2021. Colonial Chaos in the Southern Red Sea: A History of Violence from 1830 to the Twentieth Century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/TWITJWK4/items/K6HVJ7X4/collection §REF§" }, { "id": 520, "polity": { "id": 649, "name": "et_funj_sultanate", "long_name": "Funj Sultanate", "start_year": 1504, "end_year": 1820 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_language", "language": "Arabic", "comment": null, "description": "“Its rulers were Muslim and used Arabic as the lingua franca of trade, though the court at Sinnar continued to speak Funj.” §REF§ (Lapidus 2002, 429) Lapidus, Ira M. 2002. A History of Islamic Societies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/QW9XHCIW/collection §REF§" }, { "id": 521, "polity": { "id": 649, "name": "et_funj_sultanate", "long_name": "Funj Sultanate", "start_year": 1504, "end_year": 1820 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_language", "language": "Funj", "comment": null, "description": "“Its rulers were Muslim and used Arabic as the lingua franca of trade, though the court at Sinnar continued to speak Funj.” §REF§ (Lapidus 2002, 429) Lapidus, Ira M. 2002. A History of Islamic Societies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/QW9XHCIW/collection §REF§" }, { "id": 522, "polity": { "id": 650, "name": "et_kaffa_k", "long_name": "Kingdom of Kaffa", "start_year": 1390, "end_year": 1897 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_language", "language": "Kafa", "comment": null, "description": "“Since both Kafa and Janjero are West Cushitic languages, one need not assume a great migration of languages or peoples.” §REF§ (Orent 1970, 271) Orent, Amnon. 1970. ‘Refocusing on the History of Kafa Prior to 1897: A Discussion of Political Processes’. African Historical Studies. Vol. 3:2. Pp 263-293. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/2A389XGK/collection §REF§ “There had been those who - whatever opinions they held held regarding higher linguistic groupings - saw languages such as Kafa, Shinasha, Wolaitta, Zayse and Yemsa (nee Janjero) as part of a larger 'Cushitic' family. And there had been those who saw these languages as something distinct. Fleming championed (and continues to champion) the latter viewpoint, and his arguments (Fleming, 19 69a, 1974, 1976a), together with those adduced by Lionel Bender (1971, 1975a), appeared to have won the day in securing the independence of Omotic.”§REF§(Hayward 2012: vii) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/9NVNC8GD/collection.§REF§" }, { "id": 523, "polity": { "id": 650, "name": "et_kaffa_k", "long_name": "Kingdom of Kaffa", "start_year": 1390, "end_year": 1897 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_language", "language": "Yemsa", "comment": null, "description": "“Since both Kafa and Janjero are West Cushitic languages, one need not assume a great migration of languages or peoples.” §REF§ (Orent 1970, 271) Orent, Amnon. 1970. ‘Refocusing on the History of Kafa Prior to 1897: A Discussion of Political Processes’. African Historical Studies. Vol. 3:2. Pp 263-293. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/2A389XGK/collection §REF§ “There had been those who - whatever opinions they held held regarding higher linguistic groupings - saw languages such as Kafa, Shinasha, Wolaitta, Zayse and Yemsa (nee Janjero) as part of a larger 'Cushitic' family. And there had been those who saw these languages as something distinct. Fleming championed (and continues to champion) the latter viewpoint, and his arguments (Fleming, 19 69a, 1974, 1976a), together with those adduced by Lionel Bender (1971, 1975a), appeared to have won the day in securing the independence of Omotic.”§REF§(Hayward 2012: vii) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/9NVNC8GD/collection.§REF§" }, { "id": 524, "polity": { "id": 651, "name": "et_gumma_k", "long_name": "Kingdom of Gumma", "start_year": 1800, "end_year": 1897 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_language", "language": "Oromo", "comment": null, "description": "“The Oromo are a Cushitic-speaking people who are related to the Konso, Afar, Somali, and Sidama among others. Until fairly recently, outsiders referred to them as Galla, a term the Oromo never used themselves.” §REF§ (Shinn and Ofcansky 2013, 318) Shinn, David and Thomas Ofcansky. 2013. Historical Dictionary of Ethiopia. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/TWITJWK4/items/29MS79PA/collection §REF§" }, { "id": 525, "polity": { "id": 652, "name": "et_harar_emirate", "long_name": "Emirate of Harar", "start_year": 1650, "end_year": 1875 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_language", "language": "Harari", "comment": null, "description": "“The Harari language is Semitic and close to east Gurage.” §REF§ (Shinn and Ofcansky 2013, 208) Shinn, David and Thomas Ofcansky. 2013. Historical Dictionary of Ethiopia. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/TWITJWK4/items/29MS79PA/collection §REF§ “The country is populated by several Oromo-speaking tribes and the Argobba, who nowadays speak Oromo, too.” §REF§ (Wagner 1997, 486) Wagner, Ewald. 1997. ‘Harari’ In The Semitic Languages. Edited by Robert Hetzron. London: Routledge. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/V9HWX5VP/collection §REF§" }, { "id": 526, "polity": { "id": 652, "name": "et_harar_emirate", "long_name": "Emirate of Harar", "start_year": 1650, "end_year": 1875 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_language", "language": "Oromo", "comment": null, "description": "“The Harari language is Semitic and close to east Gurage.” §REF§ (Shinn and Ofcansky 2013, 208) Shinn, David and Thomas Ofcansky. 2013. Historical Dictionary of Ethiopia. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/TWITJWK4/items/29MS79PA/collection §REF§ “The country is populated by several Oromo-speaking tribes and the Argobba, who nowadays speak Oromo, too.” §REF§ (Wagner 1997, 486) Wagner, Ewald. 1997. ‘Harari’ In The Semitic Languages. Edited by Robert Hetzron. London: Routledge. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/V9HWX5VP/collection §REF§" }, { "id": 527, "polity": { "id": 653, "name": "et_aussa_sultanate", "long_name": "Early Sultanate of Aussa", "start_year": 1734, "end_year": 1895 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_language", "language": "Qafar", "comment": null, "description": "“The Afars are a Cushitic-speaking people who call their language Cafaraf. It is classified along with Somali and Afan Oromo with the lowland east Cushitic language.” §REF§ (Shinn and Ofcansky 2013, 26-27) Shinn, David and Thomas Ofcansky. 2013. Historical Dictionary of Ethiopia. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/TWITJWK4/items/29MS79PA/collection §REF§" }, { "id": 528, "polity": { "id": 654, "name": "so_isaaq_sultanate", "long_name": "Isaaq Sultanate", "start_year": 1300, "end_year": 1886 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_language", "language": "Arabic", "comment": null, "description": "“Access to asraar (sacred mysteries) was commonly associated with the saints' ability, however rudimentary, to read and write Arabic. With these gifts, the saints were enabled not only to perceive the forces of the supernatural world but also, in a limited sense, to control them.” §REF§ (Cassanelli 1982, 124) Cassanelli, Lee. V. 1982. The Shaping of Somali Society: Reconstructing the History of a Pastoral People, 1600-1900. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/TKPH7Z89/library §REF§ “The language is Cushitic, and is related (as are, of course, the Somalis themselves) to Arabic…” §REF§ (Irons 2013, 3) Irons, Roy. 2013. Churchill and the Mad Mullah of Somaliland: Betrayal and Redemption 1899-1921. Barnsley: Pen and Sword Military. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/R4RVAR38/collection §REF§" }, { "id": 529, "polity": { "id": 654, "name": "so_isaaq_sultanate", "long_name": "Isaaq Sultanate", "start_year": 1300, "end_year": 1886 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_language", "language": "Somali", "comment": null, "description": "“Access to asraar (sacred mysteries) was commonly associated with the saints' ability, however rudimentary, to read and write Arabic. With these gifts, the saints were enabled not only to perceive the forces of the supernatural world but also, in a limited sense, to control them.” §REF§ (Cassanelli 1982, 124) Cassanelli, Lee. V. 1982. The Shaping of Somali Society: Reconstructing the History of a Pastoral People, 1600-1900. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/TKPH7Z89/library §REF§ “The language is Cushitic, and is related (as are, of course, the Somalis themselves) to Arabic…” §REF§ (Irons 2013, 3) Irons, Roy. 2013. Churchill and the Mad Mullah of Somaliland: Betrayal and Redemption 1899-1921. Barnsley: Pen and Sword Military. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/R4RVAR38/collection §REF§" }, { "id": 530, "polity": { "id": 655, "name": "ni_proto_yoruba", "long_name": "Proto-Yoruba", "start_year": 301, "end_year": 649 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_language", "language": "Proto-Yoruba", "comment": null, "description": null }, { "id": 531, "polity": { "id": 656, "name": "ni_yoruba_classic", "long_name": "Classical Ife", "start_year": 1000, "end_year": 1400 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_language", "language": "Yoruba", "comment": null, "description": "\"However, this community of practice was not an ethnic nation. In fact, it was multilingual, encompassing several dialects of the Yorùbá language and the Bini (Edo) language, and it succeeded in absorbing the individuals and families from other cultural groups, such as the Nupe and Djerma, into its fold during the Classical period.\"§REF§(Ogundiran 2020: 138)§REF§" }, { "id": 532, "polity": { "id": 656, "name": "ni_yoruba_classic", "long_name": "Classical Ife", "start_year": 1000, "end_year": 1400 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_language", "language": "Bini", "comment": null, "description": "\"However, this community of practice was not an ethnic nation. In fact, it was multilingual, encompassing several dialects of the Yorùbá language and the Bini (Edo) language, and it succeeded in absorbing the individuals and families from other cultural groups, such as the Nupe and Djerma, into its fold during the Classical period.\"§REF§(Ogundiran 2020: 138)§REF§" }, { "id": 533, "polity": { "id": 657, "name": "ni_formative_yoruba", "long_name": "Late Formative Yoruba", "start_year": 650, "end_year": 1049 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_language", "language": "Yoruba", "comment": null, "description": null }, { "id": 534, "polity": { "id": 658, "name": "ni_kwararafa", "long_name": "Kwararafa", "start_year": 596, "end_year": 1820 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_language", "language": "Jukun", "comment": null, "description": "“[T]he Jukun speak a Benue-Congo language, with its linguistic relatives in central Nigeria and the Cross River area” §REF§Isichei, E. (1997). A History of African Societies to 1870. Cambridge University Press: 235. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/Z4GK27CI/collection§REF§ Many central Nigerian peoples have a tradition of an ancient migration ‘from Apa’, but in some of these cases, linguistic evidence makes a historic relationship very unlikely. The Idoma speak a Kwa language, related to Igala and Igbo, whereas Jukun is a Benue-Congo language.” §REF§Isichei, E. (1997). A History of African Societies to 1870. Cambridge University Press: 235. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/Z4GK27CI/collection§REF§" }, { "id": 535, "polity": { "id": 659, "name": "ni_allada_k", "long_name": "Allada", "start_year": 1100, "end_year": 1724 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_language", "language": "Ajagbe", "comment": null, "description": "WALS uses term Ajagbe for this Benin-Togo area language, but it’s sometimes also referred to as Aja. “In this paper, as elsewhere (see Law and Asiwaju forthcoming), the term Aja will be given a comprehensive interpretation and will be held to cover the groups whose original homesteads are found mostly in the region between the Weme and the Volta rivers and generally south of latitude 9°N, who speak what are more or less dialects of the same Kwa language and whose traditional ruling classes profess a common origin usually traced to Tado. Apart from the nucleus, referred to by Newbury as 'Aja Proper', who occupy the Mono River valley along the present Togo-Benin boundary, other important sub-groups are the Ewe of today's Togo and Ghana; the Fon of ancient Allada, Agbome (Abomey), and Whydah or Hueda and the Gun of Porto Novo (new Allada).” §REF§Asiwaju, A. I. “The Aja-Speaking Peoples of Nigeria: A Note on Their Origins, Settlement and Cultural Adaptation up to 1945.” Africa: Journal of the International African Institute, vol. 49, no. 1, 1979, pp. 15–28: 16. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/2XUNFSVW/collection§REF§ “Another reference suggests that in the seventeenth century, at the onset of Oyo's imperial expansion, the Oyo language (or 'Yoruba proper') was preferred for some purposes in Allada to the local Aja.” §REF§Smith, Robert. “Peace and Palaver: International Relations in Pre-Colonial West Africa.” The Journal of African History, vol. 14, no. 4, 1973, pp. 599–621: 608. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/WIFJS3HN/collection§REF§" }, { "id": 536, "polity": { "id": 659, "name": "ni_allada_k", "long_name": "Allada", "start_year": 1100, "end_year": 1724 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_language", "language": "Yoruba", "comment": null, "description": "WALS uses term Ajagbe for this Benin-Togo area language, but it’s sometimes also referred to as Aja. “In this paper, as elsewhere (see Law and Asiwaju forthcoming), the term Aja will be given a comprehensive interpretation and will be held to cover the groups whose original homesteads are found mostly in the region between the Weme and the Volta rivers and generally south of latitude 9°N, who speak what are more or less dialects of the same Kwa language and whose traditional ruling classes profess a common origin usually traced to Tado. Apart from the nucleus, referred to by Newbury as 'Aja Proper', who occupy the Mono River valley along the present Togo-Benin boundary, other important sub-groups are the Ewe of today's Togo and Ghana; the Fon of ancient Allada, Agbome (Abomey), and Whydah or Hueda and the Gun of Porto Novo (new Allada).” §REF§Asiwaju, A. I. “The Aja-Speaking Peoples of Nigeria: A Note on Their Origins, Settlement and Cultural Adaptation up to 1945.” Africa: Journal of the International African Institute, vol. 49, no. 1, 1979, pp. 15–28: 16. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/2XUNFSVW/collection§REF§ “Another reference suggests that in the seventeenth century, at the onset of Oyo's imperial expansion, the Oyo language (or 'Yoruba proper') was preferred for some purposes in Allada to the local Aja.” §REF§Smith, Robert. “Peace and Palaver: International Relations in Pre-Colonial West Africa.” The Journal of African History, vol. 14, no. 4, 1973, pp. 599–621: 608. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/WIFJS3HN/collection§REF§" }, { "id": 537, "polity": { "id": 661, "name": "ni_oyo_emp_2", "long_name": "Ilú-ọba Ọ̀yọ́", "start_year": 1601, "end_year": 1835 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_language", "language": "Yoruba", "comment": null, "description": "“[T]he application of the name Yoruba to this large group is a modern usage, strictly anachronistic for the period dealt with in this study. Originally the name designated only the Ọyọ, being the name by which the Hausa of northern Nigeria referred to the Ọyọ kingdom. The extension of the term to its present general signification, to refer to the linguistic group, was the work of the Christian missionaries in Sierra Leone who first studied these languages, among freed slaves of Yoruba origin there, in the nineteenth century. Even today the word is sometimes understood to refer specifically to the Ọyọ, who are commonly known as ‘Yoruba Proper’.” §REF§Law, R. (1977). The Oyo Empire c. 1600 – c. 1836: A West African Imperialism in the Era of the Atlantic Slave Trade. Oxford University Press: 5. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/SB32ZPCF/collection§REF§" }, { "id": 538, "polity": { "id": 662, "name": "ni_whydah_k", "long_name": "Whydah", "start_year": 1671, "end_year": 1727 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_language", "language": "Ajagbe", "comment": null, "description": "WALS classification is Ajabge; sometimes also called Aja. “In this paper, as elsewhere (see Law and Asiwaju forthcoming), the term Aja will be given a comprehensive interpretation and will be held to cover the groups whose original homesteads are found mostly in the region between the Weme and the Volta rivers and generally south of latitude 9? N, who speak what are more or less dialects of the same Kwa language and whose traditional ruling classes profess a common origin usually traced to Tado. Apart from the nucleus, referred to by Newbury as 'Aja Proper', who occupy the Mono River valley along the present Togo-Benin boundary, other important sub-groups are the Ewe of today's Togo and Ghana; the Fon of ancient Allada, Agbome (Abomey), and Whydah or Hueda and the Gun of Porto Novo (new Allada).” §REF§Asiwaju, A. I. “The Aja-Speaking Peoples of Nigeria: A Note on Their Origins, Settlement and Cultural Adaptation up to 1945.” Africa: Journal of the International African Institute, vol. 49, no. 1, 1979, pp. 15–28: 16. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/2XUNFSVW/collection§REF§" }, { "id": 539, "polity": { "id": 663, "name": "ni_oyo_emp_1", "long_name": "Oyo", "start_year": 1300, "end_year": 1535 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_language", "language": "Yoruba", "comment": null, "description": "\"Archaeological evidence demonstrates the antiquity of human settlement in Yorubaland, while linguistic evidence suggests that the Yorbua (in the sense of speakers of the Yoruba language) have long occupied their present homeland. The Yoruba have probably lived in Yorubaland for some thousands of years. [...] The traditions of the Yoruba peoples, including the Oyo, trace the origins of kingship to the town of Ife, or Ile Ife.\" §REF§(Law 1977: 26)§REF§" }, { "id": 540, "polity": { "id": 664, "name": "ni_proto_yoruboid", "long_name": "Proto-Yoruboid", "start_year": -300, "end_year": 300 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_language", "language": "Proto-Yoruboid", "comment": null, "description": "\"The proto-Yoruboid was one of the language communities that developed from the proto-Benue-Kwa expansion between ca. 4000 and 2500 BC.\"§REF§(Ogundiran 2020: 35)§REF§" }, { "id": 541, "polity": { "id": 666, "name": "ni_sokoto_cal", "long_name": "Sokoto Caliphate", "start_year": 1804, "end_year": 1904 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_language", "language": "Sokoto", "comment": null, "description": "“Hausa is considered a Chadic language. Today, Hausa speakers are estimated to total about 40 million. The language is primarily spoken in northern Nigeria and Niger, but can also be heard in neighboring countries such as Chad, Burkina Faso, northern Cameroon, Togo, Benin, and Ghana. Several dialects are used, for example, Kano and Sokoto, across northern Nigeria. Since the 17th century, Hausa has been written in a version of Arabic script called ajami that, like Arabic, is written and read left to right. Hausa is a tonal language, signifying that the meaning of a word depends on the high, medium, or low tone assigned to the vowels. The spellings of words, however, have not been standardized, and variations exist. Many of the written works in Hausa, especially prior to the mid-20th century, are based on Islamic themes.” §REF§Falola, Toyin, and Ann Genova. Historical Dictionary of Nigeria. The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 2009: 149. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/SJAIVKDW/collection§REF§ “In the city of Sokoto there was a small bureaucracy headed by the vizier who in his own house had some scribes to receive and write short (one-page) letters in classical Arabic to those emirs he was in charge of overseeing (Last 1967:190-97) . Imported paper and local ink were used, and letters from the Amir al-mu'minin had his personal stamp on them (the vizier and the emirs had no stamp of their own). The letters were never dated, but they were folded in a precise way and carried in a pouch by a messenger; it could take a week or more for a letter to reach the addressee, since fifteen miles a day was a good speed and distances were huge.”§REF§Last, Murray. “Contradictions in Creating a Jihadi Capital: Sokoto in the Nineteenth Century and Its Legacy.” African Studies Review, vol. 56, no. 2, 2013, pp. 1–20: 6. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/5RUPN5VI/collection§REF§" }, { "id": 542, "polity": { "id": 666, "name": "ni_sokoto_cal", "long_name": "Sokoto Caliphate", "start_year": 1804, "end_year": 1904 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_language", "language": "Hausa", "comment": null, "description": "“Hausa is considered a Chadic language. Today, Hausa speakers are estimated to total about 40 million. The language is primarily spoken in northern Nigeria and Niger, but can also be heard in neighboring countries such as Chad, Burkina Faso, northern Cameroon, Togo, Benin, and Ghana. Several dialects are used, for example, Kano and Sokoto, across northern Nigeria. Since the 17th century, Hausa has been written in a version of Arabic script called ajami that, like Arabic, is written and read left to right. Hausa is a tonal language, signifying that the meaning of a word depends on the high, medium, or low tone assigned to the vowels. The spellings of words, however, have not been standardized, and variations exist. Many of the written works in Hausa, especially prior to the mid-20th century, are based on Islamic themes.” §REF§Falola, Toyin, and Ann Genova. Historical Dictionary of Nigeria. The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 2009: 149. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/SJAIVKDW/collection§REF§ “In the city of Sokoto there was a small bureaucracy headed by the vizier who in his own house had some scribes to receive and write short (one-page) letters in classical Arabic to those emirs he was in charge of overseeing (Last 1967:190-97) . Imported paper and local ink were used, and letters from the Amir al-mu'minin had his personal stamp on them (the vizier and the emirs had no stamp of their own). The letters were never dated, but they were folded in a precise way and carried in a pouch by a messenger; it could take a week or more for a letter to reach the addressee, since fifteen miles a day was a good speed and distances were huge.”§REF§Last, Murray. “Contradictions in Creating a Jihadi Capital: Sokoto in the Nineteenth Century and Its Legacy.” African Studies Review, vol. 56, no. 2, 2013, pp. 1–20: 6. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/5RUPN5VI/collection§REF§" }, { "id": 543, "polity": { "id": 666, "name": "ni_sokoto_cal", "long_name": "Sokoto Caliphate", "start_year": 1804, "end_year": 1904 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_language", "language": "Arabic", "comment": null, "description": "“Hausa is considered a Chadic language. Today, Hausa speakers are estimated to total about 40 million. The language is primarily spoken in northern Nigeria and Niger, but can also be heard in neighboring countries such as Chad, Burkina Faso, northern Cameroon, Togo, Benin, and Ghana. Several dialects are used, for example, Kano and Sokoto, across northern Nigeria. Since the 17th century, Hausa has been written in a version of Arabic script called ajami that, like Arabic, is written and read left to right. Hausa is a tonal language, signifying that the meaning of a word depends on the high, medium, or low tone assigned to the vowels. The spellings of words, however, have not been standardized, and variations exist. Many of the written works in Hausa, especially prior to the mid-20th century, are based on Islamic themes.” §REF§Falola, Toyin, and Ann Genova. Historical Dictionary of Nigeria. The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 2009: 149. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/SJAIVKDW/collection§REF§ “In the city of Sokoto there was a small bureaucracy headed by the vizier who in his own house had some scribes to receive and write short (one-page) letters in classical Arabic to those emirs he was in charge of overseeing (Last 1967:190-97) . Imported paper and local ink were used, and letters from the Amir al-mu'minin had his personal stamp on them (the vizier and the emirs had no stamp of their own). The letters were never dated, but they were folded in a precise way and carried in a pouch by a messenger; it could take a week or more for a letter to reach the addressee, since fifteen miles a day was a good speed and distances were huge.”§REF§Last, Murray. “Contradictions in Creating a Jihadi Capital: Sokoto in the Nineteenth Century and Its Legacy.” African Studies Review, vol. 56, no. 2, 2013, pp. 1–20: 6. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/5RUPN5VI/collection§REF§" }, { "id": 544, "polity": { "id": 667, "name": "ni_igala_k", "long_name": "Igala", "start_year": 1600, "end_year": 1900 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_language", "language": "Idoma", "comment": null, "description": "“Many central Nigerian peoples have a tradition of an ancient migration ‘from Apa’, but in some of these cases, linguistic evidence makes a historic relationship very unlikely. The Idoma speak a Kwa language, related to Igala and Igbo, whereas Jukun is a Benue-Congo language. But Idoma ancestral chants sing of an ancestral home in Apa, in the Benue valley.” §REF§Isichei, Elizabeth. A History of African Societies to 1870. Cambridge University Press, 1997: 235. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/Z4GK27CI/collection§REF§ Arabic was used at least at certain points for judicial/administrative tasks: “Available records reveal that Ochalla Angna and Olimamu Attah both [had] Islamic clerics served as court scribes (what is today known as court clerks) and records of proceedings were written and kept in Arabic.” §REF§Jacob, Audu. “Pre-Colonial Political Administration in the North Central Nigeria: a Study of the Igala Political Kingdom.” European Scientific Journal, vol. 10, no. 19, 2014, pp. 392–402: 399. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/5AN8R7UW/collection§REF§" }, { "id": 545, "polity": { "id": 667, "name": "ni_igala_k", "long_name": "Igala", "start_year": 1600, "end_year": 1900 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_language", "language": "Arabic", "comment": null, "description": "“Many central Nigerian peoples have a tradition of an ancient migration ‘from Apa’, but in some of these cases, linguistic evidence makes a historic relationship very unlikely. The Idoma speak a Kwa language, related to Igala and Igbo, whereas Jukun is a Benue-Congo language. But Idoma ancestral chants sing of an ancestral home in Apa, in the Benue valley.” §REF§Isichei, Elizabeth. A History of African Societies to 1870. Cambridge University Press, 1997: 235. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/Z4GK27CI/collection§REF§ Arabic was used at least at certain points for judicial/administrative tasks: “Available records reveal that Ochalla Angna and Olimamu Attah both [had] Islamic clerics served as court scribes (what is today known as court clerks) and records of proceedings were written and kept in Arabic.” §REF§Jacob, Audu. “Pre-Colonial Political Administration in the North Central Nigeria: a Study of the Igala Political Kingdom.” European Scientific Journal, vol. 10, no. 19, 2014, pp. 392–402: 399. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/5AN8R7UW/collection§REF§" }, { "id": 546, "polity": { "id": 668, "name": "ni_nri_k", "long_name": "Ọ̀ràézè Ǹrì", "start_year": 1043, "end_year": 1911 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_language", "language": "Igbo", "comment": null, "description": "The dominant linguistic group in the area is Igbo, but this has many dialects and varieties. It appears there may be a dialectal variety called Nri, but it is unclear whether this is a distinct language from Igbo, or a variant of it, and whether this is exclusive to those people identifying as Nri. WALS does not include Nri, only Igbo. “Linguistically, the Igbo belong to the Kwa sub-family of the Niger-Congo languages. Socio-culturally and linguistically, the Igbo could be further divided into four groups: the northern Igbo, the western Igbo, the north-eastern Igbo and the eastern Igbo.” §REF§Ejidike, O. M. (1999). Human Rights in the Cultural Traditions and Social Practice of the Igbo of South-Eastern Nigeria. Journal of African Law, 43(1), 71–98: 74. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/7CMJSBJH/collection§REF§ “The Kwa-speaking region is broadly identical with the yam belt. It includes Igbo, Igala, Idoma, Ijo, Yoruba, the Aja languages (Ewe, Fon and Gun) and the Akan languages.” §REF§Isichei, Elizabeth. A History of African Societies to 1870. Cambridge University Press, 1997: 244. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/Z4GK27CI/collection§REF§ “In Nri 'cloth wrapped round the waist' is akwa, ogodu 'cloth worn' is efe. In Ibusa only elders know that 'cloth wrapped round the waist' is ogodu, otherwise all 'cloth' is called akwa by younger people.” §REF§Onwuejeogwu, M. A. (1975). Some Fundamental Problems in the Application of Lexicostatistics in the Study of African Languages. Paideuma, 21, 6–17: 12. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/IISK3KCM/collection§REF§" }, { "id": 547, "polity": { "id": 668, "name": "ni_nri_k", "long_name": "Ọ̀ràézè Ǹrì", "start_year": 1043, "end_year": 1911 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_language", "language": "Nri", "comment": null, "description": "The dominant linguistic group in the area is Igbo, but this has many dialects and varieties. It appears there may be a dialectal variety called Nri, but it is unclear whether this is a distinct language from Igbo, or a variant of it, and whether this is exclusive to those people identifying as Nri. WALS does not include Nri, only Igbo. “Linguistically, the Igbo belong to the Kwa sub-family of the Niger-Congo languages. Socio-culturally and linguistically, the Igbo could be further divided into four groups: the northern Igbo, the western Igbo, the north-eastern Igbo and the eastern Igbo.” §REF§Ejidike, O. M. (1999). Human Rights in the Cultural Traditions and Social Practice of the Igbo of South-Eastern Nigeria. Journal of African Law, 43(1), 71–98: 74. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/7CMJSBJH/collection§REF§ “The Kwa-speaking region is broadly identical with the yam belt. It includes Igbo, Igala, Idoma, Ijo, Yoruba, the Aja languages (Ewe, Fon and Gun) and the Akan languages.” §REF§Isichei, Elizabeth. A History of African Societies to 1870. Cambridge University Press, 1997: 244. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/Z4GK27CI/collection§REF§ “In Nri 'cloth wrapped round the waist' is akwa, ogodu 'cloth worn' is efe. In Ibusa only elders know that 'cloth wrapped round the waist' is ogodu, otherwise all 'cloth' is called akwa by younger people.” §REF§Onwuejeogwu, M. A. (1975). Some Fundamental Problems in the Application of Lexicostatistics in the Study of African Languages. Paideuma, 21, 6–17: 12. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/IISK3KCM/collection§REF§" }, { "id": 548, "polity": { "id": 669, "name": "ni_hausa_k", "long_name": "Hausa bakwai", "start_year": 900, "end_year": 1808 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_language", "language": "Hausa", "comment": null, "description": "“Hausa is considered a Chadic language. Today, Hausa speakers are estimated to total about 40 million. The language is primarily spoken in northern Nigeria and Niger, but can also be heard in neighboring countries such as Chad, Burkina Faso, northern Cameroon, Togo, Benin, and Ghana. Several dialects are used, for example, Kano and Sokoto, across northern Nigeria. Since the 17th century, Hausa has been written in a version of Arabic script called ajami that, like Arabic, is written and read left to right. Hausa is a tonal language, signifying that the meaning of a word depends on the high, medium, or low tone assigned to the vowels. The spellings of words, however, have not been standardized, and variations exist. Many of the written works in Hausa, especially prior to the mid-20th century, are based on Islamic themes.” §REF§Falola, Toyin, and Ann Genova. Historical Dictionary of Nigeria. The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 2009: 149. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/SJAIVKDW/collection§REF§" }, { "id": 549, "polity": { "id": 670, "name": "ni_bornu_emp", "long_name": "Kanem-Borno", "start_year": 1380, "end_year": 1893 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_language", "language": "Kanuri", "comment": null, "description": "“As a consequence, their Nilo-Saharan language, Kanuri, became the lingua franca of the empire.” §REF§Hiribarren, V. (2016). Kanem-Bornu Empire. In N. Dalziel & J. M. MacKenzie (Eds.), The Encyclopedia of Empire (pp. 1–6). John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.: 1–2. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/KNHK5ANQ/collection§REF§ “Generally the main objectives of all mahrams was to show appreciation by the sovereign and this was through bestowing special privileges to the person (or persons) to whom the mahram was addressed. In the case of Borno, one such group that appear to have benefitted most from this system is the '(scholastic) class. The reason for their dominance is obvious. In the first place they constituted a literate, knowledgeable and articulate group in the society. Because of their skill, especially in Arabic, an international medium which was also the official language of Borno, as well as the Maghrib, they were Borno’s intellectual link with the Islamic World. As a highly mobile group, possessing their own peculiar network, the scholars were well informed about events in other Muslim lands. They also had close relations with the merchant class in the sense that the former's itinerant journeys were often in the company of the latter.” §REF§AMINU, M. (1981). THE PLACE OF MAHRAMS IN THE HISTORY OF KANEM-BORNO. Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria, 10(4), 31–38: 33. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/5ERZU7K2/collection§REF§ “The Bornu manuscripts discussed in the present article were first described by A. D. H. Bivar in his publication of 1960 'A dated Kuran from Bornu' (Bivar 1960). The author gave a short but very informative account of four early quranic manuscripts with interlinear vernacular glosses in Arabic/Ajamic script, which he examined during his travels to northern Nigeria in 1958-59. Among the most remarkable findings of Bivar's investigation was the discovery of a date in one of the Qurans, and the identification of the vernacular language. Apart from the vernacular glosses, the dated manuscript, which was in the possession of Imam Ibrahim, Imam Juma Maiduguri (the head of the Muslim community of Maiduguri), carried an abridged Arabic commentary, the jami ahkam al-qur'an of al-Qurtubi, and a colophon with the date of completion of this commentary–1 Jumadi II, 1080 ah (26 October, ad 1669) (Bivar 1960: 203). The language of the glosses in all four Qurans was established as Kanembu, one of the dialects of Kanuri–a major Nilo-Saharan language spoken mainly in north-east Nigeria and the main language of ancient Bornu.” §REF§Bondarev, Dmitry. “The Language of the Glosses in the Bornu Quranic Manuscripts.” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, vol. 69, no. 1, 2006, pp. 113–40: 113. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/EK9MA3WU/collection§REF§" }, { "id": 550, "polity": { "id": 670, "name": "ni_bornu_emp", "long_name": "Kanem-Borno", "start_year": 1380, "end_year": 1893 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_language", "language": "Kanembu", "comment": null, "description": "“As a consequence, their Nilo-Saharan language, Kanuri, became the lingua franca of the empire.” §REF§Hiribarren, V. (2016). Kanem-Bornu Empire. In N. Dalziel & J. M. MacKenzie (Eds.), The Encyclopedia of Empire (pp. 1–6). John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.: 1–2. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/KNHK5ANQ/collection§REF§ “Generally the main objectives of all mahrams was to show appreciation by the sovereign and this was through bestowing special privileges to the person (or persons) to whom the mahram was addressed. In the case of Borno, one such group that appear to have benefitted most from this system is the '(scholastic) class. The reason for their dominance is obvious. In the first place they constituted a literate, knowledgeable and articulate group in the society. Because of their skill, especially in Arabic, an international medium which was also the official language of Borno, as well as the Maghrib, they were Borno’s intellectual link with the Islamic World. As a highly mobile group, possessing their own peculiar network, the scholars were well informed about events in other Muslim lands. They also had close relations with the merchant class in the sense that the former's itinerant journeys were often in the company of the latter.” §REF§AMINU, M. (1981). THE PLACE OF MAHRAMS IN THE HISTORY OF KANEM-BORNO. Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria, 10(4), 31–38: 33. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/5ERZU7K2/collection§REF§ “The Bornu manuscripts discussed in the present article were first described by A. D. H. Bivar in his publication of 1960 'A dated Kuran from Bornu' (Bivar 1960). The author gave a short but very informative account of four early quranic manuscripts with interlinear vernacular glosses in Arabic/Ajamic script, which he examined during his travels to northern Nigeria in 1958-59. Among the most remarkable findings of Bivar's investigation was the discovery of a date in one of the Qurans, and the identification of the vernacular language. Apart from the vernacular glosses, the dated manuscript, which was in the possession of Imam Ibrahim, Imam Juma Maiduguri (the head of the Muslim community of Maiduguri), carried an abridged Arabic commentary, the jami ahkam al-qur'an of al-Qurtubi, and a colophon with the date of completion of this commentary–1 Jumadi II, 1080 ah (26 October, ad 1669) (Bivar 1960: 203). The language of the glosses in all four Qurans was established as Kanembu, one of the dialects of Kanuri–a major Nilo-Saharan language spoken mainly in north-east Nigeria and the main language of ancient Bornu.” §REF§Bondarev, Dmitry. “The Language of the Glosses in the Bornu Quranic Manuscripts.” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, vol. 69, no. 1, 2006, pp. 113–40: 113. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/EK9MA3WU/collection§REF§" } ] }