The name Somali is originally came from the two Somali words of SOO and MAAL that means, “Go and milk it”. That shows that the Somali people were rural and herders, who moves from a place-to-place seeking for a good grazing lands.

The history of Somali people dates back so many centuries. The first time the word Somali mentioned in a history books was 3500 years ago, when the queen of Egypt Hatsebshut sent a fleet of 5 large ships and a crew of 250 men to Somalia which the Egyptians called The Land of Punt. Punt means “THE LAND OF SPICES” from the aromatic plants that grow there. The Egyptians wanted to trade and they brought jewels and glass beads that they exchanged for gold, elephant tusks myrrh, ostrich feathers, spices and different beads. Some of these items, especially the aromatic ones were Egyptians used to their religious festivals and celebrations.

 

The Egyptian merchants and explorers described that they came across a nation of dark-skinned people who lived in a raised huts set on stilts.

In 9th Century Ibn Batuta the great Berber traveller visited in Mogadishu and wrote about the people, their food and clothing and how they ruled themselves. In his book he mentioned that the people in the city were very fat and everybody ate as much as he cans, the Mogadishans, who he called the people in the city, wore very nice white clothes and turbans and their sultan was very powerful.
Between the 7th and 9th Cent. Immigrant Muslim Arabs and Persians established trading posts along Somali Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean coasts.

 

Somalia was an unknown country for European explorers until the Portuguese explorers reached the coastal cities of Somalia on their way to India. They called it Terra Incognita, which means the unknown land. These new discoveries encouraged many other European navigators to sail on the Somali coats of Red Sea and The Indian Ocean.

THE COLONIAL ERA.

British, Italian and French imperialism all played an active role in the region in the 19th century.
In 1884 the European powers conference in Berlin, they decided to divide Somalia in to five parts. The reason is that because the Somalis are one of the most homogeneous nations in the world with one language, religion and race.

The colonial powers divided Somalia in to British Somaliland in the north, Italian Somalia in south, French Somali coast in Djibouti, Ogaden in west and NFD. In early 19th century a Somali resistance against these colonial powers started, one of the strongest resistance was led by Sayed Mohammed Abdullah Hassan, which British empire gave the name of Mad Mullah. He began his opposition after his returning from Mecca and established his own army, which he called them The Dervishes recruiting from the local people and built his own headquarter in Taleex. In 1901 the fighting started between British and local Somali forces and it was a beginning in a long fighting that resulted the Somali independence.