Thread by @MuseGalaal_

🧵THREAD🧵 Afar History:

An insight of the Dancali Sultanate and their comparisons with Adal, traitorous relations and way of life.

The Dancali Afar Sultanate which is situated as a buffer zone between Ethiopia and Adal sultanate was a vassal of the former(🇪🇹).

The territory encompassed most of modern day Afar lands(Southern Eritrea, Afar region).

The word Dankali is still used today by the Afars.

The foreign relations with the Dancali Afar Sultanate had a consistent chemistry throughout the centuries. They were friends of the Abyssinians but ‘ancient enemies’ of the Adel Sultanate. Very weird considering Afars view Adel mainly as Afar but hated them.

The Ethiopian-Afar relations go way back to the era of Baede Maryam. Where the Afars and Ethiopians were allied and Afar rulers offered their hand to destroy an ethnic group known as the Doba’a

Calling Emperor Baede Maryam his “master” and gave him gifts of mules with dates

This was very different to the Adal sultanate which took preemptive measures to protect the Doba’a from a genocide perpetrated by the Dancali Afars and Ethiopians. However the Emperor knew of these plans and the Doba’a were cut to pieces regardless of age and sex.

The Afars used to give their daughters to the Ethiopian kings as a sign of tribute and respect to their Ethiopian Christian allies.

There was a Dancali ruler who was known as Kamil. Kamil overthrew his brother then took a long journey to the Emperor Suseynos.

He then bent down and prostrated himself in front of Suseynos. After committing SHIRK, he then accepted to pay half of his tax revenue as tribute.😂

Kamil saw himself as a poor goatherd; for that reason paid respect and recognition to his mighty Ethiopian neighbour.

We can understand this severity of how poor the Dancali sultanate was by looking at the ruler’s palace.

which was a small hut made of sticks and clay 🛖

After the Turks occupied the Eritrean coast. The only point of contact with Ethiopia was through Beilul.

Beilul was the Dancali Sultanate’s main port and their main provisions were a few goats, good fat sheep and big pigs.🤔Surprisingly they also sold their children to 🇵🇹.

The inhabitants of Beilul as narrated by Indian traveller Khodja Murad were a ‘wild people’ who practiced a “religion of their own”who walked around “completely naked”. They only wore a small piece of cloth to cover their nakedness when they sat down.

These sentiments are also shared with Yemeni diplomat Hasan Ibn Ahmed Al-Haymi who saw the Afar language as “barbaric”, saw their appearance as repulsive and found the population stupid when they were dumbfounded at the firing of muskets.

Khodja Murad viewed the Dancali ruler Suhaym as a ‘Muslim’ kaffir and Al-Haymi viewed him as a nominal ‘Muslim’. This may be due to the fact the ruler had 12 wives more than what is allowed in Islam.

It is stressed he scarcely followed Islam and the population practiced this too

We have an interesting source from the Portuguese gave us a look into Dancali music. The Portuguese narrated that they sang so devoid of character and energy that it was more annoying than amusing to listen to.

You are confused right? Portuguese in Afar lands; a few decades the Imam’s death? Yes, that was the case. The ruler himself offered safe passage of them into their lands which was in stark contrast to Adal who put them to death as soon as they stepped foot in Zeila.

To those who try to conflate the tribute of Adal Sultanate and the tribute of Dancali. It was vividly stated that Adal’s came from treachery and bloodshed but Dancali came a from loyal heart.

The Portuguese even acknowledged that the Dancali ruler called the Emperor “father”.😂

The Dancali king Kamil was seen by the Portuguese as greedy, mean and rude. He was very extortionate of his demands and wanted to milk them dry of the gifts that they had carried.

The main Dancali Afar escort who guided the Portuguese in their lands tried to steal the ropes that the Portuguese had. He tried to hide it under his saddle until they found out. This caused tension where the Portuguese threatened to cut his head off with a musket.

The Dancali Afar escort threatened to drink the last drops of water if a Portuguese soldier didn’t give his trousers for him to wear, the group asked him to but he refused to, being afraid to suffer.

It seemed that the Dancali sultanate suffered from locust outbreaks which would swarm the entire region destroying crops. Where the ground looked like it was moving due to their abundance.

Portuguese soldiers would periodically shout “Vegia, Vegia” which would mean “Keep Watch, Keep Watch” whilst the Dancali Afar escorts mistook this as “Bugia, Bugia” which meant “Act like a monkey, Act like a monkey”.

I hope this thread gives you a glimpse of the Dancali Afar Sultanate and its comparisons with the Adal sultanate.

🧵END OF THREAD🧵