Barawa 1890; seen from the east.                                                                                    Barawa 1890; seen from the coast.

The sand dunes on the pictures make you understand that most of its old buildings are now buried underneath deposits up to 6 m deep. Notice the Friday mosque.

 

Taken from: An Archaeological Reconnaissance of the Southern Somali Coast by Neville Chittick

 

None of the buildings appear to be of any great antiquity, though it is known to be one of the earliest places of importance. The earlier mosques appear to be of the eighteenth century. The mosque of Abu Bakr Siddiq appears to be built on a much earlier structure, the top of a kidaka or recess, surrounded by a rope-pattern moulding, protruding a little above the top of the present floor. The earliest of the few sherds found along the beach was a fragment of sgraffiato of late type (thirteenth century).

 

About 1 km west of the town there was a sparse scatter of pottery; of the ten unglazed rim-sherds collected one is certainly, and another possibly, of Kwale ware. This is the Early Iron Age pottery of around the third century A.D. A small rim-sherd of yellow fabric looks as if it may be from an Islamic tin-glaze bowl. If this doubtful identification is correct, it would indicate continued occupation in the ninth/tenth century; there is certainly later occupation in this area, for among a scatter of sherds some distance to the north was found the base of a celadon bowl, probably of the fifteenth or sixteenth century.

 

Taken from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Tunni Sultanate:

The Tunni (Somali clan), composed of five sub-clans (Da'farad, Dakhtira, Goygali, Hajuwa, and Waridi), were the latest to drive the Jiddu into the interior, where they established their own Sultanate called Tunni Sultanate. The Tunni made a treaty with the Jiddu so that Tunni settled on the west bank of the Shabelle and the Jiddu settled on the east bank. Both also agreed to resist foreign penetration, to allow only Seddah Saamood (the three foot-prints, which are the Tuni, the Jiddu, and the wild beasts). However, they did accept the first Muslim migrants, the Hatimi from Yemen and the Amawi from Syria, around the 10th century, for both religious and commercial reasons. Barawa founded by a Tunni saint called Aw-Al became the new capital for the Tunni Sultanate. The town prospered and became one of the major Islamic centers in the Horn, the Barawaani Ulama, attracting students from all over the region. Muslim scholars of that time, such as Ibn Sa'id (1250AD), wrote about Barawa as "an Islamic island on the Somali coast." Al-Idrisi (1150AD) also described the construction of the coral houses and noted that Barawa was full of both domestic and foreign commodities.

Taken from: The origins of Barawa by Al-Banadir.      https://banadirwiki.com/barawa/

 

The oldest part of the town is an area called Mpayi, it is located in the northern coast of Barawa and is built on a rocky spit of land. Most of the houses in Mpayi is made from coral rags and mortar, and are built adjoining each other, the walls are sometimes plastered white, the doors are hand crafted to commemorate the Swahili architecture they share with its Swahili coastal neighbors. Mpayi is famous for its maze of alleyways as seen in the old towns of Hamarweyne and Shingani. Contemporary to its narrow alleyways, Mpayi prides itself for its historical buildings, such as the oldest Mosque in Barawa, the Jami Mosque (also known as Miskiti ya Jima, or Friday Mosque) which faces the sea, the famous Chilani Lighthouse and the Wali’s (Sultans) house. Mpayi also has the main square or an open plan courtyard (also known as Ibanya Ya Mpayi) in front of the Friday Mosque.

The Jami (Friday) Mosque of Barawa; here the inscriptions mentioned under were to be found. The Mosque was many times rebuild.

 

Taken from: Somalia: Storia della Somalia. L'Islam in Somalia. Il Libro degli Zengi ; By Enrico Cerulli 1957

 

I (Cerulli) was unable to go to Brava to do research directly on the undoubted remains of medieval Arab antiquities existing there. But a Bravano pointed out to me the existence, in the al - Jami mosque of Brava, of an inscription dated from the 9th century of the AH (1398-1495 vulgar era); and of another inscription, I believe funerary, of which at my request he sent me a copy which is the following:

Hajj Shanid ibn Abu Bakr ibn Umar ibn Utman ibn Hasan ibn 'Ali ibn Abu Bakr; and he passed into that (?) tomb in the year 498 being the month of rabi al-ahir. The month of rabi al - ahir of 498 AH corresponds to the period: 21 December 1104 - 18 January 1105 AD. If the date was read exactly by my informant, this would be the earliest recorded inscription in Somalia so far; on the other hand, historically, the reading is unlikely because precisely from the 10th to the 13th century of the Common Era the major Arab colonies on the Somali coast were constituted, as we have seen elsewhere.

Taken from : Revoil G., Voyage chez les Bénadirs, les Somalis et les Bayouns en 1882 et 1883 ; Le Tour du Monde, 1888, tome 2, Paris, pp. 385-416.

 

P388-392

From the territory of the Bimals to Braoua, a region inhabited by the Touni, a fairly large tribe, but divided by rivalries.

At one o'clock in the afternoon we anchored abeam of Braoua, after having skirted a plateau of rocks and passed the Barette islets, whose line forms a harbor open to all winds.

A lone minaret, built in the south of the city, and a flagpole on the northern point, indicate to the dhows the pass, which rocks at water level make dangerous. The appearance of Braoua is sad. Its stone houses, few in number and miserable, are scattered among the huts, which extend over sandy ground and do not resemble the conical huts of Moguedouchou and Meurka. The city is long, and part of it is hidden by a subsidence of the ground at the foot of small hills of reddish sand.

Like Moguodouchou and Meurka, it is surrounded by walls that have a false air of fortifications, and has a garrison of two hundred men. At this moment, the beach resembled a vast anthill, the population celebrated the launching of a Boutre with much singing, sound of trumpets, cries of enthusiasm.

At intervals, a cannon mingled its voice with the hubbub of the crowd while the workers slid the brand new and brilliantly decorated boat on the sand. Also, thanks to the popular emotion, it was possible for us to disembark almost unnoticed and to avoid unwelcoming things. Only the brother of Salem, established in Braoua for many years and who had been warned of my arrival, came to meet me as soon as the French flag of our boutre (dhow) had been reported to him. He had taken care to have accommodation prepared for us in the house of an Indian merchant, next to his, so as to spare me all worry. We went together to greet the governor and, without losing time, we began to explore the city in order to fix for the next day the interesting points to study.

I must admit that my disappointment was great: the city devoid of all greenery, looks as sad from near as from afar. Only, here and there, in the middle of the daub dwellings, a few sections of walls or a few rare frontons of mosques still preserve fragments of sculptures contemporary with the grandeur of Moguodouchou and recall the passage of the civilized populations of Yemen and the Persian Gulf. The mosques are the only public buildings. Dirty and without any character, there are fourteen of them, rebuilt on ruins. Here are the names in order of seniority: Jamah, Abd-er-Rahman, Atig, Cheik-Abd-el-Kader, Othman, Abou-Bekr-Sadik, Cheikh-Deher-Malleh, Hadji-Sim-beya, Cher-Madde, Hadji-Ouelo, Feukih-Omar, Nour, Seyd-Omar and Seyd-Othman.

In some of them, the kibla was decorated with very modern earthenware, next to a few plates in old China: but, in short, nothing deserved a description, nor even lent itself to a photographic reproduction.

In the absence of archaeological documents prior to the domination of the Adjouranes (Ajuran), dispossessed, according to some, by the Galles, and, according to others, by the current Touni, I was reduced to studying the modern Braoue, very different from the other cities of the Benadir.

Indeed, as I have said, one does not find there the conical huts of the Somalis, but rectangular huts, covered in macoutis, as among the Swahilis, and whose walls are covered with a reddish mortar made with the clay of the country. On the terraces of some stone houses stand light huts, forming aerial dwellings of a curious appearance.

There is no citadel or barracks for the garrison in Braoua, as in Meurka or Moguedouchou; the governor's soldiers are housed here and there. As for the wall, which could at most shelter the city from a sudden attack from inland, it connects a series of forts which dominate the gates and in which sentinels keep watch continually. During the night, these sentinels isolate themselves in their sentry boxes by removing the ladder that serves as a staircase.

Braoua has five wells, large and deep, whose construction dates back to more prosperous times. They are, for the most part, fed by infiltrations from the sea, and the water is generally brackish.

The peaceful physiognomy of the inhabitants contrasts with the arrogant and worried appearance of the populations that we had visited until then. The races are very mixed here, and on the market, very quiet, where corn, squash and anchovies dried in the sun are exchanged for common products brought from the interior by caravans, many Bedouins, with coppery complexions and gentle manners, mingle with the Somalis, more tanned, and with the Kallalah and Ellai Bedouins, of whom I previously spoke in my descriptions of Guelidi. Mention should also be made of the natives of Djido, a region bathed by the Ouebi and a few hours from Braoua. Their clothes are dyed dark brown with the juice of a bark, and their women adorn themselves with necklaces of pearls, glass beads and shells interspersed with pieces of tin or tinplate. Superb oxen with long horns serve them, in preference to camels, for the transport of cereals, skins, rhinoceros’ horns, tallow, myrrh, ivory and gum, which they exchange, in varying quantities, on the market of Braoua for cotton, iron, old copper, earthenware, etc., brought to them by Arabs.

Among the most sought-after products, we must mention fallah-fallah, an aromatic bark used to make fumigations, poison wood (ouabaio) and mogat, a salt based on potassium, widely used in the indigenous pharmacopoeia, and which are brought by the Somalis from the interior.

The manufacture of cotton fabrics, which was once so renowned, no longer exists in Braoua except for memory.

Apart from anchovies, caught with a net and which dry on the terraces, spreading a foul odor, there are hardly any resources for the local trade. My meticulous searches in all the homes of Braoua, facilitated by the popularity of Salem's brother and my Arab costume, will therefore provide me with few new documents.

Moreover, as in Meurka, it was enough that I was seen looking for earthenware and antiques for the exaggerated prices, immediately established by mutual agreement, to make any purchase impossible for me. I was even obliged to give up my walks through the town, where smallpox was then cruelly raging. The troops of curious kids, growing by the moment, who fell in behind me and followed me everywhere brazenly, also hindered my observations, and I preferred to attract to our home the people of the locality who might possess some interesting objects. I was offered all the specimens of the country's manufacture, among others the spears that are exported throughout the region of Djoub to Kismayo and among the Bayouns, but I could not discover any archaeological document. In compensation, I took several views of Braoua. Under the protection of an escort that the ouali (wali-governor) kindly placed at my disposal, we toured the city outside the walls and chose some advantageous sites. The mosque of Abd-el-Kader, among others, rebuilt on the site of a very ancient mosque, stops us first of all. A cemetery surrounds this monument, and, before long, the sands which already cover the tombs will have buried the building itself under their shifting shroud. Two plates of very common European earthenware, embedded in the mortar above the door, attest to the recent repairs. From time to time, in fact, the exit of this mosque is cleared, which is maintained by an influential personage of the region, Sheikh Abd el-Kader. Two or three inscriptions plastered in the masonry and doubtless removed from neighboring graves must mention the names of some of the ancestors of the Sheikh; but I could not be sure. This family is allied to the Abd el-Kader of Baghdad, one of whom, Abd el-Kader el-Ghilani, founded the famous zaouia (zawiya: a Sufi institution) which bears his name.

The sheikh who had embarked at Meurka, on board my dhow, during my crossing from Zanzibar to Moguedouchou, and who bore the name of Sheikh Aoues Abd el-Kader, came from Baghdad and represented this zaouia.

I found him surrounded by about fifty followers, who never left his side and to whom he preached his intolerant doctrines. Their meeting place was a mosque outside the walls, to the northwest of the city, and which bore the name of Aoues.

Following the ramparts to the southwest, we came across the remains of Arab tombs, dating back at least two centuries, and, as we crossed the fields, the mosque of Seyd-Omar; we passed in front of the tomb of Mr. Deale, agent of the Hantzing house, of Zanzibar, who was treacherously assassinated in 1871, it was too late to visit the tower of Braoua, which rises on a wave placed on the southern extension of the line of the Barette islets. We postponed this trip until the next day ……………………………………………

We still had to visit the minaret which stands on an islet and to the southwest of which the buildings come to anchor to get closer to the best wells. We went there by the beach, taking advantage of the low tide.

Traditions place in the vicinity of the tower a large agglomeration of buildings today completely buried under the sands.

We could barely discover here and there some vestiges of the most flourishing and most ancient city founded by the Arabs on the eastern coast of Africa.

End of the Middle-Ages View of Brava by the Portuguese

 

Taken from: Lendas da India by Gaspar Correa 16^th Vol 1

 

DUARTE PACHECO, SEA CAPTAIN, 1503.

Leaving this in place, he left and went to Malindi in search of Antonio de Saldanha, where he arrived, the King received him with great pleasure, because he was at war with the King of Bombaça, who had us ready to come and fight with him; what all El Rey spoke to Ruy Lou Renço, he did what was necessary, and left soon for Bombaça, and there he took two naos and three zambucos with many people and belongings, and in those naos he took eighteen Moorish rich merchants, natives of the City of Braua, which was very rich and populous on the coast itself. Those merchants will redeem themselves for a lot of money, and for freeing a vessel that came behind, there is great fear that the vessel would come to them, so everyone becomes vassals of the King of Portugal, paying a thousand maticaes every year, which will soon be payed, and they will all give their signed letters, obliging themselves to pay each year in the City to whoever goes there. What Ruy Lourenço dissimulated, saying that every year he would order them to be collected, and he left them, and went on his way, and arrived at Bombaça  ………….

 

DOM FRANCISCO, VISOREY, 1507.

……………The Major Captain (Tristao da Cunha), with an armada running along the coast, went to the city of Brava, the most noble and populous city on the entire coast, with beautiful houses with many houses and terraces, and beautiful mosques; sitting on a back, which made it very showy, and completely surrounded by a wall, cubicles, and three doors facing the beach, where the sea breaks a lot. Its coast is unprotected from all winds, so disembarking was very dangerous, and this city is famous for being large and rich.

……………… Then the Major Captain made three squadrons of people, and he and one hundred men entered one gate, and another gate Dom Afonso Captain of Çacotorá, and the last gate Afonso d'Alboquerque, each with three hundred men, who upon entering the doors heard the our dead, and wounded, because the Moors were very armed with guns, traps, and many trick arches, which greatly ingrained ours. These gates, are the three main streets that lead to the city, leading to a large square, which leads to the middle of the city; in which there is a large mosque. Ours are fighting through these streets with many Moors, who were racing, because they did not dare to wait for the spears of ours to reach them. …………

………….. Then Captain Major let them go, so that they could steal, and they would soon run to the edge of the city, where, killing men ……… they left a lot of spoils of money, jewelry, and rich things, and the big city had a wealth of rich people and goods; and because it was late the Captain Major entered the houses of El Rey, where he found a lot of money, and a lot of jewelry, and a lot of silver in large basins, and state things, and a lot of rich cloths, and house clothes, all of which he ordered to be brought outside the yard by men he trusted and he took a hundred thousand coins for the expenses of the armada, and pieces of gold, and silver, and stones for ElRey, and a chest of rich cloths, and everything else he ordered to be shared with the Captains ……….

 

Taken from: Records of South-Eastern Africa : collected in various libraries and archive departments in Europe vol 6 by Theal, George McCall, 1900.

Out of: De Barros; Decadas da Asia 1 decade Book VII Chapter IV

 

P219-220

Ruy Lourenço having set out on his passage to Mombasa, it happened that at different times he captured two ships and three zambucos, in which were twelve Moors who were some of the chief noblemen of the town of Brava, which is one hundred leagues farther down than Melinde. As this town was governed by a corporation, these twelve Moors being the principal heads of the government, they not only paid ransom for themselves and one of the captured ships, saying that it belonged to their town, but in the name of the said town they made it a tributary of the king of Portugal, paying a tribute of five hundred miticals of gold per annum, and asked for a flag that they might navigate in safety as vassals of the king, which Ruy Lourenço gave them with good will.

The principal reason why these Moors had immediately made themselves vassals was because they were expecting to be followed by a very rich ship, the property of the town of Brava, in which each of them had a large quantity of merchandise. As soon as the ship arrived, Ruy Lourenço understood this prudent conduct, and delivered it over to them entirely and freely, having ascertained that it was theirs, which proceeding filled them with astonishment, seeing that the riches of the ship did not arouse the covetousness of our men because of the protection they had promised them, although they comprehended the precautions that had been employed to save it.

 

Taken from: Chronica d'el-rei D. Manuel by Góis, Damião de, 1502-1574; Pereira, Gabriel, d. 1911 (1909) Vol 4

 

………. Then he (Tristram da Cunha in 1506) went to cast anchor in front of Brava, which is at LXV leagues (of Lamu), surrounded by a wall with its cave, and tall houses with two-story buildings, and stone terraces, and very rich lime, due to the great reef that is there, where upon arriving Lionel Coutinho sent to the land to offer the governors peace, which they showed that they wanted to accept, lengthening the time with the hope that a storm would come, which they call, the rod of Choromandel, which comes so angry, and so suddenly of which you can't find many on that coast.

 

This Tristao da Cunha knew, without further thinking, he committed, leading Afonso Dalbuquerque, accompanied by …………… and other knights, and nobles, who were all four hundred, and with six hundred followed Tristao da Cunha in the rear, all of whom will reach the beach at dawn, where, even though the landing was dangerous, they will leave despite their enemies, who defended very aggressively, because as it was later learned, there were more than four thousand men fighting in the city, and among them many very hardworking, two thousand of whom went out to defend the beach, which ours took back to the gates of the city, where they withdrew with great effort until they reached them, and closed them upon themselves, so that ours began to scatter along the cave, to see if they could find any other entrance, where, because there was a lot of unused area and some hills, all the while there were shots being thrown at them, shots that were thrown at them from the wall, because even tenements, full of bees thrown at them, but as they went about their work, they ended up in a section of low wall, which is weak,  through which Afonso Dalbuquerque soon entered, who was in the lead with all his company, and being already in the first street between the wall and the houses, many Moors arrived with whom a brave fight was fought over a good space, among which Tristao da Cunha, with the Royal flag, the Moors gathered near the city, from which ours will drive them towards the countryside with a lot of work, than not being satisfied, wanting to still follow up, Tristao da Cunha immediately ordered to close all the city's doors, which will not stop on that side, because the ones on the beach were safe with the people who stayed in the boats.

When that was done he ordered the city to be plundered, in which they found very rich spoils of gold, silver, stones, silk cloths, cotton, ivory, amber, and many odors, spices, and all kinds of merchandise, and it was so much that it was not possible to find it in all nations of the fleet.

 

Many Moors remained in the city, and because they could not escape, they would all be captured, and Tristan da Cunha gave freedom to many of them, and of those who would be captured he took everyone he wanted. The cruelty of the poor people was so great that more than eight hundred living people had their hands cut off in order to quickly take away the gold and silver shackles they carried in their arms, and the same thing they did to their ears for the sake of money. Knowing this, Tristao da Cunha ordered it to be announced with great pain that no one would do this anymore. Once the city was stripped, Tristao da Cunha ordered it to put it on fire, from which the entire sight of our people, and the inhabitants of the city, who were watching it from the palm trees, were watching it with that sadness; those who before found themselves rich, wealthy in a moment burning, fed up, and at the same time destroyed, and poor, with the loss of their fathers, mothers, children, relatives, and friends.

It was later learned that those who died in the city exceeded one thousand and five hundred, of ours were many injured, and more than fifty died, apart from XVIII who were lost in a boat that was loaded with the greatest spoil but not from Tristan da Cunha, whose boat was saved. ……………………

 

Taken from: Documentos Sobre Os Portugueses Em Mocambique E Na Africa Central 1497-1840 Vol III

CHAPTERS RELATING TO EAST AFRICA IN THE ACCOUNT OF MARTIN FERNÁNDEZ DE FIGUEROA

1505-1511

(in 1506)

……………….. and, twelve days later, there entered the port of Malindi a nao (vessel) of Afonso de Albuquerque's, aboard which came Francisco de Tavora as captain who, once landed, went to acquaint the Christians with what had occurred to Afonso de Albuquerque during the capture of a city called Brava, and in another island called Socotra, and how he had captured the castle of Fortaque from the Moors, and was now at cape Guardafui.

 

Title XXIII - Wherein are related the victories of Afonso de Albuquerque, captain of the straits of Mecca.

 

Diogo de Tavora said that, as they were well aware, Afonso de Albuquerque had gone to the straits of Mecca as captain - major of six naos and that he was now telling them that he had arrived at a city that lies on the mainland, called Brava, and had entered there by force of arms killing many Moors and stealing great wealth which its owners disdained to save, thinking only of defending themselves; nor their women, who were left there with great wealth and elegance, with seven or eight bangles on each arm, and as many on the legs, thick and valuable. This gave occasion to great cruelty because the men, more blinded by greed than inspired by mercy, and not to waste time, cut off their arms, legs and ears, where they carried the jewelry, without any thought of pity. This was not done by the men of quality, seeing that they were women, the bearers of generations, soft and delicate of flesh, tender of quality; who could not be moved to pity when contemplating their beauty; who would not let the sword fall from his hand rather than shed a woman's blood. The victor who is cruel deserves reprimand for such cruelty. However, it is likely that those who behaved thus were neither the best nor the middling. All the women were going about the streets weeping, bathed in blood. And others were fleeing, with their children in their arms, without finding shelter.

 

Taken from: A description of the coasts of East Africa and Malabar, in the beginning of the sixteenth century. Duarte Barbosa 1514. Transl Stanley.

 

BRAVA.

Leaving these places, further on along the coast is a town of the Moors, well walled, and built of good houses of stone and whitewash, which is called Brava. It has not got a king; it is governed by its elders, they being honored and respectable persons. It is a place of trade, which has already been destroyed by the Portuguese, with great slaughter of the inhabitants, of whom many were made captives, and great riches in gold, silver, and other merchandise were taken here, and those who escaped fled into the country, and after the place was destroyed they returned to people it.