Slavery in Somalia existed as a part of the Indian Ocean and Red Sea slave trades. Habesha and Oromo peoples were enslaved and sold to foreign traders from the Middle-East and beyond, while those retained in Somalia were commonly kept as domestic servants and concubines. Enslaved women and children formed a significantly higher share than men.Miran, Jonathan, 'Red Sea Slave Trade' (20 Apr. 2022), in Thomas Spear (ed.), Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African History (New York, NY, online edn, Oxford Academic, 27 Feb. 2017) Ethiopian Christians were among the most popular enslaved people traded by Somali merchants.Behnaz A. Mirzai. A History of Slavery and Emancipation in Iran, 1800–1929 (2017), p. 54. Later in the 19th century, to meet the demand for menial labor, Bantu slaves began to be exported from Zanzibar and were sold in large numbers to Somali customers.Campbell, Gwyn (2003). The Structure of Slavery in Indian Ocean Africa and Asia. (1st ed.) London; Portland, OR (US): Routledge. p. ix In Somali society, slaves were viewed as a source of wealth and a mark of status. According to Harold Nelson, slaves constituted the most important commodity in Somali trading networks. Somalis kept slaves for agricultural labor and herding as well as concubinage.
History
Antiquity The Land of Punt maintained long-standing trade relations with Ancient Egypt in which a variety of goods were exchanged, including enslaved people. Pharaoh Djedkare is known to have kept a Congoid (pygmy) slave acquired through Punt at his court for entertainment, the young Pharaoh Pepi II was likewise intrigued by another Congoid slave procured through Punt.
During the Classical period, slaves described by Roman merchants as being of 'better quality' were exported from the Somali ports of Opone and Malao to India and Roman Egypt. James MacNabb Campbell believed these higher quality slaves to have been Abyssinian. Pirates from Barbaria also reportedly launched raids on Adulis according to the Periplus. As attested by an anonymous Greek 1st century writer: "Besides aromatics, slaves of a superior description are exported from Opone, which are brought to Egypt in increasing numbers."Many scholars have suggested the name of the city-state Opone to be derived from the ancient Egyptian term Pwene, referring to the Land of Punt, which exported both frankincense and enslaved people.Multiple sources:
Early Medieval slave trade in northern Somalia During the medieval period, the Somali port of Zeila was the site of an important slave market where traders from Arabia purchased Abyssinian slaves who were then transported to Yemen and the Hejaz to serve as domestic slaves, concubines, and soldiers in local military and naval forces. Al-Idrisi is the earliest author to mention the slave trade, noting that slaves constituted one of the most important exports of the Somali port of Zeila. Ibn Sa'id al-Maghribi and Ibn Fadlallah al-Umari state that slaves captured in Abyssinia were taken to a town called Washilu which was located near Ganz in the Ifat Sultanate where they were prepared for export. The male captives were rendered eunuchs and then sent to Hadiya for medical treatment, after which they were transported to the Somali port of Zeila. According to al-Idrisi, slaves exported from Zeila were then taken to a major slave depot in Zabid. The city, according to the modern Yemeni historian Huseyn al-Amri, had for many centuries a large population of Abyssinian slaves.A Yemeni chronicle compiled in the 13th century indicates that Zeila served as an important transit point in the slave trade between the Horn of Africa and Arabia. According to the chronicle, enslaved people passed through Zeila before being exported to Aden, with merchants required to pay a duty of two or three dinars per slave for transport by ship.Vallet, Éric. « Chapitre 6. Entre mer rouge et golfe d’Aden, l’inégale mainmise des rasūlides sur les espaces et les échanges côtiers ». L’Arabie marchande, Éditions de la Sorbonne, 2010, While the overland transportation of slaves from the Ethiopian interior to the port of Zeila amounted to 36 dirhams or 9 dinars. The available written evidence suggests that the overland trade and transport of slaves to Zeila was primarily conducted by African rather than Arab merchants. The treatise names Zeila as an export point for Ethiopian slaves, with Amhara and Tigrayan slave boys and girls sold for 20 uqiyyah of silver. Another anonymous Yemeni chronicle as well as the contemporary writer al-Khazraji mention Habashi eunuchs and slave girls being unloaded in Yemen from Zeila
Ibn Sa'id described Zeila as the "emporium of Habash". Yemeni Rasulid sources in the same period mention that most of these Abyssinian slaves brought to Yemen from Zeila were Jazli, Amhara and Saharti (Tigrayans). Habesha slaves were priced at roughly twice the value of Zanji slaves. Habesha slaves often rose to positions of power in Yemen. The Jazli seized power from the Ziyadids and established the Najahid dynasty, Faraj al-Saharti and Surur al-Amhari ruled successively as Wazirs of Zabid between 1133 and 1157 and other Habeshas participated in the state as military leaders such as Ishaq bin Marzuq al-Saharti.
Some of the children of Sheikh Isaaq bin Ahmad, the 13th century founder of the Isaaq clan, were reportedly born in the Somali country to a Habesha woman, described as a servant. The descendants of Sheikh Isaaq's Abyssinian wife form the Habr Habusheed confederation, comprising the Habr Je’lo, Ibran, and Sanbur clans. Some of the descendants of Sheikh Ahmed Hawiye in southern Somalia also trace descent from an Ethiopian woman, namely the Gurgate, Gugundhabe, and Jambelle clans.Enrico Cerulli, Come viveva una tribù Hawiyya, ( A Cura dell'Amministrazione Fiduciaria Italiana della Somalia; Instituto poligrafico dello Stato P.V 1959) During the Medieval period, the slave trade proved to be a significant factor in the Islamization of the coastal plains by maintaining links with the Arab world while supporting major trading centres such as Zeila and Mogadishu, along with their Somali hinterlands.
According to the Ethiopian historian Tadesse Tamrat, Ethiopian slaves sold at Zeila originated from the non-Muslim regions of Ethiopia, namely the Tigray and Amhara regions. He notes that the revival of Christian political power in Ethiopia during the 14th century reduced the export of Christian captives into Arabia, though instances of Habesha Christians being taken into slavery continued to be recorded afterward. This trade of Christian slaves at Zeila persisted well into the nineteenth century, as they were preferred in Muslim markets over their neighboring "pagan" counterparts.
Besides Ethiopian slaves, slaves from bilad al-Zanj were also exported from Zeila during this period. In Yemen, Zanji slaves from Zeila were taxed a little more than those from Ethiopia (2.25 dinars). Also mentioned in the sources is an additional category of Zanji slaves labelled uluj exported from Zeila, which most likely designated particularly strong male slaves.
Christian-Muslim wars In 1376, the Sultan Haqq al-Din II of the Walashma dynasty started a holy war against the Christian Solomonid dynasty. He was ceaselessly engaged in conflict with the Solomonid king, from whom he took many captives. According to al-Maqrizi, his successor Sultan Sa'd al-Din raised bigger armies, increased the amount of raids into the Christian kingdom and captured many spoils. The Sultan led incursions as far as Hadiya which he plundered.
Raids continued during the Bar Sa'd al-Din. In the 1420s, an emir serving under the Sultan Jamal al-Din II had captured such a large amount of Ethiopian captives that slaves became highly abundant in the Muslim kingdom, Abyssinian slave-girls were reportedly sold for the value of a ring. Each Fakir was also given three slaves.
According to Maqrizi: "The great conquests of Jamal al-Din are magnified, and his great battles are numerous, and his deeds, spoils, captives, those he killed, and those he took captive are many.. He killed and captured countless of the Amhara, until the lands of India, Yemen, Hormuz, the Hijaz, Egypt, the Levant, Rome, Iraq, and Persia were filled with the Abyssinian slaves he had captured in his conquests."His successor, Sultan Badlay, followed in his footsteps and launched multiple military expeditions into the Ethiopian kingdom. According to Richard Pankhurst, he brought numerous Christian lands under his rule, and burnt at least six churches. He killed many Christian leaders, and made their subjects captive. The Sultan soon grew immensely wealthy, accumulating gold, silver, fine garments, armour, and a large number of slaves. According to Magdalena M. Kloss, the Barr Sa'd al-Din, also known as the Adal sultanate, dominated the slave trade in the Horn of Africa during the 15th and 16th centuries through its port of Zeila. Ethiopian Christian hagiographies suggest that most individuals sold into slavery abroad during that period were made captive through raids in the border regions between the Christian kingdom.
In the second half of the 15th century, the Emir Mahfuz of Zeila launched annual incursions into the Christian kingdom during Lent, killing the men and taking women and children captive.
According to René Basset, Mahfuz's incursions reached as far as the Dukem river near Addis Ababa. Francisco Alvarez states that Mahfuz targeted the regions of Shewa, Amhara, and Fatagar in his raids. On one occasion, Mahfuz reportedly carried off 19,000 slaves, whom he sent as gifts to his friends and supporters in Arabia. According to Francisco Alvares, Mahfuz carried out over twenty annual forays into the Christian interior, in the course of which he captured innumerable slaves. The Ottoman admiral Salman Reis also mentioned these annual raids into Abyssinia. Sihab al-Din Ahmed notes that every Emir of the Barr Sa'd al-Din had the right to raise a small army and lead a raiding party into Abyssinia. Christian slaves captured by Mahfuz were converted to Islam after being sold in Arabia. Abyssinian slaves were regarded by Arabs as more loyal and more skillful than other enslaved peoples. Ludovico di Varthema, who visited Zeila in 1503, was surprised by the “very great” number of slaves sold there, noting that they were Ethiopians who had been captured in war, and were mainly shipped to Mecca, Yemen, Persia, Cairo, and India. From the early 16th century onward, there is continuous evidence of “Habashi” Abyssinian servants in middle and upper-class Iranian households.
Through Zeila, and to a lesser degree Berbera, passed the main stream of slaves from the Ethiopian hinterland. During the 15th and 16th centuries, the port of Zeila on the Somali coast was the largest slave market in the Horn of Africa, where merchants from Arabia acquired slaves.Tegegne, Habtamu Mengistie. “The Edict of King Gälawdéwos Against the Illegal Slave Trade in Christians: Ethiopia, 1548.” The Medieval Globe 2, no. 2 (2016): 73-114. Published by Arc Humanities Press. Clifford Pereira states that the majority of “Habshi” slaves arriving in India during the 16th century came through the port of Zeila, the principal exporter of enslaved Ethiopians, he further notes that the oldest route by which enslaved Africans reached East Asia ran from Zeila to Oman and Hormuz, where slaves were picked up by Gujarati or Persian vessels.Pereira, Clifford. Who Were the Africans in Eastern Asia? The Christian European Period, 1500–1900 AD. Royal Geographical Society, November 2017.
According to Amelie Chekroun, raids carried out into the neighboring Christian kingdom enabled forces based in the Bar Saʿd al-Din to seize livestock and slaves, while also serving as a reminder to Muslim populations of the persistent threat posed by renewed hostilities. These expeditions combined economic motives with a strategic function.