Amud or Amoud ( so, Camuud, ar, عمود) is an ancient, ruined town in the Awdal region of Somaliland.Damtew Teferra, ''African higher education: an international reference handbook'', (Indiana University Press: 2003) Named after its patron Saint ''Amud'' it was a center of activity during the

Golden Age The term Golden Age comes from Greek mythology, particularly the '' Works and Days'' of Hesiod, and is part of the description of temporal decline of the state of peoples through five Ages, Gold being the first and the one during which the Go ...

of the

Adal Kingdom The Adal Sultanate, or the Adal Empire or the ʿAdal or the Bar Saʿad dīn (alt. spelling ''Adel Sultanate, ''Adal ''Sultanate'') () was a medieval Sunni Muslim Empire which was located in the Horn of Africa. It was founded by Sabr ad-Din II ...

. The archaeological site is situated above sea level, around 10 km southeast of the regional capital

Borama Borama ( so, Boorama, ar, بورما) is the Second capital city of Somaliland and the largest city of the northwestern Awdal region of Somaliland The commercial seat of the province, it is situated near the border with Ethiopia. During the M ...

.Huntingford, "The town of Amud, Somalia", ''Azania'', 13 (1978), p. 184

Overview

The historian G.W.B. Huntingford (1930) gives a detailed description of the ancient town in ''The town of Amud, Somaliland'':

"The house are scattered around without any apparent plan; there are no streets and no trace of a surrounding wall. There is a mosque in the southern half of the dwelling area... ith arather oddly built mihrab facing the entrance... and immediately to the south... is the cemetery. There are upwards of two hundred houses, all well-built of stone ndas much as 2.6m in height... The number of rooms ranges from two to four... there is sometimes no sign of an entrance to the inner rooms. This implies that entry was made from the roof, which was doubtless flat and reached by teps now vanished... There are many niches or cupboards in the inner walls."

Amud is situated over 1,000 m above sea level. The old town contained over 200 houses, each built with stone walls and mason ranging from single room to multi-roomed courtyard houses. Niches were cut in the walls for storage, and they were roofed with brushwood laid over wooden rafters. The mosques were more ambitiously planned. The old section of Amud spans and contains hundreds of ancient ruins of multi-roomed

courtyard A courtyard or court is a circumscribed area, often surrounded by a building or complex, that is open to the sky. Courtyards are common elements in both Western and Eastern building patterns and have been used by both ancient and contemporary ...

houses,

stone walls Stone walls are a kind of masonry construction that has been used for thousands of years. The first stone walls were constructed by farmers and primitive people by piling loose field stones into a dry stone wall. Later, Mortar (masonry), mo ...

, complex

mosque A mosque (; from ar, مَسْجِد, masjid, ; literally "place of ritual prostration"), also called masjid, is a Place of worship, place of prayer for Muslims. Mosques are usually covered buildings, but can be any place where prayers (sujud) ...

s, and other archaeological remains, including intricate colored glass bracelets and Chinese ceramics. According to Sonia Mary Cole, the town features 250 to 300 houses and an ancient

temple A temple (from the Latin ) is a building reserved for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. Religions which erect temples include Christianity (whose temples are typically called church (building), churches), Hindui ...

. The temple was constructed from carefully dressed stone, and was later transformed into a mosque. It also features pottery lamps. Altogether, the building techniques, among other factors, point to a close association with

Aksumite The Kingdom of Aksum ( gez, መንግሥተ አክሱም, ), also known as the Kingdom of Axum or the Aksumite Empire, was a kingdom centered in Northeast Africa and South Arabia from Classical antiquity to the Middle Ages. Based primarily in wha ...

archaeological sites from the 2nd to 5th centuries AD. Curle in 1937 identified jars in Amud resembling honey jars still common in

Harar Harar ( amh, ሐረር; Harari: ሀረር; om, Adare Biyyo; so, Herer; ar, هرر) known historically by the indigenous as Gey (Harari: ጌይ ''Gēy'', ) is a walled city in eastern Ethiopia. It is also known in Arabic as the City of Sain ...

however no longer used in Somaliland. Amud is home to several historic

pilgrimage A pilgrimage is a journey, often into an unknown or foreign place, where a person goes in search of new or expanded meaning about their self, others, nature, or a higher good, through the experience. It can lead to a personal transformation, aft ...

sites belonging to celebrated

Somali Somali may refer to: Horn of Africa * Somalis, an inhabitant or ethnicity associated with Greater Somali Region ** Proto-Somali, the ancestors of modern Somalis ** Somali culture ** Somali cuisine ** Somali language, a Cushitic language ** Soma ...

Saints, the most prominent being Saint Sau, Saint Amud and Saint Sharlagamadi, some sources associate these Saints with a proto-Somali ethnic group that lived in the region, where another source associates Amud with the Harla people. Another source states that Amud was an

town. During his research in the area, the historian G.W.B. Huntingford noticed that whenever a historic site had the prefix '' Aw'' in its name (such as the ruins of Awbare and Awbube), it denoted the final resting place of a local Saint. The patron Saint ''Amud'' is buried in the vicinity of the ancient town. The Amoud University in Borama is named after the archaeological site.

Demographics

The region around the ancient town and university is inhabited by the Faarah Nuur, one of the two sub divisions of Reer Nuur, a subclan of the

Gadabuursi The Gadabuursi ( Somali: ''Gadabuursi'', Arabic: جادابورسي), also known as ''Samaroon'' ( Arabic: ''قبيلة سَمَرُون)'', is a northern Somali clan, a sub-division of the Dir clan family. The Gadabuursi are geographically ...

Dir clan.

Notes

{{reflist

External links

"The town of Amud, Somalia", by G.W.B. Huntingford
Cities of the Adal Sultanate Archaeological sites in Somaliland

Overview

Demographics

See also

Notes

External links