Suakin
Encyclopedia
Suakin or Sawakin is a port in north-eastern Sudan
, on the west coast of the Red Sea
. In 1983 it had a population of 18,030 and the 2009 estimate is 43, 337.It was formerly the region's chief port, but is now secondary to Port Sudan
, about 30 miles north. The old city built of coral is in ruins. Ferries run daily from Suakin to Jeddah
in Saudi Arabia
.
and the djinn
, suggesting that when he banished
them, Suakin was the place they were sent to (making the town's name a fanciful plural for sijn, prison.)
The Beja
name for Suakin was U Suk, possibly from the Arabic word suq, meaning market. In Beja, the locative case for this is isukib, whence Suakin might have derived.
's Port of Good Hope, Limen Evangelis, which is similarly described as lying on a circular island at the end of a long inlet. Under the Ptolemies and Romans
, though, the Red Sea's major port was Berenice to the north. The growth of the Muslim caliphate
then shifted trade first to the Hijaz and then the Persian Gulf
.
and Aydhab became important emporia, trading with India
and ferrying African pilgrims
to Mecca
. Suakin was first mentioned by name in the 10th century by al-Hamdani, who says it was already an ancient town. At that time, Suakin was a small Beja
settlement, but it began to expand after the abandonment of the port of Badi
to its south. The Crusades
and Mongol invasions drove more trade into the region: there are a number of references to Venetian
merchants residing at Suakin and Massawa
as early as the 14th century.
One of Suakin's rulers, Ala al-Din al-Asba'ani, angered the Mamluk
sultan Baybars
by seizing the goods of merchants who died at sea nearby. In 1264, the governor of Qus
and his general Ikhmin Ala al-Din attacked with the support of Aydhab. Al-Asba'ani was forced to flee the city. It was possibly in retaliation for this that King David of Nubia
attacked Aydhab and Aswan
a few years later. The continuing enmity between the two towns is testified to by reports that after the destruction of Aydhab by Sultan Barsbay
in 1426, the refugees who fled to Suakin instead of Dongola
were all slaughtered.
Like the Nubians and Ethiopia
ns, the Beja were originally Christian. Despite the town's formal submission to the Mamluks
in 1317, O. G. S. Crawford
believed that the city remained a center of Christianity
into the 13th century. Muslim immigrants such as the Banu Kanz
gradually transformed this: ibn Battuta
records that in 1332 there was a Muslim "sultan" of Suakin, al-Sharif Zaid ibn-Abi Numayy ibn-'Ajlan, who was the son of a Meccan sharif
. Following the region's inheritance laws, he had inherited the local leadership from his Bejan maternal uncles.
In 1517, the Ottoman sultan
Selim I
conquered the port, and after a brief occupation by the Funj, it was thereafter the residence of the pasha
of the Ottoman province of Habeş
, which included Arqiqo and Massawa in present-day Eritrea
. Under the Turks, Suakin declined sharply, as the Portuguese explorers
discovered and perfected the sea route around Africa: when the Ottomans were unable to stop this trade, the local merchants began to abandon the town.
Some trade was kept up with the Sultanate of Sennar, but by the 18th and 19th centuries, the Swiss traveler Jean Louis Burckhardt found two-thirds of the homes in ruin. The Khedive
Isma'il
received Suakin from the Ottomans in 1865 and attempted to revitalize it: Egypt built new houses, mills, mosques, hospitals, even a church for immigrant Copt
s. But the failed Egyptian-Ethiopian War led to the Mahdi revolt
against British colonial rule
. Lord Kitchener
used Suakin as his headquarters and survived a lengthy siege there, but after the Mahdi
's defeat, the British preferred to develop the new Port Sudan
rather than engage in the extensive rebuilding and expansion that would be necessary to make Suakin comparable. By 1922, the last of the companies had left.
Sudan
Sudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the...
, on the west coast of the Red Sea
Red Sea
The Red Sea is a seawater inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. The connection to the ocean is in the south through the Bab el Mandeb strait and the Gulf of Aden. In the north, there is the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and the Gulf of Suez...
. In 1983 it had a population of 18,030 and the 2009 estimate is 43, 337.It was formerly the region's chief port, but is now secondary to Port Sudan
Port Sudan
Port Sudan is the capital of Red Sea State, Sudan; it has 489,725 residents . Located on the Red Sea, it is the Republic of Sudan's main port city.-History:...
, about 30 miles north. The old city built of coral is in ruins. Ferries run daily from Suakin to Jeddah
Jeddah
Jeddah, Jiddah, Jidda, or Jedda is a city located on the coast of the Red Sea and is the major urban center of western Saudi Arabia. It is the largest city in Makkah Province, the largest sea port on the Red Sea, and the second largest city in Saudi Arabia after the capital city, Riyadh. The...
in Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...
.
Etymology
Sawakin (سواكن) is Arabic, meaning "dwellers" or "stillnesses." One legend connects it with the legends about King SolomonSolomon
Solomon , according to the Book of Kings and the Book of Chronicles, a King of Israel and according to the Talmud one of the 48 prophets, is identified as the son of David, also called Jedidiah in 2 Samuel 12:25, and is described as the third king of the United Monarchy, and the final king before...
and the djinn
Genie
Jinn or genies are supernatural creatures in Arab folklore and Islamic teachings that occupy a parallel world to that of mankind. Together, jinn, humans and angels make up the three sentient creations of Allah. Religious sources say barely anything about them; however, the Qur'an mentions that...
, suggesting that when he banished
Seal of Solomon
In Medieval Jewish, Christian and Islamic legends, the Seal of Solomon was a magical signet ring said to have been possessed by King Solomon, which variously gave him the power to command demons, genies , or to speak with animals.-In legend :...
them, Suakin was the place they were sent to (making the town's name a fanciful plural for sijn, prison.)
The Beja
Beja language
Beja or North Cushitic is an Afro-Asiatic language of the southern coast of the Red Sea, spoken by about two million nomads, the Beja, in parts of Egypt, Sudan, and Eritrea.-Classification:...
name for Suakin was U Suk, possibly from the Arabic word suq, meaning market. In Beja, the locative case for this is isukib, whence Suakin might have derived.
Ancient
Suakin was likely PtolemyPtolemy
Claudius Ptolemy , was a Roman citizen of Egypt who wrote in Greek. He was a mathematician, astronomer, geographer, astrologer, and poet of a single epigram in the Greek Anthology. He lived in Egypt under Roman rule, and is believed to have been born in the town of Ptolemais Hermiou in the...
's Port of Good Hope, Limen Evangelis, which is similarly described as lying on a circular island at the end of a long inlet. Under the Ptolemies and Romans
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
, though, the Red Sea's major port was Berenice to the north. The growth of the Muslim caliphate
Caliphate
The term caliphate, "dominion of a caliph " , refers to the first system of government established in Islam and represented the political unity of the Muslim Ummah...
then shifted trade first to the Hijaz and then the Persian Gulf
Persian Gulf
The Persian Gulf, in Southwest Asia, is an extension of the Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.The Persian Gulf was the focus of the 1980–1988 Iran-Iraq War, in which each side attacked the other's oil tankers...
.
Medieval
The collapse of the Abbasids and growth of Fatimid Egypt changed this and al-QusayrAl-Qusair
Al-Qusair is a city in Egypt. Approximately 5000 year old, it lies along the Red Sea...
and Aydhab became important emporia, trading with India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
and ferrying African pilgrims
Hajj
The Hajj is the pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia. It is one of the largest pilgrimages in the world, and is the fifth pillar of Islam, a religious duty that must be carried out at least once in their lifetime by every able-bodied Muslim who can afford to do so...
to Mecca
Mecca
Mecca is a city in the Hijaz and the capital of Makkah province in Saudi Arabia. The city is located inland from Jeddah in a narrow valley at a height of above sea level...
. Suakin was first mentioned by name in the 10th century by al-Hamdani, who says it was already an ancient town. At that time, Suakin was a small Beja
Beja people
The Beja people are an ethnic group dwelling in parts of North Africa and the Horn of Africa.-Geography:The Beja are found mostly in Sudan, but also in parts of Eritrea, and Egypt...
settlement, but it began to expand after the abandonment of the port of Badi
Badi, Sudan
Badi was a medieval port of the Beja in what is now Sudan, near its Eritrean border.Although not as important as Aydhab to its north, Bari was prosperous between the 10th and 13th century before the site was abandoned in favor of Suakin.- References :...
to its south. The Crusades
Crusades
The Crusades were a series of religious wars, blessed by the Pope and the Catholic Church with the main goal of restoring Christian access to the holy places in and near Jerusalem...
and Mongol invasions drove more trade into the region: there are a number of references to Venetian
Republic of Venice
The Republic of Venice or Venetian Republic was a state originating from the city of Venice in Northeastern Italy. It existed for over a millennium, from the late 7th century until 1797. It was formally known as the Most Serene Republic of Venice and is often referred to as La Serenissima, in...
merchants residing at Suakin and Massawa
Massawa
Massawa, also known as Mitsiwa Massawa, also known as Mitsiwa Massawa, also known as Mitsiwa (Ge'ez ምጽዋዕ , formerly ባጽዕ is a city on the Red Sea coast of Eritrea. An important port for many centuries, it was ruled by a succession of polities, including the Axumite Empire, the Umayyad Caliphate,...
as early as the 14th century.
One of Suakin's rulers, Ala al-Din al-Asba'ani, angered the Mamluk
Mamluk Sultanate (Cairo)
The Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt was the final independent Egyptian state prior to the establishment of the Muhammad Ali Dynasty in 1805. It lasted from the overthrow of the Ayyubid Dynasty until the Ottoman conquest of Egypt in 1517. The sultanate's ruling caste was composed of Mamluks, Arabised...
sultan Baybars
Baibars
Baibars or Baybars , nicknamed Abu l-Futuh , was a Mamluk Sultan of Egypt. He was one of the commanders of the forces which inflicted a devastating defeat on the Seventh Crusade of King Louis IX of France and he led the vanguard of the Egyptian army at the Battle of Ain Jalut in 1260, which marked...
by seizing the goods of merchants who died at sea nearby. In 1264, the governor of Qus
Qus
Qus is a city in the modern Qena Governorate, Egypt, located on the east bank of the Nile. Its modern name is one of many borrowings in Egyptian Arabic from Coptic, the last living phase of Ancient Egyptian...
and his general Ikhmin Ala al-Din attacked with the support of Aydhab. Al-Asba'ani was forced to flee the city. It was possibly in retaliation for this that King David of Nubia
Makuria
The Kingdom of Makuria was a kingdom located in what is today Northern Sudan and Southern Egypt. It was one of a group of Nubian kingdoms that emerged during the decline of the Aksumite Empire, which it had been part of from approximately 4BC to AD 950...
attacked Aydhab and Aswan
Aswan
Aswan , formerly spelled Assuan, is a city in the south of Egypt, the capital of the Aswan Governorate.It stands on the east bank of the Nile at the first cataract and is a busy market and tourist centre...
a few years later. The continuing enmity between the two towns is testified to by reports that after the destruction of Aydhab by Sultan Barsbay
Barsbay
Al-Ashraf Sayf-ad-Din Barsbay was the ninth Burji Mamluk sultan of Egypt from AD 1422 to 1438. He was Circassian by birth and a former slave of the first Burji Sultan, Barquq....
in 1426, the refugees who fled to Suakin instead of Dongola
Old Dongola
Old Dongola is a deserted town in Sudan located on the east bank of the Nile opposite the Wadi Al-Malik. An important city in medieval Nubia, and the departure point for caravans west to Darfur and Kordofan, from the fourth to the fourteenth century Old Dongola was the capital of the Makurian state...
were all slaughtered.
Like the Nubians and Ethiopia
Ethiopia
Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...
ns, the Beja were originally Christian. Despite the town's formal submission to the Mamluks
Mamluk Sultanate (Cairo)
The Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt was the final independent Egyptian state prior to the establishment of the Muhammad Ali Dynasty in 1805. It lasted from the overthrow of the Ayyubid Dynasty until the Ottoman conquest of Egypt in 1517. The sultanate's ruling caste was composed of Mamluks, Arabised...
in 1317, O. G. S. Crawford
O. G. S. Crawford
Osbert Guy Stanhope Crawford was an English archaeologist and a pioneer in the use of aerial photographs for deepening archaeological understanding of the landscape.-Early life:...
believed that the city remained a center of Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
into the 13th century. Muslim immigrants such as the Banu Kanz
Banu Kanz
The Banu Kanz were a group of Rabi'ah Arabs who emigrated to Egypt and Sudan, eventually dislocating the Beja and penetrating into the desert east of the Nile around Aswan...
gradually transformed this: ibn Battuta
Ibn Battuta
Abu Abdullah Muhammad Ibn Battuta , or simply Ibn Battuta, also known as Shams ad–Din , was a Muslim Moroccan Berber explorer, known for his extensive travels published in the Rihla...
records that in 1332 there was a Muslim "sultan" of Suakin, al-Sharif Zaid ibn-Abi Numayy ibn-'Ajlan, who was the son of a Meccan sharif
Sharif of Mecca
The Sharif of Mecca or Hejaz was the title of the former governors of Hejaz and a traditional steward of the holy cities of Mecca and Medina...
. Following the region's inheritance laws, he had inherited the local leadership from his Bejan maternal uncles.
Ottoman & Colonial Rule
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
Selim I
Selim I
Selim I, Yavuz Sultân Selim Khan, Hâdim-ül Haramain-ish Sharifain , nicknamed Yavuz "the Stern" or "the Steadfast", but often rendered in English as "the Grim" , was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1512 to...
conquered the port, and after a brief occupation by the Funj, it was thereafter the residence of the pasha
Pasha
Pasha or pascha, formerly bashaw, was a high rank in the Ottoman Empire political system, typically granted to governors, generals and dignitaries. As an honorary title, Pasha, in one of its various ranks, is equivalent to the British title of Lord, and was also one of the highest titles in...
of the Ottoman province of Habeş
Habesh
Habesh Eyalet was an Ottoman eyalet that bordered the Red Sea. It comprised Massawa, Hergigo, Suakin and their hinterlands. Later it would also incorporate Zeila and western Somaliland...
, which included Arqiqo and Massawa in present-day Eritrea
Eritrea
Eritrea , officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa. Eritrea derives it's name from the Greek word Erethria, meaning 'red land'. The capital is Asmara. It is bordered by Sudan in the west, Ethiopia in the south, and Djibouti in the southeast...
. Under the Turks, Suakin declined sharply, as the Portuguese explorers
Age of Discovery
The Age of Discovery, also known as the Age of Exploration and the Great Navigations , was a period in history starting in the early 15th century and continuing into the early 17th century during which Europeans engaged in intensive exploration of the world, establishing direct contacts with...
discovered and perfected the sea route around Africa: when the Ottomans were unable to stop this trade, the local merchants began to abandon the town.
Some trade was kept up with the Sultanate of Sennar, but by the 18th and 19th centuries, the Swiss traveler Jean Louis Burckhardt found two-thirds of the homes in ruin. The Khedive
Khedive
The term Khedive is a title largely equivalent to the English word viceroy. It was first used, without official recognition, by Muhammad Ali Pasha , the Wāli of Egypt and Sudan, and vassal of the Ottoman Empire...
Isma'il
Isma'il Pasha
Isma'il Pasha , known as Ismail the Magnificent , was the Khedive of Egypt and Sudan from 1863 to 1879, when he was removed at the behest of the United Kingdom...
received Suakin from the Ottomans in 1865 and attempted to revitalize it: Egypt built new houses, mills, mosques, hospitals, even a church for immigrant Copt
Copt
The Copts are the native Egyptian Christians , a major ethnoreligious group in Egypt....
s. But the failed Egyptian-Ethiopian War led to the Mahdi revolt
Mahdist War
The Mahdist War was a colonial war of the late 19th century. It was fought between the Mahdist Sudanese and the Egyptian and later British forces. It has also been called the Anglo-Sudan War or the Sudanese Mahdist Revolt. The British have called their part in the conflict the Sudan Campaign...
against British colonial rule
Anglo-Egyptian Sudan
Anglo-Egyptian Sudan referred to the manner by which Sudan was administered between 1899 and 1956, when it was a condominium of Egypt and the United Kingdom.-Union with Egypt:...
. Lord Kitchener
Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener
Field Marshal Horatio Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener KG, KP, GCB, OM, GCSI, GCMG, GCIE, ADC, PC , was an Irish-born British Field Marshal and proconsul who won fame for his imperial campaigns and later played a central role in the early part of the First World War, although he died halfway...
used Suakin as his headquarters and survived a lengthy siege there, but after the Mahdi
Mahdi
In Islamic eschatology, the Mahdi is the prophesied redeemer of Islam who will stay on Earth for seven, nine or nineteen years- before the Day of Judgment and, alongside Jesus, will rid the world of wrongdoing, injustice and tyranny.In Shia Islam, the belief in the Mahdi is a "central religious...
's defeat, the British preferred to develop the new Port Sudan
Port Sudan
Port Sudan is the capital of Red Sea State, Sudan; it has 489,725 residents . Located on the Red Sea, it is the Republic of Sudan's main port city.-History:...
rather than engage in the extensive rebuilding and expansion that would be necessary to make Suakin comparable. By 1922, the last of the companies had left.