Ottoman Suakin 1541–1865: Lost and Found

Author(s):  
MICHAEL MALLINSON ◽  
LAURENCE SMITH ◽  
COLIN BREEN ◽  
WES FORSYTHE ◽  
JACKE PHILLIPS

The island town of Suakin (Ott. Sevvakin) was one of the major Red Sea ports and, for a short period, the capital of the Ottoman eyelet of Habes. It lies 60 kilometres south of present-day Port Sudan, and has recently been the subject of a Sudanese-British collaborative archaeological project focusing on three main areas of research: archaeological study of the development of the settlement, architectural study of the ruins, and the future protection of the place as a cultural site. This chapter summarises the aspects of the project reflecting Suakin's Ottoman history. The study identifies material confirming the activities that led to this prosperity, namely trade. The archaeological evidence recovered in the recent excavations does support the existence of a wide-ranging trade network into which Suakin was linked from the earlier Ottoman period, covering neighbouring areas but also extending to east and south-east Asia.

Author(s):  
David Abulafia

Both the fall of Troy and the Sea Peoples have been the subject of a vast literature. They were part of a common series of developments that affected the entire eastern Mediterranean and possibly the western Mediterranean too. Troy had been transformed at the end of the eighteenth century BC with the building of the most magnificent of the cities to stand on the hill of Hisarlık: Troy VI , which lasted, with many minor reconstructions, into the thirteenth century BC . The citadel walls were nine metres thick, or more; there were great gates and a massive watchtower, a memory of which may have survived to inspire Homer; there were big houses on two floors, with courtyards. The citadel was the home of an elite that lived in some style, though without the lavish accoutrements of their contemporaries in Mycenae, Pylos or Knossos. Archaeological investigation of the plain beneath which then gave directly on to the seashore suggests the existence of a lower town about seven times the size of the citadel, or around 170,000 square metres, roughly the size of the Hyksos capital at Avaris. One source of wealth was horses, whose bones begin to appear at this stage; Homer’s Trojans were famous ‘horse-tamers’, hippodamoi, and even if he chose this word to fit his metre, it matches the archaeological evidence with some precision. In an age when great empires were investing in chariots, and sending hundreds of them to perdition at the battle of Kadesh (or, according to the Bible, in the depths of the Red Sea), horse-tamers were certainly in demand. Opinion divided early on the identity of the Trojans. Claiming descent from Troy, the ancient Romans knew for sure that they were not just a branch of the Greek people. Homer, though, made them speak Greek. The best chance of an answer comes from their pottery. The pottery of Troy is not just Trojan; it belongs to a wider culture that spread across parts of Anatolia.


2002 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Harding

The relationship between the global and the local is one of critical importance to all regions of the world. In the resolution of the tension between the irresistible surge of globalisation and the undeniable facts of society as it actually exists in the various localities which together comprise the very world which is presumably the object or the subject-matter of globalisation, law lies at the forefront. It is, one might say, the very intellectual battlefield which we have selected for the resolution of the major problem facing human society at the turn of the century. The purpose of this article is therefore to investigate, in a somewhat narrative fashion the relationship between the global and the local in the context of law in South East Asia. The topic is clearly too large to be dealt with in a short space with the rigour and articulation it really deserves, but it is hoped that the approach adopted will provide some kind of a frame of reference for regarding, studying, and hopefully improving, the law in the South East Asian region; and will perhaps focus a pencil of light on the problems of the global and the local in this particular regional context.


Author(s):  
Lawrence Smith ◽  
Shadia Taha ◽  
Jacke Philips ◽  
Michael Mallinson

This paper focuses historical and archaeological evidence for the ‘valuables’ passing through Suakin, as part of the Red Sea-Indian Ocean trade. The main locations on Suakin Island Town investigated 2002-2013 are briefly described. Interviews show that at Suakin, in the later 19th century/early 20th century, imported valuables included fabrics from Europe, perfume oils, cloths and wooden chests from India; porcelain from China and Turkey; rugs from Persia/Iran and glass from Italy. Interviews and early modern European accounts indicate the range of products from the hinterland, such as cotton, gold, ivory, ostrich feathers, slaves, horses, gum arabic, ebony, musk, tobacco, rubber and coffee. Local fishermen supplied fish, shells, pearls and mother-of-pearl. The archaeological evidence indicates pottery and porcelain from the Arabian Peninsula, south-west Asia, south Asia, China and south-east Asia, while identifications of wood samples indicates teak from south and south-east Asia. A combination of archaeological, historical and ethnographic evidence is needed to build up a picture of the trade in valuables.


Author(s):  
Roberta Tomber

This chapter looks at the archaeological evidence from several regions for the continuation of Indo-Roman trade during the second century ad. The emphasis here is on the Egyptian evidence, but this chapter also looks briefly at India and Parthia/Palmyra. From India, second-century Roman finds—particularly coins—are outlined, as is the role of Palmyra as middleman to Rome. Although numbers of Roman finds in India are reduced during the second century, two diverse categories of evidence point to the continued importance of this trade: the large value attached to the shipment discussed in the Muziris papyrus, and the continued importance of the Red Sea ports, especially Myos Hormos. The large second-century ceramic assemblages from Myos Hormos suggest that throughout the second century it was more active than Berenike. By the end of the second century trade became more complex with the involvement of the Palmyrenes.


1957 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 345-353 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony Christie

In the study of the early history of South East Asia the nature of the shipping which operated between India and the regions to the east has been the subject of much discussion. Sources for this study are rare enough and the fact that one of them, Periplus of the Erythrean Sea, § 60, is either corrupt, as Müller believed, or contains a difficult hapax legomenon, has proved something of a stumbling block. The text of the Periplus rests upon a single MS (Heidelberg: Cod. Palatinus Gr. 398 saec. X ineuntis) of which there is a fourteenth or fifteenth century copy in the British Museum (Add. Mss. 19391)


1960 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 62-101 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Q. Fatimi

Kalah was the earliest recorded settlement of Muslims in this part of the world, and from Arab and Persian descriptions of it from the middle of the ninth to that of the fourteenth century, it was undoubtedly an important port in South East Asia.But where was it actually located? The problem has baffled some of the best minds of the east and the west. It has been debated since 1718. During this long period eminent historians, geographers, Arabicists, Indologists and Sinologists have made an effort at solving the riddle, but at best they have succeeded only partially. Earlier attempts at identification were very much wide of the mark. Abbe Renaudot (1718) who initiated the debate identified it with Malabar, while Gildemeister (1838) located it in Coromandel, and Reinaud (1845) equated it with Galle in Ceylon. Alfred Maury (1846) was the first to realise that the search for it must be made in the Malaysian region and he suggested Kedah. Walckenear (1852) made this equation famous by accepting it in his commentary on the story of Sindbad the sailor. P. A. van der Lith (1883–6) gave massive support to it in his elaborate and erudite discussion on the subject in his annotation and edition of Buzurg bin Shahriyār's Book of the Marvels of the Indies. It seemed that van der Lith had clinched the issue by getting the philological support from no less an eminent authority on the subject than M. Kern, who stated that the Malay d was pronounced very like an Arab 1. And then followed a galaxy of great Arabicists, like de Goeje (1889) and G. Le Strange (1905) all of whom accepted this equation. Pelliot (1901) and other Sinologists, and Coedes (1918) and other Indologists found it handy in their own search of Malaysian place-names.


2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  

To determine the immunization status of pediatric patients under age of 5 years visiting pediatric department of tertiary care hospitals in South East Asia. The aim of this study was to appreciate the awareness and implementation of vaccination in pediatric patients who came into pediatric outpatient Department with presenting complain other than routine vaccination. we can also know the count of patients who do not complete their vaccination after birth. we can differentiate between vaccinated and unvaccinated patients and incidence of severe disease in both groups. Immunization is a protective process which makes a person resistant to the harmful diseases prevailing in the community, typically by vaccine administration either orally or intravenously. It is proven for controlling and eliminating many threatening diseases from the community. WHO report that licensed vaccines are available for the prevention of many infectious diseases. After the implementation of effective immunization the rate of many infectious diseases have declined in many countries of the world. South-East Asia is far behind in the immunization coverage. An estimated total coverage is 56%-88% for a fully immunized child, which is variable between countries. Also the coverage is highest for BCG and lowest for Polio.


2014 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 230-239 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles E. Jarvis ◽  
Joanne H. Cooper

It had long been believed that none of the bird, egg or nest specimens that had been in the collection of Sir Hans Sloane at his death in 1753 had survived. However, a specimen of a rhinoceros hornbill, originally in Sloane's hands, was discovered in the Natural History Museum's collections in London in 2003, and three more Sloane hornbill specimens have subsequently come to light. In addition, we report here a most unexpected discovery, that of the head of a woodpecker among the pages of one of Sloane's bound volumes of pressed plants. The context suggests that the head, like its associated plant specimens, was probably collected in south-east Asia about 1698–1699 by Nathanael Maidstone, an East India Company trader, the material reaching Sloane via William Courten after the latter's death in 1702. A detailed description of the head is provided, along with observations on its identity and possible provenance.


Writing from a wide range of historical perspectives, contributors to the anthology shed new light on historical, theoretical and empirical issues pertaining to the documentary film, in order to better comprehend the significant transformations of the form in colonial, late colonial and immediate post-colonial and postcolonial times in South and South-East Asia. In doing so, this anthology addresses an important gap in the global understanding of documentary discourses, practices, uses and styles. Based upon in-depth essays written by international authorities in the field and cutting-edge doctoral projects, this anthology is the first to encompass different periods, national contexts, subject matter and style in order to address important and also relatively little-known issues in colonial documentary film in the South and South-East Asian regions. This anthology is divided into three main thematic sections, each of which crosses national or geographical boundaries. The first section addresses issues of colonialism, late colonialism and independence. The second section looks at the use of the documentary film by missionaries and Christian evangelists, whilst the third explores the relation between documentary film, nationalism and representation.


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