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Create a Chart: Compare and Contrast Migrations. Pre-Historic Migration Out of Africa: The Peopling of the World. c. 2 million BCE To 15,000 BCE. Humans Spread Across Globe. Hominids Arose in Africa 1-2 million years ago Migrated throughout Eurasia Homo-Sapiens
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Pre-Historic MigrationOut of Africa: The Peopling of the World c. 2 million BCE To 15,000 BCE
Humans Spread Across Globe • Hominids • Arose in Africa 1-2 million years ago • Migrated throughout Eurasia • Homo-Sapiens • As a species arose c. 300,000 years ago • Arose in East Africa, The Horn of Africa • Hunter-Gatherer Society • Nomads followed game, gathered seeds • Conduits across Strait of Gibraltar, Sinai • Southwest Asia reached c. 70,000 BCE • East Asia reached c. 60,000 BCE • Australia reached c. 50,000 BCE • Europe reached c. 40,000 BCE • North America reached c. 20,000 BCE • South America reached c. 15,000 to c. 12,000 BCE • All Pacific Islands not reached until c. 1000 CE • Proof • We use DNA, genetic drift, chromosomes, archaeology as proof • We look at languages and linguistics
EARLYAFRICANMIGRATIONS Up and Down the Nile, Out from the Deserts
Late Paleolithic Africa • The Sahara as a Factor • Late Paleolithic Sahara • End of glacial period produced rain • Split Saharan into North, South • Northern Sahara • Was a desert • Largely uninhabited • Southern Sahara • Tropical monsoons much stronger • Tropical savannah, several very large lakes • During Early Neolithic Era • Zone stretched from Atlantic to Nile River • Domesticated animals with pastoral societies • Some plants, early agriculture along Nile • Megalithic architecture and rock art • Dramatic Climate Change • Drastic climate change • Southern Sahara began to dry up • People migrated out • By 3500 BCE had become a large impassable barrier • Migration Routes • South towards West Africa • Southeast towards Central Africa • East towards Nile River
North & Northwest Africa • Paleolithic Peoples • Afro-Asiatic • Caucasian “race” • Two major sub-groups • Semitic, Hamitic • Locations • Along Southern Mediterranean • Down Red Sea to Ethiopia • Also in Horn of Africa • “Hamitic” • Berbers and Tuaregs • Ancient • Libyans • Mauretanians • Numidians • Garamantes • Egyptians • Cushitic (Kush-Meroe) • Oromo, Amhara, Tigreans (Ethiopians) • Somali • Migrations During Historical Period • Largely Semitic • Arabs from Arabia • Probably also Hyksos • Jews from Fertile Crescent • Axumites from Southern Arabian mixed with Cushites • Made possible by introduction of horses, camels into Africa
Migrations along Nile • Lower Nile • Prehistoric migrations • Egyptians (Afro-Asiatic) from North up the Nile • Proto-Kushite (Negroid) from South up the Nile • Berber, Nilotic pastoral nomads from Deserts towards Nile • Historic Egypt controlled Upper and Lower Nile • Old, Middle Kingdoms united Upper, Lower Egypt • No distinction in early Egyptian history between different peoples • Separate Paths • The Semitic Hyksos created the division, separation • 1720 BCE overran Egypt, severing contact with Kush • Separate Black Egyptian state, culture developed at Kermah • New Kingdom re-incorporated area in empire • By 1200 BCE New Kingdom lost control of Kush • Egyptians lost control of region for 500 years • Upper Nile • Early Kushites • Called Nubians and Kushites by Egyptians • Saharan-Nilotic peoples indigenous to Upper Nile for 10,000 years • Totally immersed in Egyptian culture; Kushite language disappeared • But had moon worship, a Nilo-Saharan cultural trait • Powerful, militaristic Kush State • Around 750 BCE conquered Egypt: capital around Napata • Withdrew from Egypt in face of Assyrian invasions • New Kushite state moved capital to Meroe • Tributary to Persians, Greeks, Romans • Nomadic Nobatae, Nuba, Beja moved into state forming military aristocracy • Romans used state to counterbalance movement of Ethiopians towards Nile • 350 CE: Axumites conquer Kush, destroy state • Separate Nubian states arise, convert to Christianity
Migrations in the Horn • Many Unknowns • Earliest people • Afro-Asiatic people called Cushites • Nearest Relatives: Egyptians, Berbers • Distant Relatives: Arabs, Jews, Sabeans • Skin color is a light to dark reddish brown • Modern Descendents • Ethiopians, Tigreans, Amhara • Somali, Oromo • Eritreans • Nilo-Saharans • Migrated into the area very early and settled early along Nile • Also migrated toward Ethiopian highlands • Kush-Meroe, Nubians were black Nilo-Saharans • Color of skin much darker, black • Intermarried with Cushites pushing down from highlands • Language, Haplogroup are best guides not race, skin color • Contain both Semitic, Nilo-Saharan words • Axumite Geez related to Southern Arabian Script • Merotic writing related to Egyptian demotic, hieratic • Haplogroup of E1b1b is predominant among Afro-Asiatics • Differences come later with Christianity, Islam • Where did Axum come from? • Some historians feel Southern Arabians founded Axum • Recent evidence indicates an indigenous development • But no question Yemenite Arabs, Jews had influence • And intermarriage with Nilotics is genetically evident • Genome: 62% Caucasian, 24% Sub-Saharan, 8% Austro-Melanesian, 6% East Asian!
Human Migration in Classical Africa AncientandClassicalMovements In Africa Cattle Migration In Africa
Early Desert Trade • Early Trade • Ancient Egypt • Trade up and down Nile • Gold, spices, animals, wheat, slaves • Desert Routes • Dar el-Arbain from desert along river • Ghadames: Niger (Gao) north to Tripoli • Garamantean: Central Sahara across Haggar Mts. • Walata Road: From Senegal along Atlas to Morocco • The Garamantes • Both Greeks, Phoenicians record their presence c. 500 BCE • A Berber Saharan tribe, pastoral nomads • Developed a thriving trading state until 5th century CE • Developed extensive irrigation system • Controlled trade between Sahara, Mediterranean Coast • Constant conflict constantly with Romans • Increasing desertification destroyed their land, dried up water • The Camel • Introduced by Romans c. 200 CE to patrol desert borders • Berbers acquired camels, used for deep desert trade • Camels made travel across desert possible
Historical Colonial Movements of Peoples “The Government Would Like You To Move to This New Place”
What is colonization? • Definition • Extension of sovereign control over neighboring territory • Colonialism: The physical settlement of your people abroad • Imperialism: Control land to exploit resources but no settlement • National populations resettled onto conquered lands • Indigenous populations displaced, assimilated, eliminated • Local labor resources controlled, markets exploited • New socio-economic, linguistic, religious, culture introduced • Types • Settler Colonies – Some Examples • Phoencians, Greeks, and Romans • Arabs, Turks, Mongols, and Ottomans • Malayo-Polynesians • Bantu and Berbers in Africa • Chinese in Western lands, Germans in Eastern lands • English in Ireland • Dependencies • Lands under control of a foreign state but not settled by its people
Phoenicians & Carthaginians • Original Home of Phoenicians c. 1000 BCE • Coast of Eastern Mediterranean near Lebanon • Mountainous area with little arable soil • Interior controlled by powerful states • Cities arose on the coast oriented outward • Movement • Trade began to obtain needed materials • Sufficient trees provide materials to build boats • Phoenicians became sailors and maritime experts • Acquire raw materials and make finished goods for trade • Famous for cloth, purple dye, metallurgy • Overpopulation • Excess population immigrates to establish new settlements • Phoenicians settle Cyprus, southern coasts of Western Mediterranean • Rivalry with Greeks for Mediterranean Sea, trade, settlement • Carthaginian Empire, c. 600 to 200 BCE • Arose as original homeland fell under various empires • Settles Western Sicily, Sardinia, Baleric Islands, Southern Spain • Exploits rich crop lands for wine, olives • Discovers rich silver vines, ships trade for tin with southern England • Battled Etrsucans, Kelts, Greeks and Romans for Western Mediterranean • Conquered by Rome
As Greeks • Minoans and Mycenaean • Maritime Civilization arose on Crete • New archaeological evidence indicates Indo-Iranian origins • Established colonies throughout Aegean Sea • Traded with Phoenicians and Egyptians • Land-Based Mycenaeans • Bronze Age Indo-Europeans migrated into Peloponnesus • Contemporaneous to Minoans with whom traded, warred • Many settlements in Aegean Islands, Asia Minor • Dark Age Migrations of the Greeks • c. 1000 BCE new tribes (Dorians) pushed into region • Followed later by Attics, Aeolians, Achaeans, others • Established numerous independent city-states • Early Greece 750 BCE • Greece stabilized and population began to grow • Land could not support excess population • Greeks began tradition of sending excess populations to sister colonies • Many of these colonies achieved independence, rose to prominence • Spread culture, crops, religion, traditions, language across Mediterranean
Greek Thassalocracies • Maritime Poleis • Several poleis established many overseas dependencies • Sister colonies retained strong connections to mother polis • Included Athens, Corinth, Megara, Phocea • Classical Greece was geographically wide-spread • Greece Proper and islands of the Aegean including Asia Minor, Cyprus • Eastern Sicily and Southern Italian coasts, harbors • Ports, settlements along all coasts of the Black Sea • Ports, harbors, islands in Spain, France, Northern Italy, Libya • Larger Thassalocracies • Athenian Empire came to dominate Aegean, Black Seas • Arose after war with Persia • Delian League against Persia forcibly turned into an Athenian Empire • Athens controlled Dardanelles, most islands of Aegean • Corinth was a major rival of Athens in Ionian, Adriatic Seas • Syracuse (Sicily) rose to power and controlled much of Southern Italy • Result: Greeks settled throughout Mediterranean, neighboring seas
The Hellenistic World • Alexander’s World • He founds Greek cities as his armies advance • Greek administrators, soldiers, merchants migrate in wake • Greek ruled states arose within his failed empire • Successor Hellenistic Monarchies • Greek cities throughout their states • Greek predominate language of area • Greeks formed elite settler society
From Etruscans to Romans • The Etruscans • Elite aristocracy migrated from Asia Minor • Established city-states thoughout Tuscany • Etruscan colonies on Corsica, Sardinia, Po Valley, Campana • Roman Republic to Roman Empire • 753 – 509 BCE: Etruscan Kingdom – Rome founded as Etruscan colony • Roman patricians overthrow Etruscans, establish republic, expand • Rome expanded to control Latium, other Latin tribes, later Italy • Extended Roman rights to many conquered peoples • “Coloniae civium Romanorum” • Settled Roman with full rights, citizenship; acted as governors of territories • Tended to be small with 300 Roman families • Latin Colonies • Settlements of Romans, Latin allies in colonies with partial rights • Military colonies designed to control, maintain empire • After 133 BCE • New Roman colonies are transplantations of poor, landless Roman population • Settled as agricultural colonies to give poor, ex-farmers new land • Often settled in territories outside of Italy • Imperial colonies • Tradition started by Julius Caesar and continued by later emperors • Legionnaires paid off upon retirement by establishing colonies in empire
Roman Colonia First Roman Colonies Colonia spread Latin culture, language and were usually located at critical geographic sites that later became major cities.
The Vandal Migration • The Volkerwanderung 400 CE • Entered Roman territory • Many embraced Christianity • Few were Roman Catholics • Most followed Arian Christianity • Crossed into Gaul • Battled the Franks, forced Vandals to move into Iberia • Crossed into region as Roman feoderati • Settled Galicia, Western, Southern areas • Into Africa • Crossed Strait of Gibraltar to use it as a base • 439 CE conquered Carthage, made it capital • Settled area around modern Tunis, Eastern Algeria • Conquered Sardinia, Sicily, Corsica; sacked Rome 455 • Created a powerful state • Later State • Suffered conflicts between Catholics, Arians • Byzantines invaded, conquered area in 534
THE BANTU MIGRATIONS Out of Nigeria, Movement in the South
The Early Bantus The Bantu peoples Originated in the region around modern Nigeria/Cameroon Influenced by Nok iron making, herding, agriculture Population pressure drove migrations, 2000 BCE – 700 BCE Two major movements: to south and to east and then south Languages split into about 500 distinct but related tongues Bantu agriculture and herding Early Bantu relied on agriculture – slash-burn, shifting Pastoralists, semi-nomadic due to agriculture, cattle Iron metallurgy Iron appeared during the 7th and 6th centuries B.C.E. Iron made agriculture more productive Expanded divisions of labor, specialization in societies Population Pressures Iron technologies produced population upsurge Large populations forced migration of Bantu
Movement Spreads Other Items • The Bantu Migration • Population pressure led to migration, c. 2000 B.C.E. • Movement to South, along Southeast and Southwest coasts • Languages differentiated into about 500 distinct but related tongues • Occupied most of sub-Saharan (except West) Africa by 1000 C.E. • Split into groups as they migrated: Eastern, Central, Southern • Bantu spread iron, herding technologies as they moved • Bananas • Between 300/500 C.E., Malay seafarers reached Africa • Settled in Madagascar, visited East African coast • Brought with them pigs, taro, and banana cultivation • Bananas became well-established in Africa by 500 C.E. • Bantu learned to cultivate bananas from Malagasy • Bananas caused second population spurt, migration surge • Reached South Africa in 16th century CE
Impact of Migration Geographic Diversity Creates Social Diversity Extended families and clans as social and economic organizations A group of villages constituted a district but separated by distance Communities claimed rights to land, no private property Language, social differences arose based on geography Movement Produces Interactions Exchange of ideas and goods especially flora, fauna, technology Exchange of DNA: rise of syncretic societies War and Trade between societies Stateless societies Early Bantu societies did not depend on elaborate bureaucracy Societies governed through family and kinship groups Chief of a village was from the most prominent family heads Villages chiefs negotiated inter-village affairs Chiefdoms Population growth strained resources, increased conflict Some communities began to organize military forces, 1000 C.E. Powerful chiefs overrode kinship networks and imposed authority Some chiefs conquered their neighbors
The Migration of the Arabs 640 – 1500 CE
What is an Arab? • The Problem • “Arab” is an ambiguous, confusing term • Usually means a speaker of Arabic • This is a recent historical development • The Arabs are Semites • Historical Semites include sedentary, nomadic peoples • Phoenicians, Hyksos, Arameans, Edomites, Moabites, Canaanites • Akkadians, Assyrians, Babylonians • Related to the Hamites of Egypt, Yemen, Ethiopia • Originally the Bedouin tribes of Arabia, Yemen • Who is an “Arab”? • Genealogical (Genes, DNA) • The smallest of group within Arabs • Descendents of the Bedouin tribes of Arabian and Syrian Deserts • Ibn Khaldun defined this group as solely those tracing origin to these Bedouin tribes • Linguistic • A speaker whose first language is Arabic • A very large group due to Islam, c. 250 million people • May be a linguistic Arab without being a genealogical Arab • Political and Cultural • Islam furthered the spread of Arabic to genealogical non-Arabs • A cosmopolitan culture originally created by the Arab Empire • Is both the ethnic culture of the Arabs and those citizens of a state which speaks Arabic • Many genealogical non-Arabs are culturally Arabs • Many reject being called Arabs unless they also speak Arabic
Early History • Arabs and the Arabic Language • Pre-date the CE developments of Islam • Originated in the Arabian Peninsula • The Bedouin • Desert dwelling nomadic organized by tribes • Dwelt in Hejaz and the interior of Arabia • Many Bedouin had settled in towns and become semi-urbanized • Towns in Yathrib (Medina) and Mecca • The Nabateans • Nomadic migrants to Levant who became urbanized • Originally spoke Aramaic but switched to Arabic • Nabatean alphabet adopted by Southern Arabs and pre-Classic Arabic • Arabia Petrapolis was an flowering of an early commercial Arabic culture • Spread in Southwest Asia beginning c. 200 CE • Jewish Arabs • Arabs who had become Jews by conversion or conquest • Edomites and The Idumaean Dynasty of Judah • King Herod is the prime example • Many Arabs in Levant had become strongly Hellenized • Arab Christians Ghassanids, Lakhmids, Banu Judham • Settled Levant (Modern Jordan, Southern Israel, Sinai) and Northern Arabian Desert • Ghassanids settled Syrian Desert as clients of the Roman Empire • Lakhmids settled desert opposite Mesopotamia as clients of the Sassanid Empire • Kindites, Himyarites of Yemen ruled northern, central Arabia and the Persian Gulf coast • Zenobia of Palmyra was in all likelihood related to the Arabs • Religiously heavily influenced by Monophysite and Nestorian Christianity
Early Migration • Primitive Migration • Nomadic Pastoralism • Move with flocks seeking grazing land, water • Winter, Summer Pasture lands • Re: Abraham in the Old Testament • Movement between desert, first cities • Often involving raid, trade • Some intermarriage • Constant clan warfare scattered tribes • Early Commerce • Rise of sedentary settlements on oases • Fertile areas with irrigation in Yemen • Cities develop trading connections • Gold, frankincense, myrrh, manufactured items • Trade connects Western Arabia to Levant • Early Religious Movement • Mecca develops as a site of polytheistic religious pilgrimage • Jewish diaspora reached area: a Jewish tribe in Medina area • Monophysite Christians moved to area to avoid persecution • Early Colonization • Himyarites expanded towards Persian Gulf • Sabeans who were probably Himyarites expanded into Horn of Africa • Axum was clearly a Semitic civilization originally connected to Southern Arabia
Early Islam Develops Arabic Identity • Early Islamic Period • Muslims of Medina called nomadic tribes of deserts “A’raab” • Considered themselves sedentary but were aware of close racial bonds • Assyrians used same construct to describe their relationship to the nomads • The Quran • Does not use the word “Arab” in a manner we would understand • “Arabiy” is the language • “Arab” means Bedouin and is negative • Quran • Uses the term “Arabic” and “clear” to mean “by the clear book” • “We have made it an Arabic recitation in order that you may understand.” • The Quran was regarded as the prime example of al-arabiyya • The term “Arab” • Refers to Bedouin tribes of the desert who resisted Muhammad • “The Bedouin are the worst in disbelief and hypocrisy.” • c. 800 CE: After Conquests of Islam • Language of the nomadic Arabs • Regarded as most pure by grammarians • Denotes uncontaminated language of Bedouins
Early Conquests • Muhammad and Islam unites the Arab Tribes • Muslims must read the Quran in Arabic • All Muslims pray in Arabic • Levant and Irag • Arabs flooded into as part of early conquests of Islam • 661 CE: Ummayad Caliphs move capital to Damascus • Arabs compromise ruling military elite • Established garrison towns • Ramla, ar-Raggah, Basra, Kufa, Mosul, Samarra • All eventually became major non-military cities • Enjoyed special privileges • Proud of Arab ancestry, sponsored poetry, culture of pre-Islamic Arabia • Intermarried with local women, children raised within Arab culture • Abd al-Malik established Arabic as the Caliphate's official language in 686. • Reform greatly influenced the conquered non-Arab peoples • Fueled the Arabization of the region. • Tensions lead to a new Dynasty • Arabs had a higher status among non-Arab Muslim converts • Converts still had obligation to pay heavy taxes caused resentment. • Caliph Umar II demanded that all Muslims be treated as equals but nothing happened • Discontent swept the region and a bloody uprising occurred • Abbasids came to power • Moved capital to newly constructed city of Baghdad • Abbasids were also Arabs and descendants of Muhammad's uncle Abbas • Abbasids had the support of non-Arab Islamic groups. • Islam and Arabic as the language of administration • The Levantine and Iraqi populations were eventually Arabized. • North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula • In 8th Century, Arabic armies conquered the region • Arab Muslims settled the old Roman, Vandal, Carthaginian towns • Berbers remained dominant inland
Later Migration • Military Conquest • Whole tribes mobilized to conquer Arabia; pushed into Persia, Byzantines • Arabs settled as garrison units on desert, arable land borders • Whole garrison towns constructed to administer empire • Whole tribes resettled to maintain military control • Muslim Pilgrimage • One of the Five Pillars of Islam • Originally was to be a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, replaced by Mecca • All Muslims must try at least once in life to make journey to Mecca • Shia-Sunni Split • Shia developed holy sites of dead martyrs and saints • Faithful made regular pilgrimages to venerate heroes • The Hajji and the Gadis • Learned Muslims often traveled between cities teaching, dispensing justice • Itinerant preachers, wanders such as gadis (judges) and sufis (mystics) • Commerce and Intellectual Migration • Arab Empire encouraged commerce, trade • Empire becomes one long linked trade route of exchanges • Arabs become trade diaspora at first but intermarry spreading Arab culture, language • Arab Centers of Learning in Major Cities • Islam encouraged intellectual pursuits, caliphs built schools and libraries • Centers of Learning in Cordoba, Cairo, Damascus, Baghdad attracted travelers • Bedouin Migration • Overcrowding of Arabia, constant warfare led Arab Bedouin tribes (Banu) to migrate • Sahara, Libyan and Central Asian deserts witness migrations
Tribal Migration • Arab Colonization was similar to Roman establishment of military colonia • Banu Umayya of Damascus in the Levant & North Africa, 661AD • Umayyid Caliphs from Umayya tribe were the first Arab force to conquer the North African region • Most of the tribe settled in Damascus (The Levant) at this time and not in North Africa • After their removal by the Abbasid Caliphs, they migrated to Spain • Formed a majority of the Arabs in Iberia and a sizeable minority of Arabs in Maghreb • Banu Fahr in North Africa, 670AD • Banu Fahr subdued the Berbers in the mountain region of modern day Algeria. • Banu Fahr built the cities of Qayrawan in modern Tunisia and Uqbah ibn Naafi' in modern Algeria • Banu Hashim (Idrisids) in North Africa, 788AD • Idris I of the Banu Hashim quarrelled with the Abbasids and fled Egypt for the Maghreb • With Berber support established the Idrisid dynasty located in modern day Morocco and Algeria • Banu Umayya of Andalus/Cordoba in North Africa, 1031AD • Umayyad Caliphate in Cordoba collapsed, under assault by Castile, Aragon, Portugal • The Banu Umayya clan then fled with the rest of the Muslims to the Maghreb region. • Banu Hilal and Banu Muqal (Banu Hashim) in North Africa, 1046AD • Banu Hilal was a populous Arab tribal confederation organized by the Fatimids in Libya • Warred with the Zenata Berbers (a clan that claimed Yemeni ancestry from pre-Islamic periods) • Warred with the Sanhaja Berber confederation to small coastal towns. • Banu Hilal, Banu Muqal, Banu Jashm, other tribes eventually settled in Morocco and Algeria • Banu Sulaym in North Africa, 1049AD • Banu Sulyam was a Bedouin tribal confederation from Nejd (Arabia) • Allied with the Banu Hilal, helped defeat the Zirids in 1052 CE; took Kairuan in 1057 CE. • Banu Sulaym mainly settled and completely Arabized Libya • Banu Kanz Nubia/Sudan, 11th-14th century • Branch of the Rabi'ah tribe settled in north Sudan; Slowly Arabized states in Northern Sudan • Banu Kanz chieftain inherited the kingdom of Makurina and began Arabization of the Sudan • Completed by the arrival of the Ja’Alin and Arab tribes. • Banu Hassan Mauritania 1644-1674AD • Banu Maqil is a Yemeni nomadic tribe that settled in Tunisia in the 13th century • Banu Hassan of the Magil moved into the Sanhaja region in Western Sahara and Mauritania • Allied to the Latuma Arabized Berbers and Arabized Mauritania
And Egypt? • The Problem • Egypt is the largest Arabic speaking country in the world • Its population accounts for almost 50% of Arabic first language users • Is it Arab? Egyptians say no - most Arabs and Muslims think it is • The Reality • Genealogically • Egyptians are not Arabs: they are Hamites descended of Copts • Many Egyptians have Arab blood especially in the cities but also Greek, Nubian, African • The country-side population still has the reddish complexion of the Hamite • Linguistically • Egyptians speak an Arabic heavily laced with older Coptic words, constructs, idioms • Politically and Culturally • Egypt is at the center of modern Pan-Arab Nationalism: name of Arab Republic of Egypt • Egypt has been heavily influenced by other cultures: European, Arab, African • The Post-Classical History • 639 CE: Arabs conquer Egypt from Byzantines • Egyptians were largely Monophysite Christians • Coptic Christians were heavily persecuted by the Byzantines and seek Muslim protection • Arabs establish military garrisons at Fustat (al Cairo) • Many Egyptians began to convert to Sunni Islam for economic, political reasons • Muslim Egypt was ruled by outsiders • Fatimid Dynasty (Shia Dynasty descendent from Muhammad’s daughter Fatima • Ayyubid Sultans: Kurdish sultans of the Abbasid Caliphs • Mameluks: Circassian-Turkish slave soldiers loyal first to Abbasids and later independent • Distinguish between the settled farming lands of the Nile and the deserts • The Bedouin migrated into the desert regions but did not settle the Nile lands • Often came for economic reasons and used by Arabs to police border regions
TRADEDIASPORAS Classical Through Contemporary Eras
Philip Curtin’s Trade Diaspora • “Commercial specialists would remove themselves physically from the home community and go to live as aliens in another town, usually not a fringe town, but a town important in the life of the host community. There, the stranger merchants could settle down and learn the language, the customs and the commercial ways of their hosts. They could then serve as cross-cultural brokers helping and encouraging trade between the host society and people of their own origin who moved along the trade routes. At this stage, a distinction appeared between the merchants who moved and settled and those who continued to move back and forth. What might have begun as a single settlement soon became more complex. The merchants who might have begun with a single settlement abroad tended to set up a whole series of trade settlements in alien towns. The result was an interrelated net of commercial communities, forming a trade network, or trade diaspora—a term that comes from the Greek word for scattering, as in the sowing of grain.”
