Badi, Sudan
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Bāḍiʿ was a
medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...
African port on the
Red Sea The Red Sea is a sea inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. Its connection to the ocean is in the south, through the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait and the Gulf of Aden. To its north lie the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and th ...
. It was the first port established by the
Arabs Arabs (,  , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world. Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of yea ...
in the Bilād al-Sūdān and flourished between about 600 and 1100. It was a merchant settlement conducting trade between its hinterland and
Arabia The Arabian Peninsula (, , or , , ) or Arabia, is a peninsula in West Asia, situated north-east of Africa on the Arabian plate. At , comparable in size to India, the Arabian Peninsula is the largest peninsula in the world. Geographically, the ...
. It does not appear to have fallen under the authority of any established state.Yusuf Fadl Hasan (1967), ''The Arabs and the Sudan: From the Seventh to the Early Sixteenth Century'' (Edinburgh University Press), pp. 64–66. Bāḍiʿ was located south of the Gulf of ʿAḳīḳ, just offshore on the island of Er Rih (''al-Rīḥ'') in what is now
Sudan Sudan, officially the Republic of the Sudan, is a country in Northeast Africa. It borders the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west, Libya to the northwest, Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the east, Eritrea and Ethiopi ...
, near the border with
Eritrea Eritrea, officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa, with its capital and largest city being Asmara. It is bordered by Ethiopia in the Eritrea–Ethiopia border, south, Sudan in the west, and Dj ...
. The village of ʿAḳīḳ, which gives its name to the gulf, lies some to the north of the site. Older authorities, such as ''The Red Sea and Gulf of Aden Pilot'', identify the ruins of Er Rih with ancient
Ptolemais Theron Ptolemais Theron ( and Πτολεμαῒς ἡ τῶν θηρῶν) ('Ptolemais of the Hunts') was a marketplace on the African side of the Red Sea,Raoul McLaughlin, ''The Roman Empire and the Indian Ocean'', p. 114, Barnsley, Pen & Sword Military, ...
, but J. W. Crowfoot argues that Ptolemais is ʿAḳīḳ and the ruins of Er Rih medieval Bāḍiʿ.
John Winter Crowfoot John Winter Crowfoot CBE (28 July 1873 – 6 December 1959) was a British educational administrator and archaeologist. He worked for 25 years in Egypt and Sudan, serving from 1914 to 1926 as Director of Education in the Sudan, before accepting a ...
(1911), "Some Red Sea Ports in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan", ''The Geographical Journal'', 37(5), pp. 523–50, esp. 542ff.
The earliest source to mention the port of Bāḍiʿ is
al-Ṭabarī Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn Jarīr ibn Yazīd al-Ṭabarī (; 839–923 CE / 224–310 AH), commonly known as al-Ṭabarī (), was a Sunni Muslim scholar, polymath, historian, exegete, jurist, and theologian from Amol, Tabaristan, present-day ...
, writing in the ninth century. He states that in 637 the Caliph
ʿUmar Umar ibn al-Khattab (; ), also spelled Omar, was the second Rashidun caliph, ruling from August 634 until his assassination in 644. He succeeded Abu Bakr () and is regarded as a senior companion and father-in-law of the Islamic prophet Muh ...
exiled the poet
Abū Miḥjan al-Thaḳafī Abū Miḥjan ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ḥabīb () called al-Thaqafī, was an Arab poet of the '' Jāhiliyya'' and the early Islamic period. A member of the Banū Thaqīf tribe, Abū Miḥjan was a ''mukhaḍram'' (non-Muslim) who took part in the defen ...
there, indicating that at this early date it was a mere penal colony or place of exile similar to the
Dahlak Archipelago The Dahlak Archipelago is an Eritrean island group located in the Red Sea, measuring around 643 square km (248 square miles) and lying roughly 58 kilometers (31 nautical miles, 36 miles) east of Massawa, the regional capital city. Etymol ...
. Writing around the same time, Ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥakam mentions Bāḍiʿ as one of the places subject to the treaty made by the governor of Egypt, ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Ḥabḥāb (724–734), with the Beja. ʿAbd Allāh ibn Marwān, the second son of the last
Umayyad The Umayyad Caliphate or Umayyad Empire (, ; ) was the second caliphate established after the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and was ruled by the Umayyad dynasty. Uthman ibn Affan, the third of the Rashidun caliphs, was also a membe ...
caliph, Marwān II, passed through the port in 750 while going into exile in
Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...
(Abyssinia). The port is also mentioned in the writings of al-Yaʿḳūbī, al-Hamdānī and Yāḳūt al-Rūmī. Before the rise of ʿAydhāb and Sawākin, Bāḍiʿ was the gateway to the Sūdān for the Arabs. The merchants of Bāḍiʿ traded combs and perfumes from Arabia for elephant tusk and
ostrich egg The egg of the ostrich (genus ''Struthio'') is the largest of any living bird (being exceeded in size by those of the extinct elephant bird genus '' Aepyornis''). The shell has a long history of use by humans as a container and for decorative ...
from Ethiopia. They also traded with the Beja. The chief of the Zanāfij Beja was a Muslim who could speak
Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...
, and Arab traders from
Mecca Mecca, officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, is the capital of Mecca Province in the Hejaz region of western Saudi Arabia; it is the Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red Sea, in a narrow valley above ...
visited his capital at Baḳlīn. These must have passed through the port Bāḍiʿ. Traders from the port even travelled as far inland as the
Nile Valley The Nile (also known as the Nile River or River Nile) is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa. It has historically been considered the longest river i ...
. Gold, probably from the mines of al-Shanka, was exported from Bāḍiʿ. The reasons for the decline of Bāḍiʿ are not certain. Its trade seems to have been oriented towards the south. It was poorly situated for trade with the Nubian kingdoms of
Makuria Makuria ( Old Nubian: , ''Dotawo''; ; ) was a medieval Nubian kingdom in what is today northern Sudan and southern Egypt. Its capital was Dongola (Old Nubian: ') in the fertile Dongola Reach, and the kingdom is sometimes known by the name of ...
and
Alodia Alodia, also known as Alwa ( Greek: Αρουα, ''Aroua''; , ''ʿAlwa''), was a medieval kingdom in what is now central Sudan. Its capital was the city of Soba, located near modern-day Khartoum at the confluence of the Blue and White Nile r ...
, and Dahlak provided a better
entrepôt An entrepôt ( ; ) or transshipment port is a port, city, or trading post where merchandise may be imported, stored, or traded, usually to be exported again. Such cities often sprang up and such ports and trading posts often developed into comm ...
for trade with Ethiopia. In this way, Bāḍiʿ was squeezed out and its importance remained primary local and tied to its immediate hinterland. The city was apparently in ruins by 1170, when the poet Ibn Ḳalāḳis was shipwrecked off the "island of mosquitoes" (''jazīrat al-nāmūs'') near Dahlak. He reports in a poem that "the ruins of Badi ... are as though they were inhabited". H. E. Hebbert suggested, based on his analysis of about forty cisterns, that the inhabitants may have had difficulty keeping their water supply free of mosquitoes, which may have hastened the abandonment of the port.H. E. Hebbert (1935), "El Rih—A Red Sea Island", ''Source: Sudan Notes and Records'', 18(2), pp. 308–13. The ruins on Er Rih were surveyed by Crowfoot in 1911. He discovered houses, streets, potsherds, glass, one hundred cisterns and several tombstones with Arabic inscriptions.E. T. Combe (1930), "Four Arabic Inscriptions from the Red Sea", ''Source: Sudan Notes and Records'', 13(2), pp. 288–91. Song-dynasty export celadon (porcelain), which is known to have reached Sawākin by the twelfth century, has not been found at Bāḍiʿ, which is consistent with the presumed timing of the city's abandonment.


References

{{coord, 18, 09, 20, N, 38, 26, 05, E, display=title, region:SD_type:city Former populated places in Sudan