The Barbari-Habeshi crewmen and merchants – Uncovering an African maritime tradition in the Indian Ocean World
Dublin Core
Title
The Barbari-Habeshi crewmen and merchants – Uncovering an African maritime tradition in the Indian Ocean World
Description
Ancient Axum was a maritime trading empire based in present day Ethiopia, Djibouti and Eritrea in the Horn of Africa from 400BCE to around 940CE and for a while the empire even extended across the Red Sea to Yemen.
Historians have tended to neglect the story of free African movement across the Indian Ocean. However, a multidisciplinary approach to the evidence of Africans in Asia, demonstrates that the following the arrival of Islam in the Horn of Africa in the 8th century the legacy of Axumite maritime trading was passed successively to the states of Shoa, Ifat and Adal. This maritime tradition gave rise to Muslim African communities known as Habeshis or Habshis in the Indo-Pacific region from the Red Sea to the Straits of Malacca and possibly beyond into the South China Sea.
Through images and archives this paper traces the growing presence of Habeshi communities in the Indo-Pacific world from the 8th to the 17th centuries and demonstrates how they were part of the mechanism that turned the Indian Ocean into an “Islamic lake” before the arrival of the Europeans and how these Habeshi’s adapted to the European naval presence and ventured further into the Asia-Pacific region. The paper suggests that the Habeshi were also responsible for the spread of live poritis coral exploitation from their homelands to the East African littoral and across the Indian Ocean. The last point is still being researched in Southeast Asia.
Historians have tended to neglect the story of free African movement across the Indian Ocean. However, a multidisciplinary approach to the evidence of Africans in Asia, demonstrates that the following the arrival of Islam in the Horn of Africa in the 8th century the legacy of Axumite maritime trading was passed successively to the states of Shoa, Ifat and Adal. This maritime tradition gave rise to Muslim African communities known as Habeshis or Habshis in the Indo-Pacific region from the Red Sea to the Straits of Malacca and possibly beyond into the South China Sea.
Through images and archives this paper traces the growing presence of Habeshi communities in the Indo-Pacific world from the 8th to the 17th centuries and demonstrates how they were part of the mechanism that turned the Indian Ocean into an “Islamic lake” before the arrival of the Europeans and how these Habeshi’s adapted to the European naval presence and ventured further into the Asia-Pacific region. The paper suggests that the Habeshi were also responsible for the spread of live poritis coral exploitation from their homelands to the East African littoral and across the Indian Ocean. The last point is still being researched in Southeast Asia.
Creator
Cliff Pereira
Publisher
The Museum of Underwater Archaeology
Date
November 2021
Language
English
Bibliographic Citation
Pereira, Cliff. 2021. “The Barbari-Habeshi crewmen and merchants – Uncovering an African maritime tradition in the
Indian Ocean World.” Edited by Brian Fahy, Hans Van Tilburg, Bill Jeffery, T. Kurt Knoerl, and Riley Smith. In
Proceedings of Fourth Asia Pacific Regional Conference on Underwater Cultural Heritage: Keelung,Taiwan, and
Virtual, November 1-5, 2021. The Museum of Underwater Archaeology URL: https://apconf-much.org/proceedings/exhibits/show/apconf-muchproceedings/item/699
Indian Ocean World.” Edited by Brian Fahy, Hans Van Tilburg, Bill Jeffery, T. Kurt Knoerl, and Riley Smith. In
Proceedings of Fourth Asia Pacific Regional Conference on Underwater Cultural Heritage: Keelung,Taiwan, and
Virtual, November 1-5, 2021. The Museum of Underwater Archaeology URL: https://apconf-much.org/proceedings/exhibits/show/apconf-muchproceedings/item/699
Rights Holder
Asia Pacific Regional Conference on Underwater Cultural Heritage
Files
Collection
Citation
Cliff Pereira, “The Barbari-Habeshi crewmen and merchants – Uncovering an African maritime tradition in the Indian Ocean World,” APCONF-MUCH Proceedings Recently Added Items, accessed October 24, 2026, https://apconf-much.org/proceedings/items/show/699.