Qandala

History

A historic settlement of thousands of years old, Qandala is among the madīnah (historical towns) of Puntland and one of the oldest towns in Somalia. It first appears in written records in the 1st century AD, as mentioned by the anonymous author of the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea. In the Periplus, Qandala is referred to as TabaTege. It was part of the ancient Somali trading ports that flourished in far northeastern Somalia during Classical and Late Antiquity. They were renowned in the Greco-roman and Near Easten world for their luxury goods such as incense, gums, and aromatic woods, exported to Roman Egypt, Arabia, Persia, Aksumites Troglodica, and as far as India. Its nickname Gacanka Hodonka (“Gulf of Prosperity”) is a relic from this era, with the abundance of incense resins grown in its nearby mountain ranges of Cal Miskat, where frankincense and myrrh resins are found and harvested by the locals, forming a traditional economy of the sparsely populated arid region of Bari, which shaped the economic livelihood of its inhabitants. Qandala re-emerged during the early modern period under the Majeerteen Sultanate as an important seaport in the commerce between Majeerteenia and southern Arabia, as well as Egypt and India. It served as one of the coastal trading hubs of the Majeerteen along with Hafun, Bargal, Habo, Caluula, and Bosaso. A castle built during this period is among the architectural heritage that survived from the Majeerteen era. On 26 October 2016, a militant group linked to ISIL captured Qandala with 50 armed fighters after a brief firefight with local security forces, thus becoming the first town to be seized by Islamic State affiliated militants in Somalia. BBC News reported that ISIL militants had withdrawn from the town for unclear reasons.…