FROM SUAKIN ISLAND TO COMOROS ISLANDS: EAST AFRICAN MUSLIMS' STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE

Abstract

Suakin Island is a strategically important island in the northeast of the Sudanese Republic and on the Red Sea coast. The Comoros Islands, on the other hand, are islands located in the south east of Africa, in the west of the Indian Ocean. East Africa coasts extending from the Red Sea coast in the north of Africa, to the Comoros Islands located in the south of Africa are very special and fertile lands that have hosted the culture and civilization of Muslim peoples. These lands, which are the subject of this article, have a difficult nature in terms of both geographical and climatic conditions, have been exposed to the invasion and influx of powerful states throughout history. Especially the dreams of Portuguese sailors who wandered the Cape of Good Hope to transfer the riches of the east to the west caused the western powers to turn their attention to this geography in the sixteenth century. In our article, we draw attention to the formation of the Islamic civilization of the coasts of East Africa and the Red Sea and the development phase of this cultural texture called the Swahili civilization. We tried to focus on the Harar sultanates and the Abyssinian State of the Ottoman Empire. It is preferred to give point to the strategic location of the cities of Suakin, Masawa and Zeila, which are the administrative centers of the Abyssinian state. We observe that the Ottoman navy, which dominated the Red Sea for three centuries and prevented the Portuguese invasion, organized voyages in the Indian Ocean in the direction of Yemen, Basra and the Indian through the Bosporus of Bâbü'l-Mendeb, as well as voyages along the coast of East Africa to the lands of today's Somalia, Kenya and Tanzania. In our article, it will be clarified that how East African Muslims had a bond of affection with the Ottoman Empire until the First World War.