View source for Rauso

{{Short description|Ancient region in the Horn of Africa}}
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'''Rauso''' was a region in the [[Horn of Africa]] in [[Late Antiquity]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Munro-Hay |first=S. C. (Stuart C. ) |authorlink=Stuart Munro-Hay |url=https://archive.org/details/ethiopiaunknownl0000munr/page/235/mode/1up |title=Ethiopia, the unknown land : a cultural and historical guide |date=2002 |publisher=London; New York : I.B. Tauris |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-1-86064-744-4 |pages=235}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Shitomi |first=Yuzo |date=1997 |title=A New Interpretation of the Monumentum Adulitanum |url=https://toyo-bunko.repo.nii.ac.jp/records/3238 |journal=Memoirs of the Research Department of the Toyo Bunko (The Oriental Library) |volume=55 |pages=81–102 |issn=0082-562X}}</ref>
==Geography==
The ''[[Monumentum Adulitanum]]'' is a third-century monumental inscription by an anonymous [[List of kings of Axum|King of Axum]] recording his various victories in war.<ref>{{Citation |last=Hatke |first=George |title=Aksum and Nubia |chapter=3. The Third Century CE: Monumentum Adulitanum II (RIE 277) |date=2013-01-07 |pages=37–66 |chapter-url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.18574/nyu/9780814760666.003.0003/html |publisher=New York University Press |doi=10.18574/nyu/9780814760666.003.0003 |language=en |isbn=978-0-8147-6278-3}}</ref> It is lost, but its text was copied down in the 6th century by [[Cosmas Indicopleustes]] in his ''[[Christian Topography]]''. It describes how he conquered a land and people called Rauso to the west of [[Aromata]]. The description of the land is congruous with modern-day [[Dollo Zone]] and [[Haud]]<ref name="MH1991">Stuart Munro-Hay, ''Aksum: An African Civilization of Late Antiquity'' (Edinburgh University Press, 1991), p. 187.</ref><ref name=MH2003>Munro-Hay, ''Ethiopia, the Unknown Land: A Cultural and Historical Guide'' (I. B. Tauris, 2003), p. 235.</ref> also translated "Land of Incense"<ref name=YS>Y. Shitomi (1997), "A New Interpretation of the ''Monumentum Adulitanum''", ''Memoirs of the Research Department of the Toyo Bunko'' '''55''', 81–102.</ref> or "Frankincense Country":<ref>{{Cite book |last=Baumgarten |first=Siegmund Jacob |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0G02ysmPhZYC&q=Rauso+Barbaria |title=Übersetzung der algemeinen Welthistorie: die in Engeland durch eine Geselschaft von Gelehrten ausgefertiget worden : nebst den Anmerkungen der holländischen Übersetzung auch vielen neuen Kupfern und Karten |date=1756 |publisher=Gebauer |pages=321 |language=de}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Mountnorris |first1=George Annesley |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PzhO7S7arr0C&q=Rauso |title=Voyages and Travels to India, Ceylon, The Red Sea, Abyssinia, and Egypt in the Years 1802, 1803, 1804, 1805, and 1806 |last2=Valentia |first2=George Viscount |date=1809 |publisher=Miller |pages=198 |language=en}}</ref>
<blockquote>
I subjugated the peoples of Rauso who live in the midst of incense-gathering barbarians between great waterless plains.<ref name=MH1991/><ref name=MH2003/>
</blockquote>
British Anglican priest William Vincent described the region of Rauso as stretching westwards from Aromata all the way to the hinterlands of the hitherto prospective Adal Kingdom.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Vincent |first=William |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d1dBAAAAcAAJ&q=Approach%20straits%20adel |title=The Periplus of the Erythrean Sea |date=1800 |publisher=Cadell and Davies |pages=61 |language=en}}</ref> During its extant existence, the contemporary polity to the north of Rauso was Sesea.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Vincent |first=William |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fRBFAQAAMAAJ&q=rauso+Barbaria+adel |title=The Commerce and Navigation of the Ancients in the Indian Ocean |date=1807 |publisher=T. Cadell and W. Davies |pages=548 |language=en}}</ref> The region of Rauso could also be congruous with the [[Nugaal]] plains of northern Somalia.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XBvVAAAAMAAJ |title=Sources for the History of Arabia |date=1979 |publisher=University of Riyadh Press |pages=95 |language=ar}}</ref> It may have been located further inland towards the Ethiopian highlands near [[Raaso]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=(the Melodian) |first=Saint Cosmas |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ao0zAQAAIAAJ |title=Topografia cristiana: libri I-V |date=1992 |publisher=M. D'Auria |isbn=978-88-7092-088-8 |pages=68 |language=it}}</ref> [[Laurence P. Kirwan]] identified it with the [[Danakil Desert]], inhabited today by the [[Afar people|Afar]].<ref>L. P. Kirwan (1972), "The Christian Topography and the Kingdom of Axum", ''The Geographical Journal'', 138(2), p. 174. {{doi|10.2307/1795960}}</ref><ref name="Kirwan 2002 42">{{Cite book |last=Kirwan |first=Laurence |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qXwPAQAAMAAJ |title=Studies on the History of Late Antique and Christian Nubia |date=2002 |publisher=Ashgate Variorum |isbn=978-0-86078-893-5 |pages=42 |language=en}}</ref>
==Politics==
Frederick Guest Tomlins described Rauso as a kingdom.<ref name="Tomlins 1844 846">{{Cite book |last=Tomlins |first=Frederick Guest |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=G0RXAAAAYAAJ&dq=Rauso+raithus&pg=PA846 |title=A Universal History of the Nations of Antiquity: Comprising a Complete History of the Jews, from the Creation to the Present Time : Likewise an Account of Ancient Syria, Grecian Islands, Persian Empire, Armenia, Numidia, Ethiopia, Arabia, Scythia, the Celtes, &c. &c. &c. : to which are Prefixed the Various Theories of Creation, According to the Most Esteemed Ancient and Modern Writers |date=1844 |publisher=W. Milner |pages=846 |language=en}}</ref> It also had an alternative toponym by the epithet of ''Raithus,'' or as [[Ptolemy]] used to call it; ''Rhaptus''. It used to exchange ordained religious ministers with the northern principalities.<ref name="Tomlins 1844 846"/> A predominant religion practised during the Rauso period was [[Waaqism]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ahmed |first=Akbar S. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WahTAQAAQBAJ&dq=info:G_WTwDY-R5cJ:scholar.google.com/&pg=PA127 |title=Islam in Tribal Societies: From the Atlas to the Indus |date=2013-10-16 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-56527-6 |pages=127–128 |language=en}}</ref> During the [[Classical antiquity|classical era]], through contact with Hadhramaut and Himyarite traders, the Rauso kingdom had contact with Abrahamic religions too, in the form of Christianity in the former and Judaism in the latter, and some of these populations had settled and became Somalized. The pre-Rauso era is largely regarded as corresponding with [[Lowland East Cushitic languages|Lowland East Cushitic]] history.<ref>Tindel, Raymond D. "Archaeological Survey of Yemen: The First Season." Current Anthropology 21.1 (1980): 101-102.</ref><ref>[[Glen W. Bowersock]], ''The Throne of Adulis: Red Sea Wars on the Eve of Islam'' (Oxford University Press, 2013), pp. 47, 51–53.</ref>
Rauso was situated in the vicinity of a major trade route linking the interiors of Ethiopia with the coast; thus it was part of the wider incense and aromatics trade centred in [[Barbaria (region)|Barbaria]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Henze |first=Paul B. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gzwoedwOkQMC&q=Rauso+barbarian+trade |title=Layers of Time: A History of Ethiopia |date=2000 |publisher=Hurst & Company |isbn=978-1-85065-393-6 |pages=29 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="Kirwan 2002 42"/> It was bordered to the south by various [[Horner (demography)|Horner]] and [[Cushite people|Cushitic]] tribal groupings such as the Northern Azanians, the Ormas, the Bazrangids, the Tunni, and Gabooye.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Martin |first=E.G. |date=1974 |title=Mahdism and Holy Wars in Ethiopia Before 1600 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41223140 |journal=Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies |volume=4 |pages= 106–117|jstor=41223140 |issn=0308-8421}}</ref> Sometime during the latter half of the [[1st millennium]], Rauso was replaced by the Jabarta and Ximan civilizations.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mashhūr |first=ʻAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Muḥammad |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VmHYAAAAMAAJ |title=شمس الظهيرة في نسب اهل البيت من بني علوي فروع فاطمة الزهراء وامير المؤمنين علي رضي الله عنه |date=1984 |publisher=عالم المعرفة، |pages=112 |language=ar}}</ref> Concurrently, there also existed a predominantly Christian civilization called ''Harli'' towards the north in the [[Nugaal Valley]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=M-Shidad Hussein |first=S. |date=2021-04-03 |title=Ruined towns in Nugaal: a forgotten medieval civilisation in interior Somalia |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0067270X.2021.1925025 |journal=Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa |language=en |volume=56 |issue=2 |pages=250–271 |doi=10.1080/0067270X.2021.1925025 |issn=0067-270X}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Society |first1=Royal Geographical |title=Supplementary Papers Page |page=551 |quote=They called the people " Harli," and said they were there prior to the Gallas. The latter had dug the rocky wells at Kirrid which we saw on first entering the country, and had cut a rude Christian cross in the face of the cave—■ the only ancient sign existing of a rude form of Christianity in the land}}</ref>
==References==
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Ancient Somalia]]
[[Category:Kingdom of Aksum]]
[[Category:Ancient Greek geography]]
[[Category:Ancient Greek geography of East Africa]]