Barbara (region)

Barbara, also referred to as Barbaria, referred to two ancient regions in littoral Northeast Africa. The two areas were inhabited by the Eastern Barbaroi or Baribah ("Berbers") as referred to by ancient Greek philosophers. These inhabitants were the ancestors of today's local Afroasiatic-speaking populations.

According to the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, a 1st century CE travelogue written by a Greek merchant based in Alexandria, the first Barbara region extended from just south of Berenice Troglodytae in Southeastern Egypt to just north of Ptolemais Theron in Northeastern Sudan whilst the second Barbara region was then located just beyond the Bab al-Mandeb up to the "Market and Cape of Spices, an abrupt promontory, at the very end of the Berber coast toward the east" found in Northeastern Somalia. This second Barbara region was home to entrepôts known as the "far-side" ports. Archaeological excavations led by Neville Chittick have identified the Market and Cape of Spices as the present-day Damo.

Along with the neighboring Habash (Abyssinians) of Al-Habash toward the interior, the Periplus records the Berbers of the second Barbara region as engaging in extensive commercial exchanges with Egypt and Pre-Islamic Arabia. The travelogue mentions these Berbers as trading frankincense, among various other commodities, through their port cities such as Malao, Avalites, Mundus, Mosylon and Opone. Competent seamen, the Periplus' author also indicates that they sailed throughout the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden for trade. The document describes the Berbers' system of governance as decentralized, and essentially consisting of a collection of autonomous city-states.

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