Maydh (Mait)

Where it is

Maydh lies on the Gulf of Aden coast of eastern Sanaag, at about 11.0°N, 47.1°E (Wikidata; Wikipedia: Maydh). Somaliland administers it as part of Sanaag (Wikipedia: Maydh). The French writer Pierre d'Avity gave its ancient name as Acanne (Wikipedia: Maydh).

Sheikh Isaaq's tomb

Maydh was home to Sheikh Isaaq ibn Ahmed al-Hashimi (Sheekh Isxaaq), who came from Arabia in the 1100s or 1200s and is regarded as the founding father of the Isaaq clan family. His domed tomb is in the town, and tradition says he and his followers built the old town on earlier foundations (Wikipedia: Maydh). Genealogies collected by the scholars Cox and Abud say that many clan forefathers are buried in or near Maydh, and the writer Augustus Henry Keane called it an early centre from which Somalis spread (Keane, Man Past and Present; Wikipedia: Maydh).

Old maps and travellers

The medieval Arabic Book of Curiosities marks Maydh, Heis and other capes on its map of the Somali coast (Wikipedia: Maydh). The 15th-century navigator Ahmad ibn Majid named Maydh among the ports of the northern coast, with Berbera, the islands off Zeila, Alula, Heis and El-Sheikh (Wikipedia: Maydh).

The chronicle Futuh al-Habasha records that the Harti who fought on the left wing of Imam Ahmad's army at the battle of Shimbra Kure were called "the people of Mait" (Wikipedia: Maydh). Leo Africanus wrote that the town was under the Sultanate of Adal (Wikipedia: Maydh).

The Portuguese priest Francisco Álvares described "Meti" in the 1520s as a town of 50 or 60 hearths with two mosques, large burial grounds and a school where children wrote on boards with inkpots. The people fled when the Portuguese fleet arrived; the Portuguese dug about 40 water holes, then burned the houses, mosques and boats when they left (Wikipedia: Maydh). Duarte Barbosa described "Met" as a town with plenty of meat but little trade (Barbosa, Hakluyt Society).

See also Heis (Xiis), ancient port and cairns.

Trade

In the 1800s and early 1900s Maydh traded frankincense from the mountains to its south, and Arab and Indian (Banyan) merchants called there on the way west. It was the main export point for large hides in eastern British Somaliland and second after Heis for skins, with more than 15,000 shipped. Dhows carried livestock and goods between Maydh and Berbera (Wikipedia: Maydh).

For local conditions in eastern Sanaag, see the FAO food security survey of the region (FSNAU Sanaag survey, May 2002).

Sources

• Wikipedia: Maydh
• Wikidata Q1017540
• Keane, Man Past and Present
• Duarte Barbosa, A Description of the Coasts of East Africa and Malabar
• FSNAU Sanaag survey, 2002