- Tadjoura
Infobox Settlement
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pushpin_mapsize = 300
pushpin_map_caption =Location in Djibouti
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subdivision_name1 =Tadjoura Region
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population_total = 25,000
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latd=11|latm=47|lats=|latNS=N
longd=42|longm=53|longs=|longEW=E
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footnotes =Tadjoura (Afar: "Tagórri"; _ar. تجورة, "tağūrrah", "tuğūrrah") is the oldest town in
Djibouti , and is the capital of theTadjourah Region . Lying on theGulf of Tadjoura , it is home to a population of around 25,000 people.Tadjoura is home to an
airstrip and is linked byferry withDjibouti City . It is also known for itswhitewash ed buildings and nearbybeach es.Etymology
The Afar name "Tagórri" derives from the noun "tágor" or "tógor", (pl. "tágar" meaning "outre à puiser" ("goatskin flask for drawing water"). The name "Tagórri" is specifically derived from *"tagór-li", which means "qui a des outre à puiser" ("that which has goatskin flasks to draw water"), in effect meaning "abondante en eau" ("abundant with water"). [Didier Morin, "Tadjoura," in "Dictionnaire historique afar (1288-1982)". France: 2004, p. 250.]
History
Tadjoura originally was the seat of the
Afar Ad-Ali Abli Sultanate as well as a port. This ruler, known as the "Dardar" according to Mordechai Abir, "claimed authority over all of the northern Adoimara Afar to the borders of Showa. However, although it was true that some sub-clans of the Ad-Ali and Abli Adoimara roamed as far as the borders ofYifat , even the staunchest supporters of the Sultan agreed that his actual authority did not stretch beyondLake Assal , a short distance from Tajura." [Ref Ethiopia|Abir-1968|pages= p. 20] Pankhurst notes that it differed from neighboring ports by handling almost entirely the trade ofShewa andAussa , "rather than that ofHarar or theOgaden ." He quotesWilliam Cornwallis Harris ' description of an annual bazaar that started each September, when "for two months the beach is piled with merchandise, and the suburbs are crowded with camels, mules and donkeys." Pankhurst also cites C.T. Beke that the trade with the inhabitants of theAfar Depression was handled entirely by women, "who loaded the camels, bought and sold while the men kept away altogether 'to avoid bloodshed, this country being the scene of constant feuds among the different tribes.'" [Richard K.P. Pankhurst, "Economic History of Ethiopia" (Addis Ababa: Haile Selassie University Press, 1968), pp. 429.]While Abir observes that the port is not mentioned in all of the material about the Red Sea in the eighteenth or early nineteenth centuries, by the mid-19th century Tadjoura was thriving, "while all the other so-called Afar sultanates along the coast were described ... as small decaying villages of no political or commercial importance." [Abir, "Era of the Princes", pp. 20f] Tajoura owed this success to possessing a major
slave market ; Pankhurst suggests that a rough estimate of 6,000 people a year left Ethiopia through Tadjoura andZeila . [Pankhurst, p. 83.] The other important commodity sold in Tadjoura in the 19th century wasivory , brought by caravan fromAliyu Amba . [Pankhurst, p. 249.] Other goods exported included wheat,durra , honey, gold, ostrich feathers, senna, madder, andcivetone . The value of trade in 1880-1 was estimated at the time as 29,656rupee s in exports and 18,513 rupees in imports. [Pankhurst, pp. 429.]Once Tadjoura came under French control, the slave trade was abolished by decree on
26 October 1889 ; [Pankhurst, p. 103.] however, Noel-Buxton reported that Tajoura still remained a center of the slave trade, but "limited to small though frequent shipments." [Pankhurst, p. 123.] While during the 1880s the port served as a distribution point for rifles and ammunition to Shewa and Ethiopia (during this period,Arthur Rimbaud lived in the city), Tajoura's importance inevitably declined with the construction of theFranco-Ethiopian railway , which began service on22 July 1901 , extended toDire Dawa 17 months later, and finally to Addis Ababa on3 December ,1929 . [Pankhurst, pp. 304-334.]Notes
External links
* [http://www.world-gazetteer.com/wg.php?x=1153974253&men=gpro&lng=en&dat=32&geo=347097831&srt=npan&col=aohdq&geo=366466289 World Gazetteer entry on Tajurah]
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