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The dabqaad (Somali for "fire raiser"), also known as girgire, is a Somali incense burner, or censer. With either one or two handles, it is commonly used in Somalia, Ethiopia and Djibouti.
Dabqaads are traditionally used to perfume homes after large meals and/or during special occasions, such as when one is expecting guests.
Frankincense (foox/fooh) or a prepared incense (uunsi), is placed on top of hot charcoal inside an incense burner, the dabqaad. It then burns for about ten minutes. This keeps the house fragrant for hours.
The dabqaad pot is made from a white clay or soapstone found in specific areas of Somalia. Meerschaum (sepiolite) is used to make the dabqaad, with the district of El Buur serving as a center for quarrying. El Buur is also the place of origin of the local pipe-making industry. The ancient Egyptian pharaoh Hatshepsut was very fond of the incense when she went on her expedition to the ancient Land of Punt. [1]
Somalis living in the West often obtain their dabqaads from the Horn of Africa, in person or through relatives.
Somali, officially the Federal Republic of Somalia and formerly known as the Somali Democratic Republic, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. The country was an important centre for commerce with the rest of the ancient world, and according to most scholars, it is among the most probable locations of the fabled ancient Land of Punt. During the Middle Ages, several powerful Somali states and port towns dominated the regional trade, including the Mogadishu Sultanate and the Ajuran Sultanate, both centered around the port town of Mogadishu. Additionally, the port towns of Barawe and Merca played significant roles in this commercial network. Preceding these medieval states were ancient civilizations such as the Macrobian Kingdom, noted by Herodotus for its wealth and wisdom, and the Barbario civilization, an early pre-Islamic culture that helped lay the foundations for the region's prosperous trade routes.
Myrrh is a gum-resin extracted from a few small, thorny tree species of the Commiphora genus, belonging to the Burseraceae family. Myrrh resin has been used throughout history in medicine, perfumery, and incenses. Myrrh mixed with posca or wine was widely used in many ancient cultures to produce pleasurable feelings and as an anti-inflammatory and analgesic.
Incense is an aromatic biotic material that releases fragrant smoke when burnt. The term is used for either the material or the aroma. Incense is used for aesthetic reasons, religious worship, aromatherapy, meditation, and ceremony. It may also be used as a simple deodorant or insect repellent.
A censer, incense burner, perfume burner or pastille burner is a vessel made for burning incense or perfume in some solid form. They vary greatly in size, form, and material of construction, and have been in use since ancient times throughout the world. They may consist of simple earthenware bowls or fire pots to intricately carved silver or gold vessels, small table top objects a few centimetres tall to as many as several metres high. Many designs use openwork to allow a flow of air. In many cultures, burning incense has spiritual and religious connotations, and this influences the design and decoration of the censer.
The word zoomorphism derives from Ancient Greek: ζῶον, romanized: zōon, lit. 'animal' and Ancient Greek: μορφή, romanized: morphē, lit. 'form; shape'. In the context of art, zoomorphism could describe art that imagines humans as non-human animals. It can also be defined as art that portrays one species of animal like another species of animal or art that uses animals as a visual motif, sometimes referred to as "animal style." Depicting deities in animal form (theriomorphism) is an example of zoomorphism in a religious context. It is also similar to the term therianthropy; which is the ability to shape shift into animal form, except that with zoomorphism the animal form is applied to a physical object. It means to attribute animal forms or animal characteristics to other animals, or things other than an animal; similar to but broader than anthropomorphism. Contrary to anthropomorphism, which views animal or non-animal behavior in human terms, zoomorphism is the tendency of viewing human behavior in terms of the behavior of animals. It is also used in literature to portray the act of humans or objects with animalistic behavior or features. The use of zoomorphism served as a decorative element to objects that are typically quite simple in shape and design.
A thymiaterion is a type of censer or incense burner, used in the Mediterranean region since antiquity for spiritual and religious purposes and especially in religious ceremonies.
A meerschaum pipe is a smoking pipe made from the mineral sepiolite, also known as meerschaum. Meerschaum is sometimes found floating on the Black Sea and is rather suggestive of sea foam.
The Somali people are a Cushitic ethnic group native to the Horn of Africa who share a common ancestry, culture and history. The East Cushitic Somali language is the shared mother tongue of ethnic Somalis, which is part of the Cushitic branch of the Afroasiatic language family, and they are predominantly Sunni Muslim. Forming one of the largest ethnic groups on the continent, they cover one of the most expansive landmasses by a single ethnic group in Africa.
Sepiolite, also known in English by the German name meerschaum ( MEER-shawm, -shəm; German:[ˈmeːɐ̯ʃaʊm] ; meaning "sea foam"), is a soft white clay mineral, often used to make tobacco pipes (known as meerschaum pipes). A complex magnesium silicate, a typical chemical formula for which is Mg4Si6O15(OH)2·6H2O, it can be present in fibrous, fine-particulate, and solid forms.
The Gilt-bronze Incense Burner of Baekje was designated as the 287th National Treasure of Korea on May 30, 1996. Currently housed at the Buyeo National Museum, it was originally excavated at an ancient temple site in Neungsan-ri, Buyeo County in South Chungcheong Province in 1993. The incense burner was the largest find among the 450 artifacts excavated.
Somali cuisine was influenced by many different countries mainly due to trade, but traditionally also varies from region to region due to the expansive landmass Somalis inhabit. It is the product of Somalia's tradition of trade and commerce. Some notable Somali specialties include kimis / sabaayad, canjeero / laxoox, xalwo (halwa), sambuusa (samosa), bariis iskukaris, and muqmad / oodkac.
Galmudug, officially Galmudug State of Somalia, is a Federal Member State in central Somalia, with its capital at Dhusamareb. It is bordered to the north by the Puntland state of Somalia, to the west by the Somali Region in Ethiopia, to the east by the Indian Ocean and to the south by the Hirshabelle state of Somalia.
The Murusade, also contemporarily known as Mursal, are a Somali subclan, part of the Karanle branch of the larger Hawiye Clan. They primarily reside in the central regions of Somalia, particularly in the Galgaduud, Lower Shabelle, Middle Shabelle and Banadir regions.
Ceel Buur is a town located in the region of Galguduud in central Somalia.
The Djiboutians are the native inhabitants of Djibouti, as well as the global diaspora of Djibouti. The country is mainly composed of two ethnic groups, the Somali and the Afar. It has many languages - though Somali and Afar are the most widely spoken ones, Arabic and French serve as the official languages. There is a small Djiboutian diaspora in North America, Europe, and Australia.
The ancient Egyptian Incense burner: arm is a horizontal hieroglyph representing various types of horizontal tools used to offer, and burn incense. In tomb scenes, it is sometimes depicted with a little cup-shaped box attached for keeping incense on the top surface; the person making the offering is occasionally seen holding an incense grain-pellet with lines of incense, or linked grains-in-a-line, which are equivalent to drifting smoke.
Somali architecture is the engineering and designing of multiple different construction types such as stone cities, castles, citadels, fortresses, mosques, temples, aqueducts, lighthouses, towers and tombs during the ancient, medieval and early modern periods in Somalia and other regions inhabited by Somalis, as well as the fusion of Somalo-Islamic architecture with Western designs in contemporary times.
Somali art is the artistic culture of the Somali people, both historic and contemporary. These include artistic traditions in pottery, music, architecture, woodcarving and other genres. Somali art is characterized by its aniconism, partly as a result of the vestigial influence of the pre-Islamic mythology of the Somalis coupled with their ubiquitous Muslim beliefs. However, there have been cases in the past of artistic depictions representing living creatures such as the golden birds on the Mogadishan canopies, the ancient rock paintings in Somaliland, and the plant decorations on religious tombs in Somalia, but these are considered rare. Instead, intricate patterns and geometric designs, bold colors and monumental architecture was the norm.
El Buur is a district in the central Galguduud region of Somalia. It is part of the Galmudug state of the Federal Republic of Somalia.
Buur Heybe, which translates to "The Hill of the Potter's Sand", is a late Pleistocene and Holocene archaeological complex located in the largest granite inselberg in the inter-riverine region of the southern Bay province of Somalia approximately 180 km northwest of the capital Mogadishu. Buur Heybe has a longstanding history of archaeological research dating back to the 1930s when Paolo Graziosi carried out the first professional archaeological excavation in Somalia in the rockshelter site of Gogoshiis Qabe in Buur Heybe. Further excavations by J. Desmond Clark in the 1950s and later by the Buur Ecological and Archaeological Project (BEAP) led by Steven Brandt in the 1980s have made Buur Heybe one of the best dated and closely studied archaeological sites in Somalia.