page_title: Socotra
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Socotra / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Photo of 6 men from Socotra taken by Charles K. Moser
context_page_description: Socotra or Soqotra, located between the Guardafui Channel and the Arabian Sea, is the largest of the four islands in Socotra Archipelago. The territory is located near major shipping routes and is officially part of Yemen, and had long been a subdivision of Aden Governorate. In 2004, it became attached to the Hadhramaut Governorate, which is much closer to the island than Aden. In 2013, the archipelago became its governorate: Socotra Governorate.
  The island of Socotra constitutes around 95% of the landmass of the Socotra Archipelago. It lies some 240 kilometres east of the coast of Somalia and 380 kilometres south of the Arabian Peninsula. While politically a part of Yemen, Socotra and the rest of its archipelago geographically are part of Africa. The island is very isolated, home to a high number of endemic species; up to a third of its plant life is endemic. It has been described as "the most alien-looking place on Earth." The island measures 132 kilometres in length and 49.7 kilometres in width. In 2008 Socotra was recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
context_section_description: There was initially an Oldowan lithic culture in Socotra. Oldowan stone tools were found in the area around Hadibo by V.A. Zhukov, a member of the Russian Complex Expedition in 2008.
  Socotra appears as Dioskouridou ("of the Dioscuri") in the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, a 1st-century AD Greek navigation aid. A recent discovery of texts in several languages, including a wooden tablet in Palmyrene dated to the 3rd century AD, indicate the diverse origins of those who used Socotra as a trading base in antiquity.
  In 2001 a group of Belgian speleologists of the Socotra Karst Project investigated a cave on the island of Socotra. There, they came across a large number of inscriptions, drawings and archaeological objects. Further investigation showed that these had been left by sailors who visited the island between the 1st century BC and the 6th century AD. Most of the texts are written in the Indian Brāhmī script, but there are also inscriptions in South Arabian, Ethiopic, Greek, Palmyrene and Bactrian scripts and languages. This corpus of nearly 250 texts and drawings thus constitutes one of the main sources for the investigation of Indian Ocean trade networks in that time period.
  A local tradition, based on the 3rd-century apocryphal Acts of Thomas, holds that the inhabitants were converted to Christianity by Thomas the Apostle in AD 52. In 880, an Ethiopian expeditionary force conquered the island, and an Oriental Orthodox bishop was consecrated. The Ethiopians were later dislodged by a large armada sent by Imam Al-Salt bin Malik of Oman. In the 10th century, the Arab geographer Abu Muhammad al-Hasan al-Hamdani stated that in his time most of the inhabitants were Christians. Socotra is also mentioned in The Travels of Marco Polo; Marco Polo did not pass anywhere near the island but recorded a report that "the inhabitants are baptised Christians and have an 'archbishop'" who, it is further explained, "has nothing to do with the Pope in Rome, but is subject to an archbishop who lives at Baghdad." They were Oriental Orthodox but also practised ancient magic rituals despite the warnings of their archbishop. 
  In 1507, a Portuguese fleet commanded by Tristão da Cunha with Afonso de Albuquerque landed at the then capital of Suq and captured the port after a stiff battle. Their objective was to set a base in a strategic place on the route to India and to liberate the presumed friendly Christians from Islamic rule. Tomás Fernandes started to build a fortress at Suq, the Forte de São Miguel de Socotorá. The infertility of the land led to famine and sickness in the garrison, however. Moreover, the lack of a proper harbour for wintering led to the loss of many moored Portuguese ships, the most important of which was the Santo António galleon under the command of captain Manuel Pais da Veiga. Thus the Portuguese abandoned the island four years later, as it was not advantageous as a base.
  The islands passed under the control of the Mahra sultans in 1511, and its inhabitants were Islamized during their rule. In 1737, however, Captain de la Garde-Jazier, commander of a French naval expedition heading for Mocha, was surprised to find Christian tribes living in the interior of Socotra during a five-week stopover on the island. He reported in a letter home that the tribesmen, "due to lack of missionaries, had only retained a faint knowledge of Christianity."
  In 1834, the East India Company, in the expectation that the Mahra sultan of Qishn and Socotra, who resided at Qishn on the mainland, would accept an offer to sell the island, stationed a garrison on Socotra. Faced with the unexpected firm refusal of the sultan to sell, however, as well as the lack of good anchorages for a coaling station to be used by the new steamship line being put into service on the Suez-Bombay route, the British left in 1835. After the capture of Aden in 1839, the British lost all interest in acquiring Socotra.
  In January 1876, in exchange for a payment of 3,000 thalers and a yearly subsidy, the sultan pledged "himself, his heirs and successors, never to cede, to
caption: Photo of local men from Socotra taken by Charles K. Moser, 1918[19]
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