socatra History

There was initially an Oldoway (or Oldowan) culture in 

Socotra. Oldoway stone tools were found in the area 

around Hadibo by V.A. Zhukov, a member of the Russian 

Complex Expedition in 2008.[3][4]

Socotra appears as Dioskouridou ("of the Dioscurides") in 

the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, a 1st century A.D. 

Greek navigation aid. In the notes to his translation of 

the Periplus, G.W.B. Huntingford remarks that the name 

Socotra is not Greek in origin, but derives from the 

Sanskrit dvipa sukhadhara ("island of bliss").[5]

A local tradition holds that the inhabitants were 

converted to Christianity by Thomas in AD 52. In the 10th 

century, the Arab geographer Abu Muhammad al-Hasan al-

Hamdani stated that in his time most of the inhabitants 

were Christians.[citation needed] Socotra is also 

mentioned in The Travels of Marco Polo according to which 

"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 Nestorians 

but they also practiced ancient magic rituals despite the 

warnings of their archbishop.[citation needed]

In 1507, a fleet commanded by Tristão da Cunha with 

Afonso de Albuquerque landed an occupying force at the 

then capital of Suq, their objective was a Portuguese 

base to stop Arab commerce from the Red Sea to the Indian 

Ocean, and to liberate the presumed friendly Christians 

from Islamic rule. Here they started to build a fortress. 

However, they were not welcomed as enthusiastically as 

they had expected and abandoned the island four years 

later.[6] The island was also come across by Somali 

sailors.[citation needed]

The islands passed under the control of the Mahra sultans 

in 1511. Later, in January 1876, it became a British 

protectorate along with the remainder of the Mahra State 

of Qishn and Socotra. For the British it was an important 

strategic stop-over.[citation needed] The P&O ship Aden 

sank after being wrecked on a reef near Socotra, in 1897, 

with the loss of 78 lives.

In October 1967, the Mahra sultanate was abolished. On 30 

November 1967, Socotra became part of the People's 

Republic of South Yemen (later to become the People's 

Democratic Republic of Yemen). Today it is part of the 

Republic of Yemen.