Editing Mogadishu (section)

====Medieval Mogadishu====
During his travels, [[ibn Sa'id al-Maghribi]] (1213–1286) noted that Mogadishu city had already become the leading Islamic centre in the region.<ref>{{cite book |author=Michael Dumper, Bruce E. Stanley |title=Cities of the Middle East and North Africa: A Historical Encyclopedia |publisher=ABC-CLIO |year=2007 |location=US |page=252}}</ref> By the time of the [[Tangier]]-born traveller [[ibn Battuta]]'s appearance on the [[coastline of Somalia]] in 1331, the city was at the zenith of its prosperity. He described Mogadishu as "an exceedingly large city" with many rich merchants, which was famous for its high quality [[textile|fabric]] that it exported to [[Mamluk Sultanate]]-ruled [[Egypt]], among other places.<ref>P. L. Shinnie, ''The African Iron Age'', (Clarendon Press: 1971), p.135</ref><ref>{{cite book |editor=Helen Chapin Metz |editor-link=Helen Chapin Metz |url=https://archive.org/details/somaliacountryst00metz |title=Somalia: A Country Study |publisher=Federal Research Division, Library of Congress |year=1992 |isbn=978-0844407753 |location=US}}</ref> He also describes the hospitality of the people of Mogadishu and how locals would put travellers up in their home to help the local economy.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Battutah |first1=Ibn |title=The Travels of Ibn Battutah |date=2002 |publisher=Picador |isbn=9780330418799 |location=London |pages=88–89}}</ref> Battuta added that the city was ruled by a Somali [[sultan]], Abu Bakr ibn Shaikh 'Umar,<ref name="Versteegh">{{cite book |last=Versteegh |first=Kees |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OWQOAQAAMAAJ |title=Encyclopedia of Arabic language and linguistics, Volume 4 |publisher=Brill |year=2008 |isbn=978-9004144767 |page=276 |access-date=15 November 2015 |archive-date=16 October 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151016014246/https://books.google.com/books?id=OWQOAQAAMAAJ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Laisas">David D. Laitin, Said S. Samatar, ''Somalia: Nation in Search of a State'', (Westview Press: 1987), p. 15.</ref> He noted that Sultan Abu Bakr had dark skin complexion and spoke in his native tongue (Somali) but was also fluent in Arabic.<ref name="Bulliet 313">{{cite book |last=Bulliet |first=Richard |title=The Earth and Its Peoples, Brief Edition, Complete |year=2011 |publisher=Cengage Learning |pages=313 |isbn=978-1133171102 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Bec8AAAAQBAJ&q=abu+bakr+had+skin+darker+than+his+own+and+spoke+a+different+native+language+%28Somali%29&pg=PA313 |access-date=6 November 2020 |archive-date=15 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201115041605/https://books.google.com/books?id=Bec8AAAAQBAJ&q=abu+bakr+had+skin+darker+than+his+own+and+spoke+a+different+native+language+(Somali)&pg=PA313 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Laisas" /><ref>Chapurukha Makokha Kusimba, ''The Rise and Fall of Swahili States'', (AltaMira Press: 1999), p.58</ref> The Sultan also had a retinue of [[vizier]]s, legal experts, commanders, royal [[eunuch]]s, and other officials at his beck and call.<ref name="Laisas" /> [[Ibn Khaldun]] (1332 to 1406) noted in his book that Mogadishu was a massive [[metropolis]]. He also claimed that the city was very populous with many wealthy [[merchants]].<ref name="Ibn Khaldun">{{cite book |last=Brett |first=Michael |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6r9mAAAAMAAJ&q=ibn+khaldun+book |title=Ibn Khaldun and the Medieval Maghrib |date=1 January 1999 |publisher=Ashgate/Variorum |isbn=9780860787723 |access-date=6 April 2018 |via=Google Books |archive-date=29 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220329041025/https://books.google.com/books?id=6r9mAAAAMAAJ&q=ibn+khaldun+book |url-status=live }}</ref>

This period gave birth to notable figures like [[Abd al-Aziz of Mogadishu]]  who was described as the governor and island chief of [[Maldives]] by ibn Battuta.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Forbes |first1=Andrew |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vYffX9B0lpIC&q=aziz+mogadishu+ibn+battuta |title=The Maldives: Kingdom of a Thousand Isles |last2=Bishop |first2=Kevin |date=2004 |publisher=Odyssey |isbn=978-962-217-710-9 |language=en |access-date=20 September 2020 |archive-date=29 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220329041025/https://books.google.com/books?id=vYffX9B0lpIC&q=aziz+mogadishu+ibn+battuta |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Bhatt |first=Purnima Mehta |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PucrDwAAQBAJ&q=aziz+mogadishu+ibn+battuta&pg=PT63 |title=The African Diaspora in India: Assimilation, Change and Cultural Survivals |date=5 September 2017 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-1-351-37365-4 |language=en |access-date=6 November 2020 |archive-date=29 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220329041025/https://books.google.com/books?id=PucrDwAAQBAJ&q=aziz+mogadishu+ibn+battuta&pg=PT63 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s61AAAAAYAAJ&q=Abd+al+-+Aziz+al+-+Makdashawi |title=Kenya Past and Present |date=1980 |publisher=Kenya Museum Society |language=en |access-date=20 September 2020 |archive-date=29 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220329041026/https://books.google.com/books?id=s61AAAAAYAAJ&q=Abd+al+-+Aziz+al+-+Makdashawi |url-status=live }}</ref> After him is named the Abdul-Aziz Mosque of Mogadishu, which survived for centuries.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ikL0ImjztDsC&q=aziz+mogadishu+ibn+battuta |title=The Somali Nation and Abyssinian Colonialism |date=1978 |publisher=Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Somali Democratic Republic |language=en |access-date=20 September 2020 |archive-date=29 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220329041026/https://books.google.com/books?id=ikL0ImjztDsC&q=aziz+mogadishu+ibn+battuta |url-status=live }}</ref>

The island's appellation "Madagascar" is not of local origin but rather was popularized in the [[Middle Ages]] by Europeans.<ref name="Cousins">Cousins (1895), pp. 11–12</ref> The name ''Madageiscar'' was first recorded in the memoirs of 13th-century Venetian explorer [[Marco Polo]] as a corrupted transliteration of the name Mogadishu, the famous port with which Polo had confused the island.<ref name="Room 2006, p. 230">Room (2006), p. 230</ref>

[[Vasco da Gama]], who passed by Mogadishu in the 15th century, noted that it was a large city with houses of four or five storeys high and large palaces in its centre and many mosques with cylindrical minarets.<ref>{{cite book |author=E. G. Ravenstein |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AwcPInJC__gC&pg=PA88 |title=A Journal of the First Voyage of Vasco Da Gama, 1497–1499 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2010 |isbn=978-1-108-01296-6 |page=88 |access-date=21 April 2024 }}</ref> In the 16th century, [[Duarte Barbosa]] noted that many ships from the Kingdom of [[History of Gujarat#Muslim Period|Cambaya]] sailed to Mogadishu with cloths and spices for which they in return received [[gold]], [[wax]] and [[ivory]]. Barbosa also highlighted the abundance of meat, wheat, barley, horses, and fruit on the coastal markets, which generated enormous wealth for the merchants.<ref>East Africa and its Invaders pg.38{{Full citation needed|date=October 2016}}</ref> Mogadishu, the center of a thriving weaving industry known as ''toob benadir'' (specialized for the markets in Egypt and [[Syria]]),<ref>{{cite journal |title=Gujarat and the Trade of East Africa, c. 1500–1800 |first=Edward A. |last=Alpers |journal=The International Journal of African Historical Studies |volume=9 |issue=1 |pages=22–44 |date=1976 |doi=10.2307/217389 |jstor=217389}}</ref> together with [[Merca]] and [[Barawa]] also served as transit stops for [[Swahili people|Swahili]] merchants from [[Mombasa]] and [[Malindi]] and for the gold trade from [[Kilwa Kisiwani|Kilwa]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Harris |first=Nigel |title=The Return of Cosmopolitan Capital: Globalization, the State and War |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=S3oyoVIIlMQC&pg=PA22 |year=2003 |publisher=I.B.Tauris |isbn=978-1-86064-786-4 |page=22 |access-date=4 April 2018 |archive-date=6 January 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170106124754/https://books.google.com/books?id=S3oyoVIIlMQC&pg=PA22 |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Jews|Jewish]] merchants from [[Ormus]] also brought their Indian textile and fruit to the Somali coast in exchange for [[grain]] and wood.<ref>{{cite book |last=Barendse |first=Rene J. |title=The Arabian Seas: The Indian Ocean World of the Seventeenth Century: The Indian Ocean World of the Seventeenth Century |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=G3ClDAAAQBAJ&pg=PP1 |year=2002 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-1-317-45835-7 |access-date=4 April 2018 |archive-date=18 April 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170418005713/https://books.google.com/books?id=G3ClDAAAQBAJ&pg=PP1 |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[Duarte Barbosa]], the famous Portuguese traveller, wrote about Mogadishu (c 1517–1518):<ref>{{Cite book |last=Abdullahi |first=Mohamed Diriye |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2Nu918tYMB8C&q=Portugees+Duarte+Barbosa+mogadishu&pg=PA18 |title=Culture and Customs of Somalia |date=2001 |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |isbn=978-0-313-31333-2 |language=en |access-date=6 November 2020 |archive-date=29 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220329041026/https://books.google.com/books?id=2Nu918tYMB8C&q=Portugees+Duarte+Barbosa+mogadishu&pg=PA18 |url-status=live }}</ref>{{Blockquote|It has a king over it, and is a place of great trade in merchandise. Ships come there from the kingdom of Cambay (India) and from Aden with stuffs of all kinds, and with spices. And they carry away from there much gold, ivory, beeswax, and other things upon which they make a profit. In this town there is plenty of meat, wheat, barley, and horses, and much fruit: it is a very rich place.|sign=|source=|title=}}

In 1542, the [[Portuguese Empire|Portuguese]] commander João de Sepúvelda led a small fleet on an [[Battle of Benadir|expedition to the Somali coast]]. During this expedition, he briefly attacked Mogadishu, capturing an Ottoman ship and firing upon the city, which compelled the sultan of Mogadishu to sign a peace treaty with the Portuguese.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Schurhammer|first1=Georg|date=1977|title=Francis Xavier: His Life, His Times. Volume II: India, 1541–1545|translator-last=Costelloe|translator-first=Joseph|location=Rome|publisher=Jesuit Historical Institute|url=https://archive.org/details/fx-schurhammer2/page/n117/mode/1up}} pp. 98–99. See also {{cite book|last1=Strandes|first1=Justus|date=1968|title=The Portuguese Period in East Africa|edition=2nd|series=Transactions of the Kenya History Society|volume=2|location=Nairobi|publisher=East African Literature Bureau|oclc=19225}} pp. 111–112.</ref>

According to the 16th-century explorer, [[Leo Africanus]] indicates that the native inhabitants of the Mogadishu polity were of the same origins as the denizens of the northern people of [[Zeila]] the capital of [[Adal Sultanate]]. They were generally tall with an olive skin complexion, some darker. They would wear traditional rich white silk wrapped around their bodies and have Islamic turbans, and coastal people only wore sarongs and wrote in [[Arabic]] as a [[lingua franca]]. Their weaponry consisted of traditional Somali weapons such as [[sword]]s, [[dagger]]s, [[spear]]s, [[battle axe]], and [[bow and arrow]]s. However, they received assistance from its close ally, the [[Ottoman Empire]], and with the import of firearms such as [[musket]]s and [[cannon]]s. Most were Muslims, although a few adhered to [[Waaq|pre-Islamic beliefs]]; there were also some [[Orthodox Tewahedo|Orthodox Tewahedo Christians]] further inland. Mogadishu itself was a wealthy, and well-built city-state, which maintained commercial trade with kingdoms across the world.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Njoku |first=Raphael Chijioke |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FlL2vE_qRQ8C&q=portuguese+mogadishu&pg=PA39 |title=The History of Somalia |date=2013 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=978-0-313-37857-7 |language=en |access-date=6 November 2020 |archive-date=22 May 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240522143208/https://books.google.com/books?id=FlL2vE_qRQ8C&q=portuguese+mogadishu&pg=PA39 |url-status=live }}</ref> The [[metropolis]] city was surrounded by walled stone fortifications.<ref name="Leo Africanus source">{{cite web |last=(Africanus) |first=Leo |date=6 April 1969 |title=A Geographical Historie of Africa |url=https://archive.org/stream/historyanddescr03porygoog#page/n180/mode/2up |access-date=6 April 2018 |publisher=Theatrum Orbis Terrarum |via=Google Books}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Dunn |first=Ross E. |url=https://archive.org/details/adventuresofibnb00ross_0 |title=The Adventures of Ibn Battuta |publisher=[[University of California]] |year=1987 |isbn=978-0-520-05771-5 |location=Berkeley |page=373 |url-access=registration}}, p. 125</ref>

The [[Ajuran Sultanate]] collapsed in the 17th century due to heavy taxation against their subjects, which started a rebellion. The ex-subjects became a new wave of Somali migrants, the [[Abgaal]], moved both into the [[Shebelle River]] basin and Mogadishu. A new political elite led by [[Abgaal]] Yaquub [[imam]]s, with ties to the new leaders in the interior, moved into the [[Shangani District]] of the city. Remnants of the [[Ajuran (clan)|Ajuran]] lived in the other key-quarters of [[Hamar Weyne District]]. Ajuran merchants began to look for new linkages and regional trade opportunities since the Abgaal had commandeered the existing trading networks.<ref>Enrico, Cerulli, How a Hawiye tribe used to live, Chapter 4, scritti vari editi ed inediti, Vol. 2, edited by Enrico Cerulli, Roma</ref><ref>Lee V. Cassanelli, Towns and Trading centres in Somalia: A Nomadic perspective, Philadelphia, 1980, pp. 8–9.</ref>