The Sultanate of Mogadishu (, ), also known as Kingdom of Magadazo, was a medieval Muslim sultanate centered in southern Somalia.M. Elfasi, Ivan Hrbek "Africa from the Seventh to the Eleventh Century" , "General History of Africa". Retrieved 31 December 2015. Established by Abubakr bin Fakhr ad-Din, who served as the first Sultan of the Mogadishu Sultanate and the Fakhr al-Din dynasty. The Fakhr al-Din dynasty ruled up until the late 16th century or start of 1600s until it got replaced by the Muzaffar dynasty. It rose as one of the preeminent powers in the Horn of Africa,I.M. Lewis, Peoples of the Horn of Africa: Somali, Afar, and Saho, Issue 1, (International African Institute: 1955), p. 47.I.M. Lewis, The modern history of Somaliland: from nation to state, (Weidenfeld & Nicolson: 1965), p. 37 and it maintained a vast trading network, dominated the regional gold trade, minted its very own currency, and left an extensive architectural legacy in present-day southern Somalia.
History
Origins and early history For many years, Mogadishu functioned as the pre-eminent city in the بلد البربر (Bilad al Barbar - "Land of the Berbers"), as medieval Arabic-speakers named the Somali coast.M. Elfasi, Ivan Hrbek "Africa from the Seventh to the Eleventh Century" , "General History of Africa". Retrieved 31 December 2015.Sanjay Subrahmanyam, The Career and Legend of Vasco Da Gama, (Cambridge University Press: 1998), p. 121.J. D. Fage, Roland Oliver, Roland Anthony Oliver, The Cambridge History of Africa, (Cambridge University Press: 1977), p. 190.George Wynn Brereton Huntingford, Agatharchides, The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea: With Some Extracts from Agatharkhidēs "On the Erythraean Sea", (Hakluyt Society: 1980), p. 83.
The founding ethnicity of Mogadishu and its subsequent sultanate has been a topic of intrigue in Somali studies. Ioan Lewis and Enrico Cerulli believed that the city was founded and ruled by a council of Arab and Persian families.I. M. Lewis, Peoples of the Horn of Africa: Somali, Afar, and Saho, Issue 1, (International African Institute: 1955), p. 47.I. M. Lewis, The modern history of Somaliland: from nation to state, (Weidenfeld & Nicolson: 1965), p. 37Renewers of the Age Holy Men and Social Discourse in Colonial Benaadir - Page 44 However, the reference Lewis and Cerulli received traces back to one 19th-century text called the Kitab Al-Zunuj, which has been discredited by modern scholars as unreliable and unhistorical.H. Neville Chittick, "The East Coast, Madagascar and the Indian Ocean", in J. D. Fage and R. Oliver (eds.), The Cambridge History of Africa, Volume 3: From c.1050 to c. 1600 (Cambridge University Press, 1977), pp. 183–231, at 194–195 and 198. The account in the Book of the Zanj of pre-Islamic immigration of Arabs from Himyar in southern Arabia, their founding of most of the more important towns of the coast from Mogadishu to Mombasa, and also Kilwa, together with their subsequent conversion to Islam, is uncorroborated by other sources and unsupported by the archaeological evidence and must be dismissed as unhistorical. The suggestion that these families must have come from Siraf to the Somali coast before the eleventh century must therefore be regarded as unproven.The Cambridge History of Africa, Volum 3 – Page 198The Archaeology of Islam in Sub-Saharan Africa By Timothy Insoll – Page 62Gervase Mathew, "The East African Coast until the Coming of the Portuguese", in R. Oliver and G. Mathew (eds.), History of East Africa, Volume 1 (Clarendon Press, 1963), pp. 94–127, at 102. More importantly, it contradicts oral, ancient written sources and archaeological evidence on the pre-existing civilizations and communities that flourished on the Somali coast, and to which were the forefathers of Mogadishu and other coastal cities. Thus, the Arab and Persian founding "myths" are regarded as an outdated false colonialist reflection on Africans ability to create their own sophisticated states.
It has now been widely accepted that there were already communities on the Somali coast with ethnic Somali leadership, to whom the Arab and Persian families had to ask for permission to settle in their cities. It also seems the local Somalis retained their political and numerical superiority on the coast while the Muslim immigrants would go through an assimilation process by adopting the local language and culture.Cities of the Middle East and North Africa: A Historical Encyclopedia edited by Michael Dumper, Bruce E. Stanley Page 252 This is corroborated by the 1st-century AD Greek document the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, detailing multiple prosperous port cities in ancient Somalia, as well as the identification of ancient Sarapion with the city that would later be known as Mogadishu.Making Sense of Somali History: Volume 1 - Page 48 When Ibn Battuta visited the sultanate in the 14th century, he identified the Sultan as being of Barbara origin,The Travels of Ibn Battuta, A.D. 1325–1354: Volume II Page 375 an ancient term used to describe the ancestors of the Somali people. According to Ross E. Dunn, neither Mogadishu nor any other city on the coast could be considered alien enclaves of Arabs or Persians, but were in-fact Somali towns.The Adventures of Ibn Battuta: A Muslim Traveler of the Fourteenth Century Page 124
There is no doubt that foreign settlers intermarried with the local natives, which is clearly represented in the rich genealogical traditions of the local people. These early settlers were later followed by waves of successive immigrants, who later gave origin to many tribal groups in the town. The 12th-century Syrian historian Yaqut al-Hamawi (c. 1220) wrote about Mogadishu and called it the richest and most powerful city in the region, and described it as being located in the country of the Berbers, certainly a reference to the Somalis.J. D. Fage, Roland Oliver, Roland Anthony Oliver, The Cambridge History of Africa, (Cambridge University Press: 1977), p. 136.
The founding of the sultanate is variously dated to the mid-13th century or 1330. In the Cambridge History of Africa (1975), Roland Oliver wrote that the founder of the ruling dynasty, Fakhr ad-Din, was of Arab descent. The name of the ruling dynasty that took over from the Qahtani, Fakhruddin, is also thought to be Arabic. However in his 1331 visit to the sultanate, Ibn Battuta wrote that the sultan was "Barbara" (a term for the native Somalis) who spoke "Maqdishi" (likely Somali) and Arabic. Writing in 1981, Joseph Cuoq said that Fakhr ad-Din's depiction as a poor man who seized the city through marriage indicated that he represents a Somali nomad.
Mogadishu in the accounts of Marco Polo In the 13th century, the Sultanate of Mogadishu through its trade with medieval China had acquired enough of a reputation in Asia to attract the attention of Kublai Khan.The Archaeology of Islam in Sub-Saharan Africa By Timothy Insoll Page 66 Marco Polo, the renowned Venetian merchant, gave a highly detailed account of Mogadishu's society and the affair with Kublai Khan's envoys where they had imprisoned his envoys on the suspicion of spying.Medieval History, Volume 2 by Headstart History: "Marco Polo, who relates how the new Mongol overlord of China, Kublai Khan, sent envoys to Mogadishu on the Somali coast to treat for the release of a previous emissary."It is an Island towards the south, about a thousand miles from Socotra. The people are all Saracens, adoring Mohammed. They have four shaykhs, i.e., four Elders, who are said to govern the whole Island. And you must know that it is a most noble and beautiful Island, and one of the greatest in the world, for it is about 4,000 miles in compass. The people live by trade and handicrafts. In this Island, and in another beyond it called Zanzibar, about which we shall tell you afterwards, there are more elephants than in any country in the world. The amount of traffic in elephants' teeth in these two Islands is something astonishing. In this Island, they eat no flesh but that of camels; and of these, they kill an incredible number daily. They say it is the best and wholesome of all flesh; and so they eat of it all the year round. They have in this Island many trees of red sanders, of excellent quality; in fact, all their forests consist of it.
They have also a quantity of ambergris, for whales are abundant in that sea, and they catch numbers of them; and so are Oil-heads, which are a huge kind of fish, which also produce ambergris like the whale. There are numbers of leopards, bears, and lions in the country, and other wild beasts in abundance. Many traders, and many ships go thither with cloths of gold and silk, and many other kinds of goods, and drive a profitable trade. You must know that this Island lies so far south that ships cannot go further south or visit other Islands in that direction, except this one, and that other of which we have to tell you, called Zanzibar. This is because the sea-current runs so strong towards the south that the ships which should attempt it never would get back again. Indeed, the ships of Malabar which visit this island of Mogadishu, and that other of Zanzibar, arrive thither with marvellous speed, for great as the distance is they accomplish it in 20 days, whilst the return voyage takes them more than 3 months. This is because of the strong current running south, which continues with such singular force and in the same direction at all seasons.
It is said that in those other Islands to the south, which the ships are unable to visit because this strong current prevents their return, is found the Griffin, which appears there at certain seasons. The description given of it is however entirely different from what our stories and pictures make it. For persons who had been there and had seen it told Messer Marco Polo that it was for all the world like an eagle, but one indeed of enormous size; so big in fact that its wings covered an extent of 30 paces, and its quills were 12 paces long, and thick in proportion. And it is so strong that it will seize an elephant in its talons and carry him high into the air, and drop him so that he is smashed to pieces; having so killed him the bird gryphon swoops down on him and eats him at leisure. The people of those isles call it the Rukh, and it has no other name.
So I do not know if this is a real griffin, or if there be another manner of bird as great. But this I can tell you for certain, that they are not half lion and half bird as our stories do relate; but enormous as they be they are fashioned just like an eagle. The Great Khan sent to those parts to enquire about these curious matters, and the story was told by those who went thither. He also sent to procure the release of an envoy of his who had been despatched thither, and had been detained; so both those envoys had many wonderful things to tell the Great Kaan about those strange islands, and about the birds I have mentioned. They brought (as I heard) to the Great Khan a feather of the said Rukh, which was stated to measure 90 spans, whilst the quill part was two palms in circumference, a marvellous object! The Great Khan was delighted with it, and gave great presents to those who brought it. They also brought two boar's tusks, which weighed more than 14 lbs. a piece; and you may gather how big the boar must have been that had teeth like that! They related indeed that there were some of those boars as big as a great buffalo. There are also numbers of giraffes and wild asses; and in fact a marvellous number of wild beasts of strange aspect.
Madagascar and Mogadishu