History of Mogadishu

Mogadishu (; , popularly حَمَر Xamar ; ; , literally "The Seat of the Shah") is the largest city in Somalia and the nation's capital.

Located in the coastal Benadir region on the Indian Ocean, the city has served as an important port for centuries.

Medieval city-state

According to the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, maritime trade connected Somalis in the Mogadishu area with other communities along the Indian Ocean coast as early as the 1st century CE. With Muslim traders from the Arabian Peninsula arriving circa 900 CE, Mogadishu was well-suited to become a regional center for commerce.

The name "Mogadishu" is held to be derived from the Arabic مقعد شاه Maq'ad Shah ("The seat of the Shah"), a reflection of the city's early Persian influence.David D. Laitin, Said S. Samatar, Somalia: Nation in Search of a State, (Westview Press: 1987), p. 12.For many years, Mogadishu stood as the pre-eminent city in the بلد البربر Bilad al Barbar ("Land of the Berbers"), which was the medieval Arabic term for the Horn of Africa.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......
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