holy shit didn't know mogadishu was that big, that would make it biggest sub saharen cityFrom medieval accounts all the way to the early 1700s , there was state with its commercial capital in Mogadishu that covered most of the southern coast up to Mareeg and stretched into the far interior until it reach the state of Hadiyah (called Adea) and at times it was tributary to it and even Shoa ended paying tribute to it as European account relate about it. It was very powerful.
It also collaborated by archeology with many abandoned ruins, even a whole city in Mareeg with villages surounding it and one of the abandoned quarters of Mogadishu called Hamar Jabab covered 5km2 , which essentially made it hold around a population of 500.000 people. Thats just 1 quarter, not even El Garweyne was excavated yet crazyy right
So yeah the empire/sultanate existed.but it wasn't called Ajuuran. The name Ajuuran was mostly just a local umbrella name for state administrators who usually were called amirs, naibs, wakils, imam's that taxed and coordinated production from the rural's and urban people, we have epigraphical and textual accounts of these titles being used. It was the same situation in northern and western Somalia with Awdal if we look at the details in Futuh
The tradition Somali relate about it is not even that specific to the southern coast and what they are actually remembering is how centralized Somalia was throughout during the medieval period and it was governed by state actors and divided into provinces.
The name itself means taxation
It's still kinda of a mystery what happened to it, because we have an account by a British that was held captive in Mogadishu in the year 1700 and he wrote a whole diary filled drawings of the city and its monuments and it describing how wealthy and glamorous they were.
1700 Early Modern Tombs in Mogadishu
Tomb of the Kings Tomb of the Queens Tomb of the Princes Tomb of Duke & Duchesses Tomb of Imams Tomb of the Mujahideen Army Drawing of Mogadishuwww.somalispot.com
and this was after the leadership was replaced and the rural rebellions they remember took control of the city in the late 1600s supposedly by Hiraab. It creates a gap in the memory. Because it was by early 1800s reduced and impoverished
I hypothesized to that it might have succumb to a natural catastrophe in a thread:
Locust plague and Famine the cause of medieval collapse of the sultanates?
The two most prominent explanations given for the collapse is Oromo expansion and Portuguese maritime disturbance, both don't seem like very convincing explanations. I am extremely doubtful of the Oromo invasion argument, firstly the portuguese noted that Awdalites weren't weakened by the war...www.somalispot.com
We have various names of the Sultans from the same dynastic line of the Somali sultan who met Ibn Batuta and other arabic textual mentions of other Sultans names and the surviving coins with their names engraved in them.
Sultan Ali ibn Yusuf of Mogadishu mentioned by Ibn Hajar al Asqalani
In Ibn Hajar Al Asqalani mentions the Sultan of Mogadishu Ali ibn Yusuf ibn Umar ibn Anwar died in 1432 funnily enough Ibn Battuta mentions Abu Bakr ibn Umar as the ruler of Mogadishu in 1331. Can we assume that Ali ibn Yusuf ibn Umar who died in 1432 is the Nephew of Abu Bakr ibn Umar who was...www.somalispot.com
Yeah its so stupid how some users here try to approapriate somali civilisations as "muh qabiil!" I was literally explaining this concept to @Garaad Awal
I dont understand how we had small population but mogadishu was very large to accomodate lots of people.
I've always viewed Ajuran as Hawiye, I haven't seen any other documents stating otherwise.Wish we had a Ajuuraan on this forum. They live with us in Bale and Mogadishu. Always knew them as Hawiye. Olol Diinle carried the Hawiye title while the patriarch Gareen (royal family) himself is buried in Ximan Gareen. This was outlined by Hawiye elders during the infamous Tomaselli conference. Read below the red lines.
Siyaad Barre tried his best to remove Hawiye from history. Notice it’s only certain people that will claim Ajuuraan is not Hawiye. I find that uber cringe. Then you have others claiming Ajuuraan never existed although RX, Hawiye and southern Dir will tell you Ajuuraan were the boss in south Somalia for centuries.
Considering how big are cities used to be. Shouldn't there be a lot of manuscripts that survived? You would think even with how strict and secretive somalis were . That these ajanabis should have been able to collect a few. I mean look at how many swahili or west african manuscripts they were able to collect.
I’m not well versed about them. But I never read any mention of them. I’ve read that Mogadishu had rulers but I don’t know to what extent they ruled the interior. If it was an advanced state like Adal, only Allah knows
