Historical trade routes between banaadir and the interior

[Chaseyourdreamzz]

I was reading on here about a historical trade route that stretched from luuq all the way to xamarweyne are there any other trade routes between coastal areas and the interior that you guys are aware of post what you can

 

[Chaseyourdreamzz]

There is not many immediate resources in Mogadishu or on the Benadiri coast in general, early on no one except producers from far interior or the hinterland would settle there and use it as an exchange center for their products. Whether they be agro-cultivators or camel herders.

People who lived in the hinterland of Mogadishu weren't all simple camel herding nomads either, a lot of them were settled agro-pastoralists living in a number of farming villages near/along the banks of the shabelle river. Each village inhabited by 200 people.

The earliest mentions of Mogadishu/Merca in medieval sources paints the same picture, connecting it to it's hinterland and describing the 50 villages along the banks of the river.

This is also supported by archeological excavations in Afgoye, that shows that the agricultural town pre-dates Mogadishu. The economic developments in the hinterland directly led to the formation, settlement and development of the urban towns on the coast.

Note that there other interior commercial urban towns(most now abandoned) along caravan routes, the oldest surviving of them being the walled city of Lugh. Benadiri Reer Shaykh Mumin clan is one example that is interspersed between the camel caravan trade routes that links to Lugh(Interior city) and Bur Hakaba(Agricultural center) from the coast of Mogadishu(Coastal City) and commanded it.
''The town depended on the grain brought by camels from the Galadi(Shabelle) River''

It looks like this banaadiri clan were influential in the trade routes between these cities interesting also describes trade routes between lower shabelle and xamar

 

[Idilinaa]

It looks like this banaadiri clan were influential in the trade routes between these cities interesting also describes trade routes between lower shabelle and xamar

Yes they are a raxanweyn clan whose ancestor Shaykh Muumin is buried in Bur Hakaba, they dispersed between luuq, buur hakaba and mogadishu. Luuq was the most important
interior trading city in the 19th century
The trade from Afgoie and Aw Degle and Genale etc was handled by other clans.

Aside from the coastal villages dotted between the cities/towns i mentioned:

No Mogadishu was always bigger. Mogadishu is actually a twin town, whereas Merca and Barawa are both single towns. There was also good number of early smaller village settlements dotted between Mogadishu and Merca, communities such as Gezeira, Nimow, Aw Make, Danane, Gendershe, and Gelib-Merca.

and aside from the agricultural villages along the river in the interior i mentioned. One thing i forgot to mention was that most of the coastal towns had twin urban settlements in their immediate hinterland

Couple this with the extensive trade routes, the upper shabbele river for example served as a rough dividing line between two trade routes, one leading up to the Northern coast and another leading down to the southern coast. That long distance trade was more than half of Benadiri export commodities in estimation.

The cross regional trade and movement of people linked Somalis with each-other into one integrated economic system.