Mogadishu, locally known as Xamar or Hamar, is the capital and most populous city of Somalia. The city has served as an important port connecting traders across the Indian Ocean for millennia and has an estimated urban population of 4,126,815. Mogadishu is located in the coastal Banaadir region on the Indian Ocean, which, unlike other Somali regions, is considered a municipality rather than a maamul goboleed (federal state). Mogadishu has a long history, which ranges from the ancient period up until the present, serving as the capital of the Sultanate of Mogadishu in the 9th–13th century, which for many centuries controlled the Indian Ocean gold trade and eventually came under the Ajuran Sultanate in the 13th century which was an important player in the medieval Silk Road maritime trade. Mogadishu enjoyed the height of its prosperity during the 14th and 15th centuries and was, during the early modern period, considered the wealthiest city on the East African coast, as well as the center of a thriving textile industry. In the 17th century, Mogadishu and parts of southern Somalia fell under the Hiraab Imamate. In the 19th century, it came under the sphere of influence of the Sultanate of the Geledi. In 1894, the Somali chief signed a treaty of peace, friendship, and protection with Filonardi of the Commercial Company of Benadir. The onset of Italian colonial rule occurred in stages, with treaties signed in the 1880s followed by economic engagement between Somali clans and the Commercial Company of Benadir, and then direct governance by the Italian Empire after 1906, British Military Administration of Somalia after World War II and the Trust Territory of Somaliland administered by Italy in the 1950s. This was followed by independence in 1960, the Somali Democratic Republic era during Siad Barre's presidency (1969–1991). The three-decade long Somali Civil War afterwards devastated the city. In the late 2010s and 2020s, a period of major reconstruction commenced.
Etymology The origins of the name Mogadishu (Muqdisho) is thought to possibly be derived from a morphology of the Somali words Muuq and Disho, which mean "sight killer" or "blinder", possibly referring to the city's blinding beauty. The 16th century Andalusi explorer Leo Africanus knew the city as Magadazo (alt. Magadoxo) and described it as a "beautiful, rich place". Another theory is that the name consists of two Somali words, Maqal and Disho, meaning "the place where sheep are slaughtered". The city nickname used by the locals is Xamar (Ḥamar), which may refer to the color red. This could be in reference to the reddish environment and hills, meaning a city that was built on red sand. The old neighborhood of Hamar Weyne combines two words, ḥamar (red) and weyn (big). It is also a Somali word for tamarind as well as for a chestnut-colored horse. In Abyssinia, the city of Mogadishu and its surrounding area were known as Machidas. A thriving and powerful kingdom, with which the Abyssinians were frequently at war. Described as a fine city built at a short distance from the seashore. Machidas featured a king's palace, several mosques and houses of stone painted in fresco with terraced flat roofs. The name Machidas also appears on maps from the 18th and 19th centuries. Medieval and early modern Arabic sources record Mogadishu as Maqdīshū (مقديشو). The book An Azanian Trio suggests a link to the Hebrew MQDSH (מקדש), meaning "holy place". The book further ties it to chronicles of two rabbis in Mogadishu's early history.
History
Antiquity
Sarapion The ancient city of Sarapion is believed to have been the predecessor state of Mogadishu. It is mentioned in the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, a Greek travel document dating from the first century AD, as one of a series of commercial ports on the Somali littoral. According to the Periplus, maritime trade already connected peoples in the Mogadishu area with other communities along the Indian Ocean. During ancient times, Mogadishu was part of the Somali city-states that engaged in a lucrative trade network connecting Somali merchants with Phoenicia, Ptolemic Egypt, Greece, Parthian Persia, Sabaeans, Nabataea and the Roman Empire. Somali sailors used the ancient Somali maritime vessel known as the beden to transport their cargo.
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