Mogadishu

Mogadishu (Somali: Muqdisho), a city in East Africa on the Indian Ocean, serves as the nominal capital of anarchic Somalia. Somalis also popularly call the city Hamar. Although Mogadishu obviously ranks as the largest city in Somalia, estimates of its population vary wildly about two million.

History

Medieval East African city-state

Trade connected Somalis in the Mogadishu area to other communities along the Indian coast as early as 800. Muslims from the Arabian Peninsula colonized Mogadishu circa 900. The relative affluence of these settlers made them powerful in Somalia. Inter-marriage with the locals produced economically beneficial relationships.

Related Topics:
800 - Arabian Peninsula - 900

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The northernmost East African City state, Mogadishu prospered with trade with the interior, which spread Islam throughout Somalia. Beginning about 1000, trade increased among the Swahili cities of coastal East Africa. This trade drove the Mogadishu economy by the early 1100s. The origin of the name "Mogadishu" is unclear; one version claims it as the Somali version of the Arabic language name "maqad shah" (imperial seat of the shah), another version claims that it is a Somali version of the Swahili "mwyu ma" (last northern city). The historic Mosque of Fakr ad-Din, built 1269, still stands.

Related Topics:
East African City state - 1000 - 1100s - Arabic language - Swahili - Fakr ad-Din - 1269

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Archaeological excavations have recovered many coins from China, Ceylon, and Annam. The majority of the Chinese coins date to the Song Dynasty, although the Ming Dynasty and Qing Dynasty "are also represented,"2 according to Richard R.K. Pankhurst. The trading Zenj city-states of the Swahili civilization imported Arabic pottery, Chinese porcelain, and Indian cloth. They exported wood, ivory, shells, slaves, and iron. Kilwa, which dominated the gold trade from the Great Zimbabwe, ultimately eclipsed Mogadishu, Lamu, Zanzibar, and other northern cities after the 1200s.

Related Topics:
China - Ceylon - Annam - Song Dynasty - Ming Dynasty - Qing Dynasty - 2 - Zenj - Swahili civilization - Kilwa - Great Zimbabwe - Lamu - Zanzibar - 1200s

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Trading across the Arabian Sea enabled major ports like Mogadishu to prosper during the later Middle Ages. Ross E. Dunn describes Mogadishu and other East African Muslim settlements as "a kind of medieval America, a fertile, well-watered land of economic opportunity and a place of salvation from drought, famine, overpopulation, and war at home."1

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The abundance of food in Mogadishu around 1330 impressed visitor Ibn Battuta. He remarked that a single person "eats as much as a whole company of us would eat, as a matter of habit, and they are corpulent and fat in the extreme."3

Related Topics:
1330 - Ibn Battuta - 3

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European Domination

Portugal controlled Mogadishu during the 1500s.

Related Topics:
Portugal - 1500s

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The sultan of Zanzibar occupied the city in 1871. Garesa Palace, built in the late 1800s for the local administrator of the sultan, now houses a museum and library.

Related Topics:
Zanzibar - 1871 - Garesa Palace - 1800s

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The sultan of Zanzibar in 1892 leased the city to Italy. Italy purchased the city in 1905 and made Mogadiscio (Italian for Mogadishu) the capital of Italian Somaliland. The surrounding territory came under Italian control in 1936.

Related Topics:
Zanzibar - 1892 - Italy - 1905 - Italian Somaliland - 1936

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British forces operating from Kenya during World War II captured and occupied Mogadishu. The capital of Italian Somaliland fell to the imperial forces on February 26, 1941. The British continued to rule until Italy returned in 1952 to administer their former Somali protectorate. Education advanced with the 1954 establishment of Somalia National University.

Related Topics:
Kenya - World War II - February 26 - 1941 - 1952 - 1954 - Somalia National University

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Somalia achieved independence in 1960 with Mogadishu as its capital.

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Capital of an independent Somalia

West German Red Army Faction (Baader-Meinhof Gang) terrorism reached its height with the kidnapping and murder of industrialist Hans-Martin Schleyer. Arab sympathizers of the terrorist gang then hijacked a Lufthansa 747 jet airliner to the city, triggering the Mogadishu hostage crisis of 1977.

Related Topics:
Red Army Faction - Baader-Meinhof Gang - Hans-Martin Schleyer - Lufthansa - 1977

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A civil war erupted in Somalia during the 1970s and continues today. Opposition to totalitarian dictator Siad Barre began to coalesce in the early 1980s as he discriminated in favor of his own clan. He purged and detained the Isaq clan in Mogadishu after an abortive Ethiopian invasion of northern Somalia in April 1988. This attempt to quash the insurgency ultimately failed as rebels took control of most of the Somali countryside. The capital city of Mogadishu, however, remained firmly in the dictator's control even as he lost his grip on the rest of the country by 1989.

Related Topics:
1970s - Siad Barre - 1980s - Isaq - April - 1988 - 1989

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Anarchy and the Americans

Rebel forces entered and took the city in 1990, forcing Barre to abdicate and flee in January 1991 to Lagos, Nigeria. One faction proclaimed Mohammed Ali Mahdi president, another Mohammed Farah Aidid. The Somali National University, which enrolled 4600 students before the war, closed as the educational system collapsed in 1991.

Related Topics:
1990 - 1991 - Lagos, Nigeria - Mohammed Ali Mahdi - Mohammed Farah Aidid - Somali National University

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Intense battling between these rivals and other clan-based rebel factions damaged many parts of Mogadishu in 1991-1992 and led to tens of thousands of casualties as an intense drought-induced famine ravaged rural Somalia.

Related Topics:
1991 - 1992

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A contingent of United States Marines landed near Mogadishu on December 9, 1992 to spearhead

Related Topics:
December 9 - 1992

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United Nations peacekeeping forces. The United Nations sought to capture warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid in 1993 to enable the establishment of a transitional government. Somalis loyal to him ambushed the peacekeepers and killed 23 Pakistanis.

Related Topics:
United Nations - Mohamed Farrah Aidid - 1993 - Pakistanis

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On October 3, 1993, the United States Army retaliated and successfully captured Aidid's lieutenants but missed the chief warlord. In this Battle of Mogadishu, the Somalis killed 18 or 19 American soldiers and injured several dozen. Estimates put the number of Somali casualties at 500-1000 militia and civilians dead and 3000-4000 injured. The al-Qaeda terrorist network later claimed responsibility. The later novel and film Black Hawk Down dramatize the events of this battle.

Related Topics:
October 3 - 1993 - United States Army - Battle of Mogadishu - Al-Qaeda - Black Hawk Down

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With these casualties, President Clinton lost the will to fight and withdrew American forces in 1994. Two factions in Mogadishu nevertheless reached a peace accord on January 16, 1994. Heavy fighting, however, intensified between numerous warlords and factions for control over the city after the March 3, 1995 withdrawal of the last international peacekeepers.

Related Topics:
Clinton - 1994 - January 16 - March 3 - 1995

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Mohamed Farrah Aidid declared himself president in June 1995 and by 1996 captured strategic neighborhoods in Mogadishu and some outlying territory. Rival militias renewed fighting in Mogadishu and Hoddur, Somalia in 1996. Aidid ultimately died in July 1996 from gunshot wounds suffered in a street battle.

Related Topics:
Mohamed Farrah Aidid - 1995 - 1996 - Hoddur, Somalia

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Mogadishu Today

Violence continued to rule Mogadishu and much of southern Somalia through the late 1990s.

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Southern Somalis attended a conference in Arta, Djibouti that established the Somali Transitional National Government. This ostensibly interim government named Abdikassim Salad Hassan, an official in the ousted dictatorship of Siad Barre, as its new president; he flew to Mogadishu on August 13, 2000. Although the "government" enjoys international recognition (which Ethiopia opposes), its practical domestic influence does not extend beyond its Mogadishu headquarters. Many militias refused to recognize the new government and attacked its officials and forces. The national parliament meets in Nairobi rather than Mogadishu for security concerns.

Related Topics:
Arta, Djibouti - Somali Transitional National Government - Abdikassim Salad Hassan - Siad Barre - August 13 - 2000 - Parliament - Nairobi

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The worst clan warfare continues on the north side of the city; the southern neighborhoods, by contrast, experience significantly less violence and more prosperity. Some southern neighborhoods are rather safe and affluent enough to contain Somali-style mansions.

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