The Ajuran state: rulers of the southern rivers and coast

In short

The Ajuran (in Somali Ajuuraan) were a clan of the Hawiye. Their rulers held power over the farming lands of the Shabelle and Juba rivers and over the towns of the Benadir coast before about 1700. The Library of Congress dates the "Ujuuraan (also seen as Ajuuraan) state" to "between 1550 and 1650", ruled by "the clan of the Gareen" (Library of Congress, Somalia: A Country Study).

Almost everything known about the Ajuran comes from oral traditions. The earliest written record of them is in the notes of the French naval officer Charles Guillain, who collected traditions on the coast in 1846–1848 (Guillain, Documents sur l'histoire... de l'Afrique orientale, part 2, vol. 2). Much of the modern account rests on Lee Cassanelli's The Shaping of Somali Society (1982), built on oral history collected in the 1970s.

Dates

• Library of Congress. The state rose "between 1550 and 1650" and prospered "on the lower reaches of the interriverine region". Its power was not reduced "until the Portuguese penetration of the East African coast in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries" (Library of Congress).
• Guillain. At Merca he was told that Ajuran rule "lasted, it is said, fifteen generations", and he wrote that "it must have been contemporary with that of the Portuguese in the Indian seas" (part 2, vol. 2, p. 141).
• Other accounts. Wikipedia, citing Cassanelli and others, says the Ajuran rose in the late 1300s and held power for about three centuries ("Ajuran Sultanate", Wikipedia).

Who they were

Guillain recorded at Merca that the Ajuran "were part of the great family of the Soumal-Haouiya", the Hawiye. He wrote that this fitted the claim of the 13th-century geographer Ibn Said that Merca was "the capital of the Hawiya" (part 2, vol. 2, p. 140).

The ruling line is called the house of Gareen. The Library of Congress names it as "the clan of the Gareen" (Library of Congress). Wikipedia, citing Cassanelli, says its rulers took the title imam and drew authority from descent from a holy man ("Ajuran Sultanate", Wikipedia).

How it ruled, by the modern account

Wikipedia gives this account, citing Cassanelli (1982) on most points ("Ajuran Sultanate", Wikipedia):

• Water. The rulers controlled wells and the river water of the Shabelle and Juba, and are credited with dykes, dams and stone wells.
• Tribute. They took tribute from farmers in grain and from herders in livestock, collected by officials called wazirs.
• Army. Cassanelli (pp. 90 and 104, as cited) describes a standing army, with Arab, Persian and Turkish soldiers hired at times, and stone forts in the coastal districts (p. 92).
• Reach. At its height, by this account, its land stretched from Hobyo in the north to Kismayo in the south and to Qelafo in the west (Cassanelli, p. 102, as cited).
• Towns. Mareeg, Qelafo and Merca are named as seats of its rulers.

The Cassanelli book is held by the Internet Archive with restricted access (Internet Archive).

Merca under the Ajuran

Guillain recorded the traditions of Merca in the 1840s (part 2, vol. 2, pp. 140–141):

• Before. The oldest known people of the town were the "Ouélloun". The Ajuran drove them out.
• Growth. Under the Ajuran the town, at first "huts of leaves, mats and branches", grew and was split into two quarters, Khéroubi in the north and Eurgouci in the south, with six groups in each.
• Stone houses. One of the northern groups were "emigrants from Mogadishu" who "built houses of stone".
• Strength. Guillain called Ajuran rule "one of the strongest that were organised among the native peoples".

Mogadishu and the Muzaffar

Mogadishu stood "on the coast" of Ajuran territory, Guillain wrote, and was ruled by its own Muzaffar sultans (part 2, vol. 1, p. 524, Internet Archive). Wikipedia, citing later historians, describes the Muzaffar as clients of the Ajuran ("Ajuran Sultanate", Wikipedia). See the Sultanate of Mogadishu.

Brava and the Portuguese, 1506

The Portuguese official Duarte Barbosa described Brava as "a great town of Moors, of very fine stone and mortar houses". He wrote: "It has no king, but is ruled by elders" (Barbosa, trans. Dames, vol. 1, p. 30).

• The attack. Barbosa wrote that the Portuguese "slew many of its people and carried many into captivity, and took great spoil of gold and silver and goods" (same page).
• The date. His editor Dames identifies this as the attack of Tristão da Cunha in 1506, after the town refused a tribute promised in 1503. Brava "was reduced after a brave defence and a great slaughter" (same page, note).
• After. Barbosa wrote that the town was later resettled, "so that now it is as prosperous as it was before" (same page).

In the 1840s, Guillain found that Brava kept "no memory" from before Ajuran rule, and no memory of the Portuguese (part 2, vol. 2, pp. 169–170).

How it ended

Guillain recorded a separate ending in each town:

• Mogadishu. An Abgaal group invaded Ajuran territory, and "after a long war" Mogadishu fell to the Abgaal chief Omar Djéloulé (part 2, vol. 1, p. 524).
• Merca. A chief named Amir, "an Abgal perhaps", raised a following, "seized the town and drove out the Odjourane". His power "lasted thirty-four years", until war with the Biimaal (part 2, vol. 2, p. 141).
• Brava. The Ajuran were driven out "according to some by the Galla [Oromo], according to others by the present Tunni". They fled inland toward Ganane (Luuq) and joined the Digil (part 2, vol. 2, p. 169).

Wikipedia, citing Cassanelli and Lewis, says that in the late 1600s the rulers raised taxes and were accused of abandoning sharia. It names the Abgaal imams in Mogadishu and Ibrahim Adeer, founder of the Gobroon line at Afgooye, as the leaders of the revolts that ended Ajuran rule ("Ajuran Sultanate", Wikipedia). The Gobroon rulers of Afgooye are told in the Geledi sultanate.

The Ajuran after 1700

Guillain met Ajuran communities still living along the Shabelle in the 1840s. He recorded the village of Ferâlé, "inhabited by the Odjourane, whose sultan, named Abdi-ben-Aïça, lives at Koubad" (part 2, vol. 2, p. 48). For the Ajuran clan today, see the Hawiye.

Sources differ

• Dates. The Library of Congress gives 1550–1650. Guillain's tradition gives fifteen generations, at the same time as the Portuguese in the Indian Ocean (1498 onwards). Wikipedia gives the late 1300s to the late 1600s.
• Who ruled Brava. Barbosa, writing about 1516, said Brava had "no king" and was ruled by elders. Modern accounts place Brava inside Ajuran territory at that time.
• When the Portuguese weakened it. The Library of Congress names the 17th and 18th centuries. Barbosa's attack on Brava was in 1506.
• Who drove the Ajuran from Brava. Guillain's informants named either the Oromo or the Tunni.
• How large it was. The account of a state from Hobyo to Kismayo and Qelafo comes from oral history. Cassanelli built it from interviews recorded in the 1970s.

Read the primary sources yourself

• Charles Guillain, Documents sur l'histoire, la géographie et le commerce de l'Afrique orientale, part 2, vol. 1 (Paris, 1856), p. 524, in French: Internet Archive.
• Charles Guillain, same work, part 2, vol. 2, pp. 48, 140–141 and 169–170, in French: Internet Archive.
• The Book of Duarte Barbosa, trans. M. L. Dames (Hakluyt Society, 1918), vol. 1, p. 30: Internet Archive.
• Library of Congress, Somalia: A Country Study (1993), "Mogadishu and its Banaadir hinterlands": text.
• Lee V. Cassanelli, The Shaping of Somali Society (1982): Internet Archive, restricted.

Related pages

• The Ajuuraan clan today
• Mogadishu and Brava in João de Barros's Décadas da Ásia, 1503–1510