History of Mogadishu: a timeline from the 1200s to today

Show who took part and what each event meant for unity ## In short

This page puts the history of Mogadishu (Muqdisho, also called Xamar) in date order. Each line links to a full page with its sources. For the city today, see Mogadishu.

Before 1500: the medieval city

Before 1500

1. 1200s

   The geographer Yaqut described Mogadishu as a town "in the land of the Berbers", governed by its own elders, exporting sandalwood, ebony, ambergris and ivory. See early Mogadishu and the Benadir coast.

2. 1238 and 1269

   A minaret inscription in Hamar Weyne records building begun in Muharram 636 AH (August 1238); inscriptions of 667 AH (1269) survive at the Fakhr al-Din and Arba'a Rukun mosques (Guillain, Documents sur l'histoire… de l'Afrique orientale, 1856). See the same page.

3. 1300s

   Mogadishu was ruled by its own sultans (Library of Congress, Somalia: A Country Study). See the Sultanate of Mogadishu.

4. 1331

   Ibn Battuta visited. He described young men meeting each ship to host the traders, and the sultan, Abu Bakr, with his qadi and court (Ibn Battuta, Travels, trans. Gibb, 1929). See Ibn Battuta in Mogadishu and Zeila.

5. 1200s–1400s

   Mogadishu ships and students appear in the records of Rasulid Yemen. See Zeila, Berbera and Mogadishu in Rasulid Yemen and scholars from the Horn in medieval Yemen.

1500 to 1884: the Portuguese, the Ajuran and Zanzibar

1. 1499–1510

   Portuguese fleets passed the city. The historian João de Barros wrote that Mogadishu was the first town founded on the coast by Arabs, and that a Mogadishu ship was the first foreign vessel to reach the gold trade of Sofala (Barros, Décadas da Ásia). See Mogadishu and Brava in João de Barros and the coast towns, 1331–1586.

1500 to 1884

1. About 1550–1650

   The Ajuran state held the Benadir coast and the river valleys. Traditions recorded in the 1840s say its rule ended when the Abgaal took Mogadishu (Library of Congress). See the Ajuran state.

2. 1700s–1880s

   "The Omanis exercised a shadowy authority over the Banaadir coast", which was "steadily drawn into the orbit of Zanzibari rulers" (Library of Congress, "The Somali Peninsula on the eve of imperial partition"). See sultanates, the coast and customary law and the Geledi Sultanate.

1884 to 1960: Italian rule and the trusteeship

1. 1880s–1900s

   "Italy seized the Banaadir coast proper, which had long been under the tenuous authority of the Zanzibaris, to form the colony of Italian Somaliland" (Library of Congress, "Imperial partition"). See the partition of the Somali lands and resistance, 1890s–1945.

1920 to 1960

1. 1941

   British forces took Italian Somaliland and ran it under a military administration. See the British Military Administration.

2. May 1943

   "The first modern Somali political party, the Somali Youth Club (SYC), [was] established in Mogadishu" (Library of Congress, "British Military Administration"). See the nationalist era.

3. January 1948

   During the visit of the Four Power Commission, a riot between an SYL rally and a pro-Italian counter-demonstration killed 51 Italians and 24 Somalis (same source).

4. 1950–1960

   Mogadishu was the seat of the UN trust territory run by Italy. See the UN trusteeship.

1960 to 1969

1. 1 July 1960

   Mogadishu became capital of the independent Somali Republic. See independence and union.

1960 to 1991: the capital of the Republic

1969 to 1991

1. 21 October 1969

   The army took power. See the Somali Democratic Republic.

2. July 1989

   "A July 1989 mass demonstration in Mogadishu was dispersed only after government troops shot and killed a number of persons variously estimated to be between 200 and 300" (Library of Congress, "Politics of reconciliation").

3. 30 December 1990 – 26 January 1991

   The USC fought government forces in the city; Siad Barre fled. See the fall of Mogadishu.

1991 to 2012: the divided city

1991 to 2000

1. 1991

   The USC split; Ali Mahdi held the north of the city and General Aidid the south. See the Interim Government of 1991.

2. 1992

   The UN sent observers to monitor a ceasefire in Mogadishu (UN, UNOSOM I). See UNOSOM I.

3. 3–4 October 1993

   The battle between US forces and Aidid's fighters. See the battle of Mogadishu, 1993.

2000 to 2012

1. February–June 2006

   The Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism (ARPCT) and the sharia courts fought for the city; the courts won. See the battle for Mogadishu, 2006 and the Islamic Courts Union.

2. December 2006 – January 2009

   Ethiopian forces held the city against an insurgency; "by late 2008 about 870,000 people had fled Mogadishu". See the war in Somalia, 2006–2009.

3. 2009–2011

   Al-Shabaab held much of the city until August 2011, when government and AU forces took "control of the capital" (UN Security Council, S/2011/549, para. 2). See major attacks in Mogadishu, 2009–2013.

2012 to now

2012 to 2020

1. August 2012

   The new Federal Parliament was set up in Mogadishu, ending the transition. See the Transitional Federal Parliament.

2. 14 October 2017

   A truck bomb at Zoobe junction killed at least 512 people, later counted as 587. See the deadliest bombings in Mogadishu.

2020 to now

1. 2022

   The Hayat Hotel siege in August and two car bombs at Zoobe in October. See the same page and the 2022 election attacks.

Who suffered?

1. People of Mogadishu

   in every war since 1990: under shelling in 1990–1991, in the factional war of 1991–1992, in the fighting of 2006–2009, when hundreds of thousands fled, and in the bombings since 2009. See the linked pages.

2. Darod residents,

   attacked after the fall of the government in 1991. See the fall of Mogadishu.

Sources differ

1. Who founded the city

   João de Barros, writing in the 1500s, said Arabs from near al-Ahsa founded it. Yaqut, in the 1200s, placed it "in the land of the Berbers" and said it was governed by its own elders. See early Mogadishu and Mogadishu in João de Barros.

Read the primary sources yourself

• Ibn Battuta, Travels in Asia and Africa 1325–1354, trans. H. A. R. Gibb (1929): Fordham Medieval Sourcebook.
• Library of Congress, Somalia: A Country Study (1993): history pages.
• UN Secretary-General, report on Somalia, S/2011/549: PDF.