Mogadishu, Zeila, Berbera and Barawa, 1331–1586: the Somali coast in travellers' own words

In short

Long before any colonial map, the Somali coast had cities. Visitors from Morocco, Portugal and China wrote down what they saw there, and their words survive. This page lets them speak, with links to the full texts.

They describe self-governing towns, built in stone, trading cloth, gold, ivory, grain and livestock across the Indian Ocean. They also record the Portuguese attacks of the early 1500s that broke several of these towns.

Mogadishu in 1331: Ibn Battuta

The Moroccan traveller Ibn Battuta left Mecca at the end of 1330, sailed down the Red Sea, and crossed from Aden to the Somali coast early in 1331 (Ibn Battuta: Travels in Asia and Africa, trans. H. A. R. Gibb, 1929, ch. III, pp. 110–111).

He calls the people of the coast the Berberah, the old Arabic name for the Somalis. Their land, he writes, stretched "two months' journey from Zayla' to Maqdashaw" (same source, p. 110).

He describes Mogadishu as "an enormous town". Its people were merchants with many camels (same source):

• How trade worked. When a ship arrived, young men rowed out in small boats, each with a covered dish of food for a merchant, saying "This is my guest". The host then sold and bought for the merchant. A sale made behind the host's back was invalid. Ibn Battuta calls this practice "of great advantage to them".
• Who ruled. The ruler was called "the Shaykh". His name was Abu Bakr, he was "of Berberah origin", and he spoke "the Maqdishi language", though he knew Arabic.
• How guests were received. Any scholar, sharif or man of religion was taken to meet the sultan before finding lodging. Ibn Battuta was lodged in the students' house, fed three times a day, and given clothes on the fourth day.
• Friday. The sultan prayed behind a screen in the mosque, then walked home with four silk canopies held over him, each topped with a golden bird.

Mogadishu's trade reached far. In the Maldives, Ibn Battuta noted that sheep were rare and imported "from Ma'bar, Mulaybar and Maqdashaw" (same source, p. 246).

Zeila in 1331

Ibn Battuta stopped first at Zeila (Saylac). He found "a large city with a great bazaar", but complained of the smell of fish and of the camels slaughtered in its streets, and chose to sleep on his ship (Gibb 1929, p. 110).

Mogadishu in 1499: Vasco da Gama's fleet

On his way home from India in early 1499, the Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama sailed past Mogadishu. A member of the crew wrote (A Journal of the First Voyage of Vasco da Gama, 1497–1499, trans. E. G. Ravenstein, Hakluyt Society, 1898, p. 88):

"We found ourselves off a large town, with houses of several stories, big palaces in its centre, and four towers around it. This town faced the sea… and was called Magadoxo. When we were quite close to it we fired off many bombards."

The editor notes that it was unclear whether the guns were fired "merely as a sign of rejoicing or in wanton enmity". The same edition records that in 1417 an embassy from Mogadishu travelled to China (same source, notes to Girolamo Sernigi's letter, p. 132).

The coast around 1518: Duarte Barbosa

Duarte Barbosa, a Portuguese official in India, wrote a description of the Indian Ocean coasts that he finished around 1518. His words on the Somali towns survive (The Book of Duarte Barbosa, vol. 1, trans. M. L. Dames, Hakluyt Society, 1918, pp. 30–36).

• Barawa (Brava). "A great town of Moors, of very fine stone and mortar houses… It has no king, but is ruled by elders". It was a self-governing town, run by its senior merchants.
• Mogadishu (Magadoxo). "A very great Moorish town… it has a king over it". Ships came from Cambay in India and from Aden with cloth and spices, and left with "much gold, ivory, wax". Barbosa adds that it had meat, wheat, barley, horses and fruit, "so that it is a place of great wealth".
• Berbera (Barbora). Ships came from Aden and Cambay, and left with gold, ivory and other goods. Aden's merchants bought "provender, flesh, honey and wax, for that land is exceeding fruitful".
• Zeila. "A place of great traffic… a well-built place with right good houses, many of them built of stone and mortar with flat roofs." It had many horses and cattle, and plenty of butter, milk, meat, wheat, millet, barley and fruit, "all of which they carry hence to Adem".

The Portuguese attacks, 1506–1518

Barbosa and his editor record what happened next (Barbosa 1918, pp. 30–36):

• 1506, Barawa. A Portuguese fleet under Tristão da Cunha demanded tribute. The town refused and was taken "after a brave defence and a great slaughter". Barbosa says the Portuguese "slew many of its people and carried many into captivity". Many people fled inland.
• 1517, Zeila. A Portuguese fleet under Lopo Soares de Albergaria took and destroyed the town.
• 1518, Berbera. A fleet under António de Saldanha "destroyed the whole place".

Mogadishu was spared. The editor notes that "Portuguese rule was never consolidated as far north as Magadoxo" (same source, p. 31).

After 1518

Barbosa's editor records that the Ottoman captain Ali Bey held Mogadishu briefly in 1586, and that the sultans of Muscat and Zanzibar claimed it from 1828 (Barbosa 1918, p. 31, note). The Ajuran state and Adal ruled the land behind the coast in these centuries.

Reading these sources fairly

These writers were outsiders. Ibn Battuta was a guest, and his comments on Zeila's smell are his own. The Portuguese came as rivals and attackers. Their words carry the views of their time, including descriptions of skin colour that we do not repeat here.

Read for their facts, they agree on one thing: the Somali coast was rich, built in stone, governed by its own people, and tied by trade to Arabia, India and China.

Sources differ

• The year of Ibn Battuta's visit. Gibb's translation places it early in 1331, after the pilgrimage at the end of 1330 (Gibb 1929, ch. III). Other editions of his travels date the journey differently, because his own text gives few fixed dates.
• The date Berbera was attacked. Barbosa's text says 1518; his editor shows that the attack probably came at the start of 1518 and not in 1517 as some Portuguese chronicles imply (Barbosa 1918, pp. 34–35).

What this era moved forward

Somali towns governed themselves, by sultans in Mogadishu and by councils of elders in Barawa. They built in stone, hosted scholars, and traded with half the world. That is the oldest written proof that Somalis can build rich, open cities.

Read the primary sources yourself

• Ibn Battuta, Travels in Asia and Africa, 1325–1354, trans. H. A. R. Gibb, 1929: full text.
• A Journal of the First Voyage of Vasco da Gama, 1497–1499, trans. E. G. Ravenstein, 1898: full text.
• The Book of Duarte Barbosa, vol. 1, trans. M. L. Dames, 1918: full text.