# Sa'id of Mogadishu (Saciid Muqdisho)

> Sa'id of Mogadishu (1301–about 1361): 14th-century Somali scholar who studied in Mecca and Medina, travelled to India and China, and met Ibn Battuta.

Source page: https://calankii.com/en/people/said-of-mogadishu/
Last checked: 2026-11-12
Publisher: Calankii (https://calankii.com)

## Who was he?

Sa'id of Mogadishu was a 14th-century Somali scholar and traveller ([Wikipedia, Sa'id of Mogadishu](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sa%27id_of_Mogadishu)). He was born in Mogadishu in 1301 (same source). See [medieval Somali polities](/en/history/medieval-and-early-modern-polities-1300s-1700s/).

## Mecca and Medina

He left Mogadishu as a teenager to study ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sa%27id_of_Mogadishu)). He spent 14 years in Mecca and 14 in Medina, where he had many students (same source). He met the Amir of Mecca, Abu Numayy, and the Amir of Medina, al-Mansur Ibn Jammaz (same source).

## Meeting Ibn Battuta

Ibn Battuta met him at a mosque on the west coast of India ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sa%27id_of_Mogadishu)). Ibn Battuta described him as "a jurist, pious from Mogadishu called Sa'id, of fine figure and character" who "used to fast continually" and "had travelled [throughout] India and China" (same source). See [Ibn Battuta in Mogadishu and Zeila, 1331](/en/history/ibn-battuta-in-mogadishu-and-zeila-1331/).

The historian Peter Jackson suggests that Sa'id may have given Ibn Battuta his information on China and the succession of the Yuan dynasty, which Ibn Battuta later used in his own account ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sa%27id_of_Mogadishu)). Wikipedia says he also visited Bengal (same source).

## Malabar

A study of the Malabar Coast records that "Faqih Sa'id from Mogadishu" settled in the small port town of Ezhimala ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sa%27id_of_Mogadishu)). There he worked with Faqih Husayn, possibly the author of the first known [Shafi'i](/en/society/islam-in-somalia/) legal text from Malabar (same source). The same study calls him one of many East African scholars who took part in the religious life of the Malabar Coast (same source).

## Death

He may have died in 1361 or 1365 ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sa%27id_of_Mogadishu)).

## In short

A 14th-century scholar from Mogadishu who studied in Mecca and Medina for 28 years, travelled to India and China, and met Ibn Battuta.

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