Banadir

Banadir or Benadir (Somali: Banaadir, Persian: بنادر‎‎ Banādir) is a coastal region in Somalia. It covers most of the country's central and southern seaboard opposite the Indian Ocean and up to the Juba River, including the capital Mogadishu. From 1885 onwards the Italians made treaties with local sultans on the Somalia northern coast, followed by leasing of ports on the southern coast (known as Benadir or 'Landing Places') in 1892. Italy assumed direct rule after a treaty in 1905. The historical region gives its name to the current administrative region (gobol) of Banaadir, which is smaller and coextensive with Mogadishu.

Benadir is derived from the Persian bandar, which means "port" in allusion to the coastal cities of Mogadishu and Barawa. The place name reflects the region's medieval position as a key trade center for the "Horn of Africa" with Persia and the Arabian peninsula. Benadir is also reputed for its special breed of goats.

The original inhabitants of Mogadishu city and the Benadir area were the Hamari people, who are ethnically an amalgam of heterogeneous populations who settled in the area during the Roman empire centuries. Archaeological excavations have demonstrated the existence of trade relations with the Ancient Egypt, Sumerian and Sheba kingdoms for at least a thousand years before Christ. In the first millennium BC the Benadir coast was visited by Phoenician merchants. In the Roman republic centuries between the regions of Zanzibar and the kingdom of Saba (Sheba) was maintained a fluid commercial traffic using maritime monsoon winds: the Sabaeans brought Chinese porcelain and paintings between November and February and returned north with large, spices, gold, ivory and wood. During Augustus times the use of Monsoon winds was increased, with Roman ships going from northern Somalia until India and vice versa.

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