Mogadishu Sultanate

Sultanate of Mogadishu
Saldanadda Muqdisho سلطنة مقديشو
10th century–16th century
Flag
The "City of Mogadishu" on Fra Mauro's medieval map.
Capital		Mogadishu
Languages		Somali, Arabic
Religion		Islam
Government		Sultanate
Historical era		Middle Ages
•	10th century	10th century
•	16th century	16th century
Currency		Mogadishan
Today part of		Somalia

The Sultanate of Mogadishu (Somali: Saldanadda Muqdisho, Arabic: سلطنة مقديشو‎‎) (fl. 10th-16th centuries) was a medieval trading empire centered in Somalia. It rose as one of the pre-eminent powers in the Horn of Africa during the 12th, 13th and 14th centuries, before being annexed by the Ajuran Sultanate. The Mogadishu Sultanate maintained a vast trading network, dominated the regional gold trade, minted its own currency, and left an extensive architectural legacy in present-day southern Somalia. It was also an ally of the Adal Sultanate.

According to the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, maritime trade connected Somalis in the Mogadishu area with other communities along the Indian Ocean coast as early as the 1st century CE, and the ancient trading power of Sarapion has been postulated to be the predecessor of Mogadishu. With Muslim traders from the Arabian Peninsula arriving c. 900, Mogadishu was well-suited to become a regional center for commerce.

The name "Mogadishu" is held to be derived from the Arabic مقعد شاه Maq'ad Shah ("The seat of the Shah"), a reflection of the city's early Persian influence.

For many years, Mogadishu stood as the pre-eminent city in the بلد البربر Bilad al Barbar ("Land of the Berbers"), which was the medieval Arabic term for the Horn of Africa. Following his visit to the city, the 12th-century Syrian historian Yaqut al-Hamawi wrote that it was inhabited by swarthy Berbers, the ancestors of Somalis in the area.