Madagascar name is a corrupted version of Mogadishu, given by Marco Polo

[GalliumerianSlayer]

Marco Polo got the two mixed up
He translated the 'Port' (Mogadishu) as 'Madageiscar'.

A really interesting fact, Xamar has already been visited by three different medieval explorers, Zheng He/Ibn Battuta and Vasco De Gama.

[whitehartlane]

Xamar has an amazing history..

Allow dhowr reer benaadir

[GalliumerianSlayer]

Xamar has an amazing history..

Allow dhowr reer benaadir

Xamar indeed does have a great history, one of the finest historical Somali cities along with Saylac to be honest. Both cities were also part of a great trading route, as seen in 'periplus of the erythraean sea', Xamar being Sarapion and Saylac being 'Avalite'.

It pains me to see the current state of Mogadishu.

[whitehartlane]

The pearl of the indian ocean..

Unfortunately tht title belongs to zanzibar now

[ramzy2277]

This city is older than I thought, i recently came a cross an italian book about Islam in Somalia, i was amazed to find a lot of Arabic manuscript quoted in this book, the city is ancient ,even pre-dated islam to my surprise, one arabic manuscript mentions an Arabic king from sana in yemen tubac al xeemyari who first landed there and built moqdisho and pushed al zinj till juba river and later on they made peace with them , then after abraha al xabashi invasion of southern arabia and attempt to destroy al Kacba, some arabic clans who were in his army escaped that war to xabasha and slowly moved till mogdisho to connect with the arabs there, the write goes on till oman vs portugese fights....maybe some one like sahal can go through this in detail and make a thread to benefit all.

you can download the book here, but its in italian and arabic,the pictures not that clear as well.

http://dspace-roma3.caspur.it/handle/2307/1510

[AwRastaale]

Madagascar has nothing to do with Mogadishu.

Madagascar is the local tongue for the island and comes from the Malagasy people.

[ramzy2277]

Etymology

In the Malagasy language, the island of Madagascar is called Madagasikara [madaɡasʲˈkʲarə̥] and its people are referred to as Malagasy.[9] The island's appellation "Madagascar" is not of local origin, but rather was popularized in the Middle Ages by Europeans.[10] The name Madageiscar was first recorded in the memoirs of 13th-century Venetian explorer Marco Polo as a corrupted transliteration of the name Mogadishu, the Somali port with which Polo had confused the island.[11]

On St. Laurence's Day in 1500, Portuguese explorer Diogo Dias landed on the island and christened it São Lourenço.[11] Polo's name was preferred and popularized on Renaissance maps.[11] No single Malagasy-language name predating Madagasikara appears to have been used by the local population to refer to the island, although some communities had their own name for part or all of the land they inhabited.[11]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madagascar

[GalliumerianSlayer]

This city is older than I thought, i recently came a cross an italian book about Islam in Somalia, i was amazed to find a lot of Arabic manuscript quoted in this book, the city is ancient ,even pre-dated islam to my surprise, one arabic manuscript mentions an Arabic king from sana in yemen tubac al xeemyari who first landed there and built moqdisho and pushed al zinj till juba river and later on they made peace with them , then after abraha al xabashi invasion of southern arabia and attempt to destroy al Kacba, some arabic clans who were in his army escaped that war to xabasha and slowly moved till mogdisho to connect with the arabs there, the write goes on till oman vs portugese fights....maybe some one like sahal can go through this in detail and make a thread to benefit all.

you can download the book here, but its in italian and arabic,the pictures not that clear as well.

http://dspace-roma3.caspur.it/handle/2307/1510

Have you not heard of Sarapion?

[ramzy2277]

Year, I know , but I dont think Somalis really were around at those days ,probably oromo /Gala the hunters, malao ( Berbera) , Mundus (maydh) sarapion (mogdisho) ,were part of the himyarite kingdom.

i always thought Somali history as we know it started with islam and migration of arab islamic schoolars,merchants..etc.

[ramzy2277]

[GalliumerianSlayer]

Somalis have never been united until the Somali Republic (which is only 2 out of 5 regions), pre-Islamic Somali Peninsula had many Somali city states.

The Chinese referred us to 'Popali', their pronunciation of 'Somali' back in the 9th century.

I did it find it interesting that the Sultan who lived at the time when Ibn Battuta visited Xamar originally hailed form Berbera but spoke in a Xamari accent.

[ramzy2277]

Probably a dirty waqooyist....

[GalliumerianSlayer]

Probably a dirty waqooyist....

Beeraaha Koonfur, Cuunta Koonfur, etc..

[WorstCaseScenaRio]

Why do you guys think we have a town called Berbera? It is because of connection to our heritage to Berbers in North Africa and the fact that all medieval travelers called our land the land of the berbers.