Who built the Gedi ruins?

It's Portugal in the 16th century, they humiliated the Ottoman Empire, China and India. Their navy couldn't be defeated and their armies the Tercio you needed overwhelming odds to defeat a Tercio in that time period. In the Battle of Barawa a Tercio of about 200 guys faced off against over 4000 Somalis and they killed 1000 of the Barawa defenders and lost only a dozen men. They only held off from attacking Mogadishu because the odds were insane.

Advances in firearms made the Tercio obsolete and that's what ended the Portuguese empire, but the Omanis took them on at their height and won, and in order to get that strong they (having been occupied for centuries) duplicated Portuguese military technology and the result was the Omanis took over the whole Indian ocean and noone could defeat THEM for the next century.

Pla said:

@Factz please come in here and lisen to this BS

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Well, this is Ajuran Sultanate map. It shows the Portuguese ruling the Swahili coast but none of Somali ports.



The Portuguese failed to conquer Barawa several times.

For example, under Vasco Da Gama failed to capture Barawa against the Ajuran.



The Portuguese under Tristão da Cunha were defeated by the Ajuran Sultanate in the battle of Barawa.



The Portuguese under João de Sepúvelda were defeated by the Ajuran Sultanate in the battle of Mogadishu.



More sources explains why Portuguese failed to capture Somali ports against the Ajuran Sultanate.



If Barawa was really under the Portuguese control then why did the Ajuran Sultanate aid the Ottomans to liberate the Swahili coast while ignoring their own port? Because they defeated the Portuguese that's why and they had enough power to liberate other kingdoms.



Lastly, the tower in Barawa was built by the Ajuran engineers just like they built the Almnara tower in Mogadishu so I do agree it's a silly comment made by James. All the sophisticated engineering, fortification and other medieval ruins found on the Benadir coast was indeed attributed by the Ajuran engineers.

Factz I made that map dude

James Dahl said:

Factz I made that map dude

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Loooooool no you didn't. It was a Somali scholar called Abdullahi Abdurahman.

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=X1dDDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA60&dq=Ajuran+Imamate+map&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjUk-2Go4_eAhWHKMAKHVomBJYQ6AEIKTAA#v=onepage&q=Ajuran Imamate map&f=false

incorrect, this is the source of his map:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ajuuraan2.png

This is a modification of my map which I made ages ago

James Dahl said:

incorrect, this is the source of his map:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ajuuraan2.png

This is a modification of my map which I made ages ago

Click to expand...

The source of the Wikipedia map goes straight back to the book I posted.

No, you are incorrect. The one I posted came from his book called "Making Sense of Somali History: Volume 1".



Here: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=X1dDDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA60&dq=Ajuran+Imamate+map&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjUk-2Go4_eAhWHKMAKHVomBJYQ6AEIKTAA#v=onepage&q=Ajuran Imamate map&f=false

You realize the book was published many years after that image was uploaded right

It's really weird to be arguing with an earlier version of myself

Book Publication Date: 12 May 2017
Image uploaded to wikipedia: 21 July 2012