1. Yes, I’ve actually shared that exact map before. It doesn’t contradict my point , it supports it. The map shows how both the coastal and interior regions were referred to under the umbrella of Mogadishu. It clearly links them as a single political-cultural unit, which is consistent with historical accounts that describe a powerful inland-extending polity with Mogadishu as its urban and commercial hub.
2. No one is claiming that there was a state named “Ajuran” as a unified, formal, imperial institution that stretched coast-to-coast under one ruler. What was passed down and often misunderstood is more likely the recollection of an interconnected system of administration, tax collection, and political cohesion. The name Ajuran, as I’ve explained before, was likely a nickname or title for tax administrators, and not the official name of a polity.
The screen I posted was to show you that Ajuran = taxation in Arabic , that’s the core etymology.
I never quoted Aydarus. The thread i linked show's Lee Cassanelli’s work, who cites actual Arabic historical documents held by Southern Somali families. These aren’t myths, these are documented local histories, preserved in writing.
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And here:
3. The existence of an Imam ruling the interior is corroborated by a Portuguese letter from 1624.
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What the locals were trying to explain was a bureaucratic administration that was engaged in taxation, coordination of production, and governance across a wide region.
We’ve seen a similar structure in Adal, where Imam Ahmed Gurey deployed officials to collect taxes and manage production among both herders and farmers. This type of governance was not limited to military conquest but included highly organized internal administration.
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Additionally, titles found on tombs like “Awal Amir,” “Naib Sammow,” and others provide further evidence of an administrative hierarchy rooted in both religious and political authority. These weren’t just symbolic names they represented actual functions within a broader governance system that linked coast and interior.
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This all points to a governance model during the medieval period one that deserves far more scholarly attention than the dismissive “Ajuran myth” label often thrown at it.
It's something that is clearly also seen in when you look at Futuh and other written sources from that period:
''The written sources of the fifteenth to sixteenth centuries show a hierarchized, complex society that included several administrative and political titles, as well as the existence of elites
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