The locus of intercommunication shifts upland to…

The locus of intercommunication shifts upland to the well-watered region between the Shabeelle and Jubba rivers by the end of the sixteenth century.

Evidence of the shift of initiative from the coast to the interior may be found in the rise between 1550 and 1650 of the Ajuran (also seen as Ajuuraan) state, which prospers on the lower reaches of the interriverine region under the clan of the Gareen.

The considerable power of the Ajuran state will not be diminished until the Portuguese penetration of the East African coast in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

Among Somali towns and cities, only Mogadishu successfully resists the repeated depredations of the Portuguese.