Mogadishu’s population fell to 5,000 amid plague and famine in the 1840s

Evidence

At the time of Guillain’s sojourn, however, although the ancient cotton-weaving industry was still profitable, Mogadishu was largely in ruins. A recent scourge of plague and famine had reduced its population to a mere 5,000; and Hamarweyn and Shangani, the two quarters of the city, were at variance and each under a separate leader. The Sultan of the Geledi had in 1842 been invited to mediate and his action then had led to an uneasy truce between the two factions. By contrast, the Sultan of Zanzibar’s authority over the town was slight and hardly more than nominal. In 1843, a Somali had been appointed as governor by the Sultan of Zanzibar and furnished with two soldiers to collect the taxes; but after a short time this official had relinquished his office, and now at the time of Guillain’s visit, the only Zanzibari representative was an old Arab with an Indian assistant as tax collector. — I.M. Lewis, I. M. Lewis, A Modern History of the Somali_ Nation…, 134

Categorization

• XREF: The Hamarweyn-Shangani rift persists as a key axis through modern Mogadishu politics, so this is a seed for tracing factional continuity later in the book.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — I.M. Lewis, I. M. Lewis, A Modern History of the Somali_ Nation…, 134