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For much of the 13th century the most important coastal town was Mogadishu, a mercantile city on the Somalian coast to which new migrants came from the Persian Gulf and southern Arabia. Of these, the most important were called Shirazi, who, in the second half of the 12th century, had migrated southward to the Lamu islands, to Pemba, to Mafia, to the Comoro Islands, and to Kilwa, where by the end of the 12th century they had established a dynasty. Whether they were actually Persian in origin is somewhat doubtful. Though much troubled by wars, by the latter part of ...(100 of 13851 words)