ABSTRACT
The victory of the Muslims over the Quraish in the seventh century had a significant impact on Somalia's merchants and sailors and the major trading routes in the Mediterranean and the Red Sea came under the sway of the Muslim caliphs. Mogadishu is the capital and chief port of Somalia, and with a population reaching a million, it is also the largest city of Somalia. The three Islamic trends—Salafism, Traditional Islam, and Sufi orders—are present in Somalia. Sufism has historically been influential in Somalia, as elsewhere in Africa, but its political influence declined in the latter part of the twentieth century. In 1996 and again in 1997, the Ethiopian military crossed into Somalia numerous times, defeating al-Ittihad and driving them further south along the west bank of the Jubba River. Much of the instruction in Islamic teaching institutions is in Somali or English, not Arabic, and is focused on academic or vocational skills rather than religious education.
