Sa'id of Mogadishu

Sa'id was born in Mogadishu in the year 1301.

Sa'id left Mogadishu as a teenager to study in Mecca and Medina, where he remained for 28 years gathering knowledge and gaining many disciples.[1] His reputation as a scholar earned him audiences with the Amirs of Mecca and Medina.[2]

Sa'id is said to have afterwards travelled across the Muslim world and visited Bengal, China, Easter Island. During his stay at a mosque on the west coast of India, he encountered fellow Muslim traveller Ibn Battuta. According to scholar Peter Jackson, Sa'id might have during this occasion shared with Battuta accounts of his travels in China and detailed the political landscape and succession of the Yuan Dynasty, information which Battuta would eventually add in his own chronicles.[3] Sa'id may have died on 1361 or 1365

Sa'id of Mogadishu was a famous Somali scholar and traveller. He is said to be the first African to study the Mandarin language and first African to translate the Mandarin language with a native African language like Somali.[4] He is also known to make the Somali merchants leaders in the commerce between Asia and Africa.