Sources on 18th-century Somalia?

It's quite unfortunate (both in general, and for the purposes of a TL I'm envisaging) that there appear to be very few academic sources on the Somali sultanates of the Early Modern era. Even the relevant volume of the UNESCO General History of Africa series primarily focuses on the fortunes of Christian Ethiopia.

Nevertheless, it's possible I've missed available sources, so does anyone have any suggestions for books or articles on this time and place?
 
From what I remember, Richard Hall's "Empires of the Monsoon" does focus quite a lot on East Africa and the Swahili Coast.

It's a notch above pop history but it's not academic work although he does have an extensive bibliography.

I don't know if thaat's what you're looking for but it's very instructive and a fun read
 
East Africa and the Swahili Coast
Thanks, but I do actually mean the eastern Horn of Africa, i.e. what is now Somalia (including Somaliland) and the Ogaden. I've been able to find enough information about the Swahili Coast in the early 18th century, presumably since Kenya and Tanzania are conductive to historical research at least compared to Somalia with its thirty-year civil war. I don't think Empires addresses that enough, at least from the Google Books preview.

It really is quite shocking that the most comprehensive source on Early Modern Somalia that I've been able to find is English Wikipedia articles.
 
Thanks, but I do actually mean the eastern Horn of Africa, i.e. what is now Somalia (including Somaliland) and the Ogaden. I've been able to find enough information about the Swahili Coast in the early 18th century, presumably since Kenya and Tanzania are conductive to historical research at least compared to Somalia with its thirty-year civil war. I don't think Empires addresses that enough, at least from the Google Books preview.
Yeah, I did think you'd be looking for something with more meat. I do find it really hard to find descriptive/narrative, events based histories on the Internet for non mainstream bits.

I would recommend to check the national archives/libraries of its titular colonial power. For former French colonies, the Bibliothèque Nationale is a great source of information as colonialists often compiled histories of the countries. If you can a) find it, b) see through the bias, it's a good source
 
Yeah, I did think you'd be looking for something with more meat. I do find it really hard to find descriptive/narrative, events based histories on the Internet for non mainstream bits.

I would recommend to check the national archives/libraries of its titular colonial power. For former French colonies, the Bibliothèque Nationale is a great source of information as colonialists often compiled histories of the countries. If you can a) find it, b) see through the bias, it's a good source

Unfortunately, the titular power in question is largely Italy - as far as I can tell, we did not give much of a damn ever about pre-colonial history of Somalia (or about Somalia in general, actually, except occasionally messing up the place).
 
Unfortunately, the titular power in question is largely Italy - as far as I can tell, we did not give much of a damn ever about pre-colonial history of Somalia (or about Somalia in general, actually, except occasionally messing up the place).
You guys didn't stay long enough...

Ah well, the British National Lirbary seems to have stuff:
http://explore.bl.uk/primo_library/...xt0)=somalia history&fn=search&tab=local_tab&


However it doesn't seem o be scanned but it can give you titles/authors to look up elsewhere
 
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