[13] Somalis, similar to Harari people, were historically known to Europeans as "Moors" partly due to their millennia-old ties with the Arab world.

[14] According to the explorer Francisco de Almeida, as well as Duarte Barbosa, "Moors" dominated the Indian Ocean trade for centuries prior to the arrival of the Portuguese.

[18][19] Upon sailing past Mogadishu on his way back to Portugal from the Malabar Coast, Vasco da Gama unfounded, bombarded the ships anchored in the harbour, damaging a few.

[20][21] At the request of the king of Malindi, who was an ally of the Portuguese, Tristão da Cunha and Afonso de Albuquerque attacked the rival city of Barawa in 1505, with a force of 1500 men and 16 ships.

[22][23] Shortly before the 1513 siege of Aden, the Portuguese governor of India Afonso de Albuquerque detached a two ship squadron to scout Zeila.

[24] Its captains Ruy Galvão and João Gomes were unable to land due to the opposition of the inhabitants, hence they burned twenty large ships they found in the harbour.

[28][29] In 1541, troops of the Adal Sultanate attacked and killed all but two of a party of 100 Portuguese commanded by António Correia, who had mutinied and gone ashore at Massawa.

[34] Having received reports from allied Swahili city-states that the hostile city of Mogadishu had appealed for Ottoman military support in preparation for a revolt against Portugal, the Portuguese captain of fort São Caetano at Sofala João de Sepúlveda departed with 100 soldiers, six oarships and a contingent of allied warriors and ships from Malindi, and upon arriving at Mogadishu "destroyed the city and did them great damage and injury".

[43] Following their defeat at Jarte, Gragn requested aid from the governor of Ottoman Yemen, who provided him with a retinue of Turkish, Arab, and Albanian troops that would assist him in the Battle of Wofla.

[45] The Portuguese survivors of the Battle of Wofla managed to evade capture and then link up with the army of Emperor Gelawdewos, and requested that they avenge the death of Dom Cristóvão.

Tradition states that Imam Ahmad was shot in the chest by a Portuguese musketeer named João de Castilho, who had charged alone into the Muslim lines and died.

[51] Távora reached Massawa and on his way back attacked Berbera, whose inhabitants hurriedly evacuated the city as soon as they sighted the Portuguese ships.

[51] In 1585, the Turkish privateer Mir Ali Beg sailed to Southeastern Africa and convinced the cities on the Swahili coast to declare their allegiance to the Ottoman Empire and revolt against Portuguese suzerainty in the region.