Wikipedia:Mediation Cabal/Cases/2008-12/Mogadishu

Where's the dispute?
Articles Mogadishu and Barawa. The articulation of the dispute is restricted to Talk:Mogadishu.

What's the dispute?
Whether to include these articles in a category called Category:Swahili city-states, which category is intended to provide a link between several articles related to several East African cities. These cities, from the 10th to the 19th centuries shared cultural, religious, historical, and linguistic bonds. They were all Arab-influenced Muslim trading cities, exchanging manufactured goods and raw materials from Africa with other states in Arabia and around the Indian ocean. At various points in their histories, they were either independent or under Portuguese or Arab suzerainty. Their common language was Kiswahili.

Why is there a dispute?
User:Middayexpress has repeatedly reverted the category from these two articles. His or her argument is that medieval Arab geographers divided the East African coast into several zones, and not all of these city-states fall into the same zone.

User:RandomCritic does not contest this as a statement about medieval Arab geography, does not consider it relevant to the category. RandomCritic (talk) 17:18, 17 December 2008 (UTC)