to also profit by the trade which passed by their settlement. Following the decline of the Ajuraan state in the mid-seventeenth century and after the scene of many conflicts during the age of Oromo expansion, was gradually becoming stabilized. Along that frontier there evolved a number of bilingual trading settlements, coupled with the integrating force of islam, these developments facilitated the creation of regional exchange networks. The most important inland market towns in southern Somalia were Luuq and Baardheere, on the Jubba River; Baydhabo (Baidoa) and Buur Hakaba in the central inter-river plain; and Awdheegle and Afgooye along the lower Shabeelle. Since most of these towns were situated in good agricultural country, they were able to supply caravans with foodstuffs and other provisions. In this way, the long-distance caravan trade helped stimulate the local market economy. Although the inland market centers were small—only the towns along the Shabeelle numbered more than two thousand permanent residents—they were frequented by nomads, farmers, and peddlers from the surrounding districts. In essence, they were small "ports of trade" that offered security and a degree of political neutrality to buyers and sellers from a variety of different clans and locales. This was essential, since long-distance trade in southern Somalia—as in the north—was segmented. Goods originating in the Jubba basin were brought to the towns of Luuq and Baardheere in caravans manned by traders from upcountry clans: Garre, Jerire, and Ajuraan and Borana-Oromo. From the Jubba River towns, Gasar Gudda, Eelay, and Garre traders carried the goods to Baydhabo and Buur Hakaba, to Awdheegle and Afgooye. At these points, the inland traders typically handed over their goods to local brokers or to coastal merchants who might venture inland as far as the lower Shabeelle. No one Somali group monopolized the whole of the long-distance caravan trade; even the ubiquitous Garre seldom took their caravans beyond the river town of Awdheegle. Distribution Garre are said mostly to be found in southern Somalia, on the Lower reaches of the Shabelle River; Afgooye, around Dolo around the upper Jubba; between Webi Gesho and Webi Maana River, Qoroyoley, Merca, and Awdhegle, Kurtunwaarey and Kaxda District & Kofur in Mogadishu, El Wak District in Gedo Jubaland. and in the upper reaches of Dawa River on the borders of Ethiopia and Kenya. This, in turn, is based on the Garre oral traditions( collected at the beginning of the century) that they migrated