The Warsangali sultanate of Las Khorey and the Maakhir coast

In short

The Warsangali are a clan of the Darod, living on the Gulf of Aden coast and in the mountains behind it, in today's Sanaag region. Their rulers, from a hereditary line called the Gerad (Garaad) Abdallah, governed the coast with its ports, chief among them Las Khorey (Guillain, Documents sur l'histoire... de l'Afrique orientale, part 2, vol. 1, pp. 470–471).

In 1886 the sultanate signed a treaty placing it under British protection (Hertslet, The Map of Africa by Treaty, vol. 1, p. 408). Its land became the eastern edge of British Somaliland. For the neighbouring Majeerteen states, see the Majeerteen and Hobyo sultanates.

The 1840s accounts

The French officer Charles Guillain, who sailed the coast in 1846–1848, quoted the British naval officer Charles Cruttenden's description of the "Ouarsanguéli" (pp. 470–471):

• The people. "A powerful and warlike population", descended "from the same mother as the Majeerteen", with whom they usually allied in wars, though "small quarrels" between them were frequent.
• The ruling line. The most important group was "the Guerad-Abdallah, the sovereign tribe in which the title of guerad or chief is passed down by inheritance". It lived on the southern slope of the high plateau.
• Other groups. Cruttenden named the Noh-Ahmar at Bandar Jedid, the Ogueis-Leubbah at Ras Gueri, the Eddin-Siyed at Gahm, the Mayeds at Durduri, and the Deubeiss at Ceelaayo, reaching to Bandar Ziyada.
• Trade. Exports were "incense, myrrh, gums", orchil dye and ghee. The Warsangali "have many horses".
• The coast. Guillain put the western limit of their territory at Bandar Jedid. He wrote that Guerâd, near Ras Gueri, was named to him as "the main town of the Ouarsanguéli", perhaps named for the chief's title (p. 470).

The British treaty, 1886

• 27 January 1886. The Warsangali signed a treaty with Britain. Like the other coastal treaties, it bound them "not to cede, sell, mortgage, or otherwise give for occupation, save to the British Government, any portion of their territory", and placed them "under British Protection" (Hertslet, vol. 1, p. 408).
• German interest. The British War Office history says Germany, which had commercial treaties with the Majeerteen, "also laid claim to Warsangli territory, but Great Britain concluded a treaty of protection in 1886 with the latter country" (War Office, Official History of the Operations in Somaliland, 1901–04, vol. 1, p. 46).
• The border. The British protectorate was notified to the powers in 1887 as running to "Bunder Ziadeh, in the 49th meridian", the eastern edge of Warsangali land (Hertslet, vol. 1, p. 409).

The texts of these treaties are told in the colonial treaties, 1884–1897.

The Dervish years, 1899–1920

• Early years. The War Office history says the Warsangli "assisted [the Sayid] only by selling arms, probably with a view to commercial profit rather than from any sympathy with his movement" (War Office, vol. 1, p. 40).
• 1904. During the British campaign, Las Khorey was used as a landing place for troops, and the Warsangali sultan was asked to cooperate. A navy report records that a blockade of "the Warsangli ports" ended after the sultan "made his submission at Berbera" (same source, pp. 253–267).
• By 1908. Douglas Jardine, a British official, wrote that the Warsangali, "led by a Sultan who had married his daughter to the Mullah", had let the Sayid use Las Khorey "as a port through which to obtain supplies of food and clothing and arms and ammunition" (Jardine, The Mad Mullah of Somaliland, 1923, p. 161). Later in the same book he calls it the Sayid's marriage to the sultan's sister (p. 256).
• January 1908. After the crew of a government dhow were fired on, "the Warsangli trade was stopped and a blockade instituted" (Jardine, p. 161).
• Raids. Jardine writes that the Sayid urged "certain of the more reckless sections of the Warsangli" to raid the Dhulbahante, and demanded that Britain "recognise the Warsangli as his 'proper Dervishes'" (pp. 168–169).
• 1915–1916. The Dervishes built a fort at Jidali, on the western edge of Warsangali land. Early in 1916 the sultan raided Dervish herds there (pp. 255–256).
• 6–10 May 1916. About 2,000 Dervishes attacked Las Khorey. The western quarter fell at once, "and some 300 women and children were put to death". The rest of the town held out for four days, until a British warship, HMS Northbrook, arrived and shelled the retreating force (Jardine, pp. 256–257). See the Dervish movement, 1899–1920.
• 1920. Sultan Mahmoud Ali Shire was sent to Mahé, in the Seychelles, by the British (Jardine, p. 256).

How British writers described the sultan

Jardine wrote that Mahmoud Ali Shire "was the last of the tribal Sultans in British Somaliland to retain any influence over his people", but that this influence "was maintained by tyrannical methods not far removed from those employed by the Mullah himself" (p. 256). He also wrote that the sultan "has the face of a fox" and called him, "like most mongrel orientals", "temperamentally incapable of keeping faith with anyone" (p. 256). These are Jardine's words, written in 1923 by a British official.

Who suffered?

• The people of Las Khorey, in the Dervish attack of May 1916. Jardine gives about 300 women and children killed in the western quarter (p. 256).
• Dervish fighters killed by naval shellfire as they withdrew (pp. 256–257).
• Coastal traders and townspeople under the blockades of 1904 and 1908, which cut off imported food. Jardine names "rice and dates, sugar and tea" (p. 161).
• The Dhulbahante, raided by Warsangali sections and Dervishes in 1908–1909 (pp. 168–169).

Sources differ

• When the state began. The sources linked here describe it in the 1840s. Wikipedia, citing later works, says a centralised state was founded in 1613 under Garaad Abdulle Mahmud I, with its capital first at Durduri and later at Las Khorey ("Warsangali Sultanate", Wikipedia).
• The sultan's tie to the Sayid. Jardine writes of a daughter on p. 161 and a sister on p. 256.
• The Warsangali and the Dervishes. The War Office (1907) said they helped only by selling arms for profit. Jardine (1923) wrote that they had "committed themselves far more definitely to the Dervish cause" by 1908.
• The sultan's character. Jardine's description is that of a British official in conflict with him.

Read the primary sources yourself

• Charles Guillain, Documents sur l'histoire, la géographie et le commerce de l'Afrique orientale, part 2, vol. 1 (Paris, 1856), pp. 470–471, in French: Internet Archive.
• Edward Hertslet, The Map of Africa by Treaty, vol. 1 (3rd edition, 1909), pp. 408–409: Internet Archive.
• War Office, General Staff, Official History of the Operations in Somaliland, 1901–04, vol. 1 (1907): Internet Archive.
• Douglas Jardine, The Mad Mullah of Somaliland (1923), pp. 160–169 and 255–257: Internet Archive.