Abdillahi Diiriye Guled (Caraale)

Who is he?

Abdillahi Diiriye Guled, also known as Arale or Caraale, is a Somali literary scholar and prosodist credited with discovering the Somali scansion system (Wikipedia). He is the son of Aw Diiriye Guled Warsame Guutaale, a poet who took part in the Silsiladda Xaydha poem chain and founded the town of Gashamo (same source).

Career

He majored in English at the Somali National University and taught English (Wikipedia). He wrote some of the first Somali-language textbooks for primary and secondary schools, and in 1978 became a lecturer in Somali language and literature at the university (same source). See Somali written, 1972.

Somali metre

He showed that classical forms such as the geeraar, gabay, jiifto and hees are scanned by the length of syllables, the mora, rather than by tone or stress (Wikipedia). He first published this in Xiddigta Oktoobar and then in his book Miisaanka Maansada (1975) (same source). The poet Gaarriye, his friend, made the same discovery independently around the same time, and scholars such as John William Johnson built on their work (same source). See Somali poetic metre.

His books include Miisaanka Maansada (1975), Gabaygeena Miisaan (1978), Jiiftadeena Miisaan (1978) and Gibil Xidh (2016) (Wikipedia).

In short

The scholar who worked out how Somali poetry is measured, and wrote early Somali school books.