Sheikh Abikar Mahdar (Sheekh Abiikar Mahdar)

Who was he?

Sheikh Abikar Mahdar Ahmed al-Kasadi was a scholar of the Qadiriyya Sufi order on the Banadir coast (Baadiyow, WardheerNews, 25 June 2024). The historian Abdurahman Baadiyow notes that "the records of Sheikh Abikar Mahdar are not well-preserved" (same source). See Islam in Somalia.

Dates

An inscription at the Warsheikh mosque gives his dates as 1230 to 1293 in the Islamic calendar, which is 1816 to 1876 (Baadiyow).

Mogadishu, Nimow and Warsheikh

He taught in Mogadishu (same source). Baadiyow writes that he left the city because he opposed the "Minyas" dance rituals held there (same source). He moved several times to Nimow, east of Mogadishu, before settling in Warsheikh (same source). Warsheikh lies on the coast north-east of Mogadishu, at the northern end of the Banadir coast that Italy later bought from the Sultan of Zanzibar (Castagno, Historical Dictionary of Somalia, 1975).

Students

Baadiyow names three of his students (Baadiyow). They were Sheikh Sufi of Mogadishu, Sheikh Ahmed Haji Mahdi, who later founded a centre at Nimow, and Abd al-Rahman al-Zayla'i (same source). Warsheikh remained a centre of Qadiriyya learning (same source). The scholar Sheikh Abdurahman al-Eli was born near its teaching centre in 1895 (same source).

In short

A Qadiriyya scholar who taught in Mogadishu, settled at Warsheikh and taught Sheikh Sufi, Sheikh Ahmed Haji Mahdi and Abd al-Rahman al-Zayla'i.