Aw Jama Omar Issa (Aw Jaamac Cumar Ciise)

Who was he?

Aw Jama Omar Issa, known as Aw Jaamac, was a Somali scholar, historian and collector of oral literature (Wikipedia, Jama Omar Issa). He came from Buuhoodle, had an Arabic and Islamic education, and qualified as a teacher in Hargeisa in 1957 (same source). In the early 1960s he moved to Mogadishu to teach (same source).

The Sayid's poetry and the Dervishes

He spent about twenty years collecting and writing down the orally transmitted poems of Sayid Mohamed Abdullah Hassan, published as Diiwaanka Sayid Maxamed in 1974 (Wikipedia). He used them for Taariikhdii Daraawiishta iyo Sayid Maxamed Cabdulle Xasan, 1895-1921, published by the Somali Academy of Culture in 1976 and described by Wikipedia as the first authoritative study of the Dervishes (same source). See The Dervish movement.

Other books

Before Somali had an official script, he wrote in Arabic, including a history of Somalia and a book on Somali political leaders, both in 1965 (Wikipedia). In 1966 he wrote a biography of General Daud Abdulle Hirsi, first commander of the Somali army, and in 1979 a history of Mogadishu (same source). With Mohamed Haji Omar and Ahmed Jimale he wrote Speared from the Spear: Traditional Somali Behaviour in Warfare, published by the Red Cross in 1997 (same source).

Later life

From 1991 he lived in Djibouti, where he died on 6 January 2014 aged 91 (same source).

In short

A historian from Buuhoodle who preserved the Sayid's poetry and wrote the first full history of the Dervishes.