# Sheikh Hussein of Bale (1200s): the saint from Merca honoured in Ethiopia > Sheikh Hussein of Bale (1200s): Muslim saint born in Merca, credited with spreading Islam in Bale and Sidamo; his shrine, pilgrimages, hagiography and lineage traditions. Source page: https://calankii.com/en/people/sheikh-hussein-of-bale/ Last checked: 2026-11-13 Publisher: Calankii (https://calankii.com) ## Who he was Sheikh Hussein was a Muslim preacher of the 1200s who was born in [Merca](/en/regions/lower-shabelle/), the port on the southern Somali coast, and lived and taught in the highlands of today's Ethiopia. He is honoured there as a saint ([Sheikh Hussein (saint), Wikipedia, citing Gish, Thay and Latif, Ethiopia, 2007, p. 83](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheikh_Hussein_(saint))). The historian Ulrich Braukämper, who studied Islam in southern Ethiopia, also traces him to Merca ([Braukämper, Islamic History and Culture in Southern Ethiopia, 2002, p. 155, via Google Books](https://books.google.com/books?id=HGnyk8Pg9NgC&pg=PA155)). Very little about his life is documented. What is known comes from oral tradition and from a hagiography, a book written by followers in praise of a saint. This page says which is which. ## What tradition says - **Bringing Islam inland.** He is credited with introducing Islam to the Sidamo people and to peoples of Bale ([Sheikh Hussein (saint), Wikipedia, citing Braukämper 2002](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheikh_Hussein_(saint))). - **The Sultanate of Bale.** Tradition also credits him with founding the Muslim Sultanate of Bale ([same article, citing Østebø, Islam, Ethnicity, and Conflict in Ethiopia, Cambridge University Press, 2020, p. 52](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheikh_Hussein_(saint))). - **Miracles.** Many miracles are attributed to him. A number are recorded in *Rabi' al-Qulub* ("Spring of the Hearts"), a hagiography printed in Cairo in the 1920s ([same article](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheikh_Hussein_(saint))). ## His lineage in Somali tradition The anthropologist I. M. Lewis recorded that the Haran Madare, a group in the Bay region, are represented in old Somali oral traditions as a branch of the "saintly Walamogge lineage", descended "from the famous Sheikh Huseen Baliale, the patron saint of the Islamic population of Ethiopia" ([I. M. Lewis, "Keeping the Birds at Bay in the Bay Area of Somalia", 1988, Roma Tre University repository](https://arcadia.sba.uniroma3.it/bitstream/2307/1027/5/43_I.M.%20LEWIS%20-%20Keeping%20the%20birds%20at%20Bay%20in%20the%20Bay%20area%20of%20Somalia.pdf)). Wikipedia, citing Lewis's *[Saints and Somalis](/en/books/saints-and-somalis-lewis/)* (1998, p. 105), links this line to the Ajuran ([Sheikh Hussein (saint), Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheikh_Hussein_(saint))). ## The shrine and the pilgrimages The town named after him, Sheikh Hussein, lies in Bale in Ethiopia's Oromia region. About 50,000 pilgrims from many parts of Ethiopia gather there twice a year. One pilgrimage marks his birth and the other his death ([Sheikh Hussein (saint), Wikipedia, citing Trimingham, Islam in Ethiopia, 1952, pp. 253–256](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheikh_Hussein_(saint))). Pilgrims traditionally carry small forked sticks called "Oulle Sheikh Hussein". At the shrine they take turns entering the saint's tomb by crawling through a small doorway ([Sheikh Hussein (saint), Wikipedia, citing the Nordic Africa Institute's Local History in Ethiopia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheikh_Hussein_(saint))). Visiting the tombs of saints (*siyaaro*) is also an old practice among Somalis. See [saints, shrines and siyaaro](/en/society/saints-shrines-and-siyaaro/). ## Merca and the coast Merca was one of the old Muslim trading towns of the southern Somali coast, and later the home of [Sheikh](/en/regions/sheikh/) Cali Maye Durogba, who brought the Ahmadiyya order to Somalia ([Library of Congress, Somalia: A Country Study, 1992](https://countrystudies.us/somalia/47.htm)). See [Somali scholars and saints](/en/society/somali-sufi-scholars-and-saints/) and [how Islam reached the Somalis](/en/society/how-islam-reached-the-somalis/). ## Read further - J. Spencer Trimingham, *Islam in Ethiopia* (Oxford University Press, 1952), pp. 253–256. - Ulrich Braukämper, *Islamic History and Culture in Southern Ethiopia: Collected Essays* (LIT Verlag, 2002). - I. M. Lewis, *Saints and Somalis: Popular Islam in a Clan-Based Society* (Red Sea Press, 1998). --- I want to help with this: email hello@calankii.com. Fix this page: email hello@calankii.com with the page link and your source.