# The Baardheere jamaaca, 1819 to 1843: a religious reform town on the Jubba > Baardheere jamaaca (1819–1843): Sheikh Ibraahim Jebro's reform community on the Jubba, its rules, growth, war with the Geledi sultanate and its end, sourced. Source page: https://calankii.com/en/society/baardheere-jamaaca-1819-1843/ Last checked: 2026-11-12 Publisher: Calankii (https://calankii.com) ## The first Somali jamaaca A *jamaaca* is a religious farming settlement built around a sheikh and his students. The Library of Congress country study records that in 1819 "Shaykh Ibrahim Hassan Jebro acquired land on the [Jubba River](/en/regions/jubba-river/) and established a religious center in the form of a farming community, the first Somali jamaa" ([Library of Congress, Somalia: A Country Study, 1992](https://countrystudies.us/somalia/47.htm)). Other sources date the founding of the fortified town of [Baardheere](/en/regions/baardheere/) to 1819 to 1823 and spell the founder's name Jeberow or Yabarow ([Reconquest of Jubaland, Wikipedia, citing Abdurahman, Eno and Kusow, and Loimeier, Muslim Societies in Africa, 2013](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reconquest_of_Jubaland); [Yusuf Mahamud Ibrahim, Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yusuf_Mahamud_Ibrahim)). ## Its rules The community introduced reforms in the name of Islamic law ([Yusuf Mahamud Ibrahim, Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yusuf_Mahamud_Ibrahim)): - tobacco and popular dancing were banned; - women were required to wear Islamic dress; - the ivory trade was banned. The French naval officer Charles Guillain, who visited the coast in the 1840s, called its leader "an enraged puritan, a great reformer" and wrote that most local people did not accept its rule ([Guillain, *Documents sur l'histoire, la géographie et le commerce de l'Afrique orientale*, 1856, pp. 36–38, Internet Archive](https://archive.org/details/documentssurlhis22guil)). See [the Geledi sultanate](/en/history/geledi-sultanate/), which summarises Guillain's account. ## Growth, 1830s In the mid-1830s the community won many followers among herding families who had moved into the upper Jubba valley from the Ogaden. It took control of farming settlements there, including [Luuq](/en/regions/gedo/), the main trading stop between Kismaayo and Harar. By the late 1830s it had almost 20,000 followers ([Yusuf Mahamud Ibrahim, Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yusuf_Mahamud_Ibrahim)). Its sheikhs also led campaigns against Oromo groups in the Jubba lands ([Reconquest of Jubaland, Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reconquest_of_Jubaland)). ## War with Geledi, 1840 to 1843 By 1840 the community's fighters reached Baidoa and took [Barawa](/en/regions/barawa/), a port of the Geledi sultanate and an old centre of the [Qadiriyya](/en/society/islam-in-somalia/) order. The Geledi resented the community's block on long-distance trade through Luuq and the disruption of farming in the Jubba and [Shabelle](/en/economy/farming-and-harvests/) valleys ([Yusuf Mahamud Ibrahim, Wikipedia, citing a JSTOR study](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yusuf_Mahamud_Ibrahim)). People of Barawa sent a delegation and a gift of 200 piastres to Sultan Yuusuf Maxamuud asking for help (Guillain, p. 38, via [the Geledi sultanate page](/en/history/geledi-sultanate/)). Sultan Yuusuf led a coalition of the clans between the rivers. Wikipedia gives its size as 40,000, mostly [Digil](/en/society/digil/) fighters. In 1843 the coalition besieged Baardheere; accounts say the town was burned and not resettled until the 1860s ([Yusuf Mahamud Ibrahim, Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yusuf_Mahamud_Ibrahim)). Sources differ on the allies: some name the [Tunni](/en/society/tunni/) of Barawa with the Geledi, and say the [Bimaal](/en/society/biyomaal/) of [Merca](/en/regions/lower-shabelle/) sided with Baardheere or stayed out ([same article](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yusuf_Mahamud_Ibrahim)). ## After Baardheere In 1847 [Sheikh](/en/regions/sheikh/) Cali Majeerteen landed at Merca with about 150 armed followers, aiming to found an Islamic emirate, in alliance with the Bimaal. Wikipedia, citing a later study, links his ideas to those of the Baardheere community ([Yusuf Mahamud Ibrahim, Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yusuf_Mahamud_Ibrahim)). Later in the 1800s, the Sufi orders founded dozens of *jamaaco* along the Jubba and Shabelle; by the 1950s there were more than 90 ([Library of Congress, 1992](https://countrystudies.us/somalia/47.htm)). See [the Sufi orders in Somalia](/en/society/sufi-orders-in-somalia/). ## Read further - Lee V. Cassanelli, *The [Shaping of Somali Society](/en/books/the-shaping-of-somali-society-cassanelli/): Reconstructing the History of a Pastoral People, 1600–1900* (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1982), which covers the Baardheere community and the Geledi wars. - Charles Guillain, *Documents sur l'histoire, la géographie et le commerce de l'Afrique orientale* (Paris, 1856). --- I want to help with this: email hello@calankii.com. Fix this page: email hello@calankii.com with the page link and your source.