Faith
Somali Muslim scholars and saints: a guide from the 1200s to 1920
From Sheikh Isaaq at Maydh, remembered from the 900s or 1000s, to the Dervish leader Sayyid Mohammed Abdullah Hassan in 1920, Somali Muslim scholars and saints carried Islam inland, founded towns and farming villages, wrote poetry and led resistance. This guide lists 14 of the best known, in order of their time, each with where they lived, their order and where they are buried.
How to read this guide
Many of these lives are known from oral tradition and from hagiographies (manaaqib), books of praise written by followers. Where the record is tradition rather than a dated document, the entry says so. Each entry links to its source and, where one exists, to its own page.
Before 1500
Sheikh Isaaq. By tradition a Shafi'i scholar from Arabia who settled at Maydh in the 900s or 1000s; forefather of the Isaaq. His tomb at Maydh is visited every year (Ishaaq bin Ahmed, Wikipedia).
Sheikh Hussein of Bale (1200s). Born in Merca. Tradition credits him with bringing Islam to peoples of the Bale highlands in today's Ethiopia. A hagiography, Rabi' al-Qulub, was printed in Cairo in the 1920s. The town of Sheikh Hussein, where he is buried, draws about 50,000 pilgrims twice a year (Sheikh Hussein (saint), Wikipedia). See Sheikh Hussein of Bale.
Aw Abadir Umar al-Rida (1200s). The legendary founder of Harar, said in the Fath Madinat Harar to have come from the Hijaz in 1216 and built the city's main mosque. He is held to be the common ancestor of the Sheekhaal and of the Harari (Abadir Umar ar-Rida, Wikipedia).
Aw Barkhadle (Yusuf bin Ahmad al-Kawneyn). A scholar of the Zeila coast, remembered as having come from Arabia to teach Islam and as the creator of Somali names for the Arabic vowel signs. His tomb near Hargeisa is a place of yearly siyaaro (Yusuf bin Ahmad al-Kawneyn, Wikipedia; Horn Heritage, Islamic heritage: Sufism). See Aw Barkhadle.
Fakhr al-Din Uthman al-Zayla'i (died 1342/43). A Hanafi jurist "from Zeila" who taught in Cairo and wrote Tabyin al-Haqa'iq (Al-Zayla'i, Wikipedia). See Uthman al-Zayla'i.
1800s and early 1900s
Sheikh Ibraahim Xasan Jebro (founded Baardheere 1819). Founder of the first Somali religious farming community on the Jubba (Library of Congress, 1992). See the Baardheere jamaaca.
Xaaji Cali Majeerteen (1800s). Born in the Nugaal valley; studied in Mecca and Baghdad; preached against practices he held to be against sharia and started a school at Xalin. In 1847 he landed at Merca with about 150 armed followers (Haji Ali Majeerteen, Wikipedia).
Sheikh Abd al-Rahman al-Zayla'i (1820–1882). Born at Kodle in Bakool; spread the Qadiriyya in the interior from his centre at Qolonqol (Library of Congress, 1992). See Sheikh Abd al-Rahman al-Zayla'i.
Sheikh Sufi (Abd al-Rahman bin Abdullah al-Shashi, 1829–1904). Qadiri scholar, poet and mediator of Mogadishu, author of Shajarat al-Yaqin. His tomb is a yearly pilgrimage site (Shaykh Sufi, Wikipedia). The Library of Congress study names a Qadiri teacher of Mogadishu, Sheikh Abdirahman Abdullah, who "stressed deep mysticism", whose tomb became a pilgrimage centre for the Shabelle area and whose writings were still read in the 1990s (Library of Congress, 1992); the name matches Sheikh Sufi's. See Sheikh Sufi.
Sheikh Uways al-Barawi (1847–1909). From Barawa; studied in Baghdad; led the Uwaysiyya branch of the Qadiriyya and spread it across East Africa; founded Biyooley, where he is buried. His yearly celebration draws people from Somalia and Kenya (Horn Heritage; Library of Congress, Somalia: A Country Study, 1992). See Sheikh Uways al-Barawi.
Sheikh Cali Maye Durogba of Merca. A poet who joined the Ahmadiyya order on pilgrimage to Mecca and brought it to Somalia. Visions and miracles attributed to him gave him a name for holiness (Library of Congress, 1992). He came from the Al-Bakri family of the Duruqbo of Merca; a yearly festival outside his shrine in Merca ends on 5 Safar (Duruqbo, Wikipedia). Horn Heritage dates his bringing of the order to the early 1900s (Horn Heritage).
Sheikh Maxamed Guuleed (died 1918). The most active teacher of the Salihiyya in the south. He settled among the Shidle on the middle Shabelle and founded a jamaaca there, another among the Ajuran, and then a third among the Shidle before he died (Library of Congress, 1992; Salihiyya, Wikipedia, citing Trimingham, The Sufi Orders in Islam).
Sayyid Mohammed Abdullah Hassan (1856–1920). Salihiyya sheikh and poet who led the Dervish movement against British, Italian and Ethiopian rule from 1899 to 1920 (Mohammed Abdullah Hassan, Wikipedia). See Sayid Maxamed Cabdulle Xasan and the Dervish movement.
Sheikh Xasan Barsane (born 1853). Salihiyya scholar who led resistance in the Shabelle valley and died in an Italian prison (Sheikh Hassan Barsane, Wikipedia). See Sheikh Hassan Barsane.
More to read
- The Sufi orders in Somalia
- Saints, shrines and siyaaro
- Scott S. Reese, Renewers of the Age: Holy Men and Social Discourse in Colonial Benaadir (Brill, 2008).
Sources
- Ishaaq bin Ahmed, Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org
- Sheikh Hussein (saint), Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org
- Abadir Umar ar-Rida, Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org
- Yusuf bin Ahmad al-Kawneyn, Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org
- Horn Heritage, Islamic heritage: Sufism · hornheritage.org
- Al-Zayla'i, Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org
- Library of Congress, 1992 · countrystudies.us
- Haji Ali Majeerteen, Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org
- Shaykh Sufi, Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org
- Duruqbo, Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org
- Salihiyya, Wikipedia, citing Trimingham, The Sufi Orders in Islam · en.wikipedia.org
- Mohammed Abdullah Hassan, Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org
- Sheikh Hassan Barsane, Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org
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Where this matters
- Muqdisho (Mogadishu) and BanaadirMogadishu (Muqdisho) is Somalia's capital and makes up the Banadir region, with about 2.97 million people in 20 districts.
- Boorama (Borama) and AwdalAwdal is the far north-west region, on the borders with Djibouti and Ethiopia, with Borama (Boorama) as its capital and about 300,000 to 636,000 people.
- Hargeysa (Hargeisa) and Woqooyi GalbeedWoqooyi Galbeed is the north-western region that holds Hargeisa (Hargeysa) and the port of Berbera, with about 1 to 1.45 million people.
- Ceerigaabo (Erigavo) and SanaagSanaag is a region on the northern coast with Erigavo (Ceerigaabo) as its capital and about 446,000 people.
- Jowhar (Johar) and Middle ShabelleMiddle Shabelle is the farming region along the Shabelle river north of Mogadishu, with Jowhar as its capital and about 1 to 1.26 million people.
- Garbahaarrey (Garbaharey) and GedoGedo is the south-western region on the borders with Kenya and Ethiopia, with Garbahaarrey as its capital and about 1 million people.
Same era
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- Other UK cities: Cardiff, Manchester, Leicester, Sheffield and Liverpool (Somali diaspora)Somalis in Cardiff, Manchester, Leicester, Sheffield, Liverpool and Newport: Census 2021 counts, seamen's history, work, leaders and ties home.
- Laas Geel and Somali rock art: the first herders' paintings, about 5,000 years oldLaas Geel, Dhambalin, Karin Heegan and other Somali rock art sites: what the paintings show, how old they are, who found them, and the sources.
- Port of Mogadishu (Dekadda Muqdisho)Port of Mogadishu: from Sarapion to the 1930 Italian breakwater, banana exports, war damage, the 2014 Albayrak deal and revenue split, and who runs it now.
- The Land of Punt and the Somali coast: what the Egyptian records sayThe Land of Punt in Egyptian records from Sahure to Ramesses III, Hatshepsut's expedition, and the evidence on whether Punt lay on the Somali coast.
- The Somali ports in the Periplus, 1st century AD: Avalites, Malao, Mundus, Mosylon and OponeThe Somali coast in the 1st-century Periplus of the Erythraean Sea: each port, what it traded, where it was, and what archaeologists later found there.
Keep reading
- Islam in Somalia: faith, the Sufi orders and religion in lawIslam in Somalia: Sunni and Shafi'i, how Islam arrived, the Sufi orders (Qadiriyya, Ahmadiyya, Salihiyya), great scholars, and what the constitution says.
- Why almost every Somali is Muslim: what the record showsWhy Somalia is over 99% Muslim: early Islam, lineages, Qur'an schools, Sufi orders, wars with Abyssinia, missions kept out, and the law today, with sources.
- How Islam reached the Somalis: the coast, the traders and the teachersHow Islam came to Somalia: the first hijra tradition, Zeila and the coast, traders, teachers like Aw Barkhadle, Somali scholars at al-Azhar, and the Qadiriyya.
- The Sufi orders in Somalia: Qadiriyya, Ahmadiyya and SalihiyyaSomalia's Sufi orders: Qadiriyya, Ahmadiyya and Salihiyya, their founders and sheikhs, the jamaaco farming villages, the Uways and Sayyid rivalry, and today.
- Saints, shrines and siyaaro: tomb visits in Somali IslamSomali saints and shrines: baraka, siyaaro tomb visits, Aw Barkhadle, Sheikh Isaaq at Maydh, Sheikh Sufi, Uways at Biyooley, and the dispute over tombs, sourced.
- Qur'an schools (dugsi) and religious learning in SomaliaSomali Qur'an schools (dugsi, malcaamad): how they work, the loox board, fees, numbers (50,000 schools, 4 million children), higher religious study, reforms.