Xeer Ciise (Xeer Issa, the customary law of the Ciise)

What it is

Xeer Ciise is the customary law of the Ciise (Issa), a clan of the Dir. It is a form of xeer, the unwritten law Somali clans use to settle disputes. Somali Wikipedia calls it a social law that settles disputes among the Ciise and with their neighbours (Somali Wikipedia, Xeer Ciise, backup). It also calls it the xeer with the longest history in the Horn of Africa (same source). No outside source on this page tests that claim.

The Ciise live mainly in Djibouti, in the Somali Region of Ethiopia and around Dire Dawa, and in Awdal (Wikipedia, Issa clan, backup). See Somalis in Djibouti and Awdal.

How it was made

Wikipedia gives the story as told by Ciise elders (Wikipedia, Issa clan, backup):

• Several centuries ago, the forefathers of the Ciise moved inland from Zeila.
• Their elders met on Mount Sitti, in today's Aysha district, at a place called Las Harad.
• Forty-four elders held month-long meetings there. Each of the twelve Ciise sub-clans took turns feeding them.
• To sit as an elder, a man needed both parents alive and a son of his own.
• Over time the elders set down 362 unwritten laws, called heer.

Wikipedia says the Ciise faced civil strife, famine, raiding and broken trade before this. It calls the result a "traditional constitution" built on sharing power (same source).

The six kabood

Somali Wikipedia says the xeer rests on fixed parts: 6 kabood (pillars), 160 dhagalay, 336 sarood and 444 indhal (Somali Wikipedia, Xeer Ciise, backup). The six kabood are:

The details below each kabo are set out in the dhagalay, sarood and indhal (same source).

Women under the xeer

Somali Wikipedia says women gain property in two ways under the xeer, through dhaban and through inheritance (Somali Wikipedia, Xeer Ciise, backup). It lists thirteen classes of wrong done to women, each named in Somali. They separate, for example, a young girl, a married woman, a widow and an older woman (same source).

Wikipedia says the Ciise regard all people as equals "regardless of gender" in clan matters. It also says it is every male member of a lineage who may speak at the shir (Wikipedia, Issa clan, backup).

Land and wells

Somali Wikipedia divides land into sea and dry land, and says the xeer sets no rules for the sea. It divides dry land into farms, grazing and wells. It says the xeer agreed at Sitti did not cover farming. It adds that some Ciise made farming rules of their own about 70 years ago (Somali Wikipedia, Xeer Ciise, backup).

The ugaas and the courts

Wikipedia says a cloud once hung over the Wardiiq elders at a Sitti meeting. It says this was taken as a sign. Since then, it says, the Ciise ugaas has come from the Wardiiq line (Wikipedia, Issa clan, backup).

Somali Wikipedia gives the gandi as 44 men and a committee as 12 men in choosing the ugaas (Somali Wikipedia, Xeer Ciise, backup). The UK Home Office calls the role of senior clan leaders "mainly judicial and representative" (UK Home Office, CPIN Somalia: clans, 2019, quoting EASO 2014).

Where sources differ

• How many laws. Wikipedia, from Ciise elders, gives 362 heer. Somali Wikipedia gives a structure of 6 kabood, 160 dhagalay, 336 sarood and 444 indhal.
• When. Wikipedia says "several centuries ago". No source here gives a date for the Sitti meetings.
• Sources. Both Wikipedia pages rest on oral tradition and cite few written works. The main book-length study is Ali Moussa Iyé's Le Verdict de l'arbre (1990), in French.

Read more

• Ciise
• Xeer, Somali customary law
• Dir
• Somalis in Djibouti