Notes on the Ajuuraan and Hiraab dynasties
History, Succession, Competition and Legacies
The Ajuuraan - the medieval era
The Ajuuraan, founders of the first Somali Imamate, had ruled the most powerful medieval pan Somali kingdom in modern day Somalia, roughly between the years of 1200 to 1700 AD. The Portugese occupation of the Indian Ocean coupled with the collapse of the Kingdom of Adel in the North had precipitated a long awaited southern civil war that led to the emergence of a successor state, the Hiraab.
These notes will provide clarity on many grey areas of the two Imamates and how they were correctly addressed.
There is much speculation as to the political conditions of the country prior to the rise of the Ajuuraan. It is accepted in most traditions that the Ajuuraan did not come in a single wave of attacks. Infact, the very first families who had settled on the Benadir coast in the 9th century were said to be of Hawiye origin, in particular the stock of Ajuuraan and related clans.
From the 9th century to the end of the 12th century, the Benadir Coast had become a metropolitan of Somalis, Arabs, Persians, Indians and Bantus. It was ruled in this capacity under a republic, without a King, meaning to every clan their chief and each chief his own sovereign.
Just as the Roman Empire had begun its history as a republic, the glory years of the Ajuuraan Imamate were built on these existing city states which upon acquiring, they collected its tariffs, built extensive network routes to carry its trade and protected its major cities with high walled citadels and maximum security.
Contrary to current popular discourse that mention an invasion of just the inter riverine between the Juba and Shabelle, Ajuuraan traditions speak of a country-wide invasion.1
E la prima che si presenta, quella degli Abgal, vanta antica, e per questə genti, gloriosa origine. E di fatti fu quella che insorse contro la dominazione degli Agiuran, con la quale aveva la stirpe comune Huaia (uno dei grandi tronchi del ceppo somalo che popola l'Africa Orientale). Tanto gli Agiuran quanto gli Abgal erano perciò della stessa provenienza, e cioè della regione di Gibuti, donde gli Agiuran, or sono quasi cinque secoli, erano venuti alla conquista della Somalia occupando ed estendendo la loro erano dominazione su quasi tutto l'attuale territorio della Colonia.
And the first that presents itself, that of the Abgal, boasts an ancient, and for these people, glorious origin. And in fact it was the one that rose up against the domination of the Agiuran, with whom he had the common Huaia lineage (one of the great trunks of the Somali stock that populates East Africa). Both the Agiuran and the Abgal were therefore of the same origin, namely the region of Djibouti, from which the Agiuran, almost five centuries ago, had come to conquer Somalia, occupying and extending their domination over almost all of the present territory of the Colony.
In the same source above, the Ajuuraans are credited with a number of major feats, including wells, forts, commerce and religious expansion.
Vestiges of this Agiuran domination can be seen in every point of Southern Somalia and denote a civilisation no longer reached by these people. And in fact in Munghìa and El Torre, between Merca and Brava, and in Dafet, and in many other points of the coast and inland, i often stopped with wonder in front of the ruins of defended cities, forts, tombs, which of large and powerful masonry works with vaulted arches, windows and doors in a worklike manner, they reveal in the execution, in the means used and in the criterion that had superseded those constructions, a knowledge and a power that could not fail to be the result of advanced civilisation. Now against the Agiuran, or insurgents, or who came up from the distant interior, the Abgal took up arms in later times, electing their first Iman, Mahamed Omar, in Golol, and it is curious that they still keep the saber sword of the Iman of the Agiuran and they triumphantly carry it around on great religious feasts.
In a British paper in 1948, we find several references of Ajuuraan control of the interior, particularly the 7 wells of the eastern Ogaden (including Warder, Walwal, Gerlogubi) and the Nogal (Nugaal).
The Ajuuraan were said to be the first to place Mogadishu as the pre-eminent capital of the Somalis and this can be seen in the numerous descriptions of the city throughout history, which experienced a peak in the 16th century prior to the arrival of the Portugese.
As mentioned earlier, several geopolitical events led to the destruction of the Ajuuraan and the emergence of its successor, the Hiraab.2
Mi sono fatto raccontare da Hairi Omar Muddri Agiuran. uno Scech allora ottantenne piuttosto colto e intelligente, la leggenda della guerra tra Agiuran e Hirab com'è pervenuta nei racconti delle varie generazioni. Tutta la penisola somala fino a Mombasa si trovava un tempo sotto il dominio degli Agiuran. Potentissima cabila del clano Hawia seconda genitura di Samali
I let Hairi Omar Muddri Agiuran tell me about it. A rather cultured and intelligent Scech in his eighties, the legend of the war between Agiuran and Hirab as it has come down in the stories of the various generations. The entire Somali peninsula up to Mombasa was once under the rule of the Agiuran. Powerful kabyle of the Hawia clan second generation of Samali.
The Hiraab - medieval era
The Hiraab is primarily composed of four major subclans, but acted as a political unit that replaced the Ajuuraan as leaders of the Hawiye clan dynasty, hence the title of Imam which belongs to a subclan of Abgaal (Hiraab) today.
The origin of the Hiraab in oral tradition testifies a long held theory that Somalis had settled in their current patterns for many centuries. Originally 15 subclans, they were the 10th sons of Faadumo Karanle and Maxamuud (Dhaame) Gorgaarte.
Vivevano un questa regione di Hirab, figli di Hirab e dei suoi figli Mudulle, Martille, Mahamud, Madarkeis e i Hauadle loro parenti e i Murosada e i Galmah e altri; nella regione che oggi chiamano Itala. Stavano contenti, con vacche, cammelli, capretti e qualche sciamba. Come un padre, l'Imam governava i Hirab. Girava per le loro e i loro figli e i figli dei figli, con la sua parola scendeva la benedizione di Dio.
They lived in this region of Hirab, sons of Hirab and his sons Mudulle, Martille, Mahamud, Madarkeis and the Hauadle their relatives and the Murosada and Galmah and others; in this region that today they call Itala. They were happy, with cows, camels, kids and some swarms. Like a father, the Imam ruled over the Hirabs. He walked around his lands and, when he wished peace for them and their children and children's children, God's blessing came with his word.
Several hagiographies are said to exist of early Hiraab figures prior to the Imamate who led religious livelihoods. These include the ancestors of the Abdala Saad and Sheikhal Loboge in Mogadishu and Warsheikh respectively.
After the immediate takeover of the new Imamate, Imam Mahamed set about consolidating his possessions.3
Gli indigeni fanno risalire la occupazione di Mogadiscio da parte degli Irab all'anno 1507, e da quell'epoca gli Jacùb rivendicano il Sultano di Mogadiscio. Mahamud Omar conquistò successivamente il territorio dei Dafet e dei Rahanuin, bruciando paesi ed assoggettando popolazioni.
The natives trace the occupation of Mogadishu by the Irabs back to the year 15074, and since that time the Jacùbs have claimed the Sultan of Mogadishu. Mahamud Omar subsequently conquered the territory of the Dafet and the Rahanuin, burning countries and subduing populations.
After surviving numerous attles and blockades from the Portugese followed by naval encounters with the French and British in 1701-1706, the Hiraab made several incursions into the areas going into Ethiopia and Kenya. According to Garre tradition in the Mandera district of Kenya;
According to tradition, the Mandera District was originally inhabited by a non Somali group. They extended beyond Wajir and dug the wells there. They also dug wells at Wegudud, Eil Illi, Hogerali, Goochi, and other places in this district. The numerous graves along the Dawa River were also theirs, and their last stronghold was Hambali, near Garba Harre, where the stone walls of their town was found. However, they were weakened by pandemics and drought. Soon they were attacked by 6 tribes consists of the Hirap, Jido, Eroli, Dubbare, Madde Ade and Ajuran. The enemy was soon finished off and the Sultan of the Hirap ruled the land for an unknown amount of time until the arrival of a Sherif Nur who came with the Borana and fought the clans to return east.
Similarly the Galla (Oromo) of Ethiopia had been pushing their frontiers as far as the Ethiopian borders of southen Somalia. The Imam’s fighters from the Galmaax subclan had gone off to fight them, fought valiantly and honoured in history.5
Lo trovarono gli Abgal a mezzo del giorno quando vennero e vedere, e lo portarono all'Imam. Uariele il vincitore dei Galla. Uariele il trionfante. E l'Imam invocó su du lui e tutti i suoi figli le benedizione di Allah e fece giuramento che mai, per tutti le generazioni future, alcuna frusta avrebbe toccato un Galmah. Cosi è rimasto.
The Abgal found him in the middle of the day when they came and see, and brought him to the Imam. Uariele the winner of the Galla. Uariele the triumphant. And the Imam invoked upon him and all his children the blessings of Allah and swore that never, for all future generations, no whip would touch a Galmah. So it remained.
The Hiraab - premodern/modern era
After almost three centuries of relative peaceful rule, the Hiraab imamate would once again fight an existential threat to its existence. Following a tough inter factional war in the 19th century that divided the Imamate, from Cape Bassas (Mudug) to the equator at Giumbo (Goobweyn), even as late as 1840 the leadership had fought for decades to maintain its international presence in the face of growing European exploration and imperialism.
Ethiopia
After Menelik II became Emperor his General Ras Makonnen had conquered Harar in 1887 with the support of the British and French. Over a few years they had run down the Shabelle river and made inroads into the realms of the Hiraab. With the assistance of other Hawiye chiefs, the Hiraab were able to repel the Ethiopians back across the frontier where they continued to stay a thorn over the next thirty years.
A poet from Afgooye who witnessed the atrocities recites this poem in deep grief and sorrow, where the war was now twofold, involving both the Europeans and the Ethiopians.6
When i was still a young man into the world i loved, The Ahmara came they came from Jigjiga and the confines of Awdal crossing the Ogadeen, they killed many from the Karanle they used guns against the people of Imaan Cumar they killed many from the Jidle and Jajeele Then they arrived at Jiiciyow and at the banks of the Webi
When they reached Jibbirrow they were attacked; the Muslims confronted them and fighting began in the country near Yaaqle the Mobilayn stood firm and fought with them the Magic of Gobroon defeated them But when the Amhara left the Infidels appeared coming from every corner of the world.......
Zanzibar
Between the end of Portugese expansion and the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, the Turkish rulers of Egypt made inroads in taking over the Red Sea while the Arabs at Zanzibar proclaimed possession of the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean. After an initial naval attack in 1828 at Mogadishu after refusals of British protection as at Berbera also, the Arab rulers of Zanzibar grew more support in economic partnership with Indian, European and American entreprenuers7 particularly British support as did the Turks. By 1842 a serious conflict within Mogadishu’s two city quarters petitioned the ruler in Zanzibar to mediate.
As late as 1870 the influence of Zanzibar was still long held questionable by European powers who noted chiefs of many regions acted independently, a combined company of Germans, Italians, French and British consuls had now succeeded in making inroads to override the Turks and Arabs.
Geledi
Much discourse is yet to be discussed regarding the origin of the Geledi Sultanate. After the Ajuuraan state collapsed, the region of Afgooye came under the rule of Silcis. Known as despotic rulers, their sultanate was particularly hated and overthrown callously. It is said the family of the Gobroon, an ex faction of the Ajuuraan state, arrived from the northern Shabelle and with the help of the Wacdaan clan, they succeeded in taking charge of the inter riverine area and named the town Geledi after whose majority population speak the Maay dialect. Similarly the ruling family of the sultanate of Luuq - the Gasaar Gudde, a family in close relation and partnership with the Goobroon, were also said to be of Hawiye extraction according to Italian experts.
With the centuries gradual infiltration of the Hiraab clans in Mogadishu, Brava and Merca, the coast engaged in trade with Arabia, India, Lamu and Zanzibar, exporting cattle, slaves, ivory and ambergris.8 The Geledi had acquired over time a levy on the commercial products from Luuq and traded with the Hiraab to the extent of intermarrying with some members of the Imamate.
By 1870 the Imamate had long lost its grasp on the greater southern Benadir political landscape where the cities of Brava, Afgoye and Merca and its major clans of the Tunni, Geledi and Bimal had succumbed to the efforts of the Arab rulers at Zanzibar.
Hobyo
In the northeast, a British coup took place near the borders of the northern Benadir, since Britain had a colony in Yemen (Aden) since 1839, they needed to get a foothold on Somali Coast to protect their trade. A civil war of unrest in the Northeast led to Britain chartering Yusuf Ali of Alula to setup a base in Hobyo as the British wanted to ignore their puppets the Zanzibari and also their other puppets the Egyptian’s nominal claims over the territories and instead make Britain rule indirectly through the Somalis themselves, especially as a deterrent from the Italians and Germans. Travelling between Alula and Hobyo for trade for several years as a political fugitive from Boqor Osman, in 1884 after the Berlin Conference he went to Aden to push for colonial support in governing Alula to Hobyo on colonial behalf and was asked to go to the British Consul in Zanzibar to formalise this, there he didn’t like the terms offered by Britain and Zanzibar, deciding to try his luck with the Germans whose Consul in Zanzibar was a few offices away, he entered a protectionate treaty with the Germans, but the Germans since the Berlin Conference were restrained and bounded to remain at Dar Es Salam in Tanzania in exchange for islands elsewhere while the Italians were offered the crumbs of the last cake. With Egypt giving Britain Harar and British Somaliland while Zanzibar gave Kismayo and Jubaland to Britain, the British had no need for Migiurtinia, even refusing an offer to swap the region with the Italians im exchange for Zeila.
The new sultan of Hobyo declared himself chief of all Somalis at the behest of the German Consul but was not recognised by Somalis. He would initially spend some time getting recognition from any foreign power such as the Zanzibar, Britain, Turkey with the Germans and finally the Italians to advance his sultanate.
After an initial encounter at Hobyo which kept him at bay and subsequently blockaded from trade with the Benadir9 for more than five years, the Imamate returned to Mogadishu politics while the Habar Gidir section of the Hiraab continued to challenge the new events;
Gli Habir Gidir (cioè: figli di gazella) sono una tribù degli Hawiya. Hanno le loro sedi a cavaliere del confine tra il Sultanato di Obbia ed il Benadir settentrionale. In questa zona, molton adatta alla guerriglia, si nara che gli Haber Ghedir opponessero forte resistenza agli armati del Sultano, quando questi sbarcato a Obbia, volle impadronirsi del paese.
The Habir Gidir (i.e., children of gazelle) are a Hawiya tribe. They have their seats as a cavalry on the border between the Sultanate of Obbia and northern Benadir. In this area, very suitable for guerrilla warfare, it is said that the Haber Ghedir opposed with strong resistance to the Sultan's armies, when he landed in Obbia, having wanted to take over the country.
With increasing Italian intervention who compelled all sides to retreat, the Italians set up a residency in Hobyo, Ceelbuur, Mahadaay and elsewhere where local clan conflicts were resolved. Part of resolving or reducing clan conflict was the many draw ups of borders and well consignments.
I grandi gruppi ritenuti puri e quindi costituenti la gente somala propriamente detta, sono i Daròd e gli Hauia. Gli Hauia popolano le parte centrale della Colonia a confine con i Darod dell'ex sultanato di Obbia e a cavallo dell'alto e medio Scebeli. Come hanno fama i Somali di Migiurtina e il Sultanato di Obbia di orgoglio, di belligeranza, di violenza, di fama, è generalmente contraddetto dai fatti. Rare sono le guerre di una tribù, o di un dato numero di Rer, contro altri e queste guerre si riassumono in un lungo scambio di ambasciate ingiuste riose, in razzie e mutui rubamenti di bestiame, in roulotte o sequestri. Tra le popolazioni che , per la loro normale dislocazione verso i limiti interni del retroterra del Benadir e dei Sultanati , erano da considerarsi « genti di confine » , andavano annoverate , oltre quelle già dette : - le tribù degli Hauia, insediate nella zona a cavallo.
The large groups considered pure and therefore constituting the Somali people proper, are the Daròd and the Hauia. The Hauia populate the central part of the colony bordering the Darod of the former sultanate of Obbia and straddling the upper and middle Scebeli. As Somalis of Migiurtina and the Sultanate of Obbia have a fame of pride, of belligerence, violence, it is generally contradicted by the facts. Rare are the wars of a tribe, or a given number of Rer, against others and these wars are summarized in a lengthy exchange of embassies of unjust rack, in raids and theft of cattle, in caravans or seizures. Among the populations that, due to their normal location towards the boundaries of the hinterland of Benadir and the Sultanates, were to be considered "border peoples", in addition to those already mentioned: - the Hauia tribes, settled in the area on Horseback.
In the dervish war, especially in the first four expeditions of 1901-1905, the Mad Mullah had faced British reprisals, forcing him into the sphere of northern Italian Somaliland. The Sultans of northeastern protectorates were nominally opposed to him, at the behest of Italy and Britain. They often claimed defeats and passed on false or unfounded information to the Colonialists about the loyalty of the clans and even enemy clans like Hiraab, in order to justify receiving money, support and amunition under the cover of fighting the dervishes. Italy and Britain quickly caught on after the Sultans struggled to procure enough camels for the war, subsequently arresting and exiling the Sultans.
https://www.nytimes.com/1903/02/05/archives/sultan-of-obbia-a-prisoner-one-of-the-mad-mullahs-chief-agents-said.html
Count Lovatelli, Governor of the Benadir had bought some camels from the Hawiye tribe in order to continue the campaign.
In conclusion, after Filonardi signed the first agreement with many southern clans and established the Benadir Company, subsequent governors through to Governor Emilio Dulio (1898-1905) worked hard to ignite a temporary peace in these conflict prone regions to salvage enough manpower in facing the growing threat of the dervishes in Northern Somaliland. It was not until 1925-1927 that the Italians supported the forces of Chiefs Warsame Botan of the Saad Rer Jalaf and Guled Farah Jêh of the Saad Rer Nehmala who dethroned the two Pro Ethiopian Sultans of Migiurtinia and expelled its leaders to Mogadishu while others including Hirsi Boqor and Omar Samatar escaped to Ethiopia to regroup, culminating in a complete invasion of Ethiopia itself ten years later in 1936.
The Dervishes
The Mad Mullah, once a student in Mogadishu, had declared a Holy War on the Europeans in northern Somalia and sent a lettter accordingly to major clan chiefs, urging them to join the war. Though never at direct odds, the Mad Mullah oscillated between procuring weapons from the Hiraab and fighting proxy wars against them. The Hiraab Imams at various points throughout earlier history had supported many past freedom fighters in their wars against the Ethiopians and European powers however in 1904, when the British forced arrived at Obbia, they contacted the Chief Italian officer in Benadir, Count Lovatelli, to permit a reconnaisance to El Hur and Harardera in order to procure camels for the fight against the Mullah who was found cooperating with the Sultans of the Northeast for information and weapons, thus threatening the precious peace of the Southern Somalia territories.
Complications were materialised when the dervishes and their allies sought Ethiopian support, to the extent that the dervishes led by the Mad Mullah’s brother Khalifa Sheikh Abdille captured an important town at the time on the Ethiopian frontier, Bulo Macanne, a village originally settled by the freed slaves of the Hiraab ally Baadicadde, the freedmen known as the Makanne tribe lived in what is now called Beledweyne before the final British tribal levy attack in 1920 that forced the dervishes into Ethiopia for good and the death of the Mad Mullah at the hands of Karanle tribesmen in Imi, Ethiopia.
The Italian delegation demonstrated in addition that the Macanne, in their capacity as freed slaves of the Badi Addo, had for centuries lived in the Belet Uen Sul Sul Ier zone and that it was only between 1913 and 1920 that many of them were evicted by the dervishes of the Mullah. We began, in 1920, by bringing back to Belet Uen the Macannes who had been expelled from them in June 1913.
Italian Somaliland
After the early death of the first Italian Consul at Zanzibar, Antonio Cecchi, at the hands of Hiraab subclan warriors, the naval bombings against Warsheikh, Itala and Nimow south of Mogadishu, the Italian Benadir Company refrained from administrative tasks. Focusing instead, on divide and conquer. To outflank the Hiraab imamate, Filornardi had signed agreements with various subclans, who had their own interests to protect according to themselves.
After the Fascists pacified the country by 1930 and signed a deal with Olol Dinle to bring the upper Shabelle basin under Italian Control, the paradigm shifted to Ethiopia, who was now public enemy number 1 and saw the clans as fiefdoms that conspired against them, particularly “Eritrea” and the “Benadir” as Selassie once said in a speech in the 1950s.
Current
The Hiraab Imam enjoys a traditional role in its current capacity, often requiring to intervene major clan conflicts such as the Civil War in 1991. The current Imam is Imam Dahir Imam Mahamud.
La Somalia italiana nei tre anni del mio governo. 1912. p. 11
Somalia d'oggi Volumes 1–2. 1956. p. 35
Caniglia, Giuseppe (1935). Genti di Somalia. p. 66
Somalia d'oggi. 1956. p. 25
Cassanelli, Lee (1982). The Shaping of Somali Society Reconstructing the History of a Pastoral People, 1600-1900. Guerini e associati. p. 200. ISBN 9781512806663.