Jump to content

Garhajis: Difference between revisions

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Browse history interactively
← Previous editNext edit →
Content deleted Content added
VisualWikitext
No edit summary
Line 7: Line 7:
|langs=[[Somali language|Somali]], [[Arabic language|Arabic]]
|langs=[[Somali language|Somali]], [[Arabic language|Arabic]]
|rels=[[Islam]] ([[Sunni Islam|Sunni]], [[Sufism]])
|rels=[[Islam]] ([[Sunni Islam|Sunni]], [[Sufism]])
|related-c = [[Arap]], [[Habar Awal]], [[Ayub]], [[Habar Jeclo]], and other [[Isaaq]] groups <!-- CONFIRMED RELATIONS!!! -->
|related-c = [[Arap]],[[Ayub]],[[Sacad Muuse]],[[Habar Jeclo]],[[Isse Musse]], and other [[Isaaq]] groups <!-- CONFIRMED RELATIONS!!! -->
|
|
}}
}}

Revision as of 19:17, 22 March 2018

Garhajis
غرحجس
Regions with significant populations
Languages
Somali, Arabic
Religion
Islam (Sunni, Sufism)
Related ethnic groups
Arap,Ayub,Sacad Muuse,Habar Jeclo,Isse Musse, and other Isaaq groups

The Garhajis (Somali: Garxajis, Arabic: غرحجس, Ismail (Garhajis) Shiekh Isaaq ibn Ahmad al-Hashimi) is an aristocratic Somali clan and the largest sub-clan of the Isaaq.[1] Its members form a part of the Habar Magaadle confederation. They are the traditional holders of the Isaaq Sultanate. The Garhajis are divided into two major sub-clans, the Habar Yoonis and Eidagalla.[2][3] They are traditionally nomadic pastoralists and are renowned for their military prowess and skills in poetry.

Distribution

The Garhajis inhabit the western Togdheer, eastern Woqooyi Galbeed, northern Sool and central Sanaag regions of Somaliland. They also inhabit the Degehbur, Wardheer and Aware zones in the Haud region of Ethiopia.[4]

History

Sheikh Isaaq Bin Ahmed was one of the Arabian scholars that crossed the sea from Arabia to the Horn of Africa to spread Islam around 12th to 13th century. He is said to have been descended from Prophet Mohammed's daughter Fatimah. Hence the Sheikh belonged to the Ashraf or Sada, titles given to the descendants of the prophet. He married two local women in Somalia that left him eight sons, one of them being Ismail (Garhajis). The descendants of those eight sons are the what is known as Isaaq clan today.

Medieval period (Conquest of Abyssinia)

Historically the Garhajis took part in the conquest of Abyssinia and were part of the Adal Sultanate and are mentioned in the book Futuh Al-Habash (Conquest of Abyssinia) as the Habar Magaadle along with the Habar Awal, Arap and Ayub clans. [5]

Shermaarke Ali, governor of Berbera, Zeila and Tajoura (1833-1861)

The Habar yoonis exercised real power over Zeila and its adjacent regions and had established themselves as a coastal power with Shermarke Ali Saleh of the Musa Arreh sub-clan solidifying and consolidating his power in governing Zeila, Berbera and Tadjoura and controlling the trade that went through the area with the help of Canons and an army of Garxajis Musketeers. The Habar Yoonis also raided Bulahar coast and exacted tribute from the locals[6][7][8][9][10][11]

1870s -1940s (Rayyad Wars)

During this period the Garhajis were fighting an expansionist war against the Daarood clans and gained much new territory in the Haud region. These battles are today known as the Rayyad or Guba Wars. It was a volatile era that gave birth to some of the best known Somali poetry.

In 1877 the Garhajis under the leadership of Sultan Hersi Aman conquered Daroor and subjugated the Haroun sub-clan of the Ogaden, during the battle they captured and subsequently executed their Sultan.[12] The Habar Yoonis then proceeded to expand into Doolo region and took control of watering wells, grazing land and looted thousands of camels from the Cabdille, Makahil, Ali and Haroun sub clans of the Ogaden, forcing them to leave their homeland and flee south to Hiiraan. This particular series of conquests was what initiated the famous chains of poems known as Guba in which Ali Dhuh a Daarood poet laments and berates the Ogadenis for losing so much land and exchanges heated poems with the Ogaden and Habar Yoonis.[13]

Historian Siegbert Uhlig commenting on the Guba poem writes the following-

From a historical point of view Ali dhuhs poem explicitly details the large gains in traditionally Ogaden territory and wells, and the looting of Ogaden camels by the Isaq. He details the scatterring of the Ogaden clan, their forced migration southwards seeking refuge in the feverish river valleys, and even turning to hunting and farming- measures that were again considered very shameful usually only undertaken by slaves and low-caste Somalis and utterly demeaning for the once great pastoral Ogaden clan. The Ogaden, Ali recounts, have been forced to accept refuge with the clans that defeated them, especially the Habr Yunis, and cannot take revenge. The Isaq are portrayed as particularly callous and shameful in the way they parade looted Ogaden camels in front of their previous owners. Even in translation it is a very evocative poem .[13]

Dervish period

The Garhajis clan played a prominent role in the inception of the Dervish movement and it's subsequent struggle against the British Empire. Among the prominent members of the Dervish was the Sultan of the Habar Yoonis, Nur Ahmed Aman.

The incident that sparked the Dervish rebellion and the 21 years disturbance according to the consul-general James Hayes Sadler was either spread or as he alleged was concocted by Sultan Nur of the Habr Yunis. The incident in question was that of a group of Somali children that were converted to Christianity and adopted by the French Catholic Mission at Berbera in 1899. Whether Sultan Nur experienced the incident first hand or whether he was told of it is not clear but what is known is that he propagated the incident in the Tariqa at Kob Fardod in June 1899 precipitating the religious rebellion that later morphed into the Somali Dervish.[14]

The Christian Somali children incident is erroneously attributed to Mohammed Abdullah Hassan due to clan based disinformation spread by the Kacaan regime of Siad Barre, when it was infact Sultan Nur who used the incident to rally Somalis into fighting off the Christian influence of the colonialists.

Though some sections of the Garhajis supported the Dervish movement at the time of its inception, like many other Dervish allied clans they became disillusioned with the movement towards the end. After the Bombing campaign of the Taleh fort and the Dervish retreat into Ethiopia, Tribal Chief Haji Mohammad Bullaleh (Haji the Hyena) who hailed from the Segulleh Ainanshe clan of the Habar Yoonis, commanded a 3000 strong army that consisted of Habar Yoonis, Habar Jeclo and Dhulbahante warriors and pursued the fleeing Dervishes. They attacked Muhammad Abdallah Hassan and his army in the Ogaden region and swiftly defeated them,causing Muhammad to flee to the town of Imi. Haji and his army looted 60,000 livestock and 700 rifles from the dervishes, which dealt a severe blow to them economically, a blow from which they did not recover. [15] The Garhajis, especially the Habar Yoonis, had a hand in the birth and the eventual demise of the Dervish state.

Somali civil war and the Somali National Movement

The Somali National Movement (SNM) was a 1980s–1990s rebel group. The SNM was organized in London, England, on April 6, 1981 by Hasan Adan Wadadid a Habar Yoonis clan member and a former Somali diplomat and he stated that the group's purpose was to overthrow the Siaad Barre regime.[16] The SNM gathered its main base of support from members of the Isaaq clan, who formed and supported the movement in response to years of systematic discrimination by the Siaad Barre government.

Members of the Garhajis clan made up a significant portion of the leadership and soldiers of the SNM. Garhajis Commanders carried out many successful operations that led to the decisive victory of the group and to the downfall of the Siad Barre regime.

Such operations included the Birjeex raid led by Colonel Ibrahim Kodbur ( Eidagale) and Operation Mandheera led by Mohamed Hashi Diriye lixle (Habar Yoonis) where they successfully freed hundreds of Isaaq political prisoners whose executions were imminent.[17].

Under the leadership of Abdirahman Ahmed Ali Tuur (Habar Yoonis) the SNM carried out a successful invasion of Northern Somalia overthrowing the Communist regime and establishing the democratic state of Somaliland. Abdirahman was sworn in as Somaliland's first president.

Abdirahman Ahmed Ali Tuur First President of Somaliland

List of Garhajis SNM leaders.[18]

  • Abdirahman Tuur
  • Mohamed Hashi Lihle
  • Ibarhim Koodbur
  • Mohamed Ali
  • Haragwaafi
  • Madah-diin
  • Wiyilfurato
  • Omar Aseyr
  • Abdulkadir Koosaar
  • Elmi Galan
  • Ahmed Mire
  • Dhancade
  • General Hassan Kayd

Sultanate of the Habar Yoonis

Nur Ahmed Aman
Sultan
Sultan Nur seated in the middle 1896
PredecessorHersi Aman
BornAden (Yemen)
Died1907/1908
Taleh, Somaliland
ReligionSufi Islam

The Habar Yoonis Sultanate is traditionally held by the Sugulleh Ainanshe sub clan.[19]

Diiriye Sugulleh Ainanshe was the first Sultan of the Habar Yoonis. Of his descendants were Sultan Nur a founding member of the Dervish movement and King Xirsi Amaan the warrior Sultan who ruthlessly waged war on the Ogaden and expanded Habar Yoonis territory in Haud.

Sultan Nur was the great grand son of the first Habr Yunis Sultan Deria Segulleh circa (1780–1859). He spent much of his early life before his sultanate as a religious Sufi pupil in Hahi and Berato Ahmadiya tariqa under its head mullah Mohomed Arab.[20] According to the wife of sultan Nur an Aden (Yemen) born Somali, Nur couldn't not read or write but he could converse in Arabic.[21]

Nur became a sultan after the death of his uncle Sultan Hersi Aman (1825–1879)[22] in an intertribal fight. Sultan Hersi the chief of the Habr Yunis clan since the mid 1850s was killed in an inter civil war with the sage Haji Guled around 1879 his uncle.

[1]

The ascent of Nur to the sultanate caused a decade long civil war when his relative ( great uncle) Awad sultan Deria declared himself a rival sultan in 1881.[23] Drake Brockman a medical doctor in Somaliland protectorate and the author of British Somaliland narrated the long conflict caused by Nur's ascent to the sultanate in his book[24]

Drake Brockman summarizing Nur's story as the following in 1911"

Deriyeh, the head of the Rer Segulleh, was universally proclaimed Sultan by the rest of the Habr Yunis tribe, and was really the first of the Habr Yunis Sultans, although his father, Segulleh, had tried to pose as such. Sultan Deriyeh lived to a great age, and had no less than eighteen sons, of whom the first two were borne to him by a woman of the Makahil section of the Habr Awal tribe, and the elder of these, Aman by name, joining with his brother, formed the Ba Maka-hil, while his remaining sixteen stepbrothers formed the Baha Deriyeh.

Aman had ten sons, the eldest of whom was Ahmed, who died before his father, who himself died before his old father, the aged Sultan Deriyeh. Now, as soon as Sultan Deriyeh died there was trouble as to his successor. The Ba Makahil claimed that Ismail and Hirsi, of their section, were entitled to the honour ; but the Rer Segulleh and some of the Baha Deriyeh, said, " No, as several of the late Sultan's sons are still living, one of them should be their Sultan before any of the grandsons"; so they invited Awid Deriyeh to be their representative. In the meantime, Ismail was killed fighting with the Ogaden and Hirsi by the Baha Segulleh

Clan tree

A summarized clan tree of the Habar Yoonis is presented below. [25]

  • Ali Said
  • Arreh Said
    • Ishak Arreh
      • Abdillahi Ishak
      • Kassim Ishak
    • Musa Arreh
      • Hassan Musa
    • Ismail Arreh
      • Sa'ad Yunis
      • Musa Ismail
      • Abdallah Ismail
        • Idris (idrays)
        • Musa Abdallah
        • Omar Abdallah

The Omar Abdallah are the royal sub-clan of the Habar Yoonis. The hereditary Sultanate is currently held by them. [26]

A summarized sub-clan tree of the Omar Abdallah is presented below. [27]

  • Omar Abdallah
    • Adan Omar
      • Hersi Osman
        • Said Hersi
          • Rer Warsama (Waraba)
          • Rer Weid
        • Abdi Hersi
        • Ainanshe Hersi
          • Rer Ainanshe
          • Rer Sugulleh

The Eidagalla sub-clan are divided into the follwing sections [28]

  • Abukar Musa
  • Rer Yunis Abdurahman
  • Ba delo
  • Gashanbur
  • Damal Yera
  • Rer Esa

Y-DNA

Genetic analysis carried out on males of the Garhajis clan has shown that they belong to the T1a1a2b2 sub-clade of Haplogroup T-M184 which has its origins in the Middle east. Their most closest paternal relatives are members of the Isaaq clan, Dir clan and outside of Africa the Al Faraj (Bani Malik) tribe of Kuwait.[29][30]

Notable People

  • Abdullahi Qarshe, Somali musician, poet and playwright; known as the "Father of Somali music"

References

  1. ^ "I.M Lewis, A pastoral democracy, p. 10".
  2. ^ "Ethnographic Survey of Africa , p.24".
  3. ^ "I.M Lewis, Blood and Bone, p. 108".
  4. ^ "Violent deeds live on: landmines in Somalia and Somaliland, p. 63". {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help) |
  5. ^ "مخطوطات > بهجة الزمان > الصفحة رقم 16". makhtota.ksu.edu.sa. Retrieved 2017-08-24.
  6. ^ Churchill and the Mad Mullah of Somaliland: Betrayal and Redemption 1899-1921 p. 149-150.
  7. ^ The Visit of Frederick Forbes to the Somali Coast in 1833 R Bridges. Int J Afr Hist Stud 19 (4), 679-691. 1986.
  8. ^ Travels In Southern Abyssinia Through The Country Of Adal To The Kingdom Of Shoa. by Charles Johnston, Volume 1. 1844
  9. ^ First footsteps in East Africa : or, An exploration of Harar by Burton, Richard Francis, Sir, 1821-1890; Burton, Isabel, Lady, Published 1894
  10. ^ Marston, Thomas E. Britain's Imperial Role In the Red Sea Area, 1800-1878. Hamden: Conn., Shoe String Press, 1961.
  11. ^ "American University foreign studies, 1993, Somalia a country study, p. 10".
  12. ^ The unknown horn of Africa by James, F. L. (Frank Linsly) 1851-1890; Thrupp, James Godfrey. p. 264.
  13. ^ a b Proceedings of the XVth International Conference of Ethiopian Studies Hamburg (2003), p. 215.
  14. ^ F.O.78/5031,Sayyid Mohamad To The Aidagalla, Enclosed Sadler To Salisbury. 69, 20 August 1899.
  15. ^ "Churchill and the Mad Mullah of Somaliland, p. 209".
  16. ^ Helen Chapin Metz, Somalia: a country study, Volume 550, Issues 86-993, (The Division: 1993), p.xxviii.
  17. ^ MGoth (13 January 2018). "The Rebirth of Somaliland;Operation Birjeex (SNM Rescue Unit)-Part 7".
  18. ^ https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=0x3rAgAACAAJ&dq=list+of+garhajis+leaders+snm+leaders&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjdxtullPbZAhWlAcAKHQHgAVAQ6AEIQjAE
  19. ^ "A grammar of the Somali language, p. 141".
  20. ^ Somalia e Benadir.p.426-427
  21. ^ Under the flag : and Somali coast stories by Walsh, Langton Prendergast. P.257-258
  22. ^ G. A. Haggenmacher's Reise Im Somali-lande, 1874: Mit Einer Originalkarte By Gustav Adolf Haggenmacher. Pp.10-12
  23. ^ The Unknown Horn of Africa By Frank Linsly James pp.55-56
  24. ^ British Somaliland By Drake Brockman.1912.
  25. ^ "A grammer of the Somali Language , p.140".
  26. ^ "A grammer of the Somali Language , p.141".
  27. ^ "A grammer of the Somali Language , p.141".
  28. ^ "A grammer of the Somali Language , p.140".
  29. ^ "Family Tree DNA - Somali DNA project". www.familytreedna.com.
  30. ^ "Family Tree DNA - The Y-DNA Haplogroup T (former K2) Project". www.familytreedna.com.
Part of a series on
Somali clans
Darod
Isaaq
Dir
Hawiye
Rahanweyn
Benadiri
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Garhajis&oldid=831904314"