Maxamed Cabdulle Xasan, Sayyid

Maxamed Cabdulle Xasan, Sayyid

▪ Somalian leader
also spelled  Mohammed Abdullah Hassan 
born April 7, 1864, Dulbahante area, British Somaliland [now Doli Bahanta, Somalia]
died Dec. 21, 1920, Imi, Ethiopia

      Somali religious and nationalist leader (called the “Mad Mullah” by the British) who for 20 years led armed resistance to the British, Italian, and Ethiopian colonial forces in Somaliland. Because of his active resistance to the British and his vision of a Somalia united in a Muslim brotherhood transcending clan divisions, Sayyid Maxamed is seen as a forerunner of modern Somali nationalism. He also is revered for his skill as an oral poet.

      Maxamed's father belonged to a clan from the Ogaden region of Ethiopia, but he was raised among his mother's Dulbahante clan. At a young age he showed great learning in the Qurʾān, and, during a pilgrimage to Mecca in 1894, he joined the Ṣaliḥīyah, a militant, reformist, and puritanical Ṣūfī order. Soon after his return to Somaliland, he began urging the expulsion of the English “infidels” and their missionaries and a strict observance by all Somalis of the Islamic faith. Through his stirring oratory and didactic verse (some of his poems are considered classics in Somalia), Maxamed attracted a fanatical group of followers who became known as dervishes. In 1899 he declared a holy war (jihad) on the colonial powers and their Somali collaborators. Between 1900 and 1904, four major British, Ethiopian, and Italian expeditions were made against Maxamed. By 1905 he was forced to conclude a truce, under which he and his followers constructed a small theocratic state in the Italian protectorate. In 1908 he began his holy war again, winning a major victory at Dulmadobe in 1913. Early in 1920, however, the dervish stronghold at Taalex (Taleh) was bombed, and Maxamed escaped to the Ogaden, where he died of influenza. With his death the dervish rebellion ceased.

* * *


Universalium. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем написать реферат

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Somalia — Somalian, adj., n. /soh mah lee euh, mahl yeuh/, n. an independent republic on the E coast of Africa, formed from the former British Somaliland and the former Italian Somaliland. 9,940,232; 246,198 sq. mi. (637,653 sq. km). Cap.: Mogadishu.… …   Universalium

  • eastern Africa, history of — Introduction       history of the area from ancient times through the 20th century. East Africa The coast until 1856       The earliest written accounts of the East African coast occur in the Periplus Maris Erythraei apparently written by a Greek …   Universalium

  • Somaliland — /soh mah lee land , seuh /, n. a coastal region in E Africa, including Djibouti, Somalia, and the Ogaden part of Ethiopia. * * * I Historical name for the region of eastern Africa between the Equator and the Gulf of Aden that includes Somalia,… …   Universalium

  • Mohammed Abdullah Hassan — Mad Mullah redirects here. It is not to be confused with Muhammad Ahmad (1844 – 1885), the Mad Mahdi . Sayyīd Muhammad Abd Allāh al Hasan Sayid Maxamed Cabdille Xasan محمّد عبد اللّه حسّان Statue of Sayyid Mohammed Abdullah Hassan in Mogadishu,… …   Wikipedia

  • Jaamac Cumar Ciise — Sheik Jaamac Cumar Ciise is a Somali veteran historian and collector of oral literature of Somalia. Jaamac has spent some twenty years collecting and transcribing orally transmitted poetry before publishing it in Diiwaanka Sayid Maxamed , edited… …   Wikipedia

  • Mohammed Abdullah Hassan — Esta página o sección está siendo traducida, razón por la cual puede haber lagunas de contenidos, errores sintácticos o escritos sin traducir. Puedes colaborar con Wikipedia continuando con la traducción desde el artículo original …   Wikipedia Español

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”