The first clan to fight
against or even oppose the Ajuran empire was Darandoole(Abgaal) clan who are commonly
known as Abgaal a section of Hirab clan which comes under Hawiye Tribe as quoted
by Lee V. Cassanelli in his book ‘the shaping of the Somali society’.
“The Ajuuraan had
decreed: “At the wells in our territory, the people known as Darandoolle (Abgaal)
and the other Hiraab clans cannot water their herds by day, but only at night.”
… Then all the Darandoolle gathered in one place. The leaders decided to make
war on the Ajuuraan. They found the imam of the Ajuuraan seated on a rock near
a well called Ceel Cawl. They killed him with a sword. As they struck him with
the sword, they split his body together with the rock on which he was seated.
He died immediately and the Ajuuraan migrated out of the country.
Darandoolle (Abgaal)
then rallied around their young leader, who eventually got the title of Imam and
took up residence in Mogadishu”.
The imam who was elected
was Imam Yacquub, the founder of the imamate and the eponymous ancestor of
Hiraab Dynasty.
After this huge bravery strike by the Darandoolle
clan others also joined the rebellion, Habar-gidir and Duduble joined the rally
immediately and drove away the Ajuran from Gal-gadud and Mudug regions after
very devastating battles, other clans such Hawaadle and Gaal-jecel waged
several unsuccessful campaigns against the Ajuran empire and finally liberated
themselves from what they had seen as an oppressor.
By the year 1700 the
Clans who took the liberation campaign against Ajuran Empire fully ceased the
power and conquered almost all the areas between Moqadishu and Hobyo and that
was the fall of one of the most powerful and long-lasting empires that ever
existed in the region which ruled since the 13th century.
Immediately after the
yacquubi dynasty came into existence, in 1701 they encountered a European Incursion
led by French, the goal of their attack was to cease and conquer the current
capital city of Somalia Mogadishu but they met a harsh resistance from the Hiraab
fighters and they were successfully repulsed.
The second known
incursion from the European forces occurred in 1707 the British ship Albemarie
sent an armed boat on shore, but it was detained and never recovered until the
return of the British imperial forces to east Africa which happened after 200
years of the detention as mentioned in ‘the encyclopedia of geography’.
Administration
Imam Yacquub was the
founder and the eponymous leader of the empire, he was succeeded by his elder
son imam xasan imam yacquub, all the kings come to power in inheritance form of
succession.
They established a
centralized authority and built strong functioning bureaucracy where by all the
decisions were taken by the king without questioning, the official language of
the empire was Arabic and all the formal transaction diplomatic letters were
written in Arabic language,
they practiced Islamic
based taxation system which was collected annually by the state.
All the clans who shared
common lineage under Hiraab tribe contributed to the administration of the state
and every sub-clan among Hiraab played specific role in the administration,
The army leaders and all
the security and military chiefs were from Habar gidir sub clan.
The religious elites and
all the Islamic schoolers were from shiikhaal and the reason the name shiikhal
was given was because of their role in the imamate.
The imam post as we mentioned
before was reserved for Abgaal who is believed to be the first born of Hiraab.
Robecchi Brichett,
Italian explorer reported many historical events of this empire, the following are
some of his observations about the traditional customs of the imamate.
“It is a traditional
custom among the Somalis, that the assumption of the title of Ugaz and Imam is
always celebrated with an important ceremony attended by all the tribes with
which they agree to convene. Great assemblies (scir) and fantasies take place
to dance, eat, improvise songs, horse races and the party goes on for a month.
In short, it is a real feast for which even when two tribes were at war, if a
Somali assumes the title of Ugaz or Imam - the hostilities pursued - gain
temporary peace. And it is in the solemnity of these assemblies that the head
adorns themself with a special turban, made with filaments peeled from a tree
which the Somalis call Ghed-hadd”
Economy
the rural economy of Hiraab
mainly depended on nomadic pastoralism and agricultural cultivation, the residents
in Jowhar, Baladwayne and El-dheere mainly sustained their livelihood from
farming whereas the Hiraab residents of Mudug and Gal-gadud regions lived as
nomads, people who resided the banks of river Shabeele exploited the proximity
of the river valleys and became farmers while others who were little bit far
from the river got only the option of becoming nomads.
The major income source
for the urban coastal cites like Mogadishu and Hobyo was from exporting and
importing different types of commodities, mostly Hiraab traders exported cattle
skin, textiles. Ivory, silver, gold, pearls incenses and numerous other exotic
goods.
The famous British
explorer sir john kirki came to southern Somalia in 1873 which was a very prosper
era for Hiraab sultanate, at the time of his visit the current capital city of Somalia
Mogadishu was under the powerful grip of imam Mohamoud imam Mohamed imam Hassan
imam Yakub, sir john kirki personally met imam Mohamoud.
He noted down various
things about the booming economy of the city and other neighboring towns, he
said the imamate was doing great business with Geledi sultanate which was ruling
some parts of southern Somalia such as Afgooye, Baraawe and Marka, the Geledi
sultanate used to transport a huge amount of farming products from their cities
such as Marka and Baraawe to Mogadishu and in return they used to buy different
kinds of commodities including textile and advanced furniture.
He also mentioned the bilateral
trade between Zanzibar and Mogadishu Mr. kirki said “Roughly 20 large dhows
were docked in both Mogadishu and Marka respectively filled with grain produced
from the farms of the Geledi and agricultural towns such as Baladwayne and Jowhar.
Military
(1) police unit which was acted as the law enforcement unit in the cities and towns
(2) armed forces who
carried heavy firearms and they were responsible for ensuring border security
and they were used to be seen at check points of the cities.
(3) Navy or the coastal
guard which was responsible for ensuring the security of the ports and they
were to protect marine trade from piracy.
in several historical
records it was recorded that the imamate used to provide armament to Darvish
national liberation movement led by Sayed Mohamed Abdulle Hassan.
Hiraab empire experienced
a very peaceful and stable lifestyle throughout their entire existence apart
from some external European incursions from French and British army.
Decline
As it was recorded by
many Italian historians and many other European and Arab historians, the 9th
imam/king of Hiraab imamate Imam Mohamed imam Ahmed died and he left behind
seven sons including Ali Mohamed, power dispute among the seven sons the king
has left behind broke out which finally caused the murder of senior son Mohamoud
Mohamed by his own blood brother imam Ali Mohamed in his house in Hamar-wayne.
After this horrific
incident, internal wars broke out among the imams,
"Ali Mohamed's sons,
Shucayb, Abdurahman, Mahmud and Mahad-Alle waged war against their cousins Abdurrahman,
Ahmed, and Ali. Abdurrahman and Mahmud remained dead and left behind three
sons, Hamir, Ali, and Omar. Following these massacres, the Somali people
seriously consulted for the appointment of the Imam. Two parties were in
antagonism: those wanting as Imam the sons of Ali Mohamed, those for the sons of
Mahmud Mohamed. The dispute was very fierce, so much so that for this election
there was a great war between the tribes, where, it is said, about five hundred
people were killed on both sides"
After this, the imamate
faced many external challenges from different directions including from the Hobyo
sultanate. Geledi sultanate and from the Zanzibaris from the coast. Beside these
attacks the imamate faced it is biggest challenge from the European incursions
such as Italia and England.
Civil war among all Hawiye
tribes ignited in south and central Somalia, smaller clans who felt they were deprived
from the authority fought for power, parts of yacquubi family fled from Hiiran
and Gal-gadud to Mogadishu.
Finally, a small sub-division
tribe called Omar Egalle which comes under Abgaal tribe was appointed and
entrusted with the responsibility of restoring peace and stability among all
the other tribes which were previously part of Hiraab imamate.
Many decades the European
colonizers were trying to invade Somalia from the coastal cities but one of their
biggest challenges was the small empires such as Hiraab sultanate which protected
their home land from the Europeans to invade. Rather than direct conquer the Europeans
were nominally influencing the political and the economic systems of the Somalis
from Zanzibar and Aden colonies.
In 1839 the British colonies
set up a colony in southern city of Yemen called Adan, since then they were
trying to also establish a similar colony in Hobyo but it was never possible until
they took advantage from the chief of Alula from Bari region ‘Yusuf Ali Kenadid’ who went to Berlin-Germany
and attended Berlin conference after yusuf attended that meeting it was a greed
by him and the colonizers in berlin to set up a new base in Hobyo to satisfy the
desire and the ambitions of both sides.
Britain backed yusuf kenadid
so that he can set up the agreed upon base in the coastal city of Hobyo by using
heavy firearms which was unfamiliar to local residents of Hobyo, he attacked the
city from Waadi-nugul northern mouth of Hobyo , he managed to overthrow the
local Hawiye clans in Hobyo and invaded the city than he created Hobyo sultanate
in 1878.
After yusuf kenadid
announced the emergence of his new sultanate in Hobyo, Habar-gidir elders gathered
and decided to rage a war to Hobyo in which they wanted to drive back Majeerteen
soldiers out of Hobyo which they finally succeeded but the conflict between Majeerteen
and Habar-gidir did not stop there it continued till recent days, although In1908
the Italians united them to form Italian Somaliland.
1. Imaam Yacquub
2. Imaam Xasan Imaam Yacquub
4. Imaam Maxamuud Imaam Xasan
5. Imaam Diimaale Imaam Xasan