HISTORY The Man They Called 'The Mad Mullah': Father of Somali nationalism | Al Jazeera World Documentary
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That adeer at the start speaks in such a perfect Khaleeji lahjad. Brings me home listening to him. Been reading a book on the war with him:
Decent book but by the middle it stops reading like a biography and more like a somewhat boring war journal on various engagements with the Sayyid. But I'd still recommend it for any Somali interested in Somali history.
One thing that really took me aback was the sheer number of fighters the Sayyid could marshal—over 40,000 fighting men at one point, according to the book. And it’s not just him. If you read separately about other Early Modern Somali polities like the Geledi, you'll find similar numbers being mobilized. Keep in mind that this was a time when much of northern Somali territory and Somaliweyn had already become significantly more arid compared to 500, 1,000, or 2,000 years earlier. Medieval agricultural and pastoral systems had largely broken down—yet these saaxiibs were still able to field more men than Late Medieval British and French forces.
For perspective, at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, the English fielded around 6,000 to 8,000 men, and the French brought 14,000 to 25,000. The Sayyid’s forces frequently outnumbered both combined.
Pastoralists are no joke, wallahi. Their culture of raiding, inter-clan warfare, and a highly mobile lifestyle—where people could shift roles fluidly—meant almost every adult male was a ready warrior when needed. The sheer numbers pastoral societies could mobilize always blows me away. The Mongols and Arabs were producing insane numbers during the Middle Ages too.
It wasn’t just about horse-riding or better martial skill, I'd say pastoral groups dominated the pre-modern world also because of their sheer fighting numbers. To sedentary farming groups and civilizations, facing them must have felt like facing a swarm of locusts, wallahi.
Decent book but by the middle it stops reading like a biography and more like a somewhat boring war journal on various engagements with the Sayyid. But I'd still recommend it for any Somali interested in Somali history.
One thing that really took me aback was the sheer number of fighters the Sayyid could marshal—over 40,000 fighting men at one point, according to the book. And it’s not just him. If you read separately about other Early Modern Somali polities like the Geledi, you'll find similar numbers being mobilized. Keep in mind that this was a time when much of northern Somali territory and Somaliweyn had already become significantly more arid compared to 500, 1,000, or 2,000 years earlier. Medieval agricultural and pastoral systems had largely broken down—yet these saaxiibs were still able to field more men than Late Medieval British and French forces.
For perspective, at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, the English fielded around 6,000 to 8,000 men, and the French brought 14,000 to 25,000. The Sayyid’s forces frequently outnumbered both combined.
Pastoralists are no joke, wallahi. Their culture of raiding, inter-clan warfare, and a highly mobile lifestyle—where people could shift roles fluidly—meant almost every adult male was a ready warrior when needed. The sheer numbers pastoral societies could mobilize always blows me away. The Mongols and Arabs were producing insane numbers during the Middle Ages too.
It wasn’t just about horse-riding or better martial skill, I'd say pastoral groups dominated the pre-modern world also because of their sheer fighting numbers. To sedentary farming groups and civilizations, facing them must have felt like facing a swarm of locusts, wallahi.
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Emir of Zayla
𝕹𝖆𝖙𝖎𝖔𝖓 𝖔𝖋 𝕻𝖔𝖊𝖙𝖘
The Sayyid’s capability to muster 70,000 trained riflemen and 10,000 cavalry at a time when the Somali population wasn’t as great as it is today was impressive, especially if you factor in leveraging clan networks to obtain these men and the logistical needs of training and manufacturing their own gunpowder and bullets.That adeer at the start speaks in such a perfect Khaleeji lahjad. Brings me home listening to him. Been reading a book on the war with him:
Decent book but by the middle it stops reading like a biography and more like a somewhat boring war journal on various engagements with the Sayyid. But I'd still recommend it for any Somali interested in Somali history.
One thing that really took me aback was the sheer number of fighters the Sayyid could marshal—over 40,000 fighting men at one point, according to the book. And it’s not just him. If you read separately about other Early Modern Somali polities like the Geledi, you'll find similar numbers being mobilized. Keep in mind that this was a time when much of northern Somali territory and Somaliweyn had already become significantly more arid compared to 500, 1,000, or 2,000 years earlier. Medieval agricultural and pastoral systems had largely broken down—yet these saaxiibs were still able to field more men than Late Medieval British and French forces.
For perspective, at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, the English fielded around 6,000 to 8,000 men, and the French brought 14,000 to 25,000. The Sayyid’s forces frequently outnumbered both combined.
Pastoralists are no joke, wallahi. Their culture of raiding, inter-clan warfare, and a highly mobile lifestyle—where people could shift roles fluidly—meant almost every adult male was a ready warrior when needed. The sheer numbers pastoral societies could mobilize always blows me away. The Mongols and Arabs were producing insane numbers during the Middle Ages too.
It wasn’t just about horse-riding or better martial skill, I'd say pastoral groups dominated the pre-modern world also because of their sheer fighting numbers. To sedentary farming groups and civilizations, facing them must have felt like facing a swarm of locusts, wallahi.
It's insane to think about the new tactics deployed; if not for the deployment of British fighters, Somali society would have been completely different. What do you reckon about the numbers fielded back in the 16th century? I'm in the middle of reading Warriors Life and Death Among the Somalis by Gerald Hanley.That adeer at the start speaks in such a perfect Khaleeji lahjad. Brings me home listening to him. Been reading a book on the war with him:
Decent book but by the middle it stops reading like a biography and more like a somewhat boring war journal on various engagements with the Sayyid. But I'd still recommend it for any Somali interested in Somali history.
One thing that really took me aback was the sheer number of fighters the Sayyid could marshal—over 40,000 fighting men at one point, according to the book. And it’s not just him. If you read separately about other Early Modern Somali polities like the Geledi, you'll find similar numbers being mobilized. Keep in mind that this was a time when much of northern Somali territory and Somaliweyn had already become significantly more arid compared to 500, 1,000, or 2,000 years earlier. Medieval agricultural and pastoral systems had largely broken down—yet these saaxiibs were still able to field more men than Late Medieval British and French forces.
For perspective, at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, the English fielded around 6,000 to 8,000 men, and the French brought 14,000 to 25,000. The Sayyid’s forces frequently outnumbered both combined.
Pastoralists are no joke, wallahi. Their culture of raiding, inter-clan warfare, and a highly mobile lifestyle—where people could shift roles fluidly—meant almost every adult male was a ready warrior when needed. The sheer numbers pastoral societies could mobilize always blows me away. The Mongols and Arabs were producing insane numbers during the Middle Ages too.
It wasn’t just about horse-riding or better martial skill, I'd say pastoral groups dominated the pre-modern world also because of their sheer fighting numbers. To sedentary farming groups and civilizations, facing them must have felt like facing a swarm of locusts, wallahi.
I need to do more research into the medieval conflicts. To be honest, based on the numbers given in Futuh al-Habasha, it didn’t quite strike me as a large-scale conflict. When you really look at it, the vast majority of the qabiils involved were from Galbeed or, at most, spread between Woqooyi and Galbeed: Gurgura, Hawiye (Karanle), Habar Awal, Geri Kombe, Bartire, and others.
The only notable exception seems to be the Harti, who are explicitly described as being from Maydh, far to the east. They’re also the only Somali group for whom the author makes a point to highlight their distant origin, which implies that their involvement was exceptional. This really wasn’t some kind of pan-Somali mobilization but rather a conflict largely localized to the northwest.
Even the Harti contingent was relatively small:
The troop numbers overall aren’t that overwhelming—typically 1,000 to 2,000 infantry per qabiil, and anywhere from 100 to 1,000 mounted men. I’d have to sit down and tally everything precisely, but it doesn’t seem like the Somali/Muslim side amounted to much more than 10,000 men.
I feel like the Futuh al-Habasha tends to get a bit overblown—understandably so, since it's one of the few surviving firsthand accounts of the medieval period from “our side” of history. But when you look at the actual scale of the conflict, it likely wasn’t as massive as it's often portrayed. I wouldn’t be surprised if far larger, undocumented conflicts took place.
Medieval Somalis and Habeshas likely had the capacity to field even larger armies than what we see with the Sayyid or even Menelik II. This was a time when agricultural methods were more advanced in many Somali regions, and the land was less arid for both sides. You can see this reflected in how large and prosperous settlements like Saylac were described by medieval geographers—especially when compared to their diminished state in the Early Modern period.
The alchemist
VIP
The logisitcal capabilites, the geographic capture and manueverability was way better than sedentary people that had to teach themselves these things.That adeer at the start speaks in such a perfect Khaleeji lahjad. Brings me home listening to him. Been reading a book on the war with him:
Decent book but by the middle it stops reading like a biography and more like a somewhat boring war journal on various engagements with the Sayyid. But I'd still recommend it for any Somali interested in Somali history.
One thing that really took me aback was the sheer number of fighters the Sayyid could marshal—over 40,000 fighting men at one point, according to the book. And it’s not just him. If you read separately about other Early Modern Somali polities like the Geledi, you'll find similar numbers being mobilized. Keep in mind that this was a time when much of northern Somali territory and Somaliweyn had already become significantly more arid compared to 500, 1,000, or 2,000 years earlier. Medieval agricultural and pastoral systems had largely broken down—yet these saaxiibs were still able to field more men than Late Medieval British and French forces.
For perspective, at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, the English fielded around 6,000 to 8,000 men, and the French brought 14,000 to 25,000. The Sayyid’s forces frequently outnumbered both combined.
Pastoralists are no joke, wallahi. Their culture of raiding, inter-clan warfare, and a highly mobile lifestyle—where people could shift roles fluidly—meant almost every adult male was a ready warrior when needed. The sheer numbers pastoral societies could mobilize always blows me away. The Mongols and Arabs were producing insane numbers during the Middle Ages too.
It wasn’t just about horse-riding or better martial skill, I'd say pastoral groups dominated the pre-modern world also because of their sheer fighting numbers. To sedentary farming groups and civilizations, facing them must have felt like facing a swarm of locusts, wallahi.
The pastoralists walked around with a spear and dagger in their day-to day pastoral migrations. Animals could attack at night. Lions and big fauna often attacked the guris (that is why they built thorny rings called zarabas around the huts, even enclosing the livestock up settlement):
As in the description of the the picture, the scratch on the shield was made by a lion that had killed the previous owner.
Raids from rival Somali clans meant you had to be on the offensive and defensive expeditiously. The average Somali man was conflict-ready. The mental space alone is a big deal. And let us not sugar-coat this, Somalis had a warrior based culture with men recieving prestige from killing other men. It is innacurate to assume people were killing left and right but an olden practice was partly practiced that revered valian battle for survival.
The Gadabuursi had a illustrative battle-dance where they would re-enact an ideal battle performance in a cultural way:
One of the most striking dances in the Somali(Gadabursi) repertoire, called the “Boroma-Boromsi” dance. Surrounded by an ever-restless chanting chorus of spearmen, the two combatants — one attacking fiercely with cutlass, the other defending desperately with his small Somali shield — seem to be in grim and deadly earnest, and none would believe them to be at play.
The defender sinks to the ground and abjectly craves mercy, while the chorus, dancing more madly, chant “Boorama Boromsi Boromsa.” The conqueror pins his victim and prepares to give the final blow but, like an ancient gladiator, turns to the spectators to ask the beaten one’s fate.
The chanting and singing before battle was something Somalis used to do before a battle. It's common among cultures that has martial orientations. You can tell it was deeply rooted as our ancestors did it out of cultural reasons settling itself within an ethno-graphic antrhopological level but is in practical effect used essentially for morale boosting.
The average fragmented farmer who is conscripted against such masculine culture cannot be successful. The Westerners that came to our shores constantly talked about the unusual endurace of Somalis as well to the point where they almost framed it in a dehumanizing way instead of just praising our rescilence and acknowledging their lack of it.
In terms of the demography, if every pastoralist is 1:1 with a warrior, you can band together much effiecently. You had clan-based loyalty where people had stakes in fighting for a common cause since your interests probably align on a collective sense. I've read some of the old texts on Abadallah Hassan briefly, and he has big support by his home-region and clansmen. That gave him a stronghold, since a lot of Isaaqs rejected his Sufi order propositions and were suspiscious of him, yet he got a lot of support among the related clans of his region.
The population size of Somalis have been long-term stable with high ups and downs. So technically there were times in the past that Somalis had higher population size than later (not today though). Because of population rise and collapse. There is a reason why people living in more dryer conditions have only a couple of million in size when their history stretches thousands of years. The Bejas are only about three million poeple. When we factor in the Arab-confederate inermixing and assimilation that entailed Beja deculturation with Arab tribal intergration and mixture, resulting in less people, of at least, part Beja origin claiming Beja, we still see the population stay fairly low.
Kawahla is an example of Beja-Arab hybridization that became largely Arab identifying, although they know their Beja associations:
Still with that, it still would be low population relative to the historic precence of a peoples that existed for thousands of years. Basically, the carrying capacity of the enviroment made it stable over time with probably stark upswings and downturns in periods. Bejas were likely larger in size 1300 years ago than 300 years before present.
That is why a lot of Somalis retrace demography of Somalis in the wrong way. We were demographically robust throughout on average despite having times when collapses happened. If we had the same enviroment as central Ethiopia, we would be in the 70 million range, easily.
That means Axum likely could not have invaded Somali regions during 400 CE. Our numbers likely easily reflected or exeeded the medieval period given we went out of a greener period half a millenium earlier that increased our populaton by a lot.
Studies have showed how pastoralism was rather an ecological regulator during stress-periods rather than an intesive burdener:
"The climate deterioration after the most recent African humid period (AHP) is a notable past example of desertification. Evidence points to a human population expansion in northern Africa prior to this, associated with the introduction of pastoralism. Here we consider the role, if any, of this population on the subsequent ecological collapse. Using a climate-vegetation model, we estimate the natural length of the most recent AHP. The model indicates that the system was most susceptible to collapse between 7 and 6 ka; at least 500 years before the observed collapse. This suggests that the inclusion of increasing elements of pastoralism was an effective adaptation to the regional environmental changes. Pastoralism also appears to have slowed the deterioration caused by orbitally-driven climate change. This supports the view that modern pastoralism is not only sustainable, but beneficial for the management of the world's dryland environments."
According to the research accompanying this abstract, pastoralism delayed the drying of the African Human Period by 500 years.
It speaks to how when we were supposed to dissapear from the region, we economically used animals to live closer to the surival line, mix in agriculture and trade to cover the basis. This allowed to better economic and organizational capacity with immense scaling capacity when things became more favorable. It also speaks to how culture and identity continuity stays strong when those fluctuations occours and only in-group Somali based mindset can congruently build networks, living in oppulence at one end, and then moving through the desert consuming water from plants to consume fluids in the next. That is an insane range.
The alchemist
VIP
Oh yeah, I forgot the finisher. Farmers have no chance against such peoples. The way we lived made us just much better as a unit.
Actually it was described by Cadaans that came to our lands. One guy stated that one offense once let his expectations down when some Somalis fought in groups and mentioned that in a skirmish where one group wanted to steal a herd, no one died.
It seems to me that Somalis also sometimes fought in ways collectively where they minimzed injury and death but also holding somewhat back on the offence when doing raids. I think I have a suspcions because if you deal wth such low intensity fights, one does not creat broader clan issues. It becomes minor competition. "We take your animals but we don't want to kill you We can if we want."
The cadaan man thought it was peculiar since those spearmen could have gone completely violent and done damage. And Somalis were the opposite of cowards to the point where it made a scary imprint on the cadaans that traveled with caravans with them saying that they were deeply religous and were not afraid to die.
I'm very reluctant in portraying Somalis as war prone people. It has been debunked many times and it serves us no good in saying they were a "warrior culture" rather than it was part of survival and the broader repertoire; all culture deals with violence. However we were better at it and had our unique ways. And also the way that scene was described tells me Somalis tried to minimze death tolls. Ethiopians (Abyssinians), on the other hand, used to pile bodies after their raids, decapatiating limbs (of men and old people). Boranas even had the practice of taking peoples testicles. Lets just say we had different ways about us.
But I think in situations of serious war, Somalis likely cranked up the damage propensity.
Idilinaa
VIP
That was quite an inaccurate re-creation in terms of visuals before i look at the information.
They even got the dervish attire wrong, they actually wore distinctive white garments and patched/sewn robes and carried leather belt pouches and had ammunition strapped around them.
A Darawish from an African handbok
Darawish commanders
A Sahliyyah Tariqa Darawish student
Infact this dress code was in many way formalized requirement. The patched robes were to symbolize humility detachment from the material world, and spiritual devotion.
They also bore insignias from what i read that was meant to identify them with.
What is to be a Tariqa member.
The Tariqa's were instrumental in promoting national unity. It strengthen civic cohesion and that the earlier versions of SYL and other independent movement copied its organization forms and even started to implement things like uniforms or insignias.
So it's not some stretch to say that he was the father of the Somali modern nationalism.
Also another thing they always frame him as if he was attacking other Somali clans when he was in actuality attacking British positions. When he refers to a specific group in his poems he is talking about the specific ones that collaborate with foreign occupiers not the whole group because he recruited Somalis from all clans and had broad base of alliances.
They even got the dervish attire wrong, they actually wore distinctive white garments and patched/sewn robes and carried leather belt pouches and had ammunition strapped around them.
A Darawish from an African handbok
Darawish commanders
A Sahliyyah Tariqa Darawish student
Infact this dress code was in many way formalized requirement. The patched robes were to symbolize humility detachment from the material world, and spiritual devotion.
They also bore insignias from what i read that was meant to identify them with.
What is to be a Tariqa member.
The Tariqa's were instrumental in promoting national unity. It strengthen civic cohesion and that the earlier versions of SYL and other independent movement copied its organization forms and even started to implement things like uniforms or insignias.
So it's not some stretch to say that he was the father of the Somali modern nationalism.
Also another thing they always frame him as if he was attacking other Somali clans when he was in actuality attacking British positions. When he refers to a specific group in his poems he is talking about the specific ones that collaborate with foreign occupiers not the whole group because he recruited Somalis from all clans and had broad base of alliances.
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I'm reminded of Arabian customs of which I am well familiar. In Arab customs there are two forms of "warfare" and given Somali pastoral culture's obscene and constant similarities with Arabian pastoral culture I suspect it was probably much the same with our ancestors, though I must do research to confirm this.
I'll let David Rundell summarize the two forms of Arabian warfare as I felt he did a brilliant job in his book about Saudi Arabia's economic future:
To be frank, when you read a bit of Somali Xeer law it becomes quite apparent that something likely similar to the concept of "Ghazzu" existed. Basically ritualistic, controlled and not often fatal inter-qabiil conflicts/raiding treated more like a sport.
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