The
Dervish state (
Somali:
Dawlada Daraawiish,
Arabic: دولة الدراويش
Dawlat ad-Darāwīsh) was an early 20th-century
Somali Muslimkingdom. It was established by
Mohammed Abdullah Hassan, a religious leader who gathered Somali forces from across the
Horn of Africa and united them into loyalists known as the
Dervishes. The Dervishes enabled Hassan to carve out a powerful state through conquest of lands claimed by the
Somali sultanates, the
Ethiopian Empire, and
European powers. The Dervish state acquired renown in the
Muslim world and Western worlds due to its resistance against the European empires of
Britain and
Italy. The Dervish forces successfully repulsed the
British Empire in four military expeditions, and forced it to retreat to the coastal region.
[2] As a result of its fame in the
Middle East and Europe, the Dervish State was recognized as an ally by major
Central Powers: the
Ottoman Empire and the
German Empire.
[3][4] It also succeeded at outliving the
Scramble for Africa, and remained throughout
World War I the only independent Muslim power on the continent.
[5] After a quarter of a century of holding the British at bay, the Dervishes were finally defeated in 1920.
In August 1898, the Dervish army occupied
Burao, an important centre of
British Somaliland, giving Muhammad Abdullah Hassan control over the city's watering places. Hassan also succeeded in making peace between the local clans and initiated a large assembly, where the population was urged to join the war against the British.
In 1900, an
Ethiopian expedition which had been sent to arrest or kill Hassan looted a large number of camels. Hassan in return attacked the Ethiopian garrison at
Jijiga on 4 March of that year and successfully recovered all the looted animals. He gained great prestige in recovering the looted stock from the Ethiopians and he used it along with his
charisma and powers of
oratory to improve his undisputed authority on the
Ogaden. To harness Ogaden enthusiasm into final commitment, Hassan married the daughter of a prominent leader and in return gave his own sister, Toohyar Sheikh Adbile, to Abdi Mohammed Waale, a notable elder.
Towards the end of 1900, the Ethiopian Emperor
Menelik II proposed a joint action with the British against the Dervish. Accordingly, British Lt. Col.
E.J. Swayne assembled a force of 1,500 Somali soldiers led by 21
European officers and started from
Burco on 22 May 1901, while an Ethiopian army of 15,000 soldiers started from Harar to join the British forces intent on crushing the 20,000 Dervish fighters (of whom 40 percent were
cavalry).
In the
1920 campaign by the British, 12 aircraft were used to support the local British forces. Within a month, the British had occupied the capital of the Dervish State and Hassan had retreated to the west.
Keep chating shit you dumb hutu.
HG are 2.3 million and counting in somalia. 
