Hussein honestly had it coming. Dude was super arrogant and entitled. Making all sorts of wild demands of the cadaan colonial powers like he didn't realize he was basically a client monarch. Ibn Saud was a lot wiser and understood that Arab rulers like him were nowhere near on the same playing field as the world powers that were now carving up the Ottomans. Kept his head down and didn't even invade the Hejaz until he was absolutely sure they were fine with him doing so. Ya gotta know when you're the power of the day and when you're not.
Sultan Osman and Kenadiid were playing a similar strategic alliance game with world powers as Ibn Saud and Oman did aligning where it benefited them while trying to maintain their own sovereignty. They most likely would have continued to the present in the same manner, but the unraveling came when they were directly pressured to help in the fight against the Darawish, or to allow their territories to be used for that purpose and both refused. They also rejected efforts to force them into relinquishing their military autonomy.
Their geopolitical location placed them right in the middle of colonial competition over the Horn of Africa and the Red Sea. That, more than anything, made them vulnerable.
Unlike Kenadid’s conquest of Hobyo, Ibn Saud’s early base before the capture of the Hejaz was deeply rural and tribal, lacking any real state infrastructure. His survival at the time was heavily dependent on British support and subsidies. His Ikhwan movement later even became unmanageable. Kenadid, by contrast, had been Nai’b (governor) of Alula within the Majerteen state and used that political and military base to branch out and capture Hobyo. From there, he gradually consolidated power through a combination of military campaigns and political alliances, incorporating diverse clans under his administration.
While Oman and Ibn Saud struggled with internal disunity and weak institutions, the Somali rulers had stronger local legitimacy and far more strategic autonomy.
This might help explain why, before the arrival of European colonial powers, Oman was unable to extend influence over that part of the Somali coast and even when they requested to construct a fort in Hafun, they were resoundingly rejected.
Souahhel he is referring to is Swahili in that last sentence. Reading this all now, it becomes clearer to me how Portugal was able to permanently occupy the Swahili coast and even dominate Oman, but failed to do the same in Somalia. Aside from naval bombardments at a distance, they couldn’t establish real control. This suggests that during the medieval period from Zeila all the way to Mogadishu , Somali polities had a remarkable degree of political unity or at least mutual coordination, with far fewer internal rivalries to exploit.