https://books.google.com/books?id=fb4UYAPUhYoC&pg=PA59&lpg=PA59&dq=The+Geledi+and+the+Omani+Sultanate+of+Zanzibar?&source=bl&ots=DgkGDEGn2S&sig=CoUZXccJY8N2aMzK_8EE0P-cCfQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi49cTCmNvaAhUnj1QKHez-BYoQ6AEIczAK#v=onepage&q=The Geledi and the Omani Sultanate of Zanzibar?&f=false
Begin page 57:
"By the time of the Baardheere troubles, the Geledi in Afgoye were enjoying unprecedented prosperity and influence. The power of the sultans continued to expand via local conquests and alliances. In addition, they had also begun to dominate local trade networks, enabling them to force all caravans bound for the interior to pass through their own markets where they could be taxed. With their victory over Baardheere, the Geledi seemed poised to dominate all of southern Somalia. Geledi expansion was blocked, however, by both local rivals and their own lack of direct access to the sea. From the mid-1840s through the 1870s Sultan Yusuf Muhammad and his successors sought to use the political and military capital accrued as a result of the conflict with Baardheere to secure their expansionist agenda. The result instead was tension, political intrigue and-eventually-armed conflict.
Immediately following the Baardheere war, Yusuf Muhammad hoped to establish a Geledi controlled port at the point where the Shabelli was closest to the coast known as Mungiya south of Marka. The Geledi already controlled most of the riverine agricultural settlements that far south and the establishment of a port would enable them to export grain directly to overseas buyers without the expense of going through urban middlemen in Mogadishu or Marka.
Not surprisingly, this move evoked almost immediate resistance from agro-pastoral competitors as well as coastal merchants, both of whom saw their interests threatened by Geledi ambition. The result was a long war of attrition between the G eledi and their principal rivals the Bimal, a clan of pastoral entrepreneurs from the region surrounding Marka. The latter were supported by urban merchant communities from the length and breadth of the coast. Throughout the 1840s, the two sides fought a number of indecisive engagements ultimately ending in stalemate by the latter years of the decade.
By 1847, the upper hand seemed to lay with the Geledi. Hoping to consolidate his gains Sultan Yusuf decided to eliminate the Bimal threat once and for all by forcing what he hoped would be a final decisive battle. In May, 1848 he forced the Bimal into a major engagement at the village of Golwayn. The details of the battle are sketchy, however; what is known is that shortly after the fighting began, both Sultan Yusuf and his brother Musa lay dead and their forces were routed. With one blow, Geledi expansion toward the coast was ended.
While Sultan Yusuf's death ended Geledi ambitions to dominate the coast, it did not end their control over territories in the interior. Yusuf was succeeded by two of his sons, Ahmad and Abiker. Ahmad made his seat at Afgoye, the traditional center of power for the Gobroon. Abiker became Sultan of Buulo Merer, a village downstream from Afgoye and opposite Bimal territory at the extreme limit of what had become the Geledi sphere of influence. This move was apparently intended at enabling the Gobroon to maintain tight control over the furthest reaches of their territory in the face of continued Bimal belligerence.
In addition to sustaining their territorial integrity, the Gobroon were also able to maintain much of their political influence in the urban centers of the coast, especially in Mogadishu, although it seems to have been more due to their economic power than military strength. The most celebrated example of their continued influence centers on the construction of a Zanzibari fortress in ;the Shangani district of the town. The Omani sultans of Zanzibar had laid nominal claim to the Benaadir coast since the early 1800s, Around 1870, the Zanzibari sultan, Sayyid Barghash, decided to make this claim a reality by establishing garrisons in each of the major towns for the purpose of assessing customs duty. The elders of Shangani, however, resisted the idea and the Sultan lacking either the military might or the economic means to force compliance looked to the Geledi Sultan, Ahmad, for help. Eager to demonstrate his power over the townsmen, Sultan Ahmad readily agreed, and threatened to order his allies along the river to boycott the Shangani market if the elders continued to obstruct Zanzibari plans. Faced with the complete disruption of the local grain trade, the elders realized the fitility f their position and ended their resistance. The garesa was built.
As it turned out, this was to be the apex of Geledi influence. In the decades following Golwayn, a pattern of indecisive raids and counter-raids characterized relations between the Geledi and their Bimal rivals. In 1878 this pattern culminated in what would turn out to be the last major encounter between the two clans. In that year, Sultan Ahmad, like his father, decided to end the Bimal threat through a single decisive battle. He and his brother Abiker, mustered their forces and moved to meet the enemy near Marka at a village known as Agareen. Like their father's last battle thirty yeaers before, the engagement turned into a rout, with the Bimal once again victorious at the end of the day. In a final ironic twist of fate, both ahmad and Abiker were killed in an uncanny replay of the deaths of their own father and uncle. With the battle of Agareen, Gobroon dominance was at an end.".
Begin page 57:
"By the time of the Baardheere troubles, the Geledi in Afgoye were enjoying unprecedented prosperity and influence. The power of the sultans continued to expand via local conquests and alliances. In addition, they had also begun to dominate local trade networks, enabling them to force all caravans bound for the interior to pass through their own markets where they could be taxed. With their victory over Baardheere, the Geledi seemed poised to dominate all of southern Somalia. Geledi expansion was blocked, however, by both local rivals and their own lack of direct access to the sea. From the mid-1840s through the 1870s Sultan Yusuf Muhammad and his successors sought to use the political and military capital accrued as a result of the conflict with Baardheere to secure their expansionist agenda. The result instead was tension, political intrigue and-eventually-armed conflict.
Immediately following the Baardheere war, Yusuf Muhammad hoped to establish a Geledi controlled port at the point where the Shabelli was closest to the coast known as Mungiya south of Marka. The Geledi already controlled most of the riverine agricultural settlements that far south and the establishment of a port would enable them to export grain directly to overseas buyers without the expense of going through urban middlemen in Mogadishu or Marka.
Not surprisingly, this move evoked almost immediate resistance from agro-pastoral competitors as well as coastal merchants, both of whom saw their interests threatened by Geledi ambition. The result was a long war of attrition between the G eledi and their principal rivals the Bimal, a clan of pastoral entrepreneurs from the region surrounding Marka. The latter were supported by urban merchant communities from the length and breadth of the coast. Throughout the 1840s, the two sides fought a number of indecisive engagements ultimately ending in stalemate by the latter years of the decade.
By 1847, the upper hand seemed to lay with the Geledi. Hoping to consolidate his gains Sultan Yusuf decided to eliminate the Bimal threat once and for all by forcing what he hoped would be a final decisive battle. In May, 1848 he forced the Bimal into a major engagement at the village of Golwayn. The details of the battle are sketchy, however; what is known is that shortly after the fighting began, both Sultan Yusuf and his brother Musa lay dead and their forces were routed. With one blow, Geledi expansion toward the coast was ended.
While Sultan Yusuf's death ended Geledi ambitions to dominate the coast, it did not end their control over territories in the interior. Yusuf was succeeded by two of his sons, Ahmad and Abiker. Ahmad made his seat at Afgoye, the traditional center of power for the Gobroon. Abiker became Sultan of Buulo Merer, a village downstream from Afgoye and opposite Bimal territory at the extreme limit of what had become the Geledi sphere of influence. This move was apparently intended at enabling the Gobroon to maintain tight control over the furthest reaches of their territory in the face of continued Bimal belligerence.
In addition to sustaining their territorial integrity, the Gobroon were also able to maintain much of their political influence in the urban centers of the coast, especially in Mogadishu, although it seems to have been more due to their economic power than military strength. The most celebrated example of their continued influence centers on the construction of a Zanzibari fortress in ;the Shangani district of the town. The Omani sultans of Zanzibar had laid nominal claim to the Benaadir coast since the early 1800s, Around 1870, the Zanzibari sultan, Sayyid Barghash, decided to make this claim a reality by establishing garrisons in each of the major towns for the purpose of assessing customs duty. The elders of Shangani, however, resisted the idea and the Sultan lacking either the military might or the economic means to force compliance looked to the Geledi Sultan, Ahmad, for help. Eager to demonstrate his power over the townsmen, Sultan Ahmad readily agreed, and threatened to order his allies along the river to boycott the Shangani market if the elders continued to obstruct Zanzibari plans. Faced with the complete disruption of the local grain trade, the elders realized the fitility f their position and ended their resistance. The garesa was built.
As it turned out, this was to be the apex of Geledi influence. In the decades following Golwayn, a pattern of indecisive raids and counter-raids characterized relations between the Geledi and their Bimal rivals. In 1878 this pattern culminated in what would turn out to be the last major encounter between the two clans. In that year, Sultan Ahmad, like his father, decided to end the Bimal threat through a single decisive battle. He and his brother Abiker, mustered their forces and moved to meet the enemy near Marka at a village known as Agareen. Like their father's last battle thirty yeaers before, the engagement turned into a rout, with the Bimal once again victorious at the end of the day. In a final ironic twist of fate, both ahmad and Abiker were killed in an uncanny replay of the deaths of their own father and uncle. With the battle of Agareen, Gobroon dominance was at an end.".
