Arap

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Arap
Arap
Regions with significant populations
Somaliland, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Kenya
Languages
Somali
Religion
Sunni Islam
Related ethnic groups
Eidagale, Habr Awal, Habar Yoonis, Habr Je'lo and other Isaaq groups

Arap (Somali: Arab) is a major northern Somali clan of the wider Isaaq clan family.[1] The Arap predominantly live on the middle and southwest side of Hargeisa. They also inhabit the Baligubadle district, with its capital Baligubadle being are an exclusively Arap territory.[2] They also predominantly live in the Haud. The territory of the clan extends to Ethiopia, in the area of Faafan, Gursum and Dhagahle.[3] The Abdalle Arab, a sub-clan of the Arap clan is based in the Togdheer, Sahil. The Celi Arab, a sub-clan of the Arap clan is based in Hargeisa. Another sub clan, the Muuse celi arab inhabit the Bakool region in the South West State of Somalia, specifically the districts of Rabdhure and Elbarde.

History

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Lineage

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Sheikh Ishaaq ibn Ahmed is a legendary mythical figure[4][5][6][7][8] who purportedly arrived in the Horn of Africa to spread Islam around the 12th to 13th century. Hence, Sheikh Ishaaq married two local women in Somaliland that left him eight sons, one of them being Muhammad (Arap). The purported descendants of those eight sons constitute the Isaaq clan-family.[9]

The Arap clan have historically been an important part of the Isaaq clan-family and belong to the wider Habr Magaadle confederation. They are closely associated with the Garhajis clan, with whom they are considered “twin clans” in genealogical traditions.[10]

Traditionally, the Arap inhabited territories south and west of Hargeisa, including what is today the Baligubadle District. Oral traditions also describe their involvement in the caravan trade linking the interior of Somaliland to the coastal ports of Zeila and Berbera.[11]

During the sixteenth century, the Arap, alongside other Habr Magaadle lineages such as the Habr Awal and Habr Je'lo, contributed fighters to the Adal Sultanate’s military campaigns against the Ethiopian Empire and were the first ones to join the call for Ahmed Gurey’s jihad, as recorded in the Arabic chronicle Futuh al-Habasha.[12]

In the modern era, the Arap played a key role in the formation and operations of the Somali National Movement (SNM) during the 1980s. The Baligubadle area became the SNM’s headquarters, and several prominent leaders of the movement came from the Arap clan, most notably Sultan Mohamed Sultan Farah and Hassan Isse Jama.[13][14]

Following Somaliland’s declaration of independence in 1991, Sultan Mohamed Sultan Farah became widely respected for spearheading the clan-based demobilisation process. His son, Sultan Umar Sultan Mohamed, succeeded him in 2003 and remained in leadership until his death in 2021.[15]

Role in the SNM

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Baligubadle, which straddles the border between Ethiopia and Somaliland, was the headquarters of the Somali National Movement (SNM) during the Somaliland War of Independence from the regime of general Siad Barre.[16]

The Araps were heavily involved in the SNM and led the first military offensive of the SNM near Baligubadle where a small force attacked a fuel tanker supplying the Somali Revolutionary Socialist Party regime's base in the town. This operation was organised by local commanders without prior planning utilizing a local force of clansmen based at the organisation's Lanqeyrta base in Hawd.[17]

Hassan Isse Jama was also one of original founders of the SNM in London.[18] He was also the first vice president of Somaliland and served as the deputy chairman of the SNM.[18] Furthermore in 1983, Sultan Mohamed Sultan Farah of the Arap clan was the first sultan to leave Somalia to Ethiopia and openly cooperate with the SNM.[19]

Familial ties

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Historically, the Arap took part in the conquest of Abyssinia, and were part of the Adal Sultanate and are mentioned in the book Futuh Al-Habash (Conquest of Abyssinia) as the Habar Magaadle, along with the Ayub, Habar Yoonis, Habar Awal and Eidagalle clans. The Habar Magaadle are known for producing a historical figure known as Ahmad Gurey bin Husain who was the right-hand man of Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi his clan arap. The Arap were the first clan agreed to lead the process of demobilization. This put pressure on other clans to follow suit, and, in early 1994, a well-staged ceremony was held in the Hargeysa football stadium to hand over weapons, playing an instrumental role in the Somaliland peace process.[20][21]

Notable Arap people

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References

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  1. ^ Kirk, J. W. C. (2010-10-31). A Grammar of the Somali Language: With Examples in Prose and Verse, and an Account of the Yibir and Midgan Dialects. Cambridge University Press. p. 141. ISBN 978-1-108-01326-0.
  2. ^ Renders, Marleen. (2012). Consider Somaliland : state-building with traditional leaders and institutions. Leiden: BRILL. pp. xxi. ISBN 978-90-04-22254-0. OCLC 775301944.
  3. ^ Glawion, Tim (2016). Somaliland's Search for Internal Recognition, SFB700 (C10 project) Research Brief 5. Hamburg: German Institute of Global and Area Studies.
  4. ^ Lewis, I. M. (March 1962). "Historical Aspects of Genealogies in Northern Somali Social Structure". The Journal of African History. 3 (1): 45. doi:10.1017/S0021853700002723. ISSN 1469-5138. Thus it seems that the traditions surrounding the origins and advent from Arabia of Sheikhs Daarood and Isaaq have the character of myths rather than of history...
  5. ^ Loimeier, Roman (2013-07-17). Muslim Societies in Africa: A Historical Anthropology. Indiana University Press. p. 197. ISBN 978-0-253-02732-0. Despite their clear Cushitic linguistic and ethnic identity, Somaal oral traditions claim Arab origin through two mystical clan ancestors, Shaykh Darood and Shaykh Isaaq, who allegedly arrived in the northern Horn in the tenth and thirteenth centuries, respectively, where they married local women ... [they] are presented as being of noble Qurayshī origin.
  6. ^ Abdullahi, Mohamed Diriye (2001-10-30). Culture and Customs of Somalia. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. p. 64. ISBN 978-0-313-07329-8. Some of the early proselytizers were grafted both into the saintly pantheon and into the genealogical trees of Somali clans; these might be called genealogical saints; one of them is Sheikh Ishaaq, the mythical father of the Isaaq confederation, who probably was an early proselytizer who over the years became transmogrified into a genealogical father.
  7. ^ Lewis, I. M. (1994). Blood and Bone: The Call of Kinship in Somali Society. The Red Sea Press. p. 105. ISBN 978-0-932415-93-6. [These examples illustrate] a process of myth-making in its early stages which has already proceeded much further amongst the Darood and Isaaq. Thus at the point where Somali trace descent from Arabia outside their own society, a strong mythical component enters into the genealogies which is not present at lower generational levels.
  8. ^ Diop, Samba; Diop, Papa Samba (1995). The Oral History and Literature of the Wolof People of Waalo, Northern Senegal: The Master of the Word (griot) in the Wolof Tradition. E. Mellen Press. p. 170. ISBN 978-0-7734-9031-4. Lewis goes further by giving the example of a Sheikh named Isaaq (or rather his descendants) who "have arabicized their genealogy as a means of acquiring prestige"
  9. ^ I.M. Lewis, A Modern History of the Somali, fourth edition (Oxford: James Currey, 2002), pp. 31 & 42
  10. ^ Lewis, I. M. A Pastoral Democracy: A Study of Pastoralism and Politics Among the Northern Somali of the Horn of Africa. Oxford University Press, 1999, p. 35.
  11. ^ Lewis, I. M. Peoples of the Horn of Africa: Somali, Afar and Saho. Red Sea Press, 1998, pp. 23–24.
  12. ^ Trimingham, J. Spencer. Islam in Ethiopia. London: Routledge, 1952, pp. 85–86.
  13. ^ Bradbury, Mark. Becoming Somaliland. London: Progressio, 2008, pp. 86–87.
  14. ^ Walls, Michael. "The Emergence of a Somali State: Building Peace from Civil War in Somaliland". African Affairs, Vol. 108, No. 432 (2009), pp. 371–389.
  15. ^ "Somaliland: Sultan Umar Sultan Mohamed Passes Away". Somaliland Chronicle. 2021.
  16. ^ Musa, Ahmed; De Giuli, Akusua; Yusuf, Ayan; Ibrahim, Mustafa (2015). Baligubadle District Conflict and Security Assessment (PDF). Hargeisa: The Observatory of Conflict and Violence Prevention.
  17. ^ Prunier, Gérard (2021). The Country that Does Not Exist: A History of Somaliland. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-1-78738-203-9.
  18. ^ a b c Woldemariam, Michael (15 February 2018). Insurgent fragmentation in the Horn of Africa : rebellion and its discontents. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-108-42325-0. OCLC 1000445166.
  19. ^ Höhne, Markus V. (2006). "Working Paper No. 82 - Traditional Authorities in Northern Somalia: transformation of positions and powers" (PDF). Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology Working Papers. Halle / Saale: Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology. ISSN 1615-4568.
  20. ^ Balthasar, Dominik (May 2013). "Somaliland's best kept secret: shrewd politics and war projects as means of state-making". Journal of Eastern African Studies. 7 (2): 218–238. doi:10.1080/17531055.2013.777217. ISSN 1753-1055. S2CID 143973420.
  21. ^ Connaughton, Stacey L.; Berns, Jessica (2019). Locally led peacebuilding : global case studies. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield. p. 82. ISBN 978-1-5381-1411-7. OCLC 1099545093.
  22. ^ "Madaxweyne Cirro oo magacaabay Taliyaha Ciidamada & Taliyaha Booliska Somaliland" [President Cirro appoints Somaliland's Chief of Army and Police]. Puntlandes. 2025-01-23. Retrieved 2025-03-20.
  23. ^ Kristof, Nicholas D. (2009). Half the sky : turning oppression into opportunity for women worldwide. WuDunn, Sheryl, 1959- (1st ed.). New York: Alfred A. Knopf. p. 124. ISBN 978-0-307-26714-6. OCLC 290466888.
  24. ^ Roble, Faisal (2015). "Remembering Said S. Samatar". Northeast African Studies. 15 (2): 141–148. doi:10.14321/nortafristud.15.2.0141. ISSN 0740-9133. JSTOR 10.14321/nortafristud.15.2.0141. S2CID 146172236.