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THIS DISSERTATION SUBMITTED BY
............................................................................................................
WAS ACCEPTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT
OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE
DEGREE OF MASTER OF PHILOSOPHY
IN THE FACULTY OF ARTS
OF THIS UNIVERSITY
THE EFFECTIVE DATE OF THE AWARD IS
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SOMALI ARABIC POETS SELECTED CASE STUDIES
by
Alawi Ali Adam, B.A. Hons Arabic (Riyadh)
A DISSERTATION
Submitted to the Faculty of Arts in Partial Fulfilment
of the requirements for the Degree of Master of
Philosophy of the
University of Ibadan
February, 1981.
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DEDICATION
TO MY MOTHER, HAJJiili FATIMAH HAJJ cUMAR IBRAHIM
•
AND MY STEPMO'l'HER, HAJJAH MARIAM FARAH ' UMAR
o
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ABSTRACT
This study contains representative selection of Somali Arabic
poetry, which gives a clear idea of the quantity and quality of Somali
~abic poetry as well as its literary standard, its themes, its
contents and its formso
Entitled "Somali Arabic Poets - Selected Case Studies", it
comprises two parts: "Background Survey" and "Selected Somali
Arabic Poets". "Part One" contains three Sections, the first of which
is devoted to a brief study of Somalia - geographically, historically
and politically. The second is devoted to a study of the place and
importance of Somali poetry (in Somali language) in the Somali Culture,
and the last is devoted to a study of the emergence and development of
Arabic and its literature in the Somali Peninsula.
"Part Two" also contains three seo t.Lon s, The first of these
is devoted to a study of the life and works of the eminent poet,
HzaylaCill,the second is devoted to a study of the life and literary
production of the prolific poet, "Hajj Sufi", and the last is deVoted
to a study of the life, scholarship and Arabic works of the remarkable
leader and the famous bilingual poet "the Sayyid" 0 This study ends
with concluding remarks, which sum up the findings of this researchn
(iii)
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CERTIFICATION
I certify that this work WiJ.S carried out by Mro Alawi A. Adam
in the Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies, Uni versi ty of
Ibadan.
IoAo Ogunbiyi
BoA.(Ibadan~, Ph.D. (London)
Senior Lecturer,
Department of l\rabic & Islamic
University of Ibadan,
Ibadan, Nigeria.
(iv)
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CONTENTS
Page
Title i
Dedication ii
Abstract iii
Certification by Supervisor iv
Table of Contents v
Map of Somalia v::"ii
Preface
PART ONE: BACKGROUND SURVEY:
SECTION I: SOMALIA
A - Geography 1
B - History 4
(1) Somalia in the Pre-Islamic Period 4
(2) Somalia After Islam c 0 7
(3) The Occupation and Partition of Somalia 11
SECTION II: SOMALIS AND POETRY
A - General Introduction • o· 18
B - Recording Somali Poetry 23
C - The Th2mes of Somali Poetry 00 25
D - Form of Somali Poetry 00 26
E - '!heMain Genres of Somali Poetry, 00 32
(i) The Gabay 00 32
(ii) Jiifto 35
(iii) Geeraar 1>. e • 37
(iv) Buraanbur 00 00 o. 38
(v) Heello .0 00 39
(v)
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F - Concluding Remarks _ ~.O 42
SECTIO!:!.._II!A.R:ABIC LANGUAGE AND "LITERATURE IN SOMALIA
A - Arabic Learning in Somalia 00 00 43
B - General Review of Somali Arabic Literature 61
(1) Literary Prose e 0 63
(i) Kitab Nasr al-Hu'minln 00 63
(ii) Jawhar al-Nafis Fi Khawass al-Shaykh 'Uways 64
(iii) Jala' al-CAynayn Fi Manaqib al-Shaykhayn 65
(iv) AI-Murshid 66
(2) The Poetry 69
(a) The Content of Somali Arabic Poetry 74
(b) The Form of Somali Arabic Poetry 80
(c) The Themes of Somali Arabic Poetry ... 84
PART TINO: SELECTED SOMALI ARABIC POETS
Introductory Remarks 0 •• e 0 •• 0 95
SECTION .I: - j\L-ZAYLAc. I-
A - Life History 00 o. 99
B - AI-Zaylaci's Scholarship 00 108
C - The Content and the Themes of His Poetry 00 III
10 Tawqssul o. o e 112
., (i) Jawharah al-Was'ilah 00 o e 113
(ii) Kanz al;;"Haqa'i.q 0" 115
2. The Panegyrics .-,.' ... t. 124
(i) The Eulogy of the Prophet Huh.ammad 00 124
(ii) The Eulogy of al-Jilani 0 •• 134
3. Appeal for Aid .... 138
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D - The Form of al-zaylaCi's Poetry 14-0
SECTION II: HAJJ SUFI
A - His Life History and His Scholarship 00 14300
B - Content of His Poetry 148
10 Panegyric Theme 148
First: Praising the Prophet 148
Second: The Eulogy of al-Jrl~ni 154
Thirdly: Other panegyrics 158
.2~ Asceticism 16300
3. Social Criticism 166
C - The Form of His Poetry 168
SECTION III _ THE SAYYID MUHAMlvjADCABDULLAH HAS AN
A - His Life History o 0 174
B His Learning and Competence in Arabic o 0 183
( 1) An Oration of Campaign 183
( 2 ) Risalat Bimal 188
( 3 ) Qamc al-Mu c-a-nidln 190
C - The Themes of His Poetry 19100
(1) Satire 192
(2) Panegyric Theme 1,9900
(i) The Praise of Muh,ammad Salih 00 1~9
(ii~ The Praise of Ottman Sultan 00 200
(ii) The Praise of the Dervishes 00 .0 201
(3) The Theme of War 00 00 202
D - The Form of His Poetry .0 •• 0 206
CONCLUDING REMARKS 00 208
FOOTNOTES .0 00 213
BIBLIOGR1.PHY .0 .0 •• 232
(vii)
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PREFACE
My interest in the Arabic language aq4 its literature in
Somalia as a field of research and study, began to develop at an
early stage of my education.
r cannot recall the exact date, but it was in the fifties when
r, by chance, accompanied a friend to his house only to see there
something that came later to shape and influence my career. He was
a member of a family that had a long-standing reputation of Arabic
scholarship and strong commitments to Islamic studies in the town
of Jijiga' and the area around it.
This family, Jamac,s family, provided facilities for all the
(),bou..~
students who were interested in learningtIslam and Arabic languageJ
and even supplied the essential amenities to those students who
could not afford to support themselves.
$oon after my arrival in this house, I caught sight of a number
of boxes neatly arranged in a corner. Moved by sheer curiosity,I ~'
stood up to open these boxes. I w as surpri sed by the large
quantity of Arabic manuscripts of various sizes and colours which
these boxes contained. Although I was not able to fully understand
the contents of these manuscripts, the mere awesome look at these
I
had its impact on me-, and must have deeply infl'1.ienced,~hefuture
of my research. My interest :i,n this field appears, t~h~r~fore, to
go back to that occasion.
(; X.)
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From then onward, I have been fond of reading Arabic literature
and reciting Arabic poetry 2 especi ally .cho se poems written by Soma Lds,
I have greatly enjoyed poems written by poets like the late Shaykh
cAbd a.l+Rahrnan ~ibn 'Ahmad al-ZaylaCi7 the late Hajj Su f'L, the Lat e
Sayyid Muh.ammad cAbdullah Has .an and the late Shaykh ¥usuf 1ibn Muh.ammad).
aL-Bahr-ay n, There are other poems which I fail ed to en j oy , Examp Les
of such poems are those written by the late Shaykh ~Uways ~ibn Muha~aad
al-Barawi and the late Shaykh cAbdullah al-Qutbi ~ perhaps because
of the obvious artificiality and lack of originality in their Arabic
poetic compositionso
When I was admitted to postgraduate studies at the Department
of Arabic and Islamic Studi es~ University 0 f Ibadan, I decided to
transform my lasting interest in Somali Arabic poetry into a real
and active researcho One of the great difficulties I was bound
to face was the fact that many of the helpful sources one is eicpected
to U2e were. lacking for Somali Arabic poetry has not been studied
either historically or cr'Lt LcaLky ,
However, considering my own cultural background, my personal
acquaintance with most of Somali Arabic scholars, and my full
appreciation of both the value of the investigation as well as the
problems involved in it, I began my re~earch on this field with
determinationo The present study is the outcome of some three
years of this determined endeavour to carry out a challenging course
of research in the area of Somal i Arabic poetry 0
. (X.)
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I wish to thank those who have assisted me in one way or the
other in bringing this dissertation to its final shapeo I am
particularly indebted to my Supervisor, Professor MoSo El-Garh,
the Head of the Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies, University
of Ibada~, for his patience in guiding my research and correcting my
drafts"
I am also immensely grateful to Dro H"OoAo Abdul of the same
Department for his guidance, encouragement and friendly advice. My
thanks go also to my second Supervisor, Dr. loA. Ogunbiyi of this,
Department for reading and correcting the final draft of this work.
This acknowledgement will be incomplete without a mention of the
assistance that I have received from my two colleagues, AI-Hajj
D.OoS" Noibi and Dro SoHoAo Malik" To them and other colleagues of
this Department I am deeply thankfulo Finally, my deep gratitude
i9' due to Mr" CoO .•Akinboade of the same Department for typing this
dissertation and for other secretarial assistance.
I wish to state, however, that I alone take full responsibility
for any inaccuracies, errors or other shortcomings that may be found
in this dissertationo
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1
SOMALIA
A GEOGRAPHY
Somalia is located in the North-East horn of Africa~ It is
bounded on the North by the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea, on the West
by Ethiopia, on the South by Kenya and the Thdian Ocean and on the
East by Indian Ocean 0
The area inhabited by Somalis is estimated to cover 1,000,000
square kilometres and eonsdsts of three parts:
(1) The Somali Democratic Republic, which sits on an area of
678,000 kilometres square.
(2) The new Republic of Djibouti.
(3) Regions inhabited by Somalis but administered by Kenya and
Ethiopiao
T~e whole of the Somali territories is either a desert or semi-
desert, with an average annual rainfall of 12 to 20 incheso A thorny
type of vegetation covers only 10% of the country, while the rest is
sand and barren rocks. However, it is characterised by a network of
valleys which are the product of the violent erosions during the
rainy seasons, These are of conslder-a;:b Le importance to Somalia, in~, (:
general, and in particul ar to the nomad s who, in the dry season,
drill in them to obtain water. Besides, there are two rivers, which
il.
have their origin in the Somal~ in~abited highland now under Ethiopian
rule. They flow for a consider~R!e distance through the Somali Republic •
• • •j
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2
One River Juba, meanders in the lower Jub~ region of Somali Republic,
where it finally flows into the Indian Ocean through Kismayo city. The
other river, Shebelle, which is mor~ useful than river Juba1 disappears
into the sand dunes and marsh lands, South of Magadishu~ the capital
of the Somal i Republ Lc , 1
The majority of the Somalis are nomads as dictated,by the nature
of the land in which they are living. They raise sheep, camels, cows
and goats. They keep moving with their flocks from place to place,
in search of water and pasture. Needless to say y thi s is thei r only
source of income. Al though the exact fi gure of the Ii vestocks
herded in the area is not known, initial estimation carried out inside
the Republic, put the number at 24, million sheep? 6 million goats,
16 million camels and J million cattle. However, these figures are
far from being exact as the numbers are appreciably affected by
adverse conditions existing in the area they are living. It is
believed that the recent Sahil drought reduced the Somali livestock
2
to one third, if not less, of what it normally was.
Somali livestock have their markets in various parts of the world,
especially the Arabian peninsula, Egypt and some European countries
like Italy. This earns the Somali Republic about 70% of total
revenue a.n f'or eagn exc hang e. J Again a large proportion of the
population, over 90% in the north and 70% in the 80utb, depends for
4,
their livelihood on livestocko But it' g:e(!ms that SomaL'i s realized
the danger of such complete dependence on livestock, on one hand,
and the little a~ailable cultivable lands on the other. As a result,
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3
a lot of attention has shi~ted from livestock to the agricultural
section of the economy.5 Although the Somalis have been relatively
more successful in this regard than many African countries~
particularly in the last few years, ~he area under cultivation is
1ess than 5% of the ar-ab le land., which has been est imat ed at 8
million acres.6 Major agricultural products in Somalia, include
maize; barley? wheat? cotton, sugar cane, mango and banana. Only
few of the above serve as cash crops while the remaining are locally
consumed. Banana plantations are"highly developed in the Southern
region and are regarded as second to the livestock in the 8xport -list. 7
As for the population of Somalia, there has not been an official
census in the country until now , but unofficial aources put the
figure of the population within the Republic alone) at some 4.5
millions, and it is believed that nearly the same number of people
are living in regions outside the Somali Republic. The majority of
the Somalis are nomads and also fond of travelling into various
parts of the world. There is a large number of Somalis who have
crossed the sea as tradesmen or seeking employment. They are
found in East Africa, in the Middle-eastern countries~ and in
the main American and European ports, where they work as seamen. 8
· i
The characteristics of the Somalis have been nicely summed up
;':, .
in the British survey as follows~ "They are intensely individualist,
and have sometimes been described as quarrelsome, touchy aHtl
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suspicious; but they are also capable of warm human feeling and
remarkable hospitality to strangerso" We may add to this that the
Somalis enjoy a natural inclination to unity; for they speak one
language, the Somali language2 in all parts of the Somali peninsula;
also they are almost 100 per cent Muslims. They have the same
customs, tradi~ions and culture inspite of all colonial attempts to
separate them,
B - HISTORY
(1) Somalia In the Pre-Isiamic Period:
The land7 which the ~omalis inhabit, used to be known in
ancient times especially to the pharaonic Egyptians as the "Land
of Punt".9 They had a great kingdom which stretched from Ethiopia
in the West to the Indian Ocean in the Easts and from the Gulf of
Aden and Bab al-Mandeb in the North to the Kenya in the South: they
possessed strong commercial fleet, which plied the Red Sea, the
ports of Yemen and South Arabia as well as the Arabian Gulf,
carrying their goods to the people of these areas in exchange for
other goods.10
This kingdom had been ruled in succession by many kingsD The
names of all these kings are not q~~~e knowno However, few of
them have reached uSt like King
IIAlalak 1), the founder of this
kingdom, whose capital was named after him to immortalize his
~( - ..,1,
memory. Another one was King Barhuraghi, the grandson of Alalak,
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5
in whose reign the commercial relationship between the inhabitants
of Somalia and ancient Egyptians flourished as .we shall see later. 11t
Yet another well-known ruler of this ancient Somali kingdom was
Queen "Ar-awe Io" who wa s very stern and strong. She was famous for
her antipathy against all men - an antipathy around which many
legends were fabricated.
The Somali land was also know~ to the Phoenicians who referred
to it as a region of incense. Phoenician commercial ships used to
come to Somali po¥ts continuously for business matters. Moreover,
some thousands of years before Chri st y thi s country was known to
Egypt and many ancient Egyptian histor;Leal records confirmed the
existence of good reIationship bet,ween Egyptians and Somal is.
About four thousand years ago some ~omalis migrated to Egypt
car~ying with them their emblem, a bird known to contemporary
Somalis by the name "Huu r-" and the Egyptian used this emblem later
with little change in its name (Hur). Also during the reign of King
Khufu there was a considerable number of Somalis in Egypt. G6e
of the.mwas named "Hartizi", ()...hd held a high position in the court
of the King Khu f'u!s son. 12 The trading contact played an important
role in the ancient Somali-Egyptian relationship. The Somalis
imported dates, clothest jewelry and daggers from Egypt, while the
Egyptians imported some animals like giraffes, leopards and monkeys
as well as ivory, tortoiseshell, myrrh, incense and cypress from
Somal'1a.13
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6
In ancient times, Somalia enjoyed world-wide fame for the
production of the best incense, which they exported to both East
and West for various applications. Apart from its secular uses in
the manufacture of perfumes and medicines, it was indispensable in
religious rites during those times. Traders from India, China~
Greece, Rome, Egypt and Phoenicia came to Somalia to buy incense,
which was again re-exported to various parts of the ancient worldo1~
The Somali-Egyptian links cooled when Egypt was occupied by
"Hyroods", but it was renewed in the reign of Queen "Hatshepsut II
of Egypt, who once sent a trading mission of five big ships to
Punt (Somalia). The mission arrived at the capital "Alalak" on
the Coast of the Indian Ocean. The Somal i King "Burhuraghi welcomed
them, sating "How did you come again to thi s country which your
grandfathers had forgotten?" 15
We have to admit, however, that our knowledge of the social,
religious and political conditions of Somalia in the pre-Islamic
period is very meagre, because it has not been sufficiently studied
either historically or culturally. So, any researcher in this
subject should be prepared to face the scarcity of adequate source
materials. On this Mr. Jamac cUmar clsa, author of Ta'r!kh al-
Sumal fi al cUsiir al-Wusta 'va al-HadiThah (Somali History in
• 6
Medieval and Modern Era) says: "The Somali history in ancient
times Is to us most unclear. It is an area covered with doubtful
information and is full of fables and contradictory statements.
The little Information we have consists only of unreliable narrations,
or hints on .th..e. tongues of p.oets. lL611 ••0/
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7
Considering the religious aspects in that period, it is bel ieved
that the Somalis were pagans; they worshiped different kinds of
idols assuming various shapes especially the shape of a camel ~.~•
horse. This,was due? un doub't edLy , to their importance in the life
of the desert inhabitant e ; 16
,'I, ' As far as Christianity is concerned, the Somalis did not
embrace this religioni despite the fact that their neighbour~ the
Ethiopians? practised it. Probably the reason for this is that it
was regarded as the religion of their traditional enemy.
The suggestion of Ibn Hawqal in his work al-Masalik wa-l-Mamalik
(p.~l) that the people of Zeila were Christians by the second half
of the ninth century has not been supported by any other known source. 17
It appears that the overwhelming majority of the Somalis remained
pagan until they embraced Islam. Any possi bili ty of Chri stian
existence among Somalis prior to the spread of Islam must have been
:.f .. -." very limited indeed.
. " (2) Somalia After Islam;
I"' ~ It is difficult to say when exactly Islam came to Somalia, or
)
-.i·,; ", who brought it to that part of Africa, since no helpful record for
~"'" '- this is yet available. It is, howevert believed that the Arab and; ,"
Persian Muslim merchants had brought their Islamic faith together
with their merchandise to some Somali coastal towns, like Mogadishu,
Zeilac, Berbera, Merca, and Brava in the seventh century A.D.
From these towns, Islam spread thereafter to various parts of the
country's hinterland.18 But apart from these commercial arrivals,
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8
it is reported that during the Umayyad and Abbasid eras, many
Muslims fled to the East African Coast because of the civil waro
There, they preached Islam to the pagan peoples of that area,
Arnold refers to an Arabic chr~nicle found by the Portuguese on a
small Island south of Zanzibar in 1505, which states that: "The
first settlers were a body of Arab s who were driven into exile
because they followed the hereti cal teachings of a certain Zay d!',
The author suggests that litheZay d referred to is probably Zayd b ,
cAI;.,..a grandson 0 f H0 usayn 0" It appears therefore that the Sh{ci-
Sunni conflict must have resultedy among other things, in some
Shici Muslims fleeing from the established Sunni rule to places
in East Africao There, they tried to settle down , initially under
a ~eat fear of the native population; but later, with further
have ~r).
reinforcement coming from Arabia, they appear tOLsucceed.gradUally
I, n extendi~ng thei'tr se tlements and sprea d'Ing t.helir reI"Ig~ono 19
On the building of the coastal city of Mogadishu, Arnold
states that it was a secondary Sunni wave of immigration from
Southern Arabiathat built ito The earlier refugees, who were
ShiCites, refused then to recognize the authority of the Sunni
new-comers and were, therefore, forced to leave the coastal
settlements and go to the interior, where, gradually, they
became merged I'hnto t e na~v:a'e popu 1at'lono 20
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9
Another view is that Islam was brought to Somalia by cUthma-n
b. cAffan (who later became the third Caliph) and his wife? RU4ayyah
bint Muharama d, during the first immigration to Abyssinia. I-.:: is
said that as they were on their way to the King of Abyssinia, tlley
passed some Somali settlements perhaps Zeilac and Harar and called
their people to LsLam , They finally accepted it and both Zeilac and
Harar consequerrt Ly became Muslim during fifth year of the mission of
Mu~ammad, i.e. eight years before the entering of Islam to Medina.21
Whether Islam came to Somalia in the sixth, seventh or eighth
century, its spread in East Africa was considerable in the periud
between ninth and tWlelrth centuri es AoD. It appears that by the
thirteenth century Islam had already covered most of the Somali
peninsula and since then the Somalis are believed to have become
100% Muslimso22 At the same time, many parts of Ethiopia also became
Muslims. The latest census indicates that even at present the
Muslims are over ~O% of the Ethiopian population.2J
Moreover, from time to time, frequent Muslim missionaries used
to come from Arabia to this region to preach the Islamic faith. The
most remarkable band of these is described by Arnold as follows:
"In fifteenth century, a band of forty-five Arabs came as missionaries
from ~a~ramawt, landing at Berbera on the Red Sea and thence
dispersed over the Somali country to preach Islam. One of them,
Shaykh Ibrahim Abu Zarbay, made his way to the city of Harar about
A.D. l~JO, and gained many cove~ts there, and his tomb is still
honoured in that city."
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The Somalis, in their turn, took great pains to preach Islam
not only to the Somalis in the hinterland but also to other
nationalities in the neighbourhood. In the thirteenth century,
they estabfished a number 0 f .state gover!lments in the area , The
most important one among these states was the AdaI state, whosa
capital was Zaylac• Apart from ZaylaC, the towns of Harar, Mogadishu
.,!.:
and Merca were also important centres both for the Islamic missionary
activities and for trading. ~hese towns flourished commer~tally,
culturallYf politically and industrially. Palaces, mosques and
institutions of Islamic learnings were constructed. It was said that
the religious institutions at Harar and Mogadishu compared with the
religious institutions in Cairo and Medina.24
The Somali Islamic state of Adal is reported to have become a
significant power in the area. It m i rrt ed its own metal coins and
manufactured the best clothes they exported to Aden, ~a~ra-
mawt, Hdj az and Egypt. 25 It cultivated its own strong army. It
felt strong enough ,t the end of thirteenth century to promise the
Sultan of Egypt a supply of one hundred thousand horsemen together
with'their equipment whenever the' Crusaders attacked Egypt and
Syria again.26
Wars broke out between theMMslim Somali state and Christian
Ethiopian Kingdom during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
They fought each other~r ~ lo'"j t\""e., but undecisively un'til the
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11
colourful leader, ai-Imam A?mad ibn IbrahIm al-Ghaz!, known to the
Somalis as AJ;1madGurei (the left-handed). took over the throne of
'Ada! State' in 1527 A.Do He waged a war against the Christian
Ethiopian kingdpm in 1528 and was able to over-run almost the
whole of the Ethiopian country in 1530 A.D. He actually ruled Ethiopia
for a period of fifteen years (1528 - 154-3). When the Ethiopians
realized that they would not be able to defeat the Somalis, their
king, Lebna Dengal, appealed to the Portuguese for help. Portugal,
being then the only Christian country which had contacts with
Ethiopia, supplied them significant quantities of the most
up-to-date arms which were not known in many parts 0 f Africao 27
With these, the Ethiopians were able to defeat Imam A~mad in a
great battle in 154-3 A.D. during which the Imam himself was killed.
Since that time the Somali State (Adal) began a process of
decline which continued until the Europeans came in nineteenth
cent~ry to the Horn of Africa and captured the scattered Somali
sultana~s and colonized them.
(')) The Oocupation andPat-tition of-Somalia
In the middle of the nineteenth century, the whole Somali
peninsula had become the theatre of colonial competition between
Britain, Italy t Franc e and Ethiopia. Each of these governmEnts was
trying to obtain the largest portion ot the divided Somali territory •
.../
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12
This led to the creation of what came to be referred to as the Brit ish9
French, Italian and Ethiopian parts of Somalia.
(i) British Somaliland:
-. 'I The British government had colonized two separate parts Which
cameto constitute British Somali pr-ot ect or-a t e , whose capital was
Hargeisa in the North East of the country and Nor t he i-n Frontier
District (N.F.D.) 2 whose capital was Wajeir in the South ez-n part of
the Somali peninsula. It. was under this occupation that the
Briti sh government ent ered into a series of treati es of prot ection
: with the v.arious Somali tribal leaders.....
In the British Somali protectorate, the British government
signed a treaty of prot ection with the local Shaykhs in 18840i
and notified the European:powers that it had establ ished a
protectorate in the North-east of Somalia in 1887. It seems that
the British government occupied this part to secure the supply of
meat to her garrison in Aden, and to forestall any designs by France,
28
Italy and Germany.
The region referred to as N.F.D. is located in the area where
Kenya today meets the Somal i Republic. It came to be fully
occupied by the British in 1905, after a number of treaties with the
tribal chiefs. It was separated administratively from British
Kenya and regarded as a closed district which could be entered into
from the rest of the I ands of Kenya only by a special permit •
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.13
It remained like that until 1963 when it was finally attached to
Kenya. In 1962, the British government set up a cornrnission to
investigate the public opinion in NoF.Do and to hold a referendum
as to whether ,the population would prefer to unit e with Somal ia or
.
Kenya. The result of this referendum was 86% in favour of unity
;...I' with Somalia and people unequivocal-ly expressed their opposition to
become part of Kenya. Yet the British government~ ignoring the
commission I s findings and the result of the r-e f'e r endums. handed the
whole region over to Kenya.29
(iir-French Somaliland
During the scrambl e and partitioning of ...t\fr:ica by Europeans, the
French government established a sphere of influence along the Red
Sea Coast, North-east of Bri ti sh Somal i prot ec t.o r-a't e , They signed
Ii.
,:.:1 a treaty of protection with the local chiefs in 1886, bearing in
mind that the strategically important port of Djibouti
would serve as a cO~ling station for French ships going to the
French colonies in the Far East.30 This p8rt of Somalia was known
as liThe French Somaliland" but the French government later realized
that this name had implications which were not compatible with their
policy of "d Lvide and rule" 0 Hence in 1967 they changed the name
c
into "The territ:ory of tAfars and Ls aa s s " This was mainly a
reaction to the independence struggle in which all Somalis living
in the area actively participated. It was only in JUne 1977 that
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the people of this territory gained Lndeperrd ence, with the help of
their Arab and African brothers. They relinquished the coloni~:
name of "Af'a r-sand clssas" and became simply known as "The Republic
of Djibouti.II
(iii) Italian Somaliland
'..1
The Italian interest in Somalia began in 1885 when parts of
Somalia including Mogadishu were ruled by the S~ltan of Zanzibar.
An Italian colonial mission came first to Mogadishu and later
negotiated with the Sultan for an agreement of commercial co-
operation with the Italian government. The Sultan agreed to leave
the port .o t: Mogadishu to the Ita! ians for an annual rent. In the
middle of 1892, the Sultan also had let the coastal area, with its
ports, Mogadishu, Merca and Brava~ to the Italian government for an
annual rent of 14A,000,~t.q}.eei.nl:a! minimum period of 25 years and a
maximum period of 50 years. 31 In 1889, the Italian government
succeeded in signing a number of treaties of protection with the
local trJ.bal Shaykhs and declared that it had established an Italian
protectorate over most of the coastal regions of Somalia and their
hinterlands which streches from Mogadishu nor-t hwa r-ds to Cape
Gardafui on the very tip of the Horn of Africa~32 After failing to
pay the annual rent to the Sultan of Zanzibar and establishing the
protectorate, the Italian government assumed direct control of the
whole southern Somalia in 19050 On the defeat of Italy in the Second
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15
World War, the British took over all the Italian parts of Somalia
in addition to the areas they were already holding. The situation
continued until 1950r when Italy regained its former Somali region
and ruled it until 1960 "cheyear• of Independence. 33
(iv) Ethiopian Somaliland
In 1889, the Ethiopian powerful leader, Menelik King of
ilhoa,became the Emperor Menelik II of the whoLe of Ethiopia. He
addressed a letter to the European powers in 1891t and made
extensive claim on the areas to the north, east and South, far
beyond the frontier of Ethiopia at that time.34
This claim was directed to the Somalis in Ogaden region who,
having no means of defence, were not in a position to resist the
Ethiopian expansion, which succeeded finally in seizing that region.35
However, the Ethiopian expansion had really begun when Menelik II
occupied in 1887 the city of Harari the"c~pival of ~he Ogaden region~
and extended his sovereignty north, east and south towards the
French, the British and Ital ian portions of Soma Li . But in 1889 ~
these three powers signed a treaty with Ethiopia to stop her from
expanding i:ts frontiers towards their respective areas. 36'
So, by 1889, the colonial partition of the Somali peninsula
had been completed, though many adjustments of the boundary
between the new rulers have since takfn place. For the first
time in its known history, Somaliland was now divided into five
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16
different administrative parts, namely~ British Somaliland~ French
Somaliland, Italian Somaliland, Ethiopian Somaliland and N.F.D.
(which may be referred to as the Kenyan Somaliland)0
(4) The Struggle for Independence
While colonialism was dominating the whole of Somalia? and
Britain, Italy, France and Ethiopia were engaged in the partition
&f this country, a strong nationalist movement known as al-DarawIsh
emerged under the leadership of a Somali religious leader1 al-Sayyid
Muhammad cAbdullah H..a.sans towards the end of nineteenth centuryo
In 1899, t)..~waged a war against the British,' Italians and
Ethiopians which lasted for more than twenty years. He was able to
defeat their troops several times. He forced the Italians and the
British to withdraw from Nugal and Hawd regions. Then, in 1905,
they informed him that they were ready torecognise the area
controlled by him as an independent state, if he agreed to a
ceasefire. But al-Sayyid Muhammad cAbdllll;';H'ahs .an tu r-n ed down
their offer and continued the fight until combined air, sea and
land raids were directed against him and his movement, destroying
,
his strong fortress at 'Talehf and defeating his movement.
However, together with a few of his followers, h~ was able to escape
towards the west of the country. He managed to reach Imi town,
where he .emained until he finally died on 21 Decemb.er; 19.20 AoD •37
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17
Ii:
(Wewill learn more about this leader in Part Two S;ectloJ{-III of
this study). The colonial partition of Somalia was,. therefore,.
destined to continue until 1960, when two parts: the Bri tish
Somali protectorate and the It~lian Somalia, achieved their
independence and united to form the present Somali Demoncratic
Republic with Mogadishu as its capital. As already mentioned, the
French Somaliland was granted independence only in Junef 1977,
when it constituted an independent state - with its capital, Djibouteo
Both the Ethiopian Somaliland and N.F oD. (which was attached to
Kenya) however are still struggl ing for thei r independenc e from
Ethiopia and Kenya respectivelyo
The unity of all the regions inhabited by Somalis remains the
dream of all these Somalis. -~~-
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::t
'!.
THE SOMALIS AND POETRY
A GENERAL INTRODUCTION
The Somalis are considered as a nation of bards, perhaps
because poetry continues to play an important role in their social,
polLt LcaL, cultural and religious life, before and after the advent
of Islam. They have great admiration for poetry and hold ~he skill
of poet Lcal talent in high est eem , A considerabl.e::number .of
. ~
Somalis possess poet ical talent, anQtutilize this ability.to produce
new poemso Such interest led, ~nd is still leading, to the
production of a huge poetical heritage, the Somali poetry, which is
regarded as the most important cultural achievement of the Somali
nation.
Elaborating on the position of poetry in the Somali culture,
Andrzejewsbi and Lewis say:
"It is perhaps not too much to claim that the Somali
are a natLon of bards; and their poetry certainly is one
of thei~ principal achievements. Poetry occupies a large
~nd impo~tant place in Somali cUlturetinterest in it is
universal 1-and skill in it is something which everyone
covets and many possess. The Somali poetic heritage is a
living force intimately connected with the vicissitudes of
everyday life. ,,1
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19
ActuallYt poetry played a great role in the preservation of the
social and historical aspects of Somali life throughout hjstory.
It has always been useds specially in the past when no other means
of communication were ava~labley as a means of spreading the news
of their great events to the distant parts of -che Somali lands ,,rjth
amaz,~ng rap1id1i t;yo 2 Virtually; poetry cont~lhUte$considerably to tlbe
settlement and solution of Somali social problems. Even before the rise
of'national awareness~ when various confl'jets between various clans
were of common occurrence, and pastoral wars lasting a number of
years were frequentv poets were looked on as mediators and peace-
makers in the Somali nomadic society. In such a situation, they
composed conciliatory poems in the Somali language which is,
known to have readily lent itself to versification. Usually, the
poetical c mpositions they produced would cool down tempers and
restore peace and stability among feuding nomads.) An example of
these conciliatory poems is a long poem ent itled "Oh Clansmen~ Stop
the War", composed by the renowned poet, Salaan Carrabey. 4:
With the rise of Somali political and nationalistic movements,
poetry became more and more popular, and its scope became wider,
until it finally came to be effectively utttized in the politicltl
and national'i'sticcampaigns. Due to their awareness of the
consfdez-abLe impact o i: poetry on Somali society, "Various political
and nationalist groups utilized poetry' as a means of propagating
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20
their cause and giving it wider publici tyo Consequently, almost
e'.lerygroup came to have its own poet .. or poets who would recite
a relevant poem in their socl..a .,•~. political and religious occasion~.
, "r.
For instance, febdulla~h SuI taan (d.1970) ~ popularly known as Tima
':, ).~~. -.
Cadde, was the special poet of.~he Somali National League (AI-Rabita).
,:;;.; .. 1:",
Hecomposeda famous poem enti tl ed "Kaarra Siib Kaana Saar-" (Put :the
British Flag down and Raise the Somaii:Flag) on the day of independence
.,.~J:: ".
and Unity (1.7.1960)7 to ~ark this historic occasion. More
recently countless poems and songs have been composed to celebrate
'} :j ~t::.·, ':!
the victories of the force of Westenl Somali Liberation Front over
the Abyssinian invaders particularly in Guday and Jijiga battles
(June/July, 197~)o
This shows that poettcal talent remains highly esteemed even
in the modern Somali society as it had been by the ancient Somalis.
There is even an attempt nowadays to extend the application of
poetry to the teaching of arithmetic 0 "Professor M.N. A.Iin
of the College of Education has, for exampl e1 prepared Le ssong fo:::-
teaching fundamental mathematics through Somali poetry,,,5
believing "that mathematical poems and songs suit 'the African
cut tural educational context, and they also sharpen students I
interest in mathematical terminology. ,,6
The popularity of Somali poetry and the wide scope of its
social and educational utilization has been greatly helped by the
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21.
fact that the Somali language is a poe~ical language and that the
Somali people have a taste for the literary and refined use of
their language - a condition which is very much similar to that
obtaining with their kin nomadic nation - the Arabs. In this
connections it is appropldate to quote David L~tin1s :::;tatecent:
"Tho Somali language soou Ld be seen as a central ouL'c uzra.L
system. The Somalis have oeen described as a nation of bards, and
that is no exagge:r'a'tio~oPoetry, ~ecitation and singing,! wh i ch
required no heavy paraphernalia: flourish in nomadic societies,-
where art is limited by the weight a camel can carry. Somali songsf
poetry~ and proverbs are treasured by the people; and speaking
the language well han aLway s been , and still is,.a necessary
condition for political authorityo,,7
As to the beginning of Somali poetry, there is no evidence as
yet with any degree of certainty to indicate the specific dates when
Somali poetry' appeared. However, there is a suggestion that t3e
earliest Somali verse we have is a fragment attributed to Queen
Arawaylaw, who lived about three thousand years ago on the Eastern
part of Somali peninsula along the Indian Ocean. The fragment
is as follows:
Maantanafar baan maydhayaa
Hay fadhiyo geelaw
Let the camels stay iodayalso
For I am going to wash one more finger.8
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22
Although we doubt the authenticity of this composition~ we find
it well-metred and rhymed according to the Somali metrical syster.r•
While there is not much information about the development of Somal.i
poetry from medieval to contemp~rary times, the suggestion is made
that the posi tion 0 f Somali poetry in the medi eval period was much
better than at tne present time. 9
Somali poetry remained in oral form due to the fact that the
Somali language hag not been wriiten until very recently. The
Somalist who are known for their strong retentive memory preserv~d
this literary heritage. Gatherings for the purpose of holding
interesting poetical recitals are of very common occurrence in the
nomadic society of Somalia. At night, under the shining stars, the
Somali nomads assemble in great numbers and compose new poems, or
recite poems composed by their predecessors. Some members of such
gatherings could. learn by heart the recited Pgemsand repeat them
wherever,they go, transmitting them to others, thereby spreading them
to various parts of the Somali Peninsula in a relatively short period.
The ability for memorization on the part of the Somali' reciters is
indeed incredible.10 Some of these reciters could, immediately, repeat
the recited lo~g poems even if they had never heard them before,
and ev.enif their recitation had taken more than one hour , An
example of such outstanding reciter is Xusayn Dhigle, one of the
couriers of al-Sayyid Muxamad Cabdullah Xasan, 11 who, as has been
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23
reported, used to repeat his ma:3."..te~spoems immediately after the
very first r-ecLt.a't.Lon , and spread them thereafter throughout the
country. Another exampl e of such :cecit.eris Yuusuf $aciid1 an aged
contemporary poet, wno claimed in a press interview that he could
memorize any poem i~~ediately after hearing it once no matter how
long the poem was. 12
The Somali audience attending these oacasions of poetical recitals
is highly discriminating and artistically appreciative. Hence~ if
the poem recited is poor or mediocre~ it is criticized and condemned
t o 0hI"1"V1.0n.13 Because of this w e may assume that it was only the
poetry of a highly literary standard, both in content and form? that
would meet public satisfaction and enjoy preservation and wide circu-
lation.
B RECORDING THE SOMALI POETRY
As stated earlier, the Somali language remained unwritten until
very recently. Indeed, it came to have a generally accepted form
of writing o~ly in 1972, when the Somali government decreed that the
Somal1" language should be wr1".tten 1"n an adapted L"at1.n Scr1"pt. 1~ As
a result of having no specific orthography for wri ting Somali language
up to that date, So~al i poetry remained oral. How-evert up to that
time! various individual attempts were made to record this literary
production. Pe~aps one of the earliest attempts to do tnis~as
far as we know, was that of the revered poet,: al~'Say'yidMuxamad
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Cabdullah Xasan (1856-1920), who tried to transcribe his own Somali
poems in the Arabic script.15 Another attempt was that of Cali YuuSuf
Cismaan Kaynadiid who tried to invent about 1925 an indigenous
Soma1.~• scrl•p t at~rl.but ed to h1i m. (C·lsmaanl.y)ya. 16 He applied this
script for recording the Somali poetry. Others trieG to Una the
Latin script for recording the Somali poetical production. An
example of such was the attempt of Musa Galaalt a specialist scholar
in Somali culture and poetry. He published1 in 1956, using the Latin
script, a work entitled: Xikmat Somali (Somali Wisdom) 1 containing
selection of poems, proverbs and wise sayings.
In 1964, two western sch~lars~ B.W. Andrzeyewski and I.M. Lewis~
published an important work enti~led: Somali Poetry. This account~
which is up to 167 pages; contains the best known Somali poems and songs,
both classical and modern, all of them in Latin characters. One year
later, Mr. Shire Jaamac published (with his own efforts and in
Latin script) a work entitled Gabayot Mahmah iyo sheekooyin Yar Yar
(Poems, Proverbs and Short Stori es)•
Moreover, since 1972 when. the Latin sctipt was officially
introduced for Somali orthography, more efforts have been made for
recording Somali poetrYt and a number of poetical anthologies
published. These include:
i. Jamac Cumar Cissa, Diiwaankii GabayadiiSayid Muxamed Cabdullah
Xasan (a collection of poems of al-Sayyid Mu~ammad)
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25
2. Axmad Faarah Cli~ !smaacii Mirri (a collection of poems of
IsmacII Mirri, one of the Sayyid Muh.ammad's generals) •
J. Rushiid Huxamed SbabeeL, Cilrr.iBawciary (a poetical anthology of
martyr of loV~, c:ilmi Bavdari, the Poet who is said to have cUed
Ln 19'*1 because of the love of his beloved girl, Haddan.)
4. Cumar Aw Nuur, Diiwaanka Gabayada Xaaji AadBn Axmed Afqallooc
(n tloEec".:ionof poems of the late Iiajj Adam Afqallo;) 1975.17
Although: the curr-enc exer-ci ae of :-ecording the avail able
heritage of Oral Poetry i::;s-~ill in its initial stage~ it has aucceeded
to a considerable extent in achieving its aims, and there is much hope
tha~1 within two or three years, most of the orally available famous
Somali Odes will be preserved in writing.
c - THE THEMES OF SOMALI POETRY
The conventional opening theme of Somali poetry is mostly self-
praise. The Poet exalts his own bravery and genera!itYt and proclaims
a number of glorious deeds of his ancestors. He may describe hiS
poems as the stormy rain and thunder which accompanies it, as the
sqa and its waves~ and as the lions and ~eir ~Uu)r·-roar. A~r
this Lntroduct ory ·theme, the poet breaks into the speci fic subject,
of his poem.
Somali Classical Poetry? like Pre-Islamic Arabic Poetry~ or
perhaps any other nomadic poetrYl covers the conventional themes of
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love, elegy, panegyricj satire, apology and description, especially the
description of the camel and horse - the two beloved animals to the hea~tS
af Soma11.s. 18 In addition to that there is war poetry, which celebrate§
the pastoral wars between the various clans. Nowadays, such a theme
is no more popular and is already dying off 1 owing to the unifying
national awareness which has been immensely achieved in modern Somalia,
eliminating the former trib&l feuds. But all other themes still exi.st.J
~though with some changes and modifications. For example, the satire
theme1 which was previously employed against individuals and~clanst is
becoming now directed against colonial and imperialist powers) who are
keeping relunctant Somalis under their yoke. 19
D - FORM OF SOMALI POETRY
Before this generation, the prosody of Somali poetry was not studied
seriously. Hence, the basic nature of this system remained really
unknown. More recently, series of researches have been vigorously
carried out by a number of western and Somali scholars to discover
the metrical structure of Somali poetry, yet the result so far
achieved remains tentative and uncertaino Expressing the immense
difficulties that have been met over the issue, Andrzejewski and
Lewis, said (in 1964): "In our research we have been seriously
handicapped by the lack of any study of the me.Loddc and rhythmic
features of Somali poetry by a competent musicologist. Unaided by
such data, we have not been able to establish the nature of the units
of which the rhythmic patterns are composed, and we have not succeeded
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27
in arriving at any definite formulations in this spher-e , Our study
of the number and length of syllables in each line and the distribu-
tion of the accentual pattern among them has so far yiel ded very
limited and Bisappointing results.,,20
In 1979, however} two SOTali scholars, Muxamed Xaashi Dhamac and
Cabdullah Diiriye Guuleed introduced a new theory for scanning the
various types of Somali poetry. This theory suggests that~ "the
four classical yenres are scanned quantitatively, that is by counting
temporal units on the lineo They are not scanned by tone, or by
stress patterns, or by any other method." 21
Nevertheless~ we may state here that there are five main gentes
in the Somali poetry, each of which has its specific metre and poetical
formo They are Gabay, Geeraar, Jiifto, Buraanbur and Hees. Before
reviewing each of these individually (which is the subject of
Section E below), we should give an account of "alliteration" in
Somalipoetryo
The most distinguishing mark of Somali poetrY7 which can easily
be observed even by a person who dOe/!! not understand the Somal i
•language is its unique rhyming system technically called in the Somali
language "Higaado" The couplet of a Somali poem consists of two
hemistiches. The rhyming sound is at the beginning of the word, and
not at the end which is the case in Arabic poetry. To make a well-
rhymed couplet, one must provide in each of the two hemistiches at
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a8
1east one word beginning v i th the same soun d, be ita consonant or 1:1
voweL, For instance., the sound "3" is the alliterative letter of the
poem composed by al-Sayyid Muxamed Cabdullah to satire Richard
Corf'r efd ,22 In this poem, which is up to JJ line~~ there is at
Le asn one word beginning with the sound "J" in each of the sixty-:Hl<:
hemistiches, regardless of the actual position of that word iL the
hemistich. One finds at least sixty-six words beginning with t1J"
in this poemr as the following extract illustrates (tne word provid~ng
the aliteration is underlined):
"Adaa Jiitayaan, Koofiyow: dunida joogayne
Adigaa jidkii la gugu wacay: jimicla aaneede
Jahannamo-la-geeyow, haddaad: Aakhirow Jahato
Nimankii Jamno-u Kacay war bay: Jerin inshaalleeye
Jameecooyinkii iyo haddaad: Jawhartii aragto
Sida Eebbahay kuu jurrabay: mari jawaabteeda
Daraawiish jigraar nag a ma deyn: ten iyo-jeerkiidheh
Ingriis jab yoo waxa ku dhacay ~ iyo baaruude
Waxaynoo jayuunteen na Waa: Jibaasha diineeddheh
Jiqta weerar bay goor barga ah: nagu jiteeyeen
Aniga jikray ila heleen: shalay jahaadkidheh
Jeeniga hortiisay rasaas: igaga joojeen dheh"
This extract can be translated as follows:
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"You have diedi eorfield9 and are no longer in this world.
A merciless journey was your portion.
When, Hell-destinedi you set oui for the other world,
Those who have g,me to Heave,n' ""iIll--,question , you if God is willing.
1fhenyou see the companions ?f the faithful and the' jewel is of Heavi!nt
Answer them how God tried you.
Say to them! '''Fromthat day to this orre ,
The " dervis•hes I ,ne,Iver!,'c, e• aIsed their assault: s1''1upo•ri us
The British were broken while the noise of battie engulfed us.
With fervour and faith the Dervishes attacked us.
Say: "They attacked us at mid-monling.!!
Say s Yesterday in the holy war a bullet from one of their old rifle.90
struck me.
And the bullet struck me in the arm". 23
Although most of the Somali poets apply the "alliteration!!
system strictly, there are some cases which may be considered as a
violati on of thi s system. For instance, it has been obseI'ved that
some poets break the rule of "alliteration" by arranging the v,erses
# of their ~6ems according to the Arabic alphabetic order~ beginning
from Alif to Ya, and employing each one simultaneously as
alliterative sound for a number of lines. In other words, the
poem begins with "'Alif" and uses it at the same time as the
alliterative sound in the first three or four lines, then it is
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)0
replaced by "Ba'" in the following three or four lines, and by "Tav" ,
and so on to the end of Arabic Alphabet. An exampl e of such po e.n
is the religious poem composed by the renowned poet, Goorleex1 who
apparently au r-vLv ed to the first hal f of this c ent ur-y , The f'o Ll.ow inq
is an extract from it:
"Alif= Alif w axaa ka idhi Aadamaw Aakhiraa tagiyee.
I fkan ~ inaynaan hel een waad ugsoontahay!
Ajri guro daddow yaan Eblays uuba ka r1•.d1nee 24
Ba Waxaan ka idhi Eebahay Bookii baa yimidee
Niman 100 bayaansha dhigoo beeni ku matalee
Waa bari danboo aydaan heleen baydida aduunee
Bal dayaay Barwaagada Aduun wa banaan madhanee
Ta waxaan ka idhi 100 ma turo rooxii taarigaee
Tusbax iyo nin towxi id badsaday wuu ku taajiree
Tariikhdii inay soo dawdahay yay ku tiriyeen
Tukaday kob lagu taaqyaryahay yaa In. teegayaa ee"
This extract may be translated as follows~
"AI if: Oh mankind, since you are definitely? going to the Hereafter?
And since you are surely aware that you cannot for ever remain
in this world,
Thentseek more rewards from your Lord!
And adhere to the right path, so that you may not be misled
by the Devil into annihilation!
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31
Bat The Book of God has come
It waS recorded by learned men? and thereby) it does not
contain any lie or falsification.
The Day of Resurrection is com~ng nearer, and the~efore
you will never enjoy this world for a long time.
You should remember that the joy of this life will never
last; it is like a green grass fast changing into
swarthy stu1:bi6.
Ta' A person who neglects his duty to his God is not worthy of
respect!
We have received that whoever constantly used Rosary, and
realized the unity of God, will be satisfied in the
Hereafter.
It has been mentioned that the Day of Judgement is approaching.
Therefore pray to your Lord, for you Areo,heading to where
nothing could benefit you but your prayers. 25
Furthermore, a good poet is expected to use for his "allitera-
tion" !:.Ub~-ItwV€<o. lrbdost, such as nouns or verbs t and not merely particles.
~
The examples given above bear testimony to the validity of this
observation. These rules obliged the Somali poet to widen the
scope of .his vocabulary and develop a large number of synonyms.
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32
FrequentlY1 a poet may have to revive archaic words and reactivate
obsolete and antiquated ones, so as to abide by this rule7 on the one
hand, and to show his outstanding poetical ability in both content
and form, on the other. 26
E - THE MAIN GENR3S OF SOMALI POETRY
Somali poetical production could be divided into five roain
types, namely, Gabay, Jiifto~ Geeraar, Bura'c:nbur and Hees.
this classification is based mainly on the metrical structure,
average length, subject matter and manner of poetical composition
and recital. For instance~ while some genres are usually recited
without accompaniment of any musical instruments, hand-clapping, and
drumming, others are always accompanied by one or two of the above
mentioned musical means. Four of these types, GabaY1 Jiifto,
Geeraar and Buraanbur are classics while the remaining genre, Heese,
is a modern and newly invented type. Gabay, Jiifto and Geeraar are
considered as the most noble genres out of the above-mentioned
classical types, and are thereby more appropriate for important
theme. Here is a short account on each of these five genres of
Somali poetry:
(1) The Gabay
This is the longest and most popular among all the Somali
poetic forms. It could extend into hundreds of l'l.nes,:in which
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the poet must maintain the same allitaration throughouto In brief,
Gabay is the most fascinating and dominating type among' the varieties
of Somali poet ry , the "lord "Gabay" signifies loosely "thE:poetry"
even though Gabay is only one of the various genres of Somali poetry •
The term "maanso" is a synonym o.f "Gabay" but less popular and less
circulated than "Gabay" 0 Aline of the Gabay consists mo stly of 18
syllables, 12 syllables out of these represent the first hemistich
while the remaining 6 syllables represent the second oneo The
traditional custom of Somali poets is to recite the Gabay form alone
and without ac comp anjmen t. of any kind of musical Ln st r-umerrt s,
Recently some Gabay poems are recited accompanied by musico Such
should be regarded as an innovation which may have emerged under
f ore~.gn 1.nfluenceo 27 Here are some examples of this poetical form:
(a) A poem entitled "To Power Respect is Due!lI~ composed by the
famous poet, Raage Ugaas, who lived about three centuries ago:
"Sud libaax leh meel bahal salkiyo,: saymo la arkayo
Sangadh tirasbadaa legu maraa: laga ma soo saaro
Suryo Oodan meeshii surdub ah: suul hadaad geliso
Qun yar baa siddaha 100 baxshaaa: leant la ma saydh
Ninkii maalintaa kaa sita een: laga sad qaadaynin
Sawd gibin ah baa 100 ceshaa: lagu ma sooyaansholl
This can be translated as follows:
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"A forest with lions and a place where their buttocks and
manes of prey are seeno
Can only be crossed by silencing all sound s v. leaving them
unrousedo
If you catch your thumb-in the thorny thickness of the fold-fence
You withdraw your hand carefully without shaking your whole armo
Anyone who stands above you and pays tribute to no one,
Must be answered softly,. not with harsh wordso"
(b) A poem composed by the same author, lamenting the death of of
his beloved wife;
"Sida koorta yucub 00 la suray: Korommo buubaalah
Ama teel ka reeb ah 00 nirgaha: Iaga kaxaynaaye
Ama beelo kaynaan ah 00: kor u hayaamaaya
Ama ceel Karkaarrada jebshiyo: Webi karaardhaafay
Ama habar kurkji wadnaha: Lagaga kaw siiyay
Ama kaal danley gaybsatiyo: kuriyo dhaal yaabis
Shinni kaaluf galay ama sidii: koronkorro oomi
Xalay koLo Lo Lay qLd cia ladin: kaamil reer uhu e
Kunbulkiyo ardaagii mdy aa t: ~aygu kaliyeeyay
Wixii laygu kuunyeeyay may aa e igu karaamoobay
Kunbiskii miyaa layga qubay~ kolayo ii buuxay
Maanta na kataantii miyaa: layga kala qaaday
Kob abaar ah 00 dhexe miyaa: Koore ila meeray
Kub miyaan ka jabay biixiyaan: kabayo 100 haynin"
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This may be translated as follows:
"Like the yu'ub wood bell tied to gelded camels that are
r4nning away;;
Or like call1efswhich 'are being separated from their young?
Or like people journeying while moving camp~
Or like a well which has broken its sides
Or a river which has overflowed its banks
Or like an old woman whose only son was killed,
Or like the poor, dividing the scraps for their frugal meal
Or like the bees entering their hive, or food crackling in
the frying
Yesterday my lamentations drove sleep from all the camps
Have I been left bereft in my house and shelter?
Has the envy of others been miraculously fulfilled?
Have I been deprived of fried meat and reserves for lean
times which were so plentiful for me?
Have I today been taken from the chessboard (of life)
Have I been borne on a saddle to a distant and desolate
Have I broken my shin, a bone which cannot be mended?" 28
(ii) Jiifto or Masaf.o
This is a poetical form devoted mostly to ph.iLosophy , melancholy
and admonition. It is less important than Gapay and Geeraar, and
has nowadays almost gone out of fashion.' Jiifto has a number of
features in common with Gabay:' it de.aLswith serious matt eraj it
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is usually reciteq witnout ~~cpmg~niment of drumming Qr hand-
clapping. Howevert the verse of this poetical genre consists of
16 syllables with the caesura in the middle of the verse, that is
to say, the two hemistiches are, unlike to Gabay, equal in the numb er-
of the syllables.
Here is an example for the Jiifto form. It is an extract from
a long poem of 90 lines entitled "The Sayyid's Reply", written by
the nationalist poet, al-Sayyid Muxamed Cabdullah Xasan. ·This poem
is an answer to a letter from the British government. In this
letter they .first asked the Sayyid to return camels which he had
taken, and - in the second place - tried to dissociate themselves
from the responsibility for what the Italians had looted from the
Sayyido But !linthe style of a defendant stating his case before a
Somali Court of Arbitration,: the poet neatly counters each charge made
against himll,.29in the message of the British.. Here is the extract:
Ogaadeen ha ii dirint dacwad baan ka leeyahay
Warj duul haad amxaaraha: adiga kaa ma dayayee
Deyntaan ku leeyahay: dun ha iiga qaadine
Wuxuu anlga iga di10: diyo hayga siinine
Amba waa ka dabo ge1it dakanklyo qaadkee
Di~ham haddii aan kaga tago: anaa been dabaad ahe
Waxaan lea da1bahayaa·: duunkaagu wuxuu qabo
Intaad dawlad u tahays adigaa u damiin ahe
Ma waa diidi nimankaadt dabataye i soo dhac ay '! ,
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Tpis can be translated as follows:
"Concerning your plea, 'Do not incite the Ogaadeen against us,
I also have a complaint •
The people of the Ethiopi.an region look for nothing from you1
So do not press my claim against them
Do not claim on my behalf the blood money which they ewe me.
I will myself seek to recover the property and the loot which
they have seized.
Were I to leave a single penny with them, my pledge would be
perverted.
What I claim from you is only what you yourself owe me;
Since yo~ are the government, the responsibility is yours
Can you disclaim those whom you tricked into attacking me?IIJO
(iii) Geeraar:
This genre is usually shorter than the Gabay. In ancient times,
it was conventional for the poet to recite this poetical form while
on the horseJs back, but this is no longer the practice. In the
modern era~ it is more popular than Jiifto; though its circulation
is less than Gabay. Here is an example extracted from a long poem
entitled Tul 00 Culk Jooja (0 Clansmen Stop the War) by the renowned
classieal poet, Salaan Carrabay. It was reported that while two
sub-clans were about to attaek each other, Salaan Carrabay took a
posttion between them, where both ,..tli.lUl.cil~4~.h:ic~~·:C~y •.arilL -btlgan
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38
~
to recite this poem. Immediately tempers cooled, peace l--r-e st or-e.d ,
and reconciliation was effectedo Here is the extract:
"Maalintii Cumar Daahir
Is ku geoyay Cayaartiyo
.in Caloolacad joogay
Oe Meygaag Ciiden war qaatay
Waa cibaaro qabaa yoo
Belaayuu Curufkeediyo
Camalkeeda yaqaan e
Waar tblow, colka jooja!1I
This may be translated as follows:
"The day the cUmar Daahir
Cut themsleves into pieces in the battle
Of C41001at:ad. he who was +pr-e sent; then
And who also know what happened at the battle of Meggaad clidan,
Know to the full.
The horror and turmoil (of war)
And understand its real nature;
Oh Clansmen, stop the war! I3I1
(iv) Buraanbur;
This is a feminine poetical form which is composed by women and
addressed to women •.on social occasions such as wedding ceremonies.
Being shorter than the above-mentioned genres, it usually deals with
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lighter topicso The syllables of this form are between 14 and 16
with a caesura in the middle of the verseo But the distinguishing
mark of this genre is that the alliterative letter is raquired to be
identical only between the two hemistiches of Qach couplet, but not
throughout the poem, which is similar to the rhyming requirement
of the "Rajaz" in Arabico When this genre is recited it in usually
accompanied by drumming, hand-clapping, step-dancing and chorus
respondingo
The following two verses, which are recited by the female
relatives of a bridegroom during the wedding feast, are an example
of this genre:
"Ayaan badaneey 1 ayaa kuu ilal a tegay?
Ayaa kuu sheegay shan-ka-roone inan kayaga"
This can be translated as follows:
"Great is your fortune.! Who went out to seek him for you?
Who tol d you of our boy? Five times a man he is! ,,32
C-v) a.e!l d :
This poetical form is different from all the classical genres
so far reviewed in terms of metrical- structure and manner of
performanceo Its recital is accompanied by different kinds of
musical instruments and takes place before a big audienceo It
normally consists of short poems made up of a few lines, each of which
has its independent alliterationo
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While the advent of the four classical forms is not known, the
date of the emergence of this type is known; it was introduced by
Cabdi Deeqsi in 194,50 InitiallYi the dominating theme of this
genre used to be love, but now. it has developed to become the
medium of modern Somal i songs i which as a consequenc e of the
prolonged Somali struggle for liberation and unity, has come to be
involved in political themesoJJ
Here are two examples for the Somali modern songs of this genre
which are widely circulated throughout the Somali peninsula and
frequently broadcast from Mogadishu, Hargaysa and Djibouti:
(a) A ~ove Song (Knonymous)
"Hillaac bilig yidhi harraad ma ba'shoe
Muxuu hormarkaagu ii tari?
Soomaaliday caadadeed tahay
Nin caashaqay bay ku caydaa
Haddii aad dhimato na dhul baad geliyeey
Wadaad yuu ku dhaafin dhaantaada e
Yartaan u qallalay sid{iqO~i
Ka quuso miyaad i leedahay,?11
Thi s song can be transl ated as follows.:
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"A flash of lightning does not satis fy the thirst.
What then is it to me if you just pass by?
It is th~ custom of the Somali~
To mock a man who has fallen in love
When you die you will enter the earth~
Let not the preacher then turn you from your love-song.
The girl for whom I have wi~hered like a stick,
Are you telling me to despair of ever attaining7,,34
(b) A Nationalistic Song (Anonymous)
This song was composed to mark the occasion of independence
and Unity between the former British and Italian regions of Somalia
as well as the creation of Somali Republic (1/7/1960).
"Gobannimo dhowaatay
00 labadan is u geynay e
Waa gallada Ilaahii yao
Dhaha guul allee!
GUUI Allee!
Waa guulla~nay
Garaaca ciyaarta
Giddigiinna adkeeya!
Aan goynee, gam ka silya!
Guul Allee!
Guu Allee!"
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This song may be translated as follows:
"Freedom and dignity have reached us,
We have brought together the two lands.
Glory to God l
Say: "It is God's victory.
It is God's victory!
We are victoriouso
Beat the drum, join the dance!
Everyone, with all your might!
And now let us finish, cease!
It is God's victory!
It is God {s victory! ".~35
F - CONCLUDING REMARKS
This short account shows that Somali poetry reflects in one ''fay
or other, the cultural, social and historical aspects of the Somnliso
It illustrates their passions and emotions as well as their attitudes,
concepts and customso
Having been oral, owing to the fact that Somali language was not
committed to writing until recent times, it is believed that a
substantial portion of it has been losto However, the a~ailable
·Somali poetry (which has been preserved for generati ons by Somal i
retentive mtmory and is now being committed to writing) is fairly
sufficient to give us an idea about the Somali poetical talent -
a talent which must have played some significant role in their
admiration .-and imitation of Arabic poetry - the main subject of
this study.
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SECTION III
ARABIC LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE IN SOMALIA
A - Arabic Learning in Somalia
Arabic is not the indigenous language of the people of Somalia;
yet a large number of them mastered it to the extent of writing
books and composing poems in it. HenceQ there is some need he~e to
investigAte briefly the advent and spread of this languAbe in
Somalia, and t examine the'f ct'r"which led to such development.
Since Islam reached the Somali Coastal area during the seventh
century A.D. and ~~·S quently p netr ted into the hinterl nd, th
Somalis became'gradually interested in learning Arabic not only as
the language of their chosen religion, Islam, but also as a language
of an established trade between them and the Arab world. Right from
the start, Arabic was not seen by the Somalis as an entirely foreign
language, but was regarded as the language of their religion on the
one hand, and of their fellow-Arab brothers ,with whom they had very
strong traditional ties, even before the advent of Islam, on the
other. Hence, the introduction of Arabic into this part of Africa,
did not meet any resistance from the Somalis; instead it was welcomed
and accepted both as the language of the holy scripture, the Qur'an
and the language of learning and literary attainments in general.
,
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The Somalis, welcoming Arabic as the first language to introduce
literacy to them, employed their limited facilities and primitiv~
means to the siudy of the language~ its literature and culture. This
intereest in Arabic cont inued to. develop and increase throug'~ many
generations, until Arabic became almost the lingua franca of th8
Somali people _ used in literature, culture and education as wel~
as in the various types of communication, transactions, internatio~al
treaties1 and general correspondence.2
Right from the initial stage, the Somalis employedr in their
effort to learn Arabic, the following means and methods:
1. They found easy access to the required writing materials such as
ink, inkpot and wooden boards - all of w\-.;(..n were locally made and
easily availabl e for every student n
2. They tried to simplify the teaching of reading Arabic letters fo~
their beginners by adopting a method of teaching known as 'Alif l~_
Kordhabay, which means teaching each consonant together with the
three possibilities of its vocali~ation e.g. la 11 IU ;
bi bu; t"i ti tu etc.
The Somalis believe that the founder of this method was th~
great famous saint, Shaykh Yusuf al-Kawnayn, who lived in the
\"< ..
eleventh century A.D. at Dacar city, about twenty miles north of
Hargeisa, where his tomb remains honoured until today.) This method
may have been influenced by the traditional ~ethod of teaching the
.~j
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letters of Arabic alphabet in the Arab worldo However, the method
involves giving the beginners an easy start in writing the Arabic
I:.
letters by introducing them in three stageso
In the first stage, the Arabic letters are taught without dots
and vowels, e.g.:
-,J-) _ j _ ..J _ Ip...~."" Ip...-. I'?." ..-. '-' - ~ - '-' -,
In the second stage the Arabic letters are introduced to the
beginners with dotes where necessary; bub without vowels, e.g.:
»j+ -).-. J'._.;..•... - 1....-'1?"....- "P- -'(!" - I,j" - I..:-' - ,
In the third stage, the letters of Arabic alphabet are taught
with the dots and with the three possibilities of their vocalization,
e.g.:
.-Jr' \ ,,
• • •
The traditional system of teaching Arabic which perhaps was
-;
commonly used in the past, and which is still prac,tised in some
parts of the country, was that children at the age of five or six
attended Qur'anic schools to learn how to read and write Arabic and
to memorize parts of the Qur'an, for a period of three or four years
The majority of these children would often leave Qur'anic schools
after they should have memorized the whole Qur'an or most of it,
earning thereby the title of Mu'allimo These Qur'anic schools were,
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and still are, scattered allover the country, and one could hardly
find a village of nomadic Somalis without a Qur'anic school 0
Some students, having completed their education in these schocls~
pursued their religious and Arabic learning further by joining
another type of school called J~..I' C ill _~:.•r-(-.:,~;~--=~=where more advanced studie§
of Islamic law, Theology., the Hadith~ Qur'anic Exegesis and ~r1~u5
sciences of Arabic are taughto The Somali wordJK~rta? signifies
o
a group of students learning various subjects relating to Arabic
and Islam from scholars specialising in these areaso The students
used to sit in a circle with the teacher in the middle as was co~monly
practised before the introduction of the modern schooling system,
In other~ords, it was possible for some of such traditional schools
to be so small as to have only one classt in which one man ~~
responsible for all the teaching and administration of the whole
schoolo These schools were free; the teachers, or the shaykhs~
believed that it was a religious duty to teach withovut demanding
fees or any other rQwardso However, the students were free to
honour their shaykhs with gifts whenever they felt like doing 800
The shaykh did not object to anybody who wanted to join his lfirta
school as long as he was ready to follow the principles of Islam
particularly the daily prayerso The shaykh usually selected a
collection of different books for different grades, but students
were free to choose from amongst this.collection the book which
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was particularly suitable for their own standardo They did not have
something like entrance examination, admission regulations or flho.l
examinations.
Accommodation for students. in the rural areas was differe;lT-from
thd{, <tril towns. In towns~ mosques were the centres of learning while
rich families hosted those young ones who had left their homes in
quest of knowledge. It could happen that any rich family in the
town would accommodate one student or more in their own home and regard
them as members of their families for the duration of their course.
This duration used to depend on how long it took a certain student to
complete the sele~ted books or parts of books he had opted to study.
Hence~ the durati on coul d be three months if the book ~ small, 1ike
Kitab al-'Ajrummiyyah on Arabic grammar or Kit{ib Matn al-Ghayah wa al-
Taqrib on Shafi~i jurisprudence. The duration could also extend to
three or four years, if the book W1).b voluminous, like Kitib ? Al fiyatu
libn Malik on grammar or Kit~b al-Minhaj1 on jurisprudenceo
It seems that this system of accommodation, which had been
adopted to solve the problem of the students? had replaced a more
ancient system of accommodation in which the government used to set
aside special quarters for students separated from their familieso
Ibn Ba!~u~a, who visited the two main towns, ZaylaC and Mogadishu,
in Somalia in 1331 A.D., was accommodated in the house of the students
which, as he described? was well furnished and was provided with
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necessary requirements.'* Apparently, when the government quarters
became no more available~ a substitute system, whereby rich families
cared for the students, began to develop.
In the rural areas, t~e Hirta School was a mobile one.
d
Pupils moved with their snaykh from one village to anot her , spending
a few nights here and a few others there, where the villagers
welcomed them warmly. As a manifestation of joy at the arrival of
~irta, the nomads fired shots and the women shrilled. After that~
they were provided not only with accommodation but also with
essential amenities such as food and drinks throughout their stay in
the settlement. The nomadic villagers never regarded their shouldering
of this as a kind of charity, but as a social obligation for the sake
of their religion and the upliftment of its learning.
The usual practice of Hirta school was to change places
•
according to changes in seasons. One of the reasQns for such moving
about was to enable lU.:r.-sttaudents take advantage of renowned
scholars in the areas they were visiting and benefit from these
specialists by learning from· them their subjects of specialization.
For instance, in winter, these schools resort to the highlands of
the west, where agriculture, water and permanent green grass were
available throughout the year. These areas, which extend up to the
- towns of Jijiga, Harar, Balbalayti and all the villages around them,.'
soon became the seats of Arabic learning in Somalia. Students of
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Hirta schools moved to this area, not only in search of further
learning of Arabic~ but also io run away from unbearable hot ar.d
dry weather that obtained in most of the eastern areas during the
winter seasono In spring, tbe students moved back towards the east
and sGuth-east where green gra3s abound a~d fresh milk and
meat were plentiful and life in general was very pleasantn This
area now covers the towns of Qalafa, Beletween and Mogadishu~ an
area which became gradually the centre of the studies of Shafi¥i
jurisprudencey which the whole Somali people f'o Lk ow ,
The system of teaching in these schools was by operating a kind
of cur-r-Lcu Lum , which was not planned by any Ministry of Education or
any other administrative authority, but evolved merely by the custom
and traditional practice of the Somali scholarso This curriculum
was not confused as it may seemo It was a systematic one~ in which
the textbooks were arranged to meet the st anda.r-ds required at each
stage of educationo Students started with easy books such as the
primary Mutun (con~ensed textbooks)~ and moved gradually to moy~
difficult ones such as Shuruh and Haw~shI (commentaries and
8
annotations), until they went through all the required texts and
booame qualified either in jurisprudence, Qurtanic exegesis~
prophetic tradition? or in grammar and other branches of Arabic
Students. in the Hirta school, for instance, began with
B
small textbooks, which.were·written by non-Somalis in the medieval
era, like Matn al-Ghiyahwa al-Taqrlb7 widely known as Abu--Shuja-c 1
.... 1
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Saf1natu aI-Salah and Safinatu al-Naj~h on jurisprudence. As
for theologYt siudents started with Matn CAqIdat al-cAw;m and IOatn
Jawhar al-Tawhid. Students who had completed these book3 were
regarded as having comple~ed their primary education in this
traditional system of Lo ar-n Lnq , Those 'who w i s h a d to proceed fur.ther.-7
w ere required to study Kit·-ab Mulhat al- q:c:;-:-aobf' Abu- Mul}'l:ur.a.dl-Q-aSi.m
&
"A- ll al-~arlrI (d.516 A.H), Kitib Qatr al-Nadi of cibn Hish;m
On grammar and Kitab Sharh al-Q~simi on jurlspruden<:e.
When students completed these books~ they were regarded as haying
completed their 5econdary stage and .,•e.re giyen the new title "'Au" c
If the students then opted to seek fUrther learningi they would-
proceed to th~ final stage of this traditional educational syste~o
In this stage, which is a stage of special~zation7 the students lea~nt
either one of these two advanced works1 al-Alfiyyah of 'ibn Malik
with its various commentaries and Qnnotation~ {or those specializing
u _ -
in Arabic grammar~ or al-Minhaj of Ya~ya al-NawawiT with its
different commentariest for those specializing in jurisprudence. At
the end of this final stage1 the students were considered as graduates
and were given a new titl e "Shaykh" which is the highest educational
and religi'ous title in Somalia. This title, Shaykh , indicated that
those who obtained it were scholars qualified to teach and give Fatwa
(formal legal opinions).
* * * *
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Since Somali scholars have traditionally divided the spher~
of Arabic and Islamic learning into three main br-anc has, nanl<a'ly:
(1) The study of 7A~layn (the two basic sources),
(2) THe study of the 'Ahkim (th~ rules of jurispr~dence)J a~d
() The study of 'Alah C(tool),
we may now proceed to review the main sCholarly activities in each
branch and manner of carrying out these activitieso
The first, which is al-'A~layn? refers to Qur'an, the ~adith
and the study C...tnt~ring them9 particularly Qur'anic
exegesis and their cornmerrt ar-Le s, Though Qur1an comes first in the
list of Islamic sources and Hadlth ranks second7 the Somalis did not
give theil1'etl;ldythe attention they deser-v e, They had the inclination
to pay more attention to the rules of jurisprudence because they had
the common belief that the real meaning of the scripture could not
be easily understood, except by the highly specialised scholarso
The rules of jurisprudence1 on the other band, are clear and easily
applicableo However, the month of Rama~an always has been a season
of intensive Qur 'anic studies in Soma l.La, As soon as the new moon
app ear-s , the study of the Qur' an and tafsI r (exegesis) commences
in most of the mosques allover the Som~i peninsulao These studies
a~e usually attended by the regular students as well as by members
of the public. Among the TafsIr books which are then favoured ar-e e
Tafsi-r al-Jala_lyn 5 and Tafs~-r al-Bada-w~..6 As· for I}ad-i.th, w hdch
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unfortunately remains the least studied subject in the Somali
curriculum, Kit~b Riyad al-Salihfn and Kitab al-'ArbacIn al-Nawawi
o
are its main textbookso c.,
The second branch is al- 'Ahkamo This term refers to the study
of all branches of jurisprudenceo As mentioned above, the Somalis
follow the Shafi ~i school of law and therefore it is the only sy s-t em
of law and jurisprudence existing and being practised in the countryo
There used to be a significant number of jurists in Somaliao Each
of these scholars took the title of Fiqi, a corruption of the Arabic
Faqlh; hence, one could find today many Somalis who trace their
ancestors to these Faqihs and keep the title in their nameso Even
today one could find numerous jurists in a small nomadic village,
who pronounce the Shari'ah ruling on any Islamic issue, especially
those regarding the daily prayers, the fasting of Rama~an, matters
related to marriage, divorce, inheritance and penal lawo Some of
these jurists have become classical figures in the history of
Islamic learning in Somalia, such as:
10 Shaykh Jamaludin Mu~ammad 'ibn MunIr al-Zayla'i - who
died in 74:9 AoHo (134:8 AoDo);
2. Shaykh Al;1madi ibn f.Abdal-Ra~man tibn 'Umar ribn Muhammad
o
al-Zayla'I, who died in 768 AoHo (1366 AoDo)o He was a
great jurist and an outstanding poet .i.n Ar abLc ,
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53
3. Shaykh 'A~duallah al-ZaylalI - who led a Somali delegation in
a period between 1332-1338 A.D. to Sultan N;sfr Q81«wun~ tb~
ruler of Egypt. The aim -of this mission was to seek help in
their perpetual struggle against the' Aby ssi ni an enemies.
L!t:. Shaykh 'Ali libn Muharmnad tibn Nul' aLs-Dd n , ibn "Ls a al-MagdashI,
who died in Yemen in 1~53 A.D. (857 A.H.). He is the author
of Kitib 'AI-AnIq !Ala Mas~ril al-Minh~j al-DaqIqah.7
The following books represent the chosen textbooks for the
study of Islamic jurisprudence in Somalia:
i. Matn al-Ghayah wa al-Taqrib by al-Q~~i tAbu Shuj~l !Ahmad libn
l;Iusayn,and the commentary on it by al-QasimI.
2. Matn Safinat al-Najah by SalTm 'Lbn Samfr al-l}a~ary.
3. Matn Safinat aI-Salah by 'Abdullah 'ibn 'Umar al-Hadrami
$. Kit~b al-'Irshad by Shaykh rsmalII !ibn Muqri.
The third is al-'Alah (the tools). This refers to the various
branches of Arabic studies such as grammar~ morphology, philology~
rhetoric and prosody. Logic is added to this group because it is
also regarded as a tool for the ,study of,both'al-'A~layn (Qurt~n
and Hadith) and al-'Ahk~m (the rules of jurisprudence). While
o
the Somalis put up a lot of eEiorts to study the different branches
of Arabic? they concentrated particularly on the "branch of Nahw..
(grammar), which they mastered very well. There were a good number
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of NUh.ah (grammarians) who devoted their lives tirelessly to the
teaching of th1"s sub"Ject"1n SomaI"1ao Examples of these scholars are:
1. The late Shaykh 'Abd aI-Rahman 'ibn Ahmad al-Zayla'i -
o •
who died in 1299 A.H. (1881 A.Do) 8 and was the author of
H.a.digat al-Ta~rif and its commentaryo
20 Shaykh 'Abd aI-Rahman 'ibn Shaykh tUmar, an aged contemporary
scholar and the author of Nathr al-Jawahir f1 QaYidah al-ra~rif
3. Shaykh 'Ah.mad SIbawayh, who was given this title because of
his great knowledge of grammar. It was said that he memorized
the most grammatical and morphological problems ~in the
'Alfiyat 'ibn M~lik and its commentaries. He is still tea-
ching.
4. Shaykh 'A~mad RabI' 'ibn ~ajj 'Umar, who was very famous
for his memorization of the grammatical and morphological
texts such as the Alfiyah and lamiyyan al-IAffal both by
'ibn Malik. People say he used to recite them between the
Maghrib and 'Isha prayers. Like the preceding one, he 1S
still teaching and I liave personally attended some courses
in their Hirta schools.
It is worthy of mention here that other branches of knowledge
were not taught in the Hirta school intensively. Only occasionally
!)
would the Shakhs teach Kitab Mawlld al-Barzanji and Kitab Maw11d al-
Dayba II, whi ch .are the biography of the Prophet Muh.ammad and his
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55
Companionso The Shaykhs also taught some panegyric poems of the
Prophet Mut;ammad like "Banat Su';du" of Kalab 1ibn Zuhayr and
"al-Burdah" of al-Buslrl in the Hirta school.
The operation of these schools1 in addition to the availability
of local facilities for learning Arabic~ led to the spread of thiS
language to the various parts of Somali peninsula until Arabic became
finally the language of education, the language of the written
Somali literature and the official language of the Somali states
prior to the colonial erao Ibn Ba~!utat who visited the two main
coastal towns~ Zayla c and Mogadishu~ in 1330 A.D. remarked that
Arabic was flourishing there though the people had their own native
language. 9
Moreover, being the lan~age of the Qur'an and Islamic
literature, Arabic has always been considered a sacred language
which has an important place in the Somali society. It kept this
position even when the European colonialists came to Somalia and
imposed their own language on their Somali sub j ect s, The Italian
language was taught beside Arabic in Italian Somaliland. Similar
situations were to be found in British and French colonieso It is
worth mentioning here that the Somalis were very much opposed to
colonial education in general and missionary schooling in particularo
Somali religious scholars formed a rejectionist front and were
successful in convincing the local chiefs that i~ was the intention
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of the colonial administrators to change their religion and cultu~eo
They even prevented the British government from introducing any
•...
educational facilities in the British Somali Protectorate, e~cept
with a clear observance of the Islamic setting. For instance1 the
girls should go' to the school only with vei.Ls , the teachers TJwSt.
be bVDught only from Muslim countries and Arabic should be given top
priority at all levels of education. In addition, all kinds of
missionary schools should not be allowed to appear or function in
the area. 10
It is obvious, therefore, that the contribution of ~irta schools
to the development of Somali culture and civilization was immensely
significant. It spread Islam and Arabic into various parts of Somalia
and subsequently formed a solid foundation for the development of
Islamic-oriented culture, which enabled it to resist any invading
foreign culture.
Explaining the position of the Arabic language in Somalia,
Andrzejewski and Lewis said "Arabic, as the language of Islam, has
an important place in Somali life. In every nomadic village childr~
learn the Qur'an in Arabic and most of the prayers, both private and
public, are said in Arabic. Students of Muslim law and -rheology
have to reach a high standard of knowl edge in this language to be
able to read their textbooks. Men of religion constantly consult
Arabic works when" they prepare their sermons or make decisions in
matters of law or conscience brought to them. "11
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How ever , it should be made clear that the types of school so
far reviewed must have flourished in Somalia 'during the medieval
era - probably as ear-Ly as the end of the sixteenth century}
following the defeat of "Imiim IAJ;madGuray in 15l.i-J A.D. 12 which led to
ev errt ua.Lt decL'i ne of the Somali state of Adal. These type;::o;f schoo.la
remained the only system of education in Somalia until the EuropeatiS
came to Somalia in the middle of the nineteenth century and introdUced
the western system of education in a few schools which they had
established in their respective colonies. This led to the existence
of two systems of education in the country - a state which remainea
until the day of independence and birth of the present Somali
Democratic Republic in 1960.
* * *
Soon after independenc e; the Somal i government introduced the
first Somali modern system of education under a uni~ed syllabus for
the two regions formerly administered by Britain and Italy. In this
system, before any child was admitted to Governmental frimary School,
he should have attended for a period of two years~ a Qur'~nic
school at the age of four or five to learn how to read and write
Arabic, and to memorize some parts of the Qur!~n. At the age of
seven, the child was allowed to go to Government primary §chool
where Arabic was the meaium of instruction and English was taught
as a foreign language throughout its four-year edcuation.
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Successful completion of primary school led to intermediate and
secondary schools where English was the medium of instruction and
Arabic was taught as a major subject in the school curriculum.1]
But the introduction of tnis modern system of education in the
newly independent state did not eliminate the traditional system of
education, Hirta school, although it decreased its importa~ce and
o
limited its spreado Therefore Hirta schools are still scattered in
various parts of the country, particularly in rural areaso
The major contribution to Arabic studies in Somalia during the
last two or three decades came from Egypt, which established since
the fifties a significant number of primary, intermediate and
secondary schools as well as other religious institutions in various
parts of Somaliao Arabic was the medium o!:instruction at all levels
in these Egyptian schools, which were estimated to be over thirty-
eight in numbero 14 One of these schools, 'Abd al-Nasir's secondary
school, popularly known as 'allah's school, is considered to be the
best and the biggest secondary school in the country 0 Also,th~
Egyptian universities offer scholarships to the Somali students
who obtain the secondary school certificate (the Egyptian e~uivalent
of the G.CoEo), to enable them pursue higher education in
Egyptian universitieso In addition, there were some two hundred
graduate-teachers seconded by the Egyptian government to teach in
various schools in Somali Republic since 1960015
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59
In 1967, the Saudi Arabian government foundedi at Mogadishu? a
religious institution called Macbad al-Tad~mun al-'Islamf (the
Institute of Islamic Solidari~y)o It was affiliated to the Islamic
University of Medina, which offered scholarship annually to the
best ten students in the final certificate examination of this
institutiono
This situation continued until the Somali government nationalised
all schools in the country in 19720 The nationalisation deCree
brought~bout many changes; Somali language was given the first
place and introduced as the official as well as the national
language in the country. Arabic, which was to be taught at all
educational levels, was introduced as the second official language
in Somalia and remained the medium of instruction in the ex-Egyptian
schools and some government religious institutiona. However, the
nationalization of the Egyptian schools and other Arab educational
institutions affected only the school ownership, but not the
curriculum except for the introduction of the Somali language into
themo 16
Nevertheless, Arabic was not really displaced from its position
of pride in Somalia by the adoption of the Latin orthography for
writing the Somali languageo As already stated, it became the
second official language in the countryo All official documents
and reports carry an Arabic translation beside the Somali original.
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60
Arabic is a major and compulsory subje~t~ taught in all the
Somali schools up to tiniversity levelo In addition? a number of
daily~ weekly and monthly newspapers and magazines are published in
Arabic. Examples of these Arabic journals are: Najmat Oktobar
(October Star), al-cAhd al-Jadid (The New Era)o These two papers
are published by the Ministry of Information and National Guidance~
Other examples of these journals are: aI-Nidal (The Struggle) - a
monthly magazine published by the ruling party in SomaliaJ
Sawt al-Mu'allim (The Voice of the Teacher) - published by the
Ministry of Education; and the independent weekly newspaper
al-Talicah (The Vanguard) 7 which is ownedlby 'Vmar Mu~ammad 'Abd al-
Ra~man - a well-known journalist and a famous Somali Arabic poet,
who has been playing an important role in Somali Arabic journalism
since 1957. These Arabic journals are printed in large quantities.
because of the great number of their Somali readers. Radio Mogadishu
also has four hours of daily broadcast in Arabic. It is worthwhile
to mention here that all the staff of the Arabic Section in Radio
Mogadishu are Somalis, whose competenc.e in Arabic is of the same
standard as their Arab counter-parts in the broadcasting stations
in the Arab worldo
Thus one can see that Arabic has,since its coming in~o Somalia
several centuries ago, been gaining more and more influence over the
yearso Inevitably, it must, in spite of the overstressed Somali
nationalism, gain more strength by Somalia joining the Arab League
and becoming the twentieth member of this organization of countries
whose mother-tongue is Arabic.
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B - A GENERAL REVIEW OF SOMALI ARABIC LITERATURE
As we stated earlier! from the time the Somalis accepted Islam,
they took great pains to learn the Arabic language, which was very
important for proper understanding of the Islamic Religiono They
devoted their 1imited facil ities and indigenous means to the study
of this Lanqu aqc, its literature as well as to the study of the
Islamic legal and religious systemso This interest in the ArabiG
language continued to develop until the Arabic language, noting that
Somali was t)'ot !.-9ti.t.f..-.f-tt,~.et.,~,became the only available vehicle for.--- -
all the Somali written literature, and the means of preserving the
cultural achievements of the Somali nationo It also became 1 for
a long time, the sole means of education and learning in Somalilando
Althogh a good portion of Somali literature was and continues to
be in the Somali language, this literature remained oral owing to
the fact that the Somali language was not committed to writing until
19720 Thus any written literature produced by the Somali people
hasv up to that date, to be written only in Arabic. Unfortunately,
we know little about the development of Somali Arabic literature
throughout its long history, due to lack of sources. Any significant
information we have on this literature goes back only to the 19th
century.
However, it seems that the Somalis, until the last century, did
not uSe the term I~, (literature) in its technical sense (ioe.
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creative literary composition). They knew it only in its ~eneral
1exical sense which refers to good mann ers and praiseworthy quali ties 0
It appears that one of the first Somali people to use the term
'Adab in its technical sense was Shaykh Q~sim ibn MuhyI aI-Din
o
al-Barawi, who lived in the 19th century and died early in this
cerrt ury , He used theQ.o~J~£'Adlb (a man of letters) in the following
verses taken from his long lamiyyah poem in censure of Shaykh
'Abdullah ibn Mucallium Yusuf al-Qutbi, the author of Kitab Nasr
, 0
al-Mu'minln (The Victory of The Believers):
~
''-:':-----''':'!.:..J1..9 ~ '-r,;9_.....9.!l
"Greet for me Hajj 'Abdullah 'ibn Mu'allim Yusuf al-
Q;diri a dignified Shaykho
A jurist, an exegesist and a man of letterse He used to be
a heavy and solid sword of guidanceo"17
Nevertheless, there is ample evidence that from the beginning
of the nineteenth century a good number of Somalis developed an
interest in Arabic literatureo They wrote a considerable number
of literary works, although most of them poeticalo In fact, the
Somali literary prose that we know about is very little compared
with the available numerous poetical anthologies. The strange thing
is that most of the noteworthy Somali Arabic poets were also
competent prose writers; Shaykh 'Abdullah al-Qutbi said in his work
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63
Nasr al-Mu'mintn: "Surely, Shaykh IAbd al-Ra~man Shaykh 'Abdullah
al-Shashi al-Qadiri, his pupil y Shaykh Qasim al-Barawi and Shayf.(hf-Abd
aI-Rah.man son of 'Ah.mad al-Zayla·Yf were the authors of many books
on various subjects 1 both pro's.e.a.nd poetry - covering all the
poetical met~~sfl.18 We have been abl e to see a good quantity of
their poetry, but only little of their prose is available. It
appears that the bulk of their prose writings has either been lost
or not yet published. People are normally more interested in the
transmission of poetical,rather than prose, productions; hence the
bulk of their prose may perhaps have remained in manuscript formv
awaiting those devoted scholars who would research, edit and publish
them.
* * *
Somali literature in Arabic could be classified into:
1) Literary Prose: the most important Somali works of Arabic
literary prose, which are available to us, are the following
books:
(i) The first is Kitab Nasr al-Mufminln. This is the most
o
significant work of the four. It was written by Shaykh
IAbdullah son of Mu1allim Yusuf known as al-Qutbi (1881-1951).
The book consists of two parts in one single volume,
which contains up to 400 pages. ItW~published 1~L1338-A.iI{-1919 ,k.n.)
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6~
by the proprietor of the Islamic Bookshop in Mogadishu
and pr~nted by al-Mashhad al-Husayni Press in Cairou
"
It ~ edited, annotated and appended by Shaykh Mu~!afn
'Ab~ Yus~f al-Hamimls one of the learned men of al-1Azhnro
At the end of the book, there are three eulogies1 the
of'
first~which belongs to the Shaykh~ who revised the book1
the second to Shaykh ~usuf 'ibn Ismi' II al-Nabhinr~ the
~ Lebanese s~fi and the ex-president of high law court at
Beirut, and the third to Shaykh 'Umar 'Ahmad al-Sum~lij
widely known as al-1Azhari. The book was published in
series known as the Qulunqul collection. Qulunqul~ a
village in western part of Somaliland popularly known as
Ogaden, was the author's village and the headquarters of
U~rta 'Ula Madau (School of Black Staff Students). The
QUlunqul collectionCOnSlStSqf'the works of Shaykh 'Abd
al-Rahmin al-Zayla'i, the founder of this school, and the
works of his pupils.
(ii) The second is al-Jawhar al-NafIs fI Khawass al-Shaykh
'Uways (The Precious Jewel about the qualities of Shaykh
'Uwa~) 0 It was written by Shaykh 'Abd al-Rah.min 'ibn
Shaykh 'Umar al-IAllo Althogh the book is modern, its
author has followed the style of classical Arab writers.
Its first edit~on was publised in 1388A.Ho (196~AoDo)
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65
and contained 240 pages of a rather small size. Tpe ",;arkis a
general study of the life of Shaykh fUways and his poetry~ in
a style similar to the style of al-Qu!bi
At the end of the book.v there are seven poems; the longest
of which is 53 verses while the shortest is 14 verses written
by the author? his admirer and his discipleso All of them are
in praise of the author and his work.
The third book is Jala-' al- cAynayn Fi Mana-qib al-Shay~t~
(The 61arity of the Two Eyes on The Virtues of the Two Scholars -
ioeo 'Uways and al-Zaylaci). This work is also written by cAbd
al-Ra~rn~n aI-CAli, the author of al-Jawhar al-NafIs in the same
style and approaeh. It consists of two parts in one single volume?
which is up to 200 pages~ The first part, which is the biography
of aI-Shaykh 'Uways and the review of his poetical production, is
originally written by Q~sim al-Bar~wr, but it remained in
manuscript form until aI-CAli edited and prepared it., together
with the second part, which is his own writing, for pUblic¢tiono
It was also he who gave this part of the work the title of
'Uns al-'AnIs fi Man~qib al-Shaykh 'Uways (The Pleasure of the
Companion in the Virtues of al-Shaykh ~Uways). The second part
of this work is Ra~a~ al-Qalb al-Mutawallic fi Man~qib al-Shaykh
al-ZaylaCi (The Companions Entertainment of heart on the Virtues
of al-Zaylaci). This part of the book is a general review of
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66
al-ZaylaCifs life and literary output. At the end of the book~
there are two appendixes, one of which is about the author's
biography in brief, while the other is a praise of the book
itselfj b0th in prose and poetry. The book is published by
Muh.ammad 1Ah.mad and Company~ pr~•nted by al-Mash'~ad al-Husayn1.
Press, Cairo; no date of its publication is indicated.
(iv) The fourth is Murshid (The Guide). As its full title
indicates, it is about the scholarly controversjand the
religious arguments which took place in the Northern Region_of
Somalia, about 1940 when the colonial power established school
in Har-qei sa , the'capital of this region. It~~written by
Sh~ykh Ali Hajj Ibrahim, one of the contemporary Somali scho.l.ac,s
o
The book tVM published in 1971, but neither the publisher nor the
printer is indicated. It contains 130 pages. The book deals
primarily with different types of problems related to the
introduction of western education in Somalia. But it also
covers Arabic and Islamic learningt such as grammar, rhetoric
and literature, jurisprudence, logic, etc. by means of questions
and answers. At times, it also makes use of poetry. In addition,
it devotes many chapters to important literary topics
'.1i-k"eThe poetry and the poets" where the author asserts that
Islam is in support of poetry and is not against it •
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It is worthwhile to state here that beside the works we ha~e
talked about ,tl~er_.e_-aI'~a number 0 f Arabic works in history
written by Somali scholars at various periods~ The mosi interesting
one among these works? and the earl iest Somali Arabic work, which is
available to us, is Fath. al-Hab~sh (the Conquest over the Abyssinians).-
This booklN~ writtenl in 1540 A.D~ 7 by the Somali erudite au tho r, aL>-
Shaykh 'A.hmad 'Abd al-Q~dir known widely by his nickname 'Arabfaqih •
It is a narration of the perpetual struggles of the Somalis in the
medl.eval19 era especially the events of the famous defeat of ~he
Abyssinians by Imam'A~mad Guray whose forces over-ran most of the
Aby~inian lands, between 1528 and 1543. 20
There is another work of historical literature in Arabic written
by the Somali sage, 9Aydarus 'ibn Sharif 'Ali al-CAydarus 1 the founder
of Islamic Convention at Mogadishu in 1931 A.D. This book~ Bughyat ~~
'Amal fi T~rIkh al-Sum;l (The Maximum Hopes On The History of Somalia)
wDs printed in 1954, by the Italian Trust Administration Press at Mogadi-
shu. It contains about 300 pages devoted to studying the cultural~
social and political institutions of Somalia; it also provides
useful information about all these aspects of Somali history.
Strangely enough, the book does not refer much to the Somali struggles
against colonialism - perhaps this is due to the fact that it was
published during the Italian Trust Administration, which had the power
to remove any part of the book which did not meet their satisfaction •
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68
Finally, here are two significant Arabic works on the history of
Somalia in the medieval and modern era. The first work.I '+alrik'11 _al....
Sumal (History of Somalia), which was written and published by J~ma!
'Isa 'Umar, in 1965. It was printed by Im~ls Press~ Cairo. The
second is Kashf al-Sudul 'An Ta'r1kh al-Sumal'1.wa mam~l ikibi..Lal-Sab~ah
(The Removal of the Veils about the History of Somalia and their Seven
States). It was written by Shaykh 'Ahmad :Abdullah Rir~sh1 and published
by the Ministry of Information and National Guidance~ Somalia, in 1971.
It was printed by the State Agency for Press and Publication, Mogadishu.
These two works concentrate on Somali's struggles for independence
especially under the leadership of the following three heroes: (i) Imam
'Ui\laWra'lasma c. of the thirteenth century; (ii) Im~m "Ahma d Guray of the
I
sixteenth century (iii) Sayyid Mu~ammad 'Abdullah Ha§an of nineteenth
century. They also cover the Somali modern political parties which led
the unification and independence of the country in 1960.
* * *
The style of Somali Arabic prose is still keeping, to some extent ~
the features and characteristics of the style of the decadent period in
Arabic literature as one could observe easily from the rhymed titles of
some of the works reviewed as Jala" al- cAynayn f1 Man~qi b al-Shaykhayn
AI-Jawhar al-Nafis fi .Khawass al-Shaykh cUwe-.ys, and Kashf al-Sildul 'An
)I
Tarlkh al-Sumal. Somali Arabic journalistic prose: is,to the contrary~
quite modern and typically similar to the modern prosaio style in the
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Arab world. It appears that while the Somali Arabic journalistic
prose shows forth modernity of style, Cho-V'o-c.tet'l"ilc;..s oP its coun1:erpart
in the Arab worldj there are some Somali Arabic prose writers sti11
exercising the stylistic methods and manners of the decadent period.
2) The Poetry
The Somalis admire Arabic poetry so much that it han become one
of the principal aspects occupying an important place in their cultunal
heritage. Since Arabic became the medium of Somali education and
culture, the appreciation of poetical composition became co~~on and
intense. A countless number of Arabic poems composed by Somalis or
by others~ passed from one place to another, attracting the attention
of many Somalis by their selected ~oeabularies~ rhythmic patterns and
euphonical music. This sheer joy in the beauty of the words manifested
itself in various parts of Somali peninsula and subsequently led to
the development of Somali Arabic poetry. The popular tradit.ional reli-
gious dancing called Hadro or Dikri (which has been flourishing in
Somalia perhaps since the medieval era and continues tQ f'Lour-f sh ,
until the present time), has contributed tremendously to the
spreading of the Arabic poems into various parts of Somalia.
The system of this religious dancing is to recite, at a gathering
in the form of a circle, a good number of Arabic poetical compositions.
The attending congregation admire the recital so much that every one
> •
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70
attempts to memorize the poetry even ·though he may be an illiterate;
that is no exaggeration! Somalis derive a great deal of pleasure from
listening to recitation of the Arabic poetry. They enjoy its rhythm
and music even if they do not understand its actual meaning. Hence~
they developed a specific system of reciting Arabic poetry which maY1
in some cases? be accompanied by drum-beating and systematic hand-
clapping. One can confidently assert that there is no religious or
social occasion in which the Somalis do not recite some Arabic poetry.
They usually commence with poem of supplication te>- 'Allah and f'o LI ow
it by one in praise of the Prophet Muh,ammad" Finally, a poem in praise
of the Shaykh 0f the1.r reI·1·910US order 1.S. reC1 ted 210 These poems may
be composed by Somalis or drawn from Arabic poetical heritage in
general. Among the poems composed by non-Somalis which they recite
on such occasions are: IIBanat .su' idu" of the early Islamic poet,
Kacab 'ibn Zyhayr (d. 4,0 AoH.); "AI-Burda" and "Hams:iyyah" of Imam
Busiri (608-697 A.Ho);22 ai.d Taybat al-Gha~ of the contemporary
Lebanese Sufi, al-Shaykh Yusuf libn.Isma'II al-Nabhani.
As for the poems composed by Somalis for recitations on such
occasions, the following poems are the most frequently used:
(1) Two poems of AI-Tawassul ( Intercession) both composed by the
(2) A poem entitled H•~diyah al-1Ar .wah (The Singer For The Souls)•
composed in the praise of the Prophet Mu~ammad by the same author.
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71
The traditional custom of Somalis is to recite the former two poems,
usually after the morning pr-ay or-, Subh~ while the latter is, usually
o 0
recited between the t"JO evening prayers Maghri band r IShao
(3) A panegyric poem in praise of Shaykh cAbd aI-Qadir al-Jl1ani
composed by the late Shaykh Yusuf Iibn Mu~ammad al-Bakri, \.ridely
known as al-Babrayn (The Two seas)o This poem commences with the
following verse:
(jW ~ ~.J W I 0-" 1.;-.~ i .sJ~ ,~.,;. u~ u-rJ I
"Ob. Lord, throug the intercession of" .hlinI, the saviour of
mankind, Save us from the He11 f·~re and grant us our hope."2(
(4) A poem composed by Shaykh tAbd aI-Rahman tibn 'Abdullah,
o
popularly known as al-S~fio This poem, which is entitled cAlam al-
Qadiriyah(The Flag of the QadiriyyahSect) is usually recited at the
beginning of the Somali traditional religious gathering, al-ijadrOo
The following line is the opening verse of this famous poem:
.;-wn.~ ~.I ~ ' . ..ulU':! ~ *
.~ t t g-e - e 5 co. _r~e n
Abd a:;'- ., t; e re'-i-Te f t'lle re igion,
in ouz' hearts. "25
The poems are admired by most of the Somalis, not so much for the
contents but for their music and dictiono Elaborating ~t0h"e fascination
of +'he Somali peopl~ by Arabic poetry, Andrzejewski and Lewis say:
Among the educated elite, fully literate in Arabic, poets have
tUll'nedtheir talent s to the sacred langua.geo As Arabic seems to the
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Somali people always particularly appropriate in the context of
religious thought and wor-ahi p, it is only natural that most of the
poets using this language as their artistic medium have composed
hymns or didac~ic poems. Arabic hymns are kno~m by heart by many
people and in fact religious.literature in Arabic occupies a central
position in the Somali cuLtureo ,,26
Moreover1 the Arabic poetry is surrounded in Somalia by a halloW'
of religious veneration. This is even enhanced by the fact that most
of the Somali Arabic poets are simultaneously religious leaders who,
because of their strong Arabic educational background, are usually
capable oft!ompsing A~abic pdetryo It is therefore no wonder that
most of the Somali poetry in Arabic is of religious nature; it
d~&ws its religious inclination from its strong connection in the
Somali environment with the langdage of the holy Qur'~n, on one
hand~ and from the religious scholars, who compose it, on the other.
In fact, many of the Somali Arabic ~oets were, at the same time1
co~mi~ted Sufis and belonged to one or other of the two main reli§ious
Orders in Somalia, namely~ the Qadiriyyafi7 and the S.;lih.iyyah. It
was the intensive involvement of these two religious orders in the
development of the Arabic language and Islamic Culture in Somalia that
gave rise to the two rival literary schools, one representing each of
them. The general incl irtation of these two school s has been to eulogize
the Prophet Mu~ammad, .to seek the int er-c essIon of the righteous saints,
to describe :the holy places in Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem and finally
o • oj
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to satire their opponents. The most important one, among these
literary schools Is, Hirta 'u:(a ~adawf wh i ch lit erally means "The
students of Black Staff". Members of this school have always played
a prominent role in the field Qf Arabic literature and education~
They have produced a subscant La), number of Arabic and Islamic scholarly
works as well as an impressive amount of Arabic poetry. The greater
part of their poetry is devoted to -the praise of the Prophet and Shay kh
'Abd aI-Qadir al-Ji-la-ni-.-7 the founder of Qadiriyyah Order~ which is very
popular in Somalia and is perhapS the earliest Sufi Order to appear
.n the country..28r The S.alih.iyya.. on the other hand~ is another rl~al
sect which has always been :z:.ealouSlyandactively involved in political
and nationalistic activities. Hence their literary output is less
important than the Qadiriyyah. Members of the S.alih.iyyah Order
represent the reforming and revolutionary converts. They hay~
often engaged in prolonged polemics with their Qadiriyych counterparts.
They consider members of the Qadiriyyah sec~ as more conservative and
dogmatic.
* * *
Having reviewed the works of a substantial number of Somali Arabic
poets,one-C9uldObserve that the quantity of their poetical output
varies between three thousand verses for the most prolific amongst
them (such as Shaykh cAbd al-Ra~ma:n ibn 9Abdullah, k;t~wn.wi.delyas
~ajj Su- fi; Shaykh cAbd al-Ra~ma-n ibn lA~mad al-Zayla c-i"; Qa-sim al-Bara•.wi,
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and Shaykh Yusuf aLs-Bah r-ay n ) and two hundred verses for the occasional
composers like 'Uways a~-Barawi.
Taking the bulk of the Somali Arabic poetry as a whole~ we may
discuss the following aspects of it:
a) The Cont ent of Somal i Arab ic Po~t[y:
Most of the Somali Arabic poetry is s i.mpLe, conventional and even
superficial. It centres almost around one main theme which covers the
praise of the Prophet and hiS Companions, the description of varioUs
parts of the Islamic holy landst and the intercession through th~ saint~,
especially the founder of the Q~di riyyah Sect 0 The 1inks between various
verses in one poem are usually very weak. becau s e , as is the case w Lth
Arabic poetry in general,·each line represents an independent unit~
which could easily change its position in the ode without any
significant effect on its content. It is hard to find in Somali Arabic
odes a line which is structurally connected to the previous or following
lines. Among these rare oases are the :following lines of Qasim al-
Bar~wi:
)I~ ~~J W. L.z 0~~..!J * '--J~~~I ..ub <.$,jJ I ~
)4S.,J I ~ .•.•,J I .r.J' ~ ...Jj c....-9 * l.-.ro .r..>JL -ss I.r.JI UJ-f) ji
"By the right of Him, who has rightly guided you and given you a
healing love and weighty wisdom.
You should remember al-Bar~wi's goodness whenever you arise to
pray to Him who is chari tabi e, beneficent and reI iabl e t r-uat.e e , ,,29
The Somal i Arabic poetry has been infl uenced tremendously by the
literature of decadent period, particularly the popular panegyrical
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poems of the Prophet. Especi ally influenced in this regard have been
the works called al-Mawilid al-Nabawiyyahby such authors as al-Barz3nji,
, c
anI! al-Dayba i. The word Maw~lid is a plural of
Mawlid which is mainly a biography of the Prophet wri tt en in a form
of rhymed prose or in poetr-y"and injected with a great deal of
exaggerations and fabricated stories. Such work is usually recited,
in a large audience, on the occasion of the Prophet's birthday or any
other re1"1"910US or soc1.al oCcaS1.0n. 30 While there are no less than
forty different works of this type, each called Mawlid, it is only the
M~a..w...l;.i...d..;..S...h.;.a~;r..a,;;f;;....a...l.;.!;.;A;;n..-~.;m.;.;.;~, M"a. wli-d -al-Day-ba_C"'"l (both written by cAbd
aI-Rahman ibn al-Day-baCi al-ZabIdi do1537),31 and Mawlid al-Barzanji
(do1766}32 that are most popualar in the Somali peninsula. These three
Mawlids are combined in an anthology called MajmuC Mawalid ShaTaf al-
'An~m33 (The Collection of the Birthday Accounts of the Glory of the
Creations).
In fact, the impact of this literature on the development of Somali
Arabic poetry is tangible and incalculable •. It goes so deep into its
most characterl,rtj.fceatures such as meaning, imagery, and iIIuf!ltrationn
faften enough, Somal i Arab ic poetry quot es direct ly from thi s
literature. As a result of this impact, the Somali Arabic poetry is
full of exaggerations in exalting the personal ity of the Prophet as
well as that of Shaykh cAbd aI-Qadir al-JII~ni' whose order the majority
of the Somalis follow. Here are two lines by al-Z~ylaCI to illustrate
the degree of that exaggeration:
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*
"Oh the messenger of 'Allah~. I have no other protector but you who
protects me from terrible calam i t.y ,
Nor have I, Oh the beloved one of 2Allah, any shelter to which I would
take refuge asainst the enemies, except you ,,,34
It is clear that al-Zayla c·i in these two lines was imitating
the following line of al-BuStrf:
~'~..JWtJ~
I\..,:: 1-, II <," L
!.j' !.~ ry ..
"Oh you, the most nobl e one of the creation, I have none to take
refuge with, except you, when': the overwhelming calamity hitso ,,35
Another example of this exaggeration is the following line of
al-Zayla c-i too:
~..9 U~..9 cJ""'Y" t'" r..J ~ *
c•• ".......;.J:-!..9~w, u t5' \.., d ~.r-1..9
"If it were not for Him, God would never have created Khalil, Yunus,
Adam, Moses, Jesu sand -.eIu: b ac 0" 36
Certainly, al-ZaylaCi was copying the following verse from the
Mawhid of al-Barzanji (where the difference between the two lines are
confined to changing the positions of some words and using the word
Jubac instead of Mulk SUlayman)37:
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As for the exaggerations about al-JIl;nI, Somali poets composed
a considerable number of Arabic poems eulogizing this religious saint
and enumerating some of the Karamat (miracles) that are attributed to
him, in spite of the fact that most of them were fabrications.
Some of these incredible miracles are mentioned in the following
extract:from al-Qu!bi Is long poem entitl ed al-Naf~ah al-Miskiyyah
(The Musky Smell):
+ ~'-I} o- rSJ rS
sl_lJl + J~~~ ~~
sl ;.;,J I rf ~ 4b.; )Lo r-rd
;:
sl .f ~ 'il i~ ~ +
+ ~ 1~~>~.D..:: .J.9
l..J.~..c..r--- ..l.S
J~l ($.) Ie w 5
"Oh you, .the possessor of numerous miracles and many praiseworthy qualities.
How could I reach up to you while I am still in dire thirst?!
How many a thief that had through you becoae a great.aint in spite of
his resolve to commit the sinful act!
The feet of Him (Jilani) stands higher than the neck of all other saints
He has walked a series of steps openly in the space
He has even n~.ne t.vy-sn~ine names. 38
Which are as effective in having prayers accepted as the names of the
One to Whom glory belong s. ,,39
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Apart from this, Somali Arabic poetry has many things in common
with the Arabic poetry of decadent periodo For instance, Somali
Arabic poetry goes to excess on the ornamentation of the style~ with
the selections of allegorical e~pressions, and in quotations, Poets
give more attention to these and less to the contents and meanings
of their poeti c compositionso As regards quotations, some poets go
to the extent of quoting a full hemistich or even a complete line and
inserting it in their own poem with little or no changeo An example
of quoting the hemistich could be seen in the following verse of
cAbd al-cAzi-z al-'Um&Wi al-Bara-wi. (do1896 ) :
...~ r.;.
"My Lrrt errt f on is to -seek, through the intercession of the Saint, al-
Maghribi, the vast mercy of Allah for anyone aiming for the sea
belittles the rivul ets 0,,40
The second hemistich is a part of the following line composed by
al-Mutanabbi, in praise of Kafur:
"---c d J~I ,t .0.9 tS'J.~ Jr
"Those who are proceeding to join Kafur will be leaving all II 41ot he r s , 0 0
As for quoting the whole line, the following verse of al-Zayla c·i
in praise of al-Jilani is an example:
~
:I( (' rJ.o utSJ rl.;)'1 J19 uLS
"If he has surpassed all human beings, while he is one of them (it
should not surprise anybody
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Since Musk is surely part of the deerls blood~42
This is almost identi cal with Mutanabbi' s41-:.yer-se in prai ae of
Sayf al-D-awla:
~
f~ -.:...1..;9; r \.;';J 1 ,ji;' 01$
It is common to find in the Somali Arabic poetry more than one
simile in one line as in the following verse of al-Zaylaci:
"He (i.e. the Prophet) is like a piece 0 f purest gold, and the
Elixir of our hearts,
"He is a curative balm for every calamityo,,44
Apart from simile, Somali poets have resorted to the use of the
traditional rhetorical types, but with obvious artificiality and
little,originality.
However, the Somali Arabic poetry is on the whole "\Cerysimple,:::
clear and true reflection of the nature, education and environment in
which it is composed. It contributed a great deal to the spreading
of Arabic because the Somali system of recitation attracted many people
to memorize the poems and subsequently led to the development of their
interest in the langilage of these poems. It contains some important
historical data and information about the Somali nation. This
poetical piece, for instance, s~e~ifies the Somali boundary
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during the reign of 'A~mad Guray (do15~3 AoDo) which stretched then
from Mogadishu in the south to the Nuba land in the north, and from
the Red Sea in the east to Gojam in the west:
*
*
"Then you have returned wit h your army from Mogadi shu to Nuba Land s,
After you have wonde.red the vast distances, then you have settled
down in the middl e of Go j am ~5s "
Perhaps, it is not fair to expect a Somali Arabic poet, who grew
I the..
up in an extremely tradit ional society whi ch cons idersVArabic poet as
a great saint, to break away from imitating the traditional heritage
and to introduce a completely new and original poet.r-y ,
b) The Form of Somali Arabic Poetry
The general structure of Somali Arabic odes seems to have been
influenced tremendously by the conventional Friday Sermonso As a
result of this, the opening theme of these poems is no more
the erotic prelude used by the classical Arab poetso Instead, the
Somali Arabic poems begin mostly with the popular Islamic formulae,
such as Bismillah (in the name of cAllah), al-Hamdulilah (praise be
to Him), al-Salat cAla Mu~ammad (blessings be upon Mu~ammad)o They
may also be started with praying to Allah and seeking the interce-
ssion of his Apostle and righteous saintso This religious introduction
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has been systematically maintained by the majority of the Somali
Arabic poets regardless ~f the themes of their poems. Here are
some examples:
c
..i!J>'.J I J \.90"' U '-~ *
c
'--~.: II., uy.\ I.,.:: ':J f'~ )~ PL-!:. .J 0 I : J \.90" uk ~~ I
.•.-... d.-. .',,-c>:; (' I}J I J 'II:; .J--o..~
"I be@Jinmy poem in the name of 7 Allah and with thanks to Him, praying
Glorified be God, who said: pray to me Oh you my worshippers!
I invoke blessings of 'Allah upon him who said: your prayers will be
a treasure in the Day of Judgment, when nobody would be in a
position to recognize any loyalty.
I pray for Muhammad and the noble Family and Companions, through my
love to them I hope to achieve all my desires from you. ,,'*6
(ii )
"Oh my Lord, through the intercession of Jilini the saviour of mankind,
Save us from the Hell fire and grant us our hope. ,,'*7
After this opening theme, the Somali poet proceeds to his main
theme. Some poets, however, arrange the verses of their poem according
to the Arabic alphabet. The first line in such a poem begins with
'Alif, the second with Ba and the third with Ta, and so on, up to
the last verse which begins with Ya , Thi s is an unnecessary additional
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imposition, as if the requirement of the m~tre and rhyme are not
enough! Here is art exampl e taken from suppl icatQ""'<p!otem composed
by Haj j ~ufi:
~I
~ *L..19 ~~.. t * .
'.I)'1--.-'•
* d--JW ~1..9 ~l.....Jt tY <..S~~ .. ..
~ ..l..t I d_---..: I$' r:.$>,Cb I 0:f 11\ us- ~~ * '-- ..•a.•l•):~9C,) l~..9~ 6_-':; ~ ~
"Oh my Lord accept the prayer of a worshipper who supplicates ta
you and comes repentantly and submissivelyo
He sought a continued charitable gift from your immense generosity
for he took you as his entire shelter, Oh the grantor of prayers.
He recited, believing it, the verse which signifies that you will
answer whoever supplicates to you, realizing your response
'to the devoted an db'su m1SS1.veo '*8
He indulges in sins, continuously, and never wo rsbLp s like the
devoted worship~ers, and says farewell to sleep.
His sins became so plentiful that they have exceeded all other
people's sins for whenever he abstains from one sin he is
attracted into another as the sins were found for him aLori e,,,'*9
Finally, the poet, concludes his poem with the supplication to
'Allah to shower his mercy upon the Prophet, his F~mily~ Companions
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and the generality of the Muslimsn He may mention his name, the name
of his poem, the poetical metre he used and the date he composed his
poem, using the numerical value of the letters of the alphabet.
* * *
Coming now to the prosody of Somali Arabic poetry, we would like
to state that Somali Arabic poets have always shown a great concern
about poetical metres. As a result of this, most of their poems are
well rhymed and metrically balanced according to the rules of Arabic
prosody. Somali Arabic poems are composed not only on the si~teen
metres but also on the different varieties of each metre. For instance
the famous poet, ijajj ~~fi had composed poems on all the sixteen metres
and their various branches such as Mashtur, Majzu-' and Manhu-ko 50
Moreover, the Somalis invented a specific musical metre for
everyone of the sixteen metres where, if one applied them one could
easily discover the metre of any line without any need to discover its
poetical foot through TaqtiC (scanning). These musical metres
simplified the science of prosody for the Somali students.
It seems, howeveri that some Somali Arabic poets have occasionally
attempted composin~ poems on non-canonized metres. Both al-Sayyid
Muhammad cAbdullah Hasan and 'Uways ibn Muhammad al-Barawi have used
• 1 1
non-traditional metres. In fact most of 'Uways's poems are composed
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on non-canonized metres, as can be seen in his poetical anthology,
al-Jawhar al-Nafis fi al-Shay.kh 'Uways, Although ttle majority of Somali
Arabic poems are composed on mono-rhyme form, as we have stated earlier,
there is a substantial number of these poems which, like their decadent'
counterparts in the Arab world, are multi-rhymedo One popular form
of this is known as al-TakhmIs, meaning that each stanza in the poem
contains five hemistiches, the first four of which are rhymed while
the last one is on different rhyme like the fifth part of every stanza
in the poem. Hajj Sufi is the first Somali poet, .w.ho, as far as ,we
know, composed on the form of Takhmiso But the leader of this trend
in Somalia is, without any doubt, Q;sim al-Barawio His poetical
anthology contains nine poems, and only one poem out of these is mono-
rhyme, while all the remaining are composed on Takhmis formo
Somali Arabic poets have not so far been influenced by the new
poetica.ltrend towards "Free Verse" which is currently popular in the
Arab world propero
c) The Themes of Somali Arabic Poetry
The main themes in Somali Arabic poetry could be identified
as follows:
First - Panegyriq: This is the most popular theme in the Somali Arabic
poetryo Indeed, more than 90% of Somali Arabic poetical output falls
into this theme, Again, overwhelming majority of Somal i Arabic panegy-
ric poetry is devoted to the praise of the Prophet of Islamo Yet a
;'
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few poems and poetical pieces are found in praise of other leading
personalitiesf such as the praise of Imam 'Ahmad Guray after hi~
great triumph over the Abyssinians as mentioned earlier (aection one
part one). The au~or of these verses is not known:
e Co Co
J-'sWI ~j f~1 uJSy-A:! ~ ~I .J....,.,I~ l..s.r": ..J~I t,*
)1_-----5 j ~.? t, d-!.) \.t!,I~L~~I Lq-:{u. uI~ .n,JI* ~ ..J)4JI \,;;...-!-7'
)I~\.:j L;-J-' ~I ..o•..!.,... JS_"", 0'" L~I.) }L.--.J I* e::o c.~i r:
,.
,
)!_~I ~ rL.:..'y'" J:>-""3 d :I( Lr-D tJ'L.i..!1 ~ lo ~ 0'"
~I •. 9 L ~.;~'j -I f3 "S13 :I( LJL-..la }l.....AJ1 ~ l.TWI \,;;...L;
)4W1 r~...a..ll ~I .,~ s.';j r-' :I( 15)L-"", .s;.\.,)-'"" ~ ~ ';:'''''''
)! :.40,10 ~ J" ...•j•. r.~I ~ :I( ~jj) ~ .. .) lAJl tJ '-:y-,eJ Ij
)! ~..L9Cb- .. 'j ~I :I( I.·.• ••.• t.,J uI~ :>.J I~ ~ 0~\"~lj
"Oh tAhmad Gur ay , the lionof the war, you have not been sleeping
or eating[until you have achieved your aim.)
You have wandered on horsesJback over vast distances to control and
thereby God has given you what you have requested Him.
Then you have returned with your arms from Mogadishu to Nuba Land.
After you have wondered the vast distances, then you have settled
down in the middle of Gojam.
The Abyssinian leader had run away with his army leaving behind
Oxum and Arateriao
You have followed them like a strong current water up to the next
morning.
I
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The smite at the h~Qds of the unbelievers continued until the
darkness of the midnight stopped It ,
The Somalis, wearing the gown of war, were ridding their horses
(in this war)until the; have reached the middle of RiYer Nl.leoH51
While the metre of this composition is al-Kamil, it is full of
metrical errorso
As for the poems devoted to the eulogy of Prophet, the poet
normally expressed his love for the Prophet, his family and his
Companionso He may also describe the holy cities of Islam especially
Mecca, Medina and Jerusalemo Other places such as.those known
historically to have been battle-grounds like Badr, tU~ud and ~unayn,
may also be descri bed, The poet may refer w i th veneration to the
special places where the Prophet is known to have been born, grew
up and received his early revelataon, as well as the persons who
looked after him in his childhood particularly his wet nurse, Halim£h
Dint 'Abu Dhu+ay d al-SaCdiyyao52 TJ;le poem may be concluded tvitl.,
prayers for the Prophet, His family, His companions and His sincere
followerso The oldest prophetic panegyric in Somali Arabic poems
goes back, as far as we knowf to the beginning of the nineteenth
century 0 Since then, this type of poetry has continued to flourish
in Somalia until todayo The following factors may have contributed
to this:
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(i) Since the midale of the nineteenth century, the Europeans
with their Afr ican agencies did not only colonize the Somali terri-
tory, but also divided it among themselves without any regard for the
people's will. The Somalis, particularly the Qadiris who produced
a lion's share of this poetr~, believed that what happened to their
country was because of their sins. They thought that only through
honest repentance to 'Allah and seeking the intercession of his Prophet
and the righteous saints could they be helped to overcome this
immensely terrible calamity. This is clearly ref1ected in the
following poetical quotation from a poem originally composed by ~ajj
S,ufi, and written its Takhmis by Q;sim al-Barawi:
*
*
"Successive waves of famine continued ostensibly to hIt 'uS
7
And our enemies surrounded us, ready with their spears.
The Islamic faith grew weak, and maYbe its weak~eBB in~reA~ed,
No hope left for us except to be given a refuge from you to us.
And to have loud collective supplication and prayers in all villaues.1I53
(ii) As a resul t of colonial policy of divide and rul e:
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the foreigners governing Somalia aimed a~ inciting communities and
tribes against each other. Hence disorders prevailed in Somalia,
tribal wars spread allover the country and security became almost
completely lost. This created a grave situation of helplessness which
led to self-surrender and safi dev.o'Iton , Such a climate was
conducive to the proauction of this type of literature. The poetical
extract below may illuminate the Somalits view of their grave situa-
tion created by the colonial unbel ievers:
~
CJ...oI.,9 ""y:'> L-) I'.r.:"'- ..J.-..>I ~J
r.5 La..:...lI
J 4$'1y- ~ '~J
e e
..J o~ l;..J~ l? ('"1L:I3 ~~ (""t""1...
CI' S1vI)-'.) "":'J
f'"i I) '.,9 rlbJ ~..J l)J.!>o "":'J
~~ ~~ l;;l~ti-
C'
...l:!1 "":'J
"Oh my Lord settle all conflicts among the people, and instead
estabI ish peace and harmony between them through the
intercession of Muh.ammad •
Oh Lord destroy the Christian's ships and annihilate their seaports
r and commercial centres through the intercession of MUhammad.
Oh Lord stumble their feet, twist them and then expel them from our
country thruugh the intercession of Muhammad
Oh our Lord destroy their houses by fire and then eliminate them
from our lands through the intercession of Muhammad.
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Support our leader Oh my Lord and guide him as well as the group of
guidance to the right path through the intercession of Muhe,,;uma 54ndo
I
A number of panegyric odes praising the Prophet gave rise to
exciting stories which made the composing of such poems very
desirableo As these stories spread over a vide area in Somalia, they
undoubtedly attract ed the attenti on of the peopl e and encouraged them
to imitate such odeso One example of this is an ode entitled
Hadiya al-'~rw;h (The Singer for the Souls~ of al-ZaylaCi which was
said to bring anybody who read it between the Maghrib and clsh~~
prayers plenty of sustenance from where he would never expecto 55
Another example isMirg~t al-Wus~l~ which was reported to have
caused the author to see the Prophet immediately after composing ito
Perhaps, the most int eresti ng one among these stori es is the story
of a poem called Ru~ al-Masarrah by 'Uways, ibn Mugammad al-Barawi
in which he claims tha~ he had seen the Prophet in a dream as Can be
seen from this quotation:
f L_-i.J' ~...jJ.•~.•, d-b3~ •••
~
f L_......; ~ I "-J:-' 0'" ~.,.-.3 •••
...
•••
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"I have seen the Prophet in a dream in his holy Mosque, the best pLac e,
The dream occurred on the night of Thursday, and un~ountedly i~ was
a prQeious gift from the Lord of mankind.
His face was shinning like a fullmoon! and that was, undoubtedlY9mY. ai~~
He was sitting among large audi eric e, and the peopl e were hehind
him in crowdso,,56
The most prominent poets of this theme are:
(i) The late Shaykh cAbd aI-Rah,man al-ZaylaCi, the f:ounder of
Hirta 'VIa Madaw (1881 AoD)o
(ii) The late H.,ajj S.ufi, who as we stated earlier, composed poems
on the sixteen metres and their various branches (do190~)o
(iii) The late Shaykh YUsuf 'ibn Mu~ammad al-B~ri, widely known
as Yusuf al-Bahrayn, who is said to have composed the same
number of poems as' the number of the chapt ers in the Holy
Qur1an, that is 11~o
(tv) The late Shaykh 'Uways ibn Mu~ammad al-Barawi,(d~ 1909)0
(v) The late ShayRh Q;~im al-Barawi, the famous poet in the Takhmis art
Secondly - Satire: The satire theme in Somali Arabic poetry has
also a religious character. The poet does not write a satire about
anybody except because of defect and imperfection in his religious
standing 0 AI-Qut•bi, 'Vways al-Barawi and al-Sayyid Muhammad•
cAbdullah Hasan are considered the leaders of this poetical theme •
•
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AI-Qut.bi and 'Uways Is satiric poems are directed completely
against the Salih.iyyanOrder in general and al-Sayyid Mu~ammad"
cAbdulla ~asan, the leaaer of this secX in particular. Al-Sayyid
would then give them a long satiric rebuff. In fact! a great propor-
tion of al-Sayyidts long mimiyyah ~oem~ which we will talk about later
(section III part II)~ has been devoted to satire the spokesman of
al-Qadiriyyah Sect, al-Shaykh cAbdullah al-Qutbi. Neverthel ee s ,
the poetical.quotation below illustrate the Somali Arabic sat ded c
poetry. It is extracted from a satiric Y;'iyyah poem of 34 lines.
The first 22 verses of this poem are composed by 'Uways al-Bar;wl,
while the remaining 12 verses are added to the poem by al-Qu~bi after
'Uways was assassinated by a band of S.alih,iyyah Order in April 1909.
Here is an extract, translated by Martin:
~ I..J ,s,,- J5' 0" (""t'"1 <-..J9~ '..9 *
d~ Ll,~;J 1 ~L,!, <J ~ ':J *
d .:'" ~I ~ f"I~ 1.9 JW '.9 * '-- __ 0 l"",,$!,,-,J I oS- L...J u~-:~ 1 ~
c\ .t0l;--~I ~ ~'..9 <L..illl) f.99----.J-l •,q,•jJ..u. 'J"J ...J 1 U~.9
6---:i~ ~ l) 0.r-J-...~ ':J ,..;. ':!l .!~ l) c- L...o t':1~~JS..-
d .::U,J15' LW.~I ~~...., *
d .I-:)Ii] 1 r-~ '.n-~.l.;) I..J ,.; * J '--~ ~ I 0.9~.9
dQ" 'l!".::>-e- Ii .••. 1 •.3...,;~l) .J- .d' j ~~ ~.r~ ~ 0.9-1 " i....:.9
v I"
C
dQ" __ ~.:..:.~ o- J~I 0~~·~~ t .:' 5 ':J M"'"1~ 0~
6'_o!l-' -- •••••: t;5' ~ F"f--"''''j-.<.J;. ,.f.,Y-'(-'1' \ 0~_.9I~;'
cc
.!11'-_0 .",,-,~J1 ~ J.~ * a; 1111 ~t; ,~\S
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* .: ":ft.J ~ "'-' c.~ r-rJ
~;'O"., * \,9~I:>J ~ 0.6J I 0.9..J~';j
w..I..,'·r"-"II· "-I.J'" d I * :";;..J~ I <f ..J ~ i I~ iJ 1.,J..b
*
"Blessed are Muhammad and His lfamilyo
Turn to them in every evi1 calami t.y ,
The person guided by Muhammad1s law (revealed to him by Allah)
ViII not follow the faction of Satan
Who deem it lawful to spill the blood of the learned
Who take cash and women, too: they are anarchists.
They hinder the study of sciences
Like law and grammaro They are Karamiyyao
To every dead Shaykh like al-JII~nI
(J
They deny access to God, like the Janhiyyao
They donIt pray behind Imam with big shock of httir.
Their characteristic mark is shaving like wa:h~_D;-_~~Vy()..h
Publicly, they sell Paradise for cash
In our land, they are a sect of dogs.
Havtng permdasLon , they secluded with women not belonging to
their families
As they are their own mothers, which is nothing but fornication
They follow their own subjective opinions and not book of ourso
Yet they claim that .1.theyfollow the light of God from nothing.
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They do forbidden word and deed at their Dhikr which definitely
lead to unbelief
Like their game of saying "God?"
As they are in doubt of Him2 God is above that. They
are the people of Hell.
Great clamourthey make, a moaning and groaning
A noise like the barking of curs
In divorce cases they augment the oaths
But they abridge the religious ceremonies
They have gone astray and make other deviate on earth
By land and sea among the Somalis
Have they no reasoning or under.standi•ng?
Be not deceived by t hem , but flee as from a disaster. ,,57
Thirdly: Correspondence: The Somalis have used the Arabic poetry
for the purpose of correspondence and personal contact. They
follow in their poetical correspondence, the traditional system of
prose letters, beginning with the name of 'Allah and the prayer for
his Apostle. Thereafter, they proceed to the object of the letter.
They would finally end with prayers and greetings to 'relatives
and friends etc. The traditional practice, in such correspondence
is to compose the reply on th e same rhyme and metre of the letter;
failing to follow, strictly, this method is regarded as a sign of
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lack of poetical abilities. The" following two lines; which are
the opening verses of one of the Somali letters in versel illuminate
some of their eu s t.oms in such poeti cal correspondenc e:
'-'"-'---.,...0 d..l ' J .. ~ ~ * d)\_ a I~ 6..lJ I
~ (~
~ I~I
co
t'"~':11 ti.J If <...SJ e L.•.. ~.b * ('J :WI f.;-S~':11'-' i..;,:.. u-li
"l begin in the name of ' Allah and prayers
For Mu,hammad (the Prophet) to whom goes all my offerings
I am sending this letter the most respected (friends)
Who is the most honoured and intensely respected and whose
position is the most glorifiedo,,58
This type of versified letters must have been so plentiful in
Somali Arabic poetry that one of the wri t ers cl aimed that the
poetical letters between him and his friends would fill a separate
volume.
Finally, Somali Arabic poetry may occasionally deal with other
poetical themes such as elegy, boasting and asceticism. Becuase of
the scarcity of poetical compositions on these themes we regard them
less important than the three major themes just reviewed and
exemplifi ed.
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PART TWO
S-ECTi0!1'-r
SELEC~ED SOMALI ARABIC POETS
I~trod~ctory Remarks!
Since Arabic became an established language in Somal~a, used
as a medium of learning and literary expression1 the poetic heritage
of ~he Arabs coming to Somalia from the Arab world became a subject
of admiration and a focus of attention. With the Somalis being
themselves highly talented in poetry~ and with the obviously strong
connection between Arabic and the Islamic faith of the Somali
people, it could not have taken a long time for Arabic poetry to
gain the affectionate veneration of the Somalis. Such affectionate
admiration and veneration led the Somalis to attempt to emulate Arabic
poetry. It was therefore only to be expected that Somalis would allow
the logical process of Admiration, veneration and emulation to
complete its natural course~ leading thereby to the emergenc~ of
Somali Arabic poetry. This process may have been enhanced by the
fact that while poetry produced by the Somalis in their indigenous
language could not be preserved in writing? the poetry they produced
in Arabic could be written down. This allowed Arabic poetry to be
further revised and refined, giving it thereby wider circulation and
almost eternal 'pr-eser-vat Lon ,
The Somal is have produced a considerable number of poets who
composed in Arabic. UnfontunatelYf we do not have as yet any reliable
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records of the names or poeti cal productions of those poets t.h at
appeared prior to the nineteenth century.
With the coming of the nineteenth century 1 however~ a good
number of Arabic poets began to emerge in various parts of Somatia.
Many of those poets devoted themselves to the mastery of Arabic and
to the cultivation of a high degree of poetical excellence. The most
Dlustrious representatives of these are the following six poets.
i . AI-Shaykh cAbd al-Rah.man 'ibn 'Ah.mad al-ZaylaCi (d.1881)t
the famous poet and the erudite scholar who is said to have
written thirty-eight books in Arabic. He founded Hjrta ~Ula Madaw
School, a school which contributed treme."1douslyto the dissemination
of Arabic and Islamic learning in the whole of the Somali peninsula.
Section 1 of thia part is devQ£e6·to this poet.
2. Al-Shaykh cAbd al-cAziz 'ibn cAbd aI-Ghani al-Barawi (dc1896)~
a historian, a Chif QadI and an important adviser of al-Sayyid
Khalid'ibn Barghash, the ruler of Mogadishu (1871-1888). He is the
author of Namusi~~~~;,poemwhich is regarded as one of the most
1
important and longest Somali Arabic poems; it consists of 135 verses.
3. AI-Shaykh cAbd ai-Rahman 'ibn cAbdullah 'ibn cAbd al-Rahman~
widely known as H.ajj S~fi (d.1905). He is regarded as th~ most'
prolific Somal i Arabic poet and as a master of Arabic prosody. He
is credited with having composed poems on all the traditional sixteen
metres of Arabic prosody and their varieties. Section II of this
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studY'is~devoted to this poet.
4:. AI-Shaykh' Uway s 7 ibn Muhammad al-Barawi (d.1909), a Ie.Clder
of the Qadiriyyah Sect~ not only in Somalia but also in all
other islamized East African communities, such as those in Zanzi.bar-,
Tanganyika and Comoro Islands. 2 His role in the islamizatl~n of
these areas is highly significant and indeed immensely esteemed in
Islamic circles in this part of Africa. ~Uways :. was bj.lingual1
writing poems both in Arabic and in the regional dialect of Upper
Juba, known as fAff Raxanwayn. The two works of Jala' al-CAynayn
and al-Jawhar al-Nafis, written by cAbd al-Ra~man 1ibn cUmar al-
CAli, contain most of his Arabic poetic production.
AI-Sayyid Mu~mmad cAbdullah ~asan (d.1920)? the founder of
modern Somali nationalism, who led the/holy struggle against
the colonial powers for more than two decades (1898-1920). He was
a bilingual poet, composing poems both in Arabic and in Somali. His
Somali poems were not committed to writing for a number of decades~
but most of them are now recorded. It was due ·to his political
and military leadership as well as to his poetic bilingualism that
al-Sayyid attained a great deal of fame and recognition throughout
Somalia. Sec~ion III of this study is devoted to this poet.
6. AI-Shaykh Qasim 'ibm Mu~yi ai-Din al-Barawi -(d.1940),
the namous poet in art of TakhmIs. Indeed, he collected a
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considerable number of the best known Somali Arabic poems, and then
quintupled them by adding three more hemistches at the beginning of
each verse, making each of the original two hemistiched verse of a
fiv e=-un i,t stanza. This collection is called Majm~tat Qasa'id. He
too was a bilingual poet, comp~sing poems both in Arabic and in the
local diale~~ of Barawe City known as Aff-Barawe.
Since it is not possible to give a detailed study of each of
these renowned poets in this work, we have chosen three eminent ones
who belong geographically to different places. In fact, these three
poets represent I in my own opinion~ the topmost cadre of Somali
Arabic poets. Their impact on the Somali society as a whole, and
on the other Somali Arabic poets in particu1ar~ is so immense that
it is not confined to their own generation but also continue to be
felt long after their death.
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AL-ZAYLAcr
A - His Life History:
Al-Shaykh cAbd aI-Rahma-n Nu-riyya !ibn 'A~mad al-Zayla c-i was a
gifted poet and a distinghished writer. He was the author of thirty-
eight works in Arabic and the founder of the famous school, Hirta
VIa Madaw (school of Black Staffed Students), which played a highly
significant role in the dissemination of Arabic and Islamic learning
in Somali.
He was born in the early part of 19th cerrtu r-y at .J<:udlTy.owll 1
in the present Bacoul Region which is a part of the former Upper Juba
Region in the southern part of Somalia. He came from a very obscure
family; therefore very little is known abotrbvhd s bLzrt h, upbringing
and childhood. Even the exact date of his birth is still uncertain.
He is widely known as al-Zayla c-i, although he is from the South.
Perhaps his origin could be traced back to the ancient seaport of
Zaylac ,the capital of the Somali medieval state of Odal, on the
Red S-e.'a.
AI-Zayla c-i attended the Somali conventional school of his period,
starting with the Qur'anic school where he had memorized the totality
of the holy Qur'a-no 2 He later joined the ~lrta school where he
learned the preliminary textbooks of the Somali traditional curriculum.
But his eagerness for search of knowledge led him to set off to
Mogadishu, the main centre of Islamic and Arabic learning in Somalia
to pursue more advanced studies •
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In Mogadishu, ZaylaCi met an eminent scholar and prolific poet,
al ce Shaykh Abd al-Ra~man- 'ibg cAbdullah,widely known as Hajj SufIl
who~according to Somali traditional custom, accommodated him for a
period of four or five years. Both ZaylaCi and ~ajj ~ufi joined the
.
Hirta school of ?Abu-Bakr al-Mi~?ar, who, because of his tremendous
contributi on to Arabic and Isl amic 1earning, and the numerous scholars
who had graduated from his school, was given the title of Shaykh al-
MashiiJ'ikh(the t eache r 0 f the teacher s)• AI-Zayla c-i continued atten-
ding this school until the famous Su-fi-,al-Shaykh Isma-c-il al-
Magdashi arrived there and Zayla c-i immediat ely went over to him for
spiritual training. Later on, Zayla c-i accompanied this new spiritual
teacher to the nomadic area where they roamed over a vast di stance
and visited the various nomadic villages. During this period, al-
" Zayla c-i and his teacher visited the renowned mystic t al-Shaykh
Harnzat 'ibn Muhammad, who gave them al-'Ijaza (the authorization) of
• •
the Qadiri Order. 3 Both H,amzat and al-Magdashi were recognized as
great saints whose intercession with God was 'always sought~ Even
ZayIaCI sought it as is shown in his following verses:
ri....: '~:.9 #.'.... 0 ••••,,•'• (":'!__ .ftl~1 0-1~..9
"(I supplicate to you Oh Lord) through tee intercession of Shaykh
IsmiicIl 'ibn Ibrahim and his teacher Shaykh Ism~cIl al-Magdash1 •
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Likewise through his teacher, al-Shaykh Hamzat whooe status is exalted
ann all those enjoying closeness to God as well as the high-
ranking members (in the Su- fi- Order) ~"4:
t
AI-ZaylaCI stayed with al-Magdashf for unspecified period, in
which he acquired the fundament als of sufi sm such as sel f-puri fication,
upright life, asceticism and piety. Such spritual training developed
Zayiac-i IS sufi tendency and eventually directed his poeitcal talents
towards religious themes. Haring been satisfied with the training
which ZaylaCI had so far attained, al-MogdashT advised him to set
off to the holy lands, giving him the name of an important Qadiri
teacher in the grand mosque and instructing him to contact this
teacher at Mecca. Al-Zayla c-i set off for Mecca and Medina, via the
historical city of Harar, where he had a short halt.5 In his brief
haltat' Harar, he came into contact with itS ruLer, 'Ami-r cAbdulla-h
'ibn 'AmIr Muhammad (do 1292 A.H.) 6 , who offered him the moral and
material'support that could facilitate the achievement of his noble
goal. On his arrival in Mecca, ZaylaCi communicated with al-Sayyid
Fa~lt the Chief Qadiri teacher in the grand Mosque, who was said
to be a descendant
of the Qa-diriyyah 0 He accommodated Zayla c-i for unspecified period,
in which h~ received from him the 'Ijazah of the Qadiri Brotherhood.
coO.
Since then, al-Zayla 1 became a full fledged Qadiri, qualified to
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to give 1Ij~zah and mandated to appoint khali fahs (local heads of
Qadiri communities).
c-
In Mecca, Zayla i acciden!itlly met an eminent schol ar and
distinguished personality from the city of Jijiga, aLe-Zh ay'icb, cAbdullah
CAli: ~idely known as Hajj J~maco According to the oral historical
information given by MuhammadHusayn (Sheeka Xariir), whose father
o 0
was an important discipl e of al-Zayla c-i, both Haj j Ja-ma card al-Zayla c-i
decided to return to Somalia and work together for the promotiorr of
the Arabic language and Islamic learning in their native lando
c-
Having performed his pilgrimage, ZA1/a i returne d to Harar in
Somalia, where he was .joine4 by thirty dis ciples. Zayla c-i began to
teach various branches of Arabic in the central Mosque of Harar~
He was particularly interested in morphology and the art of
courses in the Somali conventional curriculumo The elites of
c-
Har ar city as well as the regular students attended al-Zayla i's
classes. Those elites were the old intimate friends of ZaylaCi, like
c-
1Amir cAbdullah the 1U ler of Harar. It is said that al:;~ i
was very much concerned with the academic discipline of his students
regar dl ess 0f th e1"r POS.1t"10no 7
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The people of Harar were so much impressed by al-ZaylaCr1s
competence in morphology that they appealed to him to writ e a Suite.h1e
textbook on mo r-phoLo qy , Hence al-ZaylaCi wrote his work on morphology
entitled ~adiqat al-Tasrif and i1;.scommentary ~ al+-La t Lf cAl~ Shar~
H.adiqat al-Tas.rifo He also wrote at this particular- time the
annotation to the well-known medieval book of al-Sh~tibi (d.1193 AoD)8
o
on Qur'anic recitals. Al-Zayla c-i must have also composed during this
period a substantial number of his poems, especially the two
intercessionary oneso These various activities made him very popular
not only among the Iearned cLa ss'/but also among the common peopl e.
The following incident, which showed al-ZaylaCi as a man of
outstanding intelligence, also contributed immensely to his popularity
and recognition as a great schol a.r, It is said that al-Zayla c-i had,
dn one of his numerous pilgrimages, attended a teaching session held
in the gr~nd Mosque at Mecca where an Arabic scholar was conducting
a class on Logic for his disciples. The scholar raised a number of
relevant problems and sought answers to them. Surprisingly,no one in
the large audience could give the correct an swer-s , except Zayla c-i,
in spite of the fact that a good number of famous scholars were
audience. Al-Zayla c-i was then asked to identify himseif
and people were highly impressed by his knowledge in Arabic generally
and in Logic particularly. Later on, he was called to take a special
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challenging test arranged by prominent scholars and headed by the
grand Mufti of the Shafi Ct sch~ol at Mecca, Shaykh 'AJ:mad j ibn
Zayn al-Dah.lanI. AI-ZaylaCI passed the test and ~as granted yet
another Ijazah.9
Having spent some time at Harar ZaylaCi went to Jijiga in
C
18601swhere he met his intimate colleague, Hajj Jama Wi th the
hospitality and support of Hajj Jama-C;~he began to disseminate Arabic
and Islamic knowledge in Jijiga. Numerous student s came from Jijiga
and all adjacent villages to join al-ZaylaCi's newly established
educational centre.
Besides his educational activities, al-ZaylaCi was also actively
involved in the promotion of the Q;diriyyah Sect in Somalia. He had
adherents parti cularly in Jijiga, whom he.trained spri tually and
recruited mostly as new Khalifs. Members of Hajj Jamac,s family in
general and Shaykh cAbd aI-Salam "Lbn Hajj Mut;ammad 'ibn !Iajj
J;mac in particular were regarded as the Chief Khalif of al-zaylaCi
in the area of Jijigao It is believed that a large number of
ZaylaCi1s writings are still preserved in the hands of this family.
Unfortunately~ it has not been possible for me to go there in
search of these due to the present political situation there wher8
Western Somali Libration Front have been waging war against the
Fthiopian occupation forces.
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c- ~
About 1870, Zayla i moved into Qulunqul village, about one
hundred miles south-east of Jijiga2 where he was acc~mmodated by
Hajj 'Abu--Bakr 'aw Yusuf 1aw cU-mar Nur-, who subsequently became his
chief Khalif and who married al-ZayIa ci I s wi fe after his deat h ,
ZaylaCi1s life history is better known since he settled down in
QUlunqul for he received in thie village much more publicity than in
any other place. It was here he e st ab Ldshe d , together with his host
Hajj cAbu-Bakre, the famous schooL, Hirta'Ula Madaw, With this,(
QUlunqul soon became a new centre for both educational and spiritual
training. Students who used to travel from one place to another in
search of learning now resorted to this newly established centre.
Their numbers increased during the life of the founder to more than
one thousand. 10 Zayla c-i himself supervised all academic and administra-
tive activities of this school? giving some specific social and
academic assignments to his dd s c i pLes , This school has played a
dynamic role in the diffusion of Arabic and Islamic Lea r-nLnq , It
has produced a number of impressive, scholarly works known as
al-Majmu- cah al-Qulunquliyyah (The Qulunqu-l Collections). A
substantial number of these works have been published under this
title, but ~n overwhelming majority of these are still in manuscript
form awaiting editing and publication.
Zayla ci' s reputation and success attracted the calumny of
opponents and det r-act.or-s , One of the attempt s they made against
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him was poisoning the mind of Zaylaci?s spiritual leader~ al-Shaykh
'lsm-ac-il 'ibn cUmar al-Magdashi- towards him by asserting that
Zaylac-i no longer recognized him as his spiritual teacher but
considered himself more knowledgeable than he. MagdashI even~ually
sent his men to QUlunqul to Lnv-est.dqat e and the outcome showe d that
the cl~ims~wBre all baseless fabrications. Since then al-ZaylaCils
relations with his spiritual teacher kept flourishing.11
The information we have obtained so far on Zayla ci I S family
background is very meagre. But the little we have reveals that~ at
his home town, Kud.yl , he m::rrried his first wife who gave him two-
female children. As mentioned previously? ZaylaCiis pursuit of higher
education brought him to Mogadishu, where he stayed for a long pe~iodo
During his absence from his home t own , al-Zaylac-:r1smarriage to his
wife was terminated by the jurists of the.town on his wi fe /s request. 12
The jurists' action annoyed him immensely, but he did not take any
further action agiainst it. Presumably ~ al-Zayla c1IS sufi tendenci es
from his youth did not encourage self-revenge, or he may have realized
that the juristsl action was in compliance with Islamic law. But
taking into consideration the traditional Somali custom, one may
guess tha~ al-ZaylaCTls migration from his home town was an ultimate
reaction to the jurists' action. By the time this marriage was termi-
nated~ one of the two daughters had died, while the other, whose
name was given as Fa~ima, was given to her mother for custody.
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When al-ZaylaCr established his new settlement in Qulunqul .•
he married another wife, Fatima Bint Yusuf widely known by her
ni"ckname, Ra-d."t yah•13 It seems that she had no issue by himj although
she had one son by his successor.7 H.ajj 1Abu-:-Bakr'aw Yusuf, who
married her after ZaylaCi1s death. Fatimah~ the surviving daughter
from his first marriage, remained the only child of al-Zayla c_1.
AI-ZaylaCi died in the year 1299 A.H (1881 A.D.) which was called
cA-m al-c-Ibadah (year of worship) because piety, self-purification and
de~tton prevailed during it. His body was buried in Qulunqul and
I "all
a dome was erected on his tomb. Since then, itTbecome a holy place
for all the local qadiris who honour it annually on each
anniversary of al-ZaylaCi1s death. His Chief Khalifahl and his hos~
at the first arrival at Qulunqull Hajj Abu-Bakr had undertaken the
building of the tomb. Later on1 the local Qadiris, especially
member.s of the Ja-ma c and al-Qutbifs family have continued up to the
present time to maintain al-ZaylaCr1s tomb in spite of a serious
dispute that developed between these two families over their respective
responsibilities in maintaining the tomb in the early part of this
century 14,0
Before "his death, al-ZaylaCi had nominated his Khalifahs in
Qulunqul, Jijiga1 Harar and even in the southern areas of Somalia up
to Mogadishu and Barawao These hav e continued to be maintained by
the local Qadiris to the present time.
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AI-Zayla c-B i's Scholarship
AI-ZaylaCi was a versed and intelligent scholar as well ab an
etudite author both of prose and poetry. He engaged, zealously and
enthusiastically, in the dissemination of Arabic and Islamic learning
L' for most of his life. He taught in a number of educational centres
in Harar , Jijiga and, f'Lne.Ll.y, in the Qulunqul Settlement which he
personally established. He enjoyed so great a fame among the le&rned
class that he was nicknamed Sibawayh as well as ~ibn ~ajar1 to indicate
., d t' I 15
his excellence in linguistics and JUrl.SPru ence respec a.ve y.
It seems that Zayla c-i had taught at his educational centres or
Hirta school all the various subjects in the Somali conventional
curriculum. AI-Shaykh cAbd aI-Rahma-n, ibn cUmar al- cAl'1 CLaa1imed (.1n
his work Jala-' al- cAynayn) that al-Zayla c-i used to teach daily
twelve courses on different branches of Arabic and Islamic learning.
In addition to thatvh,e asserts ZayiaCI taught Qur';nio recitals!
16
according to the acceptable seven di fferent readings.
Zayla c-i is regarded as a prolific writer both in prose and poetryo
Professor MoAoAlin credited him with th!rty-eight works in Arabic,
most of which have unfortunately been lost.11 This is confirmed by
the aged contemporary historian~ M~hammad~ajj ~~ayn, whose father
was an import-ant disciple of al--ZaylacI.
However, a.l-ZaYl"a cI t s available works are three books and seven
poems, One of the three books 1s an interesting work on sufism
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entitled al-Fath al-RabbanI wa al-Fayq al-Rahm~nI which is described
by the author of Nasr al-Mu1minln as one of the main sources of his
own book. A significant portion of this work is devoted to the
praise of the founder of th~ Qadiri Brotherhood as shown in the
following quotation:
. . . . . .. .. 1 .•.i.J 1..9 J...aQJ1 (' L..oj dJL. ~J I 0:' . o~1 .r.._~1
)l~1 il...~ <5 ..:}..-.- .-9W.. 19 , ~F!)..9 .,)..9 0\.9~ ~~I d ~
• 0 0 c
rJ ..0..,<1 1-' - •••••• ~q~-:!
"He is the masterl the noble scholar and the high mountain.
He is the leader of the erudite scholar, the crown of the
knowledgeable 'Imams, the head of the believers in their
righteous deeds, and the possessor of the rein of virtue
and pride. He surpassed all those existing while he is
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one of them. And that is no exaggeration like sapphire
which is one of the collections of stones of the mountains
and Laylat aI-Qadri which is one of the chains of the nights.
Thus he is unanimously the leader of the mystics and the
scholars, the bearer of th~ flag of the sufis and the
spiritual pivot, 'Abu S;lih cAbd al-Q;dir, descendant of ~asan
1ibn CAli on his father's aide and ~usayn 'ibn CAli on the
mcbther side. He is a high mountain, which nothing could shake.
He is the one who.~ bestows the clothes of honour and might on
others. He is the follower of his grandfather, the Prophet,
may peace and the blessing of 'Allah be upon Him. His
perfection makes him in need of no elaborate eulogy~ like the
shining sun in the middle of the day.1I18
One of the significant ZaylaCirs books is a morphological work
entitled Hadiqat al-Tasrif (The Garden of Morphology). It consists
of one hundred and fourteen verses composed on the Rajaz metre~ ~ith
commentary entitled ~Fa~th~aoI-~La~ti-f-c~Al~a-oSh~ar-h-H-ad-i-q~at~-al--T~as~ri.-f.~.~--~~--~--~~~
This work was written at Harar as a substitute for another
morphological textbook, Durah al-Lu~lu' which had been in use.
Hadiqat al-Tas,rif was soon to become a popular textbook not only in
Somalia but also in East Africa and the Middle East. Even some of
his admirers claim that it is much better than the famous morphological
work of 'ibn Malik: L~miyyat al_'Afc;1.19
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These two works, al-Fath al-RabbanI wa al-Fayd aI-Rahmani and
H.adiqat al-Tas.rif are published among the Qulunqul collection.
The t hi r-d book by al-Zayla ci i which is still a manu scr-Lp t , is
Sharh al-Sh~tibiyyah, an armot a.tLon on the popular phonetic book
• 0
entitled Hirz al-'Ama-n-i wa Wajh al-Taha-n-.i.. F1 al-Qira-'-at al-Sab cah,
by Muh,ammad 'ibn Firah al-Shat.ibi (do590/119J). cAbd aI-Rahma-n
aI-CAli refers to ZaylaCi1s books in his panegyric poem, saying:
*
"He (Zaylaci) wrote many books on di fferent branches of
knowledge, like the excellent commentary on Shat.ibi
He guided us in morphological studies by verSifying the good
guidance, I,fadiqatal-Tasri-f." 20
C The Content and the Themes of His Poetry:
As we stated earlier, there are seven poems of al-ZaylaCifs
poetical production. All these poems have gained such wide
popularity and circulation in Somalia that at least one of them is
recited at almost every social or religious function, even in the
nomadic Somali villages. Their popularity is not confined to the
learned but also has reached the common people. For instance,
it is a convention among the Somalis until today to recite his poem
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Hadiyat al-~Al'w;ihbetween the Maghrib and cIsh;i' prayers1 while
his Kanz al-Haq;i'iq.and Jawharat al-Was'1lah are recited after the
Subh prayer. Four of his poems are among those selected by Q;isim
-;---3'"
al-Barawi for the composition of his T@.khmis. These four poems .f>o •..1•YI
in fact a substantial proportion of Qasim's famous collection.
Zayl aci'%oems are highly val ued by the Somal is not only for
their ethical and didactic valuesv but also, like any artisttc
production, for the pleasures derived from re~iting them. Zay,lac-i's
available poetry covers the following themes:
i. Tawasul (Intercession)~ This is a supplication to God throug~
the intercession of the Prophet and his Saints. This theme seems to
have developed from eulogizing the Prophet to be~ome an independent
theme. Two poems of al-Zayla c-i are devoted to this theme. In spite
of the religious controversy about whether or not Tawasul should be
practised in Islam, al-Zayla c-i, being the leader of traditional
Qadiri Brotherhood, considered it not oniy permissibi~ but bighly
desirable as indicated in this extract:
*
*
. . .,
~Q, --:II.,!..:.s.Itj.'" dJ~J I I] j ~:J.
"The One seeking after the forgiveness of his Exa L't ed LI:Jrd,
the Worshipper of the One who is Merciful, Beneficent and
and who excetS all others (the poet himself) says:
'Praise be to God who provides blessings to his worshippers
by ordering them to seek intercession to Him. ,,,21
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And thereafter here is a poem on Rajaz metre which I have
entitled Jawharat al-Wasilah (The Jewel of Lrrt er-c essLon l '! ,
The two poems of al-ZaylaCi on intercession are:
(i) Jawharat al-Was11ah: This poem is made up of 32 verses composed
on Rajaz metreo It could be classified into the following three
sections~
(a) The introduction: The above-mentioned extract acts as an
introducti on 0 f Jawharat al-·Wasilah poern ,
(b) The main body of the poem: This is devoted to the
intercession through the Prophet~ his family, 6ompanions and
the righteous saints whom the author considers as the offsprings
of the Propheto The quotation below is extracted from this part
of the poem:
..l...->WI ~~1 ~~3
~
.J Q Co u~3 ~ ~~..9
*- f.. ~~.,o.) ~3
*-
.~\.-'.
*-
*-
;~. '..
*- L•••. ....)~)...l-li-
i :
I
,a9 •••..aJ ~~ .J -- ••~~
*-
,;.I.~ I1 I
),..---- \.!i.4J ~ I,..,C> i-.....:;.\.... .. 0000/*- .J ",WI
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"My intercession is made through the name of the only God,
and the noble Prophet from Hashimite family.
And 'Abi Bakn., my master cUmar and .'-Uthman who obtained the pride.
And through Qa-sim'j the· eldes.t among the Prophet Is children as
w elI as Ruq ayy ah , Fa~imah and Zaynab.
And 'Umm Kalthu-m, cAbdulla-h and Ibrahim, the last child among them
This is an important information deserving to be known
And through H•amzah and his colleague, al-
cAbba-s, the two uncles
of the Prophet who educated mankind.
And through 'Umm Kalth~m (the daughter of F~timah)
Khadijah and cA'ishah, the daughter of the head of the noble.
And through Maymunah ;.Ha f sa.h, Safiyyah, Sawdah and Juwayriyyah
o •
And thrauglitZaynnb·,HintO.;Z-ayna11>22 tb:lrouglwiho se.v Lrrt ez-ceasLon
I seek your forgiveness.
I.
And thereafter through (Ibrahim) al-Dusuqi and cAbd al-Q~dir.
(al-Jil~ni), the Shaykh of the Universe and the possessor
of all the good qualities. ,,23
(c) The conclusion: This is a direct request to the family
of the Prophet to intercede. He says:
* I "''''''' 0 ""-_~'_""
*
o..,, -;""c~
* &1 y--iC1
*
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115
'-' Ie r-"'"'• 1.9 0~ '.,S.......,.; '*
1 ) ., •••.
~1 ~.J..nJ 1 ~I u-k '*
;;L~I J :,4" ~WI * ;:, I ...l-rJ I d--1_.........c>;; .w1..9
) ...J..1 ...::...9;; d .s.l:9.J..9 ~-:>..J..o..9 * ~ ~ ~ ,;~ C G L
"0 family of my master, Muhammad! You are my treasures and ny
pillarso
You are the keys of your grandfather's dooro The foundation of
faith of all peoples is your love.
Through them, forgive all the sin I have committed, Oh my God
and gt-ant all my requests
Ease for us the agony of death through them! Open up the
constraints of the graves for us through them!
If you run into difficulty or face a problem, then you should
hold fast to this, and surely you will overcome.
Then may the blessing and peace (of God) be continuously upon
the Arab Prophet 'Ahmad
o
Likewise upon his family and Companions who follow the path
leading to safetyo
As long as a whistling bird sings on a tree branch! and as long
as a dove rejoices at the dawn timeoll2ft.
(ii) Kanz al-Haqa'iq (The Treasure of Realities):
This poem consists of 52 lines written on Rajaz metre tooo
It could be divided into the following sections:
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(a) The introduction: The author begins this poem with a ShOEt
introduction which adequately reflects that our poet believes in
the mystical doctrine known as al-HaqIqat al-Muhammadiyyah (the
Reality of Muh.ammad). He points out the main aspects of this
sufi doctrine which emphasise'that the Prophet is the first
manifestation of God's glory~ that he is the absolute
intermediary (al-Barzakh al-Kulli) bet.ween God and his creation,
that he is the most noble among the human race, that he is the
reality and the centre of the faith ••• etc. We have no doubt
that our poet was influenced in this sufi outlook by earlier
well-known sufis like 'ibn cArab1 (d.1240 A.D.) and Ibrihlm
al-Dus~qI (do 1277 A.D.) as evidenced by his references to them
in this poem.
Here is the introduction of the poem:
*
*
:; .! ; ~ ~ I 3-5 19..:..,•.l.I C 0 '!-')
~
~ ''''''' __ 0 ~ , ..c 19 '-:-'WJ I ~ * J;I'-= ..,.,.~•.,•.. ~) .J 0 ~.,"I supplicate to you, Oh my Lord, the possessor of mercy,
generosity, beneficence and perfection.
Through +he manifeGtation of your glory and beauty, 25 the
absolute intermediary between God and creation and
the possessor of the generosity.
The best man among mankind and the centre of all the true .and.:
real bel ief.
D • 0 0/
,
----=------'
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Mu~ammad, the reason for the creation of all beings, the
chosen personality among the best people and the
leader of their idealsoll26
The body of the Poe.m: The author continues here his main,
theme of intercession, following up the P~phet by his most
important Companions, then by the exegetes, traditionists, jurists
and sufi leade~ right from cAbd aI-Qadir al-JIl~nI and down to
al-ZayIaCi1s spiritual teacherv al-Shaykh Ism;cII al-Mogdashi.
All in all, al-ZaylaCI makes a list of fifty-six intercessors
in this part of the poemo Following the Prophet, he cites the
four orthodox Caliphs, some eminent personalities of the Prophet's
family and his intimate servant, cAbd aI-Rah.man ~ibn Sakhr
(widely known as 'Abu Hurarah, do676 A.D.) who narrated a
substantial number of Prophetic traditions. As for the jurists,
al-ZaylaCI mentioned the four originators of Islamic schools of
law, namely, 'Ab~ ~anifa al-Nucman (do767 A.D.), M~lik 'ibn
'Anas (d.795 A.Do), Mu~ammad 'ibn Idris al-Sh;fici (doB19 AoD)
and'Ah.mad 'ibn H.,anbal (doBJ5 AoDo). In addition to these~ al-
Zayl,aCi lists two other erudite jurists, aI-Imam Yahya 'ibn
Sharaf al-Nawawl and aI-Ima-m al-Rafi c-i whose
works on Islamic jurisprodence are intensively used in the Somali
traditional curriculum.
But he devotes a large proportion of his list to the mystic
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leaders, commencing with the name of Shaykh cAbd aI-Qadir &1..
Jil.~nI(d.1166 AoDQ) ~ the founder of the first Islamic Suii Ol-der'27
whom al-ZaylaCi considers as the pivot of the Universe (Out al-
Zam~n).
He also lists, among those sufi leaders, cAbu- aI-Hasan al-
Sh;dhili (do1258 A.D.), the founder of the Sh~dhiliyyah SeG-t:.
which is widely spread in North Africa, 'A~mad 'ibn cAli 9ibn
'A~mad al-Rifa-c,.. (1 do1783 A.D. ) , the Originator of the Hystic
Order called al-Rif;Ciyyah (whose members engaged in some st rar.o e
activities such as swallowing glowing embers and glass or passing
the knives and needles through their bOdies),28 Ibrah1m al-
Dusuqr (do1277 A.D.), 'Ahmad al-Badaw1 (d.1269 A.D.), ~Umar ~ibn
cAbu aI-Hasan (widely known as al-F;rid~ d. 1235 A.D.) and
o
Muh• ammad al-Bus~ri (d.1297 A.Do) whose poetical productions
together '"liththose of ibn al-Farid have influenced the
development of Somali Arabic poetryt including that of ZaYlaci~
Among the important sufi leaders that al-Zayla Ci...:list , .•corrcaa ns
is the prolific writer and the leader of pantheistic sufi school)
Mu?yi .al-DIn 'ibn aI-Arabi (d.1240 A.D.) whose sufi doctrine
of al-~aqiqah al-Mu~ammadiyyah has influenced tremendously our
poet as p~eviously stated.
Moreover, this list of saints includes two Somali
eminent scholars~ Shaykh Yusuf al-Kawnayn and Shaykh cAbdull~~'
Zaylac-i. The fonner was an educationist of the 11th cerrt.u z-y~~f)"
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While the latter was a historian and politician of 14th cen~~r.y
A.D.
Al-ZaylaCi concludes this list with the names of the officers
in the hierarchy of the invisible spi.ritual kingdom (Rijal a!.-
Ghayb), where the Ghawth or al-Qutb occupie e th e top of the
hi ar-ar-chy , supported by the :four <;Ura:fa~ or ~Umada' (Knowledgeable
or Pillars), followed by the seven 'Anjab or 'Umana (the nobles
or honests), then by forty 7Abdal (substitutes) and finally by
the Nuqaba' (the Heads). The latter occupy the base of this
pyramid. Thee hUnber exactly 300 saints. Immediate.'lil.nd
systematic replacement is made whenever any member of these
various groups died except the Nuqaba whose replacement is usually
made from the c omnroriMuslims. The mystical tl;leory behin? this
is that the sufis suggest that the whole UniverseW~have :cun
into difficulties if the intercession of the Rijal al,;i:(thayb w er e
non-existing and that it is only through their intercession to
God that it is kept in peace and prosPBrity.29
The list of the intercessors referred to above, a:fter the
Prophet, is shown in the followi ng extract:
V" W1.,9 ~.,J 1 4 ~;--J ,e ~ ~J
c:
) ",-----,,-,9 I \ p..$ :..r ~ 0-! 1 ~ i ~1.9 ~.J':u-!b <J"I ~.9
*
000/
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rzc
*
*
*
. ~ I
If'l-----~ I ,.->1 ~ I ~ 4..9 * ~L---9 ..rHj .J~ IJ:tJ
*
. ,.
>.: •.;.)
*
~
L)a : ::...\I e:;o r---t;).,) I ~ 4;)
~ e
___ -.,0 -rJ I ",:-,,--L-1' ~ 4;) * ~. L-J.~_-""-,,,-,-Jt,.). I' ~~ .....y. t-!;)
,'"','"W... 1 ~. .,.. Lo <.!r.~ C':::.....-.ZJ L.
*
~
) • '":':0 II )J4'-.:..o .....y. 4..9 * 0,; Q.~':J'.9 ~~ ..ili~
oL~__ .'0. I, 0""'" Ii.!I 0;))j-l4;) * o '.9- s ':J' .j--!}:!;) ~j-l t,
.__ to ..u' t- s.U.,J \ ~;) * lSfr£)~ I;) 0 ~ 1 ~.r.-l4
'..S",-I_.JI)'b u-l--:<-'>- ~..9~ '..9 ~ ') ,;) * c..S.). /!l ~ r-L- J~4;)
.s .,). ..;.J..I•...d ..•...J IS'"':-~" I ~ "':J ) Y * ~
f.':-. _ •••••~•.• .JI ~) .,) .:;~)' 6 j .:Q,.b * JJ---f.-o~•-•:._. ..~•4.·.•.I.1••1. c---.J La <S! l..:"
u,L . ..,;:;ib.-:9
~':J I;; c.~ I;; t9~ I;) I..,..,.',__ ~~':JI;; ~I;; ':J~l:'
*
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"And through the one exempted from Hell-fire (ioeo'Ab~ Bakr)~
Umar , 'Uthm~ and through CAli, the master of the Kn:tshtso
And through the Uncles of the Prophet, cAbb~s and Hamzah~ the
hero of the war and battre f i.eLd ,
And through cAbu-Hurayrah and the great scholar, that is ~i::Jrc,Abb;s
And through the rest of the Companions, Families, relatives and
the followers"
And through the pivot, cAbd al-Qadir al-JIlanI and the renowned
al-ShadhiliJthe possessor of the divine knowledge.
And through his teacher, the leader cAbd al-Sala-m 30 and Shaykh
Mimshad, the head of the guidance.
And through the important CAydarus31 from the city of Aden and
the beloved and devoted al-Shaykh Jawhar. 32
And through Mastafa al-Bakri
33al-Samma-n! 3'*and 'Ahmad al-Dirdiriyyi1
00 _ - 35
the devoted ~ufio
And through cAbi- al-Su c-ud, al-Rifa-c i and fibn 'Ahmad iue" al-
Tub~cL
And through cAi! al-Khawa-s;al-Sha c - _36r-an a and the devC"ced cUmar
'ibn al-Farid,
And through his teacher, 'ibn al-cArabi, al-Badawi and AbI
Madyan i,eo al_Maghribio37
And through ,ibn ~A-~a'i Allah, the author of Kitab Lata'if
M.1nan 38and hi1S teacher, a1-MurS1-, the source a f W1.S dom. 39
And through the p,roof of lslam, '*0 al-Sayyadi '~*1 al-Dusu-qT '*2 and
_ ''*3
al-Haddad
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And through 'ibn 'Adham,~~ al-Shibli, al-Yaficr and his teacher cAli
And thro~gh cAbI Yazldal-Bistam!~(and the noble cAbi Talibo
And through al-Juwayn~ his son7 cAbd aI-Malik and cAli al-Yumani9
the worshipper of the Lordo
And through the eloquent, Shaykh Yahya-~8 and 1Uways al-Qarani' al-
Yamani'49 0
And through CAbi Hani£ah al-Nu Cma-ni-, al-Sha-fi Cr and 'Ahmad al-
Shayban'io
And through Malik, Junayd50 and al-'Ashcari and the famous 'AbI
Mansu-r 51 0
And through al-ZaylaCi, Shaykh Yusuf al-Kawnayn and al-Zaruq
al-Fa-si, 52 the devoted s.u-f,r. ~
And through the mo st devoted ~ufi' al-Bura -r. al-Busir! as ",ell as
cAli al-Wafa53 and al-Dumayri'o
And through al-BukharY and Muslim, the two high mountains for the
guidance as well as al-Rafi~ and al-Nawaw1, t~e two
mountains of guidanceo
And thEOugh Shaykh 'Ahmad 'ibn Idrls who became sweet drinks
for the Godly men.
And through the fa•mous CAbi-Sa-lih, the student of Ibrahim al-
_ c 0 55
Rahi d, the ornament of the history.
And through the (Rijal al-Ghayb) such as al-Budala, Nuqaba~ al-
An -j ab , al- C ( -Uz-a f'a, al-Ghawth or al-Qutbi
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The Conclusion! AI-Zayla c••.(c) 1 concludes this poem with the £ollowing
prayers which he wishes to be granted through this long liSt Of
intercessors:
.J'.J~' ~ ~ e:-L>- '-'
4~' el ~ o- \.;:L., '3 •·
~.iA.I ~.J L...:; ..193 ~ ··
·· ok..J\ ..... a.l.I p0'\ \.:..u,IJ" . ··L
JS u..f I '"" 3 :.J ~t
!.Yo; ';""3 ~Lt
. 1"""'"
JS3 ··
J~' 0~:J .JT., ~I ~
J ,'-_ ..<>.>.J•>.••-..,.JII ··
"Lead us to the ways of guidance, Oh Lord, and bestow the robes
of your love upon uSo
Cast the right ideas in our hearts and grant us a drink from youo
That is the hal~l (allowed) wine which does not contain any devil,
o
and w~ich the devoted people have competed for its' s\\feetnesso
Oh Lord forgive your weak sinning worshipper whose name
is
(cAbd = slave)/coupled with yours, aI-Rahman
- 0
Likewise all hf is teachers, relatives and all the Muslimso
So, aeeept my pleas thro~gh the intereession of your kindness,
1
••0/
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and of all your known and unknown names.
Then may e~rlasting peace and blessings be upon the Prophet
and his Familyv the possessor of the right guidance.
As long as the one.,ascendirrg towards the Perfect. reci tes
I beseech thee, Oh You God, owner of all beauty!" 56
2. Panegyric Theme
AI-Zayla c,..11S panegyric poems could be classified into the
following:
• (i) The Eulogy of the Prophet MUQammad:
Zayla c_1 wrote on this theme two poems entitled Muhayyijat al-
'Afr;h (The One Exciting Happiness) and H;diyat~.ll-'Arw~h (The One
8
Guiding the Souls). The former poem) consisting of one hundred
verses,is the one we select for a detailed review. It was composed
on a request message from the Prophet himself. One of Zayla Cor1JS
disciples saw the Prophet in a dream requesting that their teacher
should praise him in a poem of one hundred lines. On being
informed of this, Zayla c.•.1 began to compose this ode. This episode
is e.xplicitly given at the end of this ode
57 as we shall see
\
below.
Nevertheless, this poem may be divided into the following
sections:
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(a) Longing torthe Holy Lands:
The poet devotes a substantial proportion of his poem fa the
expression of his vigorous religious sentiment and profound cravings
for various places in the holy lands, particularly aI-Medina. The
verses below are examples of this section:
~
t~r fl,> ~ I ",;;~''.J ~~
-~
6.__ J.e t, f' ~, 0.JJ ~ -J,j I ..J I
~
~.r---' fl.> l.~ I ~I rL 0~ ...
~
0-A.o .J~ .Jr."'; 3' li'~ .J~ ~r-I:~ '.),,~'S>
"Whenever they mention the neighbours of Sal c (a place), my tears
wou Ld increase and the burnings in my heart would intensify,
Whenever the north wind blows from Najd, eagerness and longing to
the,best tomb would heap up
Whenever Wa-di al-cA-qiq and Hajir are cited, the infatuated lover
(of the Prophet) with his pains would swagger
Whenever the white dove sings in the forest, it reminds the
citizens of Madina and CUjayraC places
Oh the lightning of Hij~z, kindly shine so that we may be cured
of any paining sicknesso
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I am hankering for Wa-d! al- cAqi-q and Ha-jir at Dhi" Salam;
I am longing for the best of tombso
When would I rejoice or let my eyes pour down my tears in the
protected zone of Your Presenceo,,58
(b) Nas!b Verses:
These are scattered throughout the odee In thes~. erotic verses,
Zayla cp1 depicted politely the beauty ~ld the beloved women, with their
various names: 'Umaymah, Su c-ad, cAzzah and Layla-,the names frequently
found in love as well as in sufi poems, symbolis~ing the object of
love. Obylously, ZaylaCr was following the traditional customs of
the panegyrists of the Prophet in the decadent period as one may
observe in the'.following verses:
C!J-'" .r...f,..
c: c: c: c:
dt 0..st....M I ~W... .. ~I I.:.:.J~( r' ~~ l~'
':J 0~'~ '-:-'~, Ii'~ (.ro 1.J.i.~ 1.)-.:16 JS 0~1 C'J ~rc..9.-.
t ~;...~...;J ,~ .9~ <pI 0..J~ LrJ.J:i..i L.,J~ t.# ;.;:..~ l..il
C"., A_Q .••. , ~I..i
."
0~1 C)W ~......,t9 c: c: ~W ,s.l-Q\~ d...f;,." r' ,~.J ~,
"Is it the sun manifesting itsel f or is it 'Umaymah appearing?
Oh how I wish to set off to the best spot on earth!
cAzza has offered the wine of love to every lover, who has
fallen! unconscious because of the passion of his love.
Whenever Layl; appears, dragging the tails (of her long dress)
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at the Nuq~ valley, a sweet smell o£ penetrating irngrant
appears with hero
Is it the full moon or Lay La t s face that has so illuminated our
area, that the nights of our world became shining bright?,,59
(c) The Prophetic Noble Characters:
The bulk of this poem has been devoted to the. virtues of the
Prophet, his miracles and his importance to mankind in particular
and the whol~ universe in generalo The poetical extract below is an
attempt by the poet to personify the Prophet's virtues:
* I !
t~-:; J~ J5
'>- 9;; J$J JL:JI ~r11 ~
0"""0
*
-"00/
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"Oh you the one loving him who is best among mankind - Muhofammad
come and listen to my praise of his exalted characterso
He is the greatest blessing and he is the mercy which the
Merciful One has provided all his creation.
He is the chosen One, whose grace has extended to all mankindo
He is our refuge whenever horror_and dismay hito
He is the pure gold, the elixir of our hearts and curative balm
for every s i ckrie s s ,
He is the voracious lion, the carnivorous beast against all enemieso
He is the one bringing annihilat ion to all aggressive and
tyrant peopleso
He is the chosen Hashemite, the pure one whose divine law is
tolerant and spacious! He is Muhamma d, the guide to the
r
ideal system of life, the lamp of guidance, and the eraser
(of darkness) by his shining lighto
I am aiming at his praise all the timeo But that I may obtain
a favourable glance of intercessoro,,60
ZaylaCi goes on to emphasize that the Prophet's praise and love
are religious ob~igations on every Muslim and that the Prophet has
many praiseworthy qualities which no panegyrist could fully cover:
, ~ J.-a9
¢
1 (.,,-r9 ~'~I ~ r-L-- J5 uk J"; " , £»0
¢
C. -:;--0.9 t' ~ )I~I d--Lo.,.::.3 + ~~,~~I ISL~ " , •••• 0
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129
+
+ t~·J~1
+
"His love (the Prophet) is at) obligation upon every Muslim .• So
bless me,Oh Lord,with it for it is the best paved path.
His love gives the lover great dignity and leads him to the
highest position and place.
The intelleats of mankind have fallen short of comprehending his
essence. The meaning of his word has silenced all the
talented innovators ..
His words are like well-arranged pearls. From his mouth comes
a ray of light.: appearing brilliant.
I He is an eloquent,_outstanding orator whose creative compositions
are immitable and whose eloquence has amazed all the excellent
orators .•
His praiseworthy qualities have astonished all those who k~ow
them and. therefore, they have not been abl e to give any
convincing explanation to themo~61
00 •• /
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(d) Al-ZaylaCi1s Doctrines
ZaylaCi has explained his own views O~_ a number of Islamic
controversial issues such as the lsra'
miraculous journeys to Jerusalem and Heaven respectively) t
~pposing those who believe that the whole thing was a dream} Our
poet insists that the Pnophet has physically ascended while he was
fully awake to the heavens, and that he has seen there the Supreme
Being visibly. Also his belief in the ~ufl doctrine, al-H.aqiqah al--
M.uhammadiyya (which holds that the Prophet is the cent re and
raison d'etre for the creation of the whole universe) is expressed:
*
*
*
t----':;J ~~ cY""J'" C" r.J T.9 * d/~~!) ~, 01$ \.., c:\ ~.J-.-J!)
"The Lord of heavens has made him ascond whil e fully awake to
the glorious favoured place of only bows lengthCfrom the
magnificentresponcting Majestic Throne)
He has seen clearly~i~his own naked eyes the Supreme Being
'All~h. Surely, 'Allah has given him a special position
of cx-'3.1 ted nearness.
'.;{erict not for you (the Proph2t) neither the pl:1ces ofThawr
nor thact of Quba .-woulcd hcave eve~ been mentioned, nor1_ M4<it-
would Udh~yb and La la wouldVever occur~~
Thawr, cAyr und ~ira w_ere proud of being the Procphet's land
as we Ll. as Thahlan, H.unrrynv. H.ayf and YiJ.nba"
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May God water to saturation these abodes and peaks. And ma7
he pour over them enormous rains of continuous flow.
\'lereit not for Him (i.e. Prophet Mul;1ammad),Abraham, Y~nus,
Adam, Moses, Jesus an<;!the King of Yemen would not have been
created." 62
(e) The Physical Description of the Prophet:
Zayla c•.1 goes on to describe the Prophet physically. He
depicted him as a possessor of deep black eyes, beautifully arched
eyebrows and bright face. He also pictured him as possessor of
thick beard, wide chest and medium height. In fact ZaylaC1, in ~his
approach of praise had imitated the well~established traditional
system 0 f Prophet ic panegyric, Initially, ~assan 'ibn Thabit, the
Companion of the Prophet who has been acclaimed as Sha-c ir al-Rasu-l
(the Prophet's poet), had described the Prophet physically in the
following verse:
"My eye never saw a better man than you, and women never gave
birth to a more beautiful one than YOUe"
It is also related that 'Umm Macbad, an aged woman living
between Mecca and Medina at the advent of Isa1m, descrl.bed the Prophet
physically when, accompanied by 'Abu-Bakr, he passed her tent in their
secre t J.ourney t0 Medl.nae 63 'Umm Macbadfs long physical description
000/
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132
and Hassan's poetry are considered the basic foundation of this
type of the eulogy of the Prophet. Carrying this tradition ont
Zayla c.•.1 says:
~, (;r~' '-r:'" 0.,J ~P--r.~3
t.--"'~ 3..) d.J ..J."o ~ c..-'..93 *
~
!l. Q 1':0 II
\.. d.J~
1.J-.a..l1 Jljl *
.: .:
(~ .J'" I J5 0" 'J.J.,J I ~~ * ~..·9"1
"The Messenger of !All ah was of a medium stature and of a white -
complexion, mixed with red, so hearken!
He possessed a big head, a thick beard, a wide mouth and a
chest of great broadness.
He was with a fine face while his forehead was smooth and
shining. He could remove any rust by his dazzling light.
He was with nicely curved eyebrows and black eyes as if antimony
was applied to them. He was the most truthful, the or.e
to rescue the worl d from any frightening calamity. 6411
(f) The Conclusion:
Finally, ZaylaCi ends this long poem with the conventional
conclusion of citing his name and the name of his poem and with
prayers for blessings, and peace upon the Prophet, His family and the
Co·mpanions:
000 Q /
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- .
133
.·.
,.
~
·· I~.L..~ 'hl..ajl
~
WI.., JS ill I J3-'.J ~ 'dl : ~..£).J..9 ~ ,j}t i ~P3 JT.5
"Your servant, this al-Zaylac:t is hopeful to ohtain your
generosity, Dh you the best of mankind entirely.
The horse-power of my composition has cone to e. halt here, while
I have not been able to panegyrize him even to the measure
of one finger.
My poem which is called MuhayyijQt al-'Afr~h (the one exciting
joy), has its verses completed one hundredo So please
try to understand and comprehene.
It was on the instruction of t he Prophet to me to compose that
I have composed it, according to a dream narrated by some
friends. So please listen.
If with it the caravan leaders start singing, they woul d 'shake
with affection to the beloved one.
The blessings of 'Allah be upon him as long a$ the lightning
flashes anc the clouds pour down the tears of their eyes
throughout.
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134
~ikewise upon his family and companions who are the people of
glory and dignity! Oh the Messenger of 'Allah be with me
aLway s , ,,65
(ii) The Eulogy of al-Jil;nI
ZaylaCi composed, on the praise of al-JII~ni, two poems entitled~
Ruh al- CAshig'fn (The Spirit of the Lovers) and Sir~j al- cUq{il (The
Light of the Intellects)o Both are concentrat~d on the narration
of the numerous miracles ascribed to al-Jilani; whether or not these
could be authenticated is not for us to decide hereo Besides these
doubtful miracles,ZaylaCi attributes to al-Jil~ni the general virtues
ttntl
of right guidance, piety, devotion, generosity, leadership~ nobility
Although there is nothing new in these poems, in terms of
concepts, his manner of presentation reflects a high degree of poetical
talent on the part of our poeto Yet, one feels that ZaylaCi panegyrized
the Prophet more sincerely, but praised al-Jil;ni only to fulfil
the social and religious obligations towards the founder of Qadiriyyah
Order in which ZaylaCr was an eminent leadero
Furthermore, in spit e of the fact that the two poems are composed
on different poetical metres, there are so many obvious similarities
'in their cont ents, that one 0 f them could suffice to reflect the nature
Here is Ru-h al-cA-shiqi-n (the
soul of lovers) which.,.being difficult to dlvide,is p~esented as a whole:
Jt ..,,,J I f;".;~j.f':JI t,r" ~I . f L,I + uJL~.n ~.91 )b'"-:-'-t~ W~JI 9.0 d' JWI uW -=- u-IL~I '--:-'.J!"'~"~ uW1 !,('"..:I-~• •• j
UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY
.I
135
~ )J-~ ( ~'lr4f '.'".'-.-:.J9;J t '..j>~ r','-I"t '"'-"" w -~~ ~I !~. _-..Jr' ' . . J'<.,27-- ~
~ '.9-0 ~ J~j..J 1 -.J 1 4..l '~ ~'5 ~~I 6-..1
JI ~ J5 ~ ~ ~I, ,--.,.'L_.<.:h ~.'~. ."',Ii! ~ i ~'~ I II..t.....A...o.,9
J I.J_~ (?' .J-OS t ~ r' I..:-'~ I '-:-''-~.Je':ll '-:-'~5
J ~j I.,) 0 "k..., .-:"'!~ ~ 0.== .: .J) I~ ~ ~ I ?,) L:...
J L -A)J 1 ~I ~ 1 (.i.J r5, + ~ J5 0'> \5.J,;J I 0.J--.!b I ~
M C
~~I,~I ~ c~ v!)~ o_~L:.., ~ 1":'\
~'r---..> ~I.,)w~ ~ 1,,)1 C-l..r'-- ...'-.'.:;5 )3.J...a'".l1 C )'''':'';,.;'-::'3
-.JL ..JJ t.5.J ~ .J I) 1 ~, + .J~ d :t> r c...S.J~ 1..,5
JI o-Jt 0~ ':ll I.,)~~t ~ G.: a....u ~a,';...i:3) :.i I :;--Jj
lJ L-~;U J..-9 0:1..t.l1 .J I~ II 1..,.11 ~I 5..) ~I ~
III
JI SII ~ 0 ~ d..o~ <) .:Ie ~ ~)I '-:-'~~
JI .•. J5 ~ o~ rj)l-.9 wrlln. " LI )L05 c..::...o) I.., I..) 1
~ '---.s ~ ':llj J.; ~l- ':llltL-> ~ .r,L.-9.,~ ~ I~b 0~ 1 d~
J I :~ IS ~ ls~ cJ.S..; t, + C ~ \.9 .r.:-'~ ~ 1 oj--4--0.,9
~ IrJ 1 ~;J- 0'> '-:-j'U ~ ~ + I 0': .•_ y .r.:--J I ;_~jJ
J Ir~ - ~ 1\ l$' L..w.. 0_---..:.., u-I-'M.- ~+ L-~.J dj~1 ~ d~!)
J ~I .: 11I_.91~J ':ll t_a.:: ':ll,
~ +
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J I ':'9 1\ .J~" 9,: .• L: ~ 1,.,,...- _-:.;..~;, ~~ t ~ L: 1.0
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III C
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JI .b..AJ1 .1'1~I ~ ~ ~ l'w L--r.-J 1 lY-j t, I.!!..:.., \i!~
JI o~\~ J,.,h- ~t,Uj1 I~ + \ .: ..J.:) I..J .: Is:. t":.J 1 ~ I
J)l ...1.1 I..) cy.) J...o:;J I .l'1~ c"-"__ """,L I, "~!..:..a C!),J-! 0 ~ t,
~ ~ .
J~ jl~ cy...; ~I rs-3 + IJ b 1..:-'~·~n5 ',,:",,~':lll I..D
JL- -5J~ lJ2 ,":.>...Jt ~ ....a-I }i II 0:1j ~ ill I ~)l.,.c
"\o[e are proud of having a dignified pivot, occupying the highest
religious position, and leading all the people to the
right wayo
0 •••• /
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He is of great importance and high-ranking. His real po~ition is
enough for him, and therefore he is in no need of any more
praise.
He has been loved by all the people and respected especially by
the eminent ones of them.
You have an excellent ability in the management of affairs, as
you were born as a noble origin,. Oh my master.
He is the magnetic centre for all the believers definitely and
theii elixir of life in all the cases.
He is the chief of all mystics and their spiritual balm.
Therefore stop your argument.
His spiritual springs are always opened for all the seekers of
guidance, .t.herefore his spiritual cold water has been given
to nUmerous sufis.
Countless people have been guided by him as he promoted many of
them into the highest religious position.
Whenever his praise is recited in a land a breath of frangrance
diffuses over this area.
The hearts are pleased and rejoiced whenever his virtues are
recited accompanied by heavy music~
I have no provision~ but his love. What a perfect provision
is mine for the better future!
I would like to set off to his tomb on my feet and not by riding
camels, so that I may be rewarded more.
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He is from Jilan District, surely a dignified saint, a pillar
of Islam and a leader of Godly menm
Downpour of blessing may shower upon him, through the intercession
of his grandfather, the soul of the perfection
If you want to reach the highest religious position then you have
to adhere to his approach continuously.
His order is super to all other orders and sects by the unanimity
of the elite and laymen.
The beginning of his religious position is where the others end,
therefore listen to what the reliable source has reported.
Adhere to his sect sincerely, in order to obtain closeness to the
master of all the masters.
Plunge into the deep part of his sea, then surely you will find
precious materials like pearlso
Be steady in your adherence to his sect and don't listen to the
sayings of devil people, Oh my intimate friend.
Make the visiting of his tomb always as important as Pilgrimage
without any hesitation.
Our Shaykh is enough for us in terms of pride, as his sword is
enough for us during war.
If you are afraid of hard calamities, then stress his name and
say: Oh dignified Shaykho
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Surely you will find that his help will reach you quickly and
that will save you from calamity.
Oh people allow yourselves to be enchanted with the -winct.Of
his love for our aims can ~e achieved only at.his wineshop!
If he surpass all mankind while he is one of them, it should
not surprise anybody since Musk is surely a part of the deer's
blood.
Be kind to us Oh the ornament of the gatherings and the medicine
of the incurable sickness.
Oh my God shower your mercy upon Zayla c.1•. through the intercession
of thi s pivot.
And support him by guiding him to the right path and giving him
the water of connection1 Oh my Lord, the possessor of the glory.
Likewise upon all the intimate friends and the beloved colleagues.
Grant favour to all of them, Oh my Lord.
Blessing of 'Allah be upon the ornament of the Day of Resurrection,
Mu~ammad, the one designated with perfectionoll66
J. Appeal for Aid:
AI-Zayla c,..1 composed on th1S theme~as far as we know, a short
ta'iyyah poem consisting of only ten verses. It is the shortest one
among al-Zaylac!ts seven poems. Apparently, he wrote this poem to
urge the wealthy people to provide ~or the member of ijirta 'Ula Madaw
with their needs specially the coffee, which al-ZaylaCi himself was
immensely fond of. The content of this short poem is so weak that
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it may have been attributed wrongly to our poeto Indeed al-Qutbi
has admitted -:, the addition of more lines without further
specification.
Here is an extract from thip short poem:
~~ ~W, ~.J ~ ~ 7l~ JS rf l.;J b.I~ 0"'.9
~
<1.9 1.•.$ ~L::-.9 l.;W. I.9 LW <l : e., "1 ~Jl.t". 1..:60"' JS
~d__ f~ ' .9 ~.J.9 J.:...£~ J.9 .. ~ ..Jy$.9 t,~ ;~.9 ~
d .! !: II '-..J).rC'.9 ~1p'.9 ..u;H ~~ j-PJ1.9 fl} ~I ~Lo 1.jS
~
d.'J e. ~ I sW.9 ~~ .!!: ~ 4.9 <I !~ .u ~'-tJ' r l..~' d~
"Whoever provi des us dai ly with coffee, may the Merci ful One
to the whole world, grant him the Heaven
Likewise everyone who donates to us amicably clothes, milk, _I.
tea and sweet.
As well asccffee beans, sugar, rraQr~ ••• , scent, honey,
grease, money and wheat.
May God grant more issues and pleasures to those who generously
and friendly donates to us, and may He keep them from all
calamities .•"
Through the intercession of Hashimite leaders and his family as
well as all the Prophets and beloved saints. ,,67
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Cd) The Form of ZaylaCi1s Poetry
ZaylaCi employed in his poetical works the.most popular metres
in classical Arabic poetry such as Tawil] K;'mil, W;'fir and Raja~o 68
It seems that he paid a great deal of attention to maintain the
peculiar restrctions of the metre and rhymeo Hence one finds that
most of his poetic output are well-balanced and rhymed according to
the main rules of this arto He however resorted to the use of
InSo~ of'~
poetic licencesYverseso An example of this is his changing the
name of Kawnayn into Yusuf al-'Akw;n in order to maintain his rhy-meo 69
Similarly, he has dropped the vowel in walad making it -w-a-l:d-o70
Quite fre~uently, we find in al-ZaylaCi1s poems some words or
phrases which are used merely to balance the metre or preserve the
rhyme 0 Note the repetition of waci and 'IsmacI in (2)(i) aboveo
ZaylaCi also resorts frequently to the use of zihafs and cilal
(acceptable irregularities in a metrical foot)o For instance,
Ziha~ al-cAsab (changing the fifth vowel into consonant) occurs
g
repeatedly in the vers~s of Ha~d-i.yyah al- cArwa-h; Ziha-f al-Idma-r
• 0
(changing the second vowel into consonant) in the verses of his poem
Siraj al-cUqu-l,/andZi~a-f al-Qabd (omitting the fifth consonant ) in
the verses of Muhayyah al-'Afraho
However, since all these Zihafs are permissible, they do not
represent any serious deficiency in Zailaci's poetryo The majority
of ZaylaCirs poems are mono-rhymedo His only multi-rhymed poems are
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Jawharat al-WasIlah and Kanz al-Haga'iq, wh~c~ are both w~i-tt.enon
e
the Rajaz metre where each verse contains two hemistiches rhyming
with one anothero Al-ZaylaCi has apparently been inclined to
al-Qafiyah al-Mutlaqah (the Loos(jlRhyme); the overwhelming majority
of his poems are written on this r~Yme. It is only in a few verses /
scattered through his multi-rhymed poems that al-Zayla ci composed on
Qafiyah Muqayyadah (fettered Rhyme).
It seems that our poet had not applied the post-classical metres
such as al-Takhmis andal-Tarbic although these forms were very common
in his days and were used intensively by his colleagues and
discipleso
Al-Zayla c.1.'S vocabularies and constructions are genera 1ly
grammatically sound, clear and ca!!'efullychosen. This is 110 doubt
due to the fact that our poet was competent in Arabic. As stated
earlier, he wrote a number of books on Morphology and on the
phonetics of QUI'Ianic recital 0 This enabled him to develop a high
degree of discriminating ability in the selection of the most
suitable words for his expressions. This can be noted in most of
his poemSJ the only exception is his Ta'iyyah as mentioned p~~UBlyo
.There are also a few other cases where ZaylaCi applies
ambiguous and poor structu~eso An example of such weak expression
is the following sentence:
This is grammatically wrong owing to the fact that the verb Naffis
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is a transitive verb and to make it grawmati~~lly' Bound·the
expression should be rearranged as follows:
•
As for the rhetoric,_this poe.t employs a great deal of rhetorical
types, especially Tashbih Baligh? where one finds six expressions
of it in two lines of Muhayyijah al-'Afrah poem (127 13);
Tasb'ih Dimni as in line 26 of ~- al-cA-shiqi-no
He must have been influenced by the great Arab poet al-Mutanabbl~
(d.965 A.Do) from whom he copies this expressiono Al-Zayla c.,1 at
times quotes his lines and inserted them in his poemso He also makes
use of the stylistic ornament.
Finally our poet shows a high degree of artistic ability in his
poetryo He must have made great efforts to successfully refine and
polish his poetical diction and to decorate his style with a
variety of rhetorical embelishmentso At times he goes to exceSS in
this artificial ornaments to the detriment of the contents of his
compositiono
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SECTION II
HAJJ SUFI
A His Life History and His Scholarship
He is cAbd al-Rahm;n 'ibn cA.bdullah fibn cAbd aI-Rahman the
Qut,b (Pivot) of the Somali Coast and one of the most prominent
religious scholars in Somalia. 14 Born· in Mogadishu in 1245/1829 to
an important family~ he developed to become an intelligent and
devoted scholar 2 whose contributions to the development of Arabic
and Islamic culture in Somalia are still highly appreciated by the
educational circles in the countryo As a recognition of his role in
the educational field, a number of educational institutions,
scattered throughout the countryt are named after him.
Hajj Sufi became as well a renowned and a prolific poet in Arabico
It is said that he composed poems on all the sixteen Arabic metres
and their varieties. His poetical anthology, entitled DalTl al-cIbad
'Ila Sabil al-Rashad, most probably contains the greater part of his
poetic output •... _~
His. father, al-Shaykh cAbdullah! was an excell ent reI igious
scholar and teacher of ShaficI jurisprudence. Also his grand-
father, al-Shaykh cAbd al-Rah.man (d. 1257/1847) ,was a jurist too,
and an intelligent scholar. It is reported that he surpassed all
his colleagues at ~he age of fifteen.3 He was an outstanding Arabic
..~(,
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Calligrapher and scribe. The Iamily possession preserves until
today thirty volumes written by his hand~ each representing one
chapter of the holy Qurtan.
.
Thus we can see that Hajj Sufi was brought up in the type OI
educational and intellectual environment which must have shaped
him to become a true representative of this learned famous family.
He attended the Qur'anic school at his early age~ where he memorized
substantial portions of the Qur'ano Thereafter he went to Hi rta:::;::
school where he began to learn the conventional courses OI the tradi-
tional school curriculum in Somalia. There9 he became a close
associate OI the eminent poet and revered scholarv al-Shaykh
cAbd
aI-Rahman al'-Zayla"r 0 In fact'}"i.t was Hajj Sufi J as mentioned
earlier, who acted as Zayla c'"].'s host in Mogdishuo Both of them
attended the Hirta school which was run by the devoted scholarv al-
Shaykh ~Abu-Bakr MilJdaro Apparently~ Hajj Sufi attained most of
4:
his training and education from this sagacious scholar. There is
no hint that he travelled outside of Mogadishu for any further
educati'on.
When Hajj Stifi graduated from this school around 1850s A.D.
he was given the highest educational and religious title of al-
Shaykh. SbOnt Hajj Sufi established his own H•irta school and
began to teach the ~arious curricula subjects on Arabic and Islam •
... 1
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His ci r-c I.e seems to have attracted a considerable numo er- of
student s because of his devotion and v:hst knowl edge. Elaborating On
Hajj Sufi Is posit ion as a devoted scholar, his disciple, Qasim al-
Baraw"i sai d s "He was a jurist1 ~n ascec i c , a pious schoLar,
knowledgeable in various types of a~ts and devotir.g most of his time
to t.ea cbLnq , Many student s at"!e;nded his educati onal cilf'cel; majority
of whom became7 like him, scholars as well as asceticso Among ~hem
are Shaykh Mul;lammadvibn CUthman al-YaCqubi and Sha::fkhHajj cAbdullah
al-Qutbt, the editor of the Qulunqu-l collections". 5 Some of his
o
admirers claimed that there was no recognized scholar in Somalia who
did not benefit from Hajj Sufi's vast scholarship directly or
Lnd iract.Ly , That claim may not be an exaggeration since Somalis ur.til
today bow their heads as a sign of honour, respect and appreciation
whenever his name is mentionedo6
As for the branches of knowledge he masteredf Hajj Sufi himself
enumerated them in the following verses:
...
l/;J!)~ 0'>!) ~I ~I 0'> ...;. ('.9 Ie o- \.~, ~.9
~.J 9 o- 6r,h ..J.-........,:Y':'-'.-9 -,r " 9.9.9 ~~.9 ''-?~ .l.r.9
c
J~.;-S' I.f JLi. ~I ~~.9 4- JJ----? ~ '.9 ~.".kJ1 ~ ~.9
"My God taught me various sciences of the glorious grammar
and of prosody ,
And of morphology, r-hyme , of juri sprudence as well as tajwid
(the science of Qur'anic recital) and the art of composingo
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And of sufism and theologyo Yet my hou sa,is devoid of
val uabl e property." 7
It seems that Hajj Sufi di d mo't live in great afflue.nce. It
is said that he had contac·ted al-Shaykh fUways al-BaJ:"awifot~the
sake of essential requirements for his children,8 So it muy not
be just for the sake of contrasting his vast knowledge and little
means that the poet is alluding that his house is devoid of property
in line three of the above axt.r-aot , He was~ hov,ever, known to be
contentf satisfied with the little he possessed and quite proud of
being a good scboLar, There is no trace that he communicated with
any ruler of his period for the sake of material gains~ unlike his
contemporary and close friend 'Uways al-Barawt, who was accustomed
to visit al-Sayyid Barghash and CAli al-Thuwayni)then the rulers
of Zamzibar and southern Somalia respectively;seeking their gifts.
Hajj Sufi used to look down upon those scholars who run after the
rulers for material gainso This verse expresses his view;'
. ~
.)~I
"I seek refuge with 1Allah from the attitude of great scholars
who seek the favour of the ignorant, oppressor and cruel
ruler with a heart like stoneo,,9
Besides his educational profession, Hajj Sufi was known for
his zealous involvement in social service and Islamic missionary
act LvLt.Le s, He endeavoured to preach the pure teachings of Islam
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and to eli·minate a number of social ills which were prevailing
in Mogadi shu during hi s time such as the gambl ing game call ed
Minias or Hiiko which used to be hel d between two social clubs,
calanbuUg and shabelle. Each of tl1ese clubs had in its enrolment a
good number of the- weal thy men including rul ers, princes and ot.h er-
elites in the cityo Businessmen especially in the shipping industry
were patronizing either of the two clubs until almost all the important
people of Mogadishu engaged in this obnox~ous gambling game. The
religious scholars worked hard against it~ yet without much success.
The continuation of the game annoyed the religious scholars to the
extent that some of them went out of Mogadishu on self-exile.
Shaykh 9Abu-Bakr, the teacher of Hajj Sufi was among those scholars
who migrated from Mogadishu for this reason. Hajj Sufi remained
in Mogadishu resisting the game. At that time, he composed a number
of poems in which he attacked uncompromisingly the game and its
players and bitterly criticized the religious scholars who preferred
to migrate rather than fight against this game.10 So he remained
all his life in Mogadishu until he finally died.in 1323/1905 at the
age of 78 years. 11 Immediately after his death, he was honoured
by building a high dome on his tomb to which was attached a Zawiyah
(a small mosque-school) where conventional education continued to
be conducted until recent times.
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B The Content of His Poetrr.
Although Hajj Sufi was listed among the Somak f compe.terit prose
writers,.no significant prose writings by him are available -~ouso
The only prose work of Hajj Sufi, - that we know abou't i.d s a ahoz-t.
recital of less than two pages? which is aa i d to have been his
special pr ay er-s , Hence, the bulk of Hajj Sufi's lit erary output is
in verseo While the imagerys concept and meaning of his poetry are
simple and conventional 1 our poet displays his ability to present
his simple concepts in clear, sound and well-structrued poetical formo
This poetry coure .-.a variety of themes which are predominantly
religiouso These themes could be classifi ed into the following:
10 Panegyric Theme:
This is the main theme which dominates the poetic heritage of
this poet. In fact more than half of his poettc anthology is
devoted to the panegyric theme praising the Prophet, Jrlani' and some
other individualso We will now reView selections of his three types
of panegyric poemsl
First Praising the Prophet
The eulogy of the Prophet Mut;afl1l!ladt'~presents the greater part
of Hajj SufLts panegyricso. AI-Qutb~'!tf ,Qa-. s.1m al-Baraw•• 1a•••nd cAbd al-
Rahman al-cAlihav~,stated that .our- poet has panegyrized the Pr-op het :
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in sufficient poems as to cover all the sixteen Arabic metres. This
is quite p'ossLbLe , since Hajj Sufi was the most prolific Somali Arabic
poet. BeSides,this type of panegyric flourished in Somalia due,as
we have explained in SectionIII~ to political and social as well as
religious reasons, during the ni~eteenth century.
However, Hajj Sufi has ascribed to the Prophet~ the praiseworthy
quali ties that are employed tradi tionall y by Arab panegyrist s parti-
cularly the authors of the popular religious eulogies such as Busiri.
He also attributes to him the stories, miracles and events that are
narrate~ by the writers of the biography of the Prophet~ espeoially
the Maw:lfd authors. But our ,oet was relatively moderate and less
exaggerating than his two contemporaries~ al-ZaylaCr and 'Uways al-
Barawl. His poetical anthology abJltains fifteen poems devoted to
the praise of the Prophet. These poems? which are the longest and
most impressive amongst Hajj Sufi '\s poems, are very much similar in
their poetic content. Hence his poem,Mirq~t al-Wus~l~ which we are
choosing for special analysis., seems to be a good representative
of his prophetic eulogies. This poem can be divided into the
following sec!tions:
(a) The Introduction:
The author Lrrt r-odu caa :the poem with a series of vocative calls
on the Prophet •• describibg him as the beloved one of God, the
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150
best one among mankind and the one most supreme. He goes on to
assert that whoever prai sed him would be promot ed to t he high eST.
religious and social position~ no matter how lowly he used to be.
Giving himself as an examplev th~ poet disc10ses that befo~e b~
eulogy of the Prophet he wa~ very obscure and inferior to all his
colleagues. Here is the first part of the poem:
,..s.)~1 .r.?"'L" ill I ~-.".~
~ ).,1 9\1 ~:; ..w~ eW.
d -:; I:; ..l...-'Z>oa ~:;),:, ~1.9
)I n..Jl '-:-'3-"' ~Ir:., ,J ~1.9
+
1., 9.9 ~ ~r lo~
..,
1 " ..I..-S.co') "" ,~~I~. ~
~ •,)•_.•--'0""-'-.."•'..•••.•
"Oh the beloved one of "Allah,~ the best one of all the people,
the exalted and tbe most honourable among those who walked
about.
Because of you many a lowly person has become powerful,
Oh you the leader of the mast ers and the t'reasure 0f dl'ankincI
And has ascended to the top of glory and climbed up to the
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position of those who are mindful and realizing
And he becomes dressed up appearing in the garment of the
high class like rulers or an authorized prince.
I have definit ely become after obscurity and modesty a man
of high rank and fame.
Amicable~ congenial~ respectable, an exalted master, with a
rising dignifi ed statur e.
Although I do not possess any qualifications to that posLt Lon ,
nor am I a devoted pious ~or8hippe~ to earn it.
All I have done is choosing the Prophet's praise,finding this
enjoyable and investing it."
4b) About Drought;
It seems that Hajj S.pfi composed this poem during a terrible
douuht , Hence a considerable section of it is devoted to a
descriptio~ of the horrors of it and a sincere'-supplica-bion to
God through the Prophet to bring it to an end. The poet ascribed
this unfortunate situation to the acts of the ignorant members of
the society who are disobeying their Lord and yet seeking his mercy.
lie suggests that the only way out of this alarming situation is to
seek the Lnte r-cessfon of the Prophet· t·o God, and set up collective
prayers in all the v.illages::
...;)t-.-_ ••,••••.. +
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.;-
'-..J---J ~ L-.:i ill t"~-r=W
~
.9,;,'i "~ u' Js. sl,-_""-,,01, •• o- 6JI--_-J~ r~r.>:-•-I-e. illI ~ UI
'j......, •..';J '.9 ~ o- ~ III'.,'}-.o; •~.•-.-.. ;I L", ,.J~..; •._.•~. ~ ~.,,~j ~l9l.9
~ ~
+ 0--r-U~ ~ ~l ~.5' JG.
P('Io .;...Z')I J .::..J + )J t5.l.l , 0 'J--S .51
oJ)------'Q~. 1\ ..; sLs.JJ J~ '.9 +
IJ,._.._. :.I..l~9 ~ u~ ~."sJ' ~)~
"Oh the messenger of 'Allah, people have been terribly affected
by starvation and famine, which are widely spreado
Because of the sins committed by the ignorant ones~ and misdeeds
carried out by theme
The hearts became hard because of it (sinning), just like a huge
stone extract ed from a hard and barren r-ock ,
By this heart they supplicate to the Lord, whom most of them
displease and disobey with their full awareness.
I wish they would repent to' Allah sincerely, for He is the
forgiving orre, ever ready to forgive sinners.
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'Allah has prevented His showers from them, and kept it in His
Heavens, for this may remind them to seek forgivenesso
But they continue on,and adamantly procrastinate, neve~
abstaining from their straying and quarrel 0
The intellectual and wise people among them are so confused thaJ.;.
they have become like aimlessly wandering people, at nighto
Or as the intoxicated person, who does not know the right path~
for he has already lost bal ance,
No hope is leEt for us, except to take refuge in You and to
-'
persistently supplicate and pray~ in all the villages
Do please, rise; take a quick action and pray our Lord to clear::::::
the distress, and to forgive me! II13
(~) The Conclusion:
The poet ends his poem with the conventional conclusion of
most Somali Arabic poems,_ namely, by supplicatirig God th~ough the
intercession of the Prophet to forgive him and glrant him and hd s
associatBs their requests:
l,__ +- ? Ow ~:;~1 W U ))..9-" t .d.9.
~
+ I: '.9 ~1 ••• 0 ~6~ 0~.9-
.. ..,-
I;J----~ j..._ __l(\!." ...::"l.9,I --0~
f ~I ..J ~~ ~J ~
,..~r ••..:<ii!I.:u' 11'.9. W c-.J' ) i -c:.r-t.9 (Joj.- t .r--fJ r-'"' J~~.9
1..,1 IIIe~ 01,0 ill' 409
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"And pray our Lord to forgive the misdeeds we have committed boLd Ly ,
And to grant us and all those present our reque ats as a r'av our-
from Him, through your intercession.
Those amongst whom is a well-wisher7 a brother and a relative
especially favouring tle poor versifier,
Who is cAbd aI-Rahma-n, with continuous forgiveness and a signifi-
cant reward, be he alive or dead.
This is his believing ancestors9 and decedents~ as well as for
those friends who asked us and for all the poor oneso
May the blessings of 'Allah be upon you continuously, as long
as the night darkens and the ni ght-travel s obt aLns s " 14
Second - The Eulog~ of"AI-JflinI:
As far as we know, there is only one poem written by Hajj Sufi
entitled cAlam al-Qadiriyyah (The Flag of the Qadiri Sect) eulogizing
JilinL This poem, which is popu lar- in Somalia"is usually recited
"
at the beginning of the popular sufi traditional religious cer~monies
called Hadro or Dhikr. School pupils learn this poem by heart
at their early school age in order to recite it at Hadro
performanceo The poetic merit of this ode is high, it is smoot h,
elegant and appropriate for singingo cAbdullah al-Qutbi7 a
i disciple of this poet~ described this ode agone of the most effective'l.,
panegyric poems on al-Ji-la-ni-. 15 This poem could be divided into the
following sections,:
tot o.j
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(a) The Praiseworthy Qualities of Al~JIl~nI
This portion of the poem is devoted to enumeratl1,.ngthe virtues
II c...!J""" .'.
.J .., l..... -'>9 ••J.•_._• .~.e ~ + .J ..,1...---I
r. ~
,J::.\'- - ...,.~!1,,9 ~ I .J..J. ,_'-! c...; I +
.J-~L'----~.: .:;J I '-.'.r/."-..; ~ '\ ~ w ~+ ..pl~~~1 .J~ ~I
~ __ ~ILJI ....
.,,...-----'7'" \; J---S J .:i 0) Ln!:-.__ --J<i...•••W \ ~'.:
Cr..
~
Ln!:-.-----;,;.~I ~r-S- ~'I
"We exclaim at the greatness conferred on you by Allah~ Oh
you cAbd al~Q;dir,the reviv~r'of the religion, who is ever
present in our hearts
We exclaim at the greatness conferred on you by Allah! hasten
with support to us, Oh you cAbd al~Qa-d1.r!
You are the sun of the pious ones and the full moon of the Saintso
You are the innermost of the chosen ones and the lamp brightening
our darkness.
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1~6
You are the master of the pr-e.ac her-a and the educ et or- of those
en-route(to sufism)o
You are the one giving beneficial information to the ancetic
worshippers and helping learner of the Order ~chieving
thei r adm ,
You are the pivot of the two worlds and the unique one both in
the East and in the West 0
You are the salvation of both humans and Jinnis ? so please
support us, Oh you cAbd al-Qa_d.1ro" 16
(b) The Importanue of the Qadiri Sect:
The poet now turns to discuss the significance of the Qadiri
Sect~ As an eminent member of this Order1 Hajj Sufi has one
immense praise for it,and regarding it as the best sufi ordero He
refers to the numerous miracles attributed to JIlani, and congra-
tulates those who joined his Brotherhood:
..,...
.J ..J 1•••__ .,:t9 ..J,_---1-:..IJQo.JJ d~:__ ",":,'
+
+
l•i.•. .o..1.:•,; wt ~ •• 55 I."
I I
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15'/
"Success is for those who obtained the truth and followed
you in your Order.
\ It is the reliable al-Qaairiyyah Order which is attributed to
cAbd aI-Qadir (its fou.nder)
Many clear supernatural events and famous miracles
As well as immense knowledge are derived from90h you~ the cub
~flionso
I felt happy when I~j9ined your Order and became a regular
member of it 0
In it we unite with you in your rightly directed guidance
wit hcimt any deceit 0,,17
(c) The Conclusion
Hajj Sufi concludes his poem with his view on tH3 contro¥ersial
historical issue of the origin of JIlanI. He claims that al-JilanI
was an offspring of Prophet Mu~ammado He even compares the position
of al-JIlanI among saints to the position of Muh•ammad among prophets,
implying that JIlanI is the greatest saint:
··
c:
"£"""--':1-,I~:;',H .J 6,__ ..J..1•..,
··
~)I __ .:c••.-;~.• ~
e ··
·· •••\..----~.:~) I .jr<' ~5
·•
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"Your' grand:father is the best one amongst marrk Lnd, He is
'A~madt the protector o:fthe massive communitieso
Your position among the saints is exactly like his position
among the prophets.
Who then could compete with him in his height, or equal him in
his heritage?
Through you.our sins are wiped o:f:f,and our calamities are
I
eradicated
Through you mis:fortunes are undone and through you harvests
increase tremendously
May the blessings o:fAllah be especially upon Him and upon you?
And may peace envelope both o:fyou as long as heavy clouds
pour down their rainso,,18
Thirdly - Other Panegyrics:
Our poet wrot e two poems in praise o:fhis teacher, al-Shaykh
9Abu-Bakr Mi~~ar, apd his grand:father al-Shaykh cAbd al-Ra~m~ al-
Su:fio One can easily see that his poem on his grand:father is much
more :force:fuland sincere than that on his teachero Hence, it
would su:f:ficehere to review the :former which could be divided
as :follows:
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(a) The Introduction:
This poem commences with three introtluctory ~erses indicating,
after praising Allah, the aim of its composition, and its met r-e s
-:- ~r~ ill ...k:.""J 1 ~ <.!Jy
'.rl) L_J,.9 d~ Iyw<L.:~....a..I l;9J 0->-••.•) I -¥' \.....wI+ J~A:'I ~
t:
'rl) I~ ~~J:;) 0'" '~.r LP~i -+ ~ ~ ..y '-'-c~ I 0~1 I'.J...r9.
"After thanking ,Allah, here is a piece of precious poetic
composition written on the description of my grandfather
Surely, he was well-known by his name cAbd al-Ra?ma-n, as well
as by his nickname Sufi (the pure), because of his purity,
openly and secretlyo
For this is t~e time to delve into the sea of his qualities,
where I dive seeking jewels, on the Tawi-l Metreo" 19
-&
(b) Tbe Body of the Poem:
The poet ascribes to his object of praise,in a conventional
styl e and imagery,. the prais eworthy qualities that are commonly used
by traditional Arab eulogistso The praised one is an outstanding?
devoted and well-known scholaro He is also a generous, tolerant
and sincere leadero His clan attained through him a great fame
throughout the country:
....
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+
<AI :. _ \ _ \_,
C «'0 ~l.51
~~ \.; JS 0'> y 1.JL..J I 6~ L-.:
+ M?~~ ~ L__~ uo:--.15
1.".1 (11 0 ~.1I) .:u '.9 If \.:.W. I '~
If. ~- - <:...0 \.; .1;~- .1~
0)U '.9 u51..w r..1 ~ "I d' ~I
c
1'.}- ~ :.9 \S-L;.. J 1S'....z ~ I "\..9~ ~'J
"In his young age, he surpassed all the exemplaries, and was
promoted to the status of cUbbad (devoted worshipper~
of' .• for h~ then desert~d all evils.
He was given, at the age of 15 years,· a wi sdom through which
his heart was highly enlightened.
His high fame, . even then: reached East and West and the people
began to rush from various places, .
They used to come to him seeking answers to problems which worried
their thoughtso So he equipped himself as a zealous arbiter.
To him, .the elites came from every dLr-eot Lon , -desir-long from him
his generosity which was never exhausted
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He brought back to life the souls which were well-nigh
dying by the favour which {Allah - may the Creator be
exalted - had provided him.
He is a supporter of any troubled~ a helper to any refugee and
a passionate lover of orphans, and ~o all children he is
a pleaser.
He is a gene:cous~ tolerant, humble, devoted, patient. g~ateful
and an experienced adviser.
Through him~ the Shashiyyah Clan and those related to them in
the farthest cities and villages have become famous.
They have masters of masters in every assembly.. They 'havie :
surpassed, in their manners and app ear-anc es.a Lf those who
are the likes of them. 20It
(c) The Conclusion
The author concludes this ode with the traditional prayers
for God t s forgiveness andfavouJ'able response to forgive and grant
his requests. He has, however,. added to this some hi~torical
information about the praised,. giving the date of his death and
burial:
+
- . u. .L.A...:J• 4 ••
+ 0..0) I t.iliW ~'l:>.J W. Y.J W
+ d~~l :,;;lJt ~
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~
~J---"9.!t--" U.;.iA ~ 1r,;.J ~ t~.0
"His death occurred in the -year two hundred after cne -thousand
and fifty--seven. Thus they date it, so reme!llberii!
He was buried on Monday the ~wenty-sixth of Shacban restfui
and dignified
So, my Lor-d, 'che Merci ful One, we seek your satisfaction, and
a comprehensive fo~giveness,Oh you the One displaying
greatness.
Make his settlement in the refuge of Paradise and save him from
the trouble of the Day of Judgment, rewarding him (generously:.•
By your grace O.the Powerful God, be generous to your little
worshipper~ named after his grandfather. Forgive him and
cover him (with your protection).
Through his intercession? forgive for us the sins we have
committed and defend us against the evils of those who are
tyranic envious and argumentative.
We offer our blessings to the praiseworthy one both in this
earth and in Heaven (i.e. Mu~ammad). So that we may be
lucky to enjoy the abundant reward of it in this world
and in the Hereafter. ,,21
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2 Asceticism (itihd):
Although t.he bulk of Hajj Sufi IS poetry is panoqy r-Lc . payt.icularly
eulogizing the Prophei? a substantial proportion of his poetry,
about ten poems, is devoted to·asceticism (Zuhd)o These poems
generally warn the people not to be deceived by the attractions and
pleasures of this worldo They al~o urge them to fear God~ to live
the ascetic life and to invest good deeds which represent the only
help ~ti the Hay of .Judqement; 0 He frequentl y blames the human soul
for running after the limited pleasures of this life and not planning
for the Hereaftero He cleal~y states that devotion to God and
purification of the soul are the only ways ihrough which one could
attain the highest religious positiono This view is explicitly given
in his D~liyyah poem? which appears to be one of the best odes that
Hajj Sufi wrote on asceticismo Hence, we have chosen to intro~Jce
an extract from it as an example, of Hajj Sufi's ascetic poems:
..,.. --
..
<'y.a9~ ~ u~1 ~~I ~ -113 ~I JISEI \fb..!3'-H' c.::...SJ--
~--..a .lli~ r-I urJl.9 ~-~.J <'yC>"r! + "--»3.)3 <·-.63~)I0~b.) ~.)3
11II
~I 4:
w
.!. :••••~.. ~ '-.4 c.:r- ~...c..l A~ ~I ~-" ~..JJ--
Is. ..JI 'er (J.9-f-!:,J I ~1 ~.:D.s
.. ,. , • .aJ '\f~ • ...,
00./
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~r III 1M,).,9,).,9 0-" ~~~ d-d
+ r--r~
w..9 ~,.)t ,JP-: ~ ~
+
~ ~
(j-'~ W I ~ I!l.9 "-~.)Tl..9 ~~ ~ I &>-..•.)• ~ ~ ~ r- -'"'".i).9
+
"Be patient, and be patient," Oh my wicked soul; and be
satisfied with what happened to you and lower down your
high head
\
You have delayed your repentance, -because of the confidence
you have in the promise and the generosity of Godo
Therefore you have not rejected the evil passionso
You have wished the favour and mercy of the Merciful ('Allah)
by pleasing the cursed devil, .and by not holding to His
firm ties!
You have turned the brightness of the heart-dark and then you
are still claiming the love of h:is genuinely beloved One
(i.eo Muhammad)
. t· .
You lie~ Oh you fooli~h. soul, ,whe."c1laiming this Lov e,
How can you love whil e you are failing to purify your sin?
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Far it is that wh i ch you hope for and you are gett ing farther
from pleasing or reaching these conditions which are
already close to youo
Do you.think that those of intellect have reached the highest
position and closeness to their satisfied Lo~d by this?!
NaY1 it is by constant obedience and avoiding every thing that
does not please -the Lord. Therefore lower ~our eye..n
So purify yourself from the rust of sin separating you from your
Lord~ and imitate those and reject that which you are
inclined to.
Surely you will see marvelous, admirable and great result that
you are wishing. So hasten to it.
Oh my Lord support me against this soul wit.h evil urgings. Grant:
forgivenes5, success and ample easing of our difficulties.
Forgive your worshipper? cAbd ai-Rahman who came to you
complaining and hoping you to untie the shackles on his kneeo
He supplicates to you, through the intercession of the Prophets
and saints,. praying to you,. Oh Lord! So accept .•,,22
• ~ 0 .j
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J Social Criticism
A number of social ills and sinful manners of behaviour ~pread
widely among the citizens of MOgadishu during Hajj Sufi)s p~riodo
Apparently? the most dangerous one. among these was Minias oz- Hilko
I
gambling game which, as we statGd earliers uDed to be contesied
between two social cl.ub s , Calan~uuq and Shabel1eo Religious ach oLaz-c
worked hard against this obnoxious gameo Hajj Sufi was the head of
those who devoted themselves to the elimination of Hinfas game in
part icular and all the forms of social ill s in general 0 As a part of
his efforts on this~ he composed three relatively short poems; one
on the criticism of his clan for not being s t.r-Lc t Ly adherent of the
noble characters of their ancestors,the second on the religious
scholars for not discharging their religious obligations sincerely;
and the third on the people of Mogadishu not abstainIng from Minias
,. c.c-ss
game and other hateful acts to Isl am0 The last poem seems to us
to be more signiflcant than the others for its cont ent and o'th er-
poetical values 0 Hence it may represent the poetic features of t:his
themeo In this poem, the author criticizes the people of Mogadishu
bitterly for their disregard of t-he religious duties, moral cha r-act er s
and the essential profession, ~n which they mostly dependfor. their
livelihoodo He also attacks a number of unislamic customs such as
gambling and smoking as well as the manners of dressing:
+ .J..e I
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... 1M
'.9 ').J -¥>..I l-03 W. ~.r.:S- ~ +
r:.
",91 0~' y., r-'~" L..o....~'L ~ +.
i:.
~.I \jij ~ r-'~4' 0'> J~ 0'>3 ..;. .J9 f~ ,J:.'r~ "l!
... ~
~ I 0-1. '" 0'> d39-__ le '.9
~
-:- ~ '.9 J~ .., .,.,J I 0-1..) U ~ '.9q--',JOD) l.93
'.9 •••1•. ..,••••••9••• ,..i.l L;...J \S ~'" 1" d I . j,9 ..;.
"Oh God, guide the people of Mogadi shu for they rejected the
instructions that MU9ammadgave
Such as covering -the private parts of the men and ''iOmen~ and
keeping women away from those who may have~utmotivations
about them.
As if the Qur'anic verses on purdah were revealed to other
nations (not to them). Surely' they are rebelling 'in blind-
ness and deafness.
Being brokers, they have neglected- the profe-ssion that their live-
lihood depends on and therefore they spoiled the market.
They adhere to the evil passions of the people who strayed,
as shey have, imi tated the straying 'ones of the ir ancestors.
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They are pleased with the practice of Minias game and other
obnoxious actso Even they regarded it as if it is much
better than the re1igion of our Prophet.
They revolt against those who stand up advising them for the sake
of 'Allah. They even threaten and frigh'ten themo
They have weakened r by doiflg so f the reI igion of t he Prophet,
they have brought the devil closer and kept the good
people away.
If anything that agrees with their customs is performed they
happily welcome it. But if it disagrees with it, they
criticize_,,2J
D The Fonn of His Poetry
Hajj Sufi appears to have had a prolonged training in and
experience with Arabic versification that led in the end to
polishing and refining his poetic talent 0 This1 perhaps', enabled
him to feel that he has reached the peak of knowledge in Arabic
prosody; hence he has enough justification to make his ~amous
statement: "Ana \lakim al- cArud" (I am the master of Arabic prosody).
As stated earlierjit is asserted thaf he has composed poems on all
the sixteen Arabic metres and on their varie- tiest such as Mash~u'r,
Majzu' Manhuk and Murabba e 240
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His poetic anthology entitled ~il al-cIbad IIla SabrI al-Rashad
contains 14 short poems and 49 long poemso The majority o£ these
are written on mono-rhymed and mono-metred forms. In the
composition o£ these poems, the author had employed the sixteen metres
and their different branches with the exclusion o£ MYdaric,
c •
Muqtadab and Sari - some o£ the less popular Arabic metreso25 It
is possible that he applied these metres on other poems which are
not published in this Diwa~. So his claim o£ being the master o£
this art may not be untrueo
Although our poet pursued his poetic experience generally within
the framework o£ the conventional Arabic Qasidah,he has occasionally
violated the mono-rhyming systemo He had employed the Post-classical
poetic £ormsf which gained wide circulation in the latter part o£ the
decadent period, such as Muzdawaj, Murabbac, and Mukhammaso Hajj Sufi
is the first Somali Arabic poet who, as far as we know, used the
Takhmis form. He applied it to the famous poem o£ 144 verses on
an ascetic theme written by cUmar ibn cAbd al-cAziz al-Warraq during
the 17th century, where he added three hemistiches to each original
bi-hemistich verse. He also composed on Murabba C .£orm-a .unit
or stanza in th~ poem contains four hemistiches, t6e first three
internally rh..y.•mi~. g , and. the :fourth rhyming withothe~ st anz.e s, His
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170
an illustrative example of his Murabbac poetical form. He also
employed the Muzdawaj form 1 where each unit consists of three
he~istiches rhyming with each otper but not with other units as
the following extract composed on Manhuk of al-Munsari~ metre
illustrates:
0).)1 1>'L.'-Sl.o wI 0-l.:i.J I
~ wi ~I £3~ ill I
(".! QS 6..J~.9
I~~ 4 ..cJ.g
f' .:~'" <L..,;~I
~---:~1'J~LrJ ~ ~.9 19 1 ~ .' .U"~ L... .:1.: 6,)---5 ~
PI' Allah is the one who initiated the t.rut h,
'Allah is the One
who created the universe. 'Allah is the One who provides
sustenanceo
His beneficence is pr~valento His favour is immense, 4nd
His generosity is very close.
In the remembrance of Him, the souls and hearts find
satisfactiono For them He i.s the Healero" 26
Furthermore,our poet at times unnecessarily imposes on
himself an additional heavy burden by arranging the verses of his
poem alphabeticallyo The first line, in such poem, commences with
'Alif, the second with Ba, the third with Ta and so on, up to the
end of Arabic alphabet.
As explained earlier, this phenomenon
became common in the Arab world during the decadence era and was
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171
imitated by such poets as Hajj Sufi who wrote on this system a
good number of his poems. At timeS he wotild insist on the
appropriate letter, not just beginning the verset but also each
main word in it. An illustrative example is the following extracted
from a Prophetic panegyric poem:
JJ-----!
'"---- •.Q••~""1b 6 ~
"Honest He is,'the safety of t Allah t s earth, the leader and
origin of 'Allah's creature.
He is a bringer of glad tidings, a skilful leader~ devoted,
bright of face, and the full light of 'Allah.
He is pious~ deserter of the useless. You see him following
'Allah1s commands 27o"
Aafor his language. ou~ poet generally selects suitable words
and forms for his expressions. He usually avoids the obsolete
vocabularies and ambiguous linguistic structures. He pays much
attention to the grammar of his sentences and therefore, most of
his expressions are grammatically sound. The exceptions are a
few cases where he uses trans1.t1.ve verbs as 1. f 1.nt ranS1.t·1ve.28
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He also uses some strange morphological forms, such as '}..zcunu2t9
(the pride)o In addition to that, our poet occasionally inserts in
his verses a number of words which have no serious function but to
balance the metre or provide the required rhymeo For instance, the
word Yafsudu (spoil) has been added to the verse below merely for
the purpose of rhyming. This verse is extracted from his poem on
the people of Mogadishu:
~J J-~J ,- r-CS'.-J t3.J;~
"And touching them (women) or pushing them to what may lead
to some obnoxious action or even fornication (and may spoil)" 30
Similarly the words Qad and Badat, have no effective role in
the meaning of the verse and hence their function is to balance the
metre as could be observed in the following line:
"Shining stars (i.eo religious scholars) appeared in Mogadishu,
so it became illuminated and glorifiedo,,31
The rhyme of his poems shows that he possessed a considerable
mastery of the art of rhyming in Arabi~ poetry ('Im al-Qafiyah)o
This is shown by the fact that most of his poems are properly rhymed
in conformity with the rules of this arto
However, it is observed in some of his lines that he violated.
these rules by using what would be cons~red as defective or
faulty rhyming. An example of this is noticeable ~n the folliwing
two lines from his ra'iyah poem already )~eviewed (po160)
~
~ .J t, iJ>" I.,.:J 1 V-- t3J~ 1 ~ I) It..,.Ao) tir <.!ll j j 1 ~ )I---&-
+
When a verse is grammatically connected to the rhyme of a
preceding line, as in these two lines, it contains a defect known
in Arabic prosody as aI-TatmImor al-Tadmlno
Furthermore, our poet tends·to use more of al-Qafiyah a.1-
Mu~laqah (loose rhyme) as is the case with most of Somali ·Arabic
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173
poetso It is only in ten out of the-sixty-three poems which his
authology contains that he used al-Qafiyah al-MUqayyadaho (fettered)
(See: WoWright, A Grammar of the Arabic Language, Cambridge, 1964,
Vol.II, pp~ 350~358)o
, As for rhetori.cal expr-essi.ops, our poet apparently has, not
intensified his use of this as his contemporary Somali Arabic poet,
zayla'I did. However, there are considerable rhetoric forms of
different types, scattered. through his poemso He employed them
in some case~~with obvious artificialityo All his rhetorical
structures are not original but taken from the commonly used
expressions. To our poet, for instance, the praised one is like
a full moon in his beauty, like a lion in his bravery and like a
sea in his generosity, which are all conventional Arabic similies~
Finally our poet, as he himself has indicated, has managed to
master all branches of Arabic linguistic studyo His mastery of
the language manifests itself clearly in his poetical heritageo
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SECTION III
SAYYID MUHAMMAD cABDULLAH l;lASAN
o
A His Life History
Al-Sayyid Muhammad cAbdullah ~asan N~r is the reforming leader7
the intellectual scholar and the celebrated bilingual poetf composing
eloquently, both in Arab ic and in Somali. He is also the founder of
the famous nationalistic movement, the Dervishes, for having led
the struggle against the colonial power in Somali for more than
two decades (1899-1920)01
The Sayyid was born on 7 April, 1856, at a watering place known as
SaC&ldee~ in the Nugal Region in th~ East of what was known then as
the British Somali Protectorateo His family used originally to live
in \'lesternSomalia on the eastern bank of the Shabelle Rivero His
grandfather, al~Shaykh ~asan (1780 1875)2 set off from this area
in search of further education, going towards the North Central
Somalia, where he eventually settled down in a place called cAsu-r?
and built a Zawiyah attached to a mosque. There he devoted
himsel f to wor ship ann di ssemf'natd'on. of Arabic' and Isl amic 1earnings 0
He married there and had a-large number of children (eleven females
and twelve males) including al-Shaykh cAbdullah '!asan (1836-1913),
the f'ather of the Sayyid. cAbdu'llah,.too,. was a learned man. It
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is said that he memorized the whole Qur'an and learned seme advanced
religious books. But he was less devoted to thE knowledge t~an his
father. At the age of 26, he married Timiro bint Sayd (d.1916) from
a lecal tribe in "the Nugal Region" They nad ten males? the elriest
of whom was our man. al-Sayyid Huhammad" 2
In this educational and devot ed re1 igious environment? the
Sayyid was brought up. He attended a Qur'~nic school while he wa s
eight years oLd , and memorized the whole Qur!~n::'l,1ithitnhree years.
Soon\ he became his teacher's assistant in the same school. He
shifted later to the Somali Conventional school, H.irta, where he
dedicated himself fully to the study of the various subjects of
Arabic and Islamic learnings. At the age of nineteen~ he became
well-qualified to teach and to give .Fatwas. As a recognition of his
education and piety, he, then: was acclaimed al-Shaykh. But his
eagerness for advanced knowledge and education forced him to leave
his home and roam (as was the fashion of the learned men of those
days, and even in the nomadic areas today), throughout the SOl'llali
lands. InitiallYl he went towards Jijiga and Harar. the centre
for Arabic studies, but later moved towards the south and SQuth-
west up to Mogadishu, the centre of the study of Shaficr Jurispru-
dence.] The Sayyid spent about ten years, attending the circies
of the well-recognized scholars whose number were estimated to
exceeed seventy. After that, he returned to his hornet where he
married a w9man from his own clan; and set himself up as a teacher
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for a while. Hundreds of students then attended his educational
circle, Hirtao4:
8
Between 1889 and 1890, he set off to the Arabian peninsula
to perform Hajj. He was accompanied by thirteen pilgrims, most
of whom were either relatives or int.imate di scipl es, This jou:;:-ney
lasted for about five years during which he perforned Hajj t visit ed
the Prophet's Mosque, and attended the various courses in the Grand
Mosque at Mecca. It is stated that he concentrated considerably on
both the study of the Quri~n and the Prophetic traditions, and on
Arabic literature.5 In the course of these five years, he met al-
Sayyid Muh.ammad Salih (co1854:-1917), who was able to persuade him
to join his newly established sufi order.t al..;S';li\1iyyah.Sonn
afterwards, he was confirmed as a new Khalifa of this Ordero
Apparently, this Order emerged at Mecca between 1887 and 1890 as
a bnanch of al-Rashidiyyah Order which was established by Ibrahim
aI-Rashid (d.1874:). These two Orders adopted reforming views
similar to that of 'Ahmad 'ibn 'IdrIs al-FasI (do1836). In fact,
al-F~sI was very much closer to the views of the great reformer
'of Arabian peninsula, MUQammad 'ibn ~Abd al-Wahhab, than to t.r-ad i tiona!
sufism. Hence the germ of the conflict which was bound to develop
between thecoriserv'ati ve Q~diriyyah and.the reform;i~t Sal ihiyyah
. . 0
movement, 6 as we will see later. On his ~e:turning from Mecca to
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Somalia via Adeni Sayyid landed at Berbera, where he established
a branch of S,alih.iyyah Order and preached its doctrines among the
citizens of that cityo He then condemned a number of obnoxious
customs such as smokingi intoxicating drinks and chewincr Qat (a
mild narcotic plant whose leaves.are commonly chewed in South
Arabia and the Horn of Africa)o He also attacked seeking the
intercession of saints particularly the deceased ones. His views
on these issues seriously annoyed members of the Qadiriyyah Sect~
which was then already well-establishedo As stated earlier, the
Qadiris strongly believe an intercession and widely use the Qat in-
order to make themselves remain awake at the nights they hold their
dikro7 This caused a considerable tension between the Sayyid and
the Qadiriso About 1897~ an eminent personality in Berbera called
a group of reI igiousscholars todi scuss wit hhim his theological
views and examine hisaimso Among these sch'oLar-s were Shaykh Madar
'AI:mac:it,he head of the Qidi:riyyah Sect in Berbera, and Shaykh
cAbdullah cAru-s, one of the Sayyid's former teachers. Here, the
,Sayyid was asked about the nature of the new Brotherhood he was
propagating. On this, he stated that "It.was laid down in Islam
that for each gener~tion, God had provided one pre-eminent Saint
(the Qut.b aI-Zaman), and that for this generation this was his
master Shaykh MUJ:lammadS~ ib., whose way he was' teaching". 8,
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Appar-ent Ly , the audience accepted the idea of one Qutb for each
generationr but disagreed that it was the Sayyid r s spiritual te':l.<:hel',
From this time ont the Sayyid began to expose the fa~t Lhat the
founder of Q;diriyyah Sect had di~d long ago and that hi~ teachingc
must have become no longer suitable 1;0 -i;heil' own genel'ation. The
Sayyid concluded by urging all the peopole to join the S;l~hiyyah
• 0
movementr whose founder was then still aiive in Mecca.
9
If the Sayyid1s relation with the Qidiriyyah was bad1 his
, relation with the British authority was worse. It is narrated that
when he was asked to Day a customs due s on hi s arrival at Berbera
harbour, the Sayyid answe:-ed the colonial officer "Did you pay
customs dues when you landed here? Who gave you .: permission to
enter our country?11 The translator tried to assuage the British
Officer· by telling him that this was a crazy Stiay kh , Since then
the Europeans began to identify him as l!the Mad Mullah".
Another story which contributed tremendously to Sayyid' s anta-
gonism towards the British, is narrated as follows: The British
governor at Berbera was immensely annoyed by the call t·o prayer
(al-:Adhin) from a neighbour.ing mosque? whrch disturbed his siesta.
~e forbade it and instructed. his soldier to arrest anyone who
attempted to do it. But the prayer call er chaLf enged the colonial
governor by mounting the mine_ret and making the 'Adhan loudly •
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The governor took a rifle and shot the man deado10 The incident
convinced the Sayjid that it was time for armed struggle against.
the colonial unbelieverso
He left Berbera city, whicn he considered to be a place corrupted
by both the colonialists and the Qadiris. He went then to Nugal
Valley, the centre of his mothe~~s clan where his father &nd the
rest of his family were still dwellingn There he established his
strong nationalistic movement~ the Dervishes. He started to create
a puritanical religious atmosphere among his followers on the one
hand and to inject a feeling of antipathy against all colonial
powers on the other. He was soon to gain a great fame and popularity
in the whole of Somalia and to assume the religious title of Sayyid
(Master) •11
About the beginning of 1899: the Sayyid made a call for donations
towards the holy struggle that he was planning. The people
responded to ~his call considerably. Among those who reacted
favourably was a Somali policeman called Hirsi. Mr. H.irsi7 a
member of the British Police Forces in Berbera, fled with his
rifle to the Sayyid and offered it to him as his own contributiono
Getting the information of this, the British governor at Berbera
wrote to the Sayyid seeking the return of this rifle. In response
to this, the Sayyid wrote on the back of the governor's letter:
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"Man, I have stolen nothing from you nor anyone else. Get what
you want from whoever has stol en it. Serve whatever you have
chosen to serve. Jt'arewello,,12 Receiving this Let t er , the governor
declared the Sayyid a rebel.1)
In Marcht 1899~ the Sayyid waged the holy war against t.he
colonial powers in Somalia as stated earlier. Jamac cUmar c1sa
coun ted the ba-thLes that took place bet w een the Sayyld and the
colonial governments (Britainr Italy and Abyssinia) as 26.1~
Although the opposing armies were not equal in terms of weapons and
military personnel v. the Sayyid was able to defeat their troops several
times. He forced the British and Italian troops to withdraw from
N':lgal, Hawd and eastern coast up to Illig city on the shore of
Indian 6cean. These t,wo governments as well as the Abyssinians
tried thE)n to persuade him to sign a truce with them" They sent
to him an able Italian negotiator,"" who managed in 1905 to sign with
him a Convention at Illig cdty , The accords or. this Convention were:
(1) "The arms and slave trade in the area controlled by" the
Sayyid w~s to cease."
(2) Fight ing between the Sayyid and his British and Ethiopian
foes was to halt".;
()) "A triangular piece of territory", with: its poLnt rup v t.o NuqaL
valley and one of its sides paralleled to the IndiancOcean shore
was allotted to the Sayyido"
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(4) "The Port of Illig was to be the Sayyidis Capital and trading
harbour. ,,15
But the accords of Illig Conv errt i.on started to crumble within
a short period ~ for th e Sayyid regarded it as Co tacti ca.LLlW;':IOeUvr~
on the part of the colonizers. In less than three years, the Sayyid
and his enemies were face to fa~e again and military operations
resumed. 16
During this period, the British and the Italian governments
planned jointly to undermine the Sayyid's prestige. They used the
head of the S;lihiyyah Sect at Aden, cAbdullah Shihri. After he
• • c
was bribed by the British and the Italian diplomats ::..n Aden cs AbdujIab
Shihri led a group of Salihiyyah leaders to their Qutb, Muhammad
•• 1'1 • {
Sa~li!:, in Mecca. They made a number of ·Serious complaints against
the Sayyid and successfully convinced their Qutb to issue a declaration
•
in a form of letter, that the Sayyid was no more Khalifah or even
a member of the S.~lih.iyyah Order. He also declared that the Sayyid
was no more a Muslim. When this letter reached the Sayyid~s capital
(~arun), members of the S.;lihiyyah Brotherho~~\ split; some remained~
pro-Sayyid while others turned against him, This had a bad effect
on his political and military powers. Howeverf the Sayyid was able
to control the situation. He wrote one of his two long letters
entitled Qamc al-Mucinidin(fThe Suppression of the Rebelsf) to his
spiritual teacher, Shaykh Muhammad 'ibn Salih,17 as we shall see below.
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After a number of successful military operations~ the Sayyici
became fully confident that he was in a pOGition to defend him.sel~
and his followers. He then decided to settle in Talay~, because
of its strategic posi~ion. He bui.lt here a number of militalY
fortress~ estimated over fifty. Since then. Ta1aYh (Taleh) became
h·as new capa't a1 18e
Nowt the Sayyid became fully established locally, but needed
to strengthen his POsition~ with more support and recognition from
outside. To this end, he communicated with the TUrkish commander
at Lahj in Yemen~ Ali Sacid Pasha. Ali Pasha indicated that he was
willing to recognize him on the condition that the Sayyid would
accept the overlorshlp of the ottoman Sultan,. The Sayyid accapted
and an agreement was signed. He even composed a long panegyric poem
in. praise of the Sultan Caliph, Mehmed V Rashad to coomemorate
this 08CaSl..On.19
When the first world war was over, the British began to deal
with the problems of their colonies. One of the most trouble~Of\lle.
among.these was the issue of Sayyid and his movement~ the Dervishes.
The British government then directed against him and his movement
a series of combined air, sea and land attacks. It was only
through these operatior.s that the British were able to defeat him
and destroy his strong military fortress at Talayh.• However, the
Sayyid with some of his followers managed to escape towards· the
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1..83
Imi city ~ where he eveniually di ed on 21 De cember, 1920 ~ "\oli thout
being able to achaeve his aim of fr;eeing hi::;people f:com 'i;heyok.e
of colonialism rold of establishi;g a strong Somali' Stateo In spite
of this~ he is highly es-teeued now by all the Somalis &03 a gre~t:
national her-o,20 Wheneyer the -title aJ.-Sayyid (tho IJia::;teirs)
mentioned alone, it refers to him per Gxcellencu.
B His Lear:1ing c.ndCorr.pei:enc,i"n Arabic
The Sayyid appears to have been both an impressive oratzr and
a highly talented prose writer in Arabic. Although it is known that
he composed poems in Arabic as well as in Somali7 his Arabic literary
prose works remained mostly unknown until very recent timeso DUring
the last two decades, a considerable number of his prose works in
Arabic have been publishedo But it is believed that more of his
prose wr1.~.1•.n.gs are st'1_11 1.n,manuscrlp. t f ormo 21 His ~vailable prose
works contain his correspondence,s and his or-at Lon s, It is not
known so far that he has produced any work in a book f'or'ms J Howev~r~
the most significant ones among his published works are~
(1) An Oration of Campaign
This is one of the orations that the Sayyid delivered during
his long holy struggle for national liberationo In this speechv he
urges all the people to actively and since.rely participate in the
holy struggl e~ warning them simultaneously of the se rious consequenc es
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that would definitely a~ise if they neglected this important
reI igious duty, aI-J1had. He explains hi sown vi-ew 011 -those who
.coLl abor-a t e with the colonial unbel i evers against their 1'e11ow+
brothers? regarding them ag enemi e'S an d decI aring hi::; determination
to fight both. indiscriminately~ In the end? he states the tl.im of
this warr which is either to libe~~ate the. whol e country os: di e. as a
martyr. This speech shows that he was tremendously influenced by
the Arabian reformer, Shaykh MUt:ammadv ibn cAbd al-Uahh~b '--do1792)
as can be 'clearly seen from ~mpaYing the introduction of ~his speech
to the contents of Kitab al-Taw~Id (the Book of ~heology)o Here
is the speech:
~;r~ ~'>.JJ I ~.".) I ill I r--~I
o J__ ._",-.~ t; -.J...-.,;-..w ~ dJ I ~"
\!JJ 4:; ill I 1.;•\ •..~~ LbJ II r,.~ ~ l" ill I tfo~ t_ ~~.:i,.1 It ~t9 ~; La1
jI
~l~ I ~!J It .I.Q":! ~ d..S.~J I~," I . L-.; I"Q' L~. !--lo I,)~ I ~;.;.Jr,i-" ~ I !L~~""'>i r- <.Y "':J
'6;. ~ ~ I UN..: ~ '.9 ~ I c.i.J..:;. L-.9 .'1 cJ L:...:: ill I J t? c L£JlB., e, .~-' 6.J L.,...n..lS \
o ( 01 ·0) )
o ~~ 1.9 0 t.r-~ I Lr ~ ~ ft. L...:..9 ill I ~ ~ Lr <.ill.j dy ~ 1.0 ~~ ~3
<'! ~ ~ )I
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e U:!.J 9 ~ I r.,sJ I ~ ~ I "---11.4 J~ ~.9.J ~ I t, ~j
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UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY
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• ..J ..J.:.-n...l~ c)LJ', d.,9----l.l' V" rc"':; L::.-,5'_-:.. ~...L..-J l, ~k ~,J..a •• 0..0
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L ,~ c..r-:9 r.,;J' ~ ~~ ~C ~ ~ Lo' l.j \.9 • p:::9 .~'O,
~ ~ -
0,-J ~ ~ l,; 0~. b:; ~ 0 l,; r.,;J 1 s- ~ 1) illl a l.~:r ,.$ ~ 1 vi I~
, .,j I J .;"a.l~rS ~}.!l c. 0.:7:j.:!- 'i L><> illl ()'" 0~J"":;) I 0.9--{G U
0:fo ~, 'rJ----:H r~ J I '?" '" ~"'J '" Iij c ~ ~ I ~ c.~ Iy
4,,; ~ 6_--1J '.9 • r-$. -. e.:)$- d~.9 .;~..J...o ~ lJ 1 •.::.,;. I ~~.:r-rJ'
"&.!y.La.l~ ~ ~..l.04-J1 r-W- ~ ~j I:,j~~' J~ ~~.!l
~
~.,J ~ 0 L J ~ I ~ 0'> ~ i ()'"~ lJ l.j '.9 o ( r, ~ <i. Y )
• ~~\!iS f~\3-'!"J Uy r-rJ ~~J I "4J ~1 ~L...'.9 ~)~Jl ~
C)LJl ~ ~ 0'> " :r-1-J ~ ill I ~ <t.l.iJ ~ ~ ~~
U:I~l ~ J..t:c J'JI ~~~Id....,s..-Jl ~ 0'~1 0'» ."u.., ~
d-1J ~ L.r.::,: 0'; •••0 ,~l.. ~..J \.r-'7" 0'> -~ ~) ~ ~ - ~ (l.r:::!J..J WI)
~ ".-,J;-..~, ~~I ~J clJ.,j ~c-:\,..o ill I l.. r---kl ~J ,,~~.,.::...)
r.,)" ;.) 0'> ..J)4J I dJ Lr1J ~.) ~ '-' j,.,iJ' ill I 0'> ~ IJ' ..J'.r-J'
~} iSll
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"In the name of God, Most graciousf Most Merci ful 0
The blessing of ~Allah be upon our Master, Muh•ammad.
Thereafter you should know .:Oh my brot hers ~ may Allah gUide
me and you to his obedienc e - that 'Allah - May- Be be exalt.ed
and glorified - has not created anyone of us in vain? but fo~
a reason which He know s, And that is to obey and woz-oh i p Him
alone, for the glorious ~Allah says: 71 have only created
Jinnis and men, that they may serve met (Quro51~56)o The
punishment of 9Allah; which may be caused by the neglect of
this is not hidden from youo Nor is the loss and distressr
which may arise from it are hidden from youo I warn you to
do your religious duties and to prevent the evil of those
losses before the sickness intensify and the medicine of it
becomes hard to findo If you deny this~ be fully aware that
you are accepting unbelief - God's punishment never comes except
to those people who are unbelieverso
The scholars of the unbelievers have conquered our country
from their remote homelandso They wish to corrupt our religion,
to force us to accept Christianity~ relying on the armed force
of their governments, their weapons and their numberso You
have only your faith in God, your arms and your determinationo
Do not be frightened by their soldiers or armies: God is mightier
than theyo And God's armies are more numerical than theyo
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For the glorious t Allah says= 'And none can know the f'orces
of thy Lord, except He' (Qur. Jl:7~). Be patient and s~eadfast
in hardship. For your reward is provided by your Lord
according to your effoI'ts and har-dsb ip , If you suf f ez' a "found,
be sure a similar' wound is suffered by the others. SOl do not
weaken in your seeking the satisfaction of your Lord and after
the en-emies. If you are sUffering har-dsbLp , tijey are suffering
similar hardship. But you have a hope from the God and they
have none. Never despair if you suffer frequent defeats; fo-r.
the war is competition with alternate success and failures day
after day. One day you may win ~ the other you may noc 0 Even
defeat may be a test of your truthfulness and the strength of
your determination. For iAllah - May glory and exaltation be
to Him - says~ lAnd we shall try you until we test those among
you who strive their utmost and persevere in patience$ (Qur. ~7:Jl)o
If you see persons who aid the unbelievers by serving them as
guides to water-holes or along paths9 theY,are their spies and
agents~ attack them. They are not Muslims, for our Prophet -
the blessings and peace of 'Allah be upon him - says: 'Whoever
bear's arms against us is not one of us:. Whoever aid the British
government, which is protecting the Christian Missionary ~
agaitist uSt is,one of them. Nothing could prevent us from
their fighting, seeking the help and support of 'Allah. I do
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not know what Allah is going to do, but ou~ hope from Him is
to achieve our desire. I am praying Him for either victory
or martyrdom Mid the cleaning of the country from the dirt
of the unbel i ever s , ,,22
(Message to the Bimal)23
After the Illig Convention was .signed in 1905 by both the Sayyid
and the colonial governm~nt s~ a ceasefire temporarily prevailed in
the. Northern and Western parts of Soma.Lda , Being fully aware of
the evil events in the other parts, ·the Sayyidattempted to take
full advantage of this opportunity. He wrote in about 1905 this
Ris;;:-lat to the Bimalt,ribes in the South, between Mogadishu and Merca,/
who were then waging a war against the Italian forces. This Riaalat,
which is up to twenty pages, throw light upon histhoughts, beliefs
and philosophy. After the long conventional greetings (reminiscent
of the decadent period in Arabic literature) 1 he. praises the Bimals
for their gigantic. efforts towards the holy s.truggl e in the course
of Allah. Then he :dLsou s s es twelve issues and gives his own vi ews
on each one individually. He begins with the Jih~d (holy .struggle)
which he regarded as an individual obligation (Fard cAyn) on every
8
Muslim at any time, particul-arly when the un-believers-are occupying
a country. Criticising those who consider· ritual recitals .1dhikr
as substitute to Jih;-d, he says: "This is- lie •••• Tbe.·£act is that
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'Dhikr and other forms of worships are either an individual obligation
or not. If they are an indlividual obligations? then no individ~l
obligation coul~ be a substitute to another; like the prayer and
fasting, for Lns t an ce , where none of them coul d subs"ti-cute the
24
other". Another point that he di s·cussed in detail is the case
of the Muslims who collaborated with the unbelievers. After a long
argument and numerous quotations from the Qur'an and Hadith he comes
to the con cLu sdon that they are unbelievers as the following extract
explicitly illuminates:
f ~ d .:.9 ~IIJ--5 ~...u I ~ ~ I ;;~ T~' 1..I~.9"~ I ,)~ U,.9
~
~j.-JI 0'.J 0"> ,,~1 <i ~ ~~.9 ,) 1•.._• _ 9.5••1.•1 ~ ~ 0"> W4'
~
....j I ("'---~ U:! j-.J I
"Th~eobvious meaning of Qur Ianic texts -"which represent
the concrete evidence.,establish the disbelief of those
who take the unbelievers as trusted friend and resorts
them in their affairs, to the exclusion of the be.lLever c .
who are their support ers. ,,25
A third controversial issue also discussed seriously is the
matter of the Intercession (al-Tawassul). To him~ Intercession
through the Prophet a?d his Companions is acceptable, while the
intercession through the deceased saints is invalid and unacceptable e
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i,lso, visiting the tombs of the deceased saints for the sake of
intercession is not permissible in Islamo This view was the centre
of the long argument s between the ~aliq.iyyah and the Qadiriyyah, as we
shall see below. Definitely~ 'Uways al-Bar~wi was referring to this
view in the following verse:
liTo every dead. Shaykh like al-JilanI, they deny access to
God, like Janahuyyah Sect." 26
All the points discussed and the judgements given show immense
influence of reforming trends which have been going on in the Muslim
world since the time of Ibn Taymiyy (d~1328 A.D.).
(3) Qamc a1-Muca-n1. dO1: n (S uppress1.0n 0 l' tehe RbI)e s .
As stated earlier, the head of the ~li~iyyah Sect in Aden
ca~ried out a mission against the Sayyid when he led a group of
Salihis to their Qutb and overall master, Mu~ammad ibn ~ali~, in
Mecca - a move thought to have been planned by British and Italian
governme~ts in order to undermine the Sayyidts position. A letter
was obtained indicating the expulsion of the Sayyid from the S"alih.iyyah
Sect. In an answer to this, al•S•ayyict wrote_~a long apology to Shaykh
Muhanunad ~ali~, entitled'QamC'al-Mucin,idin (the Suppression of the
Rebels). It is regrettable that only one-quarter of this is available •
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The letter, which was written about 1909, commenceswith
traditional greetings,praising 'the spiritual teacher of the writer.
Then al-Sayyid turns to discuss with his teacher matters of his
fai.th9 of the Somalis, of the unbeli~yers in Somal La, and the matter
of the Salihiso The available fragment deals wii~l the first section
only, where he defended his personal faith in highly iRtellectual and
~ 1 C _ 27
scholarly ar-qumen t a , based ma..J..nloyn theological views of al- Ash ar-a ,
* * *
The quality of both the content and .form of his available Arabic
prose proves beyond any doubt not only the very high standard of his
scholarship but also the high level of his competence in Arabic.
C The Themes of His Poetry
As stated earlier~ the Sayyid led the holy struggle against
British, _i-o.alian and Abyssintangovernments for more than two decades.
He devoted all his facultie.s fo~ this noble cause. KnowiTtgthe
.•..,•..:
·f; •..
eff'ec,tivene-s,so:f words in the -eime of war, he used to compose a
~-el.eQnt- poem almost at every significant occasdon, Althoug~ t,he
majority of t,J'l ese poems are in Somali, a censdderabl e portion of
them are written in Arabic. TheSay-yJ,dts Arabic poetry represents
the lit'era~ school of the S. alih.iyyah Order. The main feat.ures of
this sc:hoolare the spirit of revolution, her.oism and endeawoues
to reform. Contrary to the Qadiri school ,which i.s dominated by.,
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sufism~ and self-surrender. In spite of the fact that his Arabic
poems are written mostly on the conventional form of Somali Arabic
poetry~ they are introduced somehow in a fresh imagery and a new
conception. They deal with varieties of themes which relate in one
way or another to the holy st1!'uggle !Aged against all ihe colonial
powers and their Somal i aqents, The themes of his Arabic poetry
could be classified as follows:
(1) Satire
The plight of occupation and partition of Somalia took place
in the middle of the nineteenth century. The ~Qmalis~ in return,
took arms in order to defend their land. Different religious
organizations resorted to different approaches in their struggle
against colonialism. This caused considerable tent ion among Somalis?
particularly the two main religious movements: the Qidiriyyah and
~ali~iyyah. Members of the Q;diriyyah Br-o+he r-hoo d c which adop t.ed
a negative attitude to this struggle, have been of the view that
the Somalis are de~ined to be subjected to colonialism and
partitioning. To them, only true supplication to God through the
intercession of the Prophet and righteous saints could ease this
situation. The $ali~iyyah, on the other hand (who believed in
action) "}'havewaged a holy war against the enemies and their agents.
A controversy was bound to develop between the two.
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Al-Qutbi~ an eminent member of the Qadiris1 composed a poem of
41 verses on the metre of Mushtur al-Rajazi in which he attacked the
Sayyid for his views over this Issue , The poem~ which was prepared
in a form of the conv en't Lorra L letter .w,as dispatched to the Sayyid
challenging him to respond in poetry on the same metre and rhymeo
In response to this poem1 al-Sayyid wrote a long satiric ode on the
metre of Mujzu' al-Rajazo This poem, which is considered the longest
among the Sayyidfs available Arabic poems (containing some 102
verses) could be classified into the following sections:
(i) The Opening Verses
These contain the usual popular Islamic formula of beginning
with the names of Allah and thanks to Him followed by praying for
the blessings and peace for the Apostle and his followers~
_1":
* (\..,•'-----'O',,~-""'''"1:
'-----_0..1.1..•.'•)••• L~~ *
"I begin my compositon with the name of 'Allah, .the Merciful
One to the Creationo
Coupled by thanks to Him through which I wish to be
promoted to the level of high cloudso
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The blessing and peace of our Lord be upon our Prophet
Likewise upon his inunaculate Family and his promoted
Companionso,,28
(ii) Praising the Poem Itself
Ten verses are devoted to the praise of the poem? describing
it as perfect and challenging his opponent to comment on the poem
fairly, appreciate its contents literarily and circulate it. The
Sayyid warns him not to hide his appreciation and admirationo He
finally states the metre he employed and the date he composed it:
*
)l ...l....--:si,3 If'* 'h '-:" '"'-t-.
y )L b. lP.'1:;J 1,3 (r.>...l1.9*
;"h \!.I t .,j* M ~ .')
c:
rJ.J I" *
c:
'--- __ 0 ---.J$:..•...1•.. L, '-i-l J$,3
L __ o•••-•••5• ; ~ ~ ..)1__ 0r:9 lr-----9 J ~ ~.9"'6..::;,J
'-- __ •0•••_• o ~ c» ~,3 ~ *L ~"_--..""".J•.1.. ~ ~ 1 '"' f =& I '.9
"After that 1 t.ak e, Oh my brother, our completed reply.
Composed on Majzu-c al-Rajaz, the seventh metre .
It is free from Khabn, Tayyi and other permissible variationso
Likewise no Khable which, conunonly"occurs •
•-•.• j
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Dated in 1333 A.H. (Jul Shagha)o29
Look at it with an eye of justice and comment on it accuratelyo
Spread the meanings of~his poem and say: What makes it so
accurate! !
Don't fold it in its envelope to conceal or hide it.
Concealment is a sickness which exists in the heart, Woe unto
those who have ito,,30
(iii) Complaint against His Time:
The poet, then turns to complain seriously against his era,
which he describes as the most unfortunate one. The country is
plagued with colonialism and partition. The common principles for
the moral and religious values have been changed and openly violated.
People find truth bitter, and avoid it. The oppression and obnoxiousa~~S
are widespread. Hypocrites and colonial agents are defended and
respected as righteous Muslims; while the leading intellectual and
pious scholars are insulted:
'-_0 __ o..s;e. J)4J 1 <.:I .s;.
\....-_....r.'...,r---~I ~.h.J '.9 ''":' •••••_ ••••••• _il.!::7-''"':i" .r- 0-..,J I"
,--_o~ t ~, 0J9--'wJild!_"
'--_0'''"___ -" ••'.•"1.Ioo_.-.;JL ~ ~ t~."
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"This is a vicious time in which misfortune has spread all
over the countryo
Beneficence has become something forbidden, while deception has
become a perfect mattero
The truth is bitter and is therefore, avoided while oppression
\
becomes an enjoyable excerc1se:
The ignorant and sinful are excused; I mean the criminal oneso
As if they were righteous, and the descendants of great saints
The learned men are insulted exactly as the oppressor should be
insultedo,,31
(iv) Somal~s who co-operated with the Unbelievers:
This is the issue of Somalis who collaborated with infidelso As
he already made it clear in Risalah Bimal, the Sayyid regards them
as unbelievers for they are their agents and spieso So he attacks al-
Qu~bi for his defending themo The author devotes to this discussion
twenty-four verses out of which we quote this extract:
* ----- ...~.• e:") l- C~.9lt.
* ---.ll "y (,;f)---iJ I C-a.9 , ..:..s
~
r"" -----1i;-o.j L..z
""------O...~.•f..J110"~-_--", •"•""I LaJ t"
"Woe unto panegyrist who praises the cursed, and the stoned devil (the"!
hypocri tes ),
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The Qur'an has explicitly abused the hypocrites,
It said that they are deaf, dumb and blindo32
Woe, therefore, unto those who.equalized the straying
hypocrites with the righteous MY-sl.lmlle,,33
(v) Accusation of Lack of Poetical Tal ent
Al-Qutbi has requested the Sayyid to send a reply to him in
poetry on the same metre and r~yme1 as the following two verses of
hi s poem .indicab.. :
* \...J':!J~I •
"Send the reply to us in poetry on the same metre and make
the meaning clearo
As for me, I composed it on Mashtur al-Rajaz, whose rhyme is
neatly arr::anegd 3~0 "
The Sayyid repulsed him ridiculously, accusing him of lack of poetical
abilityo Here, he enumerated the defects and imperfections of
al-Qutbi t S poem such as metri cal errors and of weakness compell ing
him to compose his poem on Mash~ur al~Rajaz:
h;., \.l;;cI: ..J.9
0 L. 31( )I -oJ ~l:...J t..;~
o f ~ c.$~ ) .•c ~ d -:J~ L- J5)
,. j..~ J n «(, .ff3 ~ * ~ L ••j.'')'''''''' J5 u'i
.:I 0./
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t"/
~I ~ Jl * l.Jr L- I..:-'~ 0"J
~ ,.
L-J- ~19 ~.r"" * L~--.!JJ t.::,.,~.;l U1
nll._"'1 __ ..,J.C')"~';),.._--",,,,, 0~ ~ * ~J "'-!J '.r---'7"JJ
"So there has arrived from you that letter which has come
in verseo
All.Mhat you have written is surely understood by me '
The defect of this poem is that every hemistich repressnts
the whole verse, therefore it is a reject poetryo
But the strw'gest thing to. see or hear is that you have
claimed that the rhyme of your poem to be neatly arranged,
and yet it is full of metrical errorso
And that you have composed your poem on two Rajaz metres, yet
there is only one Rajaz metre in Arabic prosodYo"J5
(vi) The conclusion
The Sayyid comes to conclude his long poem with a long
supplication which takes twenty verseso The supplication is a
conventional one and similar to that usually used a~ the end of
Somali Arabic poemso But here the sign of heroism could be observed,
when the poet prays Allah to support his armies in the battlefield
and to defeat the enemies:
e c411 0l;..J '.5 t-
~ ej lWjJ I.. ,.,
'--- .••••~••J,.•."•.~_,.J>s:. ~ 0 ~
'-- __ °...:>•••"•'•-11 ",:",liJ ltJ ~~------.-.--. -'~u~.~. .~.,0j --~~
,- __ o~l "':"J~l 1"';1
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* .J~'" ~ I 6~:Ji ~_~.;.,......•..•.."
o Q~l *
"We pray to Allah, the generous and the benefactor 'co bes-tow
His blessings (upon us),
And to pardon our failures and correct our errors.
And to strengthen our army and to make our heaEts united
May Allah support us whenever the warfare intensifies
Defeat our enemies and those who refuse to co-operate with us .
May the blessing and peace of the only God be upon the Prophet ..
Mugammad, His beloved one, and the seal of the Prophets
As long as intellects could ris~ up to understand the hidden
mean1•ngsc 1136
(2) Panegyric Theme~
Quanti t46:tvial.y , the panegyri cs of the Sayyid come next to his
iatireo On this theme, there are~ as far as we know, three poems,
the total of which is up to ninety-five verseso These poems are,
as follows:
(i) In Praise of Mubammad Salih
o
In this hamziyyah ode1 our poet praises his spiritual teacher,
the founder of the ?alihiyyah Brotherhood, al-Shaykh Mu~ammad Salih
o
(1854-1917)0 It is said that this poem came to be used by his
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200
followers as a war song in their holy st~ggle against the colonialistsoJ7
This poem,. which is composed on Majzu~ aI-Ramal metre, is very
similar to cAlam al-Qadiriyyah poem (the Flag of Qadil'i Sect) by
Hajj Sufi (reviewed in Section II above), both the poetic form
and corrt errt , But this poem is les~ impressive than cAlam al-Qadiri~.r~J:!.
in its literary vaLu e , The Sayyid must have been influenced by
cA1Amal-Qadiriyyah in the c ompos l ton of this poem? from which we give
the extract:
sl.: S ..t~1 r '--...1 ~
s'-- .5_...J I ~~ ~ *
sl c,W1 f~L ~ ..cL----......:J.o....ll ~ c..;"I
sLJ $11 ~..s ~ '*
sl :911 J..;9 L....£ ..,1J '*
"Oh you most beloved one , Muttammad, Oh you Imam of the wise
Oh you my preserver, Oh you my guardian, Oh you doctor of doctorso
You are the feast of the learned; Oh you the greatest of the great<
Oh you the secret of s ec r-e t s , Oh you the guardian of the generou;:;
Oh you the attainment of those who are knowledgeable ones9
Come to us before our time is past .,,38
(ii) In Praise of Ottman Sulta,n
As stated earlier, Sayyid sent his special representative in
1916 to the Turkish Co~mander at Lahj city seeking the recognition
of the Turkish governmento The Turkish commander agreed to recognize
:., /y ...~.. ' ("
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the Sayyidts movemento When this was achieved, the Sayyid composed
a long poem (rhyming in H~) in praise of the Ottman ruler.Mehm.e •.
Vo Rashado The full text of this poem was published in 1967 in
Somaliao Here is an extract from it as translated by Martin;
~~
While horses march in the dawn yet the rider has reined in.
Borne down by the ""eight of his burden crushed by the unbelievers
And he turns to his Dear Friend~ taking refuge with that pill ar of
Religion.
Girded by glory and most firm in dignity a broad spreading tree
of muni ficenc e
The distributor of God's benefits1 unique he shows himself
towering
Above oth er-s , unattainable, looking down over those who
praise him
Sultan of every victory, twister of tyrants
Who strikes out the Eye of Unbeliefi who lashes unbelievers
Breaks their power and treads on their necks. ,,39
(ii1) In Prais.e .of the Dervis.nes
The term Dervish refers to'the members of the Sayyid1s Movement
who took it upon themselves to defend the Somalilands and to sacri-
fice their precious liveso The tremendous success they achieved
against their enemies impressed their leader,who praised them in
an Arabic poem from whi'ch the following is extracted:
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*
~l ;;.rll 0~ ~.J---~ *
~I ~'.9 (r.;~ .,J I t$ *
~I :--nJ1 J '..9-:- J:..,
~L Ii q,j I cL .: t"It *
~ ~"J' JL- ,.;~'-:. * U~ _"_""~I ;;r- < :..9
"Salutation to the Brothers, who have barred the gateo
They have built the foundations of religion by striking
on necks
And for years of horse expeditions and plunderings (on the
enemies)
And for running allover the lands like a raging torrent
The expectations of the enemy are constrained by their painful
punishment to them
It is because of their successive worries that they ha~e
grown old, while they are still you nq ,,,40
(3) The Theme of War
As we have stated earlier, the Dervishes were defeated at Talch?
the capital of the Dervishes in the eastern part of Somaliao The
tht
Sayyid escaped and went to Imi city in~western part of Somalia where
he eventually died.
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Before his death, he composed an ode in Arabic on the theme of
war. It is said that this poem was the last that the Sayyid composed. 41
In it~he warns that the colonialists will deceive the Somalis by giving
them some material aid and disarming· them in order to take their
property.
The ode is short (eight verses only), yet it is highly impressi¥e.
All the verses are well balanced and rhymed. This poem, in fact
reflects the high degree of mastery that the Sayyid possesses in the
art of prosody. Here is the poem and its translation by Martin:
e
\.S "" ~ ~ , LS,j~ Uo I..':-rJ' f35--"""c ..•~.••. * ~lb.. e. ~ rS,).ri-~ )\.9
.JI ;c:. )I"'! ""I ••...015' ~ ,----<",,)l., ~.; t,1 0'" t~
""I-'.J .r. ~ ",,~I ~ ~~ 0-f.,1~ ~ rS,;4.3
""I _:~II ,~ ~~ ~..9
.;L ,.q.:l.: ':J '.!u ,j ~ I,) ""~
""'., J < ~ ~,) Jfi.-
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"Somalis, arise from sleep, catastrophe has fallen on the land
The unbelievers have deceived you since you failed to contin~e
the jihad
Do not be dazzled by their gif!so They carry a lethal poi~on
They'll wrest your weapons from you. You'll be like defenseless
women
They'll take away your livestock, putting their brand on it.
They'll live on them alone.
They'll snatch your money and your lando They III run off
with it in front of you, like racehorses.
I left them behind at Imi and Adar on the plateau by banishing
(mysel f).
Brothers, what sort of country can it be where people fall
into slavery to them on every side?"'-*2
D The Form of His Poetry
As already stated, the Sayyid has been a bilingual poet,
composing the poems both in Arabic and in Somali, perhaps on one
and the same occasion and about one and the same oxp er-Lenc e, Since
his audience are Somalis, who definitely appreciate his Somali more
than his Arabic poetry, it is natural that he has to direct his poetic
talent more to the 'Somali rather than Arabic poetryo Hence his
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poetic production in Somali is much more significant than his poetic
output in Arabico It is for this reason that he is widely kno~n
as a great Somali poet and is chiefly remembered for his poetic
output in Somalio
The Sayyid 1s available Arabic poems are very f ew compared with
the numerous poems that he produced in Somalio All in all, there
are seven Arabic poems only, the total verses of which are about
225 lineso Four of his seven poems are composed on the conventional
forms of the Arabic Qasidah~ that is to say on one of the sixteen
classical metres or their acceptable varietieso His metres vary;
the longest one iscompo~ed on Mujzu~ al-Rajaz, the second on
Mujzui aI-Ramal, .the third on TawIl and the shortest one on Wafir
g
metreo These poems represent the bulk of the Sayyid1Arabic poetryo
The remaining three poems are written on forms accurately rhymed
but broken in their metrical s'tr-uct.ur-se, I have endeavoured to
determine the type of metre they are composed but failed to arrive
at any convincing resulto
There is little doubt that the Sayyid was a master of the art
of Arabic pr-osody , Hence he has been able to maintain the rules.
of this art in the majority of his poemso But his deviation in
other poems is difficult to expLadn ,
An example of his balanced and rhymed verses is as follows (the
two extract's beLow were reviewed above):
00'000/
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2o;(j
""Y-..;.ll ~ ~J.".J' J;; ~ .)tiJ V" ~. J\..~.j..IJ'""'!
! ! .
o /',/1/0///('/1/0////;1; (:; . 0"/ / ,/ J:!ii!h/ ,'y ""/~ / (' I «: j i
I '
U I~p.iu:.k-u, ~ Go, 0- '".,..-..6 ~b. ~li..
\
""I•••. -t-~"",,~JI~~ (? ~ L .a' .J ~n ~ ~ .>1l7"~
ct I I6) / 1/ e / ;"ol/hl/Oii)/ i
; ~f •
0,"",,-__ a.J1~ ~~ u:;..kb
The high degree of poetic talent that the Sayyid shows
especially in the short poem from which the above quotation is
extracted refutes the assertions made by ~ome writers that he is
very weak in Arabic prosody , ~.J
Occasionally, the Sayyid violates some principles of the
prosody not for lack of poetic experience but perhaps for inclination
to reduce the heavy burden of metrical requirements. Therefore7
one find that some of his poems are not metrically balanced. An
example of this type of his verses is this:
~, sll ..L.v., ~J L· t·'.
I
:t;/)j! {)f ()f/ 0/0 /0/ () ei/ I) / 0 / / /0.1 t)/ r
~.;'; M·eb uJy..9
<._l'- ~;:)' 0,Y '-;-ja' w! 0,....------:!.;.....''.1 . lD,j''''~,.J Y-»
I
00//0/ /0/0/0// / o i » //
~y'_~ --",-G w~
oo.~/
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?,.O7
As for the rhyme, our poet is very much sensitive to it, hence
the overwhelming majority of his poems are well-rhymed according to
the 1es of Arabic poetic rhyming, even on the occasion when he
breaks the rules of the metres. Four poems out of the seven are
written on Qafiyah Mutla~ah (Loose Rhyme), while the other three
are composed on Qafiyah Muqayyadah (Fittered Rhyme). As for the
Rawi of his rhymes (ice. the essential letter of the rhyme which
determines the name of the poem)~ our poet selected the letter Mim
for two poems, L~ for one, Ba'for one1 Hamzah for one and Dal for one.-
The Sayyid's poems are grammatically sound, his words are weil-
selected and his structures are mostly clear. But he usually uses
archaic words and obsolete ones. This attitude, though it reflecta
the good standard of his Arabic language, complicates the meanings
of his poems. The Sayyid uses intensively various types of
rhetorical expressions particularly simile and metaphorc In praise
of his followers, he describes them as a strong gate, as builders
of the pillars of Islam and as raging toi::rerito
Finally, the Sayyid remains the great hero of Somalia, and
the most known one amongst the bilingual Somali Arabic poets.
Surely, he was the master of the sword as well as of the word!
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208
CONCLUDING REMARKS
As we have seen, Arabic has gradually become a langUage of
education, written literature and various types of communication
in Somalia since Islam reached the horn of Africa in the seventh
century Q
The available Somali Arabic literature, which covers both pros>£..
and poetry, is a conclusive evidence of the special position which
Arabic has in the country in spite of uQmali's attachment to their
own Somali mother-tongueo Eveny when the Somali language began to
be written in an orthography based merely on the Latin alphabet7
which accompanied its introduction as the first national language
and it was made the medium of instruction in Somalia, Arabic was not
dislodged, but continued to occupy its special position of pride in
this countryo It is now the second official language and a compulsory
subject in the Somali school curriculum up to the University levelo
,It is also the medium of instruction in all the ex-Egyptian school s
and governmental religious institutions, which represent a considerable
segment of the tot al number of t he school s opennting in thi s courrt r-y ,
Somal i Arabic lit erature, in fact, forms a considerabl e pr-opoe't i on
in the Somali cult~ral heritageo Many of Somali religious scholar
have directed their literary talents towards Arabic literatureo They
have been able to produce a great deal of prose and poetry through
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209
the medium of Ar-ab ic, The available majority of that literature
is poetical but there is no doubt that the Somali output of
literary Arabic prose is immense, although it remains mostly
un~blishedo Since the Somali fS inteJ;:estis mainly in Islamic
thought, it is natural that most of their literary compositions and
poems have a clear religious inclination and are written on serious
moral, ritualistic and sectarian themes. This is due to the fact
that the overwhelming majority of Arabic literary figures in Somalia
have, at the same time, been religious scholarso This trend has been
enhanced by the fact that the Somali language has always been, and
continues to be, used for composition on light and entertaining
themes. Thus while pleasure-singing is in the Somali language~ sufi
group-singing (dhikr) has always been in Arabic. Hence the scope
and the themes of Somali Arabic poetry are, to some extent1 limitedo
They are devoted mostly to the praise of the Prophet, saints and
scholars. Occasionally, poems are composed on social, sectional and
political themes.
Looking at the Somali Arabic poetry critically, it seems that
the bulk of this poetry is more of an art of versification than that
of poet~~alityo Since it is mostly void of warm emotional sentiments
and exciting feelings, either of an individual or universal natureo
The content of this poetry is mainly simple and rather superficial;
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210
the vocabularies are largely clear and explicit. At times, ~hey
are even trite and vulgar. Some po ets, however, have r-e sort-ed "to
the i1ensive use of archaic words in order to show their linguistic
ability and to challenge their oppon errt sr, This is as the Sayyid and
al-QutbI have done in their poetical combats. Others are known fur
the high standards of the vocabularies used in their poetic production.
Amongst those are ZaylaCr, Hajj Sufi and Q;sim al-Bar;w~
As for the poetic form? Somali Arabic poets are very much
concerned with the metrical structure and rhyming system of their
poemso Hence the majority of their poems are mono-metre and mono-
rhyme according to the principles of the. conventional Arabic Qasida.
Some of the Somali Arabic poets, however, have occasionally composed
on the patterns of post-classical forms, such as Takhm'is and
Tarbic• Some of them had even violated the rules of the metre while
they maintained the rhyming systemo Examples of those poets are the
Sayyi~ and 'Uways al-Barawi
Surveying the bulk of the available Somali Arabic poetry, one
finds that the overwhelming majority of this poetry was produced
during the nineteenth century and the first part of the twentieth
century 0 This is because this period has been a crucial one in the
political and cultural history of SomaliaQ It was during this
period that the people of Somalia experienced colonialism and
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211
partitioning of their lando This period also saw the differences,
which arose between the people on the method to be adopted in the
str~gle against the colonial pow er-s , The ten~;ion created between
the people by the plight of occupation and partitioning must hav e
contributed tremendously to the production of a great section of
thi s poet ry 0
In spite of the fact that this perLod, during which the bulk of
Somali Arabic poetry was produced~ was the same as that of the modern
renaissance of Arabic literature in the Arab world, Somali Arabic
poetry continued to be dominated by the poetic characteristics of
decadence era both in form and contento
During this period, a considerable number of eminent llomali
Arabic poets emerged in various parts of the Somali peninsulao The
most illustrious representative of these were ZaylaCi (do1881)7
Hajj Sufi (do1905) and the Sayyid (do1920)e These poets were ab1e
to produce a good numb ar- 0 f long Somal i Arabic poems some of which
are about ~OO verses in lengtho
Somali Arabic poetry is of great importance for its historical~
social and artistic dLmensdons, It produced to us those marvellous
poems, which reflect the Somali society, culture, education and
trends of thought during a long period of Somali historyo Hence
it is very important to those researchers and scholars who are
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212
interested not only in Arabic and Islamic Studies in Somal~a
but also in the in ellectual history of this country.
I would like to repeat in this conclusion that Somali Arabic
poetry is worthy of further studies and investigationsu I am sure
that any effort in this line of research will not be in vain~ but
will be amply rewarded.
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213
FOOTNOTES
PART I
Section I
10 The Somali Republic, the British S~rvey Series, published
by the British Society for the International Understanding,
Main Series Noo 20), February, 1966, ppo 1 and 20
20 Ibid., po)
). Al-'Anwar (A Lebanese daily newspaper, special issue on SomaJ.ia)1
November1 19740
4. The Somali Republic, opocito, p02
50 ~o, po)
60 Al-S~mal al-JamIlah - a publication issued by the Ministry
of Information and National Guidance, Mogadishu) August, 1972,
p.45o
70 .A....I;_.--..~';..A.;..n._,war op • cit 0
80 B.W. Andrzejewski and IoMo Lewis, Somali Poetry, Oxford at
the Clarendon Press, 1964, p050
90 t.Abd al-Ra};lmanYo "TarIkh al-S~mal" Cultural Issue (Arabic)
of the Egyptian Cultural Centre, Mogadishu, June, 1974~ pp,
51-640
100 9ala!1;.Bo"Min al-Watan al-Isl~miy~ al-S~mal" AI-Taciamun al-
Islami (Monthly Magazine issued by the Ministry of Hajj)~
Mecca, February, 1977, ppo 85-940
110 Al-S~mal al-Jamilaht op__o.••_c_itr-~..' , p0660
120 The Somali Republic, opocito; p040
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214
140 Hamzan-;Ali Loqm;m, Tarikh al-Juzur al:-1ar.laniyyah,1.u~lal-
JamII Press~ Beirut; 1972, pp063fo
cAbd al-Ra~ma'n-, Y., op~cito~ p0550
cisa, JoUo, TarIkh al-S~m;l(an Arabic account on the Somali
history in the Middle and Modern age), Cairo, 1965, p070
180 The Somali Republic, opocito~ p04 •
19. Arnold, ToWo~ The Preaching of Islam, Lahore, 1961, p03620
210 Abd al-Rahma-n1 opoc~.tot p.55
220 Ibido, po560
230 Ghay th , Fo, AI-Islam wa al-~abashah, Cairo, P03tr'1f
c _.
Abd al-Ra~man, op.c~tOt ppo 56fo
25· Ibn Batt~ta, Rihlah 'Ibn Batta~t.a, Dar al-S~dir, Beirut, 1960,p02520o 0 •. 0
260 cAbd al-Ra~ma-n., op.eit., p059
270 The Somali Republic, op.cito, p.5
280 Andrzejewski and Lewis, .2.P~cito,po9
29. AI-Kitab ai'Abyad (The White Book) about N~FoD ..,•published
by Somal i government, p , 4 0
30. Andrzejewski and Lewis, p09
310 cIsa,
320 The Somali Republic, opoci~o, p06
35. Andrzejewski and Lewis, polO
360 Ibid;', p s t t
370 'Isa, JoU.tP~54
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Section II
1. Andrzejewski and Lewis~ op.cito, po).
2. "The Revolutionary Development of Somali Language," paper
presented by the Minist:y of Higher Education and Culture~
Mogadishu, at FESTAC77 COlloquim, Lagos, Nigeria~ December
1976, pa10.
) 0 ~~ Newspaper issued by the World Bank" .July-August ~1978t pol.
4.. Andrzejewski, Bovla and Lew i s , I.M.1 op.ci·;:., pp.128L
50 liThe Revolutionary Development of Somali Language~! pol±2.
6 • :b id. 1 p. 62°
7. Llitins DoDo1 "The Political Economy of Military Rule in Soma Ld a !",
"~:~!<!L?~~n':!-.....2.!.Y~,~ICE~_~:t:r"~~_~_"~.~~"~}e1s4,.?J, l1976): p , 4.50.
,8. It {~ commonly believed among the Somalis that this fragment
was composed by Queen Araway Law- Muusa Ga La a L, an authority on
Somali cu I tur e? supported thi s common idea in an int erview
br oedca s't by -ihe Somali Section of the B.B.Co late in 1978.
90 Ciisa1 Joe. Ta~rikh al-S~m;;;':l? op scLt , , po40
10. Report, p , 1
11. Somali proper names are given in this Section according to the
current £omali writing system, unlike the rest of the Dissertation
wher e '-be conventional transliteration system is u s ed ,
12. Report, ,.1
1). "The Revol"tionary Development of Somali Lan qua qe", pol±7.
14.. Laitin, D.D ~ op.cit.i p.4.66o• ..___ .• ...,- .••••• lo' •••.
15. "The Revolutienary Development of Somali Language", p.19.
16. For a more deta)led account on this; s ee e Andrzejewski and
Lewis, opocit., ~p.J8f
170"The Revolutionary Dwelopment of Somt:l\ language~! pp .1r9L
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;:>16
18~ Ciisa, J.C., op.cit., pp.49-50
19. Ibid., p.48.
20. Andrzejewski and Lewis, op.cit., pp.46f.
21. John Will iam Johnson, "Somali Prosodic System", Horn of Africa;
volume 11y number 3, PPo46f.
22" Richard Corfield was the command..erof the British ar-my in the
battle of Dul Madb~p ..W.h•i.c.h.. took place in August, 1913. The
British army was~def~ated and their co~nander~ Corfield; was
killed in this battle. Al-Sayyid composed this poem immediately
after the news of this battle had reached him. See "The Revolu-
tionary Development of the Somali Language\'i"i: ~.59.
23..This translation is made by the Ministry of Higher Education and
Culture in the Somali Democratic Republic, in a paper presented
to FESTAC 7.70
24. Any vowel can be regarded an alliterative sound to any other
vowel even if they are different like this line.
250 I have tried to reproduce this poem from my memory. Very likely,
it has not been committed to writing yeto
260 "The Revolutionary Development of Somali Language; lip.vr,
27. Andrzejewski and Lewisf opocit., p.47.
28. ~o, pp. 64-66
290 .!2..!..£.; p , 74
300 ~.,ppo 74f
31. !2ii., pp.128f.
32 Ibida., pp. 138f. . ;
33. liTheRevolutionary Development of Somali Language\' p .48
34. Andrzejewski and Lewis't ,2P.0cito t pp , 146fo
35. ~ot pp. 148-90
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217
Section III
1. An example of such treaties is that which took place between
Y~suf cAli Yusuf, the Sultan of Obbia, and V. Filonard, the
Italian Consul in Somalia in the late 19th century. The
treaty(which was written in beautiful Arabic hand-writing and
in a good Arabic style), authoriz.ed thQ Italian government to
pay an annual contribution of 1200 dollars to the Sultan for his
acceptance of the Italian protection. Lewis, I.M., The Modern
History of Somaliland, London, 1965, pp. 8~ff. ,
2. Another important letter in Arabic is a rare historical document
of 12 pages dating back to the early part of 19th century. It
was written by Somalis under the leadership of Hajj Ali and Hajj
Farah to the Emir of Qawasim, Sultan ibn Saqr (1818-1866),
seeking his help to get rid of the colonialists from their land.
See: Rirash, A.A., Kashf al-Sudul cAn Ta'rikh al-Sumal,
Mogadishu, 197~, pp. l~lff.
3. AI-Sumal al-Jamilah, op.cit., pp.6~f
~. Ibn Battuta, Ridbt ibn Battuta, Dar Sadir, Beirut1 1960, p.253.
5.Kitab al-aalaJ.ayn refers to the widely circulated Quranic exegesis
written by two erudite scholars, Jalal al-D1n al-Ma~li (d.l~59 A.D)
and Jalal al-DTn al-Suyuti (d.1505 A.D.). See al-Dhahabi, M.H.,
Cairo, 1961, volume I, pp.333f.
6. Al-Bayd.aw1 refers to Quranic exegesis written by cAbdullah b •
cUmar b. Muh,ammad b. cAI-Bay~a-wit who died in 1291. See
7. Rirash, op.cit., pp.77 f.
8. Qasim al-Baraw1, MajmuC al-Qa~a'id, Cairo, 1955, p.46.
9. Ibn Batt6ta, op.cit., pp. 253f •
• 0 .- •..••.•..••-•-.
10. The Somali Republic, op.cit., p.8
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11. Andrzejewski and Lewis, op.cit •• p.52.
12. The Somali Republic, op.cit., p.5
13. Al-~um~l al-Jamila~op.cit., p.31
14. Al-Tahiril Hn, Qissat al-S.um~l, Cairo, 1977; p.223
16. AI-Tahir, H.j op.cit., p.207
17. Al-Qu~bi, A.Y., Nasr al-Mu'minln, Cairo, 1919, p.163
19. H.A.R. Gibb, Arabic Literature, London, 1963, p.157
20. The Somali Republic; op.cit., p.5.
21. cAydaru-s, A.A., Bughyat al-'Ama! fi Tarikh a -S.um;l, Mogadishu,
1954; p051.
22. Zaki Mubarak, AI-Madatih al-Nabaw.iyya fI al-'Adab al-cArabI,
Cairo, 1971, p01890
230 Qisim al-BarawI, opocit., p046
24. Al- cAlii A.U. - cy Jala' al- Aynayn, Part I, Cairo, p080
250 Muhammad Sufi Q~sim al-BarawI (ed)1 DalII al-'Ibad. 'Ila
al-Rashad, al-Kilani Presso
26. Andrzejewski, and Lewis, opocit", p.52
270 Rirash, opocit~, p.178
28. Shaykh cAbd aI-Qa-dir al-Ji-la-ni-, Muhyi aI-Din Abu Muhammad
ibn'Ab~ S.~lih. zengi Dost, lived 470-561 AoH. (1077-1166 A.D.).
He is the author of the book entitled al-Ghunya and the founder
of Qidiriyya Sect although there are no evidences to
authenticate thiso He was a jurist and Islamic preacher. His
genealogy is traced on the father's side to al-~asan, the grand-
son of the Brophet. But this' contradicts the-foreign name of
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219
his father (Zengi Dost) and the Shaykh himself was known in
Baghdad as al'ACjami (the non-Arab)o Therefore, it is believed
that this pedigree is fabriaated by his grandson aI-Qadi 'Abu
Salih Na sr, He was born in Jilan and he was sent to Baghdad at
the age of eighteen years for further studies, by his mother
Fatima Bint cAbdullah al-Sawma whose genealogy is traced to
ljusayny the grandson of the Prophet. Numerous Karamat (miracl es)
are attributed to him particularly in the last days of his life.
But his student Muwaffiq al-Drn, who had accompanied him in his
last fifty days has denied. seeing any of these miracles.
Possibly all these Karamat were fabricated either by his grand-
son a1-qa~i Na~r or other followers. See Encyclopaedia of Islam,
Luzac Coo, London, ppo5~7.
290 Al-QU~bI, A.Yo, opocito, po16~0
300 ZakI Mubarak, opocito, ppo 26~f ••
310 Trimingham, JoS., The Sufi Orders in Islam, Oxford at the
Clarendon Press~ 1971, p.207o
320 Ibid., p0208
33. Majmu-c
(l.
Mawlid Sharaf a1 'Ana-m, Sulyman Mare Press, Singapore,(nod).
35. Majmu-c Mawlid Sharaf al'Ana-m, po 15~.
37. Majmu-c Mawlid Sharaf al-'.Ana-m, p. 126
380 The letter Sad is 90, while Ta is 90 This adds up to 99.
Al-QU~bI, AoY., opocito, p0135
Ibid., p079
A~mad Mu~ammad a~-Ima-m and Mu~ammad al-Junaydi- Jum ca,
Al-Mawrl.d al-cAdhb :ri al-'Adab ~l-cArabI wa Tarikhih, Riyadh,p.55.
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42. Qasim al-Barawr, op.cit., p.19
43. Gibb., op.cit., p.91
440 al-Qu~bI, AoY., op.cito, pol00
450 cAbd aI-Rahman, Y. "Tarlkh al-Sumal, op.cit.,· p062
46. AI-QU!bi, AoYo, op.cito, p.76
470 AI-cAli1 AoUo, opocit., Part I, p0800
480 This refers to the verse 186l chapter 2 of Holy Qur'ano
49. Mu~ammad Sufi al-Barawi, op.cito, p041
500 AI-Qut.bi, op.cito, po170
51. Abd aI-Rahman, Y., Tarlkh al-Sumal, op.cit., p.62
o
cAssa-f, AoA., Khulo~.&tu al-'Athar f-i Sirati S~yyid al-Bashar
Da-r '1h.ya' al- cUlu-m, Beirut, po20 •
53. Qasim al-BarawI, op.cito, p037
540 Mu~ammad Sufi al-Barawi, opocit., p.J5
55. Qasim al-BarawI1 op.cit., po8
56. Ibid., ppo 64f.
57. Martin, B.G.1 Muslim Brotherhoods in Nineteenth Century Africa,
Cambridge University Press, 1976, ppo 161fo
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PART II
INTRODUCTORYREMARKS
10 Martin, .~~~~~.~0, po 1640
20 Ibid., po 165
SECTION I
2. ~o, p05
J. ~o, p.J,
40 AI-Qutbi, voloII, opocito, p011)
o .
5. Jala'.- al- cAyrray n , vo L; 11-, '£'p'.:...S!.!.0'poJ
. -' c
AI-CAli , Jala' al- Aynayn, volume II, opocito, p018-
80 Zaydan, Go, Tarikh 'Ada}) al-Lughah al- cArabiyyah, _Dar al-Hil;l,
Cairo, volume I, p.2440
9. A.:l-~.~li, Jal;" al- cAynayu, volume II, op 0 cito, po 14
100 ~o, p.42
120 Ibid., poJO
1J. ~o, p041
160 AI- cAli, Jala'- al- cAynayn. vol. II, opocit e , p017
170 Alin, MoNo, "Education and Renaissance of' Somali Culture",
Heegan (Vigilance), a weekly English publication 9f' the Ministry
of' Information and National Guidance, Issue No, 10, Monday
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18. Al-Qu~bi, volume II, opocitoi pp. 133f
19. Ba j L, M.Hor "Min al-'Adab al-CArabiyyi fi al-Sumal" (Arabic
Literature in Somalia), Najmat Oktobar (October Star), a daily
Arabic publication of the Miriistry of Information and National
Guidancev Issue No. 1295. 31
cAli,Jala-' al- cAynay~, volume II, op.cit., p.56
21. This line refers to chapter 5, verse 38 of the Holy Qur'an which
says:
This verse is usually interpreted as follows:
"Oh you who believe do your duty to God, seek the means of
approach to Him, and strive with m'ght and means in His course.
That you may pro sper e "
But al-Zayla c_1, as Qadiri leader had translated the word
Wasila as intercession to God through the righteous saints and
even regarded this verse as a command, which strengthens the
case for al-Tawasul (intercession).
, 22. One of the Zaynabs refers Zaynab Bint Jahshi 1ibn Rithal from
'Asad tribe, while the other refers to Zaynab b. Khuzaymah, both
are wives of the Prophet. cAssa-fL op .c•it. t p.352.
23. Al-Qu~br, volume II, op.cit., pp. 131f~
24 ~.t p. 132
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223
25. This is referring to the mystical philisophy which claims that
God had loved to know Himsel:f, and .the outcorae of t:lis v,-c:s
the form of the' first manifestation. , al-H.aqiqa al-Muh,ammad iyy a ,
which took two aspects of J~m~l (beauty) which is the attribute
of mercy, and.Jalfll (glory) which is the attribute of glory.
Therefore, Mu~ammad is the manifestation of God's beautyy and
glory; Ma~har al-~alalwa al-Jamal~Khan So KH., Studies in
Ta'53.wwuf1 Lahore (Pakistan), 1973~ pp , 230f
26. AI-Qutbi, volume II, op.cito, p. 112
27. Hdtt I, P~K., Histor;y,of the Arabst London, 1964, p. 436
28. Al-Qutbi, volume!!, op.cit.t ppo 148fo
29. Gibb and Kramers, JoHc, Shorter Encyclopaedia of Islam, Leiden,
E.Jo Brill, 1961, po 5820
30. This is cAbd aI-Salam ibn Mashrsh (d.1228 AoD.), the spiritual'
teacher of 'Aba aI-H,asan al-Sh~dhil'i,·the founder of Shadiliyyah
Sect. cAbd aI-Sala-m, who was the disciple of Abu Mad'Yan, had
undertaken to spread the mystical teachings of his Shaykh, ~Abu-
Madyano See Trimingham, The Sufi Orders in Islam, Oxford, 1971,
p.47.
c
310 This is Abu Bakr 'ibn 'Abdullah al-'Aydarus (d.914/1509)·
the founder of 'AydarusiyyahSect which is a branch of Q;;:di):"iyyah
Brotherhood. It is widespread in India, Indonesia and East
Africa. ~.t p. 73
32 Jawhar refers to the Egyptian sufi of eighteenthc.entury 1 who .
founded the Jawhariyya ;':Sect.~o, po 278.
33. Mustafa al-Bakri: it is not clear whether this name. refers to
the Syrian SUfI, Mustafa ibn Kamal al-Dfn al-Bakr~ (do1749 AoD.),
who used to visit Egypt frequently to organize a number of Sufi
Orders under his name: al-Bakriyya, or to Mustafa al-Bakr! (d.1709
AoD) who had been acclaimed as rishaykhMasha'ikh al-Sufiyyatty
~., p077.
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34:.He is Muhammad 'ibn cAbd Ell-Karim al-Sammanf (d.1718-75 A.D.) .'.
the disciple of Mustafa al-Bakr1. He orginated the Sufi Order
called al-Samm~niyya~, Ibid., p.77
35. He is 'A~mad ibn Mu~ammad al-cA~mad al-Shacr~nI (d.1565 A.D.),
the Egyptian Sufi~ the adherent of ShadhiliyyaOrder, and the
disciple of cAli al-Khawas (d.1532 A.D.) Ibid., p.221
J7~ He is the Maghribi Sufi, al-Shaykh SpayCayb 'ibn ~asan popularly
known as Abu Madyan al-Maghribf (d.1197 A.D.). He established a
Sufi Order known as Madyaniyyah .~., ppo 4,6-4,8~
)8. He is ibn 'A~; 'illah al-'Askandari (d.1309 A.D.), the successor
of 'Abu al~Abbas al-Mursi and the author of Kitab Lata'if al-Minan,_
Ibid., p.4:9
39. AI-Mursi' refers to the Egyptian mystic al-Shaykh' Ahmad 'ibn
Umar 'ibn Muhti.rrunadl-Nas! popularly known as 'Abu al-'Abbas
al-Murs1 (d.1289 A.D.). He is the Chief Khalifah of 'Abu al-
Hasan al-Shadhili in EgyptG
" 1::._
H.usayn, A.S., AI-'Adab aI-Sufi .fi Misr Dar a~-Ma.·.a.r~.:Cta:i,ro,\
1964:, p.78.
4:0. Hujjat aI-Islam refers to 'Abu Hamid, Mu~arrunad'ibn Muhammad ibn
M~~ammad popularly known as al-Ghazali, the jurist, philosopher
and the best Muslim writer on morals. He wrote more than seventy
work~ mostly on polemic subjects. Because of his significant
advocation over Islamic issues against the philosophers, he has
been acclaimed as Hujjat al-Islam (the proof of Islam) 0
Sharif, HoMo; (ed .j History of Muslim Philo.s€\phy,volume '1,
~ermany, 1963, po581. Zay~anJ volume IIIi op.~it·.tPol05
4,1. He is cIzz aI-Din 'Ahmad al-Sayyidi (d.1293' A.D.), the founder
of al-Sayyci'dfyya",branchof the al-Ruf';'iyya' Order, Trimingham,
opocit., p.280
.~
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~2o He is Ibrahim ibn ~Abu al-Majd 'ibn Quraysh popularly known
as al-Dusuqi (do1288 A~Do). He initiated an independent Order
called at first: al-Ibrahimmiyya but later on changed to
al-Dusuqiyya. Husayn, op.cit., p.133.
~3. He is cAbdullah cAlawi aI-Haddad (d~1720 A.D.), the founder of
al-Haddadiyya Order~ Trimingham, op.cit., p.216.
Al-Qutbi, vblume II~ op.cit., p.1~7.
~~. He is Ibrahim fibn 'Adham (d.777 A.D.), who had been regarded as
"the key of the real sufi sm!' , He adopt ed cel ibacy and poverty as
a means of self-discipline. He declared that the true sufi is one
who covets nothing but exclusive devotion to God.
Sharif, volume I~ op.cit., p. 336
~5. AI-Shibli is Abu Bakr al-Shibili, one of the early sufis. He
described true sufism as the absolute control of the human
faculties and the observation of the life. Trimingham, op.cit.,
the founder of Yafiliyya Order in Yemen as a branch of
Qadiriyya Brotherhhodo ~., p. 173.
~7. Abu Yazid al-Bistani is the Persian sufi whose ancestors were
Zoroastrians. He was initially jurist of the Hanafi school of
thought, but later on shifted to sufism. He wandered in the
Syrian deserts for about thirty years observing the nature and
living on scant food tnd drink. He expressed explicit'l)"that the
real mystici sm is the observation of the breaths. He died in
874 A.D •. .l.bi...p<.l1.9,5.Sharif, volume If op.cit.,. p , 3~2
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4B. Shaykh Yapya possibly refers to Ya~ya al-Shirwani (d.1460 A.D.),
the author of Khalwati wird al-Satt:r (the recital s of KhalwaTIyya \.\
Order). The information about the origin of this Order is
obscure, but it spread initially in 'Anatolia, and extended later
on to Syria, Egypt and ~ijaz. TrlminghaLJ, op s cLt , , PP.74, 75.
49. ~Uways 'ibn ~Amir al-Qarani al-Yaman£ is a pious T;bicr in spite
of the fact that he was a contemporary of the Prophet, for he
did not communicate wi. t h the Prophet during the latter's lifetime.
The place and the date of his death Ar@ uncertainQ Muh.ammad ibn
'Alem-al-Sadiq, Dalll al-Falihtn, volume II, Mu~tafa aI-Bad al-~alab1 Press, Cairo, 1955, p.235.
50. Junayd refers to cAbu al-Qasim al-Junayd aI-Baghdadi' (d.910 A.D.),
the great scholar, jurist, theologian and leader of the Sufi
Orders. It is reported that he expressed his indebtedness to
Ali ibn'Ab~ Talib for his mystical knowledge. Trimingham, op.cit.,
p.4. Sha~if, volume I, op.cit., p.344.
51. 'Abu Mansur refers to ~usayn ibn Mansur al-Hall;j al-Bay?aw1.
Becuase of the allegedly blasphemous mystical doctrines, al-
H.allajwas condemned to death and executed in March 1922, A.D •
Sharif, volume Iv op.cit., p.346
52. AI-Zarruqr isJAbu al-cAbbas 'Ahmad 'ibn al-Burnusi, popularly
known ~as al-Zarruqi' (d.1494 A.D.). He established the Zarruqiyya /.
Order~branch of Shidhiliyya Order. Trimingham, op.cit., p.B7.
e,
53. He is Ali ibn Sham.s al-D£n 'ibn 'Ah.mad al-Wafa (d.1404), the Egyp-
tian Sufi whose father, Shams al-Din (d.1359 A.D.) had originat~
al-Wafafiyya branch of the Shadhiliyya Order. Ibid., p.4
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5~. 'Ah..mad ibn 'Idrls is the great ref~r mer of the 19th century, who
based his sufi doctrine on the two main sources of Islam, that
is Qur'an and Hadith. He established the'A~madiyya or IdrlsiYjf~
Order, which is regarded as one of the reforming movements in the
modern Islamic world. He was born in North Afr'Lca , but. roamed
in Egypt and the Arabian peninsula until he eventually settled
down in Sabia in the IAsir Region in the Southern part of Arabian
peninsula where he died in 1837 A.D. Ibid.~ pp. 11~-116
550 JAbu S~lih is Muh.ammd ibn S.,alih, the nephew of Ibrahim al-Rash1d
who is said to have claimed that he is the real successor of ~Ahmad
'ibn Idrrso Muh.ammad ibn S~lih branched out from Ihrabfm al-
Rashid and founded his new Order al-~ali~iyya which spread in
Somalia and became one of the two main Muslim Brotherhoods in
the country. Ibid., p.121.
56. AI-'Ali, Jala-' al-cAynayn, volume II? op.cit., pp. 53f.
58. ~.? po 59
59. Ibid. , p. 58
60. Ibid., p. ~7
61. ~o, p. 50
62~ Ibid. , p.52
"-......
63. Z;ki Mub;rak, op.cit •, pp. 39-~3.
6~. Q;sim al-Barawi', op , cit. , pp 61f
65. ~., pp. 62f
660 ~., pp , 15t.
67. Al-Qut.bT, volume II, opocit., po 189
68. Qan;wi, M., al-Knmil ff al-cArud wa al-Qaw;ff, Cairo, 1969,
&
pp.21~fo
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690 AI-cAli, Jal~, al-cAynayn, volume I1, op.cit 0, p.5 30
SECTION II
10 AI-QU~bi, opocito, volume II, po 170.
20 Q;sim al-B~rawI, MoS. (ed), Dalil al-cIb;d 'I~a Sabil al-Rash;d,
Hajj Sufi's Diwan, al-Kil~ni al-SaghIt- Press, p , VI
30 Ibid., po 121
40 AI-Diw;n\?p"':<?ito, p , VL
5 • AI'-cA11', Ja1-a' a1-cAynayn, vo1ume I t 0p.C1.t .,'po 13
70 Ibid., po 45
8. AI-Ali, ._~J.-=~~~~a,!:_.?-.s1,_.C:a:i.rNoa,f:pi.,:40
9. AI-DIw~n, opocito, po 14
~O. AI-Ali, al-Jawhar al-Nafis, op.cit., p_119o
11. AI-DIw;n, op.cit., p. VI
12. ~o, p. 77.
----13. ~., po 78
14 Ibid., p~ 79
150 AI-Qu~bi, volume I,.opocitos . p ..145
16. AI-Diw;n, op.cito, p. 115
17. ~o, p. 116
180 ~., p. 117
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19. .!.!?i:i.. , po 120 •
20. Ibid. ~ i..Q...120
21. Ibid., p. 121
22. Ibid., p. 94
23. ~.,pp. 112f
24. Al-Qutbi volume II, op ,cit 0 , p. 170
250 Qana-w1~, Mo, op 0 cito, ppo 214fo
260 Al-Diwan, <Dlp 0 cit •, pp. 23fo
27. ~., po 86
28. ~·t po 45
29. Ibid. , p. 16
30. ~., po 112
31. Ibid. , p. 1140
SECTION III
1. Martin, opocito, po 179
clsa, op.cit., p. 54. Rirash, opocito po 184
Marzuq, A.S., Tha'ir Min al-Sumal, Cairo\ 1964, ppo 13f
Somali Poetry, opocit., p.53
Marzuq, opocito, po15
cIsa, op.cit., po 55
6. Martin, opocit., p. 179
Lewis, I.Mo, The Modern History of Somali Land,t London, 1965,PPo66f'.;o
9. Rlrash, op.cit., ppo 194f.
UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY
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10. Ibid., pp. 18~fo Martin, opocito, p. 181
110 Brockelman, G., Ta'~ikh al-Shu c"u·b a!-Isla.miyyah, Beirut~1968,p. 6~9n
12 ~artin, opocit., po 182
13.,ibid.
1~0 cIsa, opocit., po 71
15. Martin, op.cit., pp. 186fo
16. Ibid. , p. 188
17. Ibid'1 p. 189; also see cIsa;op 0cito; ppo 96£0
180 cIsa, op.cit 0, p. 109
19. Martin, opocit., ppo 191f
20. The Somali Republic, op.cito, po 7; see also Martin opocit.pp.193f
21 The Somali Poetry, ~ci!., Po55
220 cIsa, opocit., pp. 59-60.
230 Two-thirds of Risalat Blmal was published for the first time in
cIsa, Tarikh al-Sumali, pp. 1~6-16~, but the full text of this
Risalah appeared in Somalia II, 1967! pp. 7-26 (series ed. by
Kenadid). See Martin, opocito, ppo 236f.
c
2~ Isa, opocito, ppo 1~9fo
26. See Section III, Part I, p091
270 cIsa, opocito, pp. 99-10~o
280 Rirash, opocit~, po 193.
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29. The Somali Arabic poets, like the Arab poets of decadent
period, employed, for dates of their poems, the old semantic
numeral alphabets known as al-HurUf al-'Abjadiyyah. For
instance Jul Shagha refers to the date which the Sayyid composed
this poem, 1333 A.H. (Jim = 3, lam = 30, shfn = 300, ghayn = 1000).
31. ~.
32. This refers to verse 18, chapter 2 of the Qur'run
3~~ I~, p. 192
35. ~.t pp. 193f.
36. Ibid.
37. Somali Poetry, 0R.cit., p~ 150
38. Ibid~ The translation of this extract was originally made by the
author~ of this book.
39. Martin, op.cit., pp. 192f
~o.~., po 188
~1. cIsa, J.Uo, po 126
~2o Martin, opocit., p. 19~o
~3. .!...b..i-..d.-., p. 180
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