Abdirahman bin Isma'il al-Jabarti

Abdirahman bin Isma'il al-Jabarti
Daarood
Died10th century[1][2]
Haylan region
Burial placeHaylan, Sanaag, Somalia
SpouseDombiro Dir
Children5

Abdirahman bin Isma'il al-Jabarti, (Arabic: عبدالرحمن بن اسماعيل الجبرتي) also known as Daarood, Dawud or Da'ud (Arabic: دارود), is the common ancestor of the Somali Darod clan and the Harla people.[3][4] Abdirahman descended from Aqil ibn Abi Talib, a member of the Banu Hashim and a cousin of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.[5][6][7]

Biography

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Sheikh Darod's tomb in Haylaan, an ancient town in the eastern Sanaag region of Somalia.

Authors such as Ibn Hawqal, Al-Muqaddasi and Ibn Said have confirmed the early presence of Arabian tribes in municipalities such as Berbera, Zeila, Jabarta (an old metropolis now in ruins), and Massawa in the northern Horn of Africa.[8]

According to Somali tradition, Muhammad ibn Aqil's descendant Abdirahman bin Isma'il al-Jabarti (Darood) fled his homeland in the Arabian Peninsula after an argument with his uncle.[9] During the 9th century CE,[8] he is believed to have then settled in Somalia just across the Red Sea. He subsequently married Dobira, the daughter of the Dir clan chief, which is said to have given rise to the Darood clan family.[10] Thus, it established matrilateral ties with the Samaale main stem.[11]

Sheikh Harti's tomb in Qa’ableh.

According to the British anthropologist and Somali Studies veteran I.M. Lewis, while the traditions of descent from noble Arab families related to Muhammad are most probably expressions of the importance of Islam in Somali society,[12] "there is a strong historically valid component in these legends which, in the case of the Darood, is confirmed in the current practice of a Dir representative officiating at the ceremony of installation of the chief of the Darod family."[13]

Another tradition holds that Darod is connected with the extinct Harla people.[14][15] According to Arabic documents preserved by the Darod clans of Afar region, the Darut, a forefather of Harla founded the current Somali Darod clan. The text further states that he arrived from Mecca and settled in Zeila, his father was Ismāʻīl b. Ibrāhīm al-Ǧabartī, from Yemen.[16]

A similar clan story exists for the Isaaq, who are descended from one Ishaq ibn Ahmad al-'Alawi, another purported member of the Banu Hashim who came to Somaliland around the same time.[9][17] As with Sheikh Isaaq, there are also numerous existing hagiologies in Arabic which describe Sheikh Darood's travels, works and overall life in Somaliland, as well as his movements in Arabia before his arrival.[18] Besides historical sources such as Al-Masudi's Aqeeliyoon, a modern manaaqib (a collection of glorious deeds) printed in Cairo in 1945 by Sheikh Ahmad bin Hussen bin Mahammad titled Manaaqib as-Sheikh Ismaa'iil bin Ibraahiim al-Jabarti also discusses Sheikh Darod and his proposed father Isma'il al-Jabarti, the latter of whom is reportedly buried in Bab Siham situated in the Zabid District of western Yemen.[19]

Sheikh Darod's own tomb is in Haylaan, situated in the Hadaaftimo Mountains in the Sanaag region of Somalia, and is the scene of frequent pilgrimages.[13] Sheikh Isaaq is buried nearby in Maydh,[20] as is Sheikh Harti, a descendant of Sheikh Darod and the progenitor of the Harti Darod sub-clan, whose tomb is located in the ancient town of Qa’ableh.

Sheikh Darod's mawlid (birthday) is also celebrated every Friday with a public reading of his manaaqib.[19]

References

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  1. ^ Lewis, A.; Rueschemeyer, Marilyn (21 November 2014). Security, Clans and Tribes: Unstable Governance in Somaliland, Yemen and the Gulf of Aden. Springer. ISBN 978-1-137-47075-1.
  2. ^ Loimeier, Roman (17 July 2013). Muslim Societies in Africa: A Historical Anthropology. Indiana University Press. p. 183. ISBN 978-0-253-02732-0.
  3. ^ Lewis, Ioan M. (1994). Blood and Bone: The Call of Kinship in Somali Society. Lawrencewill, NJ: The Red Sea Press. pp. 102–106. ISBN 0-932415-93-8.
  4. ^ B, Ulrich (2002). Islamic History and Culture in Southern Ethiopia: Collected Essays. LIT Verlag Münster. p. 18. ISBN 9783825856717.
  5. ^ Lewis, A.; Rueschemeyer, Marilyn (21 November 2014). Security, Clans and Tribes: Unstable Governance in Somaliland, Yemen and the Gulf of Aden. Springer. ISBN 978-1-137-47075-1.
  6. ^ Fergusson, James (17 January 2013). The World's Most Dangerous Place: Inside the Outlaw State of Somalia. Transworld. p. 51. ISBN 978-1-4464-8705-1.
  7. ^ Mire, Sada (5 February 2020). Divine Fertility: The Continuity in Transformation of an Ideology of Sacred Kinship in Northeast Africa. Routledge. p. 91. ISBN 978-0-429-76924-5.
  8. ^ a b Lewis, I.M. (1998). Peoples of the Horn of Africa-Somali, Afar and Saho. The Red Sea Press. pp. 140–142.
  9. ^ a b Berns-McGown, Rima (1999). Muslims in the diaspora. University of Toronto Press. pp. 27–28.
  10. ^ Somaliland Society (1954). The Somaliland Journal, Volume 1, Issues 1–3. The Society. p. 85. Archived from the original on 22 May 2024. Retrieved 14 October 2016.
  11. ^ Lewis, I.M.; Samatar, S.S. (1999). A Pastoral Democracy: A Study of Pastoralism and Politics Among the Northern Somali of the Horn of Africa. Classics in African anthropology. James Currey. pp. 11–13. ISBN 978-0-85255-280-3. Archived from the original on 2 May 2024. Retrieved 29 April 2024.
  12. ^ Lewis, I.M.; Samatar, S.S. (1999). A Pastoral Democracy: A Study of Pastoralism and Politics Among the Northern Somali of the Horn of Africa. Classics in African anthropology. James Currey. pp. 128–129. ISBN 978-0-85255-280-3. Archived from the original on 29 April 2024. Retrieved 29 April 2024.
  13. ^ a b Lewis, I.M. (1955). Peoples of the Horn of Africa-Somali, Afar and Saho. International African Institute. pp. 18–19.
  14. ^ B, Ulrich (2002). Islamic History and Culture in Southern Ethiopia: Collected Essays. LIT Verlag Münster. p. 18. ISBN 9783825856717. Archived from the original on 22 May 2024. Retrieved 8 November 2020.
  15. ^ Uhlig, Siegbert (2007). Encyclopaedia Aethiopica: He-N, Volume 3. Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. p. 1034. ISBN 978-3447056076.
  16. ^ Fani, Sara (2017). IslHornAfr 6thField Mission Report (PDF). University of Copenhagen. p. 19. Archived (PDF) from the original on 14 January 2020. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  17. ^ Lewis, I.M. (2002). A Modern History of the Somali (fourth ed.). Oxford: James Currey. p. 22.
  18. ^ Oliver, Roland Anthony; Fage, J. D. (1962). Journal of African history. Vol. 3. Cambridge University Press. p. 45.
  19. ^ a b Lewis, I.M.; Samatar, S.S. (1999). A Pastoral Democracy: A Study of Pastoralism and Politics Among the Northern Somali of the Horn of Africa. Classics in African anthropology. James Currey. p. 131. ISBN 978-0-85255-280-3. Archived from the original on 29 April 2024. Retrieved 29 April 2024.
  20. ^ Lewis, I. M. (1960). "The Somali Conquest of the Horn of Africa". The Journal of African History. 1 (2). Cambridge University Press: 213–230. doi:10.1017/S0021853700001808. ISSN 1469-5138. JSTOR 180241. Archived from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 8 June 2011.

References

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