Dervish state

Dawlada Daraawiish ‫دولة الدراويش‬

1896–1920

Aerial view of Mohamed Abdullah Hassan's main fort in Taleh, the capital of his Dervish State.

Capital:Taleh

Languages:Somali, Arabic

Religion:Islam

King:Mohammed Abdullah Hassan

Currency:Maria Theresa thaler, Italian Somaliland rupia

Today part of Somalia and Ethiopia

The Dervish state (Somali: Dawlada Daraawiish, Arabic: ‫ دولة الدراويش‬Dawlāt ad-Darāwīsh)
was an early 20th-century Somali Sunni Islamic state that was established by Muhammad
Abdullah Hassan, a religious leader who gathered Somali soldiers from across the Horn of Africa
and united them into a loyal army known as the Dervishes. This Dervish army enabled Hassan
to carve out a powerful state through conquest of lands claimed by the Somali Sultans, the
Ethiopians and the European powers. The Dervish State acquired renown in the Islamic and
Western worlds due to its resistance against the European empires of Britain and Italy. The
Dervish forces successfully repulsed the British Empire in four military expeditions, and forced it
to retreat to the coastal region. As a result of its fame in the Middle East and Europe, the
Dervish State was recognized as an ally by the Ottoman Empire and the German Empire. It also
succeeded at outliving the Scramble for Africa, and remained throughout World War I the only
independent Muslim power on the continent. After a quarter of a century of holding the British
at bay, the Dervishes were finally defeated in 1920, when Britain used aeroplanes to bomb the
Dervish capital of Taleh.

Origins

At the end of the 19th century, the Berlin conference gathered together Europe's most
powerful countries during the Scramble for Africa. The British, Italians and Ethiopians
partitioned Greater Somalia into spheres of influence, cutting into the previous nomadic grazing
system and Somali civilizational network that connected port cities with those of the interior.
The Ethiopian Emperor Menelik's Somali expedition, consisting of an army of 11,000 men,
made a deep push into the vicinity of Luuq in Somalia. However, his troops were soundly
defeated by the Gobroon army, with only 200 soldiers returning alive. The Ethiopians
subsequently refrained from further expeditions into the interior of Somalia, but continued to
oppress the people in the Ogaden by plundering the nomads of their livestock numbering in the
hundreds of thousands. The British blockade in firearms to the Somalis rendered the nomads in
the Ogaden helpless against the armies of Menelik. With the establishment of important
Muslim orders headed by Somali scholars such as Shaykh Abd Al-Rahman bin Ahmad al-Zayla'i
and Uways al-Barawi, a rebirth of Islam in East Africa was soon afoot. The resistance against the
colonization of Muslim lands in Africa and Asia by the Afghans and Mahdists would inspire a
large resistance movement in Somalia. Muhammad Abdullah Hassan, a former nomad boy that
had travelled to many Muslim centers in the Islamic world, returned to Somalia as a grown man
and began promoting the Salihiya order in the urban cities and the interior where he found
major success.

In 1897, Hassan left Berbera. On this journey, at a place called Daymoole, he met some Somali
children who were being looked after by a Catholic Mission. When he asked them about their
clan and parents, the Somali orphans replied that they belonged to the "clan of the (Catholic)
Fathers." This reply shook his conscience, for he felt that the "Christian overlordship in his
country was tantamount to the destruction of his people's faith." In 1899, some soldiers of the
British armed forces met Hassan and sold him an official gun. When questioned about the loss
of the gun, they told their superiors that Hassan had stolen the gun from them. On 29 March
1899, the British Vice Consul wrote a very stern and insulting letter to him asking him to return
the gun immediately, which someone in Hassan's camp had reported stolen. This enraged
Hassan and he sent a very brief and curt reply refuting the allegation. While Hassan had really
been against the Ethiopian invaders of Somalia, this small incident caused a clash with the
British.

Capital

The Sayyid during his campaigns against the European and local powers built fortresses all over
the Horn of Africa, and would move his armies from one city to another. In 1913, after the
British withdrawal to the coast, the permanent capital and headquarters of the Dervishes was
constructed at Taleh, a large walled town with fourteen fortresses. The main fortress, Silsilat,
included a walled garden and a guard house. It became the residence of Muhammad Abdullah
Hassan, his wives, family, prominent Somali military leaders, and also hosted several Turkish,
Yemeni and German dignitaries, architects, masons and arms manufacturers. A large area to
the northeast of Taleh was used for cultivation, while the Dar Ilalo towers were used as
granaries. Several tombs were constructed by Muhammad Abdullah Hassan to honor his father,
mother and prominent members from northern and southern Somalia. However, those that
committed acts of treason, crimes or who had otherwise fallen out with the Dervish leader
were sent to Hed Kaldig, the main execution arena.

Economy

The Dervish domination of the hinterland in the Somali peninsula brought important trade
routes under their hegemony, which they exploited by redirecting the wealthy livestock trade
to port cities such as Las Khorey, Eyl and Ilig. Important imports included firearms, horses and
building material for the construction of several dozen fortresses in the Horn of Africa.

Military

The regular army (Maara-weyn) of the Dervish state was organised into seven regiments:
Shiikh-yaale, Gola-weyne, Taar-gooye, Indha-badan, Miinanle, Dharbash and Rag-xun. Each
regiment had its commander (muqaddim), and varied in size from between 1,000 to 4,000 men.
A large para-military force was also drawn from the nomad population. Hassan's bodyguards
(gaarhaye) and other senior members of the state were either freed slaves whom he had taken
in or riverine groups such as the Reer Baarre. The cavalry, for its part, numbered between 5,000
and 10,000 mounted horsemen, and the standing army was supplied with modern weapons
such as rifles and maxim guns. Dervish soldiers used the dhaanto traditional dance-song to raise
their esprit de corps and often sang it on horseback.

Wars against Italy, Britain and Ethiopia

In August 1898, the Dervish army occupied Burao, an important centre of British Somaliland,
giving Muhammad Abdullah Hassan control over the city's watering places. Hassan also
succeeded in making peace between the local clans and initiated a large assembly, where the
population was urged to join the war against the invaders.

The historic Daarta Sayyidka Dervish fort in Eyl.

In 1900, an Ethiopian expedition which had been sent to arrest or kill Hassan looted a large
number of camels. Hassan in return attacked the Ethiopian garrison at Jijiga on 4 March of that
year and successfully recovered all the looted animals. He gained great prestige in recovering
the looted stock from the Ethiopians and he used it along with his charisma and powers of
oratory to improve his undisputed authority on the Ogaden. To harness Ogaden enthusiasm
into final commitment, Hassan married the daughter of a prominent leader and in return gave
his own sister, Toohyar Sheikh Adbile, to Abdi Mohammed Waale, a notable elder.

Towards the end of 1900, the Ethiopian Emperor Menelik II proposed a joint action with the
British against the Dervish. Accordingly, British Lt. Col. E.J. Swayne assembled a force of 1,500
Somali soldiers led by 21 European officers and started from Burco on 22 May 1901, while an
Ethiopian army of 15,000 soldiers started from Harar to join the British forces intent on
crushing the 20,000 Dervish fighters (of whom 40 percent were cavalry).

In the 1920 campaign by the British, 12 aircraft were used to support the local British forces.
Within a month, the British had occupied the capital of the Dervish State and Hassan had
retreated to the west.

Modern legacy

The Dervish legacy in Somalia can be seen in the country's cultural heritage, history, and
society. In memory of past heroes, the military government of Somalia led by Mohamed Siad
Barre erected statues visible between Makka Al Mukarama and Shabelle Roads in the heart of
Mogadishu. These were for three major Somali History icons; Muhammad Abdullah Hassan,
Stone Thrower and Hawo Tako. Other historical facts about Somalia, numerous castles and
fortresses built by the Dervishes were included in a list of Somalia's national treasures.The
Dervish period spawned many war poets and peace poets involved in a struggle known as the
Literary war which had a profound effect on Somali poetry and Literature, with Muhammad
Abdullah Hassan featuring as the most prominent poet of that Age.Many of these poems
continue to be taught in Somali schools and have been recited by several Presidents of Somalia
in speeches as well as in poetry competitions. In Somali Studies, the Dervish period is an
important chapter in Somalia's history and its brief period of European hegemony, the latter of
which inspired the resistance movement. Due to their goal of creating a unified Somali State or
Greater Somalia transcending regional and clan divisions, many scholars regard the Dervishes as
the ideological architects of Somalia and Muhammad Abdullah Hassan himself as the "Father of
the Nation".