Practitioners of Islam first enteredSomaliland in the northwestern city ofZeila during prophetMuhammad's lifetime whereupon they built theMasjid al-Qiblatayn;[1] as such,Islam has been a part ofSomali society since the 7th century.[2]
Practicing Islam reinforces distinctions that further set Somalis apart from their immediate neighbors. Sunnism is the strand practiced by 99% of the population.[3] AlthoughPew Research Center has not conducted a survey in Somalia, its Somali-majority northwestern neighbour Djibouti reported a creed breakdown of Muslims which was reported as 77% adhering toSunnism, 8% asnon-denominational Muslim, 2% asShia, thirteen percent refusing to answer, and a further report inclusive ofSomali Region stipulating 2% adherence to a minority sect (e.g.Ibadism,Quranism etc.).[4]
The role of religious functionaries began to shrink in the 1950s and 1960s as some of their legal and educational powers and responsibilities were transferred to secular authorities.[5] The position of religious leaders changed substantially after the1969 revolution and the introduction ofscientific socialism.Siad Barre insisted that his version of socialism was compatible withQur'anic principles, and he condemnedatheism. Religious leaders, however, were warned not to meddle in politics.[6]
Islam was introduced to the northern Somali coast early on from theArabian peninsula, shortly after thehijra.Zeila's two-mihrabMasjid al-Qiblatayn dates to the 7th century, and is the oldestmosque in the country.[7]Somalis were among the earliest non-Arabs to convert to Islam.[8] Several prominent shaykhs are traditionally credited with spreading Islam in Somalia, including Aw Barhadle, Aw Qudub, Aw Cisman Fiqi Cumar (“Garweyne”), and Aw Cisman Xasan Bin Cakaabir.[9]
In the late 9th century,Al-Yaqubi wrote thatMuslims were living along the northern Somali seaboard.[10] He also mentioned that the Adal kingdom had its capital in the city,[10][11] suggesting that the Adal Sultanate with Zeila as its headquarters dates back to at least the 9th or 10th century. According to I.M. Lewis, the polity was governed by local Somalidynasties, who also ruled over the similarly-establishedSultanate of Mogadishu in the littoralBenadir region to the south. Adal's history from this founding period forth would be characterized by a succession of battles with neighboringAbyssinia.[11]
In 1332, the Zeila-based King of Adal was slain in a military campaign aimed at halting the AbyssinianEmperorAmda Seyon I's march toward the city to avenge the slaughtered Christians including a famous monk sent to wage peace and destroyed Churches by the Adalites.[12] When the last Sultan of Ifat,Sa'ad ad-Din II, was also killed by EmperorDawit I in Zeila in 1410, his children escaped toYemen, before later returning in 1415.[13] In the early 15th century, Adal's capital was moved further inland to the town ofDakkar, whereSabr ad-Din II, the eldest son of Sa'ad ad-Din II, established a new base after his return from Yemen.[14][15]
Adal's headquarters were again relocated the following century, this time toHarar. From this new capital, Adal organized an effective army led byImamAhmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi (Ahmad "Gurey" or "Gran") that invaded the Abyssinian empire.[15] This 16th century campaign is historically known as theConquest of Abyssinia (Futuh al-Habash). During the war, Imam Ahmad pioneered the use ofcannons andfirearms supplied by theOttoman Empire, which he imported through Zeila and thousands of mercenaries from the Muslim world and nomadic Somalia to wage a 'holy war' against Ethiopian King of Kings. The fewPortuguese underCristóvão da Gama that later that came to assist their Ethoipian coreligionist would tip the scale in their favour.[16] Some scholars argue that this conflict proved, through their use on both sides, the value offirearms like thematchlockmusket, cannons and thearquebus over traditional weapons.[17] By the 16th century, Somali Muslims cultivated religious ties with the BaʿAlawī Husaynis from Hadramawt, adopting aspects of their tradition. In 1503, Shaykh Sharif Abu Bakr al-Aydarus al-ʿAdanī introduced the Qadiriyya Sufi order into the Horn of Africa.[18]
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During theAge of the Ajuran, the sultanates and republics ofMerca,Mogadishu,Barawa,Hobyo flourished and had a lucrative foreign commerce, with ships sailing to and coming fromArabia,India,Venetia,[19]Persia,Egypt,Portugal and as far away asChina.Vasco da Gama, who passed by Mogadishu in the 15th century, noted that it was a large city with houses several storeys high and large palaces in its center, in addition to many mosques with cylindricalminarets.[20]
The city of Mogadishu came to be known as theCity of Islam,[21] and controlled the East African gold trade for several centuries.[22] In the 16th century,Duarte Barbosa noted that many ships from theKingdom of Cambaya in modern-day India sailed to Mogadishu withcloth andspices, for which they in return receivedgold,wax andivory. Barbosa also highlighted the abundance ofmeat,wheat,barley,horses, andfruit on the coastal markets, which generated enormous wealth for the merchants.[23] Mogadishu was also the center of a thriving textile industry known astoob benadir, specialized for the markets in Egypt, among other places.[24]
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Because Muslims believe that their faith was revealed in its complete form toMuhammad,Bidʻah is seen as a major sin. One response was to stress a return to orthodox Muslim traditions and to opposeWesternization totally. The Sufi brotherhoods were at the forefront of this movement, personified in Somalia byMohammed Abdullah Hassan in the early 20th century. Generally, the leaders of Islamic orders opposed the spread of Western education.[25]
Another response was to reform Islam by reinterpreting it. From this perspective, early Islam was seen as a protest against abuse, corruption, and inequality; reformers therefore attempted to prove thatMuslim scriptures contained all elements needed to deal with modernization. To this school of thought belongsIslamic socialism, identified particularly with Egyptian nationalistGamal Abdul Nasser. His ideas appealed to a number of Somalis, especially those who had studied inCairo in the 1950s and 1960s.[26]
The 1961 constitution guaranteed freedom of religion but also declared the newly independent republic anIslamic state. The first two post-independence governments paid lip service to the principles of Islamic socialism but made relatively few changes. The coup of October 21, 1969, installed a radical regime committed to profound change. Shortly afterward,Stella d'Ottobre, the official newspaper of the Supreme Revolutionary Council (SRC), published an editorial about relations between Islam and socialism and the differences between scientific and Islamic socialism. Islamic socialism was said to have become a servant ofcapitalism andneocolonialism and a tool manipulated by a privileged, rich, and powerful class. In contrast, scientific socialism was based on the altruistic values that inspired genuine Islam. Religious leaders should therefore leave secular affairs to the new leaders who were striving for goals that conformed with Islamic principles. Soon after, the government arrested several protesting religious leaders and accused them of counterrevolutionary propaganda and of conniving with reactionary elements in theArabian Peninsula. The authorities also dismissed several members of religious tribunals for corruption and incompetence.When the Three-Year Plan, 1971–1973, was launched in January 1971, SRC leaders felt compelled to win the support of religious leaders so as to transform the existing social structure. On September 4, 1971,Siad Barre exhorted more than 100 religious teachers to participate in building a new socialist society. He criticized their method of teaching inQur'anic schools and charged some with using religion for personal profit.
The campaign for scientific socialism intensified in 1972. On the occasion ofEid al-Adha, the major Muslim festival associated with the pilgrimage, the president defined scientific socialism as half practical work and half ideological belief. He declared that work and belief were compatible with Islam because the Qur'an condemned exploitation and money lending and urged compassion, unity, and cooperation among Muslims. But he stressed the distinction between religion as an ideological instrument for the manipulation of power and as a moral force. He condemned the antireligious attitude ofMarxists. Religion, Siad Barre said, was an integral part of the Somali worldview, but it belonged in the private sphere, whereas scientific socialism dealt with material concerns such as poverty. Religious leaders should exercise their moral influence but refrain from interfering in political or economic matters.
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Religious orders always have played a significant role in Somali Islam. The rise of these orders (Tarika, "way" or "path") was connected with the development ofSufism, a mystical sect within Islam that began during the 9th and 10th centuries and reached its height during the 12th and 13th. In Somalia, Sufi orders appeared in towns during the 15th century and rapidly became a revitalizing force. Followers of Sufism seek a closer personal relationship to God through special spiritual disciplines. Escape from self is facilitated by poverty, seclusion, and other forms of self-denial. Members of Sufi orders are commonly calleddervishes, from thePersiandaraawish (singular darwish, "one who gave up worldly concerns to dedicate himself to the service ofGod and community"). Leaders of branches or congregations of these orders are given the Arabic titleshaykh, a term usually reserved for those learned in Islam and rarely applied to ordinarywadaads (holy men).
Dervishes wandered from place to place teaching. They are best known for their ceremonies, called dhikr, in which states of visionary ecstasy are induced by group- chanting of religious texts and by rhythmic gestures, dancing, and deep breathing. The object is to free oneself from the body and to be lifted into the presence of God. Dervishes have been important as founders of agricultural religious communities calledjamaat (singular jamaa). A few of these were home to celibate men only, but usually the jamaat were inhabited by families. Most Somalis were nominal members of Sufi orders.
Local leaders of brotherhoods customarily asked lineage heads in the areas where they wished to settle for permission to build their mosques and communities. A piece of land was usually freely given; often it was an area between two clans or one in which nomads had access to a river. The presence of a jama'ah not only provided a buffer zone between two hostile groups, but also caused the giver to acquire a blessing since the land was considered given to God. Tenure was a matter of charity only, however, and sometimes became precarious in case of disagreements. No statistics were available in 1990 on the number of such settlements, but in the 1950s there were more than ninety in the south, with a total of about 35,000 members. Most were in theBakool,Gedo, and Bay regions or along the middle and lower Shabele River. There were few jamaat in other regions because the climate and soil did not encourage agricultural settlements.
Membership in a brotherhood is theoretically a voluntary matter unrelated to kinship. However, lineages are often affiliated with a specific brotherhood and a man usually joins his father's order. Initiation is followed by a ceremony during which the order's dhikr is celebrated. Novices swear to accept the branch head as their spiritual guide.
Each order has its own hierarchy that is supposedly a substitute for the kin group from which the members have separated themselves. Veneration is given to previous heads of the order, known as the Chain of Blessing, rather than to ancestors. This practice is especially followed in the south, where place of residence tends to have more significance than lineage.
Because of the saint's spiritual presence at his tomb, Sufi pilgrims journey there to pray for them and send blessings to them. Members of the saint's order also visit the tomb, particularly on the anniversaries of his birth and death. Leaders of Sufi orders and their branches and of specific congregations are said to havebaraka, a state of blessedness implying an inner spiritual power that is inherent in the religious office, and may cling to the tomb of a revered leader, who, upon death, is considered a pious Muslim. However, some religious leaders are venerated by Sufis because of their religious reputations, whether or not they were associated with an order or one of its communities. Sainthood also has been ascribed to other Sufis because of their status as founders of clans or large lineages. Northern pastoral nomads are likely to honor lineage founders as saints; sedentary Somalis revere saints for their piety and baraka.
The traditional learning of a wadaad includes a form of folk astronomy based on stellar movements and related to seasonal changes. Its primary objective is to signal the times for migration, but it may also be used to set the dates of rituals that are specifically Somali. This folk knowledge is also used in ritual methods of healing and averting misfortune, as well as for divination.
Wadaddo help avert misfortune by making protective amulets and charms that transmit some of their baraka to others, or by adding the Qur'an's baraka to the amulet through a written passage. The baraka of a saint may be obtained in the form of an object that has touched or been placed near his tomb.
Although wadaddo may use their power to curse as a sanction, misfortune generally is not attributed to curses or witchcraft. Somalis have accepted the orthodox Muslim view that a man's conduct will be judged in an afterlife. However, a person who commits an antisocial act, such aspatricide, is thought possessed of supernatural evil powers.
Like other Muslims, Somalis believe injinn. Certain kinds of illness, includingtuberculosis andpneumonia, or symptoms such as sneezing, coughing, vomiting, and loss of consciousness, are believed by some Somalis to result from spirit possession, namely, the Ifrit of the spirit world. The condition is treated by a shaykh, who reads portions of the Qur'an over the patient repeatedly.
Yibir clan members are popularly held to be descendants ofJewishHebrew forebears. The etymology of the word "Yibir" is also believed by some to have come from the word for "Hebrew".[27] However, spokespersons for the Yibir have generally not tried to make their presence known to Jewish/Israeli authorities. Despite their putative Jewish origins, the overwhelming majority of the Yibir, like the Somali population in general, adhere to Islam and know practically nothing of Judaism.[28][29]
In early January 1975, evoking the message of equality, justice, and social progress contained in the Qur'an, Siad Barre announced a new family law that gave women the right to inheritance on an equal basis with men. Some Somalis believe the law was proof that the SRC wanted to undermine the basic structure of Islamic society. In Mogadishu twenty-three religious leaders protested inside their mosques. They were arrested and charged with acting at the instigation of a foreign power and with violating state security; ten were executed. Sheikh Ahmed Sheikh Mohamed Walaaleeye and Sheikh Hassan Absiye Derie were among them.[citation needed] Most religious leaders, however, kept silent. The government continued to organize training courses for shaykhs in scientific socialism.
For generations,Islam in Somalia leaned towards theShafi’i jurisprudence, andSufism, until recent decades when Salafism has made inroads.[30] Influence of Islamic religious leaders has varied by region, being greater in the north than among some groups in the settled regions of the south.[citation needed] Among nomads, the exigencies of pastoral life gave greater weight to the warrior's role, and religious leaders were expected to remain aloof from political matters.[citation needed]
Three Sufi orders were prominent in Somalia. In order of their introduction into the country, they were theQadiriyah, theIdrisiyah, and theSalihiyya. TheRifaiyah, an offshoot of the Qadiriyah, was represented mainly among Arabs resident inMogadishu.[citation needed]
The Qadiriyah, the oldest Sufi order, was founded inBaghdad byAbdul Qadir al-Jilani in 1166 and introduced to the SomaliAdal in the 15th century. During the 18th century, it was spread among theOromo and theAfar of Ethiopia, often under the leadership of Somali shaykhs. Its earliest known advocate in northern Somalia was ShaykhAbd ar Rahman az Zeilawi, who died in 1883. At that time, Qadiriyah adherents were merchants in the ports and elsewhere. In a separate development, the Qadiriyah order also spread into the southern Somali port cities ofBaraawe and Mogadishu at an uncertain date. In 1819, ShaykhIbrahim Hassan Jebro acquired land on theJubba River and established a religious center in the form of a farming community, the first Somali jama'ah (congregation).
Outstanding figures of the Qadiriyah in Somalia included ShaykhAwes Mahammad Baraawi (d. 1909), who spread the teaching of the Sufi order in the southern interior. He wrote much devotional poetry in Arabic and attempted to translate traditional hymns from Arabic into Somali, working out his own phonetic system. Another was ShaykhAbdirrahman Abdullah of Mogadishu, who stressed deep mysticism. Because of his reputation for sanctity, his tomb at Mogadishu became a pilgrimage center for theShebelle valley and his writings continued to be circulated by his followers as late as the early 1990s.
The Idrisiyah order was founded byAhmad ibn Idris (1760–1837) ofMecca. It was brought to Somalia by ShaykhAli Maye Durogba ofMerca in Somalia, a distinguished poet who joined the order during a pilgrimage to Mecca. His "visions" and "miracles" attributed to him gained him a reputation for sanctity, and his tomb became a popular destination for pilgrims. The Idrisiyah, the smallest of the three Sufi orders, has few ritual requirements beyond some simple prayers and hymns. During its ceremonies, however, participants often go into trances. A conflict over the leadership of the Idrisiyah among its Arab founders led to the establishment of the Salihiyah in 1887 byMuhammad ibn Salih. One of the Salihiyah's proselytizers was former slave ShaykhMahammad Guled ar Rashidi, who became a regional leader. He settled among theShidle people (Bantus occupying the middle reaches of theShebelle River), where he obtained land and established a jama'ah. Later he founded another jama'ah among theAjuran (a section of the Hawiye clanfamily ) and then returned to establish still another community among the Shidle before his death in 1918.
A Somali form of the Salihiya tariqa was established in what is now northern Somalia in 1890 byIsmail Urwayni. Urwayni's proselytism in northern Somalia had a profound effect on the peninsula as it would later prompt the creation of the Darwiish State. The primary friction between the more established Qadiriya and the newly established Somali Salihism in the form of Urwayniya was their reaction to incursions by European colonialists with the former appearing too lax by adherents of the latter. Five years later, another neo-Salihiya figure expedited Urwaynism or Urwayniya through proselytizing, via the Darawiish wherein Diiriye Guure was sultan and wherein the Salihiyya preacherSayyid Mohammed Abdullah Hassan, would become emir of theDervish movement in a lengthy resistance to the Abyssinian, Italian andBritish colonialists until 1920.[31][32]
Generally, the Salihiyah and the Idrisiyah leaders were more interested in the establishment of a jama'ah along the Shabeelle andJubba rivers and the fertile land between them than in teaching because few were learned in Islam. Their early efforts to establish farming communities resulted in cooperative cultivation and harvesting and some effective agricultural methods. In Somalia's riverine region, for example, only jama'ah members thought of stripping the brush from areas around their fields to reduce the breeding places of tsetse flies.
Following the outbreak of thecivil war in the early 1990s, Islamism appeared to be largely confined to the radicalAl-Itihaad al-Islamiya group. In 1992, ColonelAbdullahi Yusuf Ahmed marshalled forces to successfully expel an Islamist extremist group linked to the outfit, which had laid siege toBosaso, a prominent port city and the commercial capital of the northeastern part of the country.[33] The turn of the 21st century saw an increasing prevalence of puritanical Sunnism, including in the form ofMuwahhidism andSalafism.[34][35]
Although there is no official demographic figures onZahirism in Somalia, many Somalis follow methods of practicing Islam that aligns with Zahiri beliefs, such as a suspicion towards human authority regarding Islamic legal matters.[36]
There has never been a comprehensive survey on religious affiliation in Somalia, and as such, figures on adherence are largely based upon speculation.[37] The historianDavid Westerlund refers to both Shia andWahhabi (Hanbalimadhab) sects in Somalia as relatively recent developments.[38]
Ibn Battuta in his travels toZeila, in northwest Somalia, in the 14th century, described it as a town of Shiites.[39] The city ofZeila began to gradually lose its Shiite character during the period between 1623 and 1639, when the Ottoman administrators came to increasingly regard the Shiism practised by the local Somali Shiites as heretic due to the ongoingSafavid-Ottoman War againstSafi of Persia.[40]
TheSaudi invasion of Yemen in 2015 resulted in large amounts ofZaydi Shia Yemeni refugees seeking refuge in northern Somalia.[41]
Although there has never been a comprehensive census in Somalia that lists various Islamic denominations as an option, there have been some Somalis in the diaspora who have used the self-description of "just a Muslim" upon probes into their religious affiliation.[42]
Ibadism is predominant in Oman and is characterized by the acceptance of fewer hadiths, and the acceptance ofJami Sahih andTartib al-Musnad as canonical hadith collections. Although Ibadism has not officially been reported being practiced in Somalia, certain Eastern Harti clans who migrated from Somalia in the medieval period whom are known as Dishiishes or Muhdis live in modest numbers in Oman, wherein Ibadism is the state religion.[43]
and at least 90% are Sunni Muslims. However, deep divisions exist among competing clan-families, clans, and lineages. The history of Somalia is a long and repetitive story of conflicts
{{cite book}}:|journal= ignored (help){{cite journal}}:Missing or empty|title= (help)This letter is sent by all the Dervishes, the Amir, and all the Dolbahanta to the Ruler of Berbera ... We are a Government, we have a Sultan, an Amir, and Chiefs, and subjects ... (reply) In his last letter the Mullah pretends to speak in the name of the Dervishes, their Amir (himself), and the Dolbahanta tribes. This letter shows his object is to establish himself as the Ruler of the Dolbahanta
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain. Country Studies.Federal Research Division.
