A book about Mohammed Abdullah Hassan, the Dervish leader who spearheaded the Somali resistance to British colonial interests in the early twentieth century; known by his followers as the Sayyid ("Master") and in the colonial literature as the "Mad Mullah". This book, which took Abdi more than ten years to complete, examines from a social and historical perspective the rise of the Sayyid and his movement. It consists of an introduction and six chapters.