Majeerteen

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Main article: Somali people
Majeerteen
ماجرتين
Regions with significant populations
 Somalia
 Yemen
 Oman
 Ethiopia
 Kenya
 Great Britain
 United States
 Canada
 European Union
 Australia
Languages

Somali and Arabic
Religion

Islam (Sunni)
Related ethnic groups

Dhulbahante, Mehri, Warsangali and other Harti and Darod groups.

The Majeerteen, Majerteen or Macherten (Somali: Majerteen, Arabic: ماجرتين‎, Muhammad Harti Amaleh Abdi Muhammad Abdirahman Jaberti) are a Somali sub-clan. They form part of the Harti clan, which is in turn part of the Darod clan. They primarily inhabit the Puntland region in northeastern Somalia.

The Sultanate of the Majeerteens played an important role in the pre-colonial era. The clan has produced two presidents and three prime ministers since 1960, as well as a Sultan and a King (Boqor). Majeerteens also held many other important government posts in the 1960s and early 1970s and continue to play a key role in Puntland.

The related Harti clans Dhulbahante, Mooracase, Kaskiqabbe, LiibanGashe and Warsangali inhabit the Sool and Sanaag regions, respectively.

Contents

Territory

Majeerteen members primarily inhabit the northern Bari, Nugaal, and Mudug regions of Somalia. The southern port of Kismayo is also a Majeerteen stronghold.

The Majeerteen Sultanates

By the middle of the 19th century, two tiny kingdoms emerged farther east on the Majeerteen (Bari) coast that would play a significant political role on the Somali Peninsula prior to colonization. These were the Majeerteen Sultanates of Boqor Ismaan Mahamuud, and that of his kinsman Sultan Yusuf Ali Keenadid of Hobyo (Obbia). The Majeerteen Sultanate originated in the mid 18th century, but only came into its own in the 19th century with the reign of the resourceful Ismaan Mahamuud. For providing protection for the British naval crews that were periodically shipwrecked on the Somali coast, Mahamuud's kingdom benefited from British subsidies. It also enjoyed a liberal trade policy that facilitated a flourishing commerce in livestock, ostrich feathers, and gum arabic. While acknowledging a vague vassalage to the British Empire, the Sultan kept his desert kingdom free until well after 1800.

Ismaan Mahamuud's Sultanate was nearly destroyed in the middle of the 18th century by a power struggle between himself and his young, ambitious cousin, Keenadiid. Nearly five years of destructive civil war passed before Boqor Mahamuud managed to stave off the challenge of the young upstart, who was finally driven into exile in Arabia. A decade later, in the 1870s, Keenadiid returned from Arabia with a score of Hadhrami musketeers and a band of devoted lieutenants. With their help, he carved out the small Sultanate of Hobyo after conquering the local Hawiye clans. Both kingdoms, however, were gradually absorbed by the extension into southern Somalia of Italian colonial rule in the last quarter of the 19th century.[1]

Some sub-clans

There is no clear agreement on the clan and sub-clan structures. For a comparison of different views on the clan-lineage-structures, see the World Bank's Conflict in Somalia: Drivers and Dynamics.[2]

Prominent figures

References

  1. ^ The Majeerteen Sultanates
  2. ^ Worldbank, Conflict in Somalia: Drivers and Dynamics, January 2005, Appendix 2, Lineage Charts, p.56
  3. ^ Somalia Online
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