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The Majeerteen (Somali: Majerteen, Arabic: ماجرتين‎, Muhammad Harti Amaleh Abdi Muhammad Abdirahman Jaberti; also spelled Majerteen, Macherten, or Majertain[1]) is a Somali clan. Its members form a part of the Harti confederation of Darod sub-clans, and primarily inhabit the Puntland region in northeastern Somalia.

The Majeerteen Sultanates played an important role in the pre-independence era. The clan has produced two presidents and five 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.

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[hide]*1 Territory

[edit]Territory[]

Majeerteen members primarily inhabit the northern Bari, Nugaal and Mudug regions in Puntland. Others can also be found in the Kismayo and Wardheerregions of Somalia and Ethiopia.

[edit]The Majeerteen Sultanates[]

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 Osman Mahamuud. For providing protection to 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 inlivestock, 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.

By the middle of the 19th century, two kingdoms emerged farther east on the Bari coast, which would play a significant political role in the Somali Peninsula prior to European intervention: theMajeerteen Sultanate of Boqor Osman Mahamuud, and the Sultanate of Hobyo of his relative, Yusuf Ali Kenadid.

Osman Mahamuud's Sultanate was nearly destroyed in the middle of the 18th century by a power struggle between himself and his young, ambitious cousin, Kenadid. Nearly five years of destructive civil war passed before Boqor Osman managed to stave off the challenge of the young upstart, who was finally driven into exile in the Arabian Peninsula. A decade later, in the 1870s, Kenadid 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.[2]

[edit]Clan tree[]

There is no clear agreement on the clan and sub-clan structures and many lineages are omitted. The following listing is taken from the World Bank's Conflict in Somalia: Drivers and Dynamics from 2005 and the United Kingdom's Home Office publication, Somalia Assessment 2001.[3][4]

[edit]Prominent figur[]

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