Majeerteen
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Main article: Somali clan
Majeerteen
ماجرتين
Total population
Regions with significant populations
Flag of Somalia Somalia
Flag of Ethiopia Ethiopia
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 two 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, Dishiishe, Abdi Rahman Harti, Libaan Harti and Warsangali inhabit the Sool and Sanaag regions, respectively.

Contents

Territory

Majeerteen members are found in their traditional territories such as the northern regions of Bari, Nugaal, Mudug. The Majerteens also have the southern port of Kismayo as their traditional territory.

The Majeerteen Sultanates

Farther east on the Majeerteen (Bari) coast, by the middle of the 19th century two tiny kingdoms emerged 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. Mahamuud's kingdom benefited from British subsidies (for protecting the British naval crews that were periodically shipwrecked on the Somali coast) and from a liberal trade policy that facilitated a flourishing commerce in livestock, ostrich feathers, and gum arabic. While acknowledging a vague vassalage to the British, the sultan kept his desert kingdom free until well after 1800.

Ismaan Mahamuud's sultanate was nearly destroyed in the middle of the 19th century by a power struggle between him 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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