Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 January 2009
In the first two decades of the twentieth century the affairs of northern Somalia were dominated by the politico-religious movement led by Muhammad Abdullah Hassan. The ‘Mad Mullah’, as he was styled by the British, proved to be an elusive adversary and at one time forced the British to evacuate their Somaliland Protectorate. The Italians too were concerned about the Mullah's dervishes, who disturbed the peace of Italy's two nominal protectorates, the sultanates of Obbia and the Mijertein, and of their colony in southern Somalia. At one time the Italians found a temporary solution to the problem by granting the Mullah the Nogal Territory in northern Italian Somaliland. For the Ethiopians the Mullah's movement posed a threat to their Empire's expansion eastward to the Indian Ocean because of its appeal for support from among the Ogaden Somalis. Although the Mullah's recruits were mostly Darod Somalis, for Somalis of other tribes he was not only the agent of a not always acceptable religious movement, but also the symbol of political revolt against foreign domination of any kind. Today the Mullah is regarded as a forerunner of contemporary Somali nationalism.
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7 In June a certain Ahmad Hassan Urbeita twice succeeded in smuggling severa hundred rifles into Alula under orders from his employer, Abu Bakr Pasha of Djibouti; on his third attempt he was jailed by British authorities at Aden. AMAI, pos. 59/2, f. 25, report of Acting Vice-Consul Lang to the Foreign Minister, Aden, 6 June 1900. Also, AMAI, pos. 597sol;2, f. 26, memorandum from British Chargé d'Affaires to the Foreign Minister, Rome, 54 September 1900; letter from British Agent Hardinge to Governor Dulio of Southern Somalia, Zanzibar, 8 September 1900.Google Scholar
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