Warsangali Sultanate

The Warsangali Sultanate (Somali: Saldanadda Warsangeli) (Arabic: سلطنة الورسنجلي‎‎), was a Somali state established in the 17th century in the Maakhir region during the early modern period by militarized Garaads (Lords) of the Maakhir coast and the Cal Madow Mountains. These communities were primarily agro-pastoralists engaged in date farming, camel herding, and frankincense production. In 1848, C. J. Cruttenden reported that the Warsangali was among the most valuable territories were the most commercially valuable in the Nugaal Valley and that Banians from India had become successful exporters.[5] The Cal Madow chain of mountains, which is partially inside the clan's territory, extends to the cities of Bosaso (the capital of the Bari region) and Ceerigaabo (the capital of the Sanaag region) both in an east and west direction. The militarized Garaads (Lords) of different factions each maintained its own autonomous army, operating without centralized authority. During the 16th-century military campaigns of Imam Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi against the Abyssinians, the Garaads (Lords) of Maakhir contributed large fighting forces, with the bulk of troops coming from the coastal town of Maydh. In the Adal chronicler Futuh al-Habasha, Sihab ad-Din, who was an eyewitness in many of the battles to conquer Abyssinia, compares the 300 Harti army to an Arab knight whose name was Hamzah al-Jufi:[10] “On the left was the Somali tribe of [Warsangeli] Harti, from the people of Mait (Sanaag); a people not given to yielding. There were three hundred (300) of them, famous among the infantry as stolid as swordsmen.....One of the Arabs called Hamzah al-Jufi engaged in a battle to the death in front of the Imam of the Muslims. He was one of the footsoldiers and stood his ground and stood the test, confronting war with a full heart. He never struck one infidel whom he did not unhorse, dead. He killed so vast a number of them in the middle of the river, that the river water was turned red by the blood. The whole tribe of Harti was like him" (Sihab ad Din, p. 78).

In the 17th century, these factions were united under a centralized authority by the descendants of Garaad (Lord) Abdullahi Dhidhin. The first supreme ruler of the state was Garaad (Lord) Abdulle Maḥmūd l (1613-1672). The administrative and economic capital was established at the port town of Durduri, while Mash-Caleed served as the military headquarters. This marked the beginning of a flourishing maritime state that dominated the frankincense and gum trade in the Gulf of Aden. The state continued to exist for nearly three centuries, ultimately collapsing in 1920.