Isaaq

• Isaaq

( Also written Isaq or Ishaq ) The Isaaq are one of the five or six major clan families of Somali.

They make roughly one-fifth of the population of Somalia and live in northern Somalia ( Somaliland ) and in the Haud area in the adjacent Ethiopian Somali region.

Origin myth and clan structure

The Isaaq lead to mythological to an Arab Sheikh Isaaq as the progenitor back. This is said to have lived in the 12th or 13th century and its ʿ Alī ibn a descendant of Abī Taalib, a son of Mohammed have been. Thus, the Isaaq claim a descent from the Quraysh. This origin myth of the noble Arab forefathers - which is also the clan of the Darod - probably not directly correspond to historical reality, but it reflects the actual cultural influence from Arabia and Arab immigrants, particularly the meaning of Islam for the Somali resist.

Sheikh Isaaq is venerated as a saint by the Isaaq. Oral traditions and written in Arabic Holy descriptions emphasize the credibility of his lineage, describing his arrival from Arabia via the port city of Zeila and traveled extensively, he should have done in today's northern Somalia / Somaliland and Ethiopia. In addition to his grave in the harbor Maydh ( Mait ), which is visited by pilgrims him numerous shrines are dedicated.

The individual sub- clans consider themselves as descendants of each one of the eight sons of Sheikh Isaaq. They distinguish between the Habar Magaadle that Isaaq is said to have fathered with his first wife from the clan of Magaadle, and the Habar Habuusheed that should have resulted from the combination of Isaaq with an Ethiopian. The Habar Magaadle include the Garhajis ( with the Eidagalla and Habar Yunis as main sub- clans ), the Habar Awal and the smaller clans of Ayuub and Arab. The four - Habar Habuusheed clans form the alliance Habar Tol Yes ʿ lo, the most numerous are the Lineage Abokor. (The name Habar Tol Yes ʿ lo Ahmed, one of the sons Habuushs derived, nicknamed The Tol ʿ ele - " who loves his forefathers " - received. ) Results in the following (simplified) structure of the Isaaq clan gives:

• Garhajis Eidagalla ( ʿ Iidagalle, Ciidagalle )
• Habar Yunis

• ʿ IISE Muuse ( ʿ IISE Muse, Ciise Muuse )
• Sa ʿ ad Muuse ( Sa ʿ ad Muse, Sacad Muuse )

( Yes Habar ʿ lo, Habar Tol Yes ʿ lo, Habar Toljaalo )

• Ahmed ( Tol Yes ʿ lo )
• Muuse Abokor

At a higher level other clans regard the Isaaq clan family as part of you, while the Isaaq only recognize a connection to you through the maternal lineage. Perhaps they were once a part of the clan yourself, began to look with increasing numerical importance as a separate clan family and an independent Arab descent claimed.

History and political situation

The area of ​​the Isaaq was largely colonized the late 19th century as British Somaliland. This was independent in 1960 and merged with the other clans dominated by southern Italian Somaliland to Somalia. Many Isaaq felt soon as clan and region in the overall structure Somalia marginalized. In particular, under the rule of Siad Barre in 1969, they were subject to repression. From the 1980s, the Somali National Movement fought as a rebel movement of the Isaaq from Ethiopia against the Barre government. 1988 escalated the conflict to open war, prompting hundreds of thousands Isaaq fled to the refugee camps of Hartisheik, Daror, Camaboker and Rabasso to Ethiopia.

After the fall of the Isaaq Barres in 1991 led the Declaration of Independence Nordsomalias as Somaliland were. In since been de facto independent Somaliland, which corresponds to the former British Somaliland, Isaaq form a majority of up to 80 % of the population in addition to the neighboring clans of the Darod and you. In Somaliland Parliament they represent since the parliamentary elections of 2005, almost 70 % of the deputies.

Known Isaaq are, inter alia, Muhammad Haji Ibrahim Egal ( prime minister of Somalia in 1960 and 1967 to 1969 and President of Somaliland 1993-2004) and Umar ARTEH Ghalib ( Foreign Minister of Somalia from 1969 to 1977 and Prime Minister 1991).