Battle of Dul Madoba | |||||||
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Part of Dervish Movement | |||||||
British camel troopers in 1913, between Berbera and Odweyne in British Somaliland. | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
British Somaliland | Dervish Movement | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Richard Corfield † | Mohamed Abdullah Hassan | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
110 Somaliland Camel Constabulary | 2,750 | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
36 killed 21 wounded 24 deserted | 395 killed |
The Battle of Dul Madoba was an engagement between British forces and the Dervish movement on 4 August 1913. During the battle, Ibraahin Xoorane (English: Ibrahim Hoorane) killed Richard Corfield. [1] A native Somali account of the battle is found in the poem Annagoo Taleex naal . [2] [3]
Dul Madoba is a ridge some 25 miles (40 km) southeast of Burao in what was then British Somaliland. On the 8th of August 1913, fleeing Dhulbahante tribesmen sought refuge with Corfield who was stationed at Ber with the Somaliland Camel Constabulary. The Dhulbahante informed him that the Dervish raided their settlements and captured their camel herds. [4] Corfield set out to punish the Dervish and return the looted Dhulbahante livestock. The battle took place on 9 August 1913. On one side 110 members of the SSC from British Somaliland and 300 British-allied Dhulbahante tribesmen all under the command of Colonel Richard Corfield faced some 2,750 well-armed Dervish followers of Mohammed Abdullah Hassan, nicknamed by the British as the Mad Mullah.
As soon as the Dervishes charged forward, all of the Dhulbahante tribesmen immediately fled the battlefield. The Constabulary were quickly outflanked on the right causing some of Corfield's men to disperse to the rear. The Maxim gun in the center fired a couple belts before it was jammed. Richard Corfield, who had positioned himself near the gun, was shot in the head and died instantly. [5]
Captain G.H. Summers, who was badly wounded, and Cecil de Sivrac Dunn rallied the surviving Constabulary and formed a protective cover from the bodies of the dead camels. Dervish attacks, which consisted of forward rushes, continued in endless succession, and hand-to-hand fighting ensued. Several Dervishes penetrated the defenses, and attempted to capture the disabled Maxim gun. But at that critical moment, the Dervishes withdrew altogether as their stocks of ammunition were exhausted. The Dhulbahante who had initially fled the battle now returned to loot the bodies on the battlefield. 36 of the Constabulary including Corfield were killed in action, 21 were wounded and 24 had deserted. The survivors counted 395 dead Dervishes which had been left behind [6] [7]
British Somaliland, officially the Somaliland Protectorate, was a protectorate of the United Kingdom in modern Somaliland. During its existence, the territory was bordered by Italian Somalia, French Somali Coast and Abyssinia. From 1940 to 1941, it was occupied by the Italians and was part of Italian East Africa.
The Dhulbahante is a Somali clan family, part of the Harti clan which itself belongs to the largest Somali clan-family — the Darod. They are the traditional inhabitants of the physiographic Nugaal in its topographic sense, and its pre-independence administrative sense, which included Doollo. The clan's progenitor is buried at Badweyn.
Muḥammad Ibn Abdallāh Ibn Hassan was a Somali, Scholar, Poet, Religious, Political, Social and Military leader who founded and headed the Dervish movement, which led a Holy war against British, Italian and Ethiopian intrusions in the Somali Peninsula. He was famously known by the British Empire as the ''Mad Mullah". In 1917, the Ottoman Empire referred him as the "Emir of the Somali People". Due to his successful completion of the Hajj to Mecca, his complete memorization of the Quran and his purported descent from the Islamic prophet Muhammad, his name is sometimes preluded with honorifics such as Hajji, Hafiz, Emir, Sheikh, Mullah or Sayyid. His influence led him to being regarded the “Farther of the Somali People”.
Taleh is a historical town in Sool region of Somalia. The town served as the capital of the pre-independence Dervish movement.
The Somaliland Camel Corps (SCC) was a British Colonial Auxiliary Forces unit which was raised in British Somaliland. It existed from 1914 until 1944.
The Fifth Expedition of the Somaliland Campaign, which took place in 1920, was the final British expedition against the Dervish forces. Although the majority of the combat took place in January, British troops had begun preparations for the assault as early as November 1919. The British forces included elements of the Royal Air Force and the Somaliland Camel Corps. After three weeks of battle, Diriye Guure's Dervishes were defeated, bringing an effective end to their 20-year resistance.
Richard Conyngham Corfield was a British colonial police officer who saw service in South Africa, Nigeria, India, Kenya and Somalia in the early 20th century.
The Dervish Movement was an armed resistance movement between 1899 and 1920, which was led by the Salihiyya Sufi Muslim poet and militant leader Mohammed Abdullah Hassan, also known as Sayyid Mohamed, who called for independence from the British and Italian colonisers and for the defeat of Ethiopian forces. The Dervish movement aimed to remove the British and Italian influence from the region and restore an "Islamic system of governance with a Sufi doctrine as its foundation", according to Mohamed-Rahis Hasan and Salada Robleh.
Ismail Mire Elmi, was a renowned Somali poet and. Regarding his poetry, one observer said his voice and poetic ability was "so great that he could sing his countrymen into peace or war".
Suudi Shabeele Omar, more commonly known as Haji Sudi was one of the leaders behind the Somali Dervish movement. He was also the movement's right-hand man and chief lieutenant till its demise in 1920. He is described as the Mullah's right hand in the earlier days of his rise. He hailed from the Adan Madoba sub-clan of the Habr Je'lo clan.
SultanNur Ahmed Aman, was a learned religious leader and the 5th Sultan of the Habr Yunis Sultanate and later also one of the leaders behind the Somali Dervish movement and revolt (1899–1920). He was the principal agitator rallying the followers of the Kob Fardod Tariqa behind his anti-French Roman Catholic Mission campaign that would become the cause of the Dervish uprising. He assisted in assembling men and arms and hosted the revolting tribesmen in his quarter at Burao in August 1899, declaring the Dervish rebellion. He fought and led the war throughout the years 1899–1904. He and his brother Geleh Ahmed were the main signatories of the Dervish peace treaty with the British, Ethiopians and Italian colonial powers on March 5, 1905, known as the Ilig Treaty or the Pestalozza agreement. Sultan Nur is entombed in a white-domed shrine in Taleh, the location of the largest Dervish forts and the capital of the Dervish from 1912 to 1920, a testimony to his contribution in creating the movement.
Haroun, also called Fadhiweyn, and natively transliterated as Xarunta in Somali, was a government and headquarters of the Dervishes, headed by Faarax Mahmud Sugulle. According to Claude Edward Marjoribanks Dansey, the political officer in the British Somali Coast Protectorate consisted of 400 individuals. The capture of the haroun was regarded as conceivably resulting in the Sayyid's surrender. In the third expedition, major Paul Kenna was tasked "by every means" to find where the haroun is.
Jidali fort was a cross-shaped fort of the Dervish era located in the town of Jidali in Sanaag, Somalia and is also the first place in Africa to be bombed via aerial bombardment by a tally of four sorties of De Havilland DH-9's on 21 January 1920. An April 1920 letter between the Sayid and Italian-Somali governor Giacomo De Martino states that the Dervishes built a total of twenty-seven forts which are described as Dhulbahante garesas.
Adan Ali Gurey was a political advisor in the Darawiish, an anti-colonial instigator, the commander of Golaweyne, a chieftain of the Dhulbahante, and an arms supplier.
Dhowre Ali Sheneeleh was the castellan of the Darawiish fort / Dhulbahante garesa of Eyl, whilst the governor of Nugaaleed-Bari for the Darawiish was Ali Meggar. He was also the primary commander which spearheaded opposition to Abyssinian expansionism towards the east in the 1900s.
Haji Mohamed Bullaleh commonly known as Haji Warabe was an early 20th century Akil (chief) of the Habr Yunis Rer Ainanshe.
The Mohamoud Garad is a Somali clan. Its members form a part of the Dhulbahante, a sub-division of the Harti/Darod clan-family. The clan is divided into three main sub-clans ― namely the Ahmed garad, the Ugaadhyahan and abdi garad.
The Dhulbahante Garadship begun in the 16th century, as a successor to the Sultanate of Adal with Garad Shishore assuming the royal title in approximately 1530. The current Garad, Garad Jama Garad Ali hails from this long line of succession.
The Battle of Agaarweyne was fought on 15 April 1903, in Agaarweyne between the British under Colonel Plunkett and the forces of Haji Muhammad Abdullah Hassan. Reinforced with a superiority in firearms, Hassan was victorious and defeated the allied force.
The Battle of Jigjiga was fought on March 5, 1900 between the Ethiopian Empire and the Dervish movement.