{{native name|ar|ميط|italic=no}}"},"nickname":{"wt":""},"settlement_type":{"wt":"Town"},"motto":{"wt":""},"image_caption":{"wt":"The tomb of [[Ishaaq bin Ahmed|Sheikh Ishaq]], the founding father of the Isaaq clan family, and the waterfront of Maydh town"},"image_skyline":{"wt":"{{Photomontage\n | photo1a =Sheekh Isaaq.jpg|px250{{!}}Sheikh [[Isaaq]]'s tomb in Maydh the father of the [[Isaaq]] clan\n | photo2a =Maydh.jpg|px250{{!}}Maydh town\n | photo2b = \n | photo3a = Maydhh.jpg\n | photo3b = \n | photo4a =\n | color = white\n | color_border = white\n | position = center\n | spacing = 2\n | size = 266\n}}"},"image_flag":{"wt":""},"flag_size":{"wt":""},"image_seal":{"wt":""},"seal_size":{"wt":""},"image_map":{"wt":""},"mapsize":{"wt":""},"map_caption":{"wt":""},"pushpin_map":{"wt":"Sanaag#Somaliland"},"pushpin_label_position":{"wt":"bottom"},"pushpin_mapsize":{"wt":""},"pushpin_map_caption":{"wt":"Location in Somaliland"},"subdivision_type":{"wt":"Country"},"subdivision_name":{"wt":"{{flag|Somaliland}}"},"subdivision_type1":{"wt":"[[Administrative divisions of Somaliland|Region]]"},"subdivision_name1":{"wt":"[[Sanaag]]"},"subdivision_type2":{"wt":"[[Administrative divisions of Somaliland|District]]"},"subdivision_name2":{"wt":"[[Erigavo District|Erigavo]]"},"government_footnotes":{"wt":""},"government_type":{"wt":""},"leader_title":{"wt":""},"leader_name":{"wt":""},"established_title":{"wt":""},"established_date":{"wt":""},"area_magnitude":{"wt":""},"unit_pref":{"wt":"Metric"},"area_footnotes":{"wt":""},"area_total_km2":{"wt":""},"area_land_km2":{"wt":""},"population_as_of":{"wt":"2002{{Cite web |author=unicef |date=September 2002 |url=https://www.fsnau.org/downloads/Sanaag%20Survey%20-%20May%202002.pdf |title=SANAAG REGION NUTRITION SURVEY REPORT |accessdate=2021-07-11 |archive-date=2021-07-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210711080102/https://www.fsnau.org/downloads/Sanaag%20Survey%20-%20May%202002.pdf |url-status=dead }}"},"population_footnotes":{"wt":""},"population_note":{"wt":""},"population_total":{"wt":"5000"},"population_density_km2":{"wt":""},"timezone":{"wt":"[[East Africa Time|EAT]]"},"utc_offset":{"wt":"+3"},"timezone_DST":{"wt":""},"utc_offset_DST":{"wt":""},"coordinates":{"wt":"{{coord|11|00|18|N|47|06|36|E|region:SO-SA|display=inline,title}}"},"elevation_footnotes":{"wt":""},"elevation_m":{"wt":""},"postal_code_type":{"wt":""},"postal_code":{"wt":""},"area_code":{"wt":""},"blank_name":{"wt":""},"blank_info":{"wt":""},"website":{"wt":""}},"i":0}}]}" id="mwAg">Town in Sanaag, Somaliland
Maydh | |
---|---|
Town | |
The tomb of Sheikh Ishaq, the founding father of the Isaaq clan family, and the waterfront of Maydh town | |
Coordinates: 11°00′18″N47°06′36″E / 11.00500°N 47.11000°E | |
Country | ![]() |
Region | Sanaag |
District | Erigavo |
Population (2002 [1] ) | |
• Total | 5,000 |
Time zone | UTC+3 (EAT) |
Maydh (also transliterated as Maedh, Mette, Mait or Meit) (Somali : Maydh, Arabic : ميط) is an ancient port city in the eastern Sanaag region of Somaliland.
According to Augustus Henry Keane, Maydh represents an early center of dispersal of the Somali people. National genealogies collected by the scholars Cox and Abud assert that many clan patriarchs are buried in or nearby the town. [2]
The city of Maydh was home to Sheikh Isaaq ibn Ahmed Al Hashimi (Sheekh Isaxaaq), who moved to Somaliland from the Arabian Peninsula in the 12th or 13th century CE. He is considered to be the founding father of the large Somali Isaaq clan family that predominantly inhabits Somaliland, as well as parts of Djibouti and Ethiopia. Sheikh Isaaq's domed tomb is also located here. [3] According to tradition, the old town was built by Sheikh Ishaaq and his followers upon earlier foundations. [4]
Legendary 15th century Arab explorer Ahmad ibn Mājid wrote of Maydh and several other notable landmarks and ports of the northern Somali coast, including Berbera, the Sa'ad ad-Din islands (aka the Zeila Archipelago near Zeila), Alula, Ruguda, Heis, El-Darad and El-Sheikh. [5]
Somaliland in general is home to numerous such archaeological sites, with similar edifices found at Haylaan, Qa’ableh, Qombo'ul, Gelweita and El Ayo. However, many of these old structures have yet to be properly explored, a process which would help shed further light on the local history of the region and facilitate their preservation for posterity. [6]
In the Futuh Al-Habesh, the chronicler Shihāb al-Dīn Aḥmad ibn ʻAbd al-Qādir ʻArabfaqīh notes that the Harti, who fought on the left flank of Imam Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi's army, were known as the people of Mait; a people not given to yielding. [7] [8]
Francisco Álvares visited the city who provided a description below of his experience:
We met at a place called Meti, which is well sited; it might be of the size of fifty or sixty hearths; it has two mosques, and they are not good ones, but they have many large burial grounds. The people of this place all fled; and they also have there a big school in which they teach the children, because there were inkpots and boards on which they wrote. There were also three old women in the place, two cripples and one blind. They did not understand their language. At night they also captured a young woman with a baby, near a mountain; the Governor ordered that cotton cloths should be given to them to clothe them in their fashion, and that they should go away to the people of the place. And he told them to tell them to come for he would ensure their safety; and he wanted peace with them; and those who should come and return boldly he would treat very kindly.
They were not willing to believe or trust him. And so when the Governor saw that they did not come, he ordered fifty musketeers and cross-bowmen to try to capture some of the people of the country so that he might have some knowledge of what people they were and of what nation. And after making a circuit of about six miles these men returned and said they had not been able to find anyone. And that they had found where they used to make fire and hollows and places where they sought for water to drink, and because of the great mountains they were in hiding; and it was impossible to find them.
In this place there were only two wells and little water; the Governor was displeased at this as we were in great need of water. They began to dig in the ground to see if they could find water, and God willed that we should find so much and so good that they made about forty holes, from which they filled in three days more than 1000 casks of water; and so we were replenished with water and so it showed that this was a port for ships. And at this time some little ships and frigates were there. There are also on the shore great bones of fish, which seem to be of whales or something like them; and a great quantity of them. On our departure they took what they needed for firewood from the houses and mosques, and what was not needed they burnt together with the houses, ships and frigates. In this place there is nothing but stere, and skins of goats and buffaloes. During the whole time that the supply of water was being taken on, we were on land without having any alarm. [9]
Portuguese navigator Duarte Barbosa described the Somali coast and noted Met (Maydh) as a town with an abundance of meat but little trade. This would indicate that Maydh was likely a pilgrimage site where travelers would come to pray. [10]
Maydh shares many similarities with nearby Heis the Habr Yunis attained a lot of frankincense in the mountains south of Maydh. Arab and Banyan merchants would visit the port before continuing on to the western Somali coast. [11] Maydh was the preeminent export point for large hides in eastern British Somaliland and came second in the total quantity of skins exported after Heis with over 15,000 being shipped out. The town had dialogue with Berbera with a large amount of cross trade occurring usually by dhow and the largest commodity being livestock. [12]
Murray in his book The Journal of the Royal Geographical Society notes that many men from the western Isaaq clans would travel to Maydh to spend the last years of their lives in hopes of being buried near Sheikh Ishaaq. [13] The book states: [13]
The stranger is at once struck with the magnitude of the burial-ground at Meyet, which extends for fully a mile each way. Attachment to the memory of their forefather Isaakh yet induces many aged men of the western tribes to pass the close of their lives at Meyet, in order that their tombs may be found near that of their chief, and this will account for the unusual size of this cemetery. Many of the graves have head-stones of madrepore, on which is cut in relief the name of the tenant below, and of these many are to be found 250 years old.
The town is now mostly fishing town and is exclusively settled by the Jibril Aden Arale sub division of the Habar Yoonis Garxajis of the Isaaq clan. In 2020 the British, Dutch and Norwegian missions announced the start of a jetty in Maydh to bolster economic activity and construction is in progress. [14]
The Isaaq is a major Somali clan. It is one of the largest Somali clan families in the Horn of Africa, with a large and densely populated traditional territory.
The Habr Garhajis also contemporarily known as the Garhajis is a major clan of the wider Isaaq clan family. They are the traditional holders of the Isaaq Sultanate and Habr Yunis Sultanate since the 18th century. As descendants of Ismail bin Sheikh Isaaq, its members form a part of the Habar Magaadle confederation, and they constitute one of the largest sub-clans of the Isaaq. The Garhajis are divided into two major sub-clans: the Habr Yunis and Eidagale. They are traditionally nomadic pastoralists, merchants and skilled poets.
The history of Somaliland, a country in the eastern Horn of Africa bordered by the Gulf of Aden, and the East African land mass, begins with human habitation tens of thousands of years ago. It includes the civilizations of Punt, the Ottomans, and colonial influences from Europe and the Middle East.
The Awal, also contemporarily known as the Habr Awal, Subeer Awal, and alternately known as the Zubeyr Awal is one of the largest subclans of the wider Isaaq clan family, and is further divided into eight sub-clans of whom the two largest and most prominent are the Isamusa and Sa'ad Musa sub-clans. Its members form a part of the Habar Magadle confederation.
Abdirahman bin Isma'il al-Jabarti, also known as Daarood, Dawud or Da'ud, is the common ancestor of the Somali Darod clan and the Harla people. According to local tradition, Abdirahman descended from Aqil ibn Abi Talib, a member of the Banu Hashim and a cousin of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.
Haylan, is a town in the eastern Sanaag region of Somaliland.
Heis is a historic coastal town located in the Sanaag region of Somaliland. The town was important for trade and communication with the Somali interior and was used to export frankincense to Arabia.
Qaʽableh is a town in the eastern Sanaag region of Somaliland. It is the site of numerous archaeological sites and ancient tombs.
Erigavo District is a district in the central Sanaag region of Somaliland. It is the largest and most populous district in Sanaag. Its capital lies at Erigavo.
Tourism in Somaliland is regulated by Somaliland's Ministry of Tourism.
The Habr Je'lo, Arabic: هبر جعلو, Full Name: Mūsa ibn ash-Shaykh Isḥāq ibn Aḥmad, historically known as the Habr Toljaala is a major Northern Somali clan of the wider Isaaq family. Its members form the confederation along with the Ibran, Sanbuur and Tolje’lo.
Sharmarke Ali Saleh was a leading 19th century Somaliland leader, captain, and merchant. He was known as "The African Rothschild " which indicates he was one of the richest men living on the African continent at that time and also the 'Political Boss of the Somaliland coast', a title which is a testament to his political influence in the region. He was the governor and ruler of Zeila and Berbera between 1841 and 1861, and for a time was known as the richest man along the Somaliland coast. His descendants would go on to become the traditional leaders of the Musa Arreh sub-clan of the Habr Yunis clan.
Siyara was a historic coastal settlement and fort located in the Sahil region of Somaliland. It served as the first capital of the Adal Sultanate following the Muslim resurgence spearheaded by Sabr ad-Din II.
Ruguda, also known as Rakudah is a historic coastal port town located in the Sanaag region of Somaliland, near Heis.
The Musa Abokor is a Somali clan, and a 2 major sub-division of the muuse sh isxaaq clan of the Isaaq clan-family.
El-Darad was a historic coastal settlement and fort located in the Sahil region of Somaliland.
The Isaaq Sultanate was a Muslim sultanate that ruled parts of the Horn of Africa in the 18th and 19th centuries. The kingdom spanned the territories of the Isaaq clan in modern-day Somaliland. It was governed by the Rer Guled branch of the Garhajis clan and is the pre-colonial predecessor to the modern Republic of Somaliland.
Ishaaq bin Ahmed bin Muhammad, more commonly known as Sheikh Ishaaq or Sheikh Isaaq was an Islamic scholar that crossed the sea from Arabia to the Horn of Africa. He is regarded the Sayyid forefather of the Isaaq clan-family in the Horn of Africa, whose traditional territory is wide and densely populated.
The Sa'ad Musa or Saad Musa is a northern Somali clan. Its members form a part of the Subeer Awal sub-clan of the Isaaq clan family. The Sa'ad Musa traditionally consists of nomadic pastoralists, coastal people, merchants and farmers. The clan inhabits Somaliland, including Maroodi Jeex, and Sahil as well as Djibouti, the Somali Region of Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania.
The Sanbur is a major clan of the wider Isaaq clan family. Its members form part of the larger Habr Habusheed confederation along with the Habr Je'lo, Ibran and Tol Je'lo clans. Politically however, the Sanbur fall under the Habr Je'lo clan.