The Majeerteen Sultanate (Somali: Suldanadda Majeerteen, lit. 'Boqortooyada Majerteen', Arabic: سلطنة مجرتين), or Majerteen Kingdom also known as Majeerteenia and/or Migiurtinia, was a Somali kingdom centered in the Horn of Africa. Ruled by BoqorOsman Mahamuud during its golden age, the sultanate controlled the areas which are now called Puntland. The earliest mention of the kingdom is the 16th century. The polity had all of the organs of an integrated modern state and maintained a robust trading network. It also entered into treaties with foreign powers and exerted strong centralized authority on the domestic front.
History
Establishment
The Majeerteen Sultanate was established by Somalis from the Majeerteen sub-clan of the Darod clan. The origins of the state can be traced back to the late 15th or early 16th century.[1][2][3]Francisco Álvares, a Portuguese missionary and explorer who spent six years at the Portuguese embassy in Abyssinia, wrote about a ruler in the region of Cape Guardafui.
The Kingdom of Adel (as they say) is a large kingdom, and it extends over the Cape of Guardafuy, and there in that part another rules subject to Adel.[4]
It was a semi-nomadic Sultanate that appeared to have a strong seafaring tradition along the costal settlements. The sultanate rose to prominence during the 19th century, under the reign of the shrewd and resourceful Boqor (King) Osman Mahamuud.[5]
Majeerteen-British agreement
One of the forts of the Majeerteen Sultanate (Migiurtinia) in Hafun.
Due to consistent ship crashes along the northeastern Cape Guardafui headland, Boqor Osman's kingdom entered into an informal agreement with Britain, wherein the British agreed to pay the King annual subsidies to protect shipwrecked British crews and guard wrecks against plunder. The agreement, however, remained unratified, as the British feared that doing so would "give other powers a precedent for making agreements with the Somalis, who seemed ready to enter into relations with all comers."[6]
Osman Mahamuud's Kingdom was under attack in the mid-19th century due to a power struggle between himself and his ambitious cousin, Yusuf Ali Kenadid. After almost five years of battle, the young upstart was terribly defeated and finally forced into exile in Yemen. A decade later, in the 1870s, Kenadid returned from the Arabian Peninsula with a band of Hadhramimusketeers and a group of devoted lieutenants. With their assistance along with aid and weaponry from Boqor Osman, he managed to overpower the local clans and establish the separate Sultanate of Hobyo (Obbia) in 1878.[5][7]
Majeerteen-Italian treaties
In the late 19th century, all extant Somali monarchs entered into treaties with one of the colonial powers, Abyssinia, Britain or Italy, except for the Dhulbahante,[8] since the Italians considered part of the Dhulbahante subject of the Italian-protected Sultan of the Majeerteen.[9] With the intermediation of Sultan Yusuf Ali Kenadid & after a conference of all notablels of the sultanate in Bargal,[10] In 7. April 1889 in Alula, Somalia, Boqor Osman entered into a treaty with Italy, making his kingdom a protectorate known as Italian Somaliland.[11] In the years following the treaty the protectorate was however rather nominal due to Italian warships tasked with maintaining contact with the sultan visiting so rarely & irregularly. Piracy, looting of crashed steamships, weapons trade & slave trade could be carried out with almost no consequences.[11]
Italian Somaliland including the Majeerteen Sultanate.
His second cousin and rival Sultan Yusuf Ali Kenadid had signed a similar agreement vis-a-vis his own Sultanate of Hobyo the year before. Both Boqor Osman and Sultan Kenadid had entered into the protectorate treaties to advance their own expansionist goals, with Sultan Kenadid looking to use Italy's support in his ongoing power struggle with Boqor Osman over the Majeerteen Sultanate, as well as in a separate conflict with the OmaniSultan of Zanzibar over an area to the north of Warsheikh. In signing the agreements, the rulers also hoped to exploit the rival objectives of the European imperial powers so as to more effectively assure the continued independence of their territories.[12]
The terms of each treaty specified that Italy was to steer clear of any interference in the sultanates' respective administrations.[12] In return for Italian arms and an annual subsidy, the Sultans conceded to a minimum of oversight and economic concessions.[13] The Italians also agreed to dispatch a few ambassadors to promote both the sultanates' and their own interests.[12] The new protectorates were thereafter managed by Vincenzo Filonardi through a chartered company.[13] An Anglo-Italian border protocol was later signed on 5 May 1894, followed by an agreement in 1906 between Cavalier Pestalozza and General Swaine acknowledging that Baran fell under the Majeerteen Sultanate's administration.[12] With the gradual extension into northern Somalia of Italian colonial rule, both Kingdoms were eventually annexed in the early 20th century.[14] However, unlike the southern territories, the northern sultanates were not subject to direct rule due to the earlier treaties they had signed with the Italians.[citation needed]
Ruins of King Osman's castle in Bargal (built in 1878), a seasonal capital of the Majeerteen Sultanate
The Sultanate of Hobyo, the Majeerteen Sultanate exerted a strong centralized authority during its existence, and possessed all of the organs and trappings of an integrated modern state: a functioning bureaucracy, a hereditary nobility, titled aristocrats, a state flag, as well as a professional army.[15][16] Both sultanates also maintained written records of their activities, which still exist.[17]
The Majeerteen Sultanate's main capital was at Alula, with its seasonal headquarters at Bargal. It likewise had a number of castles and forts in various areas within its realm, including a fortress at Murcanyo.[18]
The Majeerteen Sultanate's ruler, however, commanded more power than was typical of other Somali leaders during the period. As the primus inter pares, Boqor Osman taxed the harvest of aromatic trees and pearl fishing along the seaboard. He retained prior rights on goods obtained from ship wrecks on the coast. The Sultanate also exerted authority over the control of woodland and pastureland, and imposed both land and stock taxes.[19]
According to official reports from 1924 commissioned by the Regio Governo della Somalia Italiana, the Majeerteen Sultanate maintained robust commercial activities before the Italian occupation of the following year. The Sultanate reportedly exported 1,056,400 Indian Rupees (IR) worth of commodities, 60% of which came from the sale of frankincense and other gums. Fish and other sea products sold for a total value of 250,000 IR, roughly equivalent to 20% of the Sultanate's aggregate exports. The remaining export proceeds came from livestock, with the export list of 1924 consisting of 16 items.[20]
Military
In addition to a strong civil administration, the Majeerteen Sultanate maintained a regular army. Besides protecting the polity from both external and internal threats, military officials were tasked with carrying out the King's instructions. The latter included tax collection, which typically came in the form of the obligatory Muslim alms (seko or sako) ordinarily tithed by Somalis to the poor and religious clerics (wadaads).[19][21]
Puntland
Established in 1998, the autonomous Puntland region in northeastern Somalia now administers much of the former territories of the Majeerteen Sultanate (Migiurtinia).[22]
^ abHelen Chapin Metz, ed., Somalia: a country study, (The Division: 1993), p.10.
^David D. Laitin, Politics, Language, and Thought: The Somali Experience, (University Of Chicago Press: 1977), p.71
^Lee V. Cassanelli, The shaping of Somali society: reconstructing the history of a pastoral people, 1600-1900, (University of Pennsylvania Press: 1982), p.75.
^Jardine, Douglas (1923). Mad Mullah of Somaliland. Early in 1885 Great Britain concluded separate protective treaties with all the Somali tribes now living under her protection, except the Warsangeli, who concluded a treaty in 1886, and the Dolbahanta, with whom no treaty has been made.
^S. B. Miles, On the Neighbourhood of Bunder Marayah, Vol. 42, (Blackwell Publishing on behalf of The Royal Geographical Society (with the institute of British Geographers): 1872), p.61-63.
^ abI. M. Lewis, A pastoral democracy: a study of pastoralism and politics among the Northern Somali of the Horn of Africa, (LIT Verlag Münster: 1999), p.208.
^Transformation towards a regulated economy, (WSP Transition Programme, Somali Programme: 2000) p.62.
^Luling, Virginia (1993). The Use of the Past: Variation in Historical traditions in a South Somalia community. University of Besançon. p. 178.
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