The
Isaaq (also
Isaq,
Ishaak) (, ) is one of the main
Somali clans. Members of the clan principally live in the northwestern
Somaliland region of
Somalia, and the
Somali Region of
Ethiopia. The populations of five major cities of Somaliland –
Hargeisa,
Burco,
Berbera,
Ceerigaabo and
Gabiley – are predominantly Isaaq. , the Sacad Muuse, Habar Awal and Jibriil Abokor sub-clans of the Isaaq were also the main inhabitants of
Gabiley.Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada,
Somalia: Information on the ethnic composition in Gabiley (Gebiley) in 1987-1988, 1 April 1996, SOM23518.E, available at: http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/3ae6ab704.html
History
According to early Islamic books and Somali tradition, the Isaaq clan was founded in the 12th or 13th century with the arrival of
Shaykh Ishaq ibn Ahmad al- Hashimi from
Arabia, one of the Prophet
Muhammad's early followers.Rima Berns McGown,
Muslims in the diaspora, (University of Toronto Press: 1999), pp.27-28I.M. Lewis,
A Modern History of the Somali, fourth edition (Oxford: James Currey, 2002), p. 22 He settled in the coastal town of
Maydh in modern-day northernwestern Somalia, where he married into the local
Dir clan.A similar tradition exists for the
Darod, whom are said to have descended from one Sheikh
Abdirahman bin Isma'il al-Jabarti, another
Banu Hashim who...
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