Yusuf bin Ahmad al-Kawneyn
Yusuf bin Ahmad al-Kawneyn يوسف بن أحمد الكونين | |
---|---|
Title | Sheikh |
Personal | |
Born | Shafi'i |
Main interest(s) | Islamic literature, Islamic philosophy |
Yusuf bin Ahmad al-Kawneyn (
Biography
Local Somali oral tradition and written Ethiopian history gives reason to believe Aw Barkhadle arrived from Arabia.[4] However, a minority opinion exists that suggests that Arabian origin stories pertaining to ancestral saints such as Yusuf are potentially a myth by scholars and an Islamification of a pre-Islamic origin story that relates back to Waaq and ancestor worship. That now ties the Somali to the prophets clan (Quraysh). Religious synchronism where the old religion is adapted to reflect the hegemony of the new in that the ancestral home of the ancestors in Arabia, the headquarters of Islam.[5][6][7] Thus Yusuf has been affirmed to have 'exalted origins' through being related to the prophet.[8]
Yusuf is described by some scholars as a native of
He is accredited in certain areas for the introduction of black-headed fat-tailed sheep also known as Berbera Blackhead.[16]
Described by some as a Sharif,[3][17] he has been described as "the most outstanding saint in Somaliland".[18] Yusuf's son Muhia ad-Din Yusuf Aw-Barkhadle is listed as Emir of Harar in 1038AD.[19]
The sheikh is also known for spreading the Islamic faith to Southeast Asia, after traveling there from Zeila.[20][21] He is also known as being a member of the Somali 'Diwan al-awliya' (Famous Saints of Somali Origin).[22]
In the
According to historian Ewald Wagner, Barkhadle was a descendant of Yahya ibn Muhammad ruler of Morocco in the ninth century.[28]
Family and Ancestral legacy
Sheikh Yusuf Al Kawneyn is also associated with the
Shrines
The sheikh has shrines dedicated to him in Sri Lanka,[38] in the town of Aw Barkhadle, northeast Hargeisa in Somaliland,[39] in a site called Qoranyale, near the town of Borama.[14] Shrines are also to be found in eastern modern Ethiopia near Fedis as well as in Harar.[40][28]
According to C.J Cruttenden, the tomb of saint Aw Barkhadle, which is located to the southwest of
When any grave question arises affecting the interests of the Isaakh tribe in general. On a paper yet carefully preserved in the tomb, and bearing the sign-manual of Belat [Bilal], the slave of one of the early khaleefehs, fresh oaths of lasting friendship and lasting alliances are made...In the season of 1846 this relic was brought to Berbera in charge of the Haber Gerhajis, and on it the rival tribes of Aial Ahmed and Aial Yunus swore to bury all animosity and live as brethren.[41]
According to renowned Somali anthropologist I.M. Lewis in his book Saints and Somalis: Popular Islam in a Clan-based Society, the descendants of Sheikh Isaaq (the Isaaq clan) annually gather at the historic shrine of Saint Aw Barkhadle to pay respects in the form of siyaaro (localized pilgrimage with offerings). As Aw Bardhadle had no known descendants, the descendants of the Saint's friend and contemporary figure, Sheikh Isaaq, will remember Aw Barkhadle in his stead:
Since, however, Aw Barkhadle’s precise connection with the rulers of Ifat is not widely known, he appears as an isolated figure, and in comparison with the million or so spears of the Isaaq lineage, a saint deprived of known issue. The striking difference between these two saints is explained in a popular legend, according to which, when Sheikh Isaaq and Aw Barkhadle met, the latter prophesied that Isaaq would be blessed by God with many children. He, however, would not have descendants, but Isaaq’s issue would pay him respect and siyaaro (voluntary offerings). So it is, one is told, that every year the Isaaq clansmen gather at Aw Barkhadle’s shrine to make offerings in his name.[42]
Aw Barkhadle's shrine near Fadis was set alight during the Ogaden War by the Ethiopian militia in 1977.[43]
Aw Barkhadle
Tradition states Barkhadle travelled extensively from Mogadishu to Berbera, Hargeisa and finally Harar where he allegedly stayed for 300 years of his 500 year life. Towards the end of his reign he built a mosque in Dogar.
While completing his studies in
Furthermore, the Aw-Barkhadle site is an important burial site of the Muslim rulers of the Adal Sultanate.[49] Al-Kowneyn himself of the Walashma dynasty of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries AD is buried in this town.[50]
Sri Lankan Muslim settlement
Yusuf bin Ahmad al-Kawneyn is also credited with starting the first Sri Lankan Muslim settlement. It is located in western Sri Lanka and is named Berbereen (Beruwala) in honour and respect of the Shaykh.[51]
See also
- Islam in Somaliland
- Sheikh Isaaq Bin Ahmed Bin Mohammed – 12th century Islamic leader in the northwestern Somaliland area, and founder of the Isaaq clan
- Abdirahman bin Isma'il al-Jabarti
Notes
- ^ Sada Mire (2016) "'The child that tiire doesn't give you, God won't give you either.' The role of Rotheca myricoides in Somali fertility practices", Anthropology & Medicine, 23:3, 311–331, DOI: 10.1080/13648470.2016.1209636
- ISSN 0008-0055.
- ^ a b Abdullahi, p.13
- ISBN 978-0-429-76924-5.
- ISBN 978-1-134-56527-6.
- ISBN 978-0-932415-99-8.
- ISBN 978-0-429-76924-5.
- ISBN 978-0-429-76924-5.
- ^ ABDILLAHI RIRASH, MOHAMED. "Effects of Sixteenth Century Upheavals on the History of the Horn" (PDF).
- ^ New Era. Ministry of Information and National Guidance. 1973.
- ^ New Era. Ministry of Information and National Guidance. 1973.
- ISBN 978-1-351-48876-1.
- ^ Akou, Heather Marie (2005). Macrocultures, Migration, and Somali Malls: A Social History of Somali Dress and Aesthetics. University of Minnesota.
- ^ ISBN 9781569021033.
- ^ Laitin, p.85
- ^ The Arab factor in Somali history the origins and the development of Arab enterprise and cultural influences in the Somali peninsula by Hersi, Ali Abdirahman
- ISBN 9781569021033.
- ^ Lewis (1998), p.102
- ^ History of Harar (PDF). p. 105.
- ISBN 978-92-3-201740-6.
Translated from French to English: Now this holy man - this is the new point (Al Kownayn) – seems to be the same as that which the people of the Maldive Islands, near India, called Barakath Al-Barbari who spread Islam in this region as he did in the Horn of Africa. We only know in which of these two regions he lived first and this prompted him to change sectors of business.The tomb of Sheik Barkhadle (Yusuf Al Kownayn) is in a ruined city called Dhogor, near Hargeisa, in the north of the Democratic Republic of Somalia.
- ^ Honchell, Stephanie (2018), Sufis, Sea Monsters, and Miraculous Circumcisions: Comparative Conversion Narratives and Popular Memories of Islamization, Fairleigh Dickinson University and the University of Cape Town, p. 5,
In reference to Ibn Batuta's Moroccan theory of this figure, citation 8 of this text mentions, that other accounts identify Yusuf Al Barbari as East African or Persian. But as a fellow Maghribi, Ibn Battuta likely felt partial to the Moroccan version.
- S2CID 231794703.
- ^ "Richard Bulliet – History of the World to 1500 CE (Session 22) – Tropical Africa and Asia". Youtube.com. 23 November 2010. Retrieved 23 September 2013.
- ^ Mackintosh-Smith, Tim (2010). Landfalls: On the Edge of Islam from Zanzibar to the Alhambra. Hodder & Stoughton. p. 384.
- ISBN 9781136113222.
- ISBN 9780486437651.)
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link - ^ Ibn Batuta, Travels in Asia and Africa 1325–1354, tr. and ed. H. A. R. Gibb (London: Broadway House, 1929)
- ^ a b Yusuf al-Akwan. Encyclopedia Aethiopica.
- ^ Cerulli, Enrico (1926). Le popolazioni della Somalia nella tradizione storica locale. L'Accademia.
Cerulli suggests that the Saint "Aw Barkhdale" (Yusuf Al Kownayn) can be associated with "Yusuf Barkatla", ancestor of Umar' Walashma, founder of the Ifat dynasty
- ISBN 0821412965.
- ISBN 9781569021033.
- ^ Nehemia Levtzion; Randall Pouwels (Mar 31, 2000). The History of Islam in Africa. Ohio University Press. p. 242.
Aw Barkhadle, is the founder and ancestor of the Walashma dynasty
- ISBN 9782738488152.
Translated from French to English: The Aw Barkhadle figure, it should be noted, is among the ancestors of the rulers of the Walashma dynasty, who reigned over the Muslim state of Ifat.
- ISBN 9780821444610.
Aw Barkhadle, the ancestor of the founder of the Walashma dynasty, represents the "spiritual legacy" of the Islamic state of Yifat/Adal.
- ^ Issa. Encyclopedia Aethiopica.
- ^ Wolane. Encyclopedia Aethiopica.
- JSTOR 41967469.
- ^ Jaleel, Talib (8 July 2015). Notes on Entering Deen Completely:Islam as its followers know it. EDC Foundation. p. 1106.
- .
- ISBN 9783825856717.
- ^ "The Journal of the Royal Geographical Society Volume 19 p.61-62". 1849.
- ISBN 1569021031.
- ^ Letter from Jeddah: an interview with WSLF (PDF). Horn of Africa Journal. p. 8.
- ISBN 2251604650.
- ^ a b c Mire, Sada (22 March 2015). Wagar, Fertility and Phallic Stelae: Cushitic Sky-God Belief and the Site of Saint Aw-Barkhadle, Somaliland.
- ^ Hallpike, C.R. (1972). The Konso of Ethiopia: A study of the values of a Cushitic people . Oxford: Clarendon Press.
- ISBN 9780852552803.
- ^ Altenmüller, H., Hunwick, J. O., O'Fahey, R. S., & Spuler, B. (2003). The writings of the Muslim peoples of northeastern Africa, Part 1, Volume 13. Leiden [u.a.] : Brill. p. 174.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Sada Mire: Divine Fertility: The Continuity in Transformation of an Ideology of Sacred Kinship in Northeast Africa Chapter 3
- ^ Paulitschke, P (1888). Beiträge zur ethnographie und anthropologie der Somali, Galla und Harari. Leipzig.
- ^ Jaleel, Talib (8 July 2015). Notes on Entering Deen Completely: Islam as its followers know it. EDC Foundation. p. 1106.
References
- Abdullahi, Mohamed Diriye (2001). Culture and customs of Somalia. Greenwood. ISBN 978-0-313-31333-2.
- David D. Laitin (1977). Politics, Language, and Thought: The Somali Experience. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-46791-7.
- Lewis, I.M. (1998). Saints and Somalis: Popular Islam in a Clan-based Society. The Red Sea Press. ISBN 978-1-56902-103-3.
- Quath, Faati (1957). Islam Walbaasha Cabra Taarikh [Islam and Abyssinia throughout history] (in Arabic). Cairo, Egypt.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - Meri, Josef W.; Bacharach, Jere L. (2006-01-01). Medieval Islamic Civilization: A-K, index. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 9780415966917.