leader of the Dervish movement (born 1856)
Mohammed Abdullah Hassan
Sayyid Moḥammad Abdallah Hassan was a Somali scholar, poet, military leader and religious, cultural and political figure who founded and headed the Somali Dervish movement. He led a holy war against British, Italian and Ethiopian colonial intrusions into the Somali Peninsula, and was known pejoratively by the British Empire as the "Mad Mullah". In 1917, the Ottoman Empire referred to him as the "Emir of the Somali People". He is referred to with honorifics such as Hajji, Hafiz, Emir, Sheikh, Mullah or Sayyid because to his successful completion of the Hajj, his claimed lineage from the Islamic prophet Muhammad, and his complete memorization of the Quran.
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Died
1920
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