20 Facts About Haji Sudi

Suudi Shabeele Omar, more commonly known as Haji Sudi was one of the leaders behind the Somali Dervish movement.

Haji Sudi was the movement's right-hand man and chief lieutenant till its demise in 1920.

Haji Sudi is described as the Mullah's right hand in the earlier days of his rise.

Haji Sudi hailed from the Adan Madoba sub-clan of the Habr Je'lo clan.

Haji Sudi was born approximately around 1857 in what's now Somaliland before the arrival of European powers to the Horn of Africa.

Haji Sudi came into disagreement with the British authorities became the most valuable commander of the Sayid.

The earliest record of Haji Sudi's life was his Royal Navy stint as an interpreter commencing in the early 1880s.

Haji Sudi accompanied William Hewett on his mission to Abyssinia according to Cecil Lowther who hired him as a guide and a headman for his 1894 big game hunting expedition in Somaliland.

Haji Sudi had been at Suakin and was conversant with Dervish ways and had imported many of their customs.

Haji Sudi's chant was the music which marked time at the dervish dances, and his the exhortations that roused the dancers to their wildest fury.

Haji Sudi had been for some years an interpreter on a man-of-war, and there he had learnt not only " fo'castle English," but the differences between an esoteric and an exoteric faith.

Haji Sudi preached the one, but was always ready to practise the other, and his sermons were delivered in language of appalling profanity.

Haji Sudi was kind-hearted, devoted, energetic, courageous, intelligent, and skilful.

Haji Sudi reported that the Mullah had 52 rifles with about 200 rounds of ammunition and that the various tribesmen Habr Toljaala and Dolbahnata were wavering and they hold no hostile attitude towards the administrations.

Haji Sudi added that the Mullah had abandoned the cause of Sultan Madar Hirsi and was now espousing the sultanate of Nur who had recently brought presents and was with him.

Haji Sudi stated that the Mahmood Girad had recently raided the Aligheri.

Haji Sudi retired to the interior of Somaliland in the summer of 1897, after his headman career was abruptly ended after the Somali Coast administration imprisoned him on the recommendations of one Bertram Robert Mitford Glossop a big game hunter.

Haji Sudi retired to the interior to his hamlet among his brothers Baashe and Qeybdiid.

When did exactly Haji Sudi joined the tariqa at Kob Fardod is not known but its generally between 1896 and 1897 when the mullah Mohammed Abdullah Hassan himself joined the Kob Fardod tariqa.

Haji Sudi's force were however scattered, and he himself was driven back into Italian territory.