1. Sheikh Bashir Sheikh Yusuf Sheikh Hassan was a Somali religious leader famed for leading the 1945 Sheikh Bashir Rebellion against the British colonial authority in Somaliland.
19 Facts About Sheikh Bashir
1. 2.
Sheikh Bashir was born in 1905 in Taleh, British Somaliland.
3.
Sheikh Bashir was a nephew of Mohammed Abdullah Hassan and was named by him.
4.
Sheikh Bashir was cultivated at the Markaz located in the village of Beer east of Burao and studied there in succession to his father.
5.
Sheikh Bashir's ideology was shaped by a millennial bent, which according to Marxist historian Eric Hobsbawm is the "hope of a complete and radical change in the world shorn of all its present deficiencies".
6.
Sheikh Bashir had been arrested multiple times before the revolt itself had occurred for challenging the authority of the British protectorate.
7.
Sheikh Bashir reached prominence in 1939 when he played a prominent role in a riot in Burao that happened that year as a result of a new educational policy the British authorities had announced, and which it had put an end to after the riots.
8.
Sheikh Bashir continued to resist the British authorities through preaching until 1945, when he decided to take arms.
9.
Sheikh Bashir was a contemporary of Michael Mariano, a Somali nationalist and businessman who was a Catholic at the time.
10.
Once, Sheikh Bashir came to Mariano's home and demanded to know why he was assisting Somalis with their English-language learning in order to prepare for the yearly civil service exam.
11.
The British campaign against Sheikh Bashir's troops proved abortive after several defeats as his forces kept moving from place to place and avoiding any permanent location.
12.
Sheikh Bashir settled many disputes among the tribes in the vicinity, which kept them from raiding each other.
13.
Sheikh Bashir was generally thought to settle disputes through the use of Islamic Sharia and gathered around him a strong following.
14.
Sheikh Bashir sent a message to religious figures in the town of Erigavo and called on them to revolt and join the rebellion he led.
15.
The British administration recruited Indian and South African troops, led by police general James David, to fight against Sheikh Bashir and had intelligence plans to capture him alive.
16.
Sheikh Bashir's family took quick action to remove his body from the place of his death at Geela-eeg mountain, about 20 miles from Burao.
17.
Sheikh Bashir appears as a significant figure in Somali popular culture, this is seen in references to his life and struggle in Somali poetry, with many poems describing his rebellion and calling on local Somalis to avenge him.
18.
Sheikh Bashir was hanged in day-light, at a house near you, With bullets, they made holes on his chest, While his body was covered with blood, They kicked him, and insulted him.
19.
Adan Ahmed Af-Qallooc composed another poem in Sheikh Bashir's honour, titled Gobonimo.