Sultanate of Hobyo
Somalia, 1878–1925. Draft, not yet reviewed
The Sultanate of Hobyo, also known as the Sultanate of Obbia, was a 19th-century Somali Sultanate in present-day central and northeastern Somalia, and eastern Ethiopia. It was established between the 1870s and 1884 by Yusuf Ali Kenadid. In 1889, it became a protectorate of Italy and was eventually integrated into the colony of Italian Somaliland in 1927. As with the Majeerteen Sultanate, the Sultanate of Hobyo exerted a strong centralised authority during its existence.
Seat of power: Hobyow
Rulers
Yusuf Ali Kenadid
Head of state, 1878–1905
Yusuf Ali Kenadid was a Somali Sultan and the founder of the Sultanate of Hobyo. In the 1870s, Kenadid returned from the Arabian Peninsula with a band of Hadhrami, and with their assistance he managed to overpower the local Habar Gidir clans and establish the Sultanate of Hobyo.
Portrait of Yusuf Ali Kenadid: Luigi Robecchi Bricchetti, Public domain, file
Ali Yusuf Kenadid
Head of state, 1905–1927
Ali Yusuf Kenadid was a Majeerteen Sultan and the second ruler of the Sultanate of Hobyo. Sultan Kenadiid was eventually exiled to Aden in Yemen and then to Eritrea, as was his son Ali Yusuf, the heir apparent to his throne.
Portrait of Ali Yusuf Kenadid: Pedrini, Carlo, CC BY-SA 4.0, file
Culture
- Like the Majeerteen Sultanate, the Sultanate of Hobyo maintained written records of its activities, which still exist.
- One of Sultan Ali Yusuf Kenadiid's commanders and former Naib (Governor), Omar Samatar, attacked and captured El Buur on the 9th of November 1925.
- The founder, Yusuf Ali Kenadid, was the father of Osman Yusuf Kenadid, who would go on to create the Osmanya writing script for the Somali language.
Picture
The Sultanate of Hobyo possessed a functioning bureaucracy, a hereditary nobility, titled aristocrats, a state flag, and a professional army.
Image: 26oo, Public domain, file
Sources
Text adapted from the Wikipedia articles listed as sources, CC BY-SA 4.0.