Table Of ContentSUFI POETRY IN SOMALI:
ITS THEMES AND
IMAGERY
By
ABDISALAM YASSIN MOHAMED
Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
University of Loridon,
1977
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ABSTRACT
Somalia has been a Muslim country probably for over
a thousand years and has a well developed Sufi movement
"\vhich plays an important social role and has been a
stimulus to creativity in the field of poetry composed
both in Arabic and in Somali. Somali Sufis have always
regarded Arabic, the sacred language of Islam, with great
love and reverence, yet they have found it unsuitable as
a means of reaching wider audiences, since only a limited
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number of Somalis can fully understand it.
Inspired by the desire to communicate their spiritual
fervour and their knowledge of Islamic doctrines to every
one, Somali Sufis have composed oral poetry in their
mother tongue and used it as a form of religious instruction
and praye'r. The appeal of their poetry to Somali audience
lies in the cultural syncretism which it represents. Its
themes are taken from the universal teaching of Islam and
from Sufism while its imagery is predominantly drawn from
the natural environment and traditional culture of Somalia.
Furthermore, it follows the pattern of versification used
in secular alliterative poetry, which is totally unaffected
by the Arabic models of scansion.
The secular alliterative poetry has a long tradition
and is a living all-pervasive force in Somali culture;
Somali Sufis have thus used a well established channel of
artistic communication to convey their spiritual message.
Their success has been considerable and their poetry in
Somali, far from waning under the impact of the modern age,
has been increasing in its popularity even in recent years.
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The aim of this thesis is first of all to contribute
to the documentation of this almost unexplored field and
to demonstrate the nature of the cultural syncretism ir its
two most important aspects: its themes and its imagery.
The thesis relates the Sufi poetry in Somali to other
relevant aspects of Somali culture and includes a corpus
of original texts, together with translations and an
notations.
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CONTENTS
Abstract
2
Acknowledgments
7
PART ONE: INTRODUCTION
8
1. Documentation and Sources
9
II. Transcription 15
I II. Translation
17
IV. Presentation
20
PART TWO: CULTURAL SETTING 22
I. The Sufi Way 23
II. The Sufi Orders in Somalia 30
I II. The Impact of Sufism on Somali 34
Secular Poetry
IY. ; :
The pre-Islamic Elements in Sufi 47
poetry in Somali
v.
The Sufi Poetry in Arabic Written 50
by Somalis
VI. The Sufi Poetry in Somali Composed 53
by Men
VII. The Sufi Poetry in Somali Composed 54
by Women
VIII. Formal Characteristics of Sufi Poetry in Somali 58
PART THREE: THEMES OF SUFI POETRY IN SOrvlALI
WITH REPRESENTATIVE EXAMPLES 62
.I. Poems Concerning God 63
Text 1. ADAM and IjAwi\.J 64
Text 2. Thanksgiving 89
Text 3. God, the Majestic One 91
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Text 4. o God, Save Me 97
Text '5 . Religious Advice 98
Text 6 . 0 God, the Glorious One 112
Text 7 . 0 Lord 114
II. Poems in Praise of the Prophet 116
Text 8 . 0 Most Gracious of 117
All Creatures
Text 9. 0 Prophet 125
Text 10. Softener [of the Heart] 129
Text 11. The Perfect Prophet 146
Text 12. The Light of God 157
I tr . Poems in Praise of the Saints 158
Text 13., Daughter of the Prophet 159
Text 14. Wife of cALI 164
Text 15. ijAWA;:> was Saying 166
Text 16. Mother I;IAWAo 167
Text 17. Crown of Saints 169
Text 18. Sheekh Barkhad1e 174
Text 19. Sheekh Suufi 179
Text io. Sheekh Cabdisalaam Xaaji Jaamac 183
Text 21. Sheekh Cali Cabdiraxmaan 186 -~.
IV. Poems with Miscellaneous Inspirational Themes 190
v
191
Text 22. Alif Said
Text 2,3 . Pride and Greed 196
Text i4. The Story 203
210
Text 2.5 . Astonishment and Wonder
218
V. Conspectus of Themes
6 .
PART FOUR: THE IMAGERY 222
I. The Main Characteristic of the Imagery 223 /
II. Images Drawn from the Somali Environment 224
and Traditional Culture
IIi. Images Drawn from Other Sources 242
IV. Conspectus of Images
244
APPENDIX A. Annotated Glossary of Islamic Terms 247
APPENDIX B. Annotated Glossary of Proper Names 249
REFERENCES 255
NOTES 264
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to acknowledge my indebtedness to Sheekh
c
Caaqib Cabdilaahi who has kindly allowed me to use
some of his unpublished poetry. I would also like
to thank Khadiija Faarax Maxamuud who put at my dis
posal her repertoire of Sufi women's poems called
sitaad. My especial gratitude is for Dr. B.W.
Andrzejewski who has given me advice and guidance in
the preparation of this thesis and who has permitted
me to use oral Sufi poetry which he recorded in Somalia
during 1968-69. I would like to add that, for a man
who has combined his skills as a teacher with sympathetic
understanding, I have been fortunate to have Dr. B.W.
Andrzejewski as my supervisor.
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PART ONE
INTRODUCTION
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I
Documentation and Sources
Although the existence of Sufi oral poetry in Somali
has been noticed by some scholars, the whole documentation
of this field is limited to the recording of a few poems,l
and no attempt has been made so far to analyze it or to
place it in a wider context of Somali culture. It is not
even known at what period of history Somali began to be
used as the medium of Sufi poetry_ The problem will
probably remain unsolved, since no documentary evidence is
availabl~_ Nonetheless~ there is a strong conviction among
the Somali Sufis that the use of Somali in Sufi poetry is
of great antiquity. Although I have heard such views
from a great number of people, especially men of religion,
I have thought it advisable to consult some of the leading
Somali authorities in this field.
I have interviewed Aw Diiriye Bashbash, a religious
elder and a reputable antiquarian who is said to be over
\
100 years old and who lives in Burco, Cabdi Cabdilaahi
Muuse, a well known poet and a traditional historian who
is originally from Bureo but who now resides in Jiddah,
and Khadiija Faarax Maxamuud, a poetess and a lady Sufi
who lives in Hargeysa. They all belong to the QADIRRIYYAH
Order, and all of them maintain that, according to oral
tradition known to them, the Somalis have simultaneously
composed Sufi poems in Arabic and Somali from the earliest
times when Islam laid its foundations in Somali~. Accord-
ingly, they say, each of the two languages has separately
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developed its stocks of poems, usually sung, and the two
separate repertoires have never contradicted each other
nor have they opposed each other's vigorous growth and·
developmen~. It may therefore be suggested that within
the Somali socio-religious context, the Arabic/Somali
dichotomy in Sufi poetry represents symbiosis rather than
conflic·t.
While the Sufi poetry in Arabic written by Somalis
is well-documented and easily accessible,l the Sufi poetry
in Somali has been very much neglected. The present thesis.
aims at remedying this situation by contributing to the
documentation on the subject and by showing the relationship
between this branch of Somali literature and its secular
counterpart, a relationship which is of particular importance
to the study of Somali culture in general.
For the writing of this thesis, I have used three
main source.s. Firstly, I have utilized some of the oral
poems which were recorded on tapes in Somalia ~n 1968-9
and are now copied and deposited at the Tape Library of the
School of Oriental and African Studies, University of
London, (Catalogue N~. SOM/XII/2-4). Secondly, I have
used an unpublished collection of religious poems by Sheekh
Caaqib Cabdilaahi,2 a well known Sufi poet, who first
recorded his poems in an alphabet which he had seen in a
dream. Due to its highly esoteric nature Sheekh Caaqib's
script did not spread, but it became a useful means to
record his own poetry and the many other works of Somali
oral literature which he has collected. He used the texts
thus made as an aid to memory when he chanted his poems at
prayer meetings and when instructing his pupil~. When
