Like the great majority of
Somali clans, the Dir trace their ancestry to
Aqil ibn Abi Talib (
c. 580 – 670 or 683),[8] a cousin of the prophet
Muhammad (c. 570 – 632) and an older brother of
Ali ibn Abi Talib (c. 600 – 661) and
Ja'far ibn Abi Talib (c. 590 – 629).[9] They trace their lineage to Aqil through
Samaale (the source of the name 'Somali'), the purported forefather of the northern
pastoralist clans such as the Dir, the
Hawiye, and –
matrilineally through the Dir– the
Isaaq and the
Darod.[8] Although these genealogical claims are historically untenable legends, they do reflect the longstanding cultural contacts between
Somalia (especially, though not exclusively, its most northern part
Somaliland) and
Southern Arabia.[10]
History
The history of Islam being practised by the Dir clan goes back 1400 years. In
Zeila, a Dir city, a mosque called
Masjid al-Qiblatayn is known as the site of where early companions of the Prophet established a mosque shortly after the first
Migration to Abyssinia[11] By the 7th century, a large-scale conversion to Islam was taking place in the Somali peninsula, first spread by the Dir clan family, to the rest of the nation.[12]
The early
Adal Kingdom (9th century to 13th century) was an exclusive kingdom with its capital being
Zeila.[13] In the 10th century, the Jarso clan a sub-division of Dir established the
Dawaro Sultanate centred in Hararghe Highlands.
Dir is one of the oldest clans in the Horn of Africa. According to the Muslim chronicles, two of the oldest monarchies in the northern region, the Ifat and Adal sultanates, were led by Dir.[14]
The city
Dire Dawa was originally called
Dir Dhabe and used to be part of
Adal Sultanate during the medieval times and was exclusively settled by Dir which is a major Somali tribe and after the weakening of Adal Sultanate, the
Oromos took advantage and were able to penetrate through the city and settle into these areas and also assimilate some of the local
Gurgura clan.[18]
The Somali Dir clan used to be the predominant inhabitants of Hararghe Highlands in the medieval times until the weakening of
Adal Sultanate the
Oromos took advantage of the crippling state and decided to invade and occupy the Haraghe Highlands and assimilate the local native Somali population which were
Jarso,
Gurgura, Nole, Metta, Oborra and
Bursuk who were all sub-clans of Dir a major Somali tribe tree and were later confederated into Oromo Ethnics, the Afran Qallo tribes .
The Dir clan also led a revolt against the Italians during the colonial period. This revolt was mainly led by the Biimaal section of the Dir. The
Biimaal clan is widely known for leading a resistance against the colonials in southern
Somalia.The Biimaal violently resisted the imposition of colonialism and fought against the Italian colonialists of Italian Somaliland in a twenty-year war known as the
Bimal revolt in which many of their warriors assassinated several Italian governors. This revolt can be compared to the war of the Mad Mullah in
Somaliland.[21][22][23] The Biimaal mainly lives in
Somalia, the
Somali region of
Ethiopia, which their Gaadsen sub-clan mainly inhabits and in the
NEP region of
Kenya.[24][25] The Biimaal are pastoralists. They were also successful merchants and traders in the 19th century.[26] In the 19th century they have engaged in multiple wars with the
Geledi clan, which they were victorious in.[26][23]
Lineage
I.M. Lewis and many sources maintain that the Dir, a
Proto-Somali, together with the Hawiye trace ancestry through Irir son of Samaale.[27][28][29][30][31] Dir is regarded as the father-in-law of Darod, the progenitor of the
Darod clan[32] Although some sources state it was the daughter of
Hawiye who Darod married.[33][34][35]
For the first time since several centuries the Dir clan which widely dispersed in the Horn of Africa has successfully convened a meeting with all the major Dir subclans in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Suldaan Dhawal, of the Habr 'Affan
Gadabuursi was elected the head and representative of the Dir clan in the
Horn of Africa.
Ahmed Gabobe, Minister of Justice and Religious Affairs of Somalia.
Ahmed Ismail Samatar, Somali writer, professor and former dean of the Institute for Global Citizenship at Macalester College. Editor of Bildhaan: An International Journal of Somali Studies
Ato Shemsedin, Somali Ethiopian Politician, previous Ethiopian ambassador to Djibouti, Kenya, Deputy Minister of Mining and Energy and first Vice Chairman and one of the founders of ESDL[50][51]
Sultan Dideh, sultan of Zeila, prosperous merchant and built first mosque in Djibouti. He also proposed the name "Cote francaise des Somalis" to the French[56][57][58]
^
abFage, J. D.; Oliver, Roland; Oliver, Roland Anthony; Clark, John Desmond; Gray, Richard; Flint, John E.; Roberts, A. D.; Sanderson, G. N.; Crowder, Michael (1975).
The Cambridge History of Africa. Cambridge University Press.
ISBN978-0-521-20981-6.
^Ojielo, Ozzonia (May 2010).
"Dynamics and Trends of Conflict in Greater Mandera"(PDF). undp.org. UNDP Kenya. p. 7. Archived from
the original(PDF) on 17 May 2018. Retrieved 7 February 2017. Garre live in Southern Somalia, North Eastern Kenya and Southern Ethiopia. In Southern Somalia, they live in Kofur near Mogadishu and El Wak District in Gedo Province. In Ethiopia, they live in Moyale, Hudet and Woreda of Liban zone. In Kenya, the Garre inhabit Wajir North and Moyale.
^Ozzonia (2010), page 7. The Quranyo section of the Garre claim descent from Dirr, who are born of the Irrir Samal.
^ʻArabfaqīh, Shihāb al-Dīn Aḥmad ibn ʻAbd al-Qādir (1 January 2003).
The conquest of Abyssinia: 16th century. Annotation: Dir, According to Huntingford a settlement which may be modern Dire Dawa. Tsehai Publishers & Distributors. p. 24.
ISBN9780972317269.
^Sihab ad-Din Ahmad bin'Abd al-Qader, Futuh al-Habasa: The conquest of Ethiopia, translated by Paul Lester Stenhouse with annotations by Richard Pankhurst (Hollywood: Tsehai, 2003), pp. 50, 76
^Burton, Richard Francis (1 January 1856).
First Footsteps in East Africa. Longman, Brown, Green & Longmans. pp.
104. where he married a daughter of the Hawiyah tribe
^Regional & Federal Studies. Volume 24, Issue 5, 2014. Special Issue: Federalism and Decentralization in Sub-Saharan Africa. Ethnic Decentralization and the Challenges of Inclusive Governance in Multiethnic Cities: The Case of Dire Dawa, Ethiopia.
^ʻArabfaqīh, Shihāb al-Dīn Aḥmad ibn ʻAbd al-Qādir (1 January 2003).
The conquest of Abyssinia: 16th century. The Habar Makadur, underneath the page as a note [I.M. Lewis] by Richard Pankhurst. Tsehai Publishers & Distributors. p. 27.
ISBN9780972317269.
^Lewis, I.M. (1998). Peoples of the Horn of Africa: Somali, Afar and Saho. Red Sea Press. p. 25.
ISBN978-1569021040. There are two main fractions, the Habr Afan and Habr Makadur, formerly united under a common hereditary chief (ogaz).{{
cite book}}: |work= ignored (
help)
^Lewis, I.M. (1 January 1958). "The Gadabuursi Somali Script". Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. 21 (1/3): 134–156.
doi:
10.1017/s0041977x00063278.
JSTOR610496.
S2CID161856327.