Irir Samaale - Genealogy

Genealogy

According to traditions recorded in Shariif 'Aydaruus Shariif 'Ali's Bughyat al-amaal fii taariikh as-Soomaal (1955), the patriarch Samaale arrived in northern Somalia from Yemen during the 9th century and subsequently founded the eponymous Somali ethnic group.

Most Somalis trace their origins to Samaale:

• Dir

• Issa in Djibouti
• Gadabuursi in Awdal, Ethiopia and Djibouti
• Isaaq

• Hawiye

The Darod have separate agnatic or paternal traditions of descent through Abdirahman bin Isma'il al-Jabarti (Sheikh Darod), who is said to have arrived at a later date from the Arabian peninsula, in the 10th or 11th centuries. Sheikh Darod is, in turn, asserted to have married a woman from the Dir, thus establishing matrilateral ties with the Samaale main stem.

Although often recognized as a sub-clan of the Dir, the Isaaq clan claims paternal descent from one Shaykh Ishaq ibn Ahmad al-Hashimi (Sheikh Isaaq).

The Digil and Mirifle (Rahanweyn) clans trace descent from a male ancestor called Sab. Both Samaale and Sab are supposed to have ultimately descended from a common lineage originating in Arabia.