Isaaq in the context of Republic of Somaliland

Somaliland, officially the Republic of Somaliland, is an unrecognised state in the Horn of Africa. It is located on the southern coast of the Gulf of Aden and bordered by Djibouti to the northwest, Ethiopia to the south and west, and Somalia to the east. Its claimed territory has an area of 176,120 square kilometres (68,000 sq mi), with approximately 6.2 million people as of 2024. The capital and largest city is Hargeisa.

Various Somali Muslim kingdoms were established in the area during the early Islamic period, including in the 14th to 15th centuries the Zeila-based Adal Sultanate. In the early modern period, successor states to the Adal Sultanate emerged, including the Isaaq Sultanate, which was established in the middle of the 18th century. In the late 19th century, the United Kingdom signed agreements with various clans in the area, establishing the Somaliland Protectorate, which was formally granted independence by the United Kingdom as the State of Somaliland on 26 June 1960. Five days later, the State of Somaliland voluntarily united with the Trust Territory of Somaliland (the former Italian Somalia) to form the Somali Republic. The union of the two states proved problematic early on, and in response to the harsh policies enacted by Somalia's Barre regime against the main clan family in Somaliland, the Isaaq, shortly after the conclusion of the disastrous Ogaden War, a 10-year war of independence concluded with the declaration of Somaliland's independence in 1991. The Government of Somaliland regards itself as the successor state to British Somaliland.

The Somaliland War of Independence (Somali: Dagaalkii Xoraynta Soomaaliland, lit. 'Somaliland Liberation War') was a rebellion waged by the Somali National Movement (SNM) against the ruling military junta in Somalia led by General Siad Barre lasting from its founding on 6 April 1981 and ended on 18 May 1991 when the SNM declared what was then northern Somalia independent as the Republic of Somaliland. The conflict served as the main theater of the larger Somali Rebellion that started in 1978. The conflict was in response to the harsh policies enacted by the Barre regime against the main clan family in Somaliland, the Isaaq, including a declaration of economic warfare on the clan-family. These harsh policies were put into effect shortly after the conclusion of the disastrous Ogaden War in 1978.

As a direct response to the harsh policies enacted by the Barre regime against the Isaaq people, in April 1981 a group of Isaaq businesspeople, students, former civil servants and former politicians founded the Somali National Movement in London. From February 1982, Isaaq army officers and fighters started moving into Ethiopia where they formed the nucleus of what would later become the armed wing of the SNM. Throughout the early to mid 1980s SNM launched a guerrilla war against the Barre regime through incursions and hit and run operations on army positions within Isaaq territories, especially into the Waqooyi Galbeed and Togdheer regions.

Hargeisa (/hɑːrˈɡeɪsə/ har-GAY-sə; Somali: Hargeysa; Arabic: هرجيسا, romanized: Harjīsā) is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Somaliland, a de facto sovereign state in the Horn of Africa, still considered internationally to be part of Somalia. It is also the regional capital of the Maroodi Jeex region of Somaliland.

Hargeisa was founded as a watering and trading stop between the coast and the interior by the Isaaq Sultanate. Initially it served as a watering well for the vast livestock of the Isaaq clan that inhabited that specific region and later were joined by other Isaaq clans that currently inhabit Hargeisa. In 1960, the Somaliland Protectorate gained independence from the United Kingdom and as scheduled united days later with the Trust Territory of Somaliland (former Italian Somaliland) to form the Somali Republic on 1 July. Up to 90% of the city was destroyed during the Isaaq genocide, a state-sponsored campaign of violence during the Somaliland War of Independence.

The Isaaq Sultanate (Somali: Saldanadda Isaaq, Wadaad: سَلْدَنَدْدَ إساقْ, Arabic: السلطنة الإسحاقية) was a Muslim sultanate that ruled parts of the Horn of Africa in the 18th and 19th centuries. The kingdom spanned the territories of the Isaaq clan in modern-day Somaliland and Ethiopia. It was governed by the Rer Guled Eidagale branch of the Garhajis clan and is the pre-colonial predecessor to the Republic of Somaliland.

Somaliland’s Reassertion of Sovereignty was made on 18 May 1991 by Somali sultans from the Isaaq, Dhulbahante, Issa, Gadabursi, Warsangali clans, as well as the Somali National Movement.

The Isaaq genocide (Somali: Xasuuqii beesha Isaaq; Arabic: الإبادة الجماعية لقبيلة إسحاق), also known as the Hargeisa Holocaust, was the systematic, state-sponsored genocide of Isaaq civilians between 1987 and 1989 by the Somali Democratic Republic, under the dictatorship of Siad Barre, during the Somaliland War of Independence. The number of civilian deaths in this massacre is estimated to be between 50,000 and 100,000, according to various sources, whilst local reports estimate the total civilian deaths to be upwards of 200,000 Isaaq civilians. The genocide, which escalated after the Somali National Movement (SNM)'s 1988 Northern Somalia offensive, was marked by intense fighting that included SNM attacks on Ogaden refugee camps. These refugees, who had arrived after the 1977 Ogaden War, were viewed by the SNM as a paramilitary force used by the state to colonize Isaaq land. The genocide included the levelling and complete destruction of the largest and second largest cities in Somaliland, Hargeisa (which was 90 percent destroyed) and Burao (70 percent destroyed), respectively. In addition, up to 500,000 Somalilanders, primarily of the Isaaq clan, fled across the border as refugees to Hartasheikh, Ethiopia, in what was described as "one of the fastest and largest forced movements of people recorded in Africa," which resulted in the creation of the world's then-largest refugee camp. An additional 400,000 Somalilanders were internally displaced. The scale of destruction led to Hargeisa becoming known as the 'Dresden of Africa'. The killings happened during the Somali Civil War and have been referred to as a "forgotten genocide".

In the countryside, the persecution of Isaaq included the creation of a mechanised section of the Somali Armed Forces dubbed as Dabar Goynta Isaaqa (lit. 'The Isaaq Exterminators') consisting entirely of non-Isaaqs (mainly Ogaden); this unit conducted a "systematic pattern of attacks against unarmed, civilian villages, watering points and grazing areas of Somaliland, killing many of their residents and forcing survivors to flee for safety to remote areas". This resulted in entire villages being depopulated and towns getting plundered. Rape was also used as a weapon against Isaaqs. Human Rights Watch states that this unit, along with other branches of the military, were responsible for terrorising Isaaq nomads in the countryside. Dabar Goynta Isaaqa would later turn into a system of governance where local officials would put the most hard-line policies into effect against the local Isaaq population. The Somali government also planted one million land mines within Isaaq territory.

House of Guled (Somali: Reer Guuleed, Wadaad's writing: ريرْ گُليدْ Arabic: الغوليديين, romanized: al-Ghulīdiyīn) was the ruling house of the Isaaq Sultanate from 1750 to 1884 and is also a subclan in its own right. The family are descendants of the Eidagale sub division of the wider Garhajis and in extension Isaaq clan-family. Although they no longer hold any authority, they are the royal house of Somaliland and are viewed as a favoured symbol in the country. In July 2021, Sultan Mahamed Abdiqadir had a state funeral with nationwide media coverage and was attended by high government officials, including the president of Somaliland; Muse Bihi Abdi and foreign dignitaries.

The Habr Garhajis also contemporarily known as the Garhajis (Somali: Habar Garxajis, Arabic: غرحاجس, Full Nasab: Ismā'īl al Qadhi ibn ash-Shaykh Isḥāq ibn Aḥmad) is a major Northern Somali clan of the wider Isaaq clan family. They are the traditional holders of the Isaaq Sultanate and Habr Yunis Sultanate since the 18th century. As descendants of Ismail bin Sheikh Isaaq, its members form a part of the Habar Magaadle confederation, and they constitute one of the largest sub-clans of the Isaaq. The Garhajis are divided into two major sub-clans: the Habr Yunis (Sa'īd Ismail) and Eidagale (Da'ud Isma'īl). They are traditionally nomadic pastoralists, merchants and skilled poets.

Ishaaq bin Ahmad bin Muhammad, more commonly known as Sheikh Ishaaq or Sheikh Isaaq (Somali: Sheekh Isxaaq) is a semi-legendary figure who plays a prominent role in the oral traditions of the Somali Isaaq clan-family. According to these traditions, which were also preserved in several Arabic hagiologies, he was an Islamic scholar of the Shafi’i school who crossed the sea from Arabia to the Horn of Africa. He is traditionally regarded as the Sayyid forefather of the Isaaq clan-family, whose territory in the Horn of Africa is wide and densely populated.

According to tradition, Sheikh Ishaaq traveled from Arabia to Somaliland in the 10th or 11th century, where he married two women; one from the local Dir clan and the other from the neighbouring Harari people. He sired eight sons who are the common ancestors of the Isaaq clan-family. He is said to have settled in what is today the Erigavo District, and to have established his capital at Maydh. He remained in Maydh until his death.