Muḥammad ibn 'Abdallāh Hassan
Muḥammad Ibn Abdallāh Ibn Hassan (
Arabic: محمد بن عبدالله حسن: ; 7 April 1856 – 21 December 1920) was a
Somali scholar, poet, military leader and religious, cultural and political figure who founded and headed the
Dervish movement, which led a
holy war against
British,
Italian and
Ethiopian colonial intrusions in the
Somali Peninsula. He was famously known by the
British Empire as the "''Mad Mullah''". In 1917, the
Ottoman Empire referred to him as the "''Emir of the Somali People''". Due to his successful completion of the
Hajj to
Mecca, his assertion of being the descendant of the Islamic prophet
Muhammad and his complete memorization of the
Quran, his name is preluded with honorifics such as
Hajji,
Hafiz,
Emir,
Sheikh,
Mullah or
Sayyid. His influence on the
Somali people led him to being regarded the "''Father of Somali nationalism''".
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