Ali Yusuf Kenadid

Ali Yusuf was born into a Majeerteen Darod family. His father, Sultan Yusuf Ali Kenadid, was the founder of the Sultanate of Hobyo centered in present-day northeastern and central Somalia. The polity was established in the 1870s on territory carved out of the ruling Majeerteen Sultanate (Migiurtinia).[1] Ali Yusuf's brother, Osman Yusuf Kenadid, would go on to invent the Osmanya writing script for the Somali language.[2]

In an attempt to advance his own expansionist objectives, Kenadid père in late 1888 entered into a treaty with the Italians, making his realm an Italian protectorate.[3] The terms of the agreement specified that Italy was to steer clear of any interference in the sultanate's administration.[4]

However, the relationship between Hobyo and Italy soured when the elder Kenadid refused the Italians' proposal to allow a British contingent of troops to disembark in his Sultanate so that they might then pursue their battle against the Dhulbahante garad and Darawiish monarch Diiriye Guure and his emir, Mohammed Abdullah Hassan's Dervish forces.[3] Viewed as too much of a threat by the Italians, Sultan Kenadid was eventually exiled to Aden in Yemen and then to Eritrea, as was his son Ali Yusuf, the heir apparent to his throne.[5]

• Osman Mahamuud
• Osman Yusuf Kenadid
• Mohamoud Ali Shire

• The Majeerteen Sultanates