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 Somali religious and nationalist leader 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

• Sheik-ʻAbdi, ʻAbdi ʻAbdulqadir (1993). Divine madness: Moḥammed ʻAbdulle Ḥassan (1856-1920). Zed Books. ISBN 0-86232-444-0.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• The Majeerteen Sultanates

• The Majeerteen Sultanates