Kabir Khalil

Kabir Khalil was fluent in both Harari, Arabic, and his native Somali. During the reign of Emir Ahmad Ibn Abu Bakr the European explorer Richard Burton would visit the Harar in 1855 and described the leading religious figures in the city, meeting Khalil's fellow Somali Sheikh Jami, Khalil did not meet Burton and seldom came outside instead choosing to focus on his studies and pupils.[2][1]

Khalil advised his pupil Sheikh Madar to establish a Qadiriyya tariqa commune in present-day Hargeisa and spread the tariqa and it's values. One of which being to try and reduce the tribal conflict along the trade route between Harar and Berbera which was damaging livelihoods and causing unnecessary death.[3] This led Sheikh Madar and his companions to found the Big Commune (Jama’a weyne) of Little Harar (Hargeisa) in circa 1860. Sheikh Madar also started sorghum plantations in the vicinity of the town to maintain self-sufficiency as well as taking care of the sick and elderly inhabitants of the growing settlement. This cultivation soon spread and was taken up eagerly across the region by Somalis.[4]

• Sheikh Madar the most famous pupil of Kabir Khalil
• Hargeisa the town Khalil's student Sheikh Madar would transform drastically
• Sheikh Uways Al-Barawi leading Qadiriyya scholar from Barawa architect of the Benadir revolt
• Richard Burton
• Harar