# Sheikh, Somaliland

Sheikh (Somali: Sheekh, Arabic: شَيخ, also known as Shiikh or Upper Sheikh), is a city in central Somaliland (a state in the Horn of Africa that separated from Somalia in 1991 and is not internationally recognized). Sheikh is the capital of the Sheikh district in the region/province Sahil. It lies at an altitude of some 1430 m in the Golis Mountains, roughly halfway between the larger cities of Berbera (on the coast of the Gulf of Aden, at a distance of about 71 km) and Burao (further inland, around 60 km from Sheikh). The broader Sheikh District has a total population of about 33,625 residents.

## Description

Sheikh lies on the tarmacked road from Berbera to Burao. This so-called Burao-Berbera Highway is one of the most scenic drives in Somaliland. Coming from hot and arid Berbera the climb into the Golis Mountains starts after some 46 km at the village of Laaleys. The landscape then quickly becomes greener and, via a series of hairpin bends, the Sheikh pass is reached at about 1490 m above sea level. This is followed by a short descent to Sheikh, which lies on a plateau at about 1430 m. Actually, therefore, the Golis Mountains are not a mountain range, but the jagged northern edge of the Somali plateau. The core of the town has a rectangular street plan. There are four hotels (MashaAllah, Daalo, the Ayaan Muniiro hotel, and the large 5-storey Hashi Baroo hotel). Furthermore, there are at least two pharmacies and several shops and eateries. Sheikh used to have an airstrip; it has now fallen into disuse but is still recognizable in the landscape.
Several sources indicate that Sheikh is said to contain old British colonial buildings and temple ruins similar to those on the Deccan Plateau in India. These reports appear to be from an article in a Scottish geographic journal from 1898, among others. In practice and on the internet, there is nothing of historical buildings or ruins to be found, and modern guidebooks describe the city as humdrum: mundane, boring.
Just outside the city is the Pharo Secondary School. It is a large complex founded in 1958 as the "SOS Hermann Gmeiner Sheikh Secondary School" and was run by SOS Children's Villages. In 1989, the school was looted and destroyed by Siad Barre's troops. In 2003, the complex was restored by a British couple and reopened. For this they had to pay with their lives, as a few months after the school's reopening they were murdered by terrorists from Al-Itihaad al-Islamiya because the school allegedly converted pupils to Christianity. Several senior politicians were educated here, including two former Somaliland presidents, Ahmed Silanyo and Ibrahim Egal. The school has strict entry requirements; only the best students are admitted. In 2019, management of the school was taken over by The Pharo Foundation from SOS Children's Villages and the name changed. There are about 260 students (2022).

## History
### Middle Ages and Precolonial
#### Fardowsa Ruins

Sheikh, was a significant trading center in the medieval period, strategically positioned along key trade routes connecting the Somali interior to the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean. The archaeological site of Fardowsa Ruins, provides evidence of the town’s economic prominence.
The Fardowsa Ruins contains well-preserved multi-room structures with stone walls over 1.2 meters high, suggesting a developed urban settlement. Excavations have uncovered artifacts such as an Arab coins, glass bangles, and fragments of Chinese porcelain, indicating extensive trade links with the Arabian Peninsula, South Asia, and beyond.
Sheikh’s location made it a key node in medieval trade networks, facilitating the exchange of goods between inland markets and coastal ports. The presence of imported commodities underscores its integration into the broader Indian Ocean trade system. Archaeological evidence continues to highlight Sheikh’s role as a major commercial hub in the region’s history.
A German explorer gave a description over the ruins at Sheikh in the year of 1882.
   These ruins extend about 1,000 meters to the north and lean on the east side against a mountain slope that runs south from Dababachel. The area occuppied by the ruins is probably about half the size of the present town of Aden Camp. The city may therefore have had 6,000-8,000 inhabitants based on the same ratio, which allows to determine the extent of the necropolis. Very little of the ruins remains, as the buildings, as the buildings have crumbled to the ground, so that only the outlines of individual houses, courtyards, streets, and two large squares remain. The buildings were built of rubble stone, without lime, only with clay, and naturally had to collapse quickly [...]
   It is possible that further excavation in the ruins could provide more information, as the Somalis have found gold coins here on several occasions, probably [imported] Persian or Turkish, which they exchanged with Arab or Indian merchants at the market in Berbera.

### Precolonial era

As the town of Fardowsa/Sheikh began to decline. The Sheikh Pass continued as an important road for caravans destined towards the coastal Berbera. In which the local Isa Musa tribe facilitated trade by protecting the caravans through the Sheikh Pass, in exchange for payment.
   The Musa Jibril is a sub-tribe of the Isa Musa which used to levy toll on the Sheikh Pass and the coast roads from the East,

#### Sheikh Tariqa

Sayyid Adan Ahmad was a Sunni Islamic scholar and a jurist, who worked towards the revival of the Sunnah and rejecting Bid´ah and Shirk. The town of Sheikh was revived by a religious community "Tariqa" led by Sayyid Adan Ahmed in the 19th century, after a return from Hejaz in which he stayed for a decade. Sayyid Adan studied and received his authorization Ijazah under either Shaykh Sayyid Muhammad ad-Dandarawi or Sayyid Ibrahim Al Rashid, a student of Sayid-Ahmad ibn Idris al-Fezi
   The settlement was founded by Sheikh Aadan Ahmad of the Habar Awal clan about 1885
Professor L. M. Lewis estimated that the religious settlement was founded in 1885. However, historian Sayid-Ahmed Dhegey, a descendant of one of the founders, Haji Jama Hannas, argued that it was established 30 years earlier, i.e 1850-1855. Further supporting this earlier timeline, Josef Menges' encounter with Sayyid Adan Ahmad in 1882 suggests that the settlement predates Lewis’s estimate, indicating its existence well before 1885.
Upon his return, he established religious communities in Sheikh and Hahi. The religious community later on resulted in Sheikh becoming a modern township.
During his lifetime, Sayyid Adan Ahmed had a reputation of piety, and was commonly approached to act as an arbitrator in lineage disputes
The german explorer Josef Menges encountered Sayyid Adan Ahmad, but only after facing significant resistance from a group of Sheikhs belonging to the religious community led by Sayyid Adan. The Sheikhs were returning to the plateu when they confronted the German explorer and his party, suspecting them of being spies seeking to seize their land. Initially, they attempted to block their advance by force. Only after a lengthy discussion did Menges´s Abban/guide manage to convince the Sheikhs that they were merely sports hunters in search of elephants, allowing them to continue their journey.
Later on, the German explorer offered Sayyid Adan Ahmad a gift worth six Thalers as a customary token of gratitude for his stay in the territory
   As usual, I naturally had to thank the holy man for my stay in his territory with a gift worth approximately six thalers. Sheikh Ahaden [Adan] lives on this plain with only a dozen "wodadin" [Wadaad]

## Demographics

Sheikh is primarily inhabited by the Mohamed Isa sub-division of the Isa Musa, Habr Awal Isaaq. As well as a smaller presence of Habr Yunis Isaaq
The german explorer Josef Menges, describes the demographic makeup of the wider district that includes Sheikh in 1882:
   The territory of the Isa Musa extends to this plain, and they have one of their general asssembly points close to the ruins [Fardowsa Ruins]. Further to the west begins the territory of the Habr Juni [Habr Yunis], whom i visited from here

## Administrative division

Most maps still indicate that the Sheikh District is one of the three districts in the Togdheer region/province, cf. the old 1986 administrative division of Somalia. However, an administrative redivision took place in 2002, transferring Sheikh District to the newly created Saaxil region, which initially became composed of five districts. In 2019, Saaxil's administrative divisions were reorganized and further divided, this time into eight districts. In the process, Sheikh's position as the capital of its own district was confirmed; see Art. 10.1 of the Regions and Districts Self-management Law, No. 23/2019. The boundaries of the 8 districts were not spelled out in the law and so it is unclear which settlements are in Sheikh's district, apart from Sheikh itself.

## Climate

Sheikh has a warm semi-arid steppe climate (BSh in the Köppen Climate Classification), tempered by the substantial altitude at which the town is situated, with an average annual temperature of 19.1 °C. Temperature variation is limited; the coldest month is January (average 14.4 °C); the warmest June (22.5 °C). Rainfall amounts to about 466 mm annually. April - May is the first rainy season (the so-called Gu rains) and these are also the two wettest months in which about 70mm falls. From August - October, there is a second rainy season (the so-called Dayr rains). Incidentally, rainfall can vary greatly from year to year. The dry season is from November - March.