page_title: Puntland
section_title: Northern Sultanates
hierarchical_section_title: Puntland / History / Northern Sultanates
caption_attribution_description: English: Portrait of Mohamoud Ali Shire, the 20th Sultan of the Somali Sultanate of Warsangali.
context_page_description: Puntland, officially the Puntland State of Somalia, is a Federal Member State in northeastern Somalia. Centred on the town of Garoowe in the Nugal province, its leaders declared the territory an autonomous state within Somalia in 1998.
  Puntland is bordered by Somaliland to its west, the Gulf of Aden in the north, the Guardafui Channel in the northeast, the Somali Sea in the southeast, the central Galmudug region in the south, and Ethiopia in the southwest. There are several major geographical apexes in Puntland, including the Cape Guardafui which forms the tip of the Horn of Africa, Ras Hafun the easternmost place on the entire African continent, and the beginning of the Karkaar mountain range. It also has the northernmost major city in Somalia, Bosaso, located at a line of latitude higher than 11° north.
  The name "Puntland" is derived from the Land of Punt mentioned in ancient Egyptian sources, although the exact location of the fabled territory is still a mystery. Many studies suggest that the Land of Punt was located in present-day Somalia, whereas others propose that it was situated elsewhere.
context_section_description: The Warsangali Sultanate was an imperial ruling house centred in northeastern and in some parts of southeastern Somalia. It was one of the largest sultanates ever established in the territory, and, at the height of its power, included the Sanaag region and parts of the northeastern Bari region of the country, an area historically known as Maakhir or the Maakhir Coast. The Sultanate was founded in the 13th century in northern Somalia by a group of Somalis from the Warsangali branch of the Darod clan, and was ruled by the descendants of the Gerad Dhidhin. In the late 19th century, the influential Sultan Mohamoud Ali Shire governed the Sultanate, assuming control during some of its most turbulent years.
  The Dishiishe clan was among powerful clans in northeastern region. Ugas Yasin was one of the prominent Dishiishe clan chiefs who ruled the ancient town of Bosaso and subsequently emerged as a powerful traditional elder who fully controlled areas under his rule.
  The Majeerteen Sultanate (Migiurtinia) was founded in the mid-18th century. It rose to prominence the following century, under the reign of the resourceful Boqor (King) Osman Mahamuud. Centred in Aluula, it controlled much of northern and central Somalia in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The polity maintained a robust trading network, entered into treaties with foreign powers, and exerted strong centralized authority on the domestic front.
  The Majeerteen Sultanate was nearly destroyed in the mid-1800s by a power struggle between Boqor Osman and his ambitious cousin, Yusuf Ali Kenadid. After almost five years of battle, the young upstart was finally forced into exile in Yemen. A decade later, in the 1870s, Kenadid returned from the Arabian Peninsula with a band of Hadhrami musketeers and a group of devoted lieutenants. With their assistance, he managed to overpower the local clans and establish the Sultanate of Hobyo in 1878.
  In late 1889, Boqor Osman entered into a treaty with Italy, making his realm an Italian protectorate. His rival Sultan Kenadid had signed a similar agreement vis-a-vis his own Sultanate the year before. Both rulers had signed the protectorate treaties to advance their own expansionist objectives, with Boqor Osman looking to use Italy's support in his ongoing power struggle with Kenadid over the Majeerteen Sultanate. Boqor Osman and Sultan Kenadid also hoped to exploit the conflicting interests among the European imperial powers that were then looking to control the Somali peninsula, so as to avoid direct occupation of their territories by force.
  With the gradual extension into northern Somalia of European colonial rule, all three sultanates were annexed to Italian Somaliland and British Somaliland in the early 20th century.
caption: Mohamoud Ali Shire, Sultan of the Warsangali Sultanate
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