Ughaz

Ughaz (sometimes spelled Ugass, Ugas or Ougaz) is a traditional Somali title.{{cite book |last1=Dostal |first1=Walter |title=Shattering Tradition Custom, Law and the Individual in the Muslim Mediterranean |date=22 April 2005 |publisher=I.B.Tauris |page=296 |isbn=978-0-85771-677-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P-eKDwAAQBAJ&dq=ugaas&pg=PA296}}{{cite journal |last1=Boqor |first1=Maryan |title=Memories of a Mogadishu Childhood, 1940-1964: Maryan Muuse Boqor and the Women Who Inspired Her |journal=The International Journal of African Historical Studies |date=2009 |volume=42 |issue=1 |publisher=Boston University African Studies Center |page=107 |jstor=40282432 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40282432}} It is primarily used by the Dir and Darod clans.{{cite book |title=Ugaas |publisher=Encyclopedia Aethiopica |url=https://en.sewasew.com/p/ugaas}}

Etymology

According to Italian linguist Giorgio Banti, the term "Ughaz" is of Ethio-Semitic origin.{{cite book |last1=Banti |first1=Giorgio |title=African Arabic: Approaches to Dialectology |chapter=Strata on loanwords from Arabic and other Semitic languages in Northern Somali |date=2013 |publisher=De Gruyter Mouton |page=202 |doi=10.1515/9783110292343.185 |isbn=978-3-11-029232-9 |chapter-url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110292343.185/html?lang=en}} However Djiboutian researcher, Ali Moussa Iye, states that the term "Ughaz" is composed of the two Somali terms "ul" and "gaas" meaning "the stick of the warrior’s chief".{{Cite book |last=Uhlig |first=Siegbert |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t8VHAQAAIAAJ |title=Encyclopaedia Aethiopica |date=2010 |publisher=Eisenbrauns |isbn=978-3-447-06246-6 |pages=1015–1016 |language=en}}{{Cite book |last=Iye |first=Ali Moussa |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X6LPrQEACAAJ |title=Le verdict de l'arbre: le Xeer Issa : essai sur une démocratie endogène africaine |date=2014 |publisher=Dagan Éditions |isbn=978-2-919612-50-5 |pages=256 |language=fr}} American archeologist, Julien Cooper, labeled "gas/gos" as a pan-Cushitic kinship root word with various reflexes such as "Ughaz" in Somali and "Gosa" in Burji. He later stated that this required further research.{{Cite book |last=Cooper |first=Julien |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=znD-DwAAQBAJ&dq=gos+cushitic&pg=PA91 |title=Toponymy on the Periphery: Placenames of the Eastern Desert, Red Sea, and South Sinai in Egyptian Documents from the Early Dynastic until the End of the New Kingdom |date=2020-08-03 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-42221-6 |pages=91 |language=en}}{{Cite book |last=Leslau |first=Wolf |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=S7ckMbbwiHQC |title=Etymological Dictionary of Gurage (Ethiopic): Individual dictionaries |date=1979 |publisher=Otto Harrassowitz Verlag |isbn=978-3-447-02041-1 |pages=288–299 |language=en}}{{Cite book |last=Allan R. Bomhard |url=https://archive.org/details/hudson-highland-east-cushitic-dictionary-complete-1989 |title=Hudson - Highland East Cushitic Dictionary (1989) |pages=112}}{{Cite book |last=Larajasse (père.) |first=Évangéliste de |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6yQUAAAAYAAJ |title=Somali-English and English-Somali Dictionary |date=1897 |publisher=K. Paul, Trench, Trübner & Company |pages=137 |language=en}}{{Cite book |last=Hudson |first=Grover |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dzV5ngEACAAJ |title=Northeast African Semitic: Lexical Comparisons and Analysis |date=2013 |publisher=Harrassowitz |isbn=978-3-447-06983-0 |pages=159 |language=en}}

History

File:Ughaz Dodi.jpg

After the downfall of the Adal Sultanate in the sixteenth century, the region descended into turmoil, which led to the establishment of the Ughaz. This figure was endowed with the authority to resolve conflicts among the different Somali clans, in addition to other responsibilities.{{cite book |last1=Lawson |first1=Bill |title=Faces of Environmental Racism Confronting Issues of Global Justice |date=26 June 2001 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishers |page=220 |isbn=978-0-7425-7950-7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ncEzAAAAQBAJ&dq=It+was+decided+that+the+traditional+clan+leader,+the+Ugaas+(oth-+er+Somalis+use+Suldan+or+Bogor),+would+be+chosen+from+the+numerically+smallest+subclan+of+the+six&pg=PA220}} According to I. M. Lewis, in the early 1600s Ughaz Ali Makahil successfully repelled the Oromo Invasions in modern northern Somalia.{{cite book |last1=Hersi |first1=Ali |title=The Arab factor in Somali history: the origins and the development of Arab enterprise and cultural influences in the Somali Peninsula |date=1985 |publisher=UCLA |page=229 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WlqhwwEACAAJ}} In the Issa clan, the Wardiq sub-clan traditionally elects the Ughaz.{{cite book |last1=Ambroso |first1=Guido |title=CLANSHIP, CONFLICT AND REFUGEES: AN INTRODUCTION TO SOMALIS IN THE HORN OF AFRICA |publisher=Roma Tre University |page=7 |url=https://arcadia.sba.uniroma3.it/bitstream/2307/4150/1/Clanship_%20conflict%20and%20refugees_An%20introduction%20to%20Somalis%20in%20the%20Horn%20of%20Africa.pdf}}

In the late 1800s French trader Alfred Bardey states the Ughaz were responsible for ensuring the safety of the route connecting Harar and Zeila from any disturbances.{{cite book |last1=Nieuważny |first1=Adam |title=Civil status documents from Harar under Egyptian Administration 1875-1885 |date=November 2021 |publisher=Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies, University of Warsaw |page=17 |isbn=978-83-954430-8-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DndMEAAAQBAJ&dq=mentions+in+his+Notes+sur+le+Harar+that+the+Isa+were+later+exempt+from+taxes+and+that+the+ugaas+was+in+charge+of+ensuring+that+the+road+from+Harar+to+Zayla+was+safe&pg=PA17}} The Ughaz appeared to exert significant influence in the Emirate of Harar, as the sister of Emir Abdullahi II was wed to a member of the Ughaz.{{cite journal |last1=Caulk |first1=R. A. |title=Harär Town and its Neighbours in the Nineteenth Century |journal=The Journal of African History |date=1977 |volume=18 |issue=3 |pages=369–386 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |doi=10.1017/S0021853700027316 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-african-history/article/abs/harar-town-and-its-neighbours-in-the-nineteenth-century1/53CC7AC028B629744046F5045D3E6A08|url-access=subscription }}

In the early 1900s, subsequent to the deposition of the appointed Ethiopian emperor Lij Iyasu, the Ogaden governor, Abdullahi Sadiq, was apprehended along with several Ughaz by Ethiopian authorities in Harar. This group included Ughaz Hasan from Ogaden, Ughaz Omar representing the Malingoor, Robleh Nur of the Gadabuursi, and members of Rer Dalal, among others.{{cite journal |last1=Barnes |first1=Cedric |title=Provinces and Princes - Power and the Eastern Ethiopian Periphery C 1906-1916 |journal=Journal of Ethiopian Studies |date=2001 |volume=34 |issue=2 |publisher=Institute of Ethiopian Studies |page=114 |jstor=41966123 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41966123}}