Abdi Ismail Samatar (Somali: Cabdi Ismaaciil Samatar, Arabic: عبدي إسماعيل ساماتار) (born 1950) is a Somali scholar, writer and professor of geography.

He is the brother of scholar and politician Ahmed Ismail Samatar.

[3][failed verification] Between the late 1980s and early 1990s, Samatar was a lecturer at the University of Iowa.

[2] In 2000, his non-fiction work An African Miracle was a finalist for the year's Herskovits Prize.

Additionally, he has been a frequent guest or contributor at various international media outlets, including Voice of America, PBS, Al Jazeera, the BBC, Radio France International, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, TV Channel 5 and Somali TV Minneapolis.