However the Garad was not necessarily the most powerful figure of this polity, with Richard Burton reporting that the Abbaan, in modern parlance chiefly used as the derivative abaanduul meaning protector, on occasion exhibiting greater influence.
For example, Husayn Haji, the Abbaan of the northern Dhulbahante was depicted as dictating terms for travellers in the mid-19th century:[3] The reason for this step was that Husayn Haji, an Agil of the Dulbahantas and a connection of the Abban, demanded, as sole condition for permitting Lieutenant Speke to visit “Jid Ali,”Likewise, the Somali clans of this period didn't necessarily align on the basis of clan, with for example the southern Dhulbahante siding with the Warsangeli in their disputes with the northern Dhulbahante in the mid-19th century, according to explorer Richard Francis Burton: But there is no hostility between the Southern Dulbahantas and the Warsingali, on the old principle that “an enemy's enemy is a friend.”The reign of the 14th garad of the Dhulbahante, namely Garad Koore-baas was arguably the most backward period of the Dhulbahante Garadate, with Warsangeli sultan Cawl stating that it is too dangerous to even visit during the mid-19th century: To this the Sultan replied, that as far as his dominions extended the traveller was perfectly at liberty to go where he liked; but as for visiting the Dulbahantas, he could not hear of or countenance itThe predecessor to Diiriye Guure, i.e. Garad Ali 4th, was sheltered from two foreign incursions by being an interior rather than coastal clan, with prior to the British, the Egyptian Khedivate likewise making incursions in Somali territories, preliminarily in 1870, with a full Egyptian Khedivate occupation on the Somali coast by 1874:[4] Egypt, which then crept southwards.
In 1870 it acquired the coast between Bulhar and Berbera, and established garrisons at those ports as well as at Zeila, purchasing the Sultan's suzerain rights over the latter town for an annual payment of 15,000 [pounds].
Moreover, as will be recalled, the Dolbahanta were the only tribe with whom we had no formal protective treaty.The War Office replied that His Majesty's Government had no treaty with the Dolbahanta, and that to put the General's policy into effect would involve assurances of protection, which would still further add to our liabilities in a direction which had already cost so much.The mid-19th century predecessor of Diiriye Guure, namely Koore-baas, and his Dhulbahante constituents w ere likewise described in these self-determination and autonomy inclined ways by author Said Sheikh Samatar:[6] ... unlike other pastoralists, the Dulbahante are also excellent horsemen.
[1]The taxation plans for the Dhulbahante occurred in 1957, resembling a type of regulation and administration in return for public services and expenditure from Garad Jama Farah:[10] It is of interest, however, to note that a clan meeting of the Dulbhante at Las Anod in December 1957, which discussed matters of general Dulbahante interest including the maintenance of peace, education and closer relations with Government, proposed the establishment of a clan betterment fund, contributions to which were to be received by Garaad Jaama.