According to these traditions, which were also preserved in several Arabic hagiologies,[1] he was an Islamic scholar of the Shafi’i school who crossed the sea from Arabia to the Horn of Africa.

[2][3][4][5] According to tradition, Sheikh Ishaaq traveled from Arabia to Somaliland in the 10th or 11th century, where he married two women; one from the local Dir clan and the other from the neighbouring Harari people.

[10] The stories surrounding Sheikh Ishaaq have played an important role in establishing and reinforcing the Arab and Muslim identity of the Isaaq clan.

[11] Scholar Christopher Ehret considers the founders of Somali clans like the Isaaq and the Darod to have been historical figures, but he regards the accounts surrounding them as legends.

[17][page needed] According to tradition, after the death of Sheikh Ishaaq's grandfather he went on a series of migrations in order to study further and preach Islam.

[11] Scholar Sada Mire also regards the narratives surrounding the founders of Somali clan lineages like Ishaaq bin Ahmed to be part of origin myths.

In her view, these origin myths are meant to establish, through the link created between modern Somali clans and early Islamic figures like the prophet Muhammad or Ali ibn Abi Talib, a notion of 'divine kinship'.

Scholar Ioan Lewis considers that, given the preponderance of names belonging to early Islamic Arabia rather than to medieval Somali-Arab culture, this lineage is unlikely to be genuine.

[13] The pan-Islamic scholar Sharif Aydarus considers the accounts to be largely historical, and agrees with the tradition of Ishaaq bin Ahmed's Arab origin.

The oldest recorded genealogy of a Somali in Western literature was by Sir Richard Burton in the mid–19th century regarding his Isaaq (Habr Yunis) host and the governor of Zeila, Sharmarke Ali Saleh.

[39] To strengthen these tribal stereotypes, historical anecdotes have been used: The Habar Yonis allegedly dominated positions as interpreters for the British during the colonial period, and thus acquired pretensions to intellectual and political superiority; Habr Awal dominance of the trade via Djibouti and Berbera is practically uncontested; and Habr Je’lo military prowess is cited in accounts of previous conflicts.

Murray in his book The Journal of the Royal Geographical Society notes that many men from the western Isaaq clans would travel to Maydh to spend the last years of their lives in hopes of being buried near Sheikh Ishaaq.

Attachment to the memory of their forefather Isaakh yet induces many aged men of the western tribes to pass the close of their lives at Meyet, in order that their tombs may be found near that of their chief, and this will account for the unusual size of this cemetery.