Karanle, was the firstborn son of Hawiye,[3] and was born to his first wife Arbera, who is said to be of Arab descent, and thus was tasked with the duty of upholding harmony within the community.

[11] The Karanle of Somalia and Ethiopia and NFD Kenya are also closely linked with several ancient historical capitals such as Harrar and Mogadishu, setting up foundational quarters of the towns such as Harar's Erer Gate of the Reer Erer Nur of the Gidir clan family which houses the tomb of Nur Mujahid and the Jami Mosque, the oldest in town.

[12] The Sheikh Basikh (or Raoûf) Mosque, once the largest in town, was a political centre for Karanle figures before its conversion to the Medhane Alem church in 1890 at the hands of Menelik after the Battle of Chelenqo.

Gragne's wife was also the daughter of Emir Mahfuz, an important relative,[15][16] ruler of Zeila and a Balaw, a Karanle subclan also listed as a group of tribes from Bale[17] and a commonly Ethiopian mistranslation of the Coptic Christian synaxarium of Alexandria's "muslim badawī (bedouin/nomadic descent)" for Muslims in Egypt, Sudan, Somalia and the Red Sea Gulf.

Weakened by centuries of northern conflict, the Karanle of the post Adal Harar Emirate continued to remain powerful in the Somali interior and would later form a dynasty of jurists in early modern Zeila.