2 



ABYSSINIA. 



had led victoriously against the enemies of Mene- 

 lek in the region disputed by Great Britain. In 

 1900 King Menelek requested the co-operation of 

 the British in suppressing a fanatical Moham- 

 medan mollah who was disturbing the peace 

 among the tribes on the borders of the British 

 Somaliland protectorate and the Abyssinian do- 

 minions. A combined movement of British and 

 Abyssinian troops was arranged. Haji Moham- 

 med ben Abdullah, known as the Mad Mollah. an 

 Ogaden Somali about thirty years old, educated 

 as a wahad, or theologian, a disciple of the Sheik 

 Mohammed Saleh. the head of the mystic order 

 of Tarika Mohamalia at Mecca, persuaded many 

 of the Somalis that he was the incarnation of the 

 prophet, appointed by the divine will to regener- 

 ate the people of his race and establish an inde- 

 pendent kingdom. Having acquired much influ- 

 ence among the Ogaden and Dolbohanti tribes as 



wide the tribes who still professed loyalty to- 

 Great Britain, and killing a powerful chief who 

 warned him of the fate which awaited him at the 

 hands of the British Government, he retreated to 

 the country of the Ibrahim tribe of northern 

 Ogaden, and from that base extended his influence 

 among the tribes on the Abyssinian frontier, seiz- 

 ing the head men and cattle of the tribes that 

 refused to join him. Ras Makonen, the Governor 

 of Harar, sent an expedition of 1,500 men to put 

 a stop to his depredations. Early in 1900 the 

 mollah attacked the Abyssinians at their fron- 

 tier post of Jig Jiga, but was repulsed with heavy 

 loss. Then he returned to Ogaden and began to 

 raid tribes friendly to the English and the no- 

 madic Somalis who move with their herds back 

 and forth between British and Abyssinian ter- 

 ritory according to the state of the pasturage. 

 The raids of his horsemen checked trade and 



a holy man who had made several pilgrimages to peaceful industry and led to the joint Anglo- 

 Mecca, he organized a body of dervishes who Abyssinian expedition, the plans for which were 

 plundered other tribes on both sides of the bor- agreed upon in December, 1900. It was arranged 



der. When the mollah began to subjugate the 

 Somalis of Abyssinia, while maintaining a con 



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that English officers should accompany the Abys- 

 sinian expedition and an Abyssinian officer be 



ciliatory and submissive attitude toward Great present with the British force, and that during 



Britain, the British at Berbera looked with favor the operations the frontier between Abyssinian 



upon the movement,, which the French and Rus- and British territories should be regarded as non- 



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sians accused them of fostering. The British 

 authorities were inclined to encourage the new 

 sect in their own territory so long as its leader 

 was simply a religious teacher, enjoining regu- 

 larity in prayers and other rites, and while his 

 influence was exerted to allay feuds among the 

 tribes and he himself delivered up malefactors for 

 punishment. The people of Berbera would not 

 listen to the strict teachings of the new sect, 

 which interdicted the use of the leaf kat, the 

 favorite -intoxicant of the coast Somalis, but the 

 tribes of the interior fell under the mollah's in- 



existent. Col. Hayes Sadler set about the organi- 

 zation of a force of Somalis, w r hich was not ready 

 for operations till the end of March, 1901. The 

 Somali frontier force, trained and commanded by 

 Col. Swayne, consisted of 1,000 infantry, 400 

 mounted spearmen, and 100 camel sowars. The 

 Abyssinians had 10,000 men under Ras Makonen 

 assembled at Jig Jiga a month before the British 

 were ready to act. They marched southeastward, 

 and after a series of skirmishes in the Harradig-' 

 git district, and the capture of the enemy's camp 

 at Walwal, with great numbers of camels, sheep, 



fluence. At first he abstained from raiding an- and goats, they drove the mollah out of Ogaden, 

 tagonistic tribes in the British protectorate or in- which they raided to avenge a defeat that they 

 terfering with the caravan trade, but after the suffered five years before, when 6,000 Abyssinians 



Habba Unis joined him he sent a defiant message 

 to Col. Hayes Sadler, the British consul-general 

 at Berbera, and took up an attitude of hostility 

 toward all those who had dealings with the Brit- 

 ish authorities, denouncing the British Govern- 

 ment and all who acknowledged it as infidels. 



fell in battle. They could not now remain long 

 in this arid country, and fell back in order to 

 reorganize their force in time for the combined 

 movement with the British. They endured great 

 privations, inasmuch as it was the dry season of 

 the year, and the few wells had been closed by the 



In the autumn of 1899 he advanced to Burao, 90 mollah and were only reopened with difficulty. 



miles south of Berbera, with a force estimated at 

 2,000 horsemen and 3,000 spearmen, with 400 

 rifles among them. He burned the town of a sec- 

 tion hostile to his religious teachings, and estab- 



Many stragglers returned in a famished condition 

 to Harar. The force encamped round the wells 

 of Gerloguby, where they held their ground when 

 attacked by the dervishes. They waited until 



lished himself in the plain, threatening Berbera the rains came to enable them to advance, with 



itself, and gaining many adherents by his suc- 

 cesses, which were attributed to miraculous 

 power. The ignorant believed that he could turn 

 bullets into water and hear all that was said 

 about him in distant places. While the British 

 were making preparations to crush his force with 

 troops from India he retired in November, 1899, 

 to the Dolbohanti. The British thereupon sus- 



8,000 troops accompanied by 25,000 followers and 

 as many pack animals, across the desert 300 miles 

 to the forest region of Dolbohanti in British ter- 

 ritory where the mollah had taken refuge. The 

 British force when able to take the field in May 

 advanced from Burao in the direction of Dolbo- 

 hanti. Ras Makonen had waited impatiently for 

 the British, and was about to recall his troops 



pended their preparations. The local authorities from Ogaden, where they suffered greatly from 



urged immediate action, saying that the power of 

 the mollah would grow rapidly if the expedition 

 were deferred. The Imperial Government never- 



disease and privation. When the British did 

 move he organized a fresh force of picked Abys- 

 sinian warriors from Harar to relieve these ex- 



theless deemed delay expedient in view of the hausted troops, who were mostly Somalis led by 

 state of affairs in other parts of the world. At the Gabri of Fi Taurari. The fresh Abyssinian 



expedition concentrated at Dagaha Mado, 150 

 miles south of Harar. It consisted of 10,000 men 

 and horses, with a vast number of camp-followers 

 and baggage animals, and was commanded by 

 Abanabro, whose title was Kanyazmach, or com- 

 mander of the right wing. 



The British, when prepared to move from their 



part 



Burao, Mohammed Abdullah proclaimed himself 

 the true Mahdi, and announced that all Moham- 

 medans who refused to join him were no true 

 believers. He claimed to rule all central Somali- 

 land, acknowledging no British authority except- 

 ing on the coast. His unchecked reprisals against 

 tribes which were friendly to the English caused 

 them to waver and to doubt the power of Great 

 Britain to protect them. After looting far and 



advanced base, still delayed operations until they 

 could obtain information as to the movements 



