federal republic of somalia

Somalia (/səˈmɑːliə/ so-MAH-lee-ə;^[7][8][9] Somali: Soomaaliya; Arabic: الصومال‎, translit. aṣ-Ṣūmāl), officially the Federal Republic of Somalia^[1] (Somali: Jamhuuriyadda Federaalka Soomaaliya; Arabic: جمهورية الصومال الفيدرالية‎, translit. Jumhūrīyah aṣ-Ṣūmāl al-Fīdirālīyah; Italian: Repubblica Federale di Somalia), is a country with its territory located in the Horn of Africa. It is bordered by Ethiopia to the west, Djibouti to the northwest, the Gulf of Aden to the north, the Guardafui Channel and Indian Ocean to the east, and Kenya to the southwest. It is separated from Socotra by the Guardafui Channel in the northeast. Somalia has the longest coastline on Africa's mainland,^[10] and its terrain consists mainly of plateaus, plains and highlands.^[5] Climatically, hot conditions prevail year-round, with periodic monsoon winds and irregular rainfall.^[11]
In terms of culture, religion, ethnicity and linguistics, it has been described as the "only"^[12] and the "most"^[13] homogeneous country in Africa. Somalia has an estimated population of around 14.3 million.^[14] Around 85% of its residents are ethnic Somalis,^[5] who have historically inhabited the northern part of the country. Ethnic minorities are largely concentrated in the southern regions.^[15] The official languages of Somalia are Somali and Arabic, both of which belong to the Afroasiatic family.^[5] Most people in the country are Muslim,^[16] with the majority being Sunni.^[17]
In antiquity, Somalia was an important commercial centre.^[18][19] It is among the most probable locations of the fabled ancient Land of Punt.^[20][21][22] During the Middle Ages, several powerful Somali empires dominated the regional trade, including the Ajuran Empire, the Adal Sultanate, the Warsangali Sultanate, and the Sultanate of the Geledi.
In the late 19th century, through a succession of treaties with these kingdoms, the British and Italian empires gained control of parts of the coast and established the colonies of British Somaliland and Italian Somaliland.^[23][24] In the interior, Mohammed Abdullah Hassan's movement repelled the British Empire four times and forced it to retreat to the coastal region,^[25] before succumbing to defeat in 1920 by British airpower.^[26] The toponym Somalia was coined by the Italian explorer Luigi Robecchi Bricchetti (1855–1926).^[27] Italy acquired full control of the northeastern, central and southern parts of the area after successfully waging the so-called Campaign of the Sultanates against the ruling Majeerteen Sultanate and Sultanate of Hobyo.^[24] Italian occupation lasted until 1941, yielding to British military administration. British Somaliland would remain a protectorate, while Italian Somaliland in 1949 became a United Nations Trusteeship under Italian administration, the Trust Territory of Somaliland. In 1960, the two regions united to form the independent Somali Republic under a civilian government.The Supreme Revolutionary Council seized power in 1969 and established the Somali Democratic Republic. Led by Mohamed Siad Barre, this government later collapsed in 1991 as the Somali Civil War broke out. Various armed factions began competing for influence in the power vacuum, particularly in the south. During this period, due to the absence of a central government, Somalia was a "failed state", and residents returned to customary and religious law in most regions. A few autonomous regions, including the Somaliland and Puntland administrations, emerged in the north. The early 2000s saw the creation of fledgling interim federal administrations. The Transitional National Government (TNG) was established in 2000, followed by the formation of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) in 2004, which reestablished national institutions such as the military.^[5][5][29] In 2006, the TFG, assisted by Ethiopian troops, assumed control of most of the nation's southern conflict zones from the newly formed Islamic Courts Union (ICU).

people
- ‘Abd al-‘Azīz al-Amawī (Arabic: عبد العزيز الأموي‎; 1838–1896) was a scholar following the Shāfi‘ī school of jurisprudence and the Ash'arite school of theology, and was a Sufi shaykh of the Qādiryya Sufi order, of which he established his own branch. He was also adviser to several sultans of Zanzibar. Al-Amawī was born in the city of Barawa, Somalia, where he pursued studies under several well-known scholars, such as Sayyid Abū Bakr al-Miḥḍār al-Ḥaḍramī, Ḥājj ‘Alī b. ‘Abd al-Raḥmān, and the North African scholar Sayyid Aḥmad al-Maghribī. Al-Amawī left Barawa for Zanzibar in his teens to study under Muhyi al-Din al-Qahtani, the chief Shāfi‘ī qādī of Zanzibar. Al-Qahtani introduced him to the sultan of Zanzibar, Sayyid Sa'id bin Sultan. In 1854, al-Amawī, who was then only sixteen years old, was appointed by the Sultan as the Qadi (judge) of Kilwa.^[1] Al-Amawī was soon transferred to Zanzibar, where he served until 1891, when his son Burhān took the position. Al-Amawī wrote on theology, law, Sufism, grammar, rhetoric, and history, and composed an unfinished Swahili-Arabic dictionary. He also served as a political advisor, ambassador, and diplomat in Somalia, the Comoro islands, the Rovuma River region, and various other places on the African mainland on behalf of two of Zanzibar's sultans, Sayyid Mājid (r. 1856–70) and Sayyid Barghash (r. 1870–88). Abdallah Salih Farsy wrote that al-Amawī became a virtual prime minister during the reign of Sayyid Khalīfa (r. 1888–90).^[2] Although Farsy said all of his writings were missing, since 2000 portions of his writings, all unpublished, were located in Dar Es Salaam (copies of which can be found in the Zanzibar National Archives) and in the library of Sayyid Muhammad Āl Bū Sa‘īdī in Seeb, Oman. They include portions of his diaries from two of his six journeys in the Rovuma region, a history of the Bū Saʻīdī dynasty, Sufi and devotional texts, a work on rhetoric, and a theological poem following the doctrines of the Ash‘arite school of Sunni Islam, ‘Iqd al-la’ālī (Necklace of Pearls), with a lengthy commentary, Taqrīb ‘Iqd al-la’ālī ilā fahm al-atfāli . This poem was written in response to a twelfth-century theological poem, Bad’ al-āmāl, written by Sirāj al-Dīn ‘Alī b.‘Uthmān al-Ūshī al-Farghānī, following the doctrines of the Māturidite school of Sunni Islam.
Randall Pouwels writes that al-Amawī’s success as a Sufi shaykh led to many conversions from Ibāḍī Islam (to which the ruling class of Zanzibar belonged) to Sunni Islam, making him an embarrassment to Sayyid Barghash, who banned him from attending Friday prayers at the mosque.