Abdirahman bin Isma'il al-Jabarti

Abdirahman bin Isma'il al-Jabarti, also known as Darod, Dawud or Da'ud, is the man traditionally held to be the common ancestor of the Somali Darod clan. According to early Islamic books and local tradition, Abdirahman is believed to have descended from Aqeel ibn Abi Talib, a member of the Banu Hashim and the cousin of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.

Authors such as Ibn Hawqal, Al-Muqaddasi and Ibn Said have confirmed the early presence of Arabian tribes in municipalities such as Berbera, Zeila, Jabarta (an old metropolis now in ruins), and Massawa in the northern Horn of Africa.

Al-Masudi wrote about the specific Arabian families and tribes that lived in Jabarta and Zeila in his 9th century book Aqeeliyoon. This book sheds light on one individual, a Sufi Sheikh of the Qadiriyyah order called Isma'il ibn Ibrahim al-Jabarti, who fathered several children, one of which was named Abdirahman.

According to such early Islamic books and Somali tradition, Muhammad ibn Aqil's descendant Abdirahman bin Isma'il al-Jabarti (Darod) fled his homeland in the Arabian Peninsula after an argument with his uncle. During the 10th or 11th century CE, he is believed to have then settled in northern Somalia just across the Red Sea. He subsequently married Dobira, the daughter of the Dir clan chief, which is said to have given rise to the Darod clan family. Thus, it established matrilateral ties with the Samaale main stem.

According to the British anthropologist and Somali Studies veteran I.M. Lewis, while the traditions of descent from noble Arab families related to Muhammad are most probably expressions of the importance of Islam in Somali society, "there is a strong historically valid component in these legends which, in the case of the Darod, is confirmed in the current practice of a Dir representative officiating at the ceremony of installation of the chief of the Darod family."

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Wikipedia