Sultanate of Warsangeli

  The Warsangali Sultanate was a centralized government on the pattern of a Muslim Sultanate, according to the late historian, I.M. Lewis. Today, the influence of Sultans and other traditional leaders has waned with the advent of modern nation state systems and a central government in Somalia that has to exercise national sovereignty. However, the longest surviving Muslim sultanate ever established in the Somali peninsula is the Warsangali Sultanate. It  has been in existence for the last six hundred years .  The Warsangali Sultanate was established on the coast of Gulf of Aden and grew prosperous from its trade with India, Southern Arabia, and East Africa . Its long history is characterized by defined population, defined territory, and organized political structure. The people of Warsangeli inhabit a large territory that extend to the west of Erigavo from Bosaso (Bari region), straddling from the shore of Laaso Suurad, (“Ras Surad”), bordered in the North by the Gulf of Aden to the pl