Sheikh Abdurahman Sh. Nur ( so, Sheekh Cabdiraxmaan Sheekh Nuur, ar, شيخ عبد الرحمن شيخ نور) was a

Somali Somali may refer to: Horn of Africa * Somalis, an inhabitant or ethnicity associated with Greater Somali Region ** Proto-Somali, the ancestors of modern Somalis ** Somali culture ** Somali cuisine ** Somali language, a Cushitic language ** Somali ...

Sheikh (religious leader), qādi (judge) of the government at that time and the inventor of the

Borama script The Gadabuursi script also known as the Borama alphabet (Borama: ), is a writing script for the Somali language. It was devised around 1933 by Sheikh Abdurahman Sh. Nur of the Gadabuursi clan. History Though not as widely known as Osmanya, ...

for the

Somali language Somali (Latin script: ; Wadaad: ; Osmanya: 𐒖𐒍 𐒈𐒝𐒑𐒛𐒐𐒘 ) is an Afroasiatic language belonging to the Cushitic branch. It is spoken as a mother tongue by Somalis in Greater Somalia and the Somali diaspora. Somali is an ...

.Somali alphabets, pronunciation and language
/ref>

Biography

Sheikh Abdurahman Sh. Nur was born in

Gabiley Gabiley ( so, Gabiley, ar, غابيلي), also known as Gebiley, is a city in the Maroodi Jeex region of Somaliland. Gabiley is located 58 km west of Hargeisa, the capital of Somaliland. It is in the center of the Gabiley district, bounded ...

and grew up in

Borama Borama ( so, Boorama, ar, بورما) is the Second capital city of Somaliland and the largest city of the northwestern Awdal region of Somaliland The commercial seat of the province, it is situated near the border with Ethiopia. During the M ...

and was of the royal lineage, the Reer Ugaas subclan of the Makayl-Dheere branch of the

Gadabuursi The Gadabuursi (Somali: ''Gadabuursi'', Arabic: جادابورسي), also known as ''Samaroon'' (Arabic: ''قبيلة سَمَرُون)'', is a northern Somali clan, a sub-division of the Dir clan family. The Gadabuursi are geographically sp ...

Dir clan.David D. Laitin, ''Politics, Language, and Thought: The Somali Experience'', (University Of Chicago Press: 1977), pp.86-87. Growing up he was a

Qur'an The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , si ...

ic teacher in the

British Somaliland British Somaliland, officially the Somaliland Protectorate ( so, Dhulka Maxmiyada Soomaalida ee Biritishka), was a British protectorate in present-day Somaliland. During its existence, the territory was bordered by Italian Somalia, French So ...

protectorate A protectorate, in the context of international relations, is a state that is under protection by another state for defence against aggression and other violations of law. It is a dependent territory that enjoys autonomy over most of its in ...

. His father Sheikh Nur was a well-known and notable figure and was a qādi for many years. He was a learned or knowledgeable man, in particular when it came to the history of his own clan, the

Sheikh Sheikh (pronounced or ; ar, شيخ ' , mostly pronounced , plural ' )—also transliterated sheekh, sheyikh, shaykh, shayk, shekh, shaik and Shaikh, shak—is an honorific title in the Arabic language. It commonly designates a chief of a ...

'Abdurahman would later follow in his father's footsteps by also becoming a qādi, albeit of the entire northern British Somaliland region. In 1833, Nuur devised a quite phonetically accurate new

orthography An orthography is a set of conventions for writing a language, including norms of spelling, hyphenation, capitalization, word breaks, emphasis, and punctuation. Most transnational languages in the modern period have a writing system, and ...

for transcribing the Somali language. While the script enjoyed considerable currency in his hometown, the Sheikh harbored no illusions as to its widespread adoption, writing in a publication of his wherein he employed the script itself that "I publish it here with no intention of attempting to contribute to the already abundant confusion in the choice of a standard orthography for Somali".

Notes

References

*David D. Laitin, ''Politics, language, and thought: the Somali experience'', (University of Chicago Press: 1977) *

External links

Osmanya, Borama, Wadaad's writing and the Somali language

The Gadabuursi Somali Script
- qasidas in Gadabuursi/Borama {{Authority control Ethnic Somali people Creators of writing systems Gadabuursi People from Maroodi Jeex People from Awdal

Biography

See also

Notes

References

External links