Muḥammad ibn 'Abdallāh Hassan

Muḥammad Ibn Abdallāh Ibn Hassan (Arabic: محمد بن عبدالله حسن: Somali: Maxamed Cabdulle Xasan; Osmanya: 𐒉𐒖𐒕𐒕𐒘𐒆 𐒑𐒙𐒔𐒖𐒑𐒑𐒗𐒆 𐒛𐒁𐒆𐒚𐒐𐒐𐒖𐒔 H𐒖𐒈𐒈𐒖𐒒: 7 April 1856 – 21 December 1920) was a Somali Scholar, Poet, Religious, Political, Cultural and Military leader who founded and headed the Dervish movement, which led a holy war against British, Italian and Ethiopian colonial intrusions in the Somali Peninsula. He was famously known by the British Empire as the "Mad Mullah". In 1917, the Ottoman Empire referred him as the "Emir of the Somali People". Due to his successful completion of the Hajj to Mecca, his assertion of being the descendants of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and his complete memorization of the Quran, his name is preluded with honorifics such as Hajji, Hafiz, Emir, Sheikh, Mullah or Sayyid. His influence on the Somali people led him to being regarded the "Father of the Somali People".