Sheikh Abdurahman Sheikh Nuur (, ) was a Somali Sheikh (religious leader), qādi (judge) of the government at that time and the inventor of the Borama script for the Somali language.
Biography
Sheikh Abdurahman Sh. Nuur was born in Gabiley and grew up in Hargeisa and was of royal lineage, the Reer Ugaas of the Gadabuursi. Growing up he was a Qur'anic teacher in the British Somaliland protectorate. 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 Gadabuursi. Sheikh 'Abdurahman would later follow in his father's footsteps by also becoming a qādi, albeit of the entire northern British Somaliland region.
In 1933, Sheikh Nuur devised a quite phonetically accurate new orthography for transcribing the Somali language. While the script enjoyed considerable currency in his home region, 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".
See also
Borama script
Osmanya script
Kaddare script
Somali alphabet
Wadaad's writing
Osman Yusuf Kenadid
Shire Jama Ahmed
Hussein Sheikh Ahmed Kaddare
Notes
References
David D. Laitin, Politics, language, and thought: the Somali experience, (University of Chicago Press: 1977)