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Taleh (, ) is a historical town in the eastern Sool region of Somalia . As of September 2015, both Puntland and Somalia had nominal influence or control in Taleh and it's vicinity. The town served as the capital of the pre-independence Dervish movement.
The Dalyare fort and the Taleh complex built between 1909 and 1910 are among the least disfigured Dervish era structures that remain in Sool province, whom altogether comprise 27 Dervish era structures. The oldest or first of these forts was the Ugaadhyahan Dhulbahante-inhabited fort at Halin and destroyed by Eric Swayne in 1902; the second-oldest was the Bah Ali Gheri Dhulbahante-inhabited fort at Eyl built in 1903.
Taleh succeeded the city of Eyl (Illig) as the Dervish capital for four years from 1905 onwards. According to the concurrent London Gazette, Taleh and Jidali were the two main Dhulbahante garesas inhabited by Dervish.
History
Dervish State
Dhulbahante garesa
In the Dervish-written letter's description of the fall of Taleh in February 1920, in an April 1920 letter transcribed from the original Arabic script into Italian by the incumbent Governatori della Somalia, the various Dervish-built installations are described as garesas taken from the Dhulbahante clan by the British:
The Mogadishu governor was later inspired to similarly refer to his resident mansion as a garesa.
Choice as capital
According to Dervish veteran Ciise Faarax Fikad, Taleh was chosen as the Dervish capital because the Nugaal Valley lies at the heartland of Dhulbahante territory, its distance from colonial administrative centers and to generate geographical distance from the hostile bodies such as Rayid signatories to British treaties, the Majeerteen, those under Mohamoud Ali Shire and the Ogaden who were in general opposed to the Dervish:
Colonial sources concur with Somali sources that non-Dhulbahante clans were hostile towards the Dervish:
Dervish forts/Dhulbahante garesas
Taleh is home to several historic structures dating to the Dervish era. Of these, there are five forts erected by Mohammed Abdullah Hassan's former Dervish movement in present-day Sool and Sanaag. Constructed between 1901 and 1915, most of the edifices are concentrated in the Sanaag & Sool region, including Dalyare fort, Jidali fort, Midhisho, Shimbir Bariis and Badhan. Taleh/Taleex is the largest of the structures. According to Cabdi-Yaar Cali Guuleed, a Dervish veteran, the largest Dhulbahante fort from the Dervish era is the Dhulbahante fort of Taleh which according to him was built between 1909 and 1910 and he said the following:
It was built around a collection of Dervish tombs, the earliest of which belongs to Sultan Nur Ahmed Aman and Carro Seed Magan, the mother of the emir of Diiriye Guure, i.e. the Sayid. From 1909 to 1910, the Dervish constructed the main fort around the older tombs. They spent the next two years in the mountainous regions of Sanaag building three more smaller forts.
Maxamuud Xoosh Cigaal was the last Dervish man to be resident at the Taleh fort, whilst the six-year old Jaamac Biixi Kidin was the last Dervish person in the fort overall.
A 1931 diary-book by former governor of Italian Somaliland Francesco Caroselli notes an April 1920 letter by the Sayid to the then Italian-Somalia governor which states the Taleh fort was one of 27 forts built by Dervish and that they're called Dhulbahante garesas.
Fall of Taleh
In 1919–1920, the British Royal Air Force (RAF) bombarded the Sanaag forts, where most of the Dervish had operated since 1913. Having destroyed the structures and driven out Mohammed Abdullah Hassan's men to Taleh in 1920, they finally attacked the town, assisted by horsemen and Somali personalities. The settlement was bombarded by the Royal Air Force on 4 February and taken days later, with the British having defeated the last pockets of Dervish resistance. Among the casualties at Taleh were Ibrahim Buqul and Haji Sudi, two of the closest men to the Mullah and both being of the Adan Madobe sub-division of the Habr Je'lo. The former was the commander of the Dervish at Taleh, and the latter was a long-standing member of the movement according to Douglas Jardin (1923) and Henry Rayne (1921). Another Dervish leader, Yusuf Xayle, was captured alive and later executed by former Dervish Abdi Dhere, who had defected to the opposition in 1919. Muhammad Abdullah Hassan himself managed to escape to the Ogaden, where his Dervishes were later routed in a 1921 raid led by the clan leader Haji Warabe.