Sheikh Abdurahman Sh. Nur

Sheikh Abdurahman Sheikh Nuur (Somali: Sheekh Cabdiraxmaan Sheekh Nuur, Arabic: شيخ عبد الرحمن شيخ نور) was a Somali Sheikh (religious leader), qādi (judge) of the government at that time and the inventor of the Gadabuursi Script for the Somali language.^[1][2]

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.^[3] Sheikh 'Abdurahman would later follow in his father's footsteps by also becoming a qādi, albeit of the entire northern British Somaliland region.^[4]

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".^[4]

See also

• Gadabuursi 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)
• Lewis, I. M. (1958-01-01). "The Gadabuursi Somali Script". Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. 21 (1/3): 134–156. doi:10.1017/s0041977x00063278. JSTOR 610496.

External links

• Osmanya, Borama, Wadaad's writing and the Somali language
• The Gadabuursi Somali Script - qasidas in Gadabuursi/Borama