Hamar Gale

The Hamar Gale were the royal Gerad line of the Warsangali Darod Somalis of the Maakhir coast in northern Somalia. The line is traced to Gerad Abdullahi Dhidhin, founder of the Warsangali polity, whose son Gerad Hassan inherited the leadership in 1311.

Hassan earned the nickname Hamar Gale, meaning the Mogadishu settler, after leaving the northern clan lands for the Benadir coast near Mogadishu; when he died in 1328 the leadership passed to Gerad Ibrahim.

In 1613 a descendant, Garaad Abdulle Mahmud I, united the coastal factions into a centralized Warsangali state with its capital at Durduri, dominating the frankincense and date trade of the Gulf of Aden. His house bore the title Garaad until 1764, when the ruler adopted the style of Sultan while the older title remained in local use.