| Isaaq Reer Sheekh Isxaaq بنو إسحاق | |
|---|---|
| Somali clan | |
 The tomb of Ishaaq, the father of the Isaaq clan, in Maydh | |
| Ethnicity | Somali |
| Location |  Somaliland Somalia Ethiopia Djibouti Saudi Arabia[1] |
| Descended from | Sheikh Ishaaq bin Ahmed |
| Population | 3-4 million[2] |
| Branches | Habr Magaadle:
Habr Habuusheed: |
| Language | Somali Arabic |
| Religion | Sunni Islam |
The Isaaq (Somali: Reer Sheekh Isxaaq, Arabic: بنو إسحاق, Banu Ishaq) is a major Somali clan.[3] It is one of the largest Somali clan families in the Horn of Africa, with a large and densely populated traditional territory.
The Isaaq people claim in a traditional legend to have descended from Sheikh Ishaaq bin Ahmed, an Islamic scholar who purportedly traveled to Somaliland in the 12th or 13th century and married two women; one from the local Dir clan. and the other from the neighboring Harari people.[4] He is said to have sired eight sons who are the common ancestors of the clans of the Isaaq clan-family. He remained in Maydh until his death.[5]
- ^ Renders, Marleen (27 January 2012). Consider Somaliland: State-Building with Traditional Leaders and Institutions. BRILL. ISBN 978-90-04-22254-0.
- ^ Minahan, James B. (1 August 2016). Encyclopedia of Stateless Nations: Ethnic and National Groups around the World. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. pp. 184–185. ISBN 979-8-216-14892-0.
- ^ Lewis, I. M. (1994). Blood and Bone: The Call of Kinship in Somali Society. The Red Sea Press. p. 102. ISBN 9780932415936.
isaaq noble.
- ^ I.M. Lewis, A Modern History of the Somali, fourth edition (Oxford: James Currey, 2002), pp. 31 & 42
- ^ Adam, Hussein M. (1980). Somalia and the World: Proceedings of the International Symposium Held in Mogadishu on the Tenth Anniversary of the Somali Revolution, October 15–21, 1979. Halgan.