No. 97 III . SOCIAL AND POLITICAL CONDITIONS BRITISH SOMALILAND ( 1 ) RELIGIOUS In religion the Somalis are Sunni Mohammedans . Most of the Darod tribes of the Ashas belong to the Saleh sect, while most of the Ishaks are Shafi'i. Al though fanatical, the people in the interior are not very strict in their religious observances, and they probably would be even less strict were it not for the visits they receive from wandering mullahs. On the coast the tribes are less lax, probably owing partly to their being less nomadic than those of the interior, and also by reason of their intercourse with Arabia.

All the Sab tribes claim to be Mohammedans, and the Yebirs are strict in their observances ; there is some doubt about the orthodoxy of the Midgans, but this seems to be unfounded .

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1 (2) POLITICAL The British Protectorate started as a dependency of Aden ; and with Aden it has always been specially connected . Down to 1898 the government was in charge of the Resident at Aden, under the Bombay Govern ment and therefore under the India Office. In that year it was transferred to the charge of the Foreign Office, and in 1905 to that of the Colonial Office. An Order in Council of October 7, 1899, established a system of jurisdiction for the Protectorate based on the Indian Codes. By a later Order in Council of 1 An earlier Order in Council of December 13, 1889, was repealed by one of January 11 , 1900.

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