{{Short description|Swahili poet and scholar (c. 1810s–1919)}} {{Infobox person | name = Dada Masiti <br> مانا ستي حبيب جمال الدين | image = | imagesize = | caption = | birth_name = Mana Sitti Habib Jamaladdin | birth_date = {{circa}} 1810s | birth_place = [[Chundwa]], [[Kenya]] | death_date = 15 July 1919 | death_place = [[Barawa]], [[Somalia]] | occupation = Poet, Islamic scholar }}
'''Mana Sitti Habib Jamaladdin''' ({{langx|ar|مانا ستي حبيب جمال الدين}}) ({{circa}} 1810s – 15 July 1919<ref>Mohamed Kassim places her year of birth as 1219H (1804) and her date of death as 17 Shawal, 1339H (24 June 1921); see {{cite journal|last1=Kassim|first1=Mohamed|url=http://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1015&context=bildhaan|title=Dhikr Will Echo from All Corners: Dada Masiti and the Transmission of Islamic Knowledge|date=2001|journal=Bildhaan: International Journal of Somali Studies|volume=2|pages=104–120|access-date=2014-06-12|archive-date=2014-07-14|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140714200949/http://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1015&context=bildhaan|url-status=live}}</ref>), commonly known as '''Dada Masiti''' ("Sister Masiti"), was a [[Swahili_people|Swahili]] poet, mystic and Islamic scholar from [[Somalia]]. She composed her poetry in the [[Bravanese dialect]] spoken in [[Barawa]].<ref name="DAB">{{cite book|last=Vianello|first= Alessandra |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=39JMAgAAQBAJ&q=Dada%20Masiti&pg=RA1-PA150 |chapter=Dada Masiti|title=Dictionary of African Biography|publisher=Oxford University Press|date=2012|pages=150–151|isbn=978-0-19-538207-5}}</ref>
==Biography== Dada Masiti was born Mana Sitti Habib Jamaladdin in the 1810s in Tunda (Also spelled as [[Chundwa]] or Tchundwa),<ref>{{Cite book |last=Declich |first=F. M. |url=https://arcadia.sba.uniroma3.it/bitstream/2307/6148/1/22_Sources%20on%20Islam%20composed%20in%20the%20vernacular%20Somali%20women%27s%20religious%20poetry.pdf |title=Sources on Islam composed in the vernacular. |date=2001 |publisher=International Colloqium |location=Roma |oclc=29705644 |access-date=2024-06-02 |archive-date=2020-07-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200709150528/https://arcadia.sba.uniroma3.it/bitstream/2307/6148/1/22_Sources%20on%20Islam%20composed%20in%20the%20vernacular%20Somali%20women%27s%20religious%20poetry.pdf |url-status=live }}, p. 298.</ref> a coastal town in Pate Island, Lamu. Dada Masiti left Tunda for Brava at a very early age and as such is often wrongly presumed to have been born in Brava. Her family on both sides hailed from the Mahadali [[Ashraf]] clan. Her mother's maternal grandfather also belonged to the Ali Naziri Ashraf, which commanded more influence in the area and was the larger of the two subclans. The Ashraf had first established residence in Barawa around the start of the 1600s, and ultimately traced their lineage to the Prophet [[Muhammad]]. Like the claims of other Somali clans in this regard, this alleged [[genealogy]] is historically untenable.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Lewis|first=I. M.|title=Blood and Bone: The Call of Kinship in Somali Society.|date=1994|publisher=Red Sea Press|isbn=0-932415-92-X|location=Lawrenceville, NJ|oclc=29705644}} pp. 102–106, esp. p. 105.</ref>
What is known about Dada Masiti's early years is exclusively derived from different [[Oral history|oral traditions]].<ref name="DAB"/> Accounts endorsed by descendants of her nearer relatives indicate that she was kidnapped and taken to [[Zanzibar]]. While she had been abducted, the kidnapping occurred while she was a teenager and was carried out with her consent by a suitor that her family had turned down as a potential husband. The two eloped and were wed in [[Pate Island|Pate]]. Their relationship shortly afterwards fell apart, and she was then reportedly held in a manner approaching slavery for around ten years. She eventually succeeded in escaping, and her maternal cousin Omar Qullatten, who at the time resided in Zanzibar, came to her rescue. Dada Masiti herself appears to confirm this version of events in her poetry since she alludes to having been led astray by worldly lures, and expresses contrition and a desire to atone for her deeds. Her poems also mention Omar Qullatten by name, and repeatedly request that God bless him. Dada Masiti never remarried and bore no children.<ref name="DAB"/>
Dada Masiti immersed herself in religious studies under a Sheikh Mohammed Janna al-Bahluli. A follower of the [[Qadiriyya]], her poetry demonstrates a detailed understanding of the [[Quran]] and [[Sunnah]]. Poetry dedicated to her by her contemporaries gives evidence that she was well-respected. Sheikh Qasim Muhyiddin al-Barawi referred to her as a "treasure to be jealously preserved".<ref name="DAB"/>
Dada Masiti's most famous poem was "After Life, Comes Death: When the Sheikh Dies, No One Should Weep", composed for her friend, the jurist Sheikh Nureni Mohammed Sabir. She also composed "Shaikhi Chifa isiloowa", a eulogy for Sheikh Nurein Ahmed al-Sabir al-Hatimy.<ref>{{cite book|first=John O.|last=Hunwick|author2=Rex Seán O'Fahey|title=The writings of the Muslim peoples of northeastern Africa|year=2003|isbn=9789004109384|page=68|publisher=BRILL |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2E6uEjjKlQ0C}}</ref> Many of her contemporaries committed to memory her poetry, particularly women. Her verse still figures prominently in the poetic annals of Barawa.<ref name="DAB"/>
After her death, Dada Masiti was buried on the site of her small house in Barawa.<ref name="DAB"/> An annual ''[[ziyārah]]'' to her shrine is observed in the town.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Berge, Lars|author2=Taddia, Irma|title=Themes in Modern African History and Culture|date=2013|isbn=9788862923637|page=75|publisher=Libreriauniversitaria.it ed. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_C72Gm9kivUC&q=Dada%20Masiti&pg=PA75}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist|30em}}
==Further reading== *{{cite book|last1=Declich|first1=Francesca|title=Islam in East Africa: New Sources|date=2001|publisher=Herder|location=Rome|pages=297–330|chapter=Sources on Islam Composed in the Vernacular: Somali Women's Religious Poetry}} *[http://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1015&context=bildhaan "''Dhikr'' will Echo from All Corners:" Dada Masiti and the Transmission of Islamic Knowledge], containing examples of her poetry
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Masiti, Dada}} [[Category:1810s births]] [[Category:1919 deaths]] [[Category:19th-century poets]] [[Category:19th-century Somali women writers]] [[Category:19th-century Somali writers]] [[Category:20th-century poets]] [[Category:20th-century Somalian women writers]] [[Category:20th-century Somalian writers]] [[Category:People from Lower Shebelle]] [[Category:Somalian poets]] [[Category:Somalian women poets]] [[Category:Swahili-language writers]] [[Category:Scholars of precolonial East Africa]] [[Category:19th-century women poets]] [[Category:20th-century women poets]]