Zeila's governor was now a Somali, Haji Shirmarke 'Ali Salih (of the Habar Yunis clan), who had begun his remarkable career as the captain of a training dhow. Having acquired wealth and reputation, the Haji obtained the office of governor about 1840 from the hereditary holder Sayyid Muhammad al-Barr, representative of the Ottoman Pasha of Western Arabia. His success was also apparently facilitated by the gratitude which he had earned from the British government of Bombay for protecting the lives of the crew of the Mary Ann, a British brig attacked and plundered by the local Somali at Berbera in 1825.

I.M. Lewis, I. M. Lewis, A Modern History of the Som…, loc. 118