In 1854, Burton records that Haji Shirmarke, tall and, despite his sixty-odd years, strong and active, had not forgotten the military exploits of his youth and contemplated the conquest of Berbera and Harar. He lived modestly, however, in an indifferent mud and wattle 'arish, and not in one of the grander double-storeyed stone houses of the town. His 'secretary' was a Swahili slave; and although he was himself illiterate, his eldest son Muhammad, married to an Arab woman, had been educated at Mukha and proved to be something of a scholar. The town, Burton found, Haji 'Ali governed with a light hand, and the aid of a tough Hadrami soldier and forty mercenaries from Hadramaut, Mukha, and Aden, all armed with matchlock and sword.

I.M. Lewis, I. M. Lewis, A Modern History of the Som…, loc. 119