This vain hope was based on a quite mistaken appreciation of the situation, for it assumed that Sayyid Muhammad was merely a regular, if rather outstanding, clan or tribal leader whose political rôle lay in the field of internal Somali clan politics. The truth of course was, on the contrary, that the Sayyid occupied a unique position as a national figure appealing to the patriotic sentiments of Somali as Muslims irrespective of their clan or lineage allegiance. It is true that internal clan rivalries weakened the Dervish movement, and that its compulsive appeal was also restricted by the divisions between opposing religious orders. But even the deeply alienated adherents of the Qadiriya Order could hardly be expected to rally in strength against the Sayyid, for this would have required them openly to assume the rôle of the Christian colonizers, and would greatly have detracted from their religious status.

I.M. Lewis, I. M. Lewis, A Modern History of the Som…, loc. 227