Ishaaq bin Ahmed

Sheikh Ishaaq bin Ahmed bin Muhammad bin al-Hussein al-Hashimi, more commonly known as Sheikh Ishaaq or Sheikh Isaaq (Arabic: الشيخ إسحاق بن أحمد بن محمد الهاشمي, romanized: Ash-Shaykh Isḥāq bin Aḥmad bin Muḥammad al-Hāshimīy, Somali: Sheekh Isxaaq) was an Arabian sheikh and the alleged Sayyid forefather of the Isaaq Somali clan-family in the Horn of Africa, whose traditional territory is wide and densely populated.

Sheikh Ishaaq purportedly traveled from the Arabian peninsula to Somaliland in the 12th or 13th century, where he married two women; one of the Somali Dir Clan called Magaado, and a Harari woman called Xiis Xaniifa, the daughter of a Harari emir, with descendants belonging to the Habar Magaadle or Habar Habusheed branches respectively. He sired eight sons who are the common ancestors of the clans of the Isaaq clan-family. He remained in Maydh until his death. He is said to have settled in what is today the Erigavo District, and to have established his capital at Maydh.