Prairie. Already I felt at the end of my journey." Richard Francis Burton (1856) describes the Abasa Valley in the Gadabuursi country as amongst the most beautiful spots he has seen: "At half past three reloading we followed the course of the Abbaso Valley, the most beautiful spot we had yet seen. The presence of mankind, however, was denoted by the cut branches of thorn encumbering the bed: we remarked too, the tracks of lions pursued by hunters, and the frequent streaks of serpents, sometimes five inches in diameter." Gadabuursi Ughazate (Ugaasyada ama Boqortooyada Gadabuursi) The royal family of the Gadabuursi, the Ughazate, evolved from and is a successor kingdom to the Adal Sultanate and Sultanate of Harar. The first Ughaz (Ugaas) of this successor kingdom, Ali Makail Dera (Cali Makayl-Dheere) was the son of Makail Dera, the progenitor of the Makayl-Dheere. During the late 19th century, as the region became subject to colonial rule, the Ughaz assumed a more traditional and ceremonial leadership of the clan. The Gadabuursi give their King the title of Ughaz. It's an authentic Somali term for King or Sultan. The Gadabuursi in particular are one of the clans with a longstanding tradition of having a Sultan. History The first Ughaz of the Gadabuursi was Ughaz Ali Makail Dera (Cali Makayl-Dheere), who is the progenitor of the Reer Ughaz (Reer Ugaas) subclan to which the royal lineage belongs. Ughaz Ali Makail Dera (Cali Makayl-Dheere) who was born in 1575 in Dobo, an area north of the present town of Borama in north-western Somaliland, is recorded as having inflicted a heavy defeat on Galla forces at Nabadid. I. M. Lewis (1959) highlights that the Gadabuursi were in conflict with the Galla during the reign of Ughaz Ali Makail Dera, during and after the campaigns against the Christian Abyssinians: "These campaigns were clearly against the Christian Abyssinians, but it appears from the chronicle that the Gadabursi were also fighting the Galla. A later leader of the clan, Ugas 'Ali Makahil, who was born in 1575 at Dobo, north of the present town of Borama in the west of the British Protectorate, is recorded as having inflicted a heavy defeat on Galla forces at Nabadid, a village in the Protectorate." Ughaz Nur I, who was crowned in 1698, married Faaya Aale Boore who was the daughter of a famous Oromo King and Chief, Aale Boore. Ughaz Nur I