Language use in three Somali religious poems

This article presents three Somali religious poems which are part of the general tradition of the Qaadiriyya Sufi tariqa in the eastern Horn of Africa. Two are very firmly based in that tradition, one is an intercessory poem to Cabdulqaadir al-Jiilaani the other an intercessory poem to Faadumo. The third is a praise to the Prophet which I argue is also intercessory, but less obviously so. The poems are analysed with a view to describing and accounting for the use of certain aspects of language and style. The interplay with the Arabic language and with Arabic formal stylistic characteristics will be discussed, an important feature given the importance of Arabic in Islam. Included in this will be the use of the abecedarius acrostic form as well as hints at the use of Arabic metrical forms. The syntactic constructions used and repetition of these in particular ways will also be discussed and all of these matters couched within an argument which shows that they reflect the illocutionary intent of the poems, in particular as intercessory poems.