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Ugaz Nunez or Ugas Nur II ( , ) also known as Ughaz Nur Robleh or aleduns (c. 1835–1898), was a Somalis King and poet of the Gadabuursi clan.
He was born in Zeila in about the year 1835 and crowned in Baki District in 1848. He was from the Reer Ugaas subclan of the Makayl-Dheere. Taariikhtii Ugaas Nuur Of stature a tall and brown man with a short beard. He was known to have tall legs and long arms. During his youth, he loved riding, hunting and the traditional arts and memorized a great number of proverbs, stories and poems. He was the type to speak words that would never be forgotten once they entered people's ears. He was a brave and masculine man. Apart from that he was also a great and famous poet and during his reign there was not a man alive that could compete with him in poetry.Nur, Sheikh Abdurahman 1993
Eventually, Nur II came on to create his own store of sayings, poems and stories that are quoted to this day. He knew by heart the Gadabuursi Xeer(customary law) and amended or added new heer during his reign. He was known for fair dealing to friend and stranger alike. It is said that he was the first Gadabuursi Ughaz to introduce guards and askaris armed with arrows and bows.
During the time of Nur II both Egypt and Ethiopia were contending for power and supremacy in the Horn of Africa. To add the European colonial powers were also competing for strategic territories and ports in the Horn of Africa.
In the year 1876 Egypt using Islam as a bargaining chip signed a treaty with Ughaz Nuur and came to occupy the northern Somali coast which included Zayla, the seat of the Gadabuursi sultanate, but also to occupy the town of Harar and the Harar-Zeila-Berbera caravan route. Ughaz Nuur went to Egypt to meet Raghib Pasha, the khedive, belonging to the Ottoman Empire, who honored the King of the Gadabuursi with medals and expensive gifts. The Ughaz there signed a treaty accepting Egyptian protection of Muslims in Somaliland and Ethiopia.
The Ughaz had established strong relations with the Emir of Harar, Abdallah II ibn Ali . In 1887, when Harar was occupied by Menelik II of Ethiopia, Ughaz Nur sent Gadabursi askaris to support Abdallah II ibn Ali. The emir of Harar was eventually defeated and Ras Makonnen was appointed "Ethiopian governor of Harar". Menelik II continued to turn his attention to the Gadabuursi and offered the King (Ughaz Nur) and his people protection and military support for collaboration, seemingly a trap Ughaz Nur refused and fought until he died in 1898. He was buried in Dirri.
Even at old age of almost 80 Major Leckie writes about the King's aquiline features and graceful figure:
"Ugaz Nur was a old man of around almost 80 years. Although somewhat stiffened by age, he was tall, straight, and well built. Even the weight of his many years could not alter the King’s graceful figure. His aquiline Somali features that were so frequent among these people were, save his very dark skin, noticeably absent. His face indicated intelligence and a pleasant, affable nature "
"I am taken back to the magnificent oral poetry (witness Ugaas Nuur's lines), to the idyllic sweetness of the pastoral world in which I was born and spent my adolescent years, and to which I yearn to return"
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