Farah Mohamed Jama Awl usually credited as Faarax M.J. Cawl, was a Somali

Somali people

Somalis are an ethnic group located in the Horn of Africa, also known as the Somali Peninsula. The overwhelming majority of Somalis speak the Somali language, which is part of the Cushitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family...

 writer. His surname Cawl (ʕaul) means "gazelle", which was the nickname of his great-grandfather who was the Sultan of the Warsangali

Warsangali

The Warsangeli , is a Somali clan, part of the Harti confederation of Darod sub-clans...

 clan. The Awl family also includes the Warsangali Sultan Mohamoud Ali Shire

Mohamoud Ali Shire

Mohamoud Ali Shire was a Somali ruler. He was the 20th Sultan of the Warsangali Sultanate from 1897 to 1960.-Titles:Also known as the Gerad, the Sultan was the sole regent and governor of the sultanate. He also enjoyed many other titles, including "Sovereign of the House of North East of...

.

Biography

Awl was born in 1937 in the town of Lasqoray in northern Somalia

Somalia

Somalia , officially the Somali Republic and formerly known as the Somali Democratic Republic under Socialist rule, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. Since the outbreak of the Somali Civil War in 1991 there has been no central government control over most of the country's territory...

. In his youth, he obtained a scholarship to study aeronautical

Aerospace engineering

Aerospace engineering is the primary branch of engineering concerned with the design, construction and science of aircraft and spacecraft. It is divided into two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering...

 and automobile engineering

Automotive engineering

Modern automotive engineering, along with aerospace engineering and marine engineering, is a branch of vehicle engineering, incorporating elements of mechanical, electrical, electronic, software and safety engineering as applied to the design, manufacture and operation of motorcycles, automobiles,...

 in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 in the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 (1959–62). Upon graduation, he returned to Somalia and worked with the police force

Somali Police Force

The Somali Police Force is the national police force and the main civil law enforcement agency of Somalia.-History:In 1960, the British Somaliland Scouts joined with the Police Corps of Somalia to form a new Somali Police Force, which consisted of about 3,700 men...

 and the National Transport Agency in Mogadishu

Mogadishu

Mogadishu , popularly known as Xamar, is the largest city in Somalia and the nation's capital. Located in the coastal Benadir region on the Indian Ocean, the city has served as an important port for centuries....

.

Awl's literary corpus is especially notable for its vivid description of Somalia's flora and fauna as well as its incorporation of traditional Somali poetry. He also has the distinction of being the first Somali novelist to write in the nascent Latin script

Somali alphabet

The Somali Latin alphabet has been the official writing script in Somalia since 1972. It was developed by the Somali linguist Shire Jama Ahmed specifically for transcribing the Somali language, and is based on the Latin script. The Somali Latin alphabet uses all letters of the English Latin...

 for the Somali language

Somali language

The Somali language is a member of the East Cushitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family. Its nearest relatives are Afar and Oromo. Somali is the best documented of the Cushitic languages, with academic studies beginning before 1900....

 after its formalization in 1972.

Awl was a member of the royal family of the Warsangali clan. Reportedly because of his membership in the Darod

Darod

The Darod is a Somali clan. The father of this clan is named Abdirahman bin Isma'il al-Jabarti, but is more commonly known as Darod. In the Somali language, the word Daarood means "an enclosed compound," a conflation of the two words daar and ood .The Darod population in Somalia lives principally...

 clan family, Awl, along with three of his children, was killed in 1991, at the height of the civil unrest that gripped the town of Beledweyne

Beledweyne

Beledweyne is a city in central Somalia. It is the capital of the Hiraan province, and is located in the central valley of the Shebelle river near the Ogaden, some 206 miles north of Mogadishu, the nation's capital. The Shebelle river divides the town into east and west...

 in the Hiiraan

Hiiraan

Hiran is an administrative region in south-central Somalia.-Overview:Hiiraan is bordered by the Somali Region of Ethiopia to the northwest, and the Somalian provinces of Galgudud to the northeast, Middle Shebelle) to the south, Lower Shebelle to the southwest, and Bay and Bakool to the west.The...

region.

He is survived by his wife and one son, Dahir Faraax.