Books
The complete list of the books, with their imprints. Most appeared in small print runs and have long been out of print; the list is needed whether or not a book can still be bought — so that it can be cited.
The imprints for the 1983–2012 editions have been checked against the catalogue of the kapchits.narod.ru site, the 2016 edition against the publisher’s catalogue, and the 2020 and 2022 editions against the author’s own materials received in August 2026: the dictionary’s information sheet, the cover of the folktale collection, and the review in WardheerNews (28 November 2020).
Proverbs
Somali Proverbs and Sayings — Сомалийские пословицы и поговорки
The first collection. It was this one that B. W. Andrzejewski reviewed in the Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies (Vol. XLIX, Part 2, 1986, pp. 420–422), where he called it the largest collection published and noted a stratum of archaic forms without focus particles — roughly seven per cent of the corpus. That observation later grew into a whole chapter of the monograph on the particles.
Bulletin of SOAS · XLIX/2 · 1986“the largest ever published”B. W. Andrzejewski
Qaamuuska maahmaahyada soomaaliyeed — The Dictionary of Somali Proverbs
Over six thousand proverbs and proverbial phrases gathered from 25 books and more than a hundred oral sources. This body of material became the starting pool for the paremiological experiment.
Hubsiimo hal baa la siistaa
The outcome of the experiment in Berlin and Aarhus: 249 proverbs known to the majority of speakers — the first paremiological minimum established for a language of the Horn of Africa. Each entry gives the proverb, a translation, an explanation of the situation in which it is used, and the recorded variants.
Somali Proverbs and Sayings. 2nd edition — Сомалийские пословицы и поговорки
Soomaali been ma maahmaahdo — Somalis do not lie in proverbs
Presented on 14 July 2012 at the 5th Hargeysa Book Fair. In the introduction the author answers questions about the nature of the proverb, about how its truthfulness is to be understood, about what makes the proverbial stocks of different peoples alike and what sets them apart. The first section holds the 249 most commonly used proverbs yielded by the experiment; the second, four thousand proverbs of various types.
Oslo · 22 August 2012“the book of the year in regard to those written in Somali”Aliqeyr M. Nur
Qaamuuska Casriga ah ee Maahmaahda Soomaaliyeed — A Modern Dictionary of Somali Proverbs
The largest of the author’s proverb collections.
WardheerNews · 28 November 2020A review of the dictionary; the dating is still in questionAdan MakinaProverbium · Vol. 39 · 2022“the most prolific scholar studying Somali proverbs”Peter Unseth
Folktales
Waxaa la yidhi — Sheekooyin hidde ah
Somali Folk Tales — Сомалийские народные сказки
The first collection of Somali folktales to be published in Russian.
Faaliyihii la bilkeyday: Sheekaxariirooyin Soomaaliyeed — A Soothsayer Tested: Somali Folktales
115 tales with a parallel English translation, selected from some four hundred texts in the collection. The introduction is a brief encyclopaedia in itself: the history of the publication of Somali folklore and an ethnographic sketch of nomadic life. The corpus is divided into four genre groups: mythological, animal, novellistic and didactic.
Four Hyenas: Somali Folk Tales — Четыре гиены: Сомалийские народные сказки
132 texts in three languages.
Isha Cumar ka lulata — The Knocked-Out Eye of the Hyena: Somali Folktales
Bilingual (Somali — English), 172 traditional tales. Hiil Press, 2022. ISBN 978-1-912411-41-2.
The largest of the author’s folktale collections — the one he calls his latest book in the 2024 interview.
WardheerNews · 21 November 2022Section by section, with a call for a Medal of HonourAdan MakinaInt. J. of Social Science Excep. Research · 2025Written for the author's eighty-fifth birthdayAliqeyr Mohammed Nur
Grammar
Sentence particles in the Somali language and their usage in proverbs
A monograph on the system of the sentence particles waa, baa and waxaa, grown out of a dissertation defended at the Institute of Asian and African Studies, Moscow State University, in 2000. Discussed in detail on the Grammar & Syntax page.
Aethiopica · No. 11 · 2008Reviewed by one of the leading somalistsGiorgio Banti
Editorial work
G. L. Permyakov, Fundamentals of Structural Paremiology — compilation and introductory article, 1988.
Proverbs and Sayings of the Peoples of the East — editor, 2001.
Aliqeyr Mohamed Nur, Dhibkii Dheef Baa Ka Dambaysay — introduction, c. 2014. Full text.
Articles, papers and reviews are listed separately: Articles & Collections.