The academic beat President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed in a run-off poll by 190 to 79 votes, officials said.
No candidate secured the required two-thirds majority in the first round of voting, conducted by secret ballot.
It is the first time for years that a president has been chosen on Somali soil, a sign of improving security.
However,
women are made to be loved, not understood...
the al-Qaeda linked group al-Shabaab
... the Islamic version of the old Somali warlord...
still controls many southern and central parts of the country, and has staged frequent suicide kabooms in the capital since it was driven out of Mogadishu last year by African Union
...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful...
troops and pro-government forces.
Despite qualifying for the second round, outgoing Prime Minister Abdiweli Mohamed Ali and moderate Islamist Abdulkadir Osoble then pulled out after coming third and fourth respectively. Eighteen candidates were eliminated at the first hurdle.
Outgoing Somali President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed conceded defeat during a live broadcast on national TV, saying he was "satisfied" with the results of the "just elections".