Chronicles from Mauritania

The Fonds Brevié hosts five “documents historiques” from Mauritania. Three of them (Fonds Brevié, Mauritanie, Documents Historiques, Cahiers n°s 1–2–5) are described in the catalogues as follows:

• • Cahier n° 1, “Tarikh de Walata (958 à 1321-H)”

• • Cahier n° 2, “Document provenant de Walata relative à l’arrivée de l’émir Askia Daawud”

• • Cahier n° 5, “Histoire du Sahel et du Takrur copieé par Muḥammad Aḥmad frére du chef de Wuld Musé”^{Footnote 7}

By reading the catalogue, it appears that the manuscripts contain three completely different texts. In fact, a more accurate reading proves a strong relation between them. Cahier n° 2 (18 ff.) and Cahier n° 5 (20 ff.) contain two historical accounts in the form of annals and obituaries of the southern Sahara and share much of their contents, while Cahier n° 1 (26 ff.) is the French translation of Cahier n° 5 .

Cahier n° 2 is an account written by Muḥammad al-Muṣṭafà b. ‘Umar b. Sīdī Muḥammad (f. 1a). Cahier n° 5 is, on the contrary, anonymous.^{Footnote 8} However, in the introduction to the text (f. 1a), the anonymous author reports that the work is based on three main other tārīkhs: 1) A chronicle by ‘Abd Allāh b. al-Ṭālib ‘Uthmān ’-L-Y.L.B.Y. (maybe Idaylibī); 2) Another tārīkh written by “the son of al-ḥājj A‘mar al-Tishītī;” 3) An anonymous work composed by “some people of Walāta.”

Both accounts start with the enthronement of Askiyà Dāwūd (d. 1583) in 958/1551–1552. The texts of Cahiers n°s 2 and 5 record the same events, often described verbatim, for the earlier period. However, for more recent times, the two texts substantially differ. Cahier n° 2 records events until 1328/1910 with the death of a certain ‘Abd al-Qādir al-Gannānī b. sīdī al-Mukhtār (f. 18b). Cahier n° 5 stops some years earlier, in Dhū-l-hijja 1321/1903–1904 with the record of the death of Aḥmad b. Muḥammad ‘Abd Allāh b. Aḥmad b. Ibrāhīm (f. 21b).

According to the colophon, Cahier 2 was achieved in 1329/1910 by one Sīdī Muḥammad b. ‘Āli Daḥḥān (f. 18b). As for Cahier n° 5, the colophon records that the text was copied by a certain Sīdī Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. al-S.N. on behalf of one shaykh ‘Abd Allāh b. al-imām with no reference to the date (f. 20b). I could not find any information to confirm the notice of the inventory that the manuscript was copied by Muḥammad Aḥmad, brother of the chief of the Wuld Musé.

Dhikr Māllī (“Souvenirs du Pays du Mali”)

Fonds Brevié, Soudan/Mali, Documents Historiques, Cahier n° 18 is described in the inventory as “Souvenirs du pays du Mali”^{Footnote 9} – translation of the original Arabic title Dhikr bilād Mallī (f. 1a). The cover includes a full Arabic text (9 ff.), an incomplete copy of the same (3 ff.), the French translation (19 ff.), and an Arabic fragment described as “question de droit se trouvant par hasard dans le petit tarikh” (2 ff.).

The main text is a chronicle of the region that, after a preliminary analysis, looks completely abstracted from the Tārīkh al-sūdān. It comprises the the following sections: Dhikr Mallī (f. 1a–b), on the Mali state from Tārīkh al-sūdān, chapter 4; Dhikr Janna (ff. 1b–2a), on the town of Jenne, from Tārīkh al-sūdān, chapter 5; Dhikr Timbuktu (ff. 2a–2b), on Timbuktu, from Tārīkh al-sūdān, chapter 7; Dhikr ta‘rīf al-Tawāriq and Dhikr khurūjihim min al-Yaman (f. 2b), on the Tuaregs, from Tārīkh al-sūdān, chapter 8; a long Dhikr mulūk Songhay (ff. 3a–8a) including the history of the Zā’, the Sonni and the Askiyà dynasties until the Moroccan conquest, from Tārīkh al-sūdān, chapters 2–3 and 13–24; Aṣl salāṭīn Māsina (f. 8a–8b), on the kings of Masina, from Tārīkh al-sūdān, chapter 26; and a final section Sīdī Yaḥyà b. ‘Abd al-Raḥīm b. ‘Abd al-Raḥmād al-Tha‘ālibī al-Tadallisī (f. 8b–9a), from Tārīkh al-sūdān, chapter 10.

The copyist is shaykh al-Mawlūd b. ‘Āli Aḥmādin who copied it on the Rabī‘ 1^st 1326/3 April 1908 in Kāla from “what was copied in the hand of Ja‘far b. al-Mahdī” (f. 9a).

Tārīkh Iwillemedan

The description provided in the inventory of Fonds Brevié, Dahomey (Nord-Ouest), Documents Historiques, Cahier n° 25 is inaccurate. The document is described as “Letter from Idriisa b. Kuta, prince de Lotokoro au colonel de l’armée française.”^{Footnote 10} The classification as Dahomey is problematic, considering that Lotokoro is located a few km south of Gao. Furthermore, Cahier n° 25 was copied by ‘Abd Allāh b. Aḥmad, translator of Timbuktu (ff. 19b, 23b). Notwithstanding the very poor quality of the copy, it seems like ‘Abd Allāh b. Aḥmad has acted as copyist for French colonial personal in Timbuktu more than once, as he also copied for the explorer Georges de Gironcourt (1878–1960) one manuscript on 10 November 1911.^{Footnote 11} Interestingly enough, the copy realized for de Gironcourt was judged so poor that the French explorer eventually had the same manuscript copied again.^{Footnote 12} To sum up, Cahier n° 25 does not come from Dahomey (although it might well be that the document was obtained in Dahomey), but from Timbuktu.

Also the text of Cahier n° 25 is not described accurately. The document is a notebook of 46 pages (23 ff.) including two different texts. The first occupies the pages 1–19b and is a complete copy of a chronicle of the Eastern Niger Bend written by the amīr of Lotokoro Idrīs b. Kūta under the request of an unidentified “Colonel of the French Army” (f. 1a). The chronicle is known as the Tārīkh Iwellemedan, and another copy of it is hosted in the de Gironcourt collection of West African manuscripts of the Institut de France, ms. 2405 (1).^{Footnote 13} The quality of the copy at the Institut de France, realized on the 6 of November 1911, is better than the IFAN one. However, its text of the de Gironcourt copy is incomplete and lacks of the first page. As a consequence, it is thanks to the copy at IFAN that we now have a complete copy of this detailed, and unpublished, historical account of the Niger.

According to the abovementioned de Gironcourt, Idrīs b. Kūta lived between c. 1830 and 1910.^{Footnote 14} Idrīs b. Kūta was also in possession of some manuscripts, one of which was copied for de Gironcourt.^{Footnote 15} The Tārīkh Iwellemedan was completed on “Monday 8 Jumādà I” without indication of the year (f. 19b) – most likely 1310/1892, or 1328/1900 or 1326/1908, the only years around 1900 for which the 8 of Jumādà was a Monday.

De Gironcourt had his copy made on the basis of a manuscript he found in the hands of an interpreter in Timbuktu who was reading it in the market. The interpreter had found the manuscript, which was missing of its first page, in the “archives of the Timbuktu region.”^{Footnote 16} Most likely the interpreter is the same ‘Abd Allāh b. Aḥmad who copied Cahier n° 25. This means that in Timbuktu there was a copy from which Cahier n° 25 was realized before its first page went missing; later on this manuscript was used to produce the de Gironcourt copy as well. The “master” copy from which I argue both Cahier n° 25 and Institut de France, ms. 2405 (1) has not been located.

A French translation of Tārīkh Iwellemedan is hosted at IFAN, Fonds Brevié, Masina, Documents Historiques, Cahier n° 15, and described in the catalogue as “Histoire de les populations de la région de Tombouctou.”^{Footnote 17}

The second text of Cahier n° 25 occupies the pages 20a–23b of the notebook. It is a copy of the Risāla fī ẓuhūr al-khalīfa al-thānī ‘ashar by Nūḥ b. al-Ṭāhir al-Fulānī (d. 1860).^{Footnote 18} The document is a propaganda pamphlet written on behalf of the head of the so-called Fulani Empire of the Masina, Aḥmad b. Muḥammad Būbū al-Fulānī, better known as Aḥmad Lobbo (d. 1845). There are two versions of this pamphlet, one addressed to different sulṭāns of the Islamic world and another to people of the Sahara. The copy hosted at IFAN belongs to the second version of the Risāla.

Mā shajara bayna al-shaykh al-ḥājj ‘Umar al-Fūtī wa-amīr Māsina al-shaykh Aḥmad b. Aḥmad ‘inda Hamdallāhi and Bayān mā waqa‘a baynanā wa-bayna amīr Māsina Aḥmad b. Aḥmad b. al-Shaykh Aḥmad b. Muḥammad Lobbo

According to the inventory of IFAN, Fonds Vieillard, Masina, Documents Historiques, Cahier n° 12 includes a text described as “Ce qui s’est passé entre El Hadj ‘Umar et le prince du Masina Shaykhu Ahmadu b. Ahmadu.”^{Footnote 19} The description has led John Hunwick to list the manuscript under the available copies of the Bayān mā waqa‘a baynanā wa-bayna amīr Māsina Aḥmad b. Aḥmad b. al-Shaykh Aḥmad b. Muḥammad Lobbo ‘Umar b. Sa‘īd b. ‘Uthmān b. Mukhtār b. ‘Alī b. Mukhtār, known as al-ḥājj ‘Umar Tall (d. 1864).^{Footnote 20} In reality, Cahier n° 12 contains two copies of a different text, a poem written in Fulfulde in ninety-nine verses and titled Mā shajara bayna al-shaykh al-ḥājj ‘Umar al-Fūtī wa-amīr Māsina al-shaykh Aḥmad b. Aḥmad ‘inda Hamdallāhi. The poem is apparently anonymous.^{Footnote 21} One copy (3 ff.) is in ‘ajami, the other in Latin alphabet (5 ff.). Unfortunately, not reading the Fulfulde prevented me from judge the relevance of this document.

IFAN does include a copy of the Bayān mā waqa‘a. It is a French translation of the text, Vieillard, Masina, Documents Historiques, Cahier n° 11 (I counted 67 ff. instead of the 76 reported in the inventory), ambiguously described as “L’Émir du Maasina: Ahmadu b. Ahmadu b. Shaykh Ahmady b. Muhammad Lobbo.”^{Footnote 22}

Generally speaking IFAN is very rich in historical materials in Fulfulde, especially the Fonds Vieillard, Masina, Documents Historiques, Cahiers n°s 1–3–6–8–9–10.^{Footnote 23} This section of the collections requires a specialist of Fulfulde, both in ‘ajami and in Latin alphabet.

Ta’rīf al-’ashā’ir wa-l-khillān bi-shu’ūb wa-qabā’il al-Fullān

Gaden, Fouta Toro, Documents Historiques, Cahier n° 2 (9 ff.), is described as an anonymous work on the “Origine des Torobbe.”^{Footnote 24} In fact, the work is not anonymous. It is a well-known work on the origins of the Fulani called Ta‘rīf al-‘ashā’ir wa-l-khillān bi-shu‘ūb wa-qabā’il al-Fullān written by the nephew of al-ḥājj ‘Umar Tall, Muḥammad al-Hāshimī b. Aḥmad b. Sa‘īd, better known as Alfa Hāshim (d. 1931–1932).^{Footnote 25} The author fled from Segu in 1891 after the arrival of the French, moved to Sokoto where he stayed until the British conquest of 1903, and spent the rest of his life in Mecca and Medina where he became a renowned scholar. It was in Mecca that the Ta‘rīf al-‘ashā’ir was published the first time, in 1354/1936. Another edition of the work was published in Wād Madanī, 1374/1955.

Final Remarks

This short note has highlighted the importance of some of the manuscripts hosted at IFAN, which include relevant information on West African history and are still to be explored. Unfortunately, the absence of a full scale catalogue of the manuscripts – in fact available are only scanty lists of these documents – is a serious impediment for scholars.

Sometimes the scanty descriptions of the inventory can be misleading, as proved by the case of the anonymous Peul poem Mā shājara mistaken by Hunwick as a copy of the Bayān mā Waqa‘a by al-ḥājj ‘Umar Tall; the lengthy Arabic chronicle Tārīkh Iwellemeden described as a letter to a French colonel; or the case of the published Ta‘rīf al-ʾashā’ir that is left unidentified in the inventory. In other cases, the descriptions neglect to fully illustrate the content of manuscripts, as the case of Fonds Brevié, Dahomey (Nord-Ouest), Documents Historiques, Cahier n° 25 where the important Risāla by Nūḥ b. al-Ṭāhir al-Fulānī is completely left unnoticed.

Furthermore, the collection at IFAN is full of complete or partial translations into French of Arabic and Fulani works. Often the translations are kept in the same folders as the original, as in the case of Fonds Brevié, Soudan/Mali, Documents Historiques, Cahier n° 18. Sometimes the translation is included in another folder and it is impossible to notice that except by reading the two manuscripts, as for Brevié, Mauritania, Documents Historiques, Cahier n° 1 that is the French translation of Brevié, Mauritania, Documents Historiques, Cahier n° 5 and Fonds Brevié, Masina, Documents Historiques, Cahier n° 15, that is a translation of onds Brevié, Dahomey (Nord-Ouest), Documents Historiques, Cahier n° 25. It also happens that the work in the original language is not available in the collection, but only the French translation, as for the Bayān mā waqa‘a translated in Vieillard, Masina, Documents Historiques, Cahier n° 11.

Another observation that comes from this brief study of IFAN collection, but goes far beyond the actual IFAN manuscripts, is the issue of inter-textuality in West African historical accounts. As proven by the two annals from Mauritania (Fonds Brevié, Mauritania, Documents Historiques, Cahiers n°s 2 and 5), which share extensive parts of their texts, or by the Dhikr Mallī (Fonds Brevié, Soudan/Mali, Documents Historiques, Cahier n° 18), which is made up essentially of un-cited quotations from the Tārīkh al-sūdān, often historical accounts borrow from previous works extensively. What does this tell about the circulation of these documents and their consumption? This is an issue that is still to be tackled by scholars and that requires attention.

A final remark is on the conditions of the collection. Generally speaking the manuscripts are in good conditions and are all easy to read. However, the margins are starting to become brittle and some are falling apart. Furthermore, notwithstanding the effort of the staff of IFAN, sometimes, as in the case of the missing letter that should have been in the cover of Fonds Brevié, Mauritanie, Documents Historiques, Cahier n° 1, documents have been misplaced and are in need of reorganization. A new project of restoration and cataloguing of manuscripts of IFAN will make available a very rich collection to those scholars willing to spend some time in the pleasant room of the Laboratoire d’Islamologie.