Arabic Historical Literature from Ghadāmis and Mali : Documents from the 18th to 20th Century 9789004315853, 2019055555, 9789004306448

In this work translations of four texts are provided from Ghadāmis and from Mali. The first is a biography of the Ghada

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Arabic Historical Literature from Ghadāmis and Mali : Documents from the 18th to 20th Century
 9789004315853, 2019055555, 9789004306448

Table of contents :
‎Contents
‎Acknowledgements
‎General Introduction
‎Text 1. Tadhkīr al-Nāsī wa-Talyīn al-Qalb al-Qāsī (The Reminder of the Forgetful and the Softener of the Harsh), by Muḥammad b. Muḥammad b. Mūsā b. Muhalhil al-Ghadāmisī
‎Text 2. Khabar al-Sūq (The History of al-Sūq), by ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd ʿAbdallāh al-Ḥarāma
‎Text 3. al-Jawhar al-Thamīn fī Akhbār Ṣaḥrāʾ al-Mulaththamīn (The Precious Jewel in the Saharan Histories of the “People of the Veil”), by Muḥammad Tawjaw al-Sūqī al-Thānī
‎Text 4. Ghadāmis, Malāmiḥ wa-Ṣuwar (Ghadāmis, Its Features, Its Images and Its Sights), by Bashīr Qāsim Yūshaʿ
‎Conclusion
‎Figures
‎Selected Bibliography
‎Subjects
‎Index

Citation preview

Arabic Historical Literature from Ghadāmis and Mali

Islam in Africa Editorial Board Rü diger Seesemann Knut Vikør

Founding Editor John Hunwick†

volume 22

The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/isaf

Harry T. Norris - 978-90-04-31585-3

Arabic Historical Literature from Ghadāmis and Mali Documents from the 18th to 20th Century

By

Harry T. Norris † With

Abdaljabbar A. Assaghir

LEIDEN | BOSTON

Harry T. Norris - 978-90-04-31585-3

Cover illustration: Art in Ghadāmes. Photo by the author The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available online at http://catalog.loc.gov LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2019055555

Typeface for the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic scripts: “Brill”. See and download: brill.com/brill‑typeface. ISSN 1570-3754 ISBN 978-90-04-30644-8 (hardback) ISBN 978-90-04-31585-3 (e-book) Copyright 2020 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Hes & De Graaf, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Rodopi, Brill Sense, Hotei Publishing, mentis Verlag, Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh and Wilhelm Fink Verlag. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill NV provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change. This book is printed on acid-free paper and produced in a sustainable manner.

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Contents Acknowledgements General Introduction

vii 1

Text 1: Tadhkīr al-Nāsī wa-Talyīn al-Qalb al-Qāsī (The Reminder of the Forgetful and the Softener of the Harsh), by Muḥammad b. Muḥammad b. Mūsā b. Muhalhil al-Ghadāmisī 8 Text 2: Khabar al-Sūq (The history of al-Sūq), by ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd ʿAbdallāh al-Ḥarāma 161 Text 3: al-Jawhar al-Thamīn fī Akhbār Ṣaḥrāʾ al-Mulaththamīn (The Precious Jewel in the Saharan Histories of the “People of the Veil”), by Muḥammad Tawjaw al-Sūqī al-Thānī 177 Text 4: Ghadāmis, Malāmiḥ wa-Ṣuwar (Ghadāmis, Its Features, Its Images and Its Sights), by Bashīr Qāsim Yūshaʿ 211 Conclusion

253

Figures 265 Selected Bibliography Subjects 274 Index 275

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Acknowledgements In most respects, this book has been a joint project between myself and my friend, ʿAbd al-Jabbār b. ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Ṣaghīr. His edited text of Tadhkīr alNāsī wa-Talyīn al-Qalb al-Qāsī is the principal text that is included within this book. We first met in Ghadāmis in the year 2004AD, when he invited me into his Ghadāmis family home that is situated in its ancient town. Today, the latter quarter of Ghādamis is principally a summer retreat. My visits were in order to examine his collection of Arabic and historical manuscripts. Many of these are to be found in the town. Since then, we have been in contact either by the Internet, or during the course of my subsequent visits to the town. His home address is in al-Karam’s street which is situated immediately behind the Sīdī ʿUqba mosque in the old town and he is well acquainted with scholars and members of the Tuareg and non-Tuareg communities. During one visit we went together to visit the cemeteries of the city in order to photograph the tomb of Shaykh Aḥmad al-Sūqī and to view the early Ibāḍite cemetery, and the so-called pre-Islamic ‘idols’, called Tamsūdīn, built of stone and gypsum. ʿAbd al-Jabbār b. ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Ghadāmisī grew up in Ghadāmis where he attended primary, preparatory and secondary schools. In the year 1987AD, he graduated from the Department of English in the Faculty of Arts and Education in the University of Garyounis in Benghāzī. Al-Ghadāmisī’s life has been devoted to teaching. Between 1988 and 1990AD, he taught in the College for Financial Studies in Tīgī, which is situated two hundred and fifty kilometers south-west of Tripoli. From 1991 to 2006 AD, he was a teacher in preparatory and secondary schools in Ghadāmes. In 2007 AD, he became an educational inspector of English language and assistant lecturer in Ghadāmes High School within the department of Civil Engineering. He is also an Assistant Lecturer in the Faculty of Teacher training in the University of al-Jabal al-Gharbī. His employment includes two graduation projects, partial requirements for the BA degree in English language and the supervision of two graduation projects for the BA degree in English; the BA degree has a title “The use of mother tongue in English in the classrooms of Ghadāmis (April 2006 AD) and Synonyms and their Semantic relation in April 2006”. ʿAbd al-Jabbār has been a friend and an acquaintance of a number of leading Libyan academics including the late scholar, Dr Bashīr Qāsim Yūshaʿ, one of the authorities on the history of Ghadāmis and one of whose texts is translated and summarised in this book. ʿAbd al-Jabbār has written several books. A plurality of these books is concerned with Ghadāmis. They include The judge (al-qāḍī), Muḥammad b. Yūnis Harry T. Norris - 978-90-04-31585-3

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al-Ghadāmisī, his life and his writings, a study devoted to a poem composed by Aḥmad b. ʿAbdallāh b. Abī Bakr, one of the Shaykh’s sons, and a formal legal opinion ( fatwā) by a judge of Ghadāmes, namely al-Khasrāwī. He is planning to write several other books. They will include one about the poet Muḥammad Banbanī al-ʿImrānī al-Ghadāmisī (born before 1250 AH/1834–1835 AD), and another upon social and economic topics within the historical documents that survive in his town. ʿAbd al-Jabbār has research interests that are wide in scope. These research interests include the scholars of the local Tuareg and their legacy, death certificates as a source for information, a catalogue of early manuscripts in Ghadāmis, including private archives, the water distribution of the “spring (ʿayn) of the mare ( faras)” in Ghadāmis, a pedigree and lineal list of the Helpers, al-Anṣār, in Ghadāmes, forty judges (quḍāt) of Ghadāmis between 700 AH/1300 AD and 1410AH/1989AD, commercial registers of Ghadāmis merchants in the Western and Eastern Sūdān, and the tomb stones and their inscriptions in the cemeteries of Ghadāmis. Both of us would like to thank many other individuals and centres of learning for their help in the completion of our research; in particular, we are enormously indebted to prof. Knut Vikør at Bergen University for his extensive editorial work. We would additionally wish to thank the British Academy. We would also like to thank members of the Society for Libyan Studies in the United Kingdom who have helped in many respects. We also wish to express our thanks for the great help afforded by Kristian Norris and Dr Timothy Norris in the preparation and the completion of the text, as well as to Dr Helen Blatherwick, of the School of Oriental and African Studies, for her help in regard to advice on many matters in regard to its publication. Travel within Libya in order to complete this book required the help and advice of Cox and Kings Travel Agency, in both London and Tripoli. I recall the kindness in particular of its guide, ʿAbdallăh, from Sabrătha, who facilitated, in many instances, our ability to meet one another in Ghadāmis, and to maintain contact between us by the postal services between Ghadāmis and the United Kingdom over past years. Prof. Harry T. Norris Professor Norris regretfully passed away during the final editing of this volume. His son, Dr. Timothy Norris, and I have in respect attempted to finalize the process from his instructions and with his acceptance. Knut S. Vikør series editor Harry T. Norris - 978-90-04-31585-3

General Introduction On the western borders of the ‘Ḥammāda al-Ḥamrā’, between the plateaux and the Great Eastern Erg, lies the Saharan oasis and city of Ghadāmis. This locality, which already in antiquity was the most important stopping place in the desert (known as Cydamus or Kidamē), was the gateway through which merchants passed on their way from Tripolitania to the Land of the Blacks. The route that linked the trading city of Sharūs in Djabal Nafūsa to the Takrūr region passed through Ghadāmis. Right up to the present day, in the vicinity of Sharūs, it is possible to see a trail leading to Ghadāmis and going by the name of Trīk el-Sūdān (‘The Sūdān trail’). This is the route which led to the region known as Zāfanu (Diafunu) in upper Senegal. It is likely that after Ghadāmis, this route passed through the territory of the Askār Berbers (the present-day Tassili-n-Ajjer), eighteen days’ walking distance from Ghadāmis. T. Lewicki, General History of Africa; Africa from the Seventh to the Eleventh Century1

∵ Our intention, in this book, is to translate and to publish a selection of works and studies that have been written in Libya, by Libyans. They shed light upon the history of the oasis town of Ghadāmis, in past times. To address this intention, we have attached, in further translated documents, content pertaining to the Saharan towns of Tādmakka (al-Sūq) and Arawān/Arwān. These two ancient towns are situated to the south of Ghadāmis. Moreover, the towns have disappeared from history although they were once closely linked to the routes for caravans that travelled between Ghadāmis and West Africa. Histories of the towns are relevant for the scholarly communities that were to be found there in past times. Ghadāmis figured significantly in the first expeditions that were undertaken by the Companions of the Prophet in al-Islām’s early days. Lewicki has explained how the city of Ghadāmis comprised Berber groups, some Tuareg and others non-Tuareg, and why the Berber language is still spoken there today. In the history of al-Islām, and, in particular, its penetration

1 Abridged edition, London: James Currey / California: UNESCO, 1992AD, p. 150.

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2020 | doi:10.1163/9789004315853_002

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into sub-Saharan Africa, the city of Ghadāmis had adopted the beliefs of the Ibāḍiyya Khārijites who had left an indelible mark on the scholars of the Jabal Nafūsa mountains that divided Libya some distance to the north of Ghadāmis. Around Ghadāmis there are several oases and towns, including Sinoun (Sinaouen) and Derj (Daradj), both of which lie on the route to Nālūt, a town in the far west of the Jabal Nafūsa. Within and without Ghadāmis, a population that has always been decidedly Berber has made its mark on Saharan history and on Saharan Arabic literature. The quality of the literature has placed it within the same league as the distinguished Arabic scholarship and lettered pursuits in Mauritania and in the district of Azawād to the north of Timbuctoo. In its legacy, both history and literature are held in high regard. In Ghadāmis itself, Duveyrier was among the first persons to draw attention to the division into four groups of its indigenous Berber population in the ancient city; amongst them were the Banū Wazīt who claimed to be from the nobility and to be descended from the founders of the town. Moreover, the Banū Walīd were amongst the four groups, and were also nobles and who were also amongst its inhabitants from ancient times. Of the four groups, the Awlād Bilāl are of Arab descent. They claim to have originated in Sinoun, a small town to the north of Ghadāmis. Lastly, the Ahriyya, who are of a mixed origin and are descendants of freed slaves, mixed in blood, with Africans from the south of the Sahara. The two first groups have in the past been traditional opponents and have lived in isolated quarters of the old city. Within the population of the town, leading families, especially those amongst the lettered, claim descent from the Prophet’s Companions and Helpers and from ‘holy families’ whose ancestors came from Morocco and from al-Andalus. South of Ghadāmis is a plateau area, the Ẓahra where were, and are, found the principal camps of the Tuareg of Ghadāmis. These latter mingle with the town’s population and have their own quarters within it where they live. In the past, their ancestry is related to the Lamṭa and to the Lamtūna, those who, in the latter case, played the crucial part in the rise of the Almoravid movement in the Western Sahara. Their local presence within South-West Libya is to be found clearly indicated on the maps of earlier European cartographers. Hence, in the map of La Barbarie, de la Nigritie et la Guinée of De Lisle (Elwe 1792) the region is described as ‘Pays de Caour’, ‘Desert des Lumtunes habité par une nation superbe et brutale’. In contemporary times, the three divisions of the Tuareg of Ghadāmis comprise the Ilemtin (Lamtūna), the Ogdaden (‘the birds’) and the Aoraghan, each one of whom may have a case for a claim to relationship to the Almoravid Lamtūna, the Kākudam and the Warīka (Wanrīgha) who were mentioned by Ibn Khaldūn and by other Arab historians and geographers in the Middle Ages.

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Likewise, this is to be found in the works of the traveller Leo Africanus and by a number of early French and other European cartographers and printers. The Tuareg who live within and without the old city of Ghadāmis are a part of the Īfōghās, who are amongst the major groups who are in the entire Sahara of the Tuareg Sahara. The Kel Essouk, who are of their number and who will figure prominently in the texts that follow, have played an important historical rôle throughout the history of the Tuareg peoples. The original home of these Tuaregs was in Tādmakka (al-Sūq), which lies in Mali to the south of Ghadāmis. It was closely linked to Ghadāmis throughout the centuries. The Libyan author, Bashīr Qāsim Yūshaʿ, has indicated to us the manner in which the Tuaregs have participated in the life of the town of Ghadāmis, itself: The Tuareg who dwell in the street of al-Ẓahra, in Ghadāmis, certainly stem from two tribes of the Īfōghās. They are a majority. The most famous of the two are the Aoraghan. It was Motylinski who said that the tribes of the Tuareg who intermingle as dwellers in Ghadāmis are, firstly, the tribe (ʿarsh) of the Manghasāten from the Azjar/Azgar Tuareg and the second were the Īfōghās who are also from the Ajzar/Azgar Tuareg. What is likely is that the Tuareg of Ghadāmis stem from the Faghīsī and from the Aoraghan. As for the Manghāsaten, they are now settled in Derj, namely a town that is ninety kilometers distant from Ghadāmis. The name of the Īfōghās/Âfaghis, in Ghadāmis the Ifōghasan, is allegedly derived from an extinct animal, called in the Tuareg language, ‘fghs’, ‘faghas’. This indicates a beast of prey like the lion, the panther and the leopard. Such Tuareg are referred to by the agnomen (nisba) al-Sūqī. ʿAbd al-Jabbār b. ʿAbd al-Qādir regards al-Shaykh Aḥmad al-Sūqī as having been the most distinguished of the known scholars of an earlier historical period of Ghadāmis, though, unfortunately, next to nothing is known of his literary works owing to the time that has elapsed since and due to the loss of manuscripts. His sole surviving memorial is his gravestone outside the old city. However, it is known that he was born in Tādmakka (al-Sūq), five hundred kilometres to the north-east of Timbuctoo. He lived during the course of the ninth century of the hijra (fifteenth century AD). He departed from a tribal location known as Salṭanat Tamasqada. He settled in Ghadāmis. Whilst he was there, he married into the tribe of the Oubaden Tuareg. His son, al-Faqī(h) had five children, namely Ābā, Mūsā, al-Bakrī, Bābā and Aḥmad. Mūsā died when young and, after his death, he was seen in a vision and it was believed that he requested them to move his grave from where he had been buried to another location known as Timilsinan.

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The Ghadāmis documents 1 to 3 relate to the earliest occupation by the Arabs in Ghadāmis together with those documents that survive in a partial format from the Ghadāmis collections.

Text 1: Tadhkīr al-Nāsī If Aḥmad al-Sūqī(h) is a distinguished scholar from a distant past, the eighteenth century scholar, shaykh and sharīf, ʿAbdallāh b. Abī Bakr, whose forebears were from the Sharīfian Banū ʿImran, from Morocco, is a better known personality in view of the biography that gives us a picture of his personality and his literary works, namely, Text 1: Tadhkīr al-Nāsī wa-Talyīn al-Qalb al-Qāsī bi-Dhikr shayʾin min Manāqib al-Shaykh ʿAbdallāh b. Abī Bakr al-Ghadāmisī, by Muḥammad b. Muḥammad b. Mūsā b. Muhalhil al-Ghadāmisī. This Text 1 is an eighteenth-century work which is devoted to the worthy deeds and exploits of Shaykh ʿAbdallāh b. Abī Bakr al-Ghadāmisī, a revered scholar in the town of Ghadāmis, and beyond, whose family were closely connected with Agades in Niger, with Timbuctoo, and with other towns in West Africa. The biography includes short biographies of his sons, and the biography also contains a list of his major works. Moreover, the biography also contains lists of scholars in the Middle East, especially in Cairo, and in sub-Saharan Africa whose ijāzāt, or licenses, were relevant to the biography. Within these lists of scholars, there are listed the names of important shaykhs, including those of the Timbuctoo school of scholars whose names are familiar from documents throughout West Africa. Amongst these names were Fezzānī scholars who lived in Agades, the ‘Barākila’. According to ʿAbd al-Jabbār b. ʿAbd al-Qādir, Shaykh ʿAbdallāh b. Abī Bakr alGhadāmisī was born in Timbuctoo in 1035AH/1626 AD and he died in Ghadāmis on the 21st Dhū’l-Ḥijja, 1121AH/Thursday the 20th February 1719 AD. Apart from his descent, we are told nothing about his father and his family. However, Dr Elias N. Saad, in his Social History of Timbuktu, mentions the name of a certain Shaykh Abū Bakr al-Ghadāmisī.2 He was one amongst a group of scholars from the Wangara, the Kel Intaṣar, and others, though these men were not the most erudite in that city. They were contemporary with the Moroccan conquest of Timbuctoo in 1591 AD. Although evidence is only slight, if ʿAbdallāh were born in 1623AD, then some familial connection cannot be excluded though we have, as yet, no proof to maintain that this was in fact the case. 2 E. Saad, Social History of Timbuktu. The role of Muslim scholars and nobles, 1400–1900, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983 AD, p. 85.

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The author of this biography, Muḥammad b. Muḥammad b. Mūsā b. Muhalhil al-Ghadāmisi lived between 1165 and 1225 AH/1751 and 1810 AD. Little is known about his life. According to local letters and manuscripts, it would appear that he was a man of power and authority in Ghadāmis, as well as being a muftī, and a mention of his name is to be found in a number of Ghadāmis manuscripts. He was taught by Muḥammad al-Zāhid, a son of Shaykh ʿAbdallāh b. Abī Bakr al-Ghadāmisī and by Shaykh Aḥmad b. Ḥurays3 from Tripoli. This was not the first entry in a biography. The first was by a historian from Marrakesh (Marrākush) named Abū ʿAbdallāh Muḥammad al-Ṣaghīr alIfrānī al-Marrākushī who added the name of Shaykh ʿAbdallāh b. Abī Bakr al-Ghadāmisī to four pages of the appendix in his book titled Ṣafwat Man Intashara min Akhbār Ṣulaḥāʾ al-Qarn al-Ḥādī ʿAshara (‘The choicest part of the one who has published about the pious men of the eleventh century of the hijra’). Prior to writing this introduction to Shaykh ʿAbdallāh, he explained that the famous Arab historians, Ibn Khaldūn and al-Masʿūdī, had made no mention of Ghadāmis in their writings. This statement had greatly surprised Muḥammad b. Muḥammad b. Mūsā b. Muhalhil, who criticised these authors on this point. It is the view of ʿAbd al-Jabbār b. ʿAbd al-Qādir that this was in all likelihood an excuse by Ibn Muhalhil for writing a far wider and extensive Introduction of his own. This would include the sources that make some mention of Ghadāmis and he also made mention of the Islamic expeditions that passed through the town. Muḥammad al-Ṣaghīr b. al-Ḥājj Muḥammad b. ʿAbdallāh al-Ifrānī (1669– 1747AD) was born in Marrakesh in 1669/1670AD where he studied, as well as in Fez. He may have held a post in the entourage of Mawlāy Ismāʿīl (1645–1727AD), who is mentioned in one part of our text. Later in his life, al-Ifrānī held the posts of imām and khaṭīb in the Ben Yūsuf Madrasa (al-Yūsufiyya) in Marrakesh. Moreover, al-Ifrānī wrote a work on the life of Ibn Sahl of Seville, an Andalusian poet of the twelfth century, whilst he pretended to teach Law and ḥadith. His work, Ṣafwat Man Intashara min Akhbār Ṣulaḥāʾ al-Qarn al-Ḥādī ʿAshara contained the biographies of saints of seventeenth century Morocco, and he also wrote a noted history of the Saʿdī dynasty (Nuzhat al-Hādī bi-Akhbār Mulūk alQarn al-Ḥādī ʿAshara). This history was written shortly before 1724AD. A lithographed edition was published in Fez in 1889–1890 AD, following the publication of O. Houdas of

3 Or Hurayra.

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Nuzhat al-Ḥādī.4 A further edition was published in Casablanca (ed. ʿAbd alLaṭīf al-Shādhilī), in 1998AD.

Text 2: Khabar al-Sūq Text 2, translated in a summary format, is a short study of Arawān (Arwān), by ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd ʿAbdallāh al-Ḥarāma. It was published in Libya in 2003 AD as one of the publications of the Markaz Jihād al-Lībiyyin lil-Dirāsāt al-Taʾrīkhiyya, texts and documents, No. 29, Benghazi. The title of the work is Khabar al-Sūq (‘An Historical Account of al-Sūq’), by an unknown author together with an appendix of the most important Arabic sources for the History of the Western Sūdān. The two manuscripts that are translated are housed within the Aḥmad Bābā collection in Timbuctoo. The history refers to Tādmakka (al-Sūq) and to Arawān, both of which in days past had close contact with Ghadāmis. Elias N. Saad’s publication Social History of Timbuktu introduces Arawān (Arwān).5 On page 128 of the publication, Saad mentions that both Tuwāt and Ghadāmis were integrated, in tradition, to ‘the Takrūr Cultural Complex’, in the Middle Ages, and later. Moreover, Saad also points out that, in Ghadāmis, the Kel al-Sūq (Kel-Essouk) possibly migrated across the Sahara from Timbuctoo, around 1600AD.

Text 3: al-Jawhar al-Thamīn fī Akhbār Ṣaḥrāʾ al-Mulaththamīn Text 3 is a selected extract, prepared by ʿAbd al-Jabbār b. ʿAbd al-Qādir from a very rare document titled, al-Jawhar al-Thamīn fi Akhbār Ṣaḥrāʾ al-Mulaththamīn (‘The Precious Jewel in regard to the Saharan histories of “the People of the Veil” [the Tuareg]’). The text, recently published in Libya, but of which few details are available and which is now already out of print, was written by Muḥammad Tawjaw al-Sūqī al-Thānī. The section included here relates to the legacy of the Kel-Essouk in Central Saharan history, and, in particular, the history of Tādmakka (al-Sūq) and its peoples and their relation to other peoples in West Africa.

4 Mohammed Esseghir Ben Elhadj Ben Abdallah Eloufrâni, Nozhet-Elhâdi, Histoire de la dynastie Saadienne au Maroc (1511–1670), trans. O. Houdas, Paris: Ernest Leroux, 1889. 5 Saad, Social History, pp. 40, 71, 91, 124, 135, 144, 192, 277, also the town’s foundation mentioned on pages 149–150, 268, trade routes on pp. 285, and as a town specifically on pp. 130.

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The document is primarily concerned with the Kel-Essouk and it represents a Tuareg historical text of local interest. In the case of Arabic historical accounts, some reference is made to Ibn Ḥawqal. Here, the historical comment is limited. He refers to the Ilaghwaten, in particular, within the translated passage presented. However, he does not explore earlier, though arguably, speculative, sources, as does Sir Rennell Rodd in his publication People of the Veil.6 The latter publication identifies this Tuareg group with the Ilagwas, who were mentioned by Corripus, and by others. These latter are referred to elsewhere, under names such as Leuathae, the Lesguae, and Ilaguaten. According to Oric Bates, The Eastern Libyans, an Essay, these ‘were in Byzantine times spread over a large portion of Tripolitania, as is clear from the Arabic notices of this people under the name of Luwāta’.7 On the map (pp. 67) however, they have been located in the vicinity of Leptis, because there is specific Byzantine evidence of them having occupied that locality in the time of Justinian.8

Text 4: Ghadāmis, Malāmiḥ wa-Ṣuwar Finally, there is included a chapter from Ghadāmis, Malāmiḥ wa-Ṣuwar, ‘Ghadāmis, its features (aspects), its images and its sights’ by Bashīr Qāsim Yūshaʿ (1930–1994AD) on aspects of the history and society of the Tuareg of Ghadāmis. 6 London: Macmillan, 1926, p. 445. 7 London: Frank Cass and Co, 1970 AD, p. 67. 8 See also Flavius Corippus, Iohannis (Bonn 1836), I, pp. 144, 467; IV, pp. 85, 629, 797, 815; V, p. 166; VI, p. 535; VII, pp. 434, 474, 501. For Illaguaten, ibid., var. lect. ad IV, p. 797 (Ilaguaten); var. lect. ad V, p. 166 (Illaguatensis); var. lect. ad VII, p. 501 (Lauguatan). Also Procopius, De Bell. Vandal. (Bonn 1813), II, p. 21 sqq.

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Tadhkīr al-Nāsī wa-Talyīn al-Qalb al-Qāsī (The Reminder of the Forgetful and the Softener of the Harsh), by Muḥammad b. Muḥammad b. Mūsā b. Muhalhil al-Ghadāmisī Tadhkīr al-Nāsī wa-Talyīn al-Qalb al-Qāsī bi-Dhikr Shayʾin min Manāqib al-Shaykh ʿAbdallāh b. Abī Bakr al-Ghadāmisī written by Muḥammad b. Muḥammad b. Mūsā b. Muhalhil al-Ghadāmisī (as edited by ʿAbd al-Jabbār ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Ṣaghīr): ‘The Reminder of the Forgetful and the Softener of the Hard-hearted through the recollection of some of the worthy deeds and noble exploits of Shaykh ʿAbdallāh b. Abī Bakr al-Ghadāmisī’. Edited and presented by ʿAbd al-Jabbār ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Ṣaghīr in a text that has been reconstructed from the Arabic manuscripts that have been collected in the private libraries of Ghadāmis (Libya); translation, comments and notes by Professor H.T. Norris in consultation with the editor. 1

“In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful, the blessing and peace of God be upon our lord and master, Muḥammad and upon his family”. Praise be to God who has selected whom He wills from amongst His woshippers by prompting, by reminding, and by promoting respect and regard and who has bestowed on them His success and who has guided them, through happiness and by good fortune, and who has made abundant upon their inward hearts and thoughts the glowings of His lights. He it is who has purified them for His service, who has brought them close to His heart and His essence. He who has willed them to love mankind and who has clad them with the garment of dignity and the robes of honour. He has made them to be the keys of goodness and the locks of evil and who, over the years has bestowed His blessing upon them. Blessing and peace be upon our Lord Muḥammad, the seal of the prophets, the lord of the two worlds, the Imām of the righteous, the proponent of Him who has shown him praise within His goodness, He who has made Paradise beloved to Himself, though whosoever has acted with evil then his final end will be consignment to Hell. May a blessing be upon his Companions, [they] the good and the blessed, noble, virtuous, a blessing and peace for evermore, clinging to [belief] in what [wonder] He has displayed in the lightening, in the glory of His thunder, and in the torrential rains from on high.

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2020 | doi:10.1163/9789004315853_003

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To proceed. The poor and wretched servant, who is known for his frailty and for his shortcomings, the sinful and prone to evil, Muḥammad b. Muḥammad b. Mūsā b. Muhalhil al-Ghadāmisī, says – may God have mercy upon him, and upon his parents, Amen. I came across that [documentation] which the Shaykh had collected – the Imām and high minded and noteworthy scholar who was unique in his age, Sīdī Abū ʿAbdallāh Muḥammad al-Ṣaghīr b. Muḥammad b. ʿAbdallāh al-Marrakushī al-Sūsī – may God Almighty show him mercy – [facts] that he had gathered from among the noble deeds of the Shaykh, and Imām, the pious saint, the example, the revealer, the Pole (quṭb) of the Lord, the erudite shaykh al-islām of the Muslims, the ideal and mentor of those who follow the path, the tutor of orphans and an [influence] deep within their hearts and souls, and, so too, of the widows and of the poor, Sīdī ʿAbdallāh b. Abī Bakr b. Bal-Qāsim b. Muḥammad b. Muḥammad b. Ibrāhīm b. Ṣīla al-Ghadāmisī, may God Almighty have mercy upon him and be pleased with him. May he bountifully bestow upon us the blessings of his teaching and of his scholarship. Amen. In the same, I beheld that thing that makes joyful and brings joy to the brilliant and the bright. May God reward us for our own sakes and may He reward with the goodness bestowed by Him upon the Muslims. May God make His mercy towards him [the Shaykh] a gift for that which is for the good. He accomplished excellent things, and in abundance, both in category and in kind. Though he [the Shaykh] – may God have mercy upon him – did not indulge in self-display, or in that of his circumstances, – having made no mention of his lineage, his place of birth, the length of his life and his passing away, nor his learning, his shaykhs and his compositions and other aspects of his affairs, his ethical ideals and manners, [yet], thereby, he perfected what he had sought for. Nor too did he compel, nor coerce, the one who was a refuser and who was most envious. I conceived that it was my duty to provide him with a modest extract [of the details] of that which we have received within that [legacy], by renewing his good qualities and to perfect the benefit, thereby hoping to be associated with him and to accrue a blessing. It was due and correct of this shaykh that numerous works should be composed about his noble deeds and his qualities, and that happy séances should be held and devoted to his recollection. However, in seeking to fulfil this, the tongue lacks ability in the praising of Him. This is due to the despair and bewilderment of the human mind and the impotence of minds to comprehend the masters. I shall mention the same – if Almighty God so wills – if it is possible, and as much as I can, what he had gained from authoritative sources and personalities and what has been quoted

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from the reports, since I have had no personal acquaintance with his age [in history] and its events. I have not seen, [nor met], anyone who has reached the might and the magnitude of his life, nor one from whom we can benefit so much, nor one whose compositions fulfilled their aim to a degree that we are able to follow them to their standard [of excellence], or the ability to lead one to match the noble deeds of this shaykh, – were I even fitted and were worthy for the same. He has carried me forward in that direction, and to dare [to compete] in matching them, and in hoping to catch the breaths that I experienced, or the call of a pious brother who is of benefit to me. I am in his debt. I am a blood relative of his, and likewise in my [shared] belief in the Mālikī School of Law (madhhab). He who serves the noble is certain of victory and achievement, and the attainment of what he hopes for, – from God I seek for help, for success, and I ask Him to guide [me], so that I may strictly follow a path that leads to the same and which [will allow] me [and entitles me] to do so. I have named this composition [extract], ‘Tadhkīr al-Nāsī wa-Talyīn al-Qalb al-Qāsī bi-Dhikr Shayʾin min Manāqib al-Shaykh Sīdī ʿAbdallāh b. Abī Bakr alGhadāmisī’ – may God Almighty have mercy upon him and be pleased with him and benefit us through him, by his studies and his books – Amen. I have copied a text about that [subject] into: The Foreword (al-Muqaddima), four Chapters and a Conclusion. We beseech God for its quality of content, Amen. As for the Foreword, it contains some observations in regard to what has been said by the author – may God Almighty show mercy to him – and [grant] the benefits connected with the same. The First Chapter is about what has been mentioned in regard to the lineage of the Shaykh, his birth, his upbringing, the period during which he was a student, some of his shaykhs and his compositions and his legal duties whilst in office, his life and his biography, and that which has a relevance to the same. The Second Chapter mentions his morality and clean living, his pleasing behaviour, his qualities, his clemency, his tenderness, his abstinence, his piety and his Godliness, and the like, his generosity, his honourable life, the qualities in his personality and is unique traits of nobility – may God Almighty bestow benefit upon us by him and by the likes of him. It has five sub-divisions. The Third Chapter mentions his offspring. The Fourth Chapter mentions his will and his testament, his sickness, his death and elegies and eulogies dedicted to his memory. The Conclusion will mention his profitable counsels.

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The Saints of God had passed the latter [the sayings and documents] from hand to hand until it had arrived at [the home] of the Shaykh – may God Almighty have mercy upon them and may we benefit from them all. Amen. God Almighty is the One who is responsible for the source of his divine blessing (baraka) and the baraka of the likes of him, this [by] the highest status of our Prophet Muḥammad – the blessing and peace of God be upon him – so that they may appoint for us that which we have striven for, to be of benefit to us thereby, and for us to make it a cause for success through His [divine] bliss and felicity, and salvation from His torment, and may He favour us, with the utterance of pious sayings and in labour, guard us against distortion and sin and error and cause us to be firm in speech in the world and in [His] presence, at the end, so that thereby He will grant us true repentence and take us to be with Him as [true] Muslims. His has the power to do so and He is fully justified in His response.

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Some Historical Documents Relating to the Conquest of Ghadāmis A selected extract from historical documents relating to the Arab conquest from manucript collections in Ghadāmis have been inserted here. They were collected by ʿAbd al-Jabbār b. ʿAbd al-Qādir himself. Others that are of direct relevance to the contents of the book are very fragmentary and have been omitted. This section is not included in the printed Arabic text.

Zawīla and the Muslims Zawīla is an unwalled town.1 It marks the frontier of the land of the Sūdān. Africa (Ifrīqiyā) was conquered by ʿAbdallāh b. Saʿd b. Abī’l-Sarrāj [?], in the year 27AH [647/648AD] by the command of [the Caliph] ʿUthmān, may God be pleased with him. With him were sent ʿAbdallāh b. Nāfiʿ b. ʿAbd al-Qays and ʿAbdallāh b. Nāfiʿ b. Ḥusayn al-Fihrīyānī and he ordered them to carry out a raid upon al-Andalus after the joint meeting with Ibn Abī Sarḥ in his vice-regency. The former conquered the shoreline of North Africa, and its mountain territory whilst the other two put to sea for al-Andalus. They conquered the land of the Franks and it is said that they conquered al-Andalus by the hand of Ṭāriq b. Ziyād, the client of Mūsā b. Nuṣayr, in the time of al-Walīd b. ʿAbd al-Malik, and, perchance, it was conquered and its people were crushed then and it was conquered a second time. 1 Also spelt Zuwayla, namely a town in Libya to the east of Ghadāmis which, by tradition, was the original town for both Arab and Berber nomadic peoples in North Africa.

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It is said that the conqueror of North Africa was Muʿāwiya b. Khadīj, in the year 34AH [654AD], this being the first raiding expedition in the Maghrib. It is said that he raided it three times in the year 34 AH [654 AD], and before the death of ʿUthmān [Othman]. Most of the people do not know that. It also took place in the year 40AH [660AD], and in 50 AH [670 AD]. It is also said that it was in the year 45 AH [665AD], in the time of Muʿāwiya – may God be pleased with him. In his army were ʿAbdallāh b. Zubayr – may God be pleased with them all – and ʿAbd al-Malik b. Marwān, and many of the sharīf s of the Quraysh. It is a widespread report that Muʿāwiya b. Abī Ṣufyān sent ʿUqba b. Nāfiʿ al-Fihrī to North Africa and he founded al-Qayrawān. With ʿUqba b. Năfiʿ there were twenty-five of the Companions (al-Ṣaḥāba) – may God have mercy upon them. He circumambulated al-Qayrawān, and he said, ‘O God, fill it with learning and with jurisprudence, fill it with those who are obedient and who are pious and make it a mighty place for Your religion and a humiliation for those who are Your unbelievers. May al-Islām fortify it and may it withstand the tyrants of the earth and may there be apparent within it, and may there prevail within it, a manifestation of the divine blessing (baraka) and goodness’. ʿUqba made peace with the people of Ceuta (Sabta) in 62 AH [681AD]. The poll tax ( jizya) was imposed, and Tangier was conquered. It is a town that is located at the very limit of North Africa. Al-Bakrī has said so. It is said that the province of Tangier lies at the limits of North Africa in the West. Al-Bakrī also said so. It has been said that the province of Tangier, as such, lies at a month’s distance, and it is the seat of the kings of the Maghrib. The distance reached by the soldiery was thirty miles. The nearest Sūs was [likewise] conquered, so too the furthest Sūs, and he built a mosque there. Then he arrived at the Atlantic (al-Baḥr al-Muhīṭ) and, afterwards, he faced and opposed, in Ifrīqiyā, thirty thousand men from the Byzantines. He returned to fight them and he defeated them. He slew most of them, and he was martyred – may God the Almighty be pleased with him. They said that it was in the year 63AH [682AD]. His tomb is well known in its location in the neighbourhood of Biskra, in al-Jarīd. Thus ends a quotation of what he had mentioned in the history of Egypt, by Jalāl [al-Dīn] al-Suyūṭī.2 It was here that he gave information about ʿUqba b. Nāfiʿ. He said that he had founded al-Qayrawān and that he had departed from it in 62 AH [681 AD]. He raided a nation of the Berbers and he was slain, as a martyr. To quote Layth b. Shaʿbān ‘ʿUqba b. Nāfiʿ …’ …

2 See R.A. Nicholson, A Literary History of the Arabs, London: Fisher & Unwin 1907AD, pp. 55, 71, 145, 403, & 454–455.

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The Introduction of Islam into Ghadāmis The following, pp. 2–3 of the printed Tadhkīr al-nāsī, was also found as a separate manuscript intended for the biography of Shaykh ʿAbdallāh b. Abī Bakr. A third version of the same text can be found in al-Ṣaḥābī, Abū Masʿūd al-Anṣārī wa-Ḥaqīqat Ṣilatihi bi-Ghadāmis (The Companion, Abū Masʿūd al-Anṣārī and the reality of his connection with Ghadāmis) by Bashīr b. Qāsim al-Yūshaʿ, Turāth al-Shaʿb, Vol. I, No. I, Series 22, 1990, pp. 18–24. The following is an edition of the three. Variants in the two other versions are marked as version B and C, respectively. Notice also the summary of the same arguments by Yūshaʿ, below.

In mentioning some of the remarks that the author has drawn to our attention – I say, and upon God I rely – over the matter that he mentioned – may God have mercy upon him – He has mentioned the name of the town of the Shaykh, namely Ghadāmis. He mentioned that he had not come across any written source that spoke [at length] about it from any books of History, such as Ibn Khaldūn, and the Murūj al-Dhahab,3 by al-Masʿūdī, and by others. Such books are too numerous to be counted. It comes as something of a surprise that he had not done so – may God Almighty have mercy upon him –, for, in fact, Ghadāmis is mentioned in many of the famous books of history and in noteworthy dīwāns [of verse]. Included among the historians is Ibn Khaldūn, mentioned above. He mentioned it for the first time in the Forward (al-Muqaddima)4 to his History. He spoke about geographical representation and about the globe being divided up into seven ‘climes’ (aqālīm). He mentioned that Ghadāmis was in the second part of the third clime. He said, ‘At its zenith, towards the East is the land of Waddān, the rest of which is in the second clime’, up to the end of what he said. Perhaps [the author] did not come across this reference? God knows best. Ghadāmis is also mentioned by Ibn ʿAbd al-Nūr al-Ḥimyarī al-Tūnisī in his book, al-Rawḍ al-Miʿṭār fī Akhbār al-Aqṭār, the report on the countries.5 The text of it reads,

3 By al-Masʿūdī; see Nicholson, Literary History, pp. 352–354. 4 By Ibn Khaldūn; Nicholson, Literary History, pp. 437 & 440. 5 Abū ʿAbdallāh Muḥammad b. Muḥammad Ibn ʿAbd al-Nūr al-Ḥimyarī of Ceuta wrote al-Rawḍ al-Miʿṭār fī Akhbār al-Aqṭār (d. 900 AH/1495 AD; Carl Brockelmann, Geschichte der arabischen Literatur [GAL], Leiden: Brill, 1937–1942, Supplement [S] Vol. II, p. 38; ʿUmar Riḍā Kaḥḥālā, Muʿjam al-muʾallifīn, Beirut, 1957AD, Vol. XI, p. 238; Khayr al-Dīn al-Ziriklī, al-Aʿlām, 6th edn. Beirut, 1984, Vol. VII, p. 53). The Arabic has ʿAbd al-Nūr; versions B and C correctly have Ibn ʿAbd al-Nūr, but C gives the title as al-Ward al-Miʿṭār fī Akhbār al-Aqṭār.

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Ghadāmis, in the Sahara, is located at a distance of seven days from the Jabal Nafūsa. It is an attractive town and an ancient one, and dates from the earliest days of al-Islām. Associated with the town is the name of Ghadāmisī leather. There are catacombs within it and caves that were the prisons of the Kāhina Queen who was in Ifrīqiya [Tunisia].6 These caves were built by the ancient inhabitants. In them there are curious examples of building structure and ‘sliding bolts’ which are concealed beneath the ground.7 It perplexes the viewer in them when he reflects upon them. It appears to him that they are relics of former kings and of extinct nations, and that this land was not desertified [then]. It was fortified, it was well built, and it was populated. The bulk of their food is the date and the mushroom and truffle, which they call tirfās. The truffle grows to a great size in that country. Jerboas and rabbits dwell in their lairs there. From Ghadāmis one reaches Tādmakka [al-Sūq] and elsewhere within the Bilād al-Sūdān. There are forty days of marching between them. Its peoples are Muslim Berbers and they wear face veils (al-Mulaththamūn) as is the custom amongst the Berbers of the Sahara, from amongst the Lamtūna and the Massūfa, and others. Here ends the quotation from the aforementioned book. In the Qāmūs [it is stated]: ‘Ghadāmis/Ghudāmis, spelt with a ḍamma [u] over the ghayn, then fatḥa [a], and an ʿajamī [non-Arabic] dāl (iʿjām al-dāl), is a town in the Maghrib. Ibn Dīnār also mentioned it in his Taʾrīkh Ifrīqiya8 and Ibn al-Shabbāṭ of Tozeur in his commentary on al-Shaqrāṭīsiyya9 and he mentioned its conquest and many of its circumstances and conditions, they are too long to cite here. He who so wishes may refer to it’. Here ends the quotation. … Ghadāmis was conquered in 42 AH [662AD] by [the command] of its lord, most superior in prayer and in the power of submission, in the Caliphate of our lord, Muʿāwiya b. Abī Sufyān, peace be upon them both. It was conquered 6 In Saharan accounts, this Berber queen is a figure who was among the staunchest opponents against the Arab conquest of North Africa in general. Several works from Libya, and elsewhere present her as the foe of leading commanders of the invading Arab army. 7 Version C mentions zalj, ‘smooth and slippery rocks’, B has ‘a maze [or labyrinth?]’. 8 Most likely Muḥammad b. Abī’l-Qāsim al-Ruʿāynī, Ibn Dīnār (fl. 1110/1698), al-Muʾnis fī akhbār Ifrīqiya wa-Tūnis [publ. Tunis, 1869, trans. Histoire de l’ Afrique, Paris, 1845AD], Brockelmann, GAL Vols. II, p. 357, S II, p. 682; Ziriklī, Aʿlām, Vol. VII, p. 6. 9 Muḥammad b. ʿAlī Ibn Shabbāṭ al-Tawzarī (d. 681/1282), Sharḥ on al-Qaṣīda al-Lāmiyya alShaqrāṭīsiyya by Muḥammad b. ʿAbd Allāh al-Shaqrāṭisī (d. 466 AH/1073AD); Brockelmann, GAL, S Vol. I, p. 473; Ziriklī, Aʿlām, Vol. VI, p. 283.

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by our lord, ʿUqba b. Nāfiʿ al-Fihrī, may God Almighty be pleased with him, as was recorded in Ibn Shabbāṭ and Ibn Dīnār, and by others besides. And in the Kitāb al-Istiyʿāb on the names of the Companions – may God be pleased with them all – by al-Ḥāfiẓ b. ʿUmar b. ʿAbd al-Barr,10 may God Almighty have mercy upon him, within the biography of ʿUqba b. Nāfiʿ, aforementioned, the text is as follows: ʿUqba b. Nāfiʿ b. ʿAbd al-Qays al-Fihrī was born in the lifetime of the Messenger of God, the blessing and peace of God be upon him and his Companions. His maternal cousin was ʿAmr b. al-ʿĀs, who made him the governor of Ifrīqiya when he was the ruler of Egypt. He reached the Luwāta and the Mazāta [Berbers]. They obeyed him and then later they returned to their unbelief. So he raided them in the same year, this being his habitual practice. He slew them and he took captives. That took place in the year 41AH [661 AD], and in 42 AH [662 AD]. He conquered Ghadāmis. He slew and took captives and in the year 43 AH [663AD] he conquered Kawārī,11 from the kuwār (district) in the Sūdān. He also conquered Waddān, which is in the province of Cyrenaica (Barqa) from within the country of Ifrīqiya. He conquered the bulk of the Berbers and it was he who planned and mapped out [the city] al-Qayrawān. That was in the time of Muʿāwiya12 – may God be pleased with him. Al-Qayrawān today is built on the site where ʿUqba b. Nāfiʿ planned and built it. Muʿāwiya b. Khadīj had planned al-Qayrawān in the place that is called today al-Quran.13 ʿUqba visited the site but he was not pleased with it and he rode with the people to the spot where al-Qayrawān stands today. It was a valley that was covered in vegetation, a place for the watering of wild game and snakes. He planned al-Qayrawān [to be] in that very spot and he ordered that the people should build there. Khalīfa b. Khayyāṭ said, ‘In 50 AH [670AD], Muʿāwiya sent ʿUqba b. Nāfiʿ and he mapped out al-Qayrawān and it was there that he stayed for three years.’ | Muḥammad b. ʿAmr b. al-ʿAlqama said, quoting Yaḥyā b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. Ḥāṭib,14 ‘When ʿUqba b. Nāfiʿ conquered Ifrīqiya, he stood overlooking al-Qayrawān, and he said, “O people of the valley, we have taken up 10

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Al-Ḥāfiẓ Abū ʿUmar Yūsuf b. ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿAbd al-Barr (d. 463AH/1071AD), Kitāb al-Istīʿāb bi-maʿrifat al-aṣḥāb; Kaḥḥāla, Muʿjam al-muʾallifīn, Vol. XIII, p. 315; Brockelmann, GAL Vol. I, p. 367. The Kawār oasis of north-eastern Niger. Version B has ‘Muʿāwiya b. Khadīj’. Versions B and C have ‘al-Qurā’, villages. Version C: ‘b. Ḥabīb’.

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residence, if God so wills. So depart!”15 He said it three times. [Then] we saw neither stone, nor tree, except there emerged from beneath it a serpent or a reptile, until they came down into the ground in the valley (wādī). So he (ʿUqba) said, “Descend and make camp in the name of God”.’ ʿUqba b. Nāfiʿ – may God be pleased with him – was killed in 63 AH [682AD]16 after he had raided the furthest Sūs. He was killed by Kusayla al-Awadī [?] and together with him, died Abū’l-Muhājir Dīnār. Kusayla was a Christian.17 Then the latter was killed in that year, or in the year that followed it. He was killed by Zuhayr b. Qays al-Balawī. They say that ʿUqba b. Nāfiʿ was that one who was ‘responsive to the call of al-Islām’ (alMustajāb).18 God knows best. (End of quotation from the Kitāb al-Istiyʿāb of Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr – may God have mercy upon him). In general, Ghadāmis is mentioned in many books of al-Islām and in the histories of its most noted men of learning. It was to become famous in what people have reported, namely, that the span [of time] during its construction was four thousand years. God knows best. May it enjoy support and have success. He said – may God have mercy upon him – that within its [walls] lies buried one of the Companions, ʿUqba b. ʿĀmir, may God be pleased with him.19 It was spread abroad about him that he was ʿUqba b. ʿAmr Abū Masʿūd alBadrī – may God be pleased with him. I have discovered it to be so in the hand of Shaykh Sīdī ʿAbdāllah b. Abī Bakr al-Ghadāmisī, in a margin [ṭurra, a gloss] to a copy of Ibn Sayyid al-Nās in the biographies (siyar),20 where he makes mention of the testimonies of those anṣār who were present in the battle (night) of alʿAqaba – may God’s mercy rest upon all of them. He said, ‘Abū Masʿūd al-Badrī, ʿUqba b. ʿAmr. It was said he was present in [the battle of] Badr. It was also said that he was not present’. Shaykh Sīdī ʿAbdallāh, in the margin, wrote an indication that ‘he was buried in our town of Ghadāmis’. He said, ‘God willing, such may be verified’. The Shaykh was well informed. Perchance he had discovered 15 16 17

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Versions B and C: ‘So, submit to us!’ Version B has 43 AH, evidently a misspelling. This Berber convert to Islam is depicted in popular accounts in the Libyan Sahara as a traitor who was responsible for the death of Muslim commanders. He is referred to in H.T. Norris, The Berbers in Arabic Literature (London: Longman, 1982AD, pp. 55–59). In the accounts, he is also referred as Kasīlo. Versions A and C have Mujāb al-daʿwa and Mujīb al-daʿwa, respectively. Added in Version C: ‘by whom worthy and good deeds made a strong influence and were of a good effect’. Version C says, ‘in the tafsīr’.

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it in one of the history books, or through research, or in some other way. God knows best. I have said [too] that I have seen in the hand of the shaykh and qāḍī, Sīdī ʿUqba b. ʿAbdallāh al-Ghadāmisī, in the margin of the book al-Muwaṭṭaʾ [of Mālik] by the first ḥadīth of the book at the mention of Abū’l-Masʿūd al-Anṣārī, he said, ‘He is buried amongst us in Ghadāmis’. Al-Ḥāfiẓ b. ʿAbd al-Barr referred to this in the Kitāb al-Istiyʿāb aforementioned: ʿUqba b. ʿAmr b. Thaʿlaba, ʿAbū Masʿūd al-Anṣārī, was from the Banū Ḥārith b. al-Khazraj.21 He was famous for his nickname (kunya) and he was known as Abū Masʿūd al-Badrī because he – may God be pleased with him – had particpated at Badr. [However] it was said by Mūsā b. ʿUqba on the authority of Abū Shihāb that he did not witness the battle of Badr. Ibn Isḥāq said, ‘Abū Masʿūd was the youngest of those who witnessed al-ʿAqaba, but he did not witness Badr.22 He witnessed Uḥud and those battles that took place after it.’ Ṭāʾifa said, ‘Abū Masʿūd witnessed Badr’. Al-Bukhārī23 – may God have mercy upon him – included him amongst the Badrīyūn (the men of Badr) but his martyrdom at Badr is not true. Abū Masʿūd died – may God Almighty have mercy upon him and be pleased with him – in 41 AH [661AD] or 42 AH [662 AD]. It was said that he died in the days of ʿAlī [b. Abī Ṭālib], may God be pleased with them both. It was said, ‘Nay, rather his death took place in Madīna, during the caliphate of Muʿāwiya, may God be pleased with him’. He had settled in Kūfa, and had dwelt there and ʿAlī – may God be pleased with him – asked him to be his deputy there when he went forth to Ṣiffīn and he did not [pause to?] take it upon himself.24 May God, Mighty and Glorious He is, have mercy upon them all. Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr also mentioned in the chapter of Abū Masʿūd’s ‘nickname’ (kunya) from the aforementioned book, that he died in 41 or 42 AH [661 or 662AD]. He said, ‘Among them is one who says that he died after the two years’. He does not mention the location where he died. God knows best. There is [also] the difference between the ḥuffāẓ (memorizers) and the expert ʿulamāʾ in this matter, in regard to the year of his death and the place of his burial, 21 22 23 24

Version C has ‘b. al-Khurūj’. See Nicholson, Literary History, pp. 144 & 349. See Nicholson, Literary History, pp. 144, 146, 151 & 337. One or more words unclear in the original ms, this suggestion from Version B.

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thereby supporting what was said by Shaykh Sīdī ʿAbdallāh and strengthening his case, approaching it, or preferring it – God knows best as to the reality of the matter. As for ʿUqba b. ʿĀmir, Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr mentions two men [with that name]. One was ʿUqba b. ʿĀmir b. Balī b. Zayd b. Ḥarām b. Kaʿb al-Anṣārī al-Khazrajī. He [Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr] said,25 ‘He was present at Badr after having been present at al-ʿAqaba, and at Uḥud, and al-Khandaq, and in other battles’.26 He was killed in the battle of al-Yamāma, as a martyr – may God Almighty have mercy upon him and be pleased with him. The second person was ʿUqba b. ʿĀmir b. ʿAbs alJuhanī. It has been mentioned by Khalīfa b. Khayyāṭ that he was killed in the battle of al-Nahrawān, as a martyr, in the year 38 AH [658 AD], but he said that this was an error of his, namely it would appear that he died in the year 58 AH [677AD]. However, he makes no mention of any places where he died. He said that he dwelt in Egypt, and that he built a house there – may God Almighty be pleased with him – God knows best which of them was actually the case. He said – may God have mercy upon him – ‘Verily, this Companion – may God be pleased with him – said to the people of Ghadāmis during his lifetime, “I am he, with God, who will secure this town of yours, and by God, none will beset you with evil intent and with that which is hateful [to you], but that God will destroy him before he arrives in the town”.’ This matter is without question, since it has never been heard that any of the kings, nor others, have ever entered it | by force, nor have ever ruled it. It was often the goal of numerous kings. Not one of them seized it and they returned crestfallen due to the baraka of the shaykh who was a Companion, and others amongst the shaykhs of Ghadāmis.27 The last of the kings was named Ramaḍān Bey, the Lord of Tunis. That was in the year, 1018AH [1609AD] and he had with him three thousand fighting men, both soldiers and villagers, and he had with him three cannons and other instruments of warfare. When the people of Ghadāmis had news of him, they assembled and they swore an oath. They united in order to do battle and for close combat. They brought forth their firearms and they prepared their tactics. The total number of firearms that they mustered was one hundred and they erected walls and barricades (aswār) and they fortified themselves there. When the aforementioned despot arrived, he drew nigh to the town and he sent [a messenger] to seek peace. The people of Ghadāmis responded by saying that no truce was possible for them with him and that he should prepare for 25 26 27

Version C only has ‘As for ʿUqba b. ʿĀmir b. Balī [Balawī] …’ Version C does not mention Badr and ʿAqaba, only Uḥud, Khandaq and ‘other battles’. The last two sentences are not in Version B. This is the end of the text that is duplicated in Versions B and C.

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the battle. When he had seen [their resolution] he advanced towards them with his soldiers and his horses and his men, and he began to fire upon them, with bullets and cannon. The battle was intense. Close combat took place. He was unsuccessful against them and some one hundred fighters died during the very first day whilst the people of Ghadāmis only lost three people. One of them was the jurist (al-faqīh) Sīdī Muḥammad b. Ibrāhīm b. Ṣīla b. Ibrāhīm. He is buried within the wall (sūr) opposite the mosque of ‘Awnallāh close to the gate of ʿInād Awlād ʿAlī’l-Layl. On the second day the same [slaughter] occurred again, and likewise, on the third day. When the fourth day arrived, and the accursed fellow had despaired of [subduing] the town, he moved away and he camped in the direction of the Banū Māzīgh. He began to cut down the date palms at the fringes of the grove, but when the people saw what he did they reached a truce with him on condition that they paid to him four thousand mithqāls, in gold, and he then departed from them as a disappointed man. God be praised. He died before he had returned to his country and he did so in an extremely unpleasant manner. The story is a long one and we have abbreviated it within limits in order to keep the narrative brief. Here my quotation ends. It would appear that he had not heard of that one of the kings, and none other, in past or present, had ever entered Ghadāmis by force, nor had suffered decay, due to the [action of] the Sulṭāns, this being the case from anything that has been reported by us, citing our shaykh, the pilgrim and ascetic, the virtuous faqīh, Sīdī Aḥmad b. ʿUmar Ḥarīẓ al-Ṭarābulusī, who quoted the shaykh and faqīh, the learned imām and scholar, Sīdī Muḥammad al-ʿArabī al-Ṭarābulusī, may God Almighty have mercy upon them. Amen. It reached him that the Commander of the Faithful and the Caliph of the Lord of the Worlds, Mawlāy Ismāʿīl, the Sulṭān of Morocco, sought for a certain book in all the countries of the Maghrib. However, he did not acquire it, and he did not even hear of it belonging to any one owner until he was told by one of his associates in social gatherings that he should visit Ghadāmis in pursuit of the aforementioned book, arguing that Ghadāmis was an ancient city in its history of al-Islām, and that none from among the kings had gained power over it, and no looting had taken place within it. He accepted his advice and he despatched one of his copyists who came to Ghadāmis and who sought for the aforementioned book. He found it, and he copied it, and he brought it to the Sulṭān. God Almighty knows best. Know that it is the tomb of the Companion – may God Almighty be pleased with him and grant us benefit by him. It was shown, through experience, to have been a place where needs and necessities are fulfilled and to be a place where it is known to avert torments and afflictions. Prayer and intercessions

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there receive a response that will end care and will cause worries to cease, needs will be fulfilled immediately, through the will of God Almighty, and good intentions will be accomplished. It is the custom of the people of Ghādamis, when they suffer from famine and endure some event that takes them unawares and when some outrage befalls them that they visit the tomb of the Shaykh. They recite the Qurʾān, and they pray to God Almighty and they beseech him, through the Prophet – the blessing and peace of God be upon him, upon his family and upon his Companions, and by the high status of their pious saint may we benefit from God. They did not return without their needs having been fulfilled whatever may occur. We ask God, the Merciful, that He will gather us into the membership of His Shaykh and that He will make him our guide and our leader into Paradise. It came about that one of the Companions – may God Almighty be pleased with him – who was then buried in a land, that he was to become a mediator for them and their leader into Paradise. He said, ‘The people of Ghadāmis adhere to the legally binding precedents (sunan) and are the Qurʾānic heirs of the divine ordinances of the faith ( farāʾiḍ) and to what is found within the desideratum (raghāʾib)’, to the end of what he said … The customs and affairs are many in number and they are built upon the rules that are laid down by the Sharīʿa and that conform to the Sunna of the Prophet Muḥammad, except in a few instances and rare occasions where no ruling applies. The people of Ghadāmis were on the strict path of righteousness and in following of the truth. As for today, circumstances have changed and have been reversed. The Sunna has been destroyed and innovation (bidʿa) has been brought to life. The people have adopted, as chiefs, men who are ignorant. It is they who lay down the law without knowledge. They have lost their way and they have led others astray – but there is no right, nor power, save with God the Almighty, the Supreme. A witness to that is the saying of the Prophet – the blessing and peace of God be upon him – ‘No time will face mankind that it will not be followed by another time that will be far worse than the one that man [currently] faces’, or just as the Prophet has said, the peace of God be upon him. Al-Ṣafadī in his commentary upon the Lāmiyyāt al-ʿAjam,28 from the author of the Kitāb al-Aghānī, who said, I was told by Abū Jaʿfar al-Ṭabarī, who said, I was told by Wakīʿ, citing Hishām b. ʿUrwa, from the father, quoting ʿĀʾisha – may God be pleased with her – that she had followed in her mind and thought over the verse of Labīd b. Rabīʿa:

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Nicholson, Literary History, pp. 326 & 456.

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Those who had been sustained under their protection have [long] departed, whilst I have remained behind like the skin of a mangy camel. She said, ‘May God have mercy upon Labīd were he to have known who we were at the very noon of this span of time?’ The above quotation was repeated, verbatim by ʿUrwa, by Hishām, by Abū’lṢāʿib, by Wakīʿ and by Abū Jaʿfar. The story is one too great to be described by circumstance. If only such was to have been the case in superior and worthier times when they existed, and so did others like them. It was then they said it [but] how will be the one who faces the same [situation] in this, our day? Yet many a man who keeps quiet is better than another who opens his mouth to speak [about it]! In any circumstance, I have said that the people of Ghadāmis, if perceived or compared with other folk, are to be seen as a remnant of the worthy, of the pious; men of modesty, chastity, religion, faith, security, generosity and of many [other] praiseworthy qualities that are rare among those who gain credit for these qualities. Testifying to this amongst them is made by those people whom he [the Shaykh] lived closely with, or mixed with, or who were known for their virtues. This is denied by none, save one who is envious or is ignorant of them, due to his low status and from [other] evil folk. May God in His goodness and by His favour preserve us from such as him and them. [Now for] people who are good and who are pious. In Ghadāmis, such people who are worthy and who are pious far outnumber the others. They are stronger than the people of mischief and corruption. This rule applies to the majority. As long as the people who are good and are pious are present [there], and their word is influential, then good will be found there and the outcome will merit praise. If other than that happens to be the truth, then it is that God has not shown it to be so until today. We have no close contact with the evil, and [even] along with it there is most surely some goodness and worthiness. God is responsible, by His mighty grace, in enabling us to follow the Sunna [of the Prophet] in our words and in our deeds. That is so, if He be kind towards us in the way we act, in all our doings, and, if He looks upon us with the eye of care during our lifetime, and after we die, and if he does the same with our parents, our families and our brethren, and our Shaykh, and with all Muslims, and, if he seals al-Islām within our hearts. Verily, He is able to do all these things, including that, and to respond effectively. Know that, this response, was not my intention to be addressed [specifically] towards the author, nor to oppose him [in any way], save what I have made mention of in detail and have col-

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lected together, nor to draw a line upon what he had overlooked. He who comes across it may know what [are truly] his sayings, the content of which are beneficial, and they are veritable jewels and pearls that are displayed [so that all may see]. The author, may God Almighty have mercy upon him, did not meet the Shaykh personally, nor did he find some [biographical] work to support him and to help [his aim] in the same, nor did he behold someone who could comment upon the reality of that for him. Perchance, this man who had pointed out to him all the noble deeds of the Shaykh, had not been somebody who had known him closely to any extent, nor had mixed with him, nor had held long meetings with him in order for him to recite the bulk of his circumstances and to cite his literary genius and his elegant habits and manners. God knows best. A man who is just and equitable (munṣif ) – may God have mercy upon him – when his mind is sound, and who thinks well of the Shaykh and has a love for him, that has doubled, and his belief in him has increased by dint of what he has heard about his learning, his culture and his moral conduct, thereby, he has assembled this composition of his noble deeds, out of a love for him and a longing for him – may God benefit us through him and grant him a place to dwell in peace within the spaciousness of His Paradise. We beseech God, the Compassionate and the Merciful, to raise him up – [nay, rather] we and him – to the highest point of the most lofty state, and then seal us all [with] what is to be found with His perfect saints – this being through the high status of the Lord of the Prophets and the Messengers – the blessing and peace of God be upon him. We have all but diverged from our intended aim, from [composing] this shortened and abridged content of the Foreward, but, even it to have been overlong, may it not be bereft of benefit. Any success has been brought [to us] from God the Almighty.

Chapter 1 Herewith are mentioned his birthplace, his lineage, his upbringing, his search for knowledge in the Islamic sciences, some of his shaykhs, his compositions, his judgements and his rulings, together with his biography which is subdivided into five parts. Part 1: A Statement That Mentions His Lineage and His Genealogy As for the latter, may God be pleased with him – he is the learned shaykh and Imām, who was a scholar, the Pole (quṭb) of the Lord, shaykh al-islām and of the

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Muslim Community, the crown amongst the reciters of the Qurʾān, and of the reciters of the Prophetic tradition (al-muḥaddithūn), a peformer of miracles and of amazing happenings and circumstances, | Sīdī ʿAbdallāh b. Abī Bakr b. Balqāsim b. Muḥammad b. Muḥammad b. Ibrāhīm b. Mūsā b. Ṣīla b. Ibrāhīm b. ʿUmar b. Yūsuf b. ʿUmar b. Ṣīla b. ʿAbdallāh al-Karīm. His lineage was found to be so, may God have mercy upon him – and written by his own blessed hand. May God the Almighty grant a benefit to us and by them [all]. Amen. He was, may God Almighty have mercy upon him, one of the descendants of the pious saint, the succour, the seer, who possessed sublime and mystical status and godly gifts, Abū ʿUmrān Mawlānā Mūsā b. ʿUmrān, may God Almighty have mercy upon him and may we profit by him. Amen. He was a famous man among the chosen elect and the common people. Reports about his life and his history have been passed from generation to generation amongst the people of Ghadāmis, and amongst others. They say, to the effect, that the descendants of Mūsā b. ʿUmar were shurafāʾ of the ʿUmrāniyyūn and that their ancestor had come from the direction of Morocco and that he had settled in Ghadāmis. This [report] is well known and it was passed down from one generation to another. The Banū ʿUmrān, until today, are distinguished nobles of the Prophet’s family and their men of high status are in Morocco and the line of the inheritance benefits the segments of it [the family]. In any event, the Banū Mūsā b. ʿUmrān, aforementioned, are Arabs and are freeborn nobles and their forebear came from Morocco. They settled in Ghadāmis and are not from its indigenous people in origin. Their ancestor, Mūsā b. ʿUmrān, aforementioned, died in Ghadāmis in the year 388 AH [998AD] – may God the Almighty have mercy upon him and be pleased with him and may we profit by him. Amen. His tomb is open for all to see. It is visited and baraka is sought from him [it] and many miracles of his are recalled – may God the Almighty have mercy upon him.

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Part 2 Here is found mentioned his birthplace, his upbringing and his quest for Islamic learning. He was born – may God the Almighty have mercy upon him – in the town of Timbuctoo, within the Bilād al-Sūdān, in 1035AH [1625 AD], and his father, Sīdī Abū Bakr, brought him with his brother to Ghadāmis. At that time, he was nine or ten years old. He grew up – may God the Almighty have mercy upon him – in his youth, as an intelligent, alert and sharp-sighted boy in respect to matters that came his way. So his father did not tarry in Ghadāmis, save for a few years, and then he travelled to the Bilād al-Sūdān and he settled

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in Agades [in Âyăr] until he died there in the night of the fourth of Jumādā II, 1051AH [10 September 1641AD] – may God the Almighty have mercy upon him. Shaykh Sīdī ʿAbdāllah, [however], dwelt in Ghadāmis, in comfort, and he enjoyed an easy life. He – may God the Almighty have mercy upon him – was as a very young lad, faultless, and of integrity (nazāha), and with a good and a pleasing aspect and appearance. [However, later] he wore stylish clothes, and he exuded the odour of perfume and scent. He walked in a conceited manner, and he did not immerse himself in reading. He paid no heed to it whatsoever, until his son, Abū Bakr, was born. Thus he remained and then, one day, he passed by the peerless shaykh, the lordly scholar, Sīdī Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. Balqāsim b. Mūsā ʿUrf al-Ḥāris. [At that very time] the former was exuding scent and perfume. He appeared to be conceited and he trailed a [long] garment he was wearing with baggy trousers. When the Shaykh [Sīdī Aḥmad] beheld him behaving in this way, he arose after the latter had passed by, and he caught up with him and he gave him a blow with what he held in his hand, and which he had thrown in his direction. He said to him ‘Are you not so and so, the son of so and so? This [state you are in] is not a condition that will benefit you, nor the likes of you, nor is it the path followed by your fathers, nor your grandfathers, whenever such as this draws nigh, so I have caught you up for this very reason. I have done so out of concern, and out of care and [due to] a previous attraction that comes from the Eternal One.’ So he [the young man] bowed his head in embarrassment, due to him [Shaykh Aḥmad, and his words]. He passed swiftly on his way home, and he followed a route, not normally taken by him, in order to reach his house. He doffed those garments and he forsook that other demeanour. The sermon [of the Shaykh] preyed on him, like a convulsion on account of it. It smote his heart without restraint and totally took hold of him – What ( yā lahā) a sermon it was! – How beneficial it was and how great a blow was its blessing for [the reforming] of his former past, in the knowledge of God the Almighty [of that which was to follow it], and His concern in regard for him and the harm it had upon him. Then he – may God the Almighty have mercy upon him, from thenceforth, [nay] from that very day, controlled, and he guided, his serious endeavours. He expended every effort for that way that would bring him closer to God the Almighty and in seeking to please Him. He struggled hard to read and to recite the Qurʾān, and to understand it and to improve his good behaviour. He made great efforts to pursue learning and he clung to the shaykh, and Imām, and scholar, Sīdī Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. Balqāsim b. Ṣīla al-Ḥāris, the aforemen-

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tioned. He learnt jurisprudence ( fiqh) from him, and knowledge of al-Islām and of ḥadīth and other sciences and he profited thereby from him. Before his presence, he recited and read the Commentary of Sīdī ʿAbdallāh b. Abī Hamza upon the abridgement of al-Bukhārī. He did so to the point of reading the passage, ‘Not a Muslim plants a shoot, or harvests what he has sown, and a bird eats consumes it, or a human, or a beast, but for him, thereby, it will become a charitable gift’. His previously mentioned shaykh was sick for twelve days and he died early on the Saturday morning, this being the day of ʿArafa, the ninth of Dhū’l-Ḥijja 1060 AH [3 December 1650AD] – may God the Almighty have mercy upon him and may we benefit through him. Amen. Thus it was written in the handwriting of Shaykh ʿAbdallāh b. Abī Bakr. It was written at a time when he was twenty-five years old. May God the Almighty have mercy upon them both and may He bestow their blessings upon us. Amen. Part 3 Here follows a mention of his shaykhs. He studied the Islāmic Sciences, – may God the Almighty have mercy upon him – from a great number of the scholars of al-Islām and from shaykhs of the Mālikī law school (al-madhhab al-Mālikī) amongst the people in his town as well as others in the provinces. Amongst the great scholars of his town was Shaykh Sīdī Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. al-Ḥāris. His shaykh and Imām, who has just been mentioned, was a unique scholar in his time and unmatched in his age. Another shaykh was the jurist ( faqīh), who was a verifier of precision, Sīdī Abū’l-Qāsim b. Ibrāhīm b. Balqāsim b. Muḥammad b. Muḥammad b. Ibrāhīm b. Mūsā b. Ṣīla al-Ghadāmisī. He clove to the latter and he studied jurisprudence ( fiqh) with him. He learnt from the shaykh and Imām, the scholar al-Ḥāfiẓ, a proficient master, who joined together with him in that which he had comprehended, and had copied, and collected, this together with the Law of al-Islām (al-Sharīʿa) and al-Ḥaqīqa, namely, the truth, and in it Philosophy and Ṣūfism. This he did with Sīdī Muḥammad b. ʿUmar b. Muḥammad b. ʿUthmān b. ʿAbd al-Wahhāb al-Ghadāmisī, may God the Almighty have mercy upon them both. With him he read jurisprudence ( fiqh), ḥadīth, and the dogmatics of the faith (ʿaqāʾid) and a collection of the sciences within the Sharīʿa. He grasped the meaning of the Ṣūfī séance (dhikr). His master granted him a license to teach (ijāza). It was one that was of a general application, together with his permission to issue formal legal opinions ( fatāwā) and likewise teaching and tutoring. About all his traditions he recited stories. He was an expert in entire archives and what he had heard included poetry with such verses as those [by him] that praised the Ṣaḥīḥ of al-Bukhārī and his shaykh. Here is the poem:

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The Ṣaḥīḥ of al-Bukhārī is peerless. It is firmly fixed by the water from the eye, Having been written with a man’s tears. His traditions are as a light that makes clear and glows, approproate to what is in it of knowledge is desired He who has grasped its content will draw nigh to the Paradise of the Almighty Creator. It is a security for him who reads it at all times, and he who knows it by heart, by God, no disappointment will befall him. God had bestowed good things that are gathered together within its contents. He bestows Paradise as a reward for him who approaches. To God be the praise, it sets forth the path to knowledge, My Lord, my hope, I turn my face to comprehend what is difficult therein, by the virtue of Ibn ʿUmar Muḥammad, our Shaykh who has made its light to shine so that it has shone into every murky rivulet below. May the Lord of the Throne reward him with goodness while His bounty lasts. Grant us favour thereby and satisfaction and grant [him] the Garden of Paradise ( Jannat ʿAdnin) on the day when it is His will for him to meet Him. I beseech you, O Most Merciful, with both fear and longing, by the high status of the Imām of those who have been sent [Muḥammad], May we be favoured by Thee, and by those who are present here, one and all, Gather us together on the day of the Assembling together with all Muslims, at the throne of Truth, where no death befalls. Blessings and the peace [of God] be upon all beings who, in number, are as the particles of the sand upon the earth. Let there be upon Aḥmad [the Prophet], he who was sent, both safety and mercy. May it be so upon his Companions, who are the justified, as long as the twinkling star shines forth. This poem is dated 1072AH [1661AD], based upon the reckoning of the years.

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And let it be upon ʿAbdallāh, he who speaks and whose home is in Ghadāmis from whence his lineage stems. Here end the verses. He also studied ḥadīth, Jurisprudence ( fiqh) and the total number of the sciences of the Sharīʿa at the feet of the lordly shaykh, the ‘Eternal Temple’ (al-haykal al-ṣamadānī), tutor of those who follow the path, and the model of the [Ṣūfī] Gnostics, Shaykh Sīdī Muḥammad al-Bakrī b. ʿAbd al-Karīm b. Muḥammad al-Tuwātī al-Ṣadaqī.29 He gave him the license (ijāza) and this will be mentioned towards the end of the book, if God the Almighty so wills it. He studied the Ṣaḥīḥ of al-Bukhārī and other works from the learned shaykh and model, Sīdī Abū ʿAbdallāh Muḥammad b. Muḥammad al-Ḥassānī al-Tuwātī and other shaykhs than these and ʿulamāʾ whose numbers were uncountable. When he was thirty-three years old, he journeyed from Ghadāmis with the intention to perform the pilgrimage to Mecca. He arrived in Cairo and he studied the Islamic Sciences there with numerous shaykhs amongst the scholars of al-Azhar. A group amongst them issued him with a license (ijāza) and they granted him permission to quote them orally (riwāyatan), on their authority, thus giving him the same authority to do so, as he did, for example, the shaykh, the Imām and great scholar, Sīdī ʿAbd al-Salām b. al-Shaykh Nāṣir al-Dīn Sīdī Ibrāhīm al-Laqqānī,30 the commentator on al-Jawhara, and other works. In addition, also the shaykh and Imām, great scholar and jurist, and reciter of Prophetic tradition (muḥaddith), Sīdī Ibrāhīm b. Marʿī al-Shabrakhītī,31 the Commentator of the Mukhtaṣar [of Khalīl] and the Arbaʿīn al-Nawawiyya and other works. Also, the shaykh, Imām, great scholar and lordly Pole (quṭb) Sīdī Muḥammad al-Kharashī and the ideal shaykh, the adept (niḥrīr) Sīdī ʿAbd al-Bāqī b. Yūsuf al-Zarqānī, and also the shaykh and Imām, scholar and precise verifier, Shaykh Mūsā al-Qulaybī, the pupil of Shaykh ʿAlī al-Ujhūrī.32 May God the Almighty have mercy upon them and may we profit by them and from their sciences and their knowledge. Others to be found amongst them are those that were shaykhs in al-Azhar (Cairo). He also met, in the Ḥaramayn, in Mecca and in Medina, a number of

29 30 31 32

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Sic; below, Chapter 3 part 2, spelled ‘al-Ṣiddīqī’. See John O. Hunwick (ed.), Arabic Literature of Africa, Vol. 2, The Writings of Central Sudanic Africa, Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1995 AD, p. 26. Brockelmann, GAL, S Vol. II, p. 438, Kaḥḥālā, Muʿjam, Vol. I, p. 111. In the Arabic, misspelled ‘al-Shabrākhīthī’ in several places. Philip K. Hitti, History of the Arabs, London: Macmillan 1946AD, p. 389.

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the shaykhs of al-Islām and other scholars. He returned to Ghadāmis after his completion of the pilgrimage and he came across secret things [of learning] until he became one of the greatest of Muslim scholars and most distinguished among the Imāms. The leadership in learning in our town of Ghadāmis was his final achievement during his lifetime. He was a resort [for many] and he was the place of refuge (mafzaʿ) in the [solving of] outstanding problems and to remove ambiguities in the remainder of the sciences, in ḥadīth, and in jurisprudence and the two main principles of Islamic science, in the Arabic language, and the meanings, in the Qurʾān (bayān), in commentaries (tafsīr), and in religious duties and obligations ( faḍāʾil), and in poetry, and in other topics in the sciences, both in what was copied and initially comprehended (aṣliyya), and in poetry, and other topics in the sciences, both copied and comprehended intellectually (ʿaqliyya). He was the one who was referred to and lauded in the field by name, as distinct from others in his age. A number of shaykhs studied the sciences with him and chief men among the people of his town. Yet others, such as his son, were the shaykh, Imām and scholar, Sīdī Aḥmad, together with Shaykh Sīdī Muḥammad al-Zāhid and Shaykh Abū Zayd Sīdī ʿAbd al-Raḥmān. He was also the teacher of Shaykh Sīdī Aḥmad b. ʿAbdallāh b. Muḥammad b. Ṣīla and the shaykh al-fādil, the jurist Sīdī Qāsim b. al-ḥājj ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Ḍawī al-Ghadāmisī and Shaykh Sīdiyya Aḥmad b. Musā b. Abī Shayna33 and others. They learnt from him, they profited through him, and the traces of his grace and blessing (baraka) was upon them – may God Almighty benefit us and them, likewise, and grant us his span and make us to be among the men of learning who are active, and who will create amongst his offspring his successor so he may be appointed for that office and able of undertake and fulfil the same. Part 4 Mention is made here of some of his works. He, may God the Almighty have mercy upon him, wrote compositions that were profitable, and also were noble, and he wrote in documents on many subjects. He did this by his own hand. They were beneficial works and were about the branches of knowledge and other important issues. Were all these to be gathered together, they would amount to numerous volumes – may God the Almighty have mercy upon him and be pleased with him. Among his books is to be found one which bore the title of Manāhij al-Sālikīn ilā Manāfiʿ al-Qurʾān al-Mubīn, ‘The Way of those who tread the path towards the benefits of the Qurʾān, made clear’. It is a book of benefit in its format and it

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Or Shīna.

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is unusual in its artistry. It is compiled from entire books, and from the sayings of the scholars (ʿulamāʾ) at work. It has no competitor. Copies of it ‘flew’ to East and to West. The people accepted it and they profited from the baraka of its compiler. Its collected content may, by God’s help, be a work of benefit for us also. Another book is titled, Maqāṣid al-Taʿrīf bi-Faḍāʾil Muḥammad al-Sharīf, ‘The goals of instruction in the virtues of Muḥammad, the sharīf ’. It is a useful book likewise in its artistic genre. In this book he gathered together all the characteristics that were unique to the Prophet – the blessing and peace of God be upon him-as well as his qualities, his miracles, his names and other matters also and his virtues; so indicating the abundance and the depth of the author’s knowledge in ʿilm. What is reported is not like the text as it actually is when it is seen. Amongst these books is the Takhmīs al-Burda [of al-Būṣīrī].34 It is pentameter in its beautiful form. Another work is the ode of the shaykh and Imām, great scholar and professor, the Pole (quṭb) of North Africa and a world scholar, Sīdī Abū ʿAbdallāh from al-Marzūq. It is titled al-Marzūqiyya. Also, amongst them, is a pentameter (takhmīs), the ode of the excellent shaykh Sīdī Yūsuf al-Jaʿrānī al-Mislātī35 the opening verse of which is: Praise be to God, the Master of benefits and bliss, of help, of pardon, of bounty and of generosity. He added extra verses to the pentameter and it in all totalled one hundred and nineteen verses, one fifth of them in content, on one single day, as he mentioned, at the outset. Shaykh Sīdī Muḥammad b. ʿUmrān al-Ghadāmisī referred to it in his poem which is an elegy for Shaykh Sīdī ʿAbdallāh. He said, ‘He who [has composed] in a Takhmīs, during a day and a night, the very gift of verses – add nine, then ten’. This poem will come later when his elegy is presented. Such is not to be found at all strange, because the saints of God were numerous [in the world] in their days and were blessed in their hours and moments, because they were endowed with an increase in knowledge, and in adoration, and in intensity – may God the Almighty grant us benefit through him. Amen. Added to these were useful qualifications and also his surprising intentions that were not to reach us, nor did we behold – may God the Almighty have mercy upon him – [namely] his being a poet [and a lover of poetry] of a 34 35

See Nicholson, Literary History, pp. 326–327. Or al-Maslātī, perhaps al-Misurāṭī?

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high status. He – may God Almighty have mercy upon him – acquired strange and remarkable books and dīwāns of verse which had not been assembled by anybody else in his age, his bequest and legacy exceeding three hundred volumes – may God, the Almighty, make it to be purely His aim and His design and [accordingly] install him in the highest place of His Paradise. May abundant blessings come to us thereby and may blessings abound from his sciences, this through the high office and rank of our lord, Muḥammad – the blessing and peace of God be upon him.

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Part 5: His Legal Responsibilities Together with His Biography When his learning became perceivable and when his reputation had spread as the leading judge of his town of Ghādamis [including] the Imāmāte and preaching the Friday sermon in the mosque of Jonah (Yūnis), and when he had striven hard in his office of muftī, by his teaching and his disseminating of learning, the people lauded his life style and when his baraka had become known, they profited from him outwardly and inwardly. His learning spread amongst the people, also his justice and piety, that was to pervade them, as well as his clemency. His reputation spread to East and to West. Judicial cases (nawāzil) and other legal questions reached him from distant districts and from remote countries. His abundant knowledge had been published abroad as well as his noble standard of conduct and his justice. He had answered in regard to them in such an excellent manner. Judges and scholars corresponded with him over many matters. They returned [to examine] his legal rules. They were satisfied by his response, they extolled him and they found blessings within his utterances – may God Almighty have mercy upon him. His status lay between being judged lofty and being judged a most humble man, within both these orbits. Likewise, it was between the rich and the poor, the near and the far, the freeman and the slave. All the people, in his view, were equal within God’s care and keeping. With God, no blamer’s blame ever touched him. In his whole person he was a sincere man – may God the Almighty have mercy upon him. That man is one of those who have been gathered by God, those who have possessed learning, labour, property, offspring, religion, and in temporal matters. It was said about him – may God the Almighty have mercy upon him – that, on one occasion, he judged between two opponents in a civil action (nāzila). He decided in favour of one of them against the other. The loser said, ‘I am unsatisfied with this ruling and judgement [and will remain so] until you write down a question for the scholars in regard to this same matter’. The Shaykh said, ‘Yes, but on condition that I personally write it down in my own hand’. The Shaykh –

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may God the Almighty have mercy upon him – wrote down a question, seeking a ruling to that civil action. He showed it to them and they sent it to the scholars in the Fezzān. From that day forth the Shaykh refrained from deciding cases and from issuing legal judgements and rulings until the reply came from the scholars. All of them answered [in support] of what ruling had been given by the Shaykh within that civil action. He declared that he would return to his legal practice but he held back and the people expressed regret. But he did not accept their excuse and so he remained for some time until the elderly women of the town from the Banū Walīd and the Banū Wāzayt met together. They went to his house and they spoke to him about that and they asked him to return. He assented and he returned to the issuing of legal rulings – may God the Almighty have mercy upon him – and he did this in his own hand, written down by his blessed hand. Such were many documents of civil actions and legal matters and in other categories. No harm is to be found in citing such as this that has some connection with our town, Ghadāmis, for his benefit, and to seek his baraka by his word. We say – to God Almighty we ask for aid and we rely upon Him. Part 6: The Debating of Awkward Legal Issues He said – may God the Almighty have mercy upon him, Here is a question that often comes our way: ‘When caravans have determined to undertake the journey to the South West (qibla), namely to Ghāt, or to the Fezzān, or to the West, and the like, and then other people rise up with a desire to make the journey to Derj (Darj), or to their homeland, and they say to them (the caravaners) “We shall give you pledges (ʿuhūd), or give you pacts, or we shall swear to you that we shall not inform anyone about you so that they will be unhappy in their hearts in regard to the security that they will have.” [Question] Is there anything to prevent them from travelling?’ He said, though he revealed what he was citing from the saying of Saḥnūn and his son, quoting the one hundred and tenth chapter from Jihād al-Nawādir, [namely] ‘The struggle of uncommon phenomena’; ‘When a warrior comes to soldiery in a war zone (bilād al-ḥarb) with a pass of security, or a messenger comes, and both see an act of shame, or he fears the sight of it, then is it not the responsibility of the Imām to put them in prison after concluding what they had intended to do?’ Then he said, ‘If reparation for a disgrace be to a close relative then he should act so, but if it be to somebody who is remote [in his relationship] then he need not act in this wise’.

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Ibn Saḥnūn said, ‘I think that he should not let them go until he is sure of the matter, and he will not accept any oath that they will not disclose what they knew or swore that they knew not. He will not release them because, if he does so, the destruction of al-Islām will follow. He will not imprison them in chains nor in fetters and he will entrust them to whoever guards them’. Then, he said, ‘If he releases them in a land of al-Islām and then both ask [or tell] him what [burden] they cannot bear, then let him grant to them what they are able to bear’. He added at the conclusion of the issue, ‘… and what he gives them both will come out of spoils, because it is a matter of intent to the army, other than his division of the spoils, and he will give to them from the treasury (bayt al-māl), likewise the money spent upon them’. Shaykh Sīdī ʿAbdallāh said, [in this matter] ‘If we have spoken to them, then detain them, prevent them from travelling until the caravans are secure. Then [the question] is the expense, and the expense of their beasts, during the duration of the detention, is it for them to pay? Is [the precedent] to be taken from the end of what has been said by Ibn Saḥnūn, or are they not themselves responsible in that respect? It is that which is customary and takes place in our town of Ghadāmis [such is the rule], God knows best’. Then he said – may God the Almighty have mercy upon him, Another quotation (speaks of) a judgement by some of the ʿulamāʾ namely, that when a space of time is in question and a conqueror requires the people of the town [to pay] money, such as a tax, and an imposition, and the people of the town refuse to pay it, and are in fear that that [the pāshās] will launch an expedition and a military force against them, or an army, [then, at that time] one of the people of that town refuse to pay it, and [the people are then in fear] and he wishes to travel for purposes of trade, they, the people prevent him from travelling! [What then?] The literal meaning (ẓāhir) [and the context] are that they are both legally preventing the journey? By analogy, [such is] the reading of Ibn Saḥnūn. What links these two cases is the prevention of travelling, because of the Muslims’ fear in respect to it. God knows best. He uttered that statement. It was also written down by his very own finger tips of [that famous man] the meek, ʿAbdallāh b. Abī Bakr b. Balqāsim al-Ghadāmisī – may God the Almighty be close to him – Amen.

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From his handwriting I have copied [the following]:

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I have said, and I behold the [implied] meaning of that, most of the people have spent [money] so as to pay what they have owed, be it a sum, or a license [that is owed to some qāʾid or another, the aforementioned], or to the pāshā, despite the fact that some of the people refrain from doing the same. So, are they compelled, by the law (al-Sharʿ) to pay that sum on account of their aforementioned fear? Are they compelled to do so or are they not? God the Almighty knows the best. A meek and sinful man has written this, he who is in need of his Lord, Muḥammad b. Muḥammad b. Mūsā b. Balqāsim – may God forgive him. Amen. I have discovered, in his handwriting – may God the Almighty take pity upon him – [something based] upon Shaykh Khalīl – may God the Almighty have mercy upon him – found within the ‘Chapter of the Hunt with Weaponry’. Here follows the text: Know that it is a frequent topic to question [the legality] of eating what dies due to a bullet. Has it been authorized, or has it not? We have investigated that matter, a great deal, and we have no text in regard to it amid amongst those who have preceded us. In that same matter, I have discovered a letter [written] by one of the later men from the Morocco and this adds up to four folios. What is said therein has the following as its chief content: He has said this about the issue of the hunt by the bullet fired from a gun, ‘I have found in one of the entries (taqāyīd) that quotes Shaykh al-Manjūr [?]. It reads as follows: “The question of the hunt with bullets that are fired from a firearm. In regard to this, no text has been found from among the people of the Mālikī school of law and in latter day Fez. Scholars differ in regard to that question. Abū ʿAbdallāh al-Qarawī went some way towards the legality of what had been hunted there and this indicted proof and approval, by saying ‘The Messenger of God – the blessing and peace of God be upon him – said, “That which is of blood from the river [namely fish] is edible”.’”’ But he was opposed by another, and then he said, on the authority of Ibn Ghāzī, on the authority of al-Qarawī, regarding that which is dead, slain by a bullet from the ground, in a saying amongst the latter day men of Fez about eating of food; regard should be paid for this cause being a weakening due to loss of blood, or by a death sentence, or by a lack of

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food. Lack of strength is the issue. Then he said, ‘I also found that hunting with a firearm was [discussed] by Ibn Ghāzī and after Sīdī Ibn Hārūn. Both men have issued a formal legal opinion of legal lawfulness’. He continued, ‘I have also found a fatwā by the jurist, Abū ʿAbdallāh Muḥammad al-Tilimsānī,36 who is resident in the furthest Sūs, and who was a muftī. He was renowned in the country of the Sūs. He quoted the jurist Muḥammad b. Ibrāhīm al-Tilimsānī [in regard to] the matter of the legality of eating everything that is hunted with the shotgun, by the truth of the noble ḥadīth, about the permissibility [of it]’. Fatwās were issued by our shaykh and Imām and scholar, Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. Muḥammad b. Muḥammad – may God sanctify his secret. He said, ‘There is no need to make a distinction concerning the spurting [of its blood] whether it is hit by its edge or its width when it is a small bullet, because it [the bullet] is swift, and [so] the victim bleeds.’ Then the author of the epistle said, ‘Then we choose permission ( jawāz), based upon the fatwā of the one who came before, and on account of what appeared from the cause (ʿilla) that they have mentioned; namely, the flow of the blood and the despatch at speed that makes it lawful, and the slaughter of the animal that is prescribed by the law.’ He then said, ‘When this takes place, then the gunshot, that is to say the firearm in the expression used in the Maghrib, [becomes] the “killer” in what takes place, and the depletion of a vital part of the body and the wounding is a normal event. Such is inevitable and the time expected for a coup de grâce, the blood shedding likewise. There is no denying this and it is undeniably heard. Nay, rather, it is effective and much easier than every other instrument that causes a wound’. Soon after that, Shaykh Sīdī ʿAbdallāh, the aforementioned, declared that what was conveyed in the two passages was what al-Fayshī had copied out and had quoted in his gloss upon the Mukhtaṣar of al-Khalīl, where he says ‘The entire gullet’ (tamām al-ḥulqūm) and following, ‘The slaughter of the animal is prescribed by the law “drain its mortal spot in any event”.’ There is no doubt that the bullet should pierce the mortal spot quickly.

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It is possible that this is the same person as Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-Karīm al-Maghīlī alTilimsānī, see Hunwick, Arabic Literature of Africa, Vol. 2, pp. 3, 16, 19, 20, 22, 23, 26, 52, 54, 93, 111, 324, 520 & 550.

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The Shaykh then continued – may God have mercy upon him, And when the same is affected, it imposes a condition within the other indisputable evidence. Any absence of squandering in regard to the animal’s slaughter that is prescribed by the law, together with the instrument of the slaughter itself, is not hard [to observe] [or is it not?], likewise is he [the slayer] named at the moment in time of the desire to shoot [or is he not?], or whether he has the intention of slaughtering legally, etc. [or otherwise?]. Is that according to that which was laid down in a ‘hunt with dogs’, or with other animals that who are referred to by the author of the Mukhtaṣar? Has the reference been made by him at the point where he says, ‘The need for their precise inspection (wajabat tabayyunahā)’? See the commentary upon the Mukhtaṣar. They have satisfied the discourse in regard to this matter. Then he said – may God have mercy upon him, Here is a notice of warning, the inclusion of a bullet is a conditional matter in the case of the hunting of a wild beast, be it lions and other savage animals. That is to say, no eating will take place save when he who causes the wound of the animal falls on top of it. Where he allows such a fall to happen and he thereby wounds another animal then [in that circumstance] its eating does not take place. As stated here, when the traps and snares that he sets (miṣyada) be numerous in number, in regard to the [number of] his bullets and in a case where he strikes two or three [different] wild cows, for example, then he eats the entire lot of them in order to conform [with the law]. Then he said – may God the Almighty have mercy upon him, ‘We have only discussed this matter at great length on account of a general need (ʿumūm al-balwā). May God seal us with the faith of al-Islām’. Part 7: His Sayings Such sayings are prolific – God knows best and in Him is success – within his text that I have quoted. He also said – may God the Almighty have mercy upon him – citing the Imām al-Qurṭubī in ‘The Chapter of Marriage’. He said, What the ḥadīths [of the Prophet] point out for the possibilities within marriage is one amongst two of the things that are discussed. This is where, amongst the womenfolk, there is to be found help in both the religion and in worldly [matters]. I have mentioned the caring for and the tending of the children. Harry T. Norris - 978-90-04-31585-3

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As for these occasions, then we [must] seek for help from God against Satan and from womenfolk. God, who is the one and only God, a bachelor’s life and a separation from them and, specifically (taʿyīn) a flight from them, has been made lawful, and there is no might nor power save | in God, the lofty and the mighty. Then he said – may God have mercy upon him, If being a celibate in life be lawful, in his time, while amongst the womenfolk and the children there be a trace of goodness, then such [separation] is compulsory in this our time and age. It is due to the lack of goodness amongst our women and children. Few are those who have married and have begotten offspring without ruination being their lot. This same has been witnessed by those ones who have beholden it with their own eyes. That is because the women and the children in this age are like devils. It is rare otherwise amongst the harvest of the faith. What is reported is not what it seems. I have said that this has occurred in times that were preferable when they had lived, as others likewise. How would it be were they to be aware of this situation, today, in this very hard time? – there is no power, nor might, save in God the Almighty and Great – we ask from Him peace and salvation and pardon, well being in the faith, through this favour, this bounty and this goodness. Amen – so be it. This statement has been found amongst what has been written by his blessed hand, among useful and profitable questions and matters (masāʾil) and in specific judicial cases (nawāzil). Were they to be collected together it would be an independent, self-standing composition in its own right. It would dispense with many books that contain judgements. We have abbreviated to a minor degree. God grants success to that which is in the right manner when it is shortened in its content. I had thought that I might conclude this chapter by mentioning the licence (ijāza) that was granted by the most learned shaykh, the lordly Sīdī Muḥammad al-Bakrī b. ʿAbd al-Karīm al-Tuwātī, – may God the Almighty benefit us by him, and by his knowledge and science – to Shaykh ʿAbdallāh, on account of the beauty of his utterances and the blessing (baraka) of mentioning their shaykh, – may the blessing of God the Almighty be upon all of them [who are mentioned], and may we profit from, and through, them. Here is the text: In the name of God, the Compassionate and the Most Merciful, blessings be upon our lord, Muḥammad, upon his family and upon his Companions

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and grant by His praise much praise, both good and blessed, just as our lord loves, and O God, the blessing and peace of God be upon Muḥammad and upon the family of Muḥammad, just as I have sought a blessing upon Abraham [Ibrāhīm], and upon the family of Abraham [Ibrāhīm], so may blessing likewise rest upon Muḥammad, and upon the family of Muḥammad, as blessed, too, be Abraham [Ibrāhīm] and upon the family of Abraham [Ibrāhīm], in the two worlds. Thou art praised and glorious, whenever he who makes a mention has mentioned You, when those who are heedless have been careless in making mention of You. O God, may God’s blessing be upon the other Prophets and upon the family of all and upon the rest of the pious. Thus concludes what is needful for those who question to ask. O God, verily we beseech you for the good of what your Prophet asked, the blessing and peace of God be upon him. As for what follows, When the license (ijāza) was a fixed procedure, as a task of those whose concern for the Prophetic traditions (al-muḥaddithūn), and when, after the caliphs, it became a collective and commonly agreed procedure, or the likes of such, the Imām Aḥmad [b. Ḥanbal] said ‘Were it to become of no validity then science and knowledge would be lost together with its benefits’. Not every scholar is enabled to travel and to transmit it. Mālik b. Anas and al-Shāfiʿī, together with most of the scholars, and those who were accredited, authorized the oral transmission of ḥadīth. Is it to be measured, weighed, and judged, for further transmission, for authorization [to be cited and quoted] and judged to be qualified for permission to be quoted within oral transmission as ‘qualified isnād’ and as an authorised ascription, with a special characteristic or a quality of excellence amongst the [other] special characterisations of this community? Ibn al-Mubārak said ‘Isnād is an absolutely essential part of our Faith. Were it not for isnād, whoever wished to speak on a matter could [not] do so, and others could not quote him’. He said ‘Whosoever seeks [to affirm] a matter of his Faith, without quoting isnād, may be likened to one who climbs up on to the roof without the help of any ladder’. To quote Ṣufyān al-Thawrī, ‘The isnād is the weapon of the true believer. If he has no weapon with him, then, by what means can he fight against his opponent?’ God willing, I shall mention the chain of the isnād and the meaning of the content that is attached to it, I have authorized all that is to be mentioned by me from all of the Isnād and I have affixed my permission thereby by a conclusive statement in writing. In such wise, I have selected

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it from the index of the father, from both the parents, from the son, and his son, the scholar being the model, the very ideal of what is conceived and the transmitter. Such was that skilled master of memory, namely, Abū ʿAbdallāh Muḥammad b. Muḥammad b. Muḥammad b. ʿAlī, al-Waqrūtī of house, al-Tamānṭītī, in origin, al-Isbāḥī in his lineage. All that I shall make mention of I have authorized, likewise all that has an authentic narration (riwāya), in my opinion, from the remainder of my shaykhs – may God be pleased with them – in accordance with the toil and labour that it entailed, likewise those forebears of yore, together with our past Imāms of the Sayyid and faqīh, the noted and noble Sīdī ʿAbdallāh b. Abī Bakr al-Ghadāmisī. I hereby fully declare in regard to this riwāya that it was all to which I was titled. What I tell about him has been either read, or composed, or collected. All that I have received is with the authority of my shaykhs, or was made known. This was in every respect [an affair] that had a bearing on customary traditions, upon the recognized law, and with every kind of awareness, of knowledge and of categorisation of variants, whether in prose, or in verse. So let it be so, by its well known and recognised condition. Let him who cherishes it and who narrates it do so as he wishes in accordance with the laid down traditions and within the clear paths and the rules and regulations – Glory be to God. May He guard us with His true guidance and appoint us to be amongst those who are assisted along the way of the truth and of guidance – Praise given to God is a duty that is placed upon us. The poor servant speaks to God Almighty, he is one who seeks for satisfaction with the people of Prophetic ḥadīth and with the secrets [?] that were theirs; with Muḥammad al-Bakrī b. ʿAbd al-Karīm b. Muḥammad b. Abī Muḥammad b. Aḥmad b. Maymūn b. ʿUmar b. Muḥammad al-Tuwātī, of the lineal house of the (Banū) Marīn. He who was the collector and who was the preserver of the Truth told me, namely | by Sīdī Muḥammad b. Muḥammad b. ʿAlī, together with all [the content] of the Ṣaḥīḥ of al-Bukhārī, both by reading it and by listening to all that it said, together with the authorizing and licensing [of it]. I did this more than once. He said, ‘I was told by the “support of the horizons”, “the prince of oral narrative”, your father, ʿAbd al-Karīm b. Muḥammad. He said, “I was taught the Ṣaḥīḥ of al-Bukhārī by the memorizer of an expert knowledge, our shaykh Sīdī ʿAbd al-Ḥakam b. al-Wālī al-Ṣālīḥ. The qāḍī of the jamāʿa, Sīdī ʿAbd al-Karīm b. Aḥmad al-Maranī did this orally, in whole or in part. He personally pronounced this, and licensed the citation of the remainder. He did so on the authority of his father al-Ustādh Abu Isḥāq

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Ibrāhīm. He was one authorized to make mention, this given to him by Abū’l-Mawāhib al-Maranī, who quoted ʿIzz al-Dīn b. ʿAbd al-Raḥīm b. al-Furāt al-Ḥanafī, on the authority of ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al Kanānī, from Abū’l-ʿAbbās Aḥmad b. Bayān who was known by the name of al-Ḥajjār, from al-Ḥasan b. al-Mubārak al-Zubaydī, from ʿAbd al-Awwal b. ʿĪsā b. Shuʿayb al-Sajzī al-Harāwī al-Ṣūfī, from the Imām Zayd ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. Muḥammad al-Dāwūdī from Abū ʿAbdallāh b. Ḥamawayh al-Sarkhasī, from Muḥammad b. Yūsuf b. Maṭar al-Farbarī, from ḥujjat al-islām Abū ʿAbdallāh Muḥammad b. Ismāʿīl al-Bukhārī – may God shield him with His mercy, in all things, and be pleased with him, through their blessings – by the high title of the Prophet who intercedes. He added that ‘God has made merciful his life and his death within His full and His perfect advocacy and satisfaction’.”’ He said, Ḥadīth from the Ṣaḥīḥ of al-Bukhārī was also transmitted to me by our shaykh, Sīdī Muḥammad b. Muḥammad b. ʿAlī. He said, ‘I was told by one who knew the Qurʾān by heart, ʿAbd al-Karīm b. Muḥammad who said: “I was told of Qurʾānic ḥadīth found in the book of alBukhārī by Abū Faraj Saʿīd b. Ibrāhīm al-Jazāʾirī, ‘Verily, we, ʿUthmān Saʿīd b. Aḥmad al-Maqqarī al-Tilimsānī, verily, we, Ibn Jalāl, were told by Ibn al-Ḥāfiz Aḥmad b. Zakarī, verily, we, Muḥammad b. al-Abbās [were told], verily, we, “The mighty ocean”, Abū ʿAbdallāh Muḥammad b. Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. Marzūq [were told], verily, we, Sirāj al-Dīn Abū Ḥafṣ ʿUmar b. ʿAlī b. al-Mulaqqīn were orally told a part of it together with a license for the remainder, verily, we, Sharaf al-Dīn Abū’l-Barakāt Muḥammad b. Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-Karīm b. Aṭaʾallāh al-Iskandarī [were told], verily, we, the scholar Tāj al-Dīn ʿAlī b. ʿAbd alMuḥsin al-Qarāfī [were told], verily, I, al-Qalānasī, verily, I, Abū’l-Waqt ʿAbd al-Awwal b. ʿAbs b. Shuʿayb al-Sajzī was told by Abū’l-Ḥasan ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. Muḥammad al-Darāward, we were told by Abū Muḥammad ʿAbdallāh b. Aḥmad b. Ḥamawayh al-Sarkhasī, we were told by Abū ʿAbdallāh Muḥammad b. Yūsuf b. Maṭar al-Farbarī, we were told by Abū ʿAbdallāh Muḥammad b. Ismāʿīl al-Bukhārī’.” ’ Other persons also told us about all of the content of the Ṣaḥīḥ of al-Bukhārī, persons other than those who are included [above] in the [quoted] isnāds. He spoke – may God Almighty be pleased with him and grant contentment to him – about the entire [contents] of the Ṣaḥīḥ of al-Bukhārī and he [also] said ‘I have given you license [i.e. to Sīdī Muḥammad b. Muḥammad] and I herewith say, “My ear heard tell of the Ṣaḥīḥ of al-Bukhārī, the entire content of it heard [as if] from his very mouth”.’

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He also said, ‘I was told about its entire content by your father, “the gatherer”, ʿAbd al-Karīm b. Muḥammad b. Abī Muḥammad al-Tuwātī, may God Almighty bless him – Amen.’ He said, ‘I was informed, also, from the isnād of the “horizons of learning”, Abū’l-ʿAbbās (Aḥmad) Bābā b. al-faqīh and al-muḥaddith (Aḥmad) b. al-ḥājj Aḥmad al-Ṣanhājī.37 [He did so], orally, from his father, and also, by license, from the faqīh and muḥaddith And-agh-Muḥammad b. the faqīh, al-atharī al-riḥla, Muḥammad b. Aḥmad al-Tāzakhtī38 [then] al-Tunbuktī.39 What he said was heard, orally, more than once, and his very words were, “We were told through the licence (ijāza) [given by] our shaykh al-islām, the qāḍī of qāḍīs, Jamāl al-Dīn Abū’l-Fatḥ Ibrāhīm b. ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn al-Qurashī al-Shāfiʿī al-Qalqashandī, who said: Abū’l Faḍl Aḥmad b. Ḥujr informed us, Abū ʿAlī b. Muḥammad b. Aḥmad b. ʿAlī b. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al Mahdawī told us, he gave it, in a licence to us, by word of mouth, on the authority of Yaḥyā b. Muḥammad b. Saʿīd b. Jaʿfar b. ʿAlī al-Hamdānī. We were told by Abū Muḥammad ʿAbdallāh b. ʿAbdallāh al-Dībājī, as an ijāza, we were told by ʿAbdallāh b. Muḥammad al-Bāhilī, we were told by al-Ḥāfiẓ Abū ʿAlī al-Sammānī. We were told by Abū ʿUmar Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. Yaḥyā al-Ḥaddād, orally, and by Abū ʿUmar Yūsuf b. ʿAbd al-Barr, as an ijāza, and he said, I was told by Abū Muḥammad ʿAbdallāh b. Muḥammad b. Asad al-Juhanī, we were told by Abū ʿAlī Saʿīd b. al Sikkī, we were told by Abū ʿAbdallāh Muḥammad b. Yūsuf b. Maṭar al-Farbarī, we were told by Abū ʿAbdallāh, the Imām of Imāms, ḥujjat al-islām, Muḥammad b. Ismāʿīl al-Bukhārī – may God Almighty be pleased with them all and grant them happiness and may he grant provision to us from the blessings (barakāt) of them all, Dhī Sābiʿ, in full, and with satisfaction”.’ I was told also the Ṣaḥīḥ of al-Bukhārī, orally, and by an ijāza, by our shaykh Sīdī Muḥammad b. Muḥammad b. ʿAlī. He said, ‘I was told by your father, Sīdī ʿAbd al-Karīm b. Muḥammad b. Abī Muḥammad. He said, I was told by ʿImād al-Aʿlām al-Ruwāsī, the sharīf, al-ʿAbbāsī, Aḥmad b. ʿAbdallāh b. Abī Muḥammad al-Sijilmāsī. He said, We were told by Ibn ʿAbd al-Jabbār the rest of what is kept and preserved, and the last of those who reported the very model of the isnād and the sanad. He said, I was

37

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The famous scholar of Timbuctoo, 963–1036AH/1556–1627AD, see Hunwick, Arabic Literature of Africa, Vol. IV, The Writings of Western Sudanic Africa, Leiden: Brill, 2003, pp. 9 & 17. Or Tīzakhtī. Born circa 876AH/1471–1472 AD, died 936AH/1529–1530AD; Hunwick, Arabic Literature, Vol. 4, p. 25.

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informed of all the Ṣaḥīḥ of al-Bukhārī by the shaykh al-islām and by the ‘landmark of preservation’, | and of the ‘legal case of evidence’, ‘the plea of humanity’ and very great scholar Jalāl al-Dīn Abū’l-Faḍl ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. Abī Bakr al-Suyūṭī,40 in reading with him a selection from the beginning of it and with an ijāza for what remained of it. He said, I was informed by Shaykh Jalāl al-Dīn al-Faḍl ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Aḥmad al-ʿAmṣārī41 by reciting to him from the beginning of it to the ‘Book of Sales’, to the very end of the Ṣaḥīḥ and an ijāza from them both for the remainder. He said, We were told by Abū’l-Ḥasan ʿAlī b. Muḥammad b. al-Majd al-Dimashqī, he said, I was told by Wazīra bint ʿAmr alTanūkhiyya, who said, We were told by Abū ʿAbdallāh al-Ḥusayn b. alMubārak al-Zubaydī. He said, We were told by Abū’l-Waqt ʿAbd al-Awwal b. ʿĪsā al-Sajzī, he said, We were told by Abū’l-Ḥasan ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. Muḥammad al-Dāwardī, who said, We were told by ʿAbdallāh b. Aḥmad al-Ḥamawī, who said, We were told by al-Farbarī, who said, We were told by al-Bukhārī – may God Almighty be pleased with him – on the authority of them all – may He make them contented and gather us together in the loftiest location of their group of people, neither with shame, nor [with need for repentance] – this through the high office (al-jāh) of the mediator of the nations and beneath his most auspicious banner, the blessing and the peace of God be upon him, upon his family and upon his Companions, whilst beings are humble in their worship of the Adored – Praise be to God, firstly and lastly.” As for the Kitāb al-Shifāʿ, I was informed of it, including nearly all elements of it, by al-Ḥāfiẓ ʿAbd al-Karīm b. Muḥammad b. Abī Muḥammad, who said, I was told about all “the [book of] healing” (Kitāb al-Shifāʿ). Abū’l-Faraj Saʿīd b. Ibrāhīm al-Jazāʾirī [did this] orally. He said, I heard it orally and I was given the ijāza of our shaykh, the “blessing” Saʿīd b. Aḥmad al-Muqrī, on the authority of the scholar Ibn Jalāl, citing al-Ḥāfiẓ b. Zakrī, so citing the Imām, Sidi Muḥammad b. al-ʿAbbās, and from that giant “sea of [knowledge]” Sīdī Muḥammad b. Marzūq, in a continuous chain (isnād), towards the [heart of] the content of al-Bukhārī, in more or less what I have mentioned in the isnāds of al Bukhārī, and what was in the Kitāb al-Shifāʿ, likewise.’ As for the Ṣaḥīḥ of the ‘Commander of the Faithful’, Abū ʿAbdallāh Muslim b. al-Ḥajjāj al-Qushayrī al-Naysābūrī,42 I was told about it by our 40 41 42

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Nicholson, Literary History, pp. 454–455. ʿAm/nṣārī or ʿA-Miṣrī? See Hitti, History of the Arabs, pp. 395–396.

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shaykh Sīdī Muḥammad b. Muḥammad b. ʿAlī. He said, ‘I was told of the entire text, by al-ḥāfiẓ ʿAbd al-Karīm b. Muḥammad b. Abī Muḥammad b. Aḥmad b. Maymūn b. ʿUmar b. Muḥammad b. ʿUmar al-Marbīnī. He said, We were told about all of it in an ijāza from the “Chain of Authority of the Horizons” (musnid al-āfāq), Abū’l-ʿAbbās Sīdī Aḥmad Bābā. He [the latter] said, I was told of it by my father, orally, and with an ijāza and by the “faqīh of a good judgement”, Sīdī Muḥammad b. Maḥmūd (Baghīḥ [Baghyū]) from their shaykh, the most favoured faqīh And-aghMuḥammad, in an oral hearing and on more than one occasion. He said, I was told of it by the shaykh al-islām, Abū’l-Faḍl ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn, together with an ijāza. He said, I was told by Abū’l-Faḍl b. Ḥujr, and he said, I was told by the “tracer of tradition” (al-musnid) Abū ʿAbdallāh al-Naysābūrī, by word of mouth, citing al-Faḍl Sulaymān b. Ḥamza al-Muqaddasī, [the latter] citing Abū’l-Ḥasan ʿAlī b. al-Maqqarī al-Ḥāfiẓ Abū’l-Faḍl al-Salamī, [he, likewise] citing al-Ḥāfiẓ b. Manda from al-Ḥāfiẓ Abū Bakr al-Jawraqī, who cited Abū Bishr Makkī b. ʿAbdallāh, who cited the Imām Abū’l-Ḥasan Muslim b. al-Ḥajjāj al-Qushayrī al-Naysābūrī – may God have mercy upon them all and bestow their blessing (baraka) and His mercy [them] upon all. He is the One who is most generous, through the office of the Prophet, the mediator, O God grant us mercy by the perfect mediation for [pardon] from hitherto demeaning acts and for repentence.’ We were also told about the Kitāb al-Shifāʿ by Sīdī Muḥammad b. Muḥammad b. ʿAlī. He said, ‘I was told of it all, as an ijāza, by our shaykh, the “musnid al-āfāq”, Sīdī Aḥmad Bābā, on the authority of his father, Aḥmad b. al-Ḥājj Aḥmad. This was an oral transmission, given by the noteworthy scholar, the ʿamīr al-dīn al-Maymūnī, who resided in Mecca. Part of it was recited, and an ijāza was granted for the rest. It was quoted from the shaykh al-islām Zakariyyāʾ al-Anṣārī, who quoted the shaykh al-islām Aḥmad b. Ḥujr al-ʿAsqalānī. He declared, in an ijāza, “We were informed of it, orally, by Shaykh Abū’l-Faraj ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Maghribī, on the authority of Yūnus b. Ibrāhīm b. ʿAbd al-Malik b. Muḥammad b. Muhārib, quoting Aḥmad b. ʿAlī b. Ḥakīm directly from the qāḍī ʿIyāḍ. The blessing and peace of God be upon our lord and master Muḥammad, upon his Family and upon his Companions and those whom he loved, for ever, O God, this by the baraka of them all. Show mercy to us by mediation for all sins and errors that are not vile and for those that are not repeated”.’ We were also told about the Ṣaḥīḥ of Muslim b. al-Ḥajjāj by the memorizer and scholar, Sīdī Muḥammad b. Muḥammad b ʿAlī. He said, ‘The gatherer, ʿAbd al-Karīm b. Muḥammad b. Abī Muḥammad said, “I was told by the “Exemplary person in Time” the bearer of the banner of Islām,

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Abū’l-ʿAbbās, Sīdī Aḥmad b. ʿAbdallāh b. al-Qāḍī b. Abī Muḥammad alSijilmāsī in his home and place of his birth and growing up, al-ʿAbbāsī in his origins and in his lineage, claiming to be an authority from “the ultimate memorizer of the Maghrib”, Ibrāhīm b. ʿAbd al-Jabbār al-Fījījī [Figuigi]. He said, We were told by the memorizer, ḥujjat al-islām, the scholar, Jalāl al-Dīn Abū’l-Faḍl ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. Abī Bakr al-Suyūṭī, of the Ṣaḥīḥ of Muslim b. al-Ḥajjāj, through the reading of some part of it, by me to him, and in the form of an ijāza from me | of its remainder. He said, I was informed by my father who said, We were told by the scholar, Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad b. Aḥmad b. al-Qammāḥ. This was orally done in part, and the remainder was in an ijāza. He said, We were told by the scholar, Abū’l-Fath Manṣūr b. ʿAbd al-Munʿim al-Farāwī, who said, We were told by my grandfather Abū ʿAbdallāh Muḥammad b. al-Faḍl al-Farāwī, who said, We were told by Abū’l-Ḥasan ʿAbd al-Ghāfir b. Muḥammad al-Fārisī, who said, We were told by Abū Aḥmad Muḥammad b. ʿĪsā al-Jalūdī, who said, We were told by Ibrāhīm b. Muḥammad b. Ṣufyān who said, We were told by Muslim b. al-Ḥajjāj – may God be pleased with him – O God you are the gatherer, gather us all within the “mosque” of the Merciful within the topmost heights, by opening the meditation of, and by the blessing of, the Household of the Prophet and by the zeal of the Companions (himmat al-Ṣaḥāba) and by their mercy, whether individually or as some [chosen] group”.’ I was told also by Sīdī Muḥammad b. Muḥammad ʿAlī about the Kitāb al-Burda by the sharīf al-Būṣīrī. He said, ‘I was told by al-Ḥāfiẓ ʿAbd alKarīm b. Muḥammad b. Abī Muḥammad, he said, We were told by the Imām the “Pillar of the World” al-Ruwāsī Abū’l-ʿAbbās, Mawlānā Aḥmad b. ʿAbdallāh b. Muḥammad al-Sijilmāsī, in his narration that quoted Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Fījījī, [nay] rather, Ibn ʿAbd al-Jabbār who said, I was told by my shaykh, the Imām al-Shamūnī, by my reading to him, and by al-Jalāl Abū’-Faḍl al-Qamsī and by al-Shihāb Aḥmad b. al-Jamāl ʿAbdallāh b. ʿAlī al-Kanānī, orally, over them. They said, alJamāl al-Kanānī told us, the latter two orally, and the first both orally and textually in an ijāza, We have been told by the qāḍī of the Muslims, a son of the jamāʿa, ʿIzz al-Dīn, quoting al-Nāẓim, by an ijāza – may God have mercy upon him, O God bless and grant him pleasure. For you we ask for mediation through your panegyrist [Your Prophet] who is so eloquent – satisfy us to perfection [by your] mediation with no torment with it and no chastising of our world and in the world to come – the blessing and peace of God be upon our Lord and our Master, Muḥammad.’

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I was told also by Sīdī Muḥammad b. Muḥammad ʿAlī, of the Qaṣīdat al-Faraj, by Abū’l-Faḍl Yūsuf b. Muḥammad al-Anṣārī, known as ‘Ibn anNaḥwī’, “the son of the grammarian”. He said, ‘I was told by ʿAbd al-Karīm b. Muḥammad b. Abī Muḥammad, I was told by Sīdī Aḥmad b. ʿAbdallāh b. Abī Muḥammad, who had said, I was told by the accurate shaykh and the expert man of letters, an excellent scholar, Sīdī Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm, the son of the lordly scholar, the late Sīdī Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm, the son of the lordly scholar, the late Sīdī ʿAbd al-Jabbār b. Aḥmad, on the authority of the shaykh, shaykh al-islām, Jalāl al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. Abī Bakr al-Suyūṭī. He said, I was told by Abū’l-Faḍl b. al-Marjānī, We were authorized, on the authority of Daḥrīra al-Dhahabī, from al-Ḥāfiẓ Abū ʿAbdallāh Rashīd. We were called by Muḥammad b. Aḥmad b. Ḥayyān. He told me through ʿAlī b. Mufarrij al-Ṣanhājī. I was told by Aḥmad b. ʿAlī b. Abī Bakr al-Balāṭī, from ʿAbdallāh b. Maymūn b. Muḥammad b. al-Ghanānī, from Abū ʿAbdallāh Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-Muʿṭī b. ʿAbdallāh b. al-Rammāḥ, from Abū’l-Faḍl Yūsuf b. Muḥammad al-Anṣārī, known as Ibn al-Naḥwī, – may God have mercy upon our lord from all of them’ – then, he said, ‘May God Almighty have mercy upon him, the humble man to the mercy of his Lord, the Almighty (al-Qadīr), Muḥammad al-Bakrī b. ʿAbd al-Karīm b. Muḥammad b. Abī Muḥammad al-Tuwātī, in abode and upbringing, may God be good to him.’ I have need to mention here some of the isnāds in Jurisprudence ( fiqh)43 from the Mukhtaṣar of Shaykh Khalīl b. Isḥāq,44 “the foundation of purpose and design” (asas al-sadad). I was told of it by my lord and my support in regard to both recitation and also as an ijāza. This was on more than one occasion and with the full permission of Sīdī Muḥammad b. Muḥammad b. ʿAlī – may God be pleased with him – the narration being that of my father’s, namely ʿAbd al-Karīm b. Muḥammad b. Abī Muḥammad’s, authority. This was from his professor, the one who remembers the Qurʾān by heart (al-ḥāfiẓ), ʿAbd al-Ḥakam b. ʿAbd al-Karīm, from his father, ʿAbd al-Karīm b. Abī’l ʿAbbās from his shaykh, al-Daqqāq, “he who thanks for gifts”, from Aḥmad al-Fatwā, who quoted al-Manāwī Abū Bakr, the man of trust (thiqa), the renowned by his name of “the Son of Charity” (ibn al-ṣadaqa), quoting Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad al-Ghimārī from the Imām Khalīl b. Isḥāq from al-Manūfī, from al-Qawbaʿī Zayn al-Dīn, from Ibn Zaytūn and Ibn Abī Zayd, from Ibn Khaldūn, from Qāḍī’l-Jamāʿa

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Ascription (of an Islamic tradition) – the chain of authority on which a tradition is based. Hitti, History of the Arabs, p. 242.

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Ibn ʿAbd al-Salām, from Ibn Hārūn, from Ibn Bāqī, from Ibn Abū ʿAbd alḤaqq, the client of Ibn al-Ḍilāʿ and al-Bājī, quoting the Imām Abū Ṭālib al-Makkī, from a group, the most well-known of whom and the carrier of their banner is Ibn Abī Zayd al-Qayrawānī, from Ibn al-Labbād, from Yaḥyā b. ʿUmar, from Saḥnūn and Ibn Ḥabīb, from a group of those who are ‘thoroughly versed’ (al-rāsikhīn) including the head of the “debtors”45 (al-ghuramāʾ), al-Raghmāʾ al-ʿUtqī ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. al-Qāsim and Ashhab Miskīn b. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz. Both of them quote the Imām Mālik b. Anas from Rabīʿa b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān and Nāfiʿ, [and] Rabīʿa from Anas, and Nāfiʿ from Ibn ʿUmar, and Anas and Ibn ʿUmar from the best of God’s Creations and the “Secret of the Revelation of God and of God’s mercy and the Plea [Proof] of God”, Muḥammad b. ʿAbdallāh – the blessing and the peace of God be upon him, he who was visited by Gabriel with alFurqān (the Qurʾān) from the Lord on high – the blessing and peace of God be upon him, upon his Family and his Companions, and may there for us what we hope for from Him of the bliss of the two abodes in whose hands is dependence (muʿawwal), and we have no such dependence save in Him. Praise be to him [Muḥammad] to whom I shall return, the best of the creation (khayr al-warā), may God Almighty have mercy, our Lord, upon him. May his blessings be freely bestowed upon all of them and upon us, in a wide flow and flood of benefit, of abundance, and so clarifying [his] blessings that lead to good things and to favour and welfare. Amen.

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Here ends the ijāza, the blessed, praising God the Almighty. Blessings and peace be upon our lord Muḥammad, and upon his Household. He had authorised him – may God have mercy upon him – [to promote] in such a manner a host of the greatest of the ʿulamāʾ and the shaykhs of the madhhab [of Mālik] – may God have mercy upon them and may we benefit from their blessings and from the blessings of their knowledge of and learning in the Islamic faith – Amen.

Chapter 2 Here will be mentioned some of his chaste and moral acts, of his pleasing manners arising out of his character and his personality, his clemency, his caring, his

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abstinence, his generosity, his honour, his adoration and other aspects of his praiseworthy, unique and most pleasant temperament – may we benefit from him. Amen. This has five parts: Part 1 Mention will be made of some of his noble and beautiful qualities and of his epithets. He had – may God Almighty have mercy upon him – a pale white in his complexion though mixed with a little reddish hue, and he possessed a stately figure and an elegant stature. He was tall in height. He had a large head (hāma), and he was of a good character. He was easy and gentle in his manner, eloquent in speech, sharp in his mind. He was chaste and humble and modest towards those who were close to him and likewise to distant relations and to strangers, whether they be freemen or slaves. He was – may God have mercy upon him – a person who wore clean garments of quality. He was proud and he used various kinds of perfume. He wore a turban and he veiled his face (talaththama) with a Saharan veil. He had a luxurious taste in food and in what he ate, as well as in his attire, and in all his other affairs. In all these, he observed the limits that were laid down by the Sharīʿa. He did not depart from the Sunna of Islam. Whosoever beheld his spontaneity thought that he was a man of the world. He who mixed with him, and sat with him knew, for sure, that he was one of the saints amongst those who were brought close to God, among His pious servants, when his circumstances were beheld [and assessed], together with the miracles that he performed and his piety and his adoration were [observed], likewise his fear of God the Almighty. One had to observe it in order to appreciate it. To God belong the words of him who speaks and spreads words that are His, the source – may God spread [abroad] the speaker therof: Time swore an oath that the likes of him [and his utterance] should come in the future. O Time, may your oath be broken, and that amends be made [today]. He – may God Almighty have mercy upon him – was held in awe. He was courageous and he was obeyed, considering that good favour should be shown. He countered that which was an abomination. Complete acceptance was bestowed upon him amongst both the élite and the masses. All who beheld him held him in respect. Kings corresponded with him, so did wazīrs and the Arabs

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of the Mashriq and the Maghrib of the East and the West. They sought his prayers to God for them and his presentation [of the Holy Qurʾān]. They filled their needs and they sought his baraka. Those who saw him held him in regard, and it increased his might and they held him in reverential fear and wonder. He who heard of him corresponded with him. He never assumed a proud demeanour above every other person, nor did he despise anyone or irritate him. He offered the people his hand, his tongue and his speech. He surrounded them with his favour and his assistance. God made beautiful his outward and inward appearance. Rare were the inner qualities that he possessed as described by the people during that age. He – may God Almighty have mercy upon him – received frequent letters from scholars and from the pious, or from the saints, or written by men of power and status, and from abroad. They asked him to pray for them and they had hope in his baraka. They bestowed upon him much of the assemblage of their pious acts. One example of this was the case of the respected shaykh and pious saint, Sīdī Abū’l-Qāsim al-Warfalī. He wrote him a letter and, in it, he informed him that for eight years he had completed a reading of the Qurʾān, every month, and sometimes up to ten times. Four of these were from the Muṣḥaf, itself, plus six recitals of the entire Qurʾān (al-Khatma) from other than the Muṣḥaf. He gave the reward, the recompense (thawāb), for all that to Shaykh Sīdī ʿAbdallāh. He made it an obligation that it should last as long as he lived, up to the day of his death. He said to him, ‘Were I to give that up and were I to fail – even in one single letter – then you would hold me to account on the Day of Resurrection, before God Almighty’. The other swore to him that he would not do that, neither visibly, nor by ear, nor due to covetousness, in anything whatsoever to do with the world and its temptations and he did not seek for anything thereby save for the sake of God Almighty and for the love of the Shaykh. I said, ‘I have seen that letter and I have read it, and may God grant us benefit by the baraka of both men’ – Amen. Such is a great matter and a substantial recompense. It cannot be comprehensively reckoned save by Him, who has bestowed it and given it – Glory be to Him. We have inherited [to us] from Abū Masʿūd, – may God Almighty be pleased with him. He said, The Messenger of God – the blessing and peace of God be upon him – said, ‘He who reads a letter of the alphabet from Almighty God’s (holy) book will have a benefaction and ten of the latter like it’. I say, not alam [alif-lām-mīm] is one such letter, but alif is a letter, lām is a letter, and

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likewise mīm. He said also, ‘In each letter there are fifty benefactions’, and in another ‘one hundred benefactions’.

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The scholars have disputed over the total number of the letters in the Qurʾān, so Shaykh Sīdī ʿAbdallāh b. Abī Bakr al-Ghadāmisī – may God Almighty have mercy upon him – transmitted in his book, ‘The paths of those who proceed to the benefits of the Qurʾān’, Manāhij al-Sālikīn ilā Manāfiʿ al-Qurʾān al-Mubīn, from some of them, that the sum total of all the letters in the Qurʾān is one million letters, and twenty-nine thousand. Then he said, ‘By saying this, | he who recites the Qurʾān but once, has one hundred million benefits and two hundred thousand and sixty thousand benefits. The grace of God is wider than all else. His goodness is greater’ – God knows best. I have remarked that if we were to consider the number of the ten recitations of the Qurʾān, as complete, which Sīdī Abū’l-Qāsim, the aforementioned, completed in a month, and then we multiply this number ten times and if we consider the recitation of the same in one year, this is also multiplied to one hundred and twenty times. If we consider the same recitation over eight years mentioned, then the number is multiplied to nine hundred and sixty times. Just reflect how long he lived after this span and how many recitations [he made] until he died – this due to the mercy of God Almighty – and all of this was in accordance with the saying that in every letter are to be found ten benefits! As for what has been said, namely that in every letter there are fifty benefits, and one hundred benefits, and that doubling exceeds that amount, this was something that was beyond the limits of human understanding. The only being who may conceive and comprehend it is the One who is eternal. He who is unique who begets not, neither is He begotten. There is none like unto Him. Glory be to Him the Almighty. God will multiply whosoever he wishes, He, the Mighty Lord of Grace. This is especially the case when those who recite are amongst the people of grace and of piety and amongst those whose baraka is sought for and whose prayer is answered. [May] God deprive us not of their baraka, and the baraka of their prayer – Behold, may God the Almighty have mercy upon you to the height and degree of the concern and the zeal of this noble man and his generosity and how he allowed himself [to act] in this weighty matter and with such great recompense that is loosed from any restriction. Such is, [and was] extreme love and affection, the very limit of generosity and of pious deeds and of what God Almighty grants of stages and degrees. Such are completed and such are perfect generosity attaining a degree that far exceeds a donation, on its own, and thus it was referred to by Shaykh al-

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Ḥāfiẓ Sīdī Abū Bakr b. al-ʿArabī – may God Almighty have mercy upon him – [as stated] in his book, ‘The Lamp of the Novices’, Sirāj al-Murīdīn. The same is only due to the excess of His love for the Shaykh and a belief of a kind that is abnormal. So may God bestow benefit to us by it and may He reward him in His Paradise and grant him pardon. May God’s mercy be great towards him and may He bring us benefit, by him, and by the letters and the correspondences with the scholars who are active, the men of status and the people of the world and of the faith. We ask God the Almighty, the Kindly, the Giver, that He may provide and sustain us with their assistance and benefit through them and their learning and that He will seal us with the seal of al-Islām, and that He may forgive us, our parents, our brethren and our shaykhs, this by the title of the Lord of Mankind. Upon them be the most excellent blessing, greeting and peace. Part 2: His Clemency, His Pardon and His Tender Care for the Creation He was – may God Almighty have mercy upon him – praised for his clemency, his pardon, care and concern for the Muslims. He respected the great and he was merciful and he cared for the unimportant and the insignificant. He consoled the poor man and he displayed honour and respect to men of dignity. He rewarded those who were stricken by his bounty and he greeted the same with pardon, kindness and friendship. He was kind to him who caused him hurt and he displayed a cheerful expression (hashsh) in his visage. He was the first to greet the same. Quite often he was the target of an injury from many folk until frequently some of them sought a cause to kill him, though God Almighty saved him from death at their hands as well as from those who employed cunning and trickery against him. The hateful evildoer only caused harm and hurt to his son through his family. All of this was on account of their envy when God caused him to show, at his hands, acts of goodness, of generosity and of welcome, and an influence in his speech and by his mighty and honourable virtues. These were exceptional qualities amongst the pious, who adhere to the word of God to the most noble one in the Creation Muḥammad – may the blessing and peace of God be upon him. There is no power, nor might, save in God Almighty. As for what I have mentioned, namely ‘I am one who eats in poverty and one who wears meagre attire and one who sits in a lowly manner of posture, then that is how it is and how I behave’, we ask for God’s pardon, – Glory be to Him. He has said, ‘Say, “Who has forbidden the adornment of God which He has bestowed upon his servants and the good things of food and of sustenance?”’ [Qurʾān 7:32] I am aware that to abandon and to forsake takes a precedence

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over entering into it. Let us not be cut off from Your [Holy] Book. We shall not cut you off from our [Holy] Book. Peace be upon you. Recover from the life of the brutish person. The Shaykh – may God Almighty have mercy upon him – may we profit through him – was one who followed such a habitual practice (sunna) and he obeyed such legally binding precedents. He was guided by it. ‘Works are to be judged by their intentions’ (niyyāt). If a man approaches his Lord and he acts in accordance with what He commands him to do and stays away from what is forbidden, following the Sunna of His Prophet, and His chosen one, obeying and doing what concerns him from the matter of his religion and worldly life, and who takes no thought at that time about what he has eaten or drunk, nor what he wears, then that is in that case allowed and is ḥalāl, [in] following the maxim, ‘fear God and dress as you so wish’, and, ‘if God favours his servant He loves to see the effect of His bliss upon him’. One of the clearest proofs of the asceticism of this shaykh, and proof of his piety and his chastity, was his love of the Creation for him and such esteem and respect from him who beheld him, or who had heard of him. A proof of that, and what bears witness to it, is his [the Prophet’s] – the blessing and peace of God be upon him – word when he spoke to a man who had said to him, ‘Show me an act which, if I fulfil it, then God will love me [for it] and the people also’. The Prophet said to him, ‘If you are abstemious in this world, God will love you, and this amongst the people also who will give you their love’. About that there is no doubt, nor any disagreement. He who is an ascetic in this world and whose heart is not preoccupied by it, nor one is drawn to it by its nature, God Almighty will love him, be it so wished for, or be it not. A self-disciplined man among God’s people will be loved by that people. They will show him honour and they will have faith in him. The people hate those who are covetous. They despise them and in their eyes they fail. Such is to be seen, and none denies it except by one who is a faithless unbeliever ( jāḥid). God Almighty knows the best. The meaning of the love of God Almighty for His servant is for the latter to be grateful to Him and His bounty to him, wishing for his good in this world and in the next. If Almighty God loves a servant, then he casts His love into the hearts of His Creation. Almighty God said in the Qurʾān, ‘Verily those who have believed and who have acted with piety, the Merciful will cause friendship to be theirs’ [Qurʾān 19:96]. The Prophet said ‘Verily, Almighty God, when he loves a servant, summons Gabriel and He says to him, “I love such a person. Make him to be beloved”. So Gabriel loves him and then he calls aloud in the heavens and he says, “Verily, God loves so and so, make him to be beloved and act likewise”. So the people of heaven love him and then acceptance on the earth will be made effective ( yūḍaʿ)’.

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If the love of the Creation for a man is an indication of the love of God Almighty for him and His love for him is a proof of his abstinence and his piety, then there is no doubt that this, [our] Shaykh, was aware of Him who had put an acceptance and a reception for him on the earth. His love in the hearts of the people was multiplied on account of his abstinence from pleasure in what they possessed together with his avoidance of their love of the world. It was said of him – God Almighty have mercy upon him – that he had no concern for a worldly matter, and that his mind was not confused on account of it except on two occasions. One occasion was when he had bought some properties, either an estate, or sources of water, or the like, and at that time he had no visible means whereby he could meet the price asked of him for the purchased item (al-mushtarā) he was grieved (ightamma), and upset, and he passed a sleepless night in thought. When half of the night had passed, or some time that was close to it, he heard a knock on the door of his house. He arose and he opened the door and lo, there was Sīdī Bishr al-Tawnīnī [?]. He entered and the Shaykh received from him [i.e. the latter gave to him, nāwala] five hundred mithqāls of gold which he had brought that night from the Fezzān. His son, Sīdī Abū Bakr had sent it to him and had requested him to pass it on to the [Ṣūfī] zāwiya of Sīdī Maʿbad. He had given the sum to Sīdī Bishr in secret so that the latter could bring it to the Shaykh. The latter took it from him – may God Almighty bestow His mercy upon him – and he returned to his house. He rejoiced greatly in that none had any knowledge of that, save God, the Blessed, the Almighty. God knows best and in Him is found success. Part 3: His Generosity and His Favours46 He was portrayed as being generous, liberal and hospitable – may God Almighty have mercy upon him and be pleased with him. Sayings were coined in regard to this, and he was described as being open and happy in his facial mien. He was helpful in heart and he was morally upright. This help was given to both the rich and to the poor, to those far and near including the stranger. He cared for (tafaqqad) the widows, and for persons in need, the orphans, the sick and the neighbours who were destitute. He would enquire after their condition and he would console them. He was swift to give. He was a man who offered a haven for the begger, and he laughed. He expressed his joy openly, and he offered kindness and care. He never rejected, nor repelled, nor turned away the one who was disappointed.

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This was the case whatever the circumstances. He would fill a need, then and there, whatever the circumstances might be. He was a man who fitted the description of the poet who coined the following verses: Whenever you come to him you behold him as radiance, itself. It is as if you are the giver, he being the beggar and the mendicant. [Yet] he is the very ocean, whatever the directions may be whereby you first came to him. His ocean depths are the favours that he bestows. Generosity and bounty are his very shores. His was a wide world – may God have mercy upon him – it was a very great source of wealth. He spent almost all of it in ways that were pleasing to God Almighty, thereby seeking His sake, whether it was in charity, ways of caring for the poor, or in beneficence, and for the succour of the apprehensive. It was crucial for those who were stupid, restoring those who had parted, relieving Muslim affliction. He fed nourishing food, he offered lavish hospitality, and he cared with fondness for those who were poor, and the orphans, and in other ways, in varied forms of piety. Reports about him were told widely. He acquired fame and notoriety. It was like the sunrise at the time of day when one came to the waters. He was the goal that was sought and from all lands. His name was lauded in all the provinces. May God Almighty place this in His balances and may He reward him with His Paradise and His forgiveness. There is no harm at all in collecting together something of his generosity that has been passed on to others – may God Almighty have mercy upon him. May we profit from him, thereby. When he heard of a person – may God Almighty have mercy upon him – who was naked, he took a garment, or some covering, or something that fitted the man in question, and he would leave the house, at night, in secret, and he knocked lightly upon his door and when the door was opened he cast that garment before him and then he swiftly passed on his way so that any man would not be aware of him who was the giver. His alms were given in secret, far more so than they were openly bestowed. It has come about that the giving of alms in secret puts an end to the wrath of the Lord. Also, he – may God Almighty have mercy upon him – whenever he sat down in his house, would set a vessel in a place in which were cereals, and another [next to it] filled with dried dates. When a begger came, he ordered that he should be given some of the green cereals and some of the dried dates. Once he was told that the cereal alone was quite sufficient [for the beggar]. He said to them, ‘The beggar will not beg until hunger makes him ill and

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he will struggle [to survive]. If we give him something of the green cereal, in particular, then his flour will last for some time and he will have bread, and more besides. Can he [obtain] flour, or can he not? | Can he find what he may bake with, or can he not? That is, unless it be with other sorts [of sustenance]? In that case his hunger will stoke his hunger. If we give him some dried dates then he will eat them immediately without need for anything else, and he will satisfy his hunger [far later] when he also empties the cereal container.’ May God Almighty have mercy upon you. This is an intention (niyya), one so noble and so great, in its tenderness for the poor and the needy, a care that it is for the few to feel within them or even to give it any importance and any attention. We ask God the Merciful, the mighty Lord of the Throne, that He may recompense him with the vision of His benevolent visage, and that He will cause him to dwell in the Garden of Bliss, verily He is generous and kind. Another instance was that once during the forenoon (ḍuḥā). It was when he went up onto the roof of his house. The chickens gathered upon it in large numbers from all sides, from his neighbours and way beyond them. The Shaykh ordered that some seeds should be thrown to them in order for them to peck them and eat them. When they had eaten the grains and every one of them had departed to its place until the following day, he again gathered together with them and put out the grains for them. They would eat them up and depart. This happened on most days and none of them would leave dung (tarawwath) within his house, be it a few of them, or many. Another case was that he – may God the Almighty have mercy upon him – fed the cats and he put out food for them. They would gather together in his house. He would trace the stores of the ants wherein he placed the grains and the like. Such was extreme liberality, quite unheard of about anyone else among the generous and amongst the kind people during the course of those times, neither before he lived, nor after him. Another story about him – may God the Almighty have mercy upon him – was that when he left his house, he would take several coins with him in the sleeve of his dress, or in his pocket, and he would scatter these over the people and those who were needy. He never returned with any of those [coins]. Another instance was that when an enemy attacked Ghadāmis, or a raiding party of Arab nomads, or [by] him whose evil is feared, he sent to them one who brought them [to him]. He would feed them and he would clothe them and he would give to them what satisfied their needs. They would depart content and happy with him. Hence the people of the town were secure from their evil and their cunning until the enemy, as well as the friend, were drawn to him – [be he] pious, or a sinner, or a freeman or a slave. Hearts were

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filled with a respect for him and every unbeliever and infidel acknowledged his grace. Words uttered from the mouths of those who spoke were spread abroad, His was a sweetness of spirit that was affirmed by its co-wives (ḍarrāt) and it was a grace that was acknowledged by his foes. He freed eighteen slaves (mamālīk) – may God the Almighty have mercy upon him – or nineteen of them (raqaba) – for the sake of God the Almighty (ibtighāʾ marḍāt) in seeking a means to the affording of satisfaction. Many endowments (awqāf ) were made due to him, as well as numerous charitable acts, the bestowing of an estate, and from other sources. In sum, he became an inheritor due to his generosity and to his nobility. Hearts were won over by all this, and slaves bowed [in gratitude] to him on account of this. Others did the same. Through all that he became well known. This grace and favour were very wide indeed. Were such to be followed up and researched thoroughly, it would fill an entire book. In this capability and destiny there is enough for him with ability to observe that God is the One who capacitates the correct and the true, and it is to Him that one turns as the source, and to where one returns. God Almighty is the One who is sought – through the office of His noble Prophet and His mighty Messenger, so that He may make us successful in following the Sunna of our Prophet Muḥammad – the blessing and peace of God be upon him – and [with the hope that] he will gather us together in His band (zumra), and beneath His banner, and that he may fulfil [all] for us, the Muslims, He being the Lord in that and who is the One to bring it about. Part 4: His Diligence of Faith, His Times of Adoration and of Worship and His Pre-occupation with What Concerned Him in Matters of His Religion and His Worldly Activities He was – may God the Almighty have mercy upon him – a diligent man in his adoration of the divine. He did not neglect of it by night or by day, whether it be in his prayer, or in his fasting, or in reciting the Qurʾān and in [Ṣūfī] dhikr, in his teaching of knowledge and in spreading it abroad. He commanded that the good should be observed, he forbade that which was unholy, and he supported reform and harmony between people. He strove to relieve their affliction. He taught other ways of worship, he advocated more easy relationships of kinship, all this in the fear of God the Almighty. He stood up for His rules and for His commandments and how these should be presented and how to observe God’s prohibitions.

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He did this, following the Sunna of the Prophet Muḥammad, the blessing and peace of God be upon him. He was exactly as the poet had said: Far be it that there will never come a time like unto it. Indeed, a time that is like it is of those that are few and are very far between each other within time. He was – may God Almighty have mercy upon him – one who arose at the close of the night-time, when he left his dwelling to go to the mosque ( jāmiʿ). He performed his rituals of purification and he was busied with his Ṣūfī litanies (awrād) until dawn broke. He would pray the dawn prayer with the people. He would sit, either to teach, or to perform the séance (dhikr), observing aspects of piety until the sun rose. Then he left for his house. His sons would join him, or his relations, or whosoever desired to pay him a visit. He would review their circumstances. He would question them and ordain them in regard to their wishes, and he would fulfil some of his affairs. Then he would depart in order to [seek refuge in] his grove. He rested and reflected and reviewed, and then he would return speedily, for fear lest something untoward took place in the town, or an event should occur during his absence. He would spend the rest of the day either reading, or acting as a leader, or in judging amongst the people or in one or other of his worldly duties. Thus, it continued until it was noon. He would then proceed to the mosque and busy himself [there] in teaching also, or in his worship until he prayed the mid-day prayer (al-ẓuhr) and the afternoon prayer (al-ʿaṣr), and he would then return to his house. He acted likewise at the time of the sunset prayer (al-maghrib) and at the time of the evening prayer (al-ʿishāʾ). He habitually did so during all the seasons [of the year] and he wasted none of his time at the expense of religious, and worldly, benefit and profit – may God the Almighty have mercy upon him and be pleased with him and may we benefit from him, Amen. He actively participated with other men of learning – may God the Almighty have mercy upon him – and he was closely attached to the company of the saintly. He performed miracles for all to see and he performed [other] amazing supernatural acts. His prayer was answered. He would pray on account of some matter of his choosing and he would be answered in what he had prayed for, with God’s consent. When he married his wife, the distinguished lady, Raḥma bint Sīdi’l-Ṭayyib b. ʿĪsā, and he had made a home with her, he saw that she was amazed at what he perceived [and experienced]. He prayed to God the Almighty that he would enjoy a life with her for thirty years. His prayer was answered. She dwelt with

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him, in the very best of companionships (ʿishra), one of perfection. When the thirty years with her were complete, no more nor less, she died in the mercy of God the Almighty. Of it, is that his son, al-Sayyid Abū Bakr – may God have mercy upon him – did not die in the city of Agades. One envious man who used to compete with him and who hated him went to the Sulṭān [of Agades] and said to him, ‘The property possessed by Sīdī Abū Bakr is in excess of forty thousand mithqāls’. The Sulṭān sent his servants to ask for the tithe of four thousand four hundred mithqāls. He said to them that it was his inheritance [but] that he did not have so much, or anything near that figure. The Sulṭān refused to take anything less than that [figure]. So they paid that money to him, unjustly. When the news of this reached Shaykh Sīdī ʿAbdallāh – may the mercy of God the Almighty be upon him – he prayed to God the Almighty. He said in his prayer, ‘O God, impoverish the one who has impoverished us so much’. Only a few days passed when that man of envy was poverty-stricken after he had been wealthy and from having been amongst the greatest of the merchants. This reached the point that only a fraction of that sum remained his, and this to the degree that he sought help amongst the people and he begged from them. He stopped them in the streets so that they might pay him charity and show him their pity. The people fled from him. He became blind and God removed baraka from him and from his wealth and his offspring. This is still the case today. All that was due to the baraka of the prayer of the Shaykh, and the changing of his mind towards him – we seek refuge in God from robbery after the gift, and from an outburst of anger (sakhaṭ) after contentment and happiness, and from the confrontation of any of the saints of God, and being led to act against them. We pray to God, the Almighty, for peace and for happiness amongst us, in our world and the world to come, and pray that God will like us, the Muslims, to be with Him. Amen. He [the Shaykh] – may God Almighty have mercy upon him – did not join together with the sons of this world and he did not sit in their company. He did not mix with them save out of some benefit and advantage and out of religious or worldly necessity and when there was no way of avoiding it, be it either to trick them, or to guide them, or where interests were involved, or some welfare was involved. He paid heed to and curbed his tongue in regard to something that he was not allowed to speak about, working for what was his concern in the essence of his religion and of the world – be it in worship, or in agriculture, or in planting, or other matters wherein benefits lay. Often he was concerned with tilling and occupied in ploughing the soil, with seedlings, and in the planting of date palms and trees, such being the providers of a great excellence [of yield] and an abundance [of fruit] and of bodily rec-

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ompense. He – may God Almighty have mercy upon him – often tired himself in the interests and the welfare of the Muslims, and in guiding them aright, in educating them, and in bringing joy upon them, in restoring their relations, even between a man and his wife, or between two brothers, and he left after it no evil nor disharmony. He strove [constantly] to restore and to repair [relationships]. As for his wealth and his status in all situations and places and every aspect [of life] he lived through, none would refute his status. He wrote to kings, to princes and to shaykhs of the Arab nomads in both East and West. They fulfilled his requirements and they would request his baraka and they did not disobey him. He corresponded by letter with them. There were numerous and famous stories that were indicative of the status that he enjoyed in their eyes and his lofty position amongst them. In this category one event exemplifies this status. One day, news reached him, emanating from the people of Ghadāmis, that the Sulṭān of Tripoli was raising a large expeditionary force (maḥalla). They were disquieted by the news. They were confused and felt sure that they would be destroyed. When Shaykh Sīdī ʿAbdallāh – may God the Almighty have mercy upon him – was told of it and he became certain of the news, he questioned Ibrāhīm b. ʿĀṭiyya al-Saynāwunī and he said to him, ‘I want to send you this very hour to the shaykhs of the Awlād ʿAbdallāh’. He answered, ‘I have no camel [to ride]’. So he gave him a camel to ride and he said to him, ‘Do not be anxious about your family. For you the way that I shall maintain them will be sufficient until your return’. He wrote a letter for him addressed to the shaykh of the Maḥāmīd and to their chief men and he sent a proud gift in his possession to them and he said to him, ‘Be resolute, [go] with the baraka of God the Almighty’. This was during the night. He ordered him to make haste and to complete his mission without telling a soul. So Ibrāhīm, the aforementioned, set forth speedily in compliance with his command. None had any knowledge of it amongst the people of the town, nor others [beyond], and he travelled on his way until he reached the Arabs of the Maḥāmīd. He asked them about the location of the tent of their chief and he was shown to it. He entered within and he found him to be sick with opthalmia (armad) in both of his eyes and he was unable to see. He [the chief] greeted him and asked him why he had come. He said to him, ‘I am the messenger of Shaykh Sīdī ʿAbdallāh b. Abī Bakr al-Ghadāmisī. I have his letter with me’. When he heard him mention [the name of the Shaykh] he sat up and he said to him ‘Let me have (hāti) the letter’. He handed it to him and he wiped his eyes with it. He was cured on the spot by the permission of God the Almighty,

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this through the baraka of the Shaykh. He read the letter for himself, then and there, after having been unable to open his eyes to see anything. When he knew what was written within in it, he [Ibrāhīm] gave him the gift that has already been mentioned. He assembled the rest of the shaykhs and he told them the news. He read aloud the letter of the Shaykh to them. He divided the gift between them. They gave him a written answer on the spot. Ibrāhīm, the aforementioned, took this and he returned (karra) to the Shaykh, in haste. The people of Ghadāmis were preparing themselves for the arrival of that maḥalla. They built walls [for defence] and they were anxious about the purpose of the maḥalla. They had no knowledge of the situation when Ibrāhīm arrived. He presented himself to the Shaykh. He greeted the latter and gave him the response. The Shaykh read it. The response [of the Arab shaykhs] to him was: ‘Be calm and cool, may your eye be cool and dry, for, verily, nothing from our direction will come in your direction that you will find hateful. That will never be, if God so wills’. They [also] asked him for prayers, and for [prayerful recitations?] of the first Sūra in the Qurʾān (al-Fātiḥa). The Shaykh assembled the foremost of the people of Ghadāmis and he read the aforementioned letter to them and he told them the news. They rejoiced greatly when they had heard it. Their hearts and their spirits were calmed and they prayed for the Shaykh, and the love for him increased greatly amongst them – to God be the praise and favour. All of this was his concern in order to bring benefit to the Muslim community, to gladden their hearts and to show care for them. Such is amongst the very greatest of acts of Godly devotion and which brings to the servant a close proximity to his God, Allāh the Almighty. He who is qualified and worthy of that is the Supreme Pole of the Universe (quṭb), and the ‘Red Brimstone’ [the purest gold] (al-kibrīt al-aḥmar), and especially is this so in this difficult period of time in which that which is false and evil prevails, it abounds, and it is especially so in the country where there is no rule, nor authority, and there is no chief – as is the case in our town of Ghadāmis. However, goodness and baraka are not cut off from this noble people. This is through the baraka of our Prophet Muḥammad, the blessing and peace of God be upon him. What has come in regard to the virtue of peacemaking amongst the Muslims, and the search for friendship and for unity between them is found in Qurʾānic verses and in Prophetic ḥadīths. God the Almighty has said: ‘Nothing much is of worth in their secret conversation save through, and by, him who orders payment to a charity, or a worthy act, or for the establishment of a good relationship between the people’ [Qurʾān 4:14]. God also said, ‘The Muslims are, uniquely, brethren, the one to the other, so [live, and] be at peace between your brethren’ [Qurʾān 49:10].

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The Messenger of God – the blessing and peace of God be upon him – said, ‘The most rewarded with God on the Day of Resurrection are those who seek reconciliation among people’. It is in al-Tirmidhī that it is said that he, the Messenger of God – the blessing and peace of God be upon him – said, ‘Do I not tell you about the superiority of grace and favour within the degree of fasting and of prayer and alms giving?’ ‘Yes, O Messenger of God’, they said. He said, ‘[Such too is] peacemaking in the case of enmity (dhāt al-bayn)’. And to quote Anas b. Mālik47 – may God be pleased with him – who said, ‘He who makes peace between two persons, God will give to him, for every word that is said, the worth of the manumission of a slave’. I have said [to you] that if this be in peacemaking between two persons, how then is he who does so between two parties large in their size? God is the Lord of a mighty grace. He is our sufficiency, how good is He as the agent thereof! How good is the saying of him who said, Verily, virtues, all of them, were they to be combined, would hark back to two things One is the magnifying of God’s command, the Mighty and Supreme and striving to make good, and to repair, [human] enmity. God Almighty knows best and it is in Him that success is to be found. There is no Lord but Him, and none who is adored other than Him. The above is only a trifle (nazr) of the good qualities of this mighty shaykh. Its crop of effects has a place that is not surpassed since the sole aim of this [biographical] account, brief though it be, is an account that is abbreviated. God the Almighty is responsible for His mighty virtue and grace, providing us with His supply, ensuring His glance towards us with his eye of care and He it is who will make from amongst His children him who will follow in His path and be guided by His guidance and will similarly make us successful, using us, may He pardon us, our brethren and shaykhs and those who are related to us and restore matters of our religion and our world and may He cause us to die as Muslims, neither changing nor altering this same. Amen.

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Possibly Mālik b. Anas; see Nicholson, Literary History, pp. 337 & 366.

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A mention of his sons – may God Almighty have mercy upon them and may we profit by him and by them – Amen. He – may God the Almighty have mercy upon him – was blessed with offspring. They numbered eleven male descendants and eight daughters. All of his sons were godly and upright, virtuous and noble, pious and of scholarly achievements. They followed in the path of their father, and in his steps, and were guided by him and they filled [their minds] from his sea [of learning and knowledge]. They imitated his scholarship and his active life style. His baraka encompassed them, outwardly and inwardly, and their fame spread abroad in both in the East and the West. Each one of them became his successor inwardly and outwardly. The kings and the great men showed them honour, as due, and up to a high status, likewise both the élite and the ordinary common folk. The people widely spread knowledge of their piety, and their clemency, until hearts filled with a love and awe of them – may God the Almighty have mercy upon them, and be pleased with them, and make them content with His bounty and His honour. Among them was the mighty lord, both virtuous and noble, the pious, Godfearing, merchant, pilgrim to Mecca, ascetic and abstemious, Sīdī Abū Bakr – may God have mercy upon him. He was the oldest among them – may God the Almighty have mercy upon him. He was born on a Monday, at sunrise, on the 28th of al-Muḥarram, in the year 1058 AH [2 February 1648AD]. He grew up – may God Almighty have mercy upon him – intelligent, and with understanding in his heart. He was sharp in mind in all matters and he faced those that were of concern to him. He grew up in the bosom of his father until he reached the age of eighteen years. It happened that, when his grandfather, Sīdī Abū Bakr, died – may God the Almighty have mercy upon him – he left behind him great possessions and much wealth. | It was distributed into the keeping of the common people, and the merchants, until [in time] much of it was lost. His son, Sīdī Sīla b. Abī Bakr, aforementioned, journeyed on account of this, but he died, where he was and before he could gather it together and safely store it away. When the whole report reached Shaykh Sīdī ʿAbdallāh – may God the Almighty have mercy upon him – he was greatly confused, and [he pondered] how he could continue on his way in the path, nor could he find amongst his brothers [one] who might continue in his place. One day he sat in the assembly

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In the Arabic text, Chapter 4 – no chapter 3 indicated. Here renumbered logically.

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(majlis) deep in thought and anxious. One of the distinguished men, who were there, saw the one to whom he was reciting the Qurʾān. He enquired about the cause of that. He told him the story and [the other] said to him, ‘Your son, Abū Bakr – may God bless him – has reached manhood – send him. He will satisfy you [in what he does] because of his intelligence and alertness’. So the Shaykh accepted his suggestion and he sought guidance from God, the Almighty. Thereby his heart was eased. He equipped him and so he [Abū Bakr] journeyed until he reached the city of Agades. The people received him. They accepted him and they welcomed him. He entered into the presence of the Sulṭān and he [the latter] greeted him and showed him respect and brought him near. The Ṣultān examined him in some matters, and his truthfulness about them appeared to him, as well as his trustworthiness and his religion. So his love for him grew in his heart. He extolled him and said to those who were sitting in his presence, ‘This lad – God willing – will be the successor of his grandfather, Abū Bakr Kawrī’. So it came about. He dwelt in Agades and he gathered together what he found of his grandfather’s legacy, namely that of [Sīdī] Abū Bakr, who has been mentioned. However, only a small amount of the money came into his possession. He worked hard in commerce there until he had collected so much of the possessions that only God the Almighty could count up the total, to the extent that his possessions became a byword. He – may God the Almighty have mercy upon him – was spoken of as being a generous man, kind and honourable, and humble to both the young and the old, to freeman and to slave, of a worthy and an open character, patient, in touch with the poor and the needy and with strangers. He had discourse with the foolish and he supported the weak. All that he did of this was well known. It took place at intervals. He performed the pilgrimage to Mecca three times, spending his wealth freely and benefiting from profitable commerce that he enjoyed on each occasion when he returned to Agades. On the third occasion he travelled from Egypt with one hundred and fifty camels in a company of merchants and pilgrims (al-maḥalla), with various kinds of goods and wares. He never joined again with his father after he had travelled from Ghadāmis, despite his intense longing for him until the time when he had heard that he was undertaking the Meccan pilgrimage. He [his father] prepared himself for the journey [with the purpose] to meet him [his son] in the Fezzān. The people of Ghadāmis prevented his father and they said, ‘If you leave Ghadāmis, evil will befall it [the caravan]’. So he forsook the pilgrimage journey out of his care for the Muslims whom he rated higher than his own love [of the ḥajj] – may God the Almighty have mercy upon him and may we benefit by him – Amen.

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He, Abū Bakr, – may God the Almighty have mercy upon him – left Agades once, twice, or thrice, with an intention to come to Ghadāmis. When he left, the merchants went to see the Sulṭān, saying, ‘If this man leaves Agades it will never thrive’. So he sent word after him that he should be brought back. [This was] when God the Almighty so wished that he should not join with his father – we ask God the Almighty to join them together in the place of His mercy. Amen. He – may God the Almighty have mercy upon him – used to send to his father, every year, two caravans that contained slaves, gold, cotton, and other commodities. So it was, during the course of his life, until he died – may God the Almighty have mercy upon him – due to magic and sorcery (masḥūran), on Monday the 18th of Rabīʿ II, 1111AH [13 October 1699 AD]. When the news of his death reached his father, he fainted, and a fearful shuddering afflicted him and it would no leave him until he died – may God the Almighty have mercy upon him. He grieved for him very greatly and he said to his wife and to his sons, ‘the well that you have been digging from him has been taken away, but nothing will remove God’s treasure houses. God knows best’. Among [his sons] was the mighty Sayyid, the virtuous Sīdī Muḥammad alKabīr, who was born in the late afternoon, at the time of the “evening” ʿaṣr prayer, on Thursday the 18th of Ramaḍān in the year 1060 AH [14 September 1650AD]. He grew up – may God the Almighty have mercy upon him – to be a virtuous, intelligent and religious man. He travelled to the Western Sūdān, to Kabba [Nigeria] during the lifetime of his father and he died in the town of Kabba – may God the Almighty have mercy upon him – I have not ascertained the date of his death, or the length of his life. Another son of his was the shaykh, Imām, scholar, one mindful of the ordinances prescribed by God, and man of letters, and who was a sea of comprehension and of sympathetic awareness. He was a polymath and he bore the banner of the Sharīʿa and the ‘Ṣūfī reality’ (ḥaqīqa), a strict adherence to the text with understanding, namely, Abū’l-ʿAbbās Sīdī Aḥmad – may God the Almighty have mercy upon him and may we benefit from his knowledge – Amen. He was born on Saturday, at the time of the afternoon prayer (al-ʿaṣr), the 26th of Jumādā II, 1063AH [5 May 1653AD]. He grew up – may God the Almighty have mercy upon him – to be intelligent, eloquent, lettered, of high moral standards, sharp in mind and percipient in affairs. He was – may God the Almighty have mercy upon him – ever since he was a small boy, one around whom the youth would rally. They appointed him to be a qāḍī between them, namely, a judge (ḥākim) for them in what was to occur between them in disagreements and in disputes during the course of their play. They would revert to his judgement and his command due to God, the Almighty, having inspired him to act as a ruler [between them]. How sharp,

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clear and intelligent was their ‘king’, and how advanced in his culture, during this stage in his life! Most of such play took place when he was still a young boy. He used to take a quantity of paper (kāghidh) and he stacked it into quires, in the form of a small book, and he placed it, and used it, within a skin [leather] cover, or within a rag covering, and he would play with it until his father perceived some real talent, some quality, in him, and he said, | ‘Verily, this boy has hopes of becoming a scholar’. God fulfilled his hopes in him. He became one of the greatest scholars of the Muslims and one of their most distinguished. He grew up in the lap of his father and he became lettered and cultured like him and, so too, in his morality, whether this be in learning, or at work, and in his clemency and in his patience, in his chastity and his generosity and in his hospitality, in his good conduct and much else besides from amongst his noble manners and pleasing habits. When his mind blossomed forth, and he was one pure in heart, he took up labours in Qurʾānic recitation and reading (tajwīd) and in learning how to master the Qurʾān and he made learning of it his prime goal. At first, he clove closely to his father and to others until he became an Imām in all the sciences. He became an expert in other disciplines; in ḥadīth, in fiqh, and in ‘first principles’ (al-uṣūl), in the Arabic language, as also in rhetoric, in diction, and in rhetoric (bayān). He was an expert in God’s ordinances ( farāʾiḍ), and in logic, in poetry, in language and literature, and many more disciplines, whether they be passed down, or studied, cited, and comprehended within the various categories that were plainly distinguished. He was an excellent and eloquent poet – may God the Almighty have mercy upon him. He composed much verse and numerous odes (qaṣāʾid jamma), and eloquent compositions, songs and anthems. Were all such to be assembled and then collected together they would fill a dīwān. As for tenets and dogmas (ʿilm al-ʿaqāʿid) and of Monotheism [of al-Islām] (al-tawḥīd) he was as the sun in the forenoon and the pivot of the millstone. His histories testify to this. Seeing with one’s eyes far outshines a mere mention of it.

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Part 2 A section wherein are mentioned some of his [Sīdī Aḥmad’s] shaykhs, those who taught him and those who gave him an ijāza. May God cause us to benefit through them – Amen. He – may God the Almighty have mercy upon him – studied learning with a group of scholars of the regions and with mashāyikh of the School of Mālik b. Anas (madhhab Mālik) both in the East and in the West, and for their own advantage. The first of them was the shaykh, and Imām, active scholar, pious and man of succour, the researcher and lordly Pole (quṭb), a master of the high-

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est gifts of the lordly sciences, his father, Shaykh Sīdiyyā ʿAbdallāh b. Abī Bakr al-Ghadāmisī. He acquired from him a collection of the sciences of the Sharīʿa and of intellectual principles. It was with him that he read the Ṣaḥīḥ of al-Bukhārī, the Shifāʿ of the qāḍī ʿIyāḍ, and with him, he studied fiqh, tenets and dogmas and other sciences. He clove to him and he greatly profited from him. When he began to read the Shifāʿ, he began to compose verses about it, praising the Kitāb al-Shifāʿ and the qāḍī ʿIyāḍ, its author, and praising his father, may God have mercy upon them. We mention the verses here on account of the beauty of the poem and its art of effective and persuasive speaking. Here it is, behold, may God have mercy upon you: O seeker of knowledge, yearning for it and deeply attracted by it, O enquirer after men or who seeks to understand the pages, Behold, after the Book of God, a travelled road, in the direction of the Prophet In the direction of the lordly men, the Successors, Follow the path and pursue their company and know their truths. He who knows will continue. Within the Shifāʿ there is a guidance for him who covets salvation. Verily, the Shifāʿ is the cure for the sickness in the heart. ʿIyāḍ has revealed the inner room and the gardens of his good qualities. Therefore, harvest its limits and reap a sample from it. Behold the musk, inhale its fragrance, and of the milk, Consume, and, of the rain, drink to the full. The sun reveals its glory and one traces a star. The full moon is rightly guided and the ocean is emptied of its contents. How brilliant a man was ʿIyāḍ, the rightly guided Imām! He has risen aloft and so high is his place of noble status. His is a firmly fixed virtue for those who tarry, since he at last came, bringing that which no forebear had received, The one who brings true facts to our attention and adds to our knowledge. It is unmatched, and without a peer that could earn God’s approval. O God of the Throne, – reward him for his piety. Many a malady, due to ignorance, he has cured by a cure that is assured, may God grant him pardon, he, who in his company we were, the Shaykh of Shaykhs. The sea of his capacity has been made known.

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An active scholar whose life and whose career were lauded, He was a helper of mankind, the Shaykh of the age, and of those who were the successors. The lord, the man of learning (ḥabar), a servant of God, our Sayyid. He was famous for his good qualities and for his good deeds, O Lord, pardon him, appoint his abode to be within the loftiest places in Paradise together with the Chosen One [Muḥammad] and with the sharīf s. O God, pardon all those of his who are present, and those who listen and those in the assembly who are engaged and who are men of intent, Pardon our fathers, and gather together our community ( jamāʿa) in the Seat of Truth amid the gardens and within the mansions of Paradise. O Lord, bless with a never to be exhausted blessing, the mediator of the Creation when the assembling takes place, and bless the household of the Prophet, the Companions and the spouses, one and all, and the followers of the way of the Prophet (al-Muṣṭafā), at the end of time. So ends the blessed verses. He [the Shaykh] also learnt from the shaykh, and active scholar, the sea of understanding, who was unique in his time and peculiar in his age, Sīdī Muḥammad b. ʿUmar b. ʿAbd al-Wahhāb al-Ghadāmisī. This was in ḥadīth, and fiqh, and dogmas and tenets (aqāʿid) and grammar and the other | branches of learning. In Tunis, he studied with the virtuous and scholarly shaykh, the lordly Sīdī Aḥmad b. al-Ḥasan al-Sharīf al-Ḥasanī – may God the Almighty have mercy upon him and be pleased with him – and with other than him from amongst the scholars of Ifrīqiyā. He travelled – may God the Almighty have mercy upon him – and he performed the pilgrimage to Mecca, three times. He passed through Egypt and he studied with a group of scholars in al-Azhar University. They were known by the name of the ‘Mālikiyya’ [after Mālik] and the Shāfiʿiyya [after al-Shāfiʿī] and he also learned from others. They included the shaykh and Imām and active scholar, the Shaykh of the Mālikiyya, the pole (quṭb) and knower (ʿārif ), Sidī Muḥammad b. ʿAbdallāh alKharashī, and the shaykh and Imām and active scholar, Sīdī Muḥammad b. Marʿī al-Shabrakhītī, and the sea of understanding, Sīdī ʿAbd al-Bāqī b. Yūsuf al-Zarqānī and the eminent shaykh and imām al-jahbadh [‘the man of the cul-

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tured mind’], al-niḥrīr [proficient and versed], Abū Miflaḥ Khalīl b. al-Shaykh Sīdiyya Ibrāhīm al-Laqqānī and his brother, Sīdī ʿAbd al-Salām al-Laqqānī, the commentator on al-Jawhara.49 All of these gave him a licence (ijāza) and a deliverance of formal legal opinions (iftāʾ), and an authority to teach, and they allowed him to provide a spoken commentary on their authority, how he so wished, of that matter which he had permission to narrate. God willing, some of these ijāzas will follow at the conclusion to this chapter. He was also taught by a large number of Shāfiʿī Imāms; the shaykh and Imām, the shaykh of his age, Shaykh Sīdī Aḥmad, the deceased (marḥūm), and the shaykh and scholar, Sīdiyya Sulṭān b. Aḥmad al-Muzāḥī, and their peers, and he met in Mecca and Medina (al-Ḥaramayn) a number of the scholars of alIslām, and noted shaykhs. He learnt from them and they licensed him in iftāʾ (the issuing of fatwās), and also to teach. In Awjila [in Libya], he also learnt from its qāḍī, Imām, scholar and verifier (al-muḥaqqiq, al-mudaqqiq), Sīdī Muḥammad al-Ṣāliḥ b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. Salīm al-Awjalī, ḥadīth, and from other sciences. He gave him an ijāza in the ḥadīth that is passed down from hand to hand (al-muṣāfaha)50 and the ḥadīth related by an uninterrupted chain of transmitters (al-musalsal), by saying ‘I love you’.51 He gained knowledge from the shaykh and Imām, the scholar, mawlānā alsharīf Ḥasan b. Fāyiz al-Waddānī, and he also learnt from the shaykh, and pious saint, the author of lofty Arabic rhythmic prose (maqāmāt), and compositions for donations and contributions for a saints’ cupoleated mosque and tomb ( futūḥāt rabbāniyya), Sīdī Muḥammad al-Bakrī b. ʿAbd al-Karīm b. Muḥammad al-Ṣiddīqī al-Tuwātī, and others besides among the ʿulamāʾ and the shaykhs of the [Mālikī] School (mashāyikh al-madhhab). There is a poem of his wherein there is to be found some lengthy discussion: A trace, such as this, after it vanished [to dust] has been renewed, and, after corrosion, is made to shine. The early beginning of recovery has been revealed. Such an example is the scholar of his time, the learned man of his age. [He is] a benefit to mankind, all imitate his character.

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See Hitti, History of the Arabs, p. 26. Muṣāfaha is a ḥadīth transmission where the teacher touches the student by hand or otherwise, common among Sufis. See E.W. Lane, Arabic-English Lexicon, London: Williams and Norgate, 1877AD, p. 1398.

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One of such men was Abū’l-Kharashī,52 who averted, amid much happiness, a disaster. May the Lord, who is eternal, cause you to remain a lordly figure in the memory, a person who renews the trace of the faith for an age that, in its time span, is perpetuated. You are the one who has restored the decayed, you are the renewer of the weak. You are one who removed the dust of ignorance, O thou who art rightly guided. Thou art an Imām, in time, one favoured with success. You benefit the Creation and you are he who guides the seekers of learning. The peace of God be upon you, you, who are a rare person (nadir) among the guiding posts of the people. You rise aloft as a towering mountain. O father of praise, you adjoin this place, the Imām of mankind, the man of learning, the Sayyid, who is as the sea of the sciences, such was one who knew God’s rulings, a shaykh and a reformer. When you recall the men of learning in our age, he is [as] an ocean among the people, [and as] the acme of antimony (ithmid). In every art he is knowledgeable and he participates. He has intelligence, he is superior in mind, and in thought, and he is the kindled flame. Around you are the watchful lords, known, by name, as the Barākila,53 the lords who plunge within the depths of the sea of learning, and who sail forth and return.

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The Grand Imams of al-Azhar, the world’s oldest university had this scholar as the first recorded sheikh who died in 1690 AD. There are references in several parts of our main text to this sheikh. The ‘Barākila’ is a name that is used in the text to signify a group of scholars in this period who belonged to the principally Fezzānī commercial community that existed in Agades, in Niger, and in other parts of the Western Sūdān.

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Among such was Abū Zayd, the overseer and the administrator (muqaddam). He was a learned man (ḥabr), and he was unique in his knowledge of the sciences, that man, the father of good deeds, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān. Among the people his was the glory and the lordship. Amongst them was ‘The Father of Piety’, Abū’l-Birr, the faqīh Muḥammad, his brother, and to him is added the Sharīf Muḥammad. So too, the one who was a pilgrim to (Mecca), the house of our God, That one who was numbered amongst the truly pious, by whom, I mean, Aḥmad, the man of piety in our age, He was that one who diligently spent the entire night in prayer, And, after what we have said let us add the triumph of Qāsim, adding the remainder of them and the span is a lengthy one. O friend, do not neglect to mention Muḥammad, who bore the nickname, and was remembered, as ‘Aḥmad’. He was the open-minded Sayyid, a faqīh, and a teacher. I conclude what I have to say with a greeting that is repeated. 24

[This greeting] is repeated over those in this abode, who are present there, a listener is leant an ear, while he who was unmoving was further in the distance. O Lord, gather us together with the lordly ones, The men who built for God a palace that was raised aloft, And who duly undertook the cause of the Prophet, and who founded principles and rules that were never to be fulfilled. Sigh not forever [though]! Were you, in words, to exaggerate in praising them, there is then no blame in such for one who loves, you may be sure, [They are] the Imāms of God’s religion, the leaders, their successors are all who copy them in the Truth.

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This is said by the poor man ( faqīr) of Ghadāmis, one who is a sinner, and who is laid low by his faults. He is the son of ʿAbdallāh, the praised, a faqīr who is despised as an apostate (murtadd) in his ignorance. O my lords, forget us not – he who invokes you, perchance may save us from the flaming heat of Hell, ablaze. I beseech the Most Merciful and the Lord that He will show to favour him who is disobedient and that He will forgive him over his transgressions. He it is who pardons and always forgives the faults of one who is repentant and who is rightly guided. I – even though I be one who sins greatly – have a strong desire to be a Servant [of God] and to be a Muslim [a believer in the Divine Unity]. I feel for a hope in God, I feel for a belief in God, who is my support and who is my pillar. I hope not for work and toil, nor do I wait expectantly for succour. I am punctilious in my prayer, as a Muslim, this being for the wellbeing of the lord of all beings, Muḥammad. So too pertains, for the Companions, and the spouses, and all the family encompassing them – and this, from me, forever, for eternity. So the blessed poem reaches its close. Praise be to God, and for His good help. Blessings be upon our lord, Muḥammad and his family. A company of the excellent, the élite amongst the scholars, from the people of Ghadāmis, and others learnt much from him – may God the Almighty have mercy upon him – and benefited from him and his compositions, and he collected many. He [Abū’l-ʿAbbās Sīdī Aḥmad] – may God the Almighty have mercy upon him – became one of the assiduous scholars, and of the ḥuffāẓ of the Muslims, and was one amongst the Imāms who strove for the truth – God gather for him learning and labour and the worldly pursuit – We ask God, the giver, to pardon us [?] and our parents, and that He will place him in amongst

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those who are the highest of the highest and that He will grant him the favour of gazing upon His divine visage, and that He will [also] pardon us and our parents and so too all the Muslims and that He will seal for us that which He has sealed with His saints, certain and convinced that He is the doer as He so wills. Destiny is His. Part 3: Wherein Mention is Made of His Compositions and His Literary Works He [Sīdī Aḥmad] wrote – may God the Almighty have mercy upon him – many useful books on many academic topics. Among these was his wonderful commentary and his presentation [to novices] of faulty and uncommon words pertinent to ‘The lesser Doctrine’ (al-ʿAqīda al-Ṣughrā) by the shaykh al-Sanūsī – may God the Almighty have mercy upon both of them – calling his work, ‘The presentation to novices of a commentary upon the doctrine of the “Mother of Proofs”’ (Itḥāf al-Murīdīn bi-Sharḥ ʿAqīdat Umm al-Barāhīn).54 He was the best of the commentators and within it he was innovative and very inventive. The scholars accepted it. They praised it and the students were drawn into reading it, and to studying it. They benefited from it and its baraka came upon them and copies of it flew to the East and the West. This commentary is the crossing point (maʿbar) from it [the Umm al-Barāhīn] among the students by al-Ghadāmisī’s commentary, since they awarded it authority. His brother, the scholar, Shaykh Abū Zayd Sīdī ʿAbd al-Raḥmān praised him in the following beautiful verses which I recite: I have praised my Lord, great praise be upon His favour, With a perfect beauty, a supreme example, Who, from the shaykh of learning, Aḥmad, acquired the sciences, together perfectly balanced, The son of our shaykh ʿAbdallāh, the noble, Cloak them both, O God, in the best of attire, Also, cloak our fathers, all of them, and our brothers. Pardon us, and them, and refrain from oversight And by Your grace, O Merciful One, spare the evil of An evil spirit during a time that is lost in slothfulness. 54

Brockelmann, GAL Vols. II, p. 251, S II, p. 354, Cmt 4: Itḥāf al-muridīn by Aḥmad b. ʿAbdallāh al-Ghadāmisī. Brockelmann gives the year as 1064AH/1654AD which must be wrong if Aḥmad was born in 1653, but also refers to an author date of 1178AH/1764AD. The ʿAqīdat Ahl al-Tawḥīd al-Ṣughrā by Muḥammad b. Yūsuf al-Sanūsī (d. 1486) is also known as the Umm al-Barāhīn; GAL Vols. II, p. 250, S II, p. 353.

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Bestow success upon us, with a pardon and a favourable outcome, amid sinful deed and amid prattle (khaṭal). May God, the master of the Throne, bless you as you have written the words55 of this commentary as if it was nothing Verily, I have asked You, O Thou who beholdest him, By the chosen one (al-Muṣṭafā), restore and make good what fault be his, Let these, [our] blessings, be upon the guide, our messenger of good tidings, the best of men, and creation, and sovereigns and messengers. Here ends the verses – praise be to God the Almighty – and the question of Shaykh Sīdī ʿAbd al-Raḥmān the overseer of this commentary [hoping] him to correct what faults there were to be found in it. He should not [find] the presence of errors therein, since, had he found them, they would not have been hidden from him, and he would have hastened to correct them. He excused him since he was one of the greatest of scholars and men of knowledge. Such, God knows, is like what has been the custom of authors from those who seek after them from the percipient towards their compositions, that is, that they correct that which, perchance, may be an error and a distortion. Because few are those who escape making mistakes and who escape a stumble when they compose a work, or they make slips when writing a tome. Man is human [after all]. Let us return to our subject, that is, to enumerate the works that were composed by Sīdī Aḥmad – may God Almighty have mercy upon him. Amongst these was his commentary upon the ode al-Shaqrāṭīsiyya, to which he gave the name of, ‘Keys of the Merciful to what pertains to the Shaqrāṭīsiyya ode’. This is an extremely beautiful and excellent work that shows the abundance of his research (iṭṭilāʿ) and the depth of his learning.56 Among the works was his commentary upon the ḥadīth of Umm Zarʿ, aforementioned, in the two Ṣaḥīḥs [of al-Bukhārī and al-Tirmidhī]. He named it, ‘The

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Reading alfāẓ for alfāḍ. According to ʿAbd al-Jabbār b. ʿAbd al-Qādir, the poem by Shaykh Abū ʿAbdallāh b. ʿAlī alShaqrāṭīsī is a very highly regarded masterpiece in praise of the Prophet Muḥammad. It is titled al-Shaqrāṭĩsiyya. It is among the most famous poems in Libya among those in praise of the Prophet. The word is in no way connected with ‘Socrates’ but with ‘Shaqrāṭas’, the name of an old palace in the Tunisian town of Gafsa.

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prime vigour of the crop within the commentary to the ḥadīth of Umm Zarʿ’ (ʿUnfuwān al-Zarʿ fī Sharḥ Ḥadīth Umm Zarʿ). Another work was ‘Aid for a reader in regard to the verse of Ibn al-Fakhkhārī’ (Maʿūnat al-Qārīʾ ʿalā Naẓm Ibn al-Fakhkhārī). This is a poem on al-Muqaddima al-Ājurrumiyya, composed by Shaykh ʿAbdallāh, the client (mawlā) of alFakhkhārī. He composed the comment for his brother, Sīdī Muḥammad alZāhid, when he saw him enraptured by the aforementioned poem and working with it. It is a precious commentary wherein were collected all that he needed within the Arabic language of rules, canons and limits, and other matters, thereby indicating his scope and his capability in the Arabic language. I have heard that he made a commentary on the rules and canons of the qāḍī ʿIyāḍ in jurisprudence ( fiqh). I have not come across this work. He also composed a history of the mashāyikh and of those who learnt the sciences from it. It is of interest in its artistry, and also in other compositions and in what it records (taqāyīd). We have not seen it. Also by him – may God Almighty have mercy upon him – there are many odes in praise of the Prophet – on whom be peace – and noted verses that are well known, – may God bless by it – and from his sciences. He – may God Almighty have mercy upon him – travelled the path which was that of his father, commanding the good and forbidding the abomination, and in making peace between people, and in inculcating learning and knowledge, in spreading it and in the employment of the good [as opposed to the evil]. The people held him in a high regard. He was loved by the élite, and by the common folk. Of such was his status until he departed from the world. It was said about him that he saw, in his sleep, our lord Gabriel, above our Prophet – peace be upon him. He said, ‘Your end draws nigh, so act and complete what you are doing’. He replied, ‘How comes this? I am the head of a family of sons and daughters, See how it is!’ Gabriel left him but later he returned to him. Then Gabriel closely repeated what he had already said. So he woke up and prepared himself for his death. He made his will and said his farewells entrusting [his estate] to his brother, Sīdī Aḥmad al-Zāhid. He left much money as charity and from that day onwards he fell sick. He died after three days – may God the Almighty have mercy upon him and be pleased with him and beautify his spirit. That year was in 1118AH [which began on 4 April, 1706 AD]. He was buried – may God the Almighty have mercy upon him – near to his father and facing Mecca (qibla), with five or six tombs between them. His tomb is visible. It is visited and his baraka is sought there. To pray there is tested for the fulfilment of needs, and in order to alleviate an affliction – may God profit us by him and by his learning in the [Islamic] sciences. Amen.

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When he died – may God the Almighty have mercy upon him – his father grieved greatly over him, and he said, ‘If Aḥmad had been spared I would have satisfied you with learning, or what I had intended. We ask God to sanctify his spirit and that He will appoint his abode to be within highest Paradise. Amen.’ Amongst his [ʿAbdallāh’s] sons was Muḥammad al-Ṣāliḥ – may God the Almighty have mercy upon him – who was born on Thursday the 7th of Dhū’lQaʿda 1065AH [8 September 1655 AD]. He died as an infant on the 7th day of al-Muḥarram in the year 1068AH [15 October 1657 AD]. Another son of his was also called Muḥammad al-Ṣāliḥ. He lived [in Ghadāmis] until he travelled to the country of Tuqrut [Touggourt], while his father was still alive. They were surprised, buffeted and overcome by the noon heat. They had been scorched by that heat and had suffered, having departed from the direction of [the] Nafzāwa and had reached as far as Biʾr al-Muntaṣir where he died from the heat – may God have mercy on him. Another son was al-Qāsim, who died young, also in the lifetime of his father, but I have no date of birth, or death, for either of them – may God the Almighty have mercy upon both of them. Among his sons was Sīdī Abū ʿAbdallāh Muḥammad al-Zāhid, who was a shaykh, an Imām, a scholar, and an ascetic, a man most pious, who was noted for his virtues, his might and his faith – may God the Almighty have mercy upon him. He was named thus by his father. He – may God the Almighty have mercy upon him – was born in the year 1076AH [1665/1666 AD]. He – may God the Almighty have mercy upon him – grew up to be a virtuous man, he was intelligent and scholarly in fiqh, ḥadīth, tawḥīd, naḥw (Arabic grammer) and many other of the Islamic sciences. In particular, he gave the first priority to the books of the siyar, the early campaigns of al-Islām, and in tales of the Companions of the Prophet – may God the Almighty be pleased with all of them. It is said that the Sīra al-Kalāʿiyya was constantly beside him and the one that was closest to him. He studied – may God the Almighty have mercy upon him – with his father Shaykh Sīdī ʿAbdallāh and with his brother Sīdī Aḥmad. He journeyed abroad, he performed the hajj, and he toured the rural districts and he studied with a number of the provincial scholars and ‘shaykhs of the horizons’ – the latter being in Egypt, in the two noble ḥarams of Mecca and Medina, in Tunis, and in Agades. He – may God the Almighty have mercy upon him – was held in high esteem. He was courageous, comely in apperance, and he was highly respected for his moral conduct. He did not face anyone with what he disliked, until the hearts of the people were filled with a love of him. They highly respected him, they showed him preference, and they lauded him for his goodness.

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He was held in a high status by the kings, the great, the mashāyikh, the élite, and by the public. He was described – may God the Almighty have mercy upon him – as a generous man, and that he was kind, courageous and humble. He was of a high morality, bashful and shy, until his bashfulness and his unease caused his death. This came about when he journeyed to Tunis. It took place on his return to Ghadāmis from it. It was just after he had left al-Qayrawān. Before that time, he was a counseller and an adviser to his brother, Sīdī ʿAlī, and he was with him. He had said to the latter, ‘When I die in this country, bury me in al-Qayrawān’. He was – may the mercy of the Almighty be upon him – one who was forewarned and he had an insight into how he would die. When both men were at a stopping place from al-Qayrawān, not far from it when both were on their way to Ghadāmis, he slept one night with his companions. When night had fallen and the people were asleep, he arose to fulfil his human need. Such was his habit – may God the Almighty have mercy upon him – that when he needed to urinate, be it by night or day, he would walk a distance away from the people so that none would see him or hear a sound from him. Such was the greatness of his shyness and due to his diffidence and his modesty. When he had fulfilled his need that night, and was on his return to his location, a Moroccan (maghribī) who was in a caravan saw him. He thought that he was a robber and a thief. He shot him with his gun without uttering a word to him. He hit one of his vital members and he fell down. [Sīdī Abū ʿAbdallāh Muḥammad al-Zāhid] said to him, ‘Who are you, O you, who hast made an orphan of my daughters?’ This remark was all that he heard from him. Then he died on the spot – may God the Almighty have mercy upon him and be pleased with him. Sanctified be his spirit, and may he be caused to dwell in highest Paradise, this through the high office of our lord and our mawlā, Muḥammad. They carried him and they brought him back to al-Qayrawān. They buried him there – may God the Almighty have mercy upon him. This took place in the year, 1127AH [1715AD]. The shaykh and faqīh Sīdī Muḥammad b. ʿImrān saw him in his sleep after he had died. He said to him, ‘What has God done with you?’ He [Muḥammad b. Zāhid] recited verses to him belonging to one of the Companions – may God be pleased with them – and he said to him, ‘Ḥassān b. Thābit – may God Almighty have mercy upon him – answered me regarding the two whilst I was at the Gate of Paradise’, or as he expressed it. God Almighty knows best. These seven sons, aforementioned, were blood brothers from their [one] mother, who was Sayyida, the virtuous, pure and chaste, ʿĀʾisha, the daughter of the shaykh and scholar Sīdī Balqāsim b. Ibrāhīm b. Balqāsim – may God Almighty have mercy upon them all, and pour out their baraka upon us. Amen.

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Amongst the [sons] was the shaykh and Imām and the virtuous, a Meccan pilgrim, a mine of virtue, and of generosity, Abū Zayd Sīdī ʿAbd al-Raḥmān – may God the Almighty have mercy upon him. He was born in 1086 AH [1675 AD]. He grew up to be – may God Almighty have mercy upon him – a virtuous man. He was intelligent, noble and generous, a man of good qualities. He was sharp and foresighted in affairs, he was a knowledgable man, lettered and he observed the conventional rules of social behaviour. Having reached manhood, he journeyed to the Bilād al-Sūdān in the pursuit of commerce. He entered Morocco and travelled around in God’s world in both the East and the West. The world was offered to him in abundance, as one great flow, until he had collected from it wealth that his brothers had not gathered. He was – may God Almighty have mercy upon him – one who was an individual trader, quite separate from his father and his brethren, because he was not a blood brother of theirs. He returned to Ghadāmis during his father’s lifetime and he brought to it abundant wealth. He asked his father for his dwelling and he said to him, ‘I and my wealth are yours, take from it what you so wish for and leave aside what you have no need for’. So he took something that was quite modest and only what he felt was necessary for his own life. His father prayed for blessings upon him and for his success. Signs of his prayer showed within him until he surpassed the people of his time. His money and his wealth grew and grew. His reputation spread abroad to both East and West. His favour was current amongst the people, and his bounty, and his power and influence grew greatly among the kings and the chief men, and the mashāyikh. The scholars and the pious and the virtuous and the élite and the common people and they praised him. Poets lauded him with many odes and they acknowledged his superiority. Among the most respected compositions in praise of him was the ode of the virtuous shaykh Sīdī Muḥammad b. Maḥmūd al-Fullānī – may God the Almighty have mercy upon him. We mention it here on account of what it contains of his good qualities, and his deeds [that is] his morality and his beautiful and noble virtues: This youth is yours, if what you desire is an aim and a goal. Visit him, stand by him! And so enjoy the benefit of what you wish for. Be it of faith, or justice and equity, or clemency and piety, So too, what is required for the good counsel of God’s servants. He was amongst the people of loyalty, and of trust, and loftiness. He was most fit to lend a helping hand. He was blessed with true wisdom and he had a glory and qualities.

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He wore the garment ( jilbāb) of awe and of shyness, Likewise he had a character of high qualities that displayed the cultured life that was within him. His gifts exceed what is wished for. Total fitness with piety, O brother is his gain. He surpasses the virtuous achievements of all his peers. On the horizons he beholds a sun, without wonder. Render to him how you might surpass his piety, and [in return] take hold of what you love of [his] golden adornment. 27

In his face there was an expression of complete happiness. It takes hold of me, And, in his breast, marvellous clouds pour forth their content. I beheld the boast of glory coming down upon him, and the downpour of the science of the faith runs off him and it is poured forth. Deem this not a strange event within his age, [he] a stranger to what has passed beyond in time, or has departed. Have your eyes beheld a friend (khalīl) who surpasses him? To reach the summit of glory the rope has been stretched towards him. By God, I have seen his likeness perhaps, though I have never been blessed with such talents as were upon him bestowed. He has drawn the tails of glory over what is the first [in merit], while it is the garment of oblivion that has been stripped from those [who were above him]. O our Lord, who [alone] is Allāh [the Almighty]. He did not beget nor was he begotten. The unique One who revealed the Scriptures, Prevent (ājir) him from a stumble, and guard my lord against all that will cause harm, and from the agony of wrath, and may he give to us the joy of the world while he remains [with us], and make ready for him (hayʾa) the gift, the favour ( faḍl) of all that he has ever wished for. Obedience to the Lord, and to his Messengers, and bodily health, and in all that he has sought for. And if you so wish, O Lord, may he understand their courage and their adoration to a Merciful One who helps the afflicted.

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[He is] a descendant of ʿAbdallāh b. Abī Bakr, and his home country is in the delights of the town of Ghadāmis. They are from the most superior quarter in Ghadāmis. I have heard about them. They have a benefice amongst their people, and they have high status (ḥasab) and a lineage of esteem. This [ode] is from the servant and poor man, Muḥammad, the son of Maḥmūd al-Fullānī in his lineage. To God be the praise, blessings be upon the Prophet, and his Companions, and family, and the Messengers and the party. Here ends [the poem], praise be to God, through His help, O God, make good our outcome and consequence in all affairs. He, may God Almighty have mercy upon him, was famous for his generosity and bounty and favour, open and cheerful in his apperance, of good moral character and open heartedness. He was generous towards the stranger and treated him with respect, likewise him who came from afar. He cared for the widows, and the poor, and for those who were in need. His life closely resembled that of his father. Tales told about him had a wide circulation, and there were anecdotes. We will not go to any length in mentioning these, because of a need to be concise. He was – may God the Almighty have mercy upon him – a scholar who was active. He was knowledgeable in fiqh, in theology, and in Arabic, in poetry and in the other sciences. He studied – may God Almighty have mercy upon him – with a group of the mashāyikh and with other scholars, as his father, Shaykh Sīdiyya ʿAbdallāh b. Abī Bakr, and his brother, Abū’l-ʿAbbās b. Sīdī Aḥmad. He studied in Tunis with a great number of its shaykhs, such as Shaykh Sīdiyya Aḥmad b. Ḥasan al-Sharīf al-Ḥasanī, and his peers. He went on the Meccan pilgrimage in 1124 AH [1712AD]. When he decided to travel, his herald proclaimed among the people of Ghadāmis, that ‘He wishes to undertake the Pilgrimage, let him rely upon God without provision, and no saddle’, and he took many of the people [with him]. God recompensed him for that. He entered Cairo. He learnt fron the mashāyikh of al-Azhar and from the shaykh and Imām, the great scholar and jurist, muḥaddith, and mutqin, Abū Isḥāq Sīdi Ibrāhīm alFayyūmī. He clove to him firmly and he gave him a general license (ijāza) for the issuing of fatwās, and to teach. We shall mention them – God willing – at the close of this chapter. He learnt from other than him amongst the Egyptian scholars and he entered the Ḥijāz and he studied within the two noble ḥarams with a group of the

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mashāyikh, both those in the Islamic Sciences and the Imāms of Islām. He also studied with the scholars in the [Western] Sūdān and in Agades, such as the shaykh and saint, al-Ṣāliḥ Sīdī Ḥammād al-Barkūlī, and the shaykh and scholar, unique in his time, unique in his age, al-Darfī, observing that both were scholars of the Western Sūdān. He entered Morocco, twice, and it was there that he studied with a group of the scholars of Fez and he met the just Sulṭān, the virtuous Imām, mawlānā and Commander of the Faithful (amīr al-muʾminīn), the Caliph of the Lord of the Worlds, ʿAbū ʿAbdallāh Mawlānā Ismāʿīl [1672–1727AD], the Sultan of Morocco. He asked him about his lineage and it was traced for him [revealing that] he was related to the people of Ghadāmis. The aforementioned Sulṭān had said to him, ‘The Ghadāmisiyya are a blessed people. May God make the people like them’. He said to him [the Sulṭān], ‘I am of the Banū ʿImrān’. The Sulṭān replied ‘The Banū ʿImrān are shurafāʾ. I too am one of them’. He honoured him greatly and raised his status. He had – may God the Almighty have mercy upon him – many stories [told about him] with the kings and the great, speaking about his status amongst them and the loftiness of his standing and esteem among them – may God the Almighty have mercy upon him – and may we benefit by him. Amen. He – may God the Almighty have mercy upon him – compiled many records, wrote down major documents, and composed wonderful odes, that were famous, and many poems that illustrated the vastness of his learning and his expertise in other sciences. Had he composed nothing else than the Lāmiyya [a poem rhyming in the letter lām], in which he sought the mediation of the Prophets, and the Messenger, and the Companions, and the Followers, and the Saints, and the Poles (aqṭāb), whom he mentioned, within a total collection of them, each one of them being mentioned there by name, and by their qualities in East and West. Within the ode, [the Lāmiyya], he mentioned a total number of mashāyikh within our town of Ghadāmis. [The Lāmiyya alone] was long enough. This poem has some one hundred and twenty verses, and to him likewise we owe his praise of the Prophet Muḥammad, the blessing and peace of God be upon him. Such are eloquent odes and they are famous. He acquired peculiar and strange books – God have mercy upon him – and amazing dīwāns of verse, very many of these, and his stories and his virtuous acts were many and were well known. To sum up, he was – may God Almighty have mercy upon him – amongst those upon whom God endowed scholarship, labour, faith and worldly wealth. He died – may God Almighty have mercy upon him, through being slain unjustly. This came about as follows. When he journeyed to Morocco, for the second time, he left it with much money and with an abundance of commer-

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cial goods. Only God Almighty could assess it. It is said that it was while carrying a camel load of pure silver. Besides this, it was carrying all kinds of goods and wares and items of commerce. After he had reached Tabakkurin, in the territory of Tuwāt, and he had left it and was making for Ghadāmis, the chief (qāʾid) of it, named al-Ṣaffār, rose up. He was a friend of Sīdī ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, the aforementioned. The Arabs of the Qarāwa urged him on, they incited him, and they made him covetous and they caught up with him in the desert. Al-Ṣaffār, the aforementioned, was with them. When Sīdī ʿAbd al-Raḥmān and his companions saw them, his nephew, Qāsim b. Sīdī Aḥmad, who was present with him, said to him, ‘Let us fight them’. Sīdī ʿAbd al-Raḥmān rejected his suggestion and replied, saying, ‘Do not fight them whilst this chief, al-Ṣaffār, is with them’. So they acted peacefully with them, until they went into the caravan where they were. They seized them and took all the money that they possessed and their possessions and other belongings. Al-Ṣaffār, the accused, (may God curse him) said to them [the Arabs], ‘If you do not kill him, he will return to the Sulṭān [of Morocco] and he will inform him [of what took place]. He will kill you and so destroy your nomadic community and he will kill me with you’. Sīdī ʿAbd al-Raḥmān arose to pray and when he had prepared himself to do so and had made himself ready and had purified himself (iḥrām), one of them advanced towards him and struck him on his head and he fell down and died – may God the Almighty have mercy upon him and sanctify his spirit and make the heavenly abode the highest of His favour and His bounty. They also slew his nephew, Qāsim b. Aḥmad, the aforementioned, together with a group of his companions – may God the Almighty have mercy upon them all. This took place in the year 1132AH [1719AD]. Amongst them [the sons in the family] was the noble, mighty and excellent Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm. He was born – may God the Almighty have mercy upon him – in the year 1096AH [1684/1685AD]. He grew up – the blessing and peace of God be upon him – to be a noble and generous youth. He was a remarkable person and his appearance was very attractive. He was extremely generous. He coveted nothing. All that he held in his hand was shared with his companions, his colleagues, with his guests and with the needy. Tales told about him were famous and passed on to others. He – may God the Almighty have mercy upon him – journeyed with the intention of performing the pilgrimage to Mecca. He accomplished this and he returned to his hometown [of Ghadāmis]. When he reached Wād Māsīr, two days march from Ghadāmis, he died from an illness – may God the Almighty have mercy upon him and may He cause him to dwell in the loftiest gardens of Paradise. Amen. He died in 1124 AH [1712 AD].

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Yet another son amongst them was the mighty shaykh, the noble worshipper, the diligent ascetic in the faith and the humble, Sīdī ʿAlī Zayn al-ʿĀbidīn. His father gave him this nickname – may God the Almighty have mercy upon him. He was born in the year 1105 AH [1693/1694 AD]. Whilst he was growing up – may God have mercy upon him – he was illiterate, and he suffered from speech problems. He did not read until he reached puberty. He was of age when he struggled to read. Then God opened his eyes with great speed due to the baraka of his father – may God the Almighty benefit us through him. He read the Qurʾān and he struggled to learn. He read before a number of the scholars in Tunis, Ghadāmis and Agades until he became a Muslim scholar, one who was distinguished amongst the ascetics and those who adored God – may God the Almighty have mercy upon him – though he loved obscurity and a lack of notoriety in his studies and in his labours. He – may God the Almighty have mercy upon him – was respected for his knowledge, for his clemency, his intelligence, generosity and bounty. His father loved him greatly, abnormally so, and he showed a preference for him over his brothers. He would say to him, ‘O ʿAlī, is there any one who loves his son as I love you’ – or in a similar manner of speaking – and signs of this love appeared in him and his baraka filled him. When he undertook his first journey to Tunis he was accompanied by his brother, Sīdī al-ḥājj Muḥammad al-Zāhid, and by a large body of people from Ghadāmis. The came to the nomad Arabs and they encountered some difficulty and some constraint. The shaykh who was the chief at that time was Shaykh Juwaylī. When the latter heard of him, he met him and rejoiced at [having] him and he went to great lengths in his hospitality towards him. Then he mounted his horse, he took a long spear and on it he bound a turban, in the manner of a banner, and he assembled the chief men of the Arabs, and their mashāyikh, and the one who took the lead in policy from amongst them, and he said to them, ‘This is the son of Shaykh Sīdiyya ʿAbdallāh b. Abī Bakr. He has come to you on this first journey that he has undertaken. You may be aware that he is an obligation that is laid upon us, namely, to show our hospitality, to feed and to entertain him with what befits the likes of him’. They said to him, ‘Welcome, you are our shaykh and our leader. We are listeners of yours and we are obedient to your command, so do what appears to be [just] to you’. He said to them, ‘His hospitality among us is that we should get rid of some of the levy [tax] that is imposed upon those people from Ghadāmis, and that which is paid by them according to the custom, [and this is to be done] on his account’.

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Before that time Shaykh Juwaylī had imposed a share of riyāls upon every head, as was the custom. They had imposed that levy and they had operated it. He summoned his criers amongst the Arabs and he imposed a levy whereby one quarter would be dropped from the [existant] levy that had been imposed upon the people of Ghadāmis. This act was due to the hospitality that was shown to Sīdī ʿAlī b. Sīdī ʿAbdallāh b. Abī Bakr. | One quarter of the riyāls still remained, and the affair has continued in that wise from that day onwards until today. It will last into perpetuity, God willing. What a hospitality shown, indeed! How blessed, superb and how public! It is not the first [manifestation] of your baraka, O household of Abū Bakr! How much was theirs! – may God the Almighty have mercy upon them – for deeds that were glorious (maʾāthir), and for common acts of pride and of honour. Such surpass any assessment, all is due to their baraka – may God the Almighty benefit us, through them. Amen. When he had returned from that journey, he found his father to be sick, his illness being the direct cause of his subsequent decease, as will be shown later in the text, if God so wills. Sīdī ʿAlī travelled to the city of Agades and he stayed many years there. He studied with its scholars the Barākila, and from other scholars including the shaykh and Imām, the pious saint, the succour, the clairvoyant, and the prayerful in respect to charms and to witchcraft, Sīdī Aḥmād al-Barkūlī, may God Almighty benefit us through him, and with the active scholar and faqīh, Sīdī Saʿīd b. Aḥīḥa, and their peers. He returned to Ghadāmis and he reached it, in perfect time, and on his way, enjoying a very pleasant journey. He followed the path of his father, and of his brother, and he laboured in worship, and in piety, through reciting [prayers] and in the [Ṣūfī] dhikr, and in fasting and doing the good and abstaining from what was evil. He was reputed for the integrity of his soul and for the loftiness of his aim, for chastity, clemency, patience and abstinence. He occupied himself by what was of concern to him in the matter of his faith and of his everyday life. He was graced (mutaḥalliyyan) by his high degree of excellence; he was far removed from vile things. The blame of the blamer did not touch him. In sum, he was – may God the Almighty have mercy upon him – in his adoration, in his abstinence, and in his piety, and in many other praiseworthy aspects in a class of his own (ʿalā jānib ʿaẓīm). Most of his meetings were held within the mosque or within his house. In all the glades and gardens of his parks of trees, he adopted a location for a mosque for prayer and for worship. He was – may God the Almighty have mercy upon him – a person who did not meet together with the people, nor did he attend their séances and appointments, except in the mosque, nor was he put under pressure to escape and to seek refuge out of necessity and for the benefit of

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his religion or his worldly life. When he did meet with the people he reminded them of God, or he taught them what they ought to know of the duties and matters of the faith, and the stories of the Companions – may God the Almighty have mercy upon them – or he told them tales of the pious, and the likes thereof, nor did he pry into peoples good reputations, nor did he speak evil of anyone, nor hurt anyone. Muslims were safe from his hand and his tongue. In sum, – God’s mercy be upon him – he was of the very last remnant of those who were to be grasped among those of the pious adorers whom I knew, the ascetics and the people of goodness and of piety, amongst the remnant whom I have known (adraktuhu) amongst worshippers, ascetics, those who did the good and who were pious. I knew him [personally] and I benefited from him, from what he said and what he preached and taught – may God bless us by that and make abundant his recompense and his reward for good deeds. Amen. His death took place on Saturday night on the 6th of Shawwāl, 1175 [30 April 1762 AD] – may God sanctify his spirit and cause him to join with his pious ancestor. Amen. His tomb is visible and is visited and baraka is sought from him. Among them was Muḥammad al-Ṣaghīr (Muḥammad the Younger). He was the last of them and he died young during the lifetime of his father. Those three who preceded [him] in the text and who have been mentioned were blood brothers, their mother having been the noble lady, ‘the pure’ (al-ṭāhira) Raḥma bint al-shaykh al-faqīh, the virtuous Sīdī al-Ṭayyib b ʿĪsā – may God the Almighty have mercy upon them all. These are the group who were sons and male heirs – may God Almighty have mercy upon them – and join us in their company and enable us to follow in their path (ṭarīqa), and their guidance, and appoint from amongst their offspring those who will follow their traces and be guided by them until the Day of Resurrection. He is the One who commands the same, and who has the ability to make it come to pass. Were I to pursue an account of their holy virtues and deeds and their biographies, and were I do so in every detail, it would fill the contents of a book, or books. Hence, this quantity [above] is sufficient for him who seeks to see, and who has insight. God is the One who bestows that which is correct and is true. I had thought of concluding this chapter by mentioning some of the licenses (ijāzāt) that were granted by Shaykh Abū’l-ʿAbbās Sīdī Aḥmad b. Abī Zayd Sīdī ʿAbd al-Raḥmān in order to complete matters, for benefit and information, and for baraka, by mentioning the names of the aforementioned shaykhs. Let us confine ourselves to the license (ijāza) of the shaykh, Imām and scholar, Sīdī Ibrāhīm al-Shabrakhītī to Sīdī Aḥmad and the license (ijāza) of the shaykh and scholar and muḥadddith, Ibrāhīm al-Fayyūmī to Sīdī ʿAbd al-Raḥmān. I say, and upon God I rely:

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Here is the licence (ijāza) of Shaykh Sīdī Ibrāhīm al-Shabrakhītī to Shaykh Abū’l-ʿAbbās Sīdī Aḥmad and this is its text: The Text In the name of God the Most Merciful – blessings be upon our lord Muḥammad, on his Family, and upon the Companions – God be praised. He who has given the men of learning, favour (minna) and honour, and who has prepared for them from the abundance of His grace in the chambers of Paradise. Peace and blessing be upon our lord, the Prophet, the chosen (al-Muṣṭafā), upon his Household and his Companions, upon the people of true friendship and of loyalty for evermore. Moreover, this may be in purity, and may the time be good and auspicious for him who devotes his all to the service of God and to purity; to proceed. Verily, science and knowledge were created for the sake of divine favours and for lordly forms of support and sustenance. Such are among the noblest things bestowed upon man. They are amongst the greatest whereby the people of distinction (aʿyān) are perfected. Thereby, learning and knowledge have come into favour, and with it these, the scholars [who profess them]. It is very well known among the people and it is transmitted (maʾthūr). Amongst those is the Word of God, in regard to the perfection of the verses (āyāt) in the Qurʾān, and by those who have been endowed with knowledge and with learning (ʿilm), though it be by degrees, and at [differing] stages. As He said in the words that are concealed within His Holy book, ‘Say, are those who have knowledge, and those who do not know, and who are in ignorance, on a single level of equality [in their knowledge]?’ Likewise, in the saying of the Prophet – the blessing and peace of God be upon him – | ‘Verily the angels lower their wings in satisfaction and pleasure to the scholar on account of his labours’. Know that the forebears in the faith of the Shaykh of mankind are the link betwixt him and the Lord of those who have been sent, nay rather, the lineal tie of profitable and beneficial learning and knowledge is more beneficial and of a closer bond than that of lineage at birth, just as was said by him, whom God caused to prosper and to bear yield (qammaḥa bihi). On all occasions, the man of learning and knowledge, Sīdī ʿUmar b. alFāriḍ – may God benefit us by him – is of a lineage that is closer to the law of love between us than the lineage of my parents. He was one who desired to follow the Straight Path and the Straight Passage, both of which are the most splendid.

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The seriousness and steadiness of the greatest of the leading men is a rare thing to find among the mighty of this age! The support of the most virtuous, and exemplary and the most glorious, is the shaykh and Imām, traveller, verifier and notator the understanding Shaykh of al-Islām, Shaykh Aḥmad, the son of ‘the scholar of mankind’ ʿAbdallāh b. Abī Bakr b. Balqāsim b. Muḥammad al-Ghadāmisī. Since I was aware of his status, and I knew that God had marked him with His bliss, I have given him a licence (ijāza) in fiqh and ḥadīth. What permits me to narrate the same in the past, and afresh, is that is on the condition of consideration being given to a license (ijāza) that includes the mentioning of the chain of authority (sanad), because, God the Almighty, has singled out this nation from other nations by the permanence of the chains of authority (isnād), and the preservation of the noble Sharīʿa until the Day of the Resurrection. The chains of authority are a crucial, indeed a major, [proof of] origin, and a substantial matter of concern (khaṭb). One of the scholars said, that it was like the sword of a fighter, and, at the beginning of the Ṣaḥīḥ of Muslim, quoting ʿAbdallāh b. al-Mubārak, it is said ‘Isnād are of the faith. Were it not for isnād, whoever says what he choses could do so’. Al-Shāfiʿī said – may God be pleased with him – ‘He who seeks for a ḥadīth without a chain of authority (sanad) is like a feller of wood, at night, as he carries fire-wood amid which is a snake, though he remains as one who is unaware of it’. Al-Thawrī said, ‘The sanad is the weapon of the believer. If he has no weapon, then with what can he fight?’ The Imām al-Ṭūsī said, ‘A proximity to isnāds is like proximity to God the Almighty’, and of such is the Ṣaḥīḥ of al-Bukhārī. I have obtained it through listening to a part of it, and an ijāza of the remainder of it is from gathering much on account of them is a unique [fount] of knowledge. The shaykh of the transmitters in his age, and unique in his time, was Shaykh Muḥammad al-Bāyilī, who quoted Shaykh Ibrāhīm al-Laqqānī. He quoted Shaykh Sālim al-Sanhūrī from al-Najm al-Ghayzī from the Shaykh of al-Islām, Zakariyyāʾ al-Anṣārī, from al-ḥāfiẓ Ibn Ḥajar, from al-ḥāfiẓ alkabīr ʿAbd al-Raḥīm al-ʿIrāqī, from al-Jamāl ʿUrf b. Shahīd al-Jayshī, from Abū’l-ʿAbbās Aḥmad ʿAlī al-Dimashqī, from Abū’l-Qāsim Haybat Allāh b. ʿAlī al-Būṣīrī, from Abū ʿAbdallāh Muḥammad b. Barakāt, and, it is said, Ibn Hilāl al-Saʿdī al-Naḥwī al-Lughawī, from ‘The Mother of the Noble’, Umm al-Kirām Karīma bint Aḥmad al-Marūziyya, from Abū’l-Haytham alKashmīhanī from Abū ʿAbdallāh Muḥammad b. Yūsuf al-Farbarī, from its author, al-Imām al-hujja Abū ʿAbdallāh Muḥammad b. Ismāʿīl al-Bukhārī.

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As for the Ṣaḥīḥ of Muslim, I shall transmit it in a license (ijāza) from our shaykh ʿAlī al-Ujhūrī – may God double his and my rewards – through the scholar, Nūr al-Dīn al-Qarāfī, from al-Shaykh ʿAbd al-Raḥīm al-ʿAlqamī, from al-Jalāl al-Suyūṭī, from the shaykh al-islām, ‘the benchmark of the faith’, Ṣāliḥ b. al-Sarrāj al-Balqamī, from Abū’l-Faḍl Sulaymān b. Ḥamza al-Maqdisī [al-Muqaddasī] from Abū’l-Ḥasan ʿAlī b. al-Ḥusayn al-Qayd, from al-ḥāfiẓ Abū’l-Faḍl al-Sulāmī from al-ḥāfiẓ Abu’l-Qāsim b. Manda, from al-ḥāfiẓ Abū Bakr al-Jawraqī, from Abū’l-Ḥasan Makkī alNayṣābūrī, from its author, the Imām, the trusty Muslim b. al-Ḥajjāj. As for the Jāmiʿ al-Saghīr, I quote it from a group of them, from alZiyādī, our shaykh Muḥammad al-Bālī and Shaykh ʿAlī al-Shabrāmīlisī, and those two from Shaykh ʿAlī al-Ziyādī and al-Burhān al-ʿAlqamī. As for al-Ziyādī, then it is from al-Sayyid Yūsuf al-Armiyūnī, from its author, and, as for al-ʿAlqamī, it is from his brother, the ‘Sun of the Scholars’, Muḥammad, the author the gloss from its author, al-Jalāl al-Suyūṭī, as an ijāza. As for the Mukhtaṣar of the scholar and shaykh al-Khalīl – may God clothe him in the choicest of mighty garment – I have quoted it from our shaykh, the shaykh of shaykhs of al-Islām, ‘the one who solves the difficulties of the élite and the public’, mawlānā al-Shaykh ʿAlī al-Ujhūrī. He took it from a number of the shaykhs, from the most scholarly of them, and the mightiest, al-Shaykh Muḥammad al-Binawfar and the Shaykh Karīm al-Dīn al-Barmūnī and the judge Muḥammad, called the ibdār aldīn al-Qarāfī, and Shaykh ʿUthmān al-ʿAzzī [ʿIzzī]. All of these took from his grandfather to his father, Shaykh ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Ujhūrī (with a ḍamma vowel [u] on the hamza), and he from a group, among the greatest of them being the shaykh Aḥmad al-Fayshī, the commentator of alʿIzziyya, and others, and among them the scholar and shaykh Shams alDīn al-Laqqānī and his brother, Shaykh Nāṣir al-Dīn al-Laqqānī, and of them, Shaykh Sulaymān al-Baḥīrī, the commentator of the Irshād. All of these quoted the Shaykh of the Mālikiyya in his time, Nūr al-Dīn alSanhūrī, the shaykh of the scholar al-Tātāʾī. | He quoted the shaykh and scholar Muḥammad al-Bisāṭī, and he from the scholar, Tāj al-Dīn Bahirām (with fatḥa vowel [a] on the b and kasra vowel [i] on the h), and he from the Shaykh Khalīl, and he from the Imām, al-Shaykh ʿAbdallāh al-Manūfī. Al-Ḥaṭṭāb said that he took fiqh from a group who included the Shaykh alMālikiyya, Muḥammad b. Muḥammad, known by al-Quwayʿ, and he from Yaḥyā and Muḥammad, the qāḍī of Tunis. Here ends the quotation. Al-Ḥaṭṭāb did not give the chain (sanad) of fiqh to Imām Mālik, so let us provide it from another channel than his, and let us say, ‘He, Shaykh Nūr al-Dīn, “the light of the faith”, ʿAlī al-Sanhūrī, aforementioned, took

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[it] from Shaykh Ṭāhir b. ʿAlī b. Muḥammad b. Muḥammad al-Nūrī, and he took it from Shaykh Ḥasan b. ʿAlī, and he from Shaykh Aḥmad al-Rubʿī, and he from the qāḍī of the qāḍīs, Fakhr al-Dīn b. al-Makhlaṭa, and he from ʿUmar al-Kindī, and he from ʿAbd al-Karīm b. ʿAṭāʾ-Allāh al-Iskandarī, and he from Abū Bakr Muḥammad b. al-Walīd b. Khalaf al-Ṭurṭūshī, and he from the Imām Abū’l-Walīd Sulaymān b. Khalaf al-Bājī, and he from the Imām Abū Muḥammad Makkī b. Ṭālib al-Andalusī, and he from the Imām Abū Muḥammad ʿAbdallāh b. Abū Zayd al-Qayrawānī, the author of the famous Risāla, and he from the Imām Abū Bakr Muḥammad b. al-Libād, and he from the Imām Abū Bakr Yaḥyā al-Ifrīqī, the author of Ikhtilāf Ibn al-Qāsim wa-Ashhab, and he from the Imām Saḥnūn and ʿAbd al-Malik b. Ḥabīb al-Andalusī, and he from the two Imāms, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. al-Qāsim al-ʿItqī al-Miṣrī and Ashhab b. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-ʿĀmirī, and he from the Imām of Dār al-Hijra (“The Haven of the Flight from Mecca”) Mālik b. Anas, and he from Rabīʿ and from Nāfiʿ, the client (mawlā) of Ibn ʿUmar. The tafaqquh (“he who applied himself to the acquisition of knowledge”) Rabīʿ took it from Anas b. Mālik, the servant of the Messenger of God – the blessing and peace of God be upon him – and Nāfiʿ took it from his master, ʿAbdallāh b. ʿUmar – may God the Almighty be pleased with them both. The two learnt from the sayyid al-mursalīn (“the Lord of the sent Messengers”) and the beloved of the Lord of the Worlds (ḥabīb Rabb al-ʿĀlamīn) – the blessing and peace of God be upon him.’ I seek from Shaykh Aḥmad, the aforementioned, that he will not forget me and my children and my mashāyikh [within] his pious prayers in his retreats and in public, and that I will advise him and then give him counsel with a good intent and purpose, in candidness and with sincerity, so that he may be, God willing, among those who are saved on the day of escape (manās) and I also bequest to him, and counsel him to be pious, for it will be for the better of the two dwellings, the firm bond (ʿurwa) and the strong rope and, on account of His saying, Almighty he is, ‘Fear God and He will teach you, and unceasing prayer and greeting will come to carry the banner of praise’. The master of a praiseworthy status, our lord, Muḥammad, be upon him that honour and praise, and, likewise upon his Household and his Companions, be it with the foremost magnanimity and generosity’. He has said this. They were his very words and it was his mark, by the pen – [he] the poor, despised and the one freed from his sin and his shortcoming Ibrāhīm b. Marʿī al-Shabrakhītī (of residence), Mālikī in his madhhab, may God pardon him.

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As for the Kitāb al-Shifāʿ, I learnt it from the ‘Seal of the verifiers’, alShihāb, its commentator, from the shaykh al-islām, Shaykh Ibrāhīm alʿAlqamī, from his brother, al-Shams al-ʿAlqamī, the author of the gloss from al-Jalāl al-Suyūṭī, and the lineage of the latter is known to the author. Al-Shihāb, the aforementioned, took it from the shaykh al-islām, the Shāfiʿī of his time, the scholar, al-Ramlī, from his father, from the shaykh al-islām, Zakariyyāʾ al-Anṣārī. Al-Shihāb took it also from his father – may God the Almighty have mercy upon him – from Abū Ḥajar al-Haythamī, and so on, to the muṣannif (the writer and the selector) – may God the Almighty have mercy upon him and may we benefit through him – Amen, and may his baraka be repeatedly bestowed in this world and the next. So ends the licence (ijāza), so blessed, and from the text written by the hand of Shaykh Ibrāhīm, the aforementioned. I have copied and quoted it in its entirety, may God the Almighty bless us all by them all. Amen. This is the ijāza of Shaykh Sidi Ibrāhīm al-Fayyūmī to Shaykh Sīdī ʿAbd alRaḥmān b. Sīdī ʿAbdallāh b. Abī Bakr – may God the Almighty have mercy upon them. Its text is as follows: In the name of God, the most Compassionate and Merciful, blessings be upon our lord, Muḥammad, upon his Family and his Companions. Praise be to God, He who encompasses, like an ocean, the hidden things of the [divine] mysteries, those that give knowledge and shed light (muṭliʿ) on the secrets of the hearts that are concerned with the desire of all that is loved and is bestowed from above, through the majesty of His eternity, regarding the likeness of Him who is the Master of man (al-Marbūb). He is the Creator of individuals, the Creater of the nations, the Guide of the pen in [outlining] the future course of that which He [alone] has the knowledge of. All this is by His power and by His destiny to endow what He so wills. He has bestowed and he has refused. He has lowered and He has elevated aloft. He has manifested His concern, and He has granted a benefice. He has no partner in his bliss and his Divinity (ulūhiyya) and there is none who can oppose Him in His judgements and in His lordship and there is none who can dispute against Him in His rulings and in what He has determined. He has constrained his adorers, the believers, to be faithful in the agreements that are made and He has commanded them in His book, on the tongue of the Prophet Muḥammad – the blessing and peace of God be upon him – to keep to pacts and to covenants, and self praise, and to many of His qualities, with loyalty to what He promises, and He has described

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the opposite of that to be of Iblīs (‘Satanic’), and he who is amongst those who are afar, and in banishment are in concordance with this same Iblīs. He has gathered the scholars together, by His care and by His beautiful kindness, from the darkness of ignorance and He has entrusted them to be the trustees of His creation. They undertake to guard and to preserve His Sharīʿa, so that they will make effective for humanity those trusts and charges and they are to be the lamps of the earth and the successors of the Prophets, forgiving everything to/for them, | even though it be for the fish [whales?] in the sea. The people most lofty love them. Most lauded and Glory be to God on high, on account of His favours. They are present for His worshippers, the believers. Such is [and, was] the mission of our Prophet – the blessing and peace of God be upon him – the lord of the Messengers. He has been singled out for the lordship of the world through the generality of his mission and the government and rule of his people and lordship in the world to come, all this, by the salvation afforded by his intercession and by the exalted status of his rank – the blessing and peace of God be upon him – I testify that there is no god but God alone. He has no partner, nor opposite to him. I seek victory by witnessing. I seek for victory by His help and the gift of the gates of Paradise and I bear witness that our lord, Muḥammad, is His servant, His Messenger and His friend, the Pole (quṭb) of the circle of the Prophets, and the Messengers, and the pattern of his band, the people of God, who are brought high – the blessing and peace of God be upon him and upon his Family and Companions and his party and sect, peace and salutation for ever and ever, with a compulsion, and inseperably bound, (mutalāzimīn) until the ‘Day of the Faith’ (Doomsday). To proceed, verily, knowledge and learning for the sake of God favours gifts and lordly benefits, they quench and they draw the souls, hearts and minds of the competitors, by gentle breezes, and they open up the hearts of those who go forth, clad as brides, such is the fragrence of their breezes. The mightiest of these sought for the highest that is sought after in the science of the Sharīʿa law and the principles of fiqh, leading to everlasting happiness and eternal (sarmadī) care that is needed by the assemblies, and by him who attends, and by all gatherings and meetings. They follow it and they copy and imitate the same. Verily, the Sharīʿa is the clear proof (ḥujja) that the Prophet – the blessing and peace of God be upon him – brought and laid down first as the way to follow. It is the decisive proof that is denied and refuted by the likes of false invalidators. It is the exemplary way that he founded on the basis of [divine] revelation, the highest reality that surpasses all [other] legal systems and confessions.

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He has raised it [up] and it is the way that frees him who treads it, into the ‘Straight Path’ and it is a proof that guides him who follows it so to attain supreme success. The Messenger of God – the blessing and peace of God be upon him – made it white and pure to its beholders, and, for it, he set up testimonies and attestations from the Qurʾān, made plain and clear, which is the language of the truth in those of the beginning and the end. He appointed for it a number [of men] and a military expedition (ḥamla) and it was carried by the ʿulamāʾ, who judged by its rules, and with others who were appointed and who stored (dhakhkharū) that up for a day in which wealth will be of no benefit, nor offspring. God has exalted one of them and has singled him out above another in degree, and, who has singled out, by His kindness, him who He so wishes, from the midst of them. This is by his qualities and his temperament, in every age and every time. He [the Messenger] set it up, in praise of Him, for the peoples so that they might work with it, and might study it, and might research into it. He, the Almighty said in the Qurʾān: ‘Were it not for an individual from every group of them, and a party with it, to fulfil, and employ, the law within the faith, and then warn the people their people by, when they return to them perchance they will be questioned and be made aware [of it]’. This is especially the case for the way (madhhab) of the Imām of the town of the Prophet’s hijra [Madīna], and the Pole of the circle for independent judgement (ijtihād) amidst the Islamic groups, [namely] the mightiest, the Imām, Mālik b. Anas b. Mālik b. Abī ʿĀmir b. Abī ʿAmr b. al-Ḥārith b. Ghaymān (with a diacritical, then a double dot below)57 b. Khuthayl (with a ḍamma vowel [u] on the diacritical letter, then a triple dot with the fatḥa vowel [a], then a double dot below)58 al-Aṣbaḥ (with a fatḥa vowel [a] on the letter tāʾ),59 by lineage linked to Dhū Aṣbaḥ, a clan from Ḥimyar. He was from the Arabs, his confederacy with Quraysh was amongst the Banū Taym Allāh; he being a client of confederacy, not a client from manumission with the masses. He was descended from a royal household, because the principal basis among the Arabs, when they enter a lineage, is that he is one from such a category. He was one of those who paid regard to those familial structures. He had a Godly desire in the acquisition of 57 58 59

I.e., the first letter is gh, not undotted ʿayn, before the yaʾ with two dots below the line. The author spells out that the vocalization should be Khuthayl, and not e.g Khathīl. Presumably a misspelling for ‘fatḥa on the letter bāʾ’.

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such notions and meanings. He was separate from the people and the families who took a personal risk through crossing the deserts ( fayāfī) and the wilderness. [Rather], he took a personal risk in life in the search for the lofty heights and in following traces in the hope of being disciplined and well organized ‘in the path of God’, as a way to the end of the road in Paradise and in telling that God had facilitated a path to reach Paradise. Such a path followed the precept of the [Prophet], the chosen one (al-Muṣṭafā), the master of the perfect bliss of the two worlds [saying], ‘Whoever follows a path in the search for knowledge, God will take him upon a path in the search for knowledge, and God will [so] take him upon a path to the end of the road in Paradise, and, thereby, will be making known that God had made easy for him the path to Paradise’. Note also, the saying of the Prophet, the blessing and peace of God be upon him, ‘Whosoever God has decided a good thing for him will be taught the faith. He will employ his independent judgement (ijtihād) and he will find, that with God’s help, the desire that he has striven for, through the sincerity of his will, in plucking and gathering the benefits of the sciences, that he will attain [and master], by the sincerity of his will, that which is nigh impossible [for him] from the anomalies (shawārid) of statement and meaning, be such major, and skilful, excellent, artistic, and perfect’. The shaykh, the excellent and the lettered, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. al-shaykh al-fāḍil ʿAbdallāh b. Abī Bakr b. Abī’l-Qāsim al-Ghadāmisī al-Maghribī had asked me for a license (ijāza) in regard to what he had received for transmission from me, and what had read, and had recited, for general study, in al-Azhar – may God the Almighty preserve him in both making mention and in memorisation, for ever and ever. By God, I am not, were it not for the vacuity (khulūw) of the times, one of ‘stallions’, outstanding persons to give an ijāza, so how is it for me to sanction an ijāza? However, as one who seeks the increase of piety, and putting at ease, I was constrained to give assistance in his request, so let my incapacity be concealed, and let me say [accordingly] that I have licensed the aforementioned theologian ( faqīh), in all that he has taken from me, and my shaykhs have licensed me in the same, in the sciences of; the Sharīʿa, tafsīr, ḥadīth, in the Ordinances of God ( farāʾiḍ) and in jurisprudence ( fiqh), and in other [disciplines] on condition that he is esteemed amongst the people – may God the Almighty benefit us by their baraka and | may He make us to be amongst those who are included within their pious callings, through Muḥammad and his Family, one and all.

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Man is constrained to have the knowledge of a chain of lineages up to the Imām, and to the chosen one, al-Muṣṭafā – may peace and blessings be upon them – since the shaykhs in their learning are the fathers in the faith and the tie between mankind and the Lord of the Worlds. There, the lineage of information, of knowledge and of testimony is of more benefit and is mightier than the lineage of birth. As it was said by Ustādh Sīdī ʿUmar b. al-Fāriḍ – may God be pleased with him: Between us, lineage is closer within the law of love than it is in the lineage that we share in common with our forefathers. I have taken jurisprudence, within which is the book of Shaykh Khalīl, from a number of the mighty mashāyikh. They have included the Imām and ‘learned of his Lord’, Sīdī, my lord and professor, and my model, Shaykh Muḥammad al-Kharashī, and from them, the scholar and the editor of his age, my professor, ʿAbd al-Bāqī al-Zarqānī, and from them, the unique in his age, the scholar, Sīdī Yaḥyā al-Shāwī al-Maghribī and the scholar, Shaykh Aḥmad al-Gharqāwī al-Fayyūmī and Shaykh ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Wāṭī and Shaykh Ibrāhīm al-ʿAjmāwī al-Fayyūmī, and other mashāyikh and we shall not spend time in making mention of them. I studied the Risāla, and its Commentary, with Shaykh al-Kharashī. I used to read it after the afternoon prayer (al-ʿaṣr) within the portico (riwāq) [of al-Azhar]. I also learnt from Shaykh ʿAbd al-Bāqi al-Zarqānī, and from other shaykhs. I studied al-ʿIzziyya and its Commentary, from Shaykh ʿAbd al-Bāqī al-Zarqāni in the year 1081 [1670AD], in the general and public lesson, in the year of his composition of the Commentary to it, and so too, with Aḥmad al-Gharqāwī, who composed an immense commentary upon it that filled two volumes. I studied ‘The Theology of Monotheism’ (al-Tawḥīd) with the professor and Shaykh Yaḥyā al-Shāwī al-Maghribī, and Shaykh al-Kharashī, and Shaykh Muḥammad b. ʿUbayd al-Maghribī, and Shaykh ʿAlī al-Jazāʾirī al-Maghribī, and I read the Miʿrāj of al-Ghayẓī with Shaykh ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Ujhūrī al-Shāfiʿī, and I read it also with Shaykh Ibrāhīm al-Barmāwī in the general and public lesson and all at the Azhar. And I took knowledge from Shaykh Aḥmad al-Bashīshī and Shaykh Muḥammad al-Shurumbālī, and with mashāyikh in the Ḥijāz also. We shall not linger by [revealing] their chain of authority. Let us concentrate on the [case] of Shaykh al-Kharashī, with a desire to summarize, and thereby gain baraka. We say that the aforementioned shaykh was the son of ʿAbdallāh al-Kharashī al-Mālikī, his lineage being well known and commencing with the sons of ‘ṣabāh al-khayr’. From them came Ibrāhīm al-Laqqānī, and from them came Shaykh Muḥammad

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al-Sharnūbī. All of them learnt the Mukhtaṣar [of Khalīl] already aforementioned, from Shaykh Muḥammad al-Binwafrī, and he from Shaykh ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Ujhūrī (with a ḍamma vowel [u] on the hamza), and he from the learned Shams al-Dīn al-Laqqānī, and he from the Shaykh of the Mālikiyya in his time, Shaykh ʿAlī al-Sanhūrī, who was the shaykh of Shaykh [sic] al-Tatāʾī, and he from Shaykh al-Bisāṭī, and he from Shaykh Tāj al-Dīn Bahrām60 and he from its author, Shaykh Khalīl. Shaykh Khalīl studied with Shaykh ʿAbdallāh al-Manūfī. Shaykh ʿAlī al-Sanhūrī also learnt from Shaykh Ṭāhir b. ʿAlī b. Muḥammad al-Nuwayrī and he learned from Shaykh Ḥusayn b. ʿAlī, and he with Shaykh Abū’l-ʿAbbās Aḥmad b. ʿUmar b. Hilāl al-Rabiʿī, and he with the chief qāḍī, Fakhr al-Dīn b. al-Makhlaṭa, and he with Abū Ḥafs ʿUmar b. Farāj al-Kindī. He studied with Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Karīm b. ʿAṭāʾ-allāh al-Iskandarī, and he from Abū Bakr Muḥammad b. al-Walīd b. Khalaf al-Ṭurṭūshī and he from Abū’l-Walīd b. Sulaymān b. Khalaf al-Bājī and he from the Imām Makkī al-Qaysī al-Andalusī, and he from the Imām Abū Muḥammad ʿAbdallāh b. Abī Zayd al-Qayrawānī, the author of the Risāla and he from the Imām Abū Bakr Muḥammad b. al-Lībā [al-Lībī] al-Ifrīqī, and he from the Imām Yaḥyā al-Kinānī al-Balawī al-Ifrīqī, the author of Ikhtilāf Ibn al-Qāsim wa-Ashhab, and he from the two Imāms, Saḥnūn and ʿAbd al-Malik b. Ḥabīb al-Andalusī, and both of these from the Imām ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. al-Qāsim al-ʿItqī al-Miṣrī, and he from the Imām Mālik b. Anas, and he from Rabīʿa and from Nāfiʿ, the client (mawlā) of Ibn ʿUmar. Rabīʿa studied with Anas b. Mālik, the servant of the Prophet – the blessing and peace of God be upon him – and Nāfiʿ with his master, ʿAbdallāh b. ʿUmar – may God the Almighty have mercy upon both of them – and they studied with ‘The lord of the Messengers’ (Sayyid al-Mursalīn) [The Prophet] and he received the revelation from the trusty Gabriel, from the ‘Preserved Tablet’ (al-Lawḥ al-Maḥfūz) – we ask God, the Mighty, to guard us against the ‘Stoned Satan’. Over everything He is all-powerful and he has destiny in His power. In response, Jadīr [‘one who was deserving’] edited that and he did so at the beginning [the 1st of al-Muḥarram] in 1124 AH of the hijra of the Prophet [9 February 1712AD] – on him, the highest degree of Godliness and of peace. It was uttered from his own mouth, and written down, copying it with care, by his poor hand, and doing so carefully and precisely [though imperfectly,] by Ibrāhīm al-Fayyūmī of place, al-Azharī of

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location, and of the madhhab of Mālik, praises and blessings be upon Muḥammad, | and upon his Family and upon his Companions.

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Here ends the blessed licence (ijāza). Praise be to God the Almighty. I have said [that] the two were given the licenses simlar to these by a host amongst the scholars of al-Islām and amongst the mashāyikh of the madhhab. It would be tedious to mention them all. By God, who is that One who grants success to the true and the right. He is the resource and He is the place of return. We ask Him – Glory be to Him – for perfect bliss, and for health and wellbeing in the two abodes, and for our death within the faith of al-Islām, this through His title as the Lord of mankind upon whom be the most exalted blessing and peace most pure.

Chapter 4 Here is mentioned his sickness, his will and testimony and his covenant, his decease and the elegies and eulogies that were composed in honour of him. The Shaykh, may God have mercy upon him, continued on the course of his past life and in his distinguished literary life, and in his daily pursuits, observed by the eye of care and of concern, guarded at the outset and at the close, grateful for the gifts and the favour of the Almighty, praising [Him] and praying for the blessing of His Messenger – the blessing and peace of God be upon him. He grew old in his years. He grew weak and due to incapacity he stayed within his house and home and he devoted his time to prayer, to adoration and to worship. The people began to visit him in his house, and to seek for his baraka and his grace until he suffered from a malady that continued up to the time of his death. So it came about that when he, after days of sickness and suffering, lost speech with his tongue and was silent, his sons came to him, Sīdī al-ḥājj Muḥammad al-Zāhid, and Sīdī ʿAlī, from Tunis, and they found him in that sickly state; dumb and with only the ability to converse [with them] through sign language, and by his gesture, and to give advice as to his wishes, and to order and reject. Despite that, he was firm and clear in his mind and his thought. Three days before he died, God permitted him to speak. He made his will and testimony and he expressed his wish, thereof, and, having completed it, he reverted to his previous state. He was unable to utter a word until he died in the keeping of God the Almighty. Included amongst his expressed wishes were his saying, ‘O my sons, I counsel you to show fear and piety towards God the Almighty. Obey His supervision

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and step within His limits. Let not the world deceive and tempt and entice you (ighrāʾ), and may the young respect the old, and the latter have mercy upon the former, and cleave to your close [maternal?] relatives and favour your avuncular relations, and tolerate their harm and their hurt. Be patient with those who are near to you, and far from you, and with the stranger. God, the Almighty, is my Caliph above you, and my Trustee, who is watching over you. I have placed you and your sons in His trusted care, for, verily, if God the Almighty places anything within His safekeeping then He will guard and keep it safely. May peace be upon you all, and the mercy of God and His barakāt’. He died – may God have mercy upon him and be pleased with him and may He grant us benefit through his baraka, Amen. He died on Thursday the 21st of Dhū’l-Ḥijja 1121AH [1 February, 1710AD] – may God sanctify his spirit and cause him to reside in Paradise, by His favour and His grace. When his spirit left him with his last breath, he diffused ( fāha) a fragrent aroma and the odour of musk was smelt by all those who were present smelt the odour of musk. It filled the entire house. His son, Sīdī al-ḥājj Muḥammad al-Zāhid washed him following his will that had been expressed to him. He was placed in a shroud. He was embalmed and was carried to his tomb and buried – may God the Almighty have the widest of mercy for him. The earth trembled when he died and the Muslims suffered from disasters through his loss. It was a truly enormous misfortune and disaster, and how great it was! When he was buried a radiant light was seen (ruʾiya nūr sāṭiʿ) above his tomb. This was seen very frequently and it took place over a number of nights. His tomb is conspicuous. It is visited and baraka [from him] is sought for, there. It is an antidote (tiryāq) that is tested and tried in order to fulfil needs and necessities, and to ward off hurtful and harmful evils and pain. None who seek it with a true and a sincere intent and with a strong purpose and who is urged to do so will encounter anything other than a response to his needs. The effects and the marks of his baraka will be upon him. Indeed, this has been experienced quite often, together with such acts where there is an intended desire to be cured. God is the One who bestows success. Part 2: Elegies Mention will be made here of the elegies, and, in particular, those composed elegies dedicted to him – may God have mercy upon him – which were composed by the mashāyikh and by the leading scholars and poets from the people of his town, and by others, in eloquent odes that are famous. We shall mention some of them among those that have reached us, and we have seen, because of the baraka therein.

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I say, and upon God I trust, amongst those who composed elegies in praise of him was his son, Abū Zayd, the great scholar, Sīdī ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, in an elegant ode. Here it is [below]: It is meet for us to comply, also to be patient and to be content With the decision that God has decreed; that every one of us should die And that nothing within the circumstances of destiny will be of benefit. He is just. Nothing will withstand His judgement. In justice, we can but obey and take heed. All of us are destined for extinction. The day is unavoidable when we bid farewells. We are in an abode that is temporal in its bliss. Though you may obtain every good thing within it you will be deceived. How can life be good when circumstances are so fashioned? When the heart of understanding (labīb) is settled within it, yet it covets. But [now] the learned scholar who has risen aloft is lost to us. He is raised aloft to the summit of heavenly glory. The body is severed from him, the heart and the innermost parts and the mighty mind in him reassessed. I yearn for him. Strong is the emotion within me, a disquiet within me has increased. My heart, through solice for its loss, finds itself anxious. It mourns deeply. Life’s pleasure and sleep are excluded (ḥarām), and what has been said by the best of men has come to pass. A sacred life, sweet and beautiful, thus went to sleep, after their departure. What was said by the best of mankind has followed its course. At such a point knowledge was grasped from us, such knowledge was as they had grasped. It is not a seizure that came about, and is, henceforth, in the ascendant. To be sorrowful is both fitting and and just. It is an obligation, following his death. Weeping with bloodshot eyes will be our intercession.

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God had made His throne to be everlasting, its benefit is within His creation, Until reality brings to it the truth and it is rent asunder. For us he was a sure mantle that covered [us] against wickedness and perdition. He defended us, likewise, from the vicissitudes of time. God’s ruling, in destiny, came upon him. In what the Lord has commanded we enjoy none to defend us. There is no good in the world, or in its bliss, when flooding seas deprive. We had been content to rely upon destiny and fate. though it may be that the eye grieves (tuhimm) and the heart breaks, O my God, recompense [us], in our misfortune. May the One who is Merciful, make him to be a successor of Thy wide generosity, Thy ruling has passed among Thy servants, as Thou so willed. What Thou hast decreed will, for certain, come to pass. When grief encompasses me speedily, I cry, O my father, beloved of my heart that suffers such pain. Due to your loss, evil has made a gleeful tumult and sowed contentions, when all of those, unlovingly, spake and sowed discord. All that I voiced was the better, despite the response of a stoned devil. Who will care for the orphans, and the widows, after you, and who will there be there to help the people, in such a time of sadness and of natural separation? Who is there to solve problems that are obscure and intractable, and other difficulties? Who will solve them? Who will make them understood for all who listen? Who will be there for the study of the sciences, for learning, and for jurisprudence, after you have gone? Who can consult, as sources, al-Bukhārī, and the Shifāʿ? Who will explain the meanings, and make clear the bayān, and other such works? Who will explain the reports of mysterious and dubious matters so as to resolve them? Who will be at hand for the books of Grammar, and of Syntax, in order to explain them perfectly? Who will make judgements for the Word of Truth?

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Who will be in the mosque of Yūnis for the study of the religious sciences, Who will read aloud original creative writings to the students? In an event that has smitten the pillar of the faith, I to God return. Far be it that a time will never come that is like unto it, a time of the God fearing, and devout, sincere and most loyal (naṣūḥ), humble towards God. Not one where hearts are weeping in their ardent love and longing (ṣabāba), Lengthy weeping and suffering were fitting for it. May God water the tomb that contains him by His rain, in plenty. May His mercy bring him to a life in Paradise, within the loftiest of its abodes. Grieve for the people of learning, all of them within it, and the brethren and the closest, most devoted followers, Especially those who come from [the realm of letters] due to his loss, I mean the man of piety who are ascetics, or of a sober piety. How can a beloved forget the one whom he loves. We have recalled his days, his morning presences and his sunset sessions, when our hearing subsided and our tears have flowed, He had no match, no peer, amidst our people, defending with fair means and causing the widely known to fade. He was a friend, and in truth, a man of integrity, trusty, pure, good and humble. Let the people of his town weep over the likes of him, if not the tears of all, for the others are lost. The misfortune of the age, by his loss, has struck us. Those locations have remained as wastelands. They are discarded. Their haunts have been abandoned. Were he to redeem souls by some miracle then his world would fill our eyes and ears. But the will of God is never averted. It is meet for us and of benefit to to submit and to be patient. He who speaks is the son of the faqīh, the ‘slave’ of the Merciful, on who covets generosity and kindness.

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God, through the mediation of the Prophet, be a guard of my brethren and for all the Muslims. Safeguard our [town of] Ghadāmis and save it from harm and from polytheism, Thou art the One who hears. Harm has befallen our baseness, within our separation. May much good be done for those who are intelligent, and for the wrestling soul. To fall short is fitting, it is expedient, goodness is lacking in the one who has no obedience to God. My plea is, and my cure and solace, within history. He has died and that befalls all men. ‘The blessing and peace of God’ be ever repeated, upon God’s chosen one, [Muḥammad], the guide, and mediator, and upon his Family, and upon his Companions, and to the people of his friendship, one thousand ‘salāms’ be upon those who love – upon them all. Thus ends the poem, praise be to God the Almighty and blessing and peace be upon Muḥammad. An elegy was also composed by the shaykh and scholar, the model faqīh, the qāḍī Sīdī Aḥmad b. ʿAbdallāh b. Muḥammad b. Muḥammad b. Ṣīla alGhadāmisī, in an ode (qaṣīda) and here it is, below: O scholars of God, it is fit for us to weep for the decease of an Imām, may God extol his fatherland. Thereby I mean the Shaykh of Shaykhs, Imām of might, may God bless his resting place. A distinguished faqīh who adored God, named [ʿAbdallāh] ‘the son of Abū Bakr’, whose name was also famous. The decree of the Merciful has spread through His entire creation, the decree of death. This is His rule and what He has decreed. The countries trembled (rajja) on the day he died, and the lovers’ eyes were blinded (makfūf ) at the sight therof, O what a misfortune has befallen! O what a calamity (ruzʾ). Who will be there for the Book of God, and the Sharīʿa after him? Who will preserve the ḥadīths of the Prophet, and [the story of] his midnight journey (al-misrāʿ)?

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Who will be there for the fatwās, and the sciences, and for the parsing of words and speech and for memorising, and the telling of such? Who will rectify ways that are corrupt when they are at their height? Who will be fit for the matters that need attention, be they religious, or in worldly, affairs? Who is there for the hearts that are deep in ignorance? Who will preach to them until they are softened and show their love? Who will command good conduct or forbid an abomination? Who will fear his Lord, whether it be openly, or in secret? He is the great scholar, both understanding and intelligent, a noble saint, whose virtues cannot be numbered. He was the full moon whose light will never cease to shine. He was the ocean [of knowledge] and generous and unlimited in his giving. O pearl of the ascetics, in our lonliness, to whom can we apply when seeking help and succour, he whom we have lost forever? It is remote in the world that we are given, generously, the likes of him. Far be it that his peer will come into being who possesses his amicable manner (ḥusnā). O treasure of the sciences, we appointed you to be a way, a means, and [to be] a Godly example on the Day of Resurrection. In the month of Dhū’l-Ḥijja our shaykh passed away from our midst. It was a despicable day when he departed from the world. That was on a Thursday, in the year ‘Kashāqq’, a year of trouble (shāqq) unlike any other. I yearn for him (alhaf ʿalayhi) not twice but thrice, ‘woe’ ‘woe’, then ‘oh’, ‘oh’. Were souls to ransom him, or money, or child, all that is ours would be of paltry importance. Even if the months of heaven and earth were to lament for him, and the humanity within both, and also the jinn and the waters, when they [all] assessed his worth, their weeping was but little, verily it is I – who for a people bemoans. Patiently endure what our Lord has willed, and, likewise on account of what He has willed, decreed and brought to pass.

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O Lord, have mercy upon him, and grant him a place, through all eternity, within Paradise. O my God, appoint his sons as his successors, and endow them for what Thou lovest and Thou desirest and is Thy pleasure. Verily, Thou art the possessor of a seat of grace and goodness, and mercy. He who beseeches thee is never disappointed in Thy promise. After the ṣalāh of God, then the salāma, May this be upon him who came to us with the Qurʾān that we have read and we have recited. Peace be upon the brothers, one and all, and he who recited the Risāla, composed in verse and who then understands its meaning. This poem was completed in Dhū’l-Ḥijja and your worshipper hopes for forgiveness from You and salvation. Here ends the blessed poem, Praise be to God the Almighty, and blessing and peace be upon our Sayyid and lord, Muḥammad. He was also praised in a eulogy by the shaykh and faqīh and great scholar, Sīdī Muḥammad b. ʿImrān al-Ghadāmisī in an ode (qaṣīda) and it his here below: 37

Praise be to Him, over that which He has decreed and is beholden to, Glory be to Him for what He has willed to happen and what has come to pass, a misfortune suffered by the people of the homelands, in the forenoon of Thursday. A huge misfortune has come to pass, We have been afflicted by [the death] of a personality and a Pole (quṭb), one who had no peer. ʿAbdallāh, and by this name he had become famous, a son in the family of Abū Bakr, though the Lord, on high, had cloaked him with a light divine. The light that shines above his tomb of his appointed time. It has a beam that all but snatches away the vision. Without a doubt, and without worry, it has been seen, and there is no surprise or wonder at the truth of it. This is because he was the Pole of an entire age, he who doubts this truth lacks the evidence

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of the learning and the knowledge that he had, with merit. To some degree, it was combined with possibility, from Him who had decreed it though, with difficulty, also there was the proof of his clemency and his abstinence, in this world, and all that was there collected, be it meagre or be it huge. Generosity was intrinsic to his nature. It was for those who abided with him, and wherever hunger had left him someone who was patient yet without endurance. It was he who has clothed the naked who had sought him. He was the one who never found, nor regarded, a difficulty that was too hard and too tough. All of the oceans, except for his ocean [of knowledge], were depleted, until his peer was constrained to confess and to acknowledge [his triumph] and he was vanquished. Is there one who is so magnanimous, such a master, to support us and who has the generosity of his compassion, and his renowned authority? O him who has the ears to hear of a town of ours that has trembled so! It has trembled, on account of his death, or for the existence of such a tomb as his. Who willl be there for the sciences? Who will be there to unlock the secret signs that they possess? Such as for the ḥadīth and for Grammar, and for the lessons and the examples, was there another scholar who knew al-Bukhārī, and who could recite him within a month? Who will be there for the Commentary of the Qurʾān (tafsīr) and for the theology of the faith (tawḥīd) and for the subject of its hidden matters? Who will be there for the Takhāmīs?61 In the day, and in the night, supplying a verse, adding nine others, and so totalling ten verses? 61

The quintuplets (Takhāmīs) of Sharaf al-Dīn Abū ʿAbdallāh Muḥammad al-Būṣīrī (d. 1294 AD), the composer of the ‘Mantle’ ode, of 164 verses, rhyming in the letter ‘mīm’, the successor composition to that of Kaʿb b. Zuhayr’s ‘Bānat Suʿādu’, the Ode of the ‘Man-

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Who will be there for rulings and for decisions and who for the fatwā after you, O treasure of treasures, and O treasure of those who have stored up treasures? Who will be there for piety, whenever abuses have caused harm and injury? Who will look after the widows, and the deflowered and the virgin (al-bikr wa’l-thayyib) [al-ʿAdhrāʾ]. Tears have flowed freely and for long for love of him. I, and those like me, have none others who are grieving quite so much. The very earth, the soil, is kissed by such a one out of a longing to see him, and with the heart, out of love for him, so too, it is in a state of intoxication. Were a soul to [speak] with a soul, I would exclaim ‘Yes, O soul, go forth and ranson him from among the rest’, O kinsfolk amongst humanity, intensify your sobbing so as to form a mighty sea [of tears], and within the tomb. It was on a day that fell in the month of Dhū’l-Ḥijja. O happy be the one who performs the annual pilgrimage in it, or does so in another month (ʿumra), Or bears the mark of a hundred branded ones [? hind kayāʾ], when disaster cried aloud, ‘Take news from a year in order that meanings and lessons may be learnt!’ and the Arabic letters wāw and nūn that did not enter our mark and sign; so understand signs and between them a reward will so be granted [?]. I asked the Lord, God of the throne to grant him mercy and save him from Gehenna and from Hell I ask God’s pardon for our sins, and for his sons, and whoever in the gathering had been present. tle’, by the panegyrist of the Prophet, see David Thomas, ‘Burda’ in Encyclopedia of Islamic Civilisation and Religion (ed. by Ian Richard Netton), London: Routledge, 2008AD, pp. 110– 112.

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Within eternal Paradise, O Merciful One, grant [him] a home and a place in the presence of the chosen amongst the lordly one [Muḥammad]. The blessings of God be upon him always, for ever and ever, and may God bestow contentment and satisfaction upon them for ever and ever whilst time exists.62 Here ends the poem, praise be to God and the blessings of God be upon our lord Muḥammad, his Family and his Companions. An elegy was [also] composed in honour of him by the shaykh, scholar, and faqīh, Sīdī ʿAbdallāh b. Mūsā b. Abī Shayna al-Ghadāmisī, within an ode (qaṣīda) and this is to be found below: An affair was decreed by the God of the Throne [on high]. He, who is our Creator. It cannot be changed and refuted, nor can it ever disappear. O you who listen, pay attention! And patiently question what the the Lord has decreed, He who is the Lord of majesty. That was a misfortune, a tragedy that touched all of mankind. The heart was torn apart by it, the inner parts, the reunion of lovers. Thereby, I mean we have deplored (naʿnā) the loss of our Shaykh, our means of access to the Lord. O how terrible is the loss it has been and evil in consequence. How could it not be so? It was he who was the seal of the men who met and who combined in himself, abstinence, and learning, and deed – what men [such as him] there were then! ʿAbdallāh, in whose praise for his history and his way of life we sing to you, examining his circumstance and his status and by what, perchance, may be said [about it].

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The editor ʿAbd al-Jabbār’s note in the Arabic text: ‘Included in these verses are contents and some signs that belong to the year of his death that would need to be understood [and interpreted] by a return to the hand-written original. In it the referred to “sign” is made clear as well as its content’.

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Since he possessed all the qualities of goodness in the faith, and in worldly life, through the grace of the One who is Almighty. [It took place] on a day when he found a resting place in the tomb (rams), He who was our ideal pattern, in a day from the sacred month of Dhū’l-Ḥijja, be aware of what is said. The year, as an affliction, came forth, how mighty is our Creator! How Glorious He is, and whose godhead cannot be measured. Verily we have lost you, O bliss of the beloved, O, one beloved by my heart, O, treasure of both women and men. O thou, the avoidance, who has thwarted every disgrace ( fādiḥa), O beloved one, the safe place within the bottom of the sand dunes, Who will be there for us after him, in a mishap, for the issuing of every legal ruling and who will issue fatwās, and who will judge the speech of mankind? Who will be there for the ḥadīth, and for judgement, after you, O sea of sciences, the heavenly light and [known] for [his] assertiveness and his proud composure? Let God inspire us with patience and make us to be amongst those who are contented with judgement of the strong, and the powerful and the unimaginable. May God make his righteousness yet wider and settle him within the eternal Paradise wherein are springs and shade. May God make his sons to be his successors, guide them to the right path of the people and to be the perfect attainment. By the high office and glory ( jāh) of the best of mankind, the chosen one, Aḥmad – [Muḥammad], upon whom be the blessing and peace of God the Creator, upon his family (ālihi) and upon all of the Followers of them and upon their followers, this by the perfection which has singled them out. Here ends the poem, praise be to God, and the blessing and peace of God be upon our lord and master Muḥammad and his family. An elegy to him was also composed by the shaykh and author Sīdī Muḥammad al-Ṣaghīr b. Muḥammad b. ʿAbdallāh al-Marrākushī in an ode (qaṣīda) and such is the same:

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The sea of the sciences of knowledge has died, the ideal of the creation, its succour, and the devout judge. He it was who discovered, and disclosed, afflictions of the heart that was resistant, that echoed its anxieties and [penetrated into] the irrigation channel of that heart. The flowing tract of tears from the eyelids, that spread sermons, within which were the curbs and scoldings and reprimands (zawājir) from the Qurʾān. It was what was beheld by one enthralled by love, and who, thereby, has prolonged his humiliation, and his loss. It snatches the mind away, and intellect from the word, in the manner of pearl necklaces ( jumān) and pure gold. In disobedience, it does not despair of God’s mercy, or of obeying from the [fear of] the fires of Hell. Such is the nature of the guides who are the most in thrall to joy and who have inherited the wisdom of Luqmān. They will remember you if you see them, perception and awareness of God are their preoccupation. He is the Shaykh of Shaykhs and of the Islamic sciences; they are his secret. He is the full moon of the veil of darkness (dujā), such is hidden from the eyes. The Sun of Science has been shown to us. It burst into flame and was clothed in light and it hid all other beings within existence. We have not beheld, nor have we heard of, such a person in his high status in these times, the master of the fast, once every day in every month, standing throughout the night as a worshipper in the adoration of the Merciful One. He is the refuge of the poor and the widowed, the penniless and the wretched, the cave of the chaste and of regretfulness. His favour shone forth with renown for Ghadāmis, and he received a hearing in other towns and countries.

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Let him who God has filled with life and intelligence, in faith and religion, weep over you. With the knowledge of God we have not exhausted our deep sighing, in our deep breathing, with brimming tears in our eyelids. Each day, redness, like the clouds, attacks our lacrimal canals and guts, on account of his loss. Were I to be aware that my weeping would be of benefit, then I would weep over lengthy spans of time. However, death is the refuge of all mankind, be one a mighty person or another who is lowly among the people. O his offspring, be patient, for his sake, and be patient for fellow beings, be they remote or close at hand, on account of the dejection that they suffer within themselves for his sake. They almost melt away in their sorrow due to their griefs.

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We ask God that He will bestow favour upon us, and that we may behold him within the Paradise of contentment, and of bliss. Protect us from the evil of hearts and souls and place no dominion over us. And may he bring about our passing into death in the manner of the community of the believers and the faith of al-Islām, and in the path of true guidance, and of the brethren. Enlighten our dark and murky heart with knowledge and with true guidance and with awareness and with understanding. Guard us in our life span and in the time of our death from having doubt and a feeling of having been forsaken. He was the most generous of those who showed favour in their bounty for his servant, in his favours and in his goodness. To him I bring the chosen one, the guide, the mediator and the lord of men. Upon him be the blessing and peace of God as long as the flowers stir and bloom within the garden.

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Here ends, praise be to God and to His help and blessings and peace be upon our lord, Muḥammad, upon his Family and upon his Companions. Here ends a mention of what we have found of the elegies that were composed in honour of this mighty shaykh and which we have come across. May God the Almighty be of benefit to them, thereby, and may He reward them and may He cause us, and them, to be from amng His servants, the true believers, and may He pardon their sins and their shortcomings and conceal our faults, in this world and in the next. Verily Thou [O God] art He who decrees and directs everything.

Conclusion and Postscript [This is about] what relates to the mention of a useful will and testament that the saints of God have passed on – the one to the other – until it has reached the Shaykh, Sīdī ʿAbdallāh, may God Almighty have mercy upon him and may we profit by them. Amen. He concluded his book with them. That book was Maqāṣid al-Taʿrīf bi-Faḍāʾil Ism Muḥammad al-Sharīf, ‘The goals of making known the merits and virtues of the name of Muḥammad the noble’ – the blessing and peace of God the Almighty be upon him. He said – may God the Almighty have mercy upon him – and concluding with a profitable will and testament passed on – the one to the other – by the saints of God. It reached us through the authentic chain of authority. I was told it in a license (ijāza), by our shaykh the virtuous faqīh, Sīdī Muḥammad b. ʿUmar b. Muḥammad al-Ghadāmisī, on the evening of ʿArafāt in Dhū’l-Ḥijja, 1073AH [15th July 1663 AD], from his shaykh, the ‘well acquainted’ (al-ʿārif ), shaykh Sīdī Muḥammad b. Muḥammad b. Sulaymān al-Ruʾānī, from his shaykh, al-ʿārif Sīdī Saʿīd b. Ibrāhīm al-Jazāʾirī, from Sīdī Saʿīd Aḥmad al-Muqriʾ al-Qurayshī [Qurashī], from Sīdī Aḥmad Ḥājj al-Wahrānī, from his shaykh, the shaykh al-islām, and the ideal pattern of humanity, Sīdī Ibrāhīm al-Tāzī. He said, ‘I was appointed as the executor by our shaykh Ṣāliḥ al-Zawāwī, in piety to God the Great and Mighty, and in the obligation of obedience to Him and in accordance with an assiduity (muwāẓaba)63 to mention and to recall God the Almighty every time. He said, “Far greater than that,

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For ‘muwāḍaba’ in the Arabic text.

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‘There is no god but God’ for, verily, it is clear from the heart what veils and envelopes it of passion”. He willed the honour that is shown to the mashāyikh and the service of the brethren and meekness towards the poor and care and kindness to the believers and for a sensitive concern for all of God’s creation. So too, that I should make mention on the morning of each day, “Glory to God, praise be to Him, Glory to God the Mighty. I ask for the pardon of God” one hundred times, and “There is no god save God, the true king, the clear truth”, one hundred times, and he said “Verily, in that, is the enrichment and the betterment of poverty and the facilitation of affairs”. Verily, during every night, [I should make mention of] four sūras (chapters), namely “Recite in the name of your Lord” [Sūra 96, “The Clinging Form”], and al-Qadr [Sūra 97, “The Night of Glory”] and al-Zalzala [Sūra 99, “the Earthquake”] and Li-īlāf Quraysh [Sūra 106 “Quraysh”].64 If I recite the four Sūras they will avert the evil of both the apparent and the hidden (al-ẓāhir wa’l-bāṭin).’ He put that to the test and Sīdī ʿAbd al-Qādir recorded it in Fatḥ alGhayb, ‘the Disclosure of the Hidden’, and he said, ‘Sever despairs from what is in the hand of the people. They will live both valued and cherished lives’. Sīdī Ibrāhīm al-Tāzī – may God the Almighty have mercy upon him – said, ‘We were offered hospitality (ḍiyāfa) by the shaykh and saint, Abū’l-Fatḥ Muḥammad b. Abī Bakr b. al-Ḥasan al-Marāghī al-Madanī – may God the Almighty have mercy upon him – in his house in Medina, and were served with dates and water, on Thursday, in the month of God, al-Muḥarram, in the year 831AH [22 October 1427AD], and he read to us. We were told by al-ḥāfiẓ65 Sulaymān b. Ibrāhīm al-ʿAlawī, when I recited to him. He said, We were told by my father – may God the Almighty have mercy upon him, – who said, We were told by the faqīh, ʿUmar b. ʿAli al-Shaʿbī, who said, Our shaykh, the qāḍī Fakhr al-Dīn al-Ṭabarī hosted us with the two black things – dates and water – and he made mention of his sanad of these pronouncements to Imām ʿAlī b. al-Ḥusayn b. ʿAlī. He said, ʿAlī gave us hospitality – may God cause his countenance to be venerated – on the two “black things”, namely on dates and water. Then he said, “Whosoever entertains and hosts a believer, it is as though he hosts

64 65

See the translation The Qur’an by Professor M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004, pp. 428–429, 431, and 438. ‘He who has committed the Qurʾān to memory’.

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both Ādam and Eve, and he who hosts three believers it as though he hosts Gabriel and Michael and Asrāfīl and he who hosts four it is as though he has read the Torah, the Gospels, the Psalms and the Qurʾān (al-Furqān). He who hosts five it is as though he has prayed the five daily prayers in the assembly from the very first day that God created the creation and up to the day of the Resurrection. And he who hosts six persons it is as though he had released sixty slaves from the Children of Ishmael, and he who hosts seven persons has the gates of Hell closed to him. He who hosts eight persons has the eight gates of Paradise opened up before him. He who hosts nine persons, God has written down for him rewards and good things to the number of those who have disobeyed since the first day that God created the Creation until the Day of the Resurrection. He who hosts ten persons, God has written down for him the recompense of him who has prayed and has fasted, and who has performed the Pilgrimage to Mecca | and he who has performed the ʿUmra until the Day of the Resurrection”.’

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Its writer said, ‘May God pardon him and show him forbearance and forgiveness’. So ends what God has facilitated for us, all of it, and the arranging thereof, from [the story of] the noble deeds and the life of the mighty shaykh and saint, the pious and the lordly. I ask for pardon from God the Mighty, who is unique and is alone. I beg of Him for repentance for standing up against Him and being presumptuous towards Him. That is due to being devoid of time and the departure and the decease of men of note (al-aʿyān). Otherwise, I am one of those, like me, who was close to this field of activity and who, as a scribe writes with the pen, and who utters with the tongue. By God, I am not suited for this matter, but the town and country, when it trembles [like goose flesh?] and has been annihilated (ṣuwwiha), and has been chided by the eye of the astute (shahim), then I was constrained to do so, and I was moved, and led to do so (adānī) by what I hoped for, through the baraka of the noble shaykh, and that of his exemplary sons, and not in any way debarred by God from doing so. Amen. God is the One to whom one makes requests. God is the One who is responsible – by the high status of His Prophet – the chosen one, and his Family. May we not be deprived of the baraka of this shaykh and that of his sons, and pray that we may be assembled together with the community (umma) of the Prophet within the highest row of those who are exalted, by the office of the Lord of the first and the last. Our final prayer is that praise be given to God, the Lord of the Worlds.

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Here the blessed work is at its end, praise be to God and by His help, and His handsome success that he bestows. Blessings be upon our lord, and Sayyid, Muḥammad, and upon his Family and his Companions, and so with ample facilitations and many expressions of greeting. Praise be to God, the Lord of the Worlds. The End

Notes and Comments Discoveries in regard to the ‘Companions of the Prophet’ and to Ghadāmis were mentioned, discussed and published by Bashīr Qāsim Yūshaʿ in his article ‘Al-Ṣaḥābī Abū Masʿūd al-Anṣārī, wa-Ḥaqīqat Ṣilatihi bi-Ghadāmis’.66 The analysis of the existing evidence in the article may be summarized as follows:67

Ghadāmis has been mentioned in many of the books that provided a history of the Islamic conquest, books such as al-Muqaddima by Ibn Khaldūn and his history, in the historical presentation of events in al-Rawḍ al-Miʿṭār fī Akhbār alAqṭār, by ʿAbd al-Nūr al-Ḥimyarī al-Tūnisī, and the Conquest of Ifrīqiyā by Ibn Dīnār and in the commentary of the Shaqrāṭīsiyya by Ibn al-Shabbāṭ al-Tawzarī, and by others. It is in no way a matter of surprise that the tombs of the Companions of the Prophet are to be found there, especially so because the Conquests, according to the sources that treat the topic, deal with it on three occasions. The dates of the Arab conquest have indicated that it was conquered three times; firstly in the year 24 AH [644AD], by the raiding party (sarīya) of ʿUqba b. Nāfiʿ when he was in Zawīla, and secondly, in the year 42AH [662 AD] with the arrival of ʿUqba b. Nāfiʿ in the Jabal Nafūsa and in Ghadāmis and in its adjoining oases, and, thirdly, in the year 49AH [669AD], when ʿUqba b. Nāfiʿ conquered it and also Waddān. Three mentions of his presence, at least in part, during the course of these dates within the territory of Ghadāmis has led to belief in the truth of the accounts of a burial, or burials, as probably likely and these are associated with the the people who have handed down a tradition that their town was conquered three times; once when it was visited by ʿAbdallāh b. Jaʿfar, who was sent to it by ʿUqba. Such an account was handed down repeatedly 66 67

“The Companion Abū Masʿūd and the reality of his connection with Ghadāmis”, published in the Libyan journal, Turāth al-Shaʿb, Vol. 1, no. 1, series 22, 1990AD, pp. 18–24. For reasons of expense the texts below have been abridged.

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over time by its inhabitants, including its scholars, and it became a tradition that fourteen tombs there were assigned to the Companions of the Prophet, though only one was specified as being that of Abū Masʿūd ʿUqba b. ʿAmr alAnṣāri.68 The author mentions the graveyard (maqbara) of Qanja. It is situated near to the eastern entrance to the old city area of Ghadāmis. To the left of the entrance to the town is found an ancient and roofless mosque that was a place of prayer (muṣallā) for the occasion of the two annual feastdays (al-ʿīdayn). The mosque bears the name of that of Sīdī’l-Badrī, ‘the mosque of Sīdī ʿUqba’. At the southeastern corner of the wall of the mosque is a tomb (darīḥ) known to the people as the ‘tomb of Sīdī ʿUqba and Sīdī’l-Badrī’. They say that he who lies buried there was a Companion of the Prophet who died in the battle of Badr.69 It is their belief that it is the tomb of the Companion, ʿUqba b. ʿĀmir, although some go further than this and attribute it to ʿUqba b. Nāfiʿ himself. Underlining the dearth of definite information that might confirm the truth of the identity of the deceased, the author procedes to consider clues from other sources that might shed light on the specific personalities who are mentioned. His first point is that there are two known personalities who bear the name of ʿUqba b. ʿĀmir. The first of these personalities was slain, as a martyr, in the battle of al-Yamāma, while the second of these personalities died in Egypt. He also points out that any identification with ʿUqba b. Nāfiʿ himself is out of the question. He first quotes Muḥammad b. Yūnus, the younger, from Ghadāmis who wrote a commentary upon the Mukhtaṣar of ʿAbbās b. Turkī to the Muqaddimat al-ʿIzziyya.70 This cites the riwāya of Ibn Masʿūd, where the name of the Companion is given as ʿUqba b. ʿAmr al-Anṣārī al-Badrī who was allegedly the Companion buried in Ghadāmis according to a transmitted tradition found

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Bashīr Qāsim Yūshaʿ provides a fuller description of the Companion, with quotations from Ibn al-Athīr and other historians. According to Ibn al-Athīr, Vol. 3, page 419, he says, ‘ʿUqba b. ʿAmr b. Thaʿlaba b. Asīra b. ʿAṭiyya b. Khudāra b. ʿAwf b. al-Ḥārith b. al-Khazraj. It is said also, ʿUqba b. ʿAmr b. Thaʿlaba b. ʿAsīra b. ʿAṭiyya Abū Masʿūd al-Badrī. His agnomen made him famous. He did not witness the battle of Badr. He only dwelt in Badr. He witnessed al-ʿAqaba, on the second occasion, and he was the youngest person who witnessed it’. Ibn Isḥāq said that he witnessed Uḥud, and what battles took place after it. Al-Bukhārī said, as well as others, that he witnessed Badr, but it is not true. He lived in Kufa and he was one of the Companions of ʿAlī. The latter appointed him to be his deputy in Kufa when he marched to Ṣiffīn. He was quoted by ʿAbdallāh b. Zayd al-Khaṭmī, by Abū Wāʿil, by ʿAlqama, by Masrūq, by ʿAmr b. Maymūn and by Rabīʿ b. Kharrāsh and by others. A microfilm of which is housed in the Photographic Department of the Maktab al-Jihād al-Lībī, in Tripoli, 99/20.

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there. ‘His tomb is famous and baraka is to be sought there’. Such traditions are regarded as certainties within his text.71 The author, Bashīr Qāsim Yūshaʿ, then turns specifically to our text of Tadhkīr al-Nāsī wa-Talyīn al-Qalb al-Qāsī, relating, as it does, the worthy deeds and status of Shaykh Sīdī ʿAbdallāh b. Abī Bakr al-Ghadāmisī. He quotes the statement that amongst the Companions who, allegedly lie buried in the town, was ʿUqba b. ʿĀmir Abū Masʿūd al-Badrī, though the tradition handed down was that the person concerned was, in fact, ʿUqba b. ʿAmr Abū Masʿūd al-Badr. Bashīr Qāsim Yūshaʿ has seen the text of ʿAbdallāh b. Abū Bakr which specifically states this fact in a gloss in a copy of Sayyid al-Nās. It is about the siyar and it mentions those anṣār who fought in the battle of al-ʿAqaba. They included ʿUqba b. ʿAmr Abū Masʿūd al-Badrī. He points out the contradictory statements, namely, that he had fought at Badr, and that he had not done so. Shaykh Sīdī ʿAbdallāh, however, in his gloss in our text, had specifically written that ‘he was buried in Ghadāmis’ and that he had seen it in the hand of the shaykh and qāḍī, Sīdī ʿUqba b. ʿAbdallāh al-Ghadāmisī, in a gloss in the Kitāb alMuwaṭṭaʾ, where the name of Abū Masʿūd al-Anṣārī is specifically mentioned. Bashīr Qāsim Yūshaʿ illustrates this passage from the text in a photo of the page of the manuscript printed on page 20 in his article. He then discusses the statement made by al-Ḥāfiẓ b. ʿAbd al-Barr in the Kitāb al-Istiyʿāb. Here, in the text, the name is given as ʿUqba b. ʿAmr b. Thaʿlaba Abū Masʿūd al-Anṣārī, from the Banū Ḥārith b. al-Khazraj.72 He was famous for his agnomen, Abū Masʿūd al-Badrī, from where he happened to live. However, Mūsā b. ʿUqba had said, quoting Ibn Shihāb that he had not been present in the battle there. Ibn Isḥāq said, that Abū Masʿūd was the youngest amongst those who had witnessed al-ʿAqaba and that he did not participate in Badr. However, he was a witness in the battle of Uḥud and what followed it. Ṭāʾifa said that Abū Masʿūd was present in Badr and al-Bukhārī confirmed that he was amongst the ‘Badriyyīn’.

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Ibn al-Athīr adds, in his sixth volume, pp. 1296–1297, that Abū Masʿūd al-Anṣārī bore the name of ʿUqba b. ʿAmr b. Thaʿlaba b. Asīra, and he is called Yasīra. His lineage stemmed from ʿUqba who was known as al-Badrī because he dwelt, or had his abode, at the well of Badr. He witnessed al-ʿAqaba, though he did not witness the battle of Badr with the men who were involved in the religious campaigns. It was said that he was present at Badr. ‘We were told by ʿUbaydāllah b. Aḥmad of his isnād, citing Yūnus, citing Ibn Isḥāq, regarding those who were present at al-ʿAqaba from the anṣār of the Banū’l-Ḥārith b. al-Khazraj, and Abū Masʿūd b. ʿUqba b. ʿAmr b. Thaʿlaba b. Usīra/Usayra b. ʿAṭiyya b. Khudāra b. ʿAwf b. al-Khazraj. Khudāra was the brother of ʿUdhra and he lived in Kufa. He was named Abū Masʿūd ʿUqba b. ʿĀmir al-Anṣārī, not ʿAmr, so perhaps this is a slip or a mispelling.

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Bashīr Qāsim Yūshaʿ points out that it was untrue that he was a witness of Badr since; Abū Masʿūd died in the year 41–42AH [661–662 AD]. It is said that he died in the days of ʿAlī. It is also said that, rather, his death took place in Medina during the Caliphate of Muʿāwiya. He had settled in Kufa and lived there and, also, that ʿAlī had appointed him to be his successor at the time of his departure for Ṣiffīn, though he did not loyally fulfil the office.73 It was also mentioned by Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr in the chapter of his agnomen, in the aforementioned book, that he did die in 41–42 AH [661–662 AD], though he said that there were those who said that he died after the year 60AH [679–680AD]. The place where he died was unmentioned. Those who remembered dates, and the learned scholars, were at odds over the matter of the precise date that he died, or the place where he was interred. This supports what the Shaykh said, it backs him up, and it favours him. As for ʿUqba b. ʿĀmir, those who mentioned him included Ibn ʿAbd alBarr who offered two other names; one of these was ʿUqba b. ʿĀmir b. Balī b. Zayd b. Ḥarām b. Kaʿb al-Anṣārī al-Khazrajī. He was killed in the battle of al-Yamāma. The second was ʿUqba b. ʿĀmir b. ʿAbs al-Juhanī. He mentioned, citing Khalīfa b. Khayyāṭ that he was killed in the battle of alNahrawān, as a martyr, in the year 38AH [658 AD]. He says that this was incorrect and, rather, that he died in the year 58 AH [677 AD]. He did not remember the place where he died. He said that he had lived in Egypt and that he had built a house there. He was said to have been an inhabitant of Ghadāmis during his lifetime. There was no doubt about this. Supporting the case, he said that no king, nor others, had entered Ghadāmis, forcibly, nor had captured it. Many kings had frequently made the attempt. They had failed and had retired to where they had come from.74 Abū Fāris ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-Ḥafṣī raided Ghadāmis, likewise the qāʾid Ibrāhīm, or possibly it was Ibrāhīm b. Qaratkīn, because he met up with Qaraqash alGhazzī outside Ghadāmis and the two joined together in attacking the town. It was also raided by the qāʾid Yūsuf, and the qāʾid Aḥmad, and by Ḥusayn b. Naʿʿāl, and by the bey Darwīsh and the Commander (qāʾid) of the Tunisian land forces Ramaḍān Bey. From the above raids, only one, that of qāʾid Ibrāhīm, suc73

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Al-Masʿūdī in his ‘Murūj al-Dhahab wa-Maʿādin al-Jawhar’ (Vol. 1, pp. 577, 1966AD edn.) mentioned that ʿAlī had appointed him to be his deputy in Kufa when he marched to Ṣiffīn on the 6th Shawwāl 36 AH/the 28th March, 657 AD. Note 13 in Bashīr Qāsim Yūshaʿ’s article, page 21, which refers to the information above.

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ceeded in making an entry. As for Ramaḍān Bey, he made an entry, the people with him, in a battle that was to last three days. It ended with his departure (raḥīluhu) from the town after he had made peace with the people for the sum of five thousand mithqāls of gold.75 Bashīr Qāsim Yūshaʿ found a commentary [see page 22] written by the hand of Shaykh ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Bashīr Ḍawī al-Ghadāmisī upon the verses of the ode composed by Aḥmad b. Ḥajar in which he praised Ghadāmis and its people. In it, he confirmed what Ibn Yūnus, the younger, had conveyed to him and had come to the attention of the local people. It consisted of three verses of the ode where he confirms the authenticity of the presence of the Companions in the town. Amongst them is Sayyid al-Badrī, where he says: A town wherein the Companions gathered on a campaign, On the right hand lies Sayyid al-Badrī, a mighty and generous man, pleasing and urbane in appearance and in manner. Resolute in time of fear and injury, and, to the west, the gallant and proud, with head raised, the Companion, Abū’l-Shaʿtḥāʾ guarding from treachery.76 However, Bashīr Qāsim b. Yūshaʿ points out that only one Companion is mentioned, namely al-Badrī Abū Masʿūd. As for the other thirteen of them, their names are unknown. They are buried somewhere between the western and the northern outskirts of Ghadāmis, and are probably remote, some five miles distant, in Tikkit. Abu’l-Shaʿtḥāʾ was a Follower (tābiʿ) and to him there is much reporting on the authority of ʿĀʾisha and Ibn ʿAbbās in the ḥadīth.77 75

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On this topic see the Daftar of Ghadāmis in Libya from the Islamic liberation until the tenth Century of the Hijra, p. 184, and Majallat al-Buḥūth al-Taʾrīkhiyya, the Centre for the research and the study of the Libyan Jihād, No. 1, I st year, January 1979AD, p. 69. Ibn Yūnus, the younger, did not mention any source in his report. He merely confirmed what he believed about the existence of the tomb that was related to this Companion in Ghadāmis, relying upon the recurrance of the tradition that led to the dispute. He pondered upon the rumour that had been handed down as firmly fixed bases and, at the same time, pointed out the dispute over his burial and his death. He was of the opinion that this difference should not confuse what he had established. Bashīr Qāsim Yūshaʿ’s note 14, page 21 in his article that refers to the above: ‘At a distance of 17 kilometers to the north of Ghadāmis, at a place called Tiqqit/Tikkit, there is found a raised spot, wherein are situated a well and ruins of a building called the “Mountain of the Companions” ( Jabal al-Ṣaḥāba) and the “Mountain of the Ignorant” ( Jabal al-Juhalāʾ). It now bears the name of “The Ogre’s Head” (Raʾs al-Ghūl). Below it there are to be found tombs in two locations on two sides. The people say that one of them is that of the Companions, the place indicated by Shaykh ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, while the other belongs to the

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The speech of the poet, the Companion, Abū’l-Shaʿtḥāʾ is famous. He is buried on the western side of Ghadāmis close to Sīdī Yūnis in the quarter of the Banū Māzīgh.78 The author illustrates the article by two pages of the text of the ode in praise of Ghadāmis and its people of Aḥmad b. Ḥajar and the gloss of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Ḍawī al-Ghadāmisī wherein it is mentioned that Abū Masʿūd al-Anṣārī is amongst the Companions who are buried in Ghadāmis. The author concludes his discussion by a quotation from Ibn al-Athīr, in his work, Usd al-Ghāba li-Maʿrifat al-Ṣaḥāba. Bashīr Qāsim Yūshaʿ then returns to Tadhkīr al-Nāsī, which draws upon Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr.79 It confirms the presence of a tomb of the Companion in Ghadāmis, and it says that it is ʿUqba b. ʿĀmir and it makes clear what Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr himself had in regard to the place of two Companions, of which only one of them bore the name of ʿUqba b. ʿĀmir. He confirms that he who is buried in Ghadāmis is ʿUqba b. ʿAmr and so indicates, as his predecessor, the inherited tradition and what two mighty scholars of Ghadāmis had decided, namely the shaykh and the author, the qāḍī ʿAbdallāh b. Abī Bakr al-Ghadāmisī and the qāḍī, ʿUqba b. ʿAbdāllah.80 He was in agreement with Ibn Yūnus that the

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Polytheists (mushrikīn) and they say that this raised fortification (maʿqal) was the last place assailed by the conquering Companions. Many customs and sayings relate to them. In the author’s opinion, this tradition is not far fetched since this lofty location is in a major strategic position and in a slect position, similar to the Cairo citadel in its period and to the Kawkas citadel in the town of Ghāt. The indications point to the possibility of a decisive battle having taken place opposite it.’ Bashīr Qasim Yūshaʿ states [note 15, p. 22] that the exact location in Ghadāmis that is associated with Abū’l-Shaʿtḥāʾ was by a gate in its walls known as ‘Bab Abī’l-Shaʿtḥāʾ’, now called by the common population of the district, Abū Shātaḥ. There is nothing left to be seen of it, though the name of the area has survived. It acquired its name from the tomb that was to be found in that quarter after a ‘pious man’ who is referred to by Shaykh ʿAbd al-Raḥmān. Bashīr Qāsim Yūshaʿ adds that, after his study of Shaykh ʿAbd al-Raḥmān’s commentary (mentioned in his article) he enquired from some of the Shaykhs about him. Some said that he was a pious man whilst others said that he was a Follower (tābiʿ) who quoted ʿĀʾisha and Ibn ʿAbbās, and that in so doing supported the statement of Shaykh ʿAbd al-Raḥmān. Miracles were attributed to the Follower by these locals whom Bashīr Qāsim Yūshaʿ had consulted. Yūshaʿ, n. 18, p. 23: ‘The full name of Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr was Yūsuf b. ʿAbdallāh b. Muḥammad Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr al-Namirī al-Qurṭubī al-Mālikī, Abū ʿUmar, pp. 978–1071. He was one of the greatest memorisers of ḥadīth and he was a historian, a man of letters and researcher. He was born in Cordoba and was the administrator of the law in Lisbon and elsewhere. He died in Shāṭiba. His books include, Al-Durar fī-Ikhtiṣār al-Maghāzī wa’lSiyar and Al-Istīʿyāb fī Tarājim al-Ṣaḥāba (The Comprehensive Compilation of the names of the Prophet’s Companions), al-Maghāzī, and Al-Inṣāf fī mā bayna’l-ʿUlamāʾ min alIkhtilāf and Al-Kāfī fīʾl-Fiqh.’ Yūshaʿ, n. 19, p. 23: ‘The two qāḍīs; ʿAbdallāh b. Abī Bakr and ʿUqba b. ʿAbdallāh. The for-

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variation between the scholars regarding the date of his death and his location supported his view.81 He confirmed what was said of this Companion for the people of Ghadāmis, quoting from Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr. Aḥmad b. Ḥajar confirms that the person in question was a Companion and he refers to his numerous citations in ḥadīth.82 On this basis we see Shaykh ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Ḍawī backing what these had decided with entire satisfaction without the other having made a mention of any source.83 In the light of his investigation into the successive retellings from his sources, Bashīr Qāsim Yūshaʿ draws attention to the incompability of the statements made in his sources, which include Ibn Ḥajar’s statement that Abū’l-Shaʿtḥāʾ was a Follower (tābiʿ) and not a Companion (ṣaḥābī).

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mer was born in Timbuctoo in 1035 AH/1625 AD. He left and settled in Ghadāmis around 1045 AH/1635 AD and he studied there. Later, some of the scholars of al-Azhar in Cairo, gave him licenses to transmit religious texts (ijāzāt). Amongst them was ʿAbd al-Salām alLaqqānī, Ibn Marʾī al-Shabrakhītī and Muḥammad al-Kharashī and others. He adopted a teacher’s role and responsibilities, also the Imāmate, and the legal profession, as a judge in Ghadāmis. Among his writings were; Manāhij al-Ṣālikīn ilā Manāfiʿ al-Qurʾān al-Mubīn, Maqāsid al-Taʿrīf bʾism Muḥammad al-Sharīf, a pentameter (takhmīs) of the Qaṣīda alMarzūqiyya by ʿAbdallāh from Murzūq’ and the “Ode of al-Jaʿrānī al-Mislātī” [Misrāṭī?]. He died in Ghadāmis in 221 AH/836 AD and he was eulogised by a body of the ʿulamāʾ – see Majallat al-Buḥūth al-Taʾrīkhiyya, The Centre of Studies of the Libyan Jihād (Markaz Dirāsāt Jihād al-Lībiyyīn) Tripoli, Year 4, No. 1, January 1982AD, p. 88.’ Yūshaʿ, n. 20, p. 23: ‘The scholar, Ibn Yūnus, was Muḥammad b. Yūnus the elder who was born in Ghadāmis and who studied there. He also studied in Tunis with Ibrāhīm al-Riyāḥī. He became a teacher, a preacher of sermons, and a qāḍī in Ghadāmis. Amongst his compositions was “A Commentary on the Mukhtaṣar of ʿAbbās b. Turkī, upon the Muqaddima al-ʿIzziyya”, and a Commentary upon “The Proofs” (Dhāt al-Barāhīn) by Muḥammad b. Yūsuf. He composed a poem about the “People of the Faith” (Shaʿb al-Īmān), and other works. He died in Ghadāmis in 1291 AH/1874 AD and he was eulogized by some of the academic élite in an ode.’ Bashīr Qāsim Yūshaʿ planned to include him in a forthcoming publication titled ‘The Book of the leading men of Ghadāmis’ (Kitāb Aʿlām Ghadāmis). Yūshaʿ, n. 21, p. 23: Aḥmad b. Ḥajar is a little known character to Bashīr Qāsim Yūshaʿ. His ode shows him to have been a person from outside Ghadāmis and that he may have been a contemporary of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Ḍawī who commented upon his ode with the expression, ‘sustain’ (ḥifṣ) and defend, without a mention of ‘mercy’ as was the custom in praying for the deceased. Yūshaʿ, n. 22, p. 23: ‘ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Ḍawī was born in Ghadāmis and he studied there under al-Ḥabīb ʿIzz al-Dīn. In Tunis, he studied under some of its scholars in the Zaytūna mosque and he remained close to Shaykh Ḥasan al-Sīnawānī. He became the Imām of the ʿImrān al-Faqīh mosque in Ghadāmis. He settled in Taṭāwīn for thirty years. He was the Imām and the preacher within its mosque and during this entire period also in Libya and he taught the Qurʾān in Sabhā and later in Tripoli until he died there in 1977AD.’ Bashīr Qāsim Yūshaʿ included him amongst the leading men of Ghadāmis in his book.

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He also draws attention to the uncertainties within the story of the confirmation that thirteen tombs of the Companions were to be found in Ghadāmis, although their names were unknown as well as their precise location. There is also the question of Ibn al-Athīr’s assertion that the agnomen al-Badrī given to Abū Masʿūd was due to his residence there and that he did not witness the battle there. Divergences also apply to the precise date of his death, one of these being as late as 60AH [679–680AD], and the vague claim that he died in the days of ʿAlī and that it was also said that he died in Medina though Kufa was favoured as his residence by Ibn al-Athīr, or by Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr. The author finally, on page 24, turns to the part played by Ghadāmis itself. Bashīr Qāsim Yūshaʿ says that it was mentioned in connection with Companions as early as 24AH [644–645AD], 42AH [662AD], and 49 AH [669 AD]. It was the policy to leave Companions in all the conquered towns to spread the faith, to further the memorization of the Qurʾān, and to preserve security. It was therefore not at all strange to find the tombs of these Companions and Followers in Ghadāmis, which was considered the centre for the oases that surrounded it. Nor does it appear strange for a man such as ʿUqba b. ʿAmr who had been made wise by experience and who had reached an age that qualified him for a settled and more peaceful life. There is also the evidence from the tradition that was handed down by a society in Ghadāmis that was both literate and lettered despite the worst of ages, the name of a single man at a time when the memory of thirteen other mens’ tombs had become totally forgotten until now. ‘If there had been any doubt among our forefathers about ʿUqba then he would have been included in the story of what had taken place to the other unnamed Companions, whom, it seems, had fallen in a battle’. The very doubts that are to be found between the historans over the place of his death, and when it took place, are sure indications of his worth and his status, thus awarding him his presence in all the battles, with the sole exception of Badr, and that he was appointed to be a deputy in Kufa. It is most unlikely that a man such as this would have any diagreement over the place of his death, unless he had died in obscure circumstances, or in a remote and out of the way place (munzawin), such as Ghadāmis. Bashīr Qāsim Yūshaʿ concludes that if one builds upon the evidence, including the confirmation by Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr of the tomb of a Companion, even though he erred in his name, he would personally give weight to the worth of the inherited tradition, namely, that the tomb is indeed that of this Companion until it is proved to be to the contrary by academic documentary evidence of repute that would resolve it. To do so in no way denies that this Companion was resident in Kufa, nor that he was appointed to be a deputy by ʿAlī before he went forth to Ṣiffīn. In particular, the report that he was disloyal to ʿAlī may be

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noted. Bashīr Qāsim Yūshaʿ suggests that it is possible he joined with Muʿāwiya b. Khadīj and that the latter sent him to Ifrīqiyā in the year 45 AH [665 AD] for the purpose of the Companions. As for Abū’l-Shaʿtḥāʾ Raḥmān ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, and others, amongst the people of Ghadāmis, all maintain that he was famous for his narration of ḥadīth. Another investigation is clearly necessary to prove or to deny the story of his presence. This is particularly so in regard to his alleged tomb, attributed to the ‘pious man’, Abū’l-Shaʿtḥāʾ that was surrounded by a halo of respect and praise and even miraculous cures and other superstitions and who, in fact, was enterred in the very place referred to by Shaykh ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, that is, until the Italians totally erased its site in the year 1942 AD.

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Khabar al-Sūq (The History of al-Sūq), by ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd ʿAbdallāh al-Ḥarāma A summary of Khabar al-Sūq, ‘The Story of the town of al-Sūq [Tādmakka]’, a work written by an unknown author. The work is edited, presented and commented upon by ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd ʿAbdallāh al-Ḥarāma, who wrote an introduction and commentary on it, with an appendix with the most important Arabic sources for the ‘History of the Western Sūdān’. It was published in Arabic in 2003AD by the Jamāhīriyya al-Lībiyya alShaʿbiyya al-Ishtirākiyya al-ʿUẓmā, under the auspices of ‘Publications of the Centre of the Libyan Jihād for Historical Studies, Texts and Documents’ (29), ISBN 9959-23-007-4.

Editor’s Introduction ‘The Story of al-Sūq’ is the title of a small book edited on the basis of the two copies that are housed in the Aḥmad Bābā Centre in Timbuctoo. The first is numbered 1036 [in the Catalogue]. It is a complete copy although the name of its author is unmentioned. He, namely the unnamed author, has copied it from the original manuscript that has been written in a Sūdānic script. This was influenced by a Maghribī hand. This [consulting this ms] took place during the editor’s first visit to Timbuctoo in the year 1986 AD. It is printed with fourteen pages of the book and he has marked it by the Arabic letter ‘Alif’. As for the second copy, it has been supplied with a photographic copy of its text and format. The editor expresses his thanks to his colleague and fellow researcher Dr al-Hādī al-Mabrūk al-Dālī. It comprises sixteen pages and it is numbered 1044 in the Catalogue. The manuscript is written in large letters that combine peculiarities of the Sūdānic script with those of the Maghribī in a manner akin to its predecessor. It would appear that such is the stamp and the mark of the script during the age when the manuscript was written. Dr al-Dālī had informed the editor, quoting what he had been told, from one of those who is interested and who is knowledgable about Sūdānic manuscripts (namely, Shaykh Muḥammad alṬāhir al-ʿAlawī, the Director of the ‘School of the Way of al-Islām’ in Gao), that this variety of script and calligraphy is known among them as the ‘Khaṭṭ Niswī’, that is, ‘women’s calligraphy’.

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The pages of this copy vary between ten and fifteen lines in length. The words, per line, vary between four and seven words. This is due to the large size of each word on some pages, as opposed to others. These were indicated by the letter ‘B’. There is, in the index to Aḥmad Bābā that the al-Furqān Institute had published, a book titled Khabar Ahl al-Sūq. It bears the number 2451, ‘by an unknown author’. In the Arabic text, its copyist was named Hāmid Ag(i) Halawān. It consists of two folios, on two pages, and the total number of lines on every page is nineteen. This does not mean that it is another [duplicate] copy. Perhaps it is another book on the very same subject.1 There existed a copy in the library of one of the experts (namely al-Sayyid Aḥmad Ashwad [sc. Aswad], investigator into manuscripts in the Aḥmad Bābā al-Tinbuktī Centre). – He was the one who sold it to Professor Dawī Khalīfa, who was formerly the Director of the Islamic Centre in Bamako. He, al-Sayyid Aḥmad, said, that another copy [also] existed which does not differ appreciably from the two copies ‘A’ and ‘B’ [above]. Before he commenced his editing [of his texts here], the editor had been unable to obtain copies of these other two manuscripts. The Author of the Original Manuscript The name of the author of the original manuscript does not appear in the copies of the Khabar al-Sūq that were consulted. This does not mean that he had neglected to mention his name within the original book. During the course of the text, there is no information about the date when it was composed. Nor do we know the age of its authorship. However, the editor remarked that if we refer to the very late sources, such as the Taʾrīkh al-Sūdān, ‘the History of the Sūdān’, the indications suggest that it was one of the more recent documents. The author of the ‘History of the Sūdān’ was alive in the year, 1065 AH [1654/1655AD]. He was ʿAbd al-Raḥmūn al-Saʿdī. See his textual quotation on page 24. It would appear, through reading the text, that its author was from among the people of the town of al-Sūq. He took pride in being a descendant of the offspring of the ‘Companions of the Arab Conquest’. He says that their tombs bore their names up to the very date of the composition of his book. He confirms that their sons belonged to their ancestors who were amongst the inhabitants of the Ḥijāz. They cherished the branches of learning and of knowledge and this is an honourable status within all the country (page 24). 1 See Sidi Amar Ould Ely, Handlist of Manuscripts in the Centre de Documentation et de Recherches Historiques Aḥmed Bābā, Timbuktu, London: Al-Furqān Islamic Heritage Foundation, 1996 AD, Vol. 2, p. 347.

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Al-Sūq and Arawān The ruins of the town of al-Sūq are located within the district of Kidal. Today, these ruins are within the Republic of Mali. The town is situated at a distance of fifty kilometres from the city of Gao. The latter is the most famous city that remains, to this day, in Kaghu district (see Taʾrīkh al-Fattāsh, page 152). It has come into our two copies under the name of Taghāgh (see copy ‘B’ page 21). In the manuscript, it is stated that the Companions stayed in this town at the close of their raiding campaign. To quote the author, ‘ʿUqba came to it in the year 61AH/680–681AD, after having conquered the Sūs [in Morocco]. He left some of his Companions within it’. The author persists in confirming [repeatedly] that the people of al-Sūq were descendants of the offspring of the Companions – may God be pleased with them. In a commentary to that statement, he adds, ‘He (ʿUqba) left behind a number from amongst a group of the Companions – may God be pleased with them – some from the Emigrants (muhājirūn) and others from the Helpers (anṣār). They remained there. They are the ancestors of the people of al-Sūq’. He seeks to prove his case by the evidence of his remarks that are made about the surviving antiquities there and the traces of them in his age. He says, ‘Their tombs are here and are within it today. Upon each tomb is inscribed the name of its occupant and the number of raids that were made by him with Muḥammad – the blessing and peace of God be upon him’. On another page, | he says, in order to confirm this, ‘It is correct in the history of Sūs [sic] that they are the descendants of the Companions, without a doubt’. In another place he adds additional information, though not confirmed by him, which refers to an ancient source. Here he remarks, ‘Their maternal uncle was ʿUqba b. ʿĀmir and it indicates to us, if it be correct, that one amongst the Companions who remained in al-Sūq was ʿUqba’s maternal cousin’. I have not come across this in any other source. It appears that al-Sūq was an important town before it was ruined and that the person who brought this about was the askiyā Isḥāq the Second, predating the arrival of the Moroccans in Timbuctoo. On this last matter, the author says, ‘The askiyā destroyed al-Sūq. This event took place in the time of Jawdar’. It is known that Jawdar was the military commander of the Moroccans’ attack that was launched by al-Manṣūr ‘the Golden’ in the final phase of the sixteenth century. What caused the destruction of al-Sūq? Dr Qamar Faḍlallāh says, ‘Revolts had intensified against the askiyā Isḥāq, and the reins of power had fallen away from him’.2

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Had a revolt taken place in al-Sūq, one that doomed it to destruction? Some sources describe the Songhay state as corrupt at this time. But this region, in their accounts, is singled out for [alleged] moral corruption [specifically]. Muḥammad Kaʿtī says about this, ‘… the displaying of grave offences’.3 Was that a factor that brought about its destruction? I have not been able to establish such from the numerous sources. It is to al-Sūq that Shaykh Aḥmad b. Āda4 was lineally related and was connected. To him is due the honour of having become the founder of Arawan. The people of al-Sūq forsook that town in order to enter the open desert after the town had been destroyed. Shaykh Aḥmad preferred to site his dwelling in the vicinity of the well of Arawān.5 Arawān is located at a distance of around 250 kilometres [sic] from the city of Timbuctoo. It is situated within a Saharan Ocean [of sand] and its inhabitants are the Barābīsh. They are descended from an Arab tribe known as the Banū Ḥassān. Their origins stem from three ancestors; the Awlād Dulaym [Dalīm], the Awlād Hamma and the Awlād Aḥmad [Udāʾiy].6 Arawān is a Berber place name. It means ‘many well ropes’. This name was displayed in a sign over a well in an uninhabited and deserted land that was devoid of any residential population until [the time when] al-Shaykh Aḥmad b. Āda stopped there and then built his house there at the commencement of the eleventh century AH/ seventeenth century AD. He married a woman there who was named Fāṭima from the [Tuareg] Imagsharen. Her people were the Tuaregs whose lineal descent branched from a section within the Kel Ntṣar [the Kel Intaṣar]. The editor states that this piece of information is abbreviated and derived from [the evidence in] the photograph of the manuscript called al-Saʿāda alAbadiyya fī’l-Taʿrīf bi-ʿUlamāʾ Tinbuktū al-Bāhiyya, by Aḥmad Bābir al-Arawānī. A photograph of this is housed in the library of Dr al-Hādī al-Dālī, from the copy of the text numbered 2752 in the Aḥmad Bābā Centre, Timbuctoo. ‘Then there moved to Arawān a man called al-Ṣāliḥ b. Muḥammad, who joined together with Shaykh Aḥmad in the construction of the mosque of

3 Taʾrīkh al-Fattāsh by Muḥammad Kaʿtī, page 152. 4 [Possibly ‘adda’, ‘papa, père’, ‘father’, according to Ghoubeid Alojali, ‘Ăwgălel’, in Alojali and K.G. Prasse, Lexique Touareg Français, Copenhagen: Akademisk forlag, 1980, p. 16. HN] 5 The author will tell about him that he traced his descent back to the family of the Prophet, through the line of the ʿAlids. He will present the case of those who are opponents of this lineage. 6 See Kitāb al-Barābīsh, page 100.

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the town. He became the Imām, and his companion became the qāḍī of the town. That [joint arrangement] became a tradition and a rule that was followed amongst their offspring and grand-children, the sons of Shaykh Aḥmad becoming its judges (qāḍīs) and the sons of Shaykh Sāliḥ become its leaders in the prayers (Imāms)’.

Khabar al-Sūq This is the history of al-Sūq. It is the proper name of the town.7 Know that al-Sūq in the district of Taghāgh [Adrār].8 The Companions of the Prophet occupied it – may the peace of God be upon them – at the end of their raiding expeditions. They were sent by Muʿāwiya b. Abī Sufyān after he had taken the Caliph’s office – may God be pleased with him – after al-Ḥasan b. ʿAlī – may God be pleased with them both. He appointed as his Commander over them ʿUqba b. ʿĀmir,9 who was ʿUqba al-Mustajāb – may God be pleased with him – in the year 61 [680–681AD].10 The Text as Printed Al-Sūq was a mighty city. There were many people within it. At that period, it belonged to the infidels. ʿUqba conquered al-Sūq.11 He took captive Kusayla,

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Editor’s note: In some sources the Kel-Essouk is mentioned, see Kitāb al-Barābīsh, page 88. Editor’s note: In manuscript ‘B’, there is no letter ‘w’ inserted into Tahghāgh. The confusion between ʿUqba b. Nāfiʿ and ʿUqba b. ʿĀmir has been influenced by the historian al-Wāqidī (see, Futūḥ Ifrīqiyā, 1/3). Editor’s Note: Perhaps he meant ʿUqba b. Nāfiʿ. Associated with him was the story of the adventure (sīra) whereby the name of ʿUqba became associated with a party of Companions, the most famous of whom, was, after the aforementioned (Ibn Nāfiʿ), ʿUqba b. ʿĀmir al-Juhanī, who was close to the Prophet – the blessing and peace of God be upon him – and who died in the year 58 AH/677 AD. He was buried in Egypt adjacent to his mosque. In the town of Ghadāmis, in Libya, there is a tomb that is associated with ʿUqba b. ʿĀmir. We remain in ignorance of its possessor [who is buried there] amongst those who bear the name of ʿUqba. This is because there has been a confusion among historians in regard to ʿUqba b. ʿĀmir and ʿUqba b. Nāfiʿ. The former has come to be associated with what [in truth] belonged to the latter including such deeds as the conquest of al-Sūs. It is known that ʿUqba b. Nāfiʿ took part in the conquest of the Western Sūdān, when, in 43 AH/663AD, he conquered Waddān and Kāwār there (see Kitāb al-Istiqṣāʾ, 1/78). Regarding the year 61 AH/680–681 AD [above], the text should read ‘wāhid’ and not ‘ahra’. For further information about the conquest of the Western Sūdān the editor refers to the sources that are quoted in the appendix to his book. Possibly al-Sūs in view of a common Arab tradition.

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their prince who outwardly displayed his acceptance and profession of al-Islām though, inwardly, he remained a secret infidel. ʿUqba dwelt for a while in al-Sūq. He built mosques and madrasas there, and he appointed muezzins for the call to prayer in its mosques. He filled the city with a population who adored the name of God. Then he departed, having left in the city a company of the Companions – may God be pleased with him – some of them from the Emigrants (muhājirūn) and others from the Helpers (anṣār). They dwelt there, and it is they who are the ancestors of the Ahl al-Sūq [the Kel-Essūk]. They died within the city. Their tombs are to be found there today. Upon each tombstone is [engraved] the name of its occupant, his age when he died and how many times he took part in the numerous raiding expeditions of the Prophet Muḥammad. Amongst them is Abū Maḥdhūra, the muezzin of the Prophet – may God be pleased with him. Kusayla12 accompanied ʿUqba to Walāta [in the Mauritanian Ḥawḍ] and Kusayla murdered him while he was praying the noontide prayer (salāt al-ẓuhr) on the Day of the Sacrifice (ʿīd al-aḍhā). He was buried in Walāta [and his body is there until this day]. See [the book] of Abū’l-Ḥasan al-Ṣaghīr13 with the note [of this event] as an accompaniment to the Commentary of al-Barādhlī, within the Book of Sacrifices (Kitāb al-Dhabāʾiḥ), where he has said ‘And so that man will perform the administration of the ritual of the sacrifice of his victim by his own hand’.14 12

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Kusayla gave aid to the Byzantines in their fighting against Muslims until Abū-Muhājir defeated him. He became a Muslim, then he apostasized and he betrayed the Muslims and he killed ʿUqba b. Nāfiʿ in 63AH/682–683 AD. [However, Thomas Whitcomb, in his article ‘New Evidence on the Origins of the Kunta (The Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, XXXVIII: 1, 1975AD, p. 105), has mentioned that the nineteenth century Kunta text, Risālat al-Ghallāwiyya states that it was after ʿUqba’s return to al-Qayrawān that he was assassinated in the great mosque by Kusayla, following which Kusayla was immediately seized, cut to pieces and thrown into a fire; HN] The tomb of ʿUqba b. Nāfiʿ is located in the Algerian Zāb within the province of Ifrīqiya (See al-Khulāṣa al-Naqiyya, 5; Kitāb al-Istiqṣāʾ, 1/74). [This report matches one that is told in the Mauritanian town of Walāta to where ʿUqba b. Nāfiʿ allegedly went, accompanied by Kusayla, and who was murdered there. A similar report is also to be found in the Kunta text called the ‘Ghallāwiyya’ where it is stated that his son, ʿĀqib, lies buried in the town, see Thomas Whitcomb, ibid., page 105. He also points out, op. cit., page 106, that ‘according to early accounts, ʿUqba was killed in the battle of Tahūda (Sīdī ʿUqba), in north-eastern Algeria, defeated by Kusayla, in about 63/682–683, and his tomb is in that region. Kusayla died later in a combat with the successor of ʿUqba at Mams, west of al-Qayrawān in about 69/688–689’ (sc. Kitāb al-Ṭarāʾif ); HN] – ‘Taqyīd’: I have not found that such ‘note-taking’ [and additions] to be found, to any major extent, in the manuscript format. Abū’l-Ḥasan al-Ṣaghīr is ʿAlī b. ʿAbd al-Ḥaqq al-Zarwīlī. He was a Maghribī jurist ( faqīh) and a firm sponsor (walī) of the law wherein he showed himself

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The Companions appointed to be ʿUqba’s successor a man from the Banū Balūw.15 He slew Kusayla in a most gruesome fashion. The army returned to Medina without passing by al-Sūq.16 What is sound in regard to the history of al-Sūq is [that they are] without doubt the offspring of the Companions. Their maternal uncle was ʿUqba b. ʿĀmir17 and it is he who [still] bears the name of ‘ʿUqba al-Mustajāb’.18 They have inherited learning and the faith from their forefathers until today – praise be to God. They follow the traditions of their forbears, the people of the Ḥijāz, and all of them have preserved and memorized all branches of learning. Their faith is unchanged and they still practise their vocation throughout the country. None among the Tuareg who seek for protection and for guidance from, and amongst, them, will draw nigh to unjust oppressors. There were great saints in their midst, including the qāḍī, ʿUmar al-Dānī19 and those whose number cannot be counted, so abundant is the number of saints, men of learning, the pious, the abstemious and the ascetic.20 There are among the latter one whose saintliness reaches such limits that he will pray whilst he sees the exalted Kaʿba so clearly that it is as though he were standing there in person.

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to be decisive and firm. He entered al-Andalus as an ambassador and men of importance there learnt from him. He presided and taught in Granada. He composed such a ‘note’ that fixed the text of the Mudawwana [of Saḥnūn], together with the Risāla [of al-Qayrawānī]. He taught and wrote many such notes and strictures. He died in 719AH/1319AD. See alNubūgh al-Maghribī, page 214. The ‘Banū Bayāḍ’ in the original text. It was he who took charge of the leadership of the Muslims after ʿUqba b. Nāfiʿ, that is to say Zuhayr b. Qays al-Balawī (cf Kitāb al-Iṣāba, 3 AH/624–625 AD, Kitāb Asad al-Ghāba, 2 AH/623–624AD, Kitab al-Istiqṣāʾ, 1 AH/622AD and the Tahdhīb by Ibn ʿAsākir, 5 AH/627 AD). What I have noted in brackets is only to be found in Copy ‘B’. It is in a precise hand and it indicates an addition to the original. This should read ‘in the year 79 AH/698 AD’. See Kitāb al-Istiqṣāʾ, 1AH/622AD. Mention is made in the text that ʿUqba al-Mustajāb in North Africa is none other than ʿUqba b. Nāfiʿ (see al-Fatḥ al-ʿArabī fi Lībiyā, ‘The Arab Conquest of Libya’). It was he who was the son of the sister of ʿAmr b. al-ʿĀṣ. Here, as elsewhere, he means ʿUqba b. Nāfiʿ. He was the nephew of ʿAmr b. al-ʿĀṣ, hence ʿUqba b. ʿĀmir was not the son of his sister (see Kitāb al-Istiqṣāʾ, 1AH/622AD and Bayān al-Mughrib, 1 AH/622 AD). Al-Dānī. It would appear from his pseudonym (nisba) that he was from Dāniya in alAndalus. I have not come across his biography. Amongst the scholars of fame and piety were the faqīh Sulaymān and his brother Aḥmad b. Āda (variant spelling Adda). The author of Kitāb al-Barābīsh [on the other hand] says that the pious man who fled to Arawān was Ibn Makhlūf, the leader of the second Hijra, likewise al-Ṣāliḥ b. Abī Muḥammad. The latter was the Imām of Arawān and family members from his stock were to occupy the Imāmate there.

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The askiyā destroyed al-Sūq.21 He did this shortly before the arrival of Jawdhar (Jawdar).22 Its occupants left it. They became nomads and they dug wells and then settled close to them. A long time passed and then they were left there by Shaykh Aḥmad b. Ādda and Shaykh al-Ṣāliḥ b. Muḥammad. Both men were God’s saints who sought to adore Him, until [in time] they reached a place where a well had been dug. It was called Arawān.23 The folk, who were hunters, lived close to the well and they began to adore God in that place. This was during the time of Jawdhar.24 There they built a few structures. They lived within them, practising and fulfilling their worship of God. The gained a reputation in learning and in jurisprudence ( fiqh) and also for their sainthood and their respect for the faith and the entire country held them in awe. The people began to bestow alms upon them and they hoped [in return] to receive their blessing (baraka), for themselves and for their offspring, and the country developed a culture and a civilized existence. Jawdhar, the aforementioned, established his rule [firmly] amongst

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Askiyā is the title of the kings of the Songhay state. He was the one who ruled shortly before the arrival of Jawdhar (Jawdar), namely askiyā Isḥāq II (1588–1591AD). See ‘The historical “glimpse” concerning the Songhay Islamic Kingdom’ in the Journal of the ‘Kulliyat al-Daʿwā’, 4, p. 226. [There are other reports of the cause of the ruin of Tādmakka some of which are derived from Tuareg sources. According to the manuscript titled Kitāb Naṣīhat al-Umma fīʾstiʿmāl al-Rukhṣa, composed by Sīdī Mawlay Muḥammad al-Hādī, who was from the Kel as-Sūq [Folio 26/53/60]: ‘I have been told by the scholar, Hārūn b. Muḥammad al-Daghūghī, that this saint, Muḥammad b. ʿAlī disclosed to the people of al-Sūq [Tādmakka] some of those things that he had perceived by psychic vision regarding the city’s fall and a disaster that was decreed to befall them. They paid no heed to that, so he went forth, on his own, to Tindahagga where his tomb is located. I do not know whether that [disaster] was the feud of the Kel Imaglalan [around 1640AD] which uprooted the scholars of the people of al-Sūq. They were uprooted by divine command. Who knows, was it from the time of his death? God knows best’. Several scholars who were resident in Arawān are to be found in the Sahelian book, Fatḥ al-Shakūr, see my The Tuaregs, Warminster: Aris and Philipps, 1975 AD (ISBN 0 85668 031 1), pp. 109–117 & 137–143. HN] Jawdhar (Jawdar), the commander, was of Moroccan and Andalusian origin. He was sent by al-Manṣūr al-Dhahabī to conquer the Taghāzā salt mines and he subdued the Songhay Kingdom to his authority in 1590–1591. Arawān has been described as a well that existed in the eleventh century AD. It was located at a distance of seven stages from Timbuctoo. The Tuareg had a settlement upon its hill and rise (kawma) before Timbuctoo had been built. There was no permanent settlement at that time. It acquired importance after the flight of Aḥmad b. Ādda from al-Suq. Jawdhar arrived around 1590–1591 AD. The historical date is close to 1593AD. This has been found by the author in a book about the history of Azawād and Arawān in the private library of Shaykh Zaydān in Niamey (the capital of Niger). [On a short history of this district at this time, see Ghislaine Lydon, On Trans-Saharan Trails, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009 AD, pp. 88–96, ‘The Moroccan Factor’. HN]

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them entirely. The salt mine (sabkha) of Taghāzā was discovered and worked, and the people began to carry salt from it and to sell it in Timbuctoo.25 A second centre for authority was established in Taghāzā and he [Jawdhar] firmly established his domination, there. As a consequence, the entire country became one realm, and it was annexed to the original territories. Taghāzā prospered – praise be to God, and this was due to the blessing (baraka) of the Prophet of God – the blessing and peace of God be upon him, and also on account of the blessing of the saints, may God cause benefits to come to us on account of them. Offspring were born, as a gift, to both Shaykh Aḥmad b. Ādda and to Shaykh al-Ṣāliḥ b. Abū Muḥammad of Arawān – may God grant us benefits through them both. A fixed abode and settlement were established in Arawān and they built a mosque there. After that, Shaykh Aḥmad b. Ādda went on the pilgrimage to Mecca, and the Shaykh al-Ṣāliḥ b. Muḥammad remained [in residence] until Shaykh Aḥmad b. Ādda had returned from the ḥajj – may God bless us by the likes of them both from the company of the saints. Blessed offspring were their inheritance. The office of the qāḍī is with the sons of Shaykh Aḥmad b. Ādda, just as the office of the Imām is with the sons of Shaykh al-Ṣāliḥ b. Abū Muḥammad. Such was the situation in regards to both the offices of both shaykhs during the course of their lifetime may God benefit us by the blessing (baraka) of all [saints]. The blessing and peace of God be upon the Messenger of God. As for the history [and the lineage] of Shaykh Aḥmad b. Ādda – may God grant us benefit by him – it was [as in the the below text] dictated to me by Abbā b. Sīdī Aḥmad Laḥbīb. It has been dictated on the authority of his shaykh, Sīdī Bū Bakr b. al-Shaykh, or [what he had seen] written down on paper in his possession. It is as follows: Aḥmad b. Ādda b. Muḥammad b. Abū Bakr b. Ghūb (variants, Qūs, Ghūth) b. Bilāla b. al-Nūr b. Mālik b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. ʿAbd al-Jabbār b. Tamīm b. Hurmuz b. Hātim b. (W)qusayy b. Yūsuf b. Yūshaʿ b. Ward b. Baṭṭāl b. Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. ʿĪsā b. Muḥammad b. al-Ḥasan b. ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib – may God ennoble his visage (karrama Allāhu wajhahu).26 25

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Timbuctoo’s importance is due to its location on caravan routes. It was also important for its rôle as the centre for the diffusion of Arabic and Islamic studies to the south of the Sahara. This was particularly so between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries and especially with Taghāzā. See the publication of al-Hādī al-Dālī, page 106. The claim that offspring were lineally attached to Muḥammad b. al-Ḥasan b. ʿAlī have been refuted by some, though a testimony in favour of the same is to be found in a poem by Aḥmad ʿUmar al-Mursī al-Anṣārī (d. 686 AH/1287 AD). He was an Andalusian mystic who dwelt in Alexandria (see al-Nujūm al-Zāhira, 7 AH/628–629AD and al-Aʿlām by al-Ziriklī). A quotation from the Ode of al-Mursī al-Andalusī:

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Appendix A short biography of Aḥmad b. ʿAbdallāh b. Abī Bakr b. Abī’l-Qāsim is next provided. It refers to the biography in the main text and it was written by ʿAbd al-Jabbār b. ʿAbd al-Qādir. Aḥmad b. ʿAbdallāh b. Abī Bakr b. Abī’l-Qāsim, whose mother was ʿĀʾisha, the daughter of Abū’l-Qāsim b. Ibrāhīm was born in Ghadāmis on Saturday the 26th of Jumādā II, 1063AH/25 May 1653 AD. He learnt from many scholars during his life. His teachers, in Ghadāmis, had been his father, Shaykh ʿAbdallāh, and Shaykh Muḥammad b. ʿUmar, who was born in 1000 AH/1591–1592 AD. The latter died in the Wādi Rīgh in Algeria. Shaykh Aḥmad travelled in order to widen his knowledge in other countries. In Tunisia, he learnt from the scholar, Aḥmad b. al-Ḥasan al-Sharīf alḤusaynī. In al-Azhar, in Cairo, he was taught by the Imām, Shaykh Muḥammad al-Kharashī and Shaykh Ibrāhīm al-Shabrakhītī, and by the Imām Sīdī ʿAbd alBāqī b. Yūsuf al-Zarjānī and by ʿAbd al-Salām ʿAlujānī, and Sulṭān al-Mazāhī. In Awjila, in Libya, he learnt from the qāḍī and Imām, Sīdī Muḥammad b. ʿAbd alRaḥmān al-Awjilī and from the shaykh and sharīf, Ḥasan b. Fāyiz al-Waddānī. In the Western Sūdān (in Agades), he learnt from the scholars who were known collectively as al-Barākila. These were Shaykh Saʿīd b. Huyaya, Shaykh Waldarfan b. Intamnat, the Imām Abū Zayd al-Barkulī, Shaykh Abū’l-Khayrāt ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Barkulī, Abū’l-Birr al-Faqīh Muḥammad and his brother Muḥammad. He was also taught by Shaykh Ḥamad al-Barkulī [Barkūlī].

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Hear from me the praises of the household of the Prophet, Behold, as I gather them together, one by one, The twin brother of the Prophet, the blood brother of the Prophet, His ‘wazīr’ and closest friend in all circumstances, The grandfather of of the Imām al-Shādhilī in lineage, A Sharīf, the blood descendant of one Sayyid to another, Their names, when totalled up, amount to seventeen in number. In a regular order, they came, like the letters of the alphabet, Back to ʿAli, the worthy one, who was a relative of Muḥammad ʿĪsa. The secret of Muḥammad is Aḥmad. He chose a hero from the flower of Yūshaʿ and of Yūsuf, the protector. Quṣayy and Ḥātim he emulates, and the lordship of Hurmuz and of Tamīm is sealed. Al-Saʿdī, the author of Taʾrīkh al-Sūdān, has also mentioned the authenticity of this genealogy. He has remarked in regard to the lineage of the saint, al-Ṣāliḥ, al-Quṭb al-Rabbānī, Sidi Yaḥyā b. ʿAbd al-Raḥīm b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Thaʿālibī, b. Yaḥyā al-Bakkaʾī, b. ʿAbd al-Ḥasan ʿAlī b. ʿAbdallāh b. ʿAbd al-Jabbār b. Tamīm b. Hurmuz b. Ḥātim b. Quṣayy b. Yūsuf b. Yūshaʿ b. Ward b. Baṭṭāl b. Aḥmad b. ʿĪsā b. Muḥammad b. al-Ḥasan b.ʿAlī b. [Abī] Ṭālib – may God bestow honour upon his countenance – may God have mercy upon them all.

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It was from the abovementioned scholars that he studied the various Islamic sciences, the Qurʾān, ḥadīth, the Arabic language, jurisprudence ( fiqh), rhetoric (balāgha), logic (manṭiq) and literature (adab). He composed six works. He died in 1118AH/1706AD and was buried in Sanayna, outside Ghadāmis and north-west of the old city. His grave was among some five or six graves situated to the south of the grave of his father. He composed a poem in which four of his teachers in the Western Sūdān were specifically praised. Other cemeteries include those of Ouazetan (Wazetan). Here, most of the tombs are without an inscription although certain families are interred in a group, sometimes with a special mark. For example, the tombs of the family of ʿAbd al-Jabbār b. ʿAbd al-Qādir are marked by small red stones that are laid on the side close to the legs of the deceased. Elsewhere, a small pointed stone is placed in the middle of the grave of a male deceased though not in that of a female. Such a ritual appertains to the graves in the Wazetan cemetery, though the opposite is the case in the cemetery of Walīd. Where inscriptions are to be found they are in Maghribī or in Kūfic script and a few are in the Tuareg Tifināgh script. Beside these tombs are to be found those of the Ibāḍī (Khārijites) inhabitants who once lived and throve in Ghadāmis. The latter are distinguished by their circular shape, or by circular enclosures formed from heaped stones. In such cemeteries in Ghadāmis, an annual ceremony takes place during the last Thursday in the twelfth Muslim month of Dhū’l-Ḥijja. It is known as tagharwin, which means ‘sticks’ in the Berber language that is spoken in Ghadāmis. Adults and children in the clan of Jarassan assemble at a meeting place near to the ʿImrān mosque (which allegedly dates back to the year 45 AH/665 AD), and they all carry palm-leaf stalks. They cut these into small pieces and they place them in containers made from palm leaves. They proceed to the cemetery. There they remove the dried sticks from the previous year and place fresh green ones upon the graves. The purpose of the ritual is that each participant shows his sons the graves of relatives so that they will be familiar with and remember the graves where they are buried. At the graveside the history of their ancestors is recited to them in the open desert. The interment of many of the scholars of Ghadāmis, whether Tuareg, or nonTuareg, has taken place in the cemeteries that are situated outside the walls of the Old City. One such scholar was Sīdī’l-Bashīr who was one of the Tuareg scholars of Ghadāmis. He was remembered as a great mediator in disputes. A dome (qubba) was raised above his tomb and on the southern side members of the al-Sūqī families were buried. Many of these were relatives of Shaykh Aḥmad alSūqī (see below) and the names of the occupants have been mentioned written in the Tuareg Tifinagh script.

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The following scholars are buried beside one another in a row of graves in the cemetery of Sanayna. The grave of Sīdī Aḥmad al-Sūqī, the Tuareg scholar who by repute had originally emigrated from the Western Saharan Sāqiya al-Ḥamrāʾ region. The grave of Shaykh Muhalhil b. al-Ḥasan (the thirteenth grandfather of alJabbār b. ʿAbd al-Qādir) who lived in the middle of the ninth century AH/1397– 1493AD. A close friend of him expressively wished to be buried close to him; Al-Sūqī is said to have declared, ‘bury me near to Shaykh Muhalhil so that I may enjoy the perfumed odour of prayers’. The grave of al-Thāyib b. Abī Bakr b. ʿAlī is located here, in Ghadāmis. Aḥmad Bābā made mention of him as being a well-known poet who had died after 960AH/18th December 1552 AD. His father, Abū Bakr, was the first Imām in the mosque of Yūnis [Yūnus] mosque, the chief mosque of the Banū Wazīd, in Ghadāmis and first built in 800AH/1397AD. His grandfather, Shaykh ʿAlī, was an Imām in the most ancient mosque (al-ʿatīq) in Ghadāmis which was first established in 44AH/665AD. All the above scholars were mentoned in a poem composed by the judge, Muḥammad b. Yūnis. The latter was the qāḍī in Ghadāmis in 1306AH/1888–1889AD, and, before him, there were other family members who had fulfilled this office. According to Bashīr Qāsim Yūshaʿ in his book, Ghadāmis, Malāmiḥ, Ṣuwar,27 the Jāmiʿ al-ʿAtīq mosque was largely rebuilt following allied bombing in the Second World War, the Jāmiʿ Yūnis mosque was renovated in 1953AD,28 and the Jāmiʿ Abū Masʿūd ʿUqba b. ʿAmr al-Anṣārī, which still retains stonework that appears to predate that found in the other two mosques, has also been extensively renewed.29 Bashīr Qāsim Yūshaʿ points out that, amongst the population of Ghadāmis, the latter mosque is commonly, and erroneously, believed to be the resting place of ʿUqba b. Nāfiʿ.

Comments on the Two Texts on al-Sūq, the Hometown of Kel as-Suq (by H.T. Norris) The original hometown that the Kel es-Sūq claim to be theirs was, in fact, the medieval town of Tādmakka, which was described in many accounts by the Arab historians, and the Arab Geographers. On account of its location within 27 28 29

Published privately by Maṭābiʿ al-Fātiḥ, Misurāṭa, Libya, 051/615896, second printing, 2001 AD, pp. 288–291. Ibid., pp. 295–296. See ibid., pp. 298–299.

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the Saharan regions of Mali, it also had a direct connection with Ghadāmis. As a consequence, the people of the town were well acquainted with its inhabitants, whether merchants or scholars or pilgrims. The archaeology and the epigraphy of Tādmakka is central to the book on its Islamic inscriptions by Paulo Fernando de Moraes Farias,30 though, less known, are the few Arabic texts, socalled histories, that have survived from a more recent date. These histories, in the main, mirror oral folk tales that have been published by Saharan travellers.31 Two of these texts have been published in Libya by ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd ʿAbdallāh al-Ḥarāma (sc. ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd), under the title of the ‘History of al-Sūq’, Khabar al-Sūq.32 This is based upon two copies of the work that I (H.T. Norris) located within the Aḥmad Bābā Centre in Timbuctoo. The first of them is no. 1036. It is complete although the name of the original author is unmentioned. It consists of fourteen pages. The second copy is no. 1044, and it consists of sixteen pages and is written in the al-Khaṭṭ al-Niswī (‘woman’s hand’) a script that is found locally in parts of West Africa. No author’s name has been found on either copy of the Khabar al-Sūq. There is also no indication of the dates of their composition. The editor of the publication believes that they are of a late date since there is a reference to ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Saʿdī, who lived and wrote his ‘History of the Sūdān’ in 1065AH/1654AD.33 It is likely that the author was an inhabitant of the town who claimed to be descended from the offspring of the ‘Companions of the Arab Conquest’. ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd has mentioned (page 15) that al-Sūq is located within the district of Kidal, Mali. It is located at some distance from the city of Gao. In the first manuscript (page 17), the following passage is to be found. ‘It is to al-Sūq that Shaykh Aḥmad b. Āda (Ādda)34 was lineally related and was connected. To him is due the honour of him having become the founder of Arawān.

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P.F. de Moraes Farias, Medieval Inscriptions from the Republic of Mali, Epigraphy, Chronicles and Songhay-Tuāreg History. Fontes Historiae Africanae, New Series, Sources of African history, 4, Oxford: Oxford University Press / The British Academy, 2003AD. See H.T. Norris, The Arab Conquest of the Western Sahara, Studies of the Historical Events, Religious Beliefs and Social Customs which Made the Remotest Sahara a Part of the Arab World. London: Longman Group / Librairie du Liban, 1986AD. See bibliography and other texts in this book. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Saʿdī, Taʾrīkh al-Sūdān, ed. John O. Hunwick, Timbuktu and the Songhay Empire. Al-Saʿdī’s Taʾrīkh al-Sūdān down to 1613 and Other Contemporary Documents, Leiden: Brill, 1999 AD. Possibly ‘adda’, ‘papa, père’, ‘father’, according to Ghoubeid Alojali, ‘Ăwgălel’, cf. note 102 above.

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The people of al-Sūq forsook their town in order to enter the open desert after their town had been destroyed. Shaykh Aḥmad preferred to site his dwelling in the vicinity of the well of Arawān’. Shaykh Aḥmad traced his descent back to the family of the Prophet, through the line of the ʿAlīds. It would seem that he is the same person as Idda in the lineage outlined by al-Ṭālib Muḥammad Ṭawha, in his document below (Text 3). According to ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd (page 17), the present inhabitants of Arawān are the Barābīsh who are descendants of the Moors who, in Mauritania, Mali and the Western Sahara, are known as the Banū Ḥassān, or Awlād Ḥassān. In origin, they stem from three ancestors; the Awlād Dulaym [Awlād Dalīm], the Awlād Ḥamma and the Awlād Aḥmad [Udāʾiy].

A Note Regarding the Status of ʿUqba b. Nāfiʿ This note is based on the Arabic sources that are quoted in Corpus of early Arabic sources for West African History translated by J.F.P. Hopkins.35

Several Arab geographers, historians and travellers refer to Ghadāmis at the time of the Muslim conquests within both the context of the Maghrib as well as that of West Africa. However, the location of Ghadāmis was probably less than vital for the Arab conquerors and, in some accounts, it is left unmentioned altogether. Thus, Ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥakam (b. 187AH/803AD, d. 257 AH/871 AD) states that ʿUqba b. Nāfiʿ first entered the Maghrib in 46 AH/666–667 AD and that he was based in Magmadāsh of Sirṭ. It was from here that he suppressed a revolt in Waddān and it was from this town that he marched south to the Fezzān. From thence he advanced deeper into the Sahara beyond Khāwar to Māʾ Faras (not to be confused with Māʾ al-Faras in Ghadāmis itself).36 Yāqūt (b. 575AH/1179 AD), who mentions Ghadāmis, states that Khāwar was conquered by ʿUqba b. ʿĀmir in 47AH/667AD after facing stiff opposition.37 Ibn al-Athīr (b. 555AH/1160AD d. 630AH/1233 AD) mentions, that, in 117AH/ 735–736AD, Hishām b. ʿAbd al-Malik appointed ʿUbaydallāh b. al-Ḥabḥāb to be 35

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N. Levtzion and J.F.P. Hopkins (eds.), Corpus of Early Arabic Sources for West African History, Fontes Historiae Africanae, Series Arabica IV, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981 AD. Corpus, p. 13. Corpus, p. 170.

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the governor over Ifrīqiya and al-Andalus. He ordered Ḥabīb b. Abī ʿUbayda b. ʿUqba b. Nāfiʿ to raid the Maghrib.38 Ibn Abī Zarʿ of Fez (d. 715AH/1315AD) mentions a town in the Western Sūdān, possibly in the region of Azawād, called Tātaklātīn (variant, Banka/ilābīn). Its inhabitants were known as the Banū Wārith, who composed a tribe, or a people, who were classified amongst the Ṣanhāja. They were also mentioned by al-Bakrī (circa 460AH/1068AD). According to the latter they were resident in the region of Nīsar (Ysr, Syr), which was close to the commercial route between Sijilmāsa and Ghāna and which corresponds, to a large extent, with the territory of Azawād, in Mali.39 The latter region of the Sahara is now occupied by the Tuareg/Moor Kel Ntaṣr/Yintaṣar/Intaṣar community. They live there today in camps and in villages. The Banū Wārith were praised for being upright and for being orthodox Muslims who waged jihād upon the people of the Sūdan who did not profess al-Islām. It is interesting that it is not said by any of the Arab writers that they played any major role within the Almoravid movement of Ibn Yāsīn. They are, in fact, unmentioned in many of the Arab sources, though it may be suggested that theirs may have been a far more prolonged commitment to the Islamisation of the region. On the other hand, they claimed to have been converted by ʿUqba b. Nāfiʿ al-Fihrī at the time of the conquest of the Maghrib.40 ʿUqba is the key figure in their lineage and history. Noteworthy is the fact that those Tuareg and Moors who are most associated with this region today are the Kel Ntṣr [who are bilingual in Arabic and Tamashegh], and the Kel-Essouk (Kel al-Sūq), to whom the latter are closely related in lineage. As well, this has a parallel within the Moorish Kunta, all of whom claim descent from ʿUqba al-Mustajāb, namely ʿUqba b. Nāfiʿ. They also claim to have lineal ties with the Anṣār, the Companions of the Prophet. How the name of Banū Wārith arose and how it came to apply to them is not disclosed, though the sense of ‘heir’, or ‘inheritor’, is present in their Arabic name. ‘Wārith’, according to E.W. Lane, in his Lexicon41 is also a word that was included in a prayer (of Muḥammad), ‘Allāhumma amtiʿnī bi-samʿī wa-baṣarī waʾjalhu al-wārith minnī’, ‘O God, cause me to enjoy my hearing and my sight and make it (i.e. the enjoyment that I pray for) survive me, [or, make it to continue with me until I die]’. 38 39 40 41

Corpus, p. 158. Corpus, pp. 67, 237. Corpus, p. 237. Lane, Arabic-English Lexicon, p. 2934.

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According to al-Bakrī42 the distance of a journey between Tādmakka (alSūq) and Ghadāmis was forty stages through the desert, water being found every two or three days in water holes (aḥsāʾ). Al-Bakrī is also the source for passages of quotation in early pages of the Tadhkīr al-Nāsī wa-Talyīn al-Qalb al-Qāsī.43 42 43

Corpus, p. 86. See also Whitcomb, ‘New Evidence on the Origins of the Kunta’, pp. 105–106.

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al-Jawhar al-Thamīn fī Akhbār Ṣaḥrāʾ alMulaththamīn (The Precious Jewel in the Saharan Histories of the “People of the Veil”), by Muḥammad Tawjaw al-Sūqī al-Thānī Whilst Text 1, above, Tadhkir al-Nāsi, illustrates the role that the Companions of the Prophet (al-ṣaḥāba) played in the memory and the esteemed character of Ghadāmis and its scholarly fraternity and people, the Tuareg population within, and without the town, have, in past and present, derived far more spiritual prestige from their own claim to be descended from other ancestors who were involved in the Islamisation of North Africa. This applies, in particular, to the ‘Helpers of the Prophet’, the anṣār, and their descendants, the ‘People of al-Sūq’ (the Kel-Essuq/Kel-Essouk) of Tādmakkat (Tādmākka). The latter have migrated from that former Saharan city lying to the south of Ghadāmis. Its ruins are in the region of Kidal, in Mali. In the past, and today, some of the Tuareg in Ghadāmis claim to have originated in that region, amongst these was the noted scholar and saint, Aḥmad al-Sūqī, whose tomb is situated within the major cemetery which is situated outside the walls of the Old City. An account of these Tuareg, in particular, is provided in a recent document. The text in question is dated to the 28th of August, 1999AD, and was written by al-Ṭālib Muḥammad Tawjaw Muḥammad al-Sūqī al-Adrāʿī al-Ḥasanī, a Tuareg author in Libya. It is titled, ‘A short extract about the people of al-Sūq’ (Nubdha Mukhtaṣara ʿan al-Sūqiyyīn), drawn from the book titled Al-Jawhar al-Thamīn fī Akhbār Ṣaḥrāʾ alMulaththamīn, ‘The Precious Jewel in the Saharan histories of the “People of the Veil”.’ This book was published in Libya and the extract that is herewith translated is based upon a copy that was selected by ʿAbd al-Jabbār b. ʿAbd al-Qādir. His document has not supplied the original pagination.

It gives me joy and I feel honoured to present these items of information in regard to our ancestors, the Sūqiyyūn [Kel-Essouk], and their role in the spreading of the faith of al-Islām and the presevation of the Arabic Islamic Legacy in those regions that border the Great Sahara to the south (from the west of Nigeria and as far as Mauritania). Such was the course of history that took place in that region, the account of it beginning with the date of the arrival of their ancestors there in those districts © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2020 | doi:10.1163/9789004315853_005

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and at the very commencement of al-Islām there. After that we shall summarize their ancestry and indicate the locations where they now find themselves, even though this be in a brief and abridged manner. The Sūqi tribes [Kel-Essouk] were from among the tribes of the Tuareg who, in the great majority, claim to have an Arabian pedigree. Those who bear this epithet, al-Sūqī, originated in the town of Tādmakka (al-Sūq) where their ancestors dwelt in the days of their urban, cultural and economic heyday. The nickname (al-Sūqī) was applied to them after the destruction of the city of Tādmakka. This came about due to excessive drought in the Sahara, and, in some accounts, the harshness of nature, and due to the apperance of new towns in the region and, a flourishing urban activity there. This produced a cultural life, such as was also to come about in Timbuctoo. Many inhabitants emigrated to the towns and to the regions that were adjacent to them. There were other causes that some historians have claimed as being the cause of the ruination of Tādmakka, such as the raid of the Songhai Sulṭān al-Saffāḥ (the ‘bloodthirsty’) Sonni ʿAlī. However, this case is not a strong one. It was found to be weak by Shaykh al-ʿAtīq b. al-Shaykh Saʿd al-Dīn, in his book titled ‘The Precious Jewel in the histories of the desert of the “People of the Veil”’ (al-Jawhar al-Thamīn fī Akhbār Ṣaḥrāʾ al-Mulaththamīn). Throughout their long history, the Sūqiyyūn were renowned for their piety, scholarship, counselling, and the guidance of others than themselves amongst the Saharans, without any distinction between ‘blacks’ and ‘whites’. Likewise, they were aware of, and took great interest in, the perfection that can be achieved in the Arabic language, and in the sciences of the branches of the Sharīʿa, and in the education of others than themselves. Amongst their singular qualities was the refinement of their calligraphy. This was to a degree that enabled them to evolve the shape of letters of the Arabic alphabet [in an artistic fashion] and they had a special script, ‘al-khaṭṭ al-sūqī’, which only their sons employ for writing and amongst those who learn with them. Likewise, they became artists in their poetic compositions and skilled in their knowledge of grammar (naḥw), rhetoric (balāgha), jurisprudence ( fiqh), and in the Prophetic Tradition (ḥadīth), and other branches of the religious sciences. It is this that has caused them to enjoy a great respect and esteem from other tribes. They are peculiar on account of their excessive curiosity in their copying of books and in their organization of journeys that are devoted to the acquiring of manuscripts and books. That was before the wide distribution and the use of paper for printing took place. After the diffusion of printing they competed in the purchase of such books, and, as a consequence, they possessed numerous libraries that occupied much space in every dwelling. The camels upon which they loaded this huge quan-

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tity of books were sacrificed in bearing the intolerable burden of transporting these books. This was the prime reason that persuaded them to change from a nomadic life to that of an urban dweller. They set up home in numerous towns and settled villages in both Niger and in Mali (Azawād and Ăyăr). The tribe of the al-Sūqīs is joined to, and included within their number, that great number of people to be found in the north of Mali, in Azawād, many of them are in Niger and some also live in Burkina Faso. Their numerous clans were spread along the banks of the river Niger, to the south and to the north, in both Mali and Niger. The Sūqī clans are descended from, and have been sub-divided into, three root-like sub-divisions (aʿrāq), namely, the following: (1) The shurafāʾ1 who are subdivided as follows; (a) The Idrīsids (Idrīsiyyūn) who are genealogically related to Idrīs the Great, the King of Morocco. This subdivision is included within the Banū Ibrāhīm al-Daghūghī, who are a group of the Kel Gunahān (Qanahān), the Kel Tabūrāq, the Kel Taglalat, the Kel Yamad, the Kel Askan, and others. In the same way are conjoined as well the Banū Āʿāl, they being the Kel Tamūkasīn and some of the Ifūghas (Ifōghas) and the Kel Adāgh and the Kel Wāmī, and others besides them; and (b) The Banū’l-Thamāniya (al-Adrāʿiyyīn) and their group are conjoined, to a great extent, to the Kel Taglalat and the Kel Tīsī (Igdash/ Agades). Some of the Kel Tabūrāq and a section (bayt) of the Imghā (Imdūghan) are also included. (2) The Anṣār. They are as follows: (a) Al-Yaʿqūbiyyūn and (b) al-Ayyūbiyyūn. One group is related to Yaʿqūb al-Anṣārī and another to Ayyūb alAnṣārī. They include many of the Igdash, the Kel Takarankat, and some of the Kel Tabūrāq, the Kel Taqlalat and others (c) A group who are related by descent to ʿUqba b. Nāfiʿ al-Fihrī and are part of the Kel Taqlalat and the Kel Gunahān. I shall now cite ‘the eight’ (al-Thamāniya), in sequence, and afterwards pen the ode of the shaykh and scholar, and pilgrim to Mecca, Muḥammad Aḥmad. This ode contains the chain of his genealogy, and in it he proves his claim to sharīfian status.

1 ɜsshɜrifăn, cf. Ghubăyd ăgg-Ălăwjeli [Ghobeid Alojaly, Lexique].

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The pilgrim (al-Ḥājj) is Muḥammad b. Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. Muḥammad b. Muḥammad Bella b. Muḥammad Idda Asan Muḥammad al-Imām b. Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. Rabīʿa b. Muḥammad b. Muḥammad b. Abī Bakrʿrq b. Agh-Faqi/asan b. Muḥammad b. Darar b. Muḥammad al-Adraʿ b. ʿUbaydallāh b. ʿAbdallāh b. ʿAbdallāh b. al-Ḥasan b. ʿAlī b. Muḥammad b. Jaʿfar b. al-Ḥasan al-Muthannā b. al-Ḥasan b. ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib – may God honour his countenance. May He be pleased with every one of them.2

The Ode of Muḥammad Aḥmad What is it that strikes you the most if you hear a bard promoting his lineage that stems from the most noble amongst spiritual guides? Leading it upwards, a linked lineage, from his closest forebear to the exalted eponym, named Aḥmad [Muḥammad], the most praised. When he narrates that matter that deals with such reliable sources, and then he transmutes, by what he says, about a report, he does so without hesitation. What pride there is within it! No folly is to be found therein. Nay, rather, he recites it for one concerned with a lineal descent that is pure and is uncorrupted. I am Muḥammad, the [merchant] pilgrim, son of Aḥmad, through a [family] connection that is clearly revealed, a connection in regard to his circumstances, ibn Muḥammad, the son of Muḥammad Balla, the son of the brave and gallant, Muḥammad Idda3 b. Muḥammad alImām, the son of brother Aḥmad of noble deeds, 2 A second copy gives a slightly different order: Muḥammad b. Aḥmad b. Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. Muḥammad b. Muḥammad Bella b. Muḥammad Idda (Ăda/Ădda) Asan (Ă/Iddasan?) Muḥammad al-Imām b. Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. Rabīʿa b. Muḥammad b. Muḥammad b. Abū Bakr ʿrq [?] b. Aghfaqasan (Aghfatnasan) b. Muḥammad b. Darar b. Muḥammad alAdrāʿ b. ʿUbaydāllah b. ʿAbdallāh b. Ḥasan b. ʿAlī b. Abū Ṭālib. – ‘The eight’ who are referred to in this lineage is probably to be explained by a passage in a Sūqī work titled Naṣīḥat alUmma fī’stiʿmāl al-Rukhṣa. This has been preserved in a manuscript form in the Centre of Boubou Hama in Niamey, Niger. In Folio 26 [2/60], a reference is found to a Muḥammad b. ʿAlī, who was one of the Shaykhs of the Kel al-Sūq. He was deemed to be a sharīf by reason of his descent by his grandmother Taghidat and her brother, possibly Aghfatnas [assuming Faqi/asan is a corruption], the latter being the father of Muḥammad ‘who begat Atman/Athman, which, it is said, referred to a [clan] of eight men [this numeral being based upon the Arabic, thamāniya] all of whom were twins (ṣinwān). All of them became scholars. God knows best as to the authenticity of this’. 3 Var. Adda/Ăda.

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the son of the esteemed Muḥammad b. Rabīʿa, twin brother (ṣinw) of al-Ḥuzayr Abī’l-Hudā b. Muḥammad, their chief’s son. He is honourable, and of a lordship to be praised, that [one] who is called Abū Bakr, if, and when, the origin is traced back to Muḥammad, by name, such is the one who is hereby meant, to Darar4 b. Muḥammad, amongst those made famous due to lordliness, the one to whom they gave the nickname of ‘al-Adra’. Some said, ‘It was when he was given the epithet “He who slew a furry lion” ’.5 Others said, ‘The wearer of a plurality of coats of mail’, they supported him over some unfriendly criticism. To him are related members of the house of Ḥaydara (‘the lion’), the contented one, from those descended from Kufa, the delight and the pleasure of the austere ascetic. His father was the prince of Kufa; a wife was counselled prior to repeated rejection. He was the son of ʿUbaydallāh, with ‘Dhū’, ascribed to ʿAbdallāh, a modest man though son of the most noble of all, Ḥasan, beautiful son of ʿAlī b. Muḥammad, and from thence back to al-Ḥasan b. Jaʿfar, he ascended, upwards [within his lineage], His lineage I would link to Ḥasan the grandson of the Prophet (alMuṣṭafā), al-Ḥasan b. Haydara, the lordly Imām. That Imām being al-Murtaḍā, the ‘Sword of Guidance’, ‘the mark of liberality’, ‘he who curbed the hostile foe, and the aggressor’. I acknowledge ʿAlī, in an interrupted succession, I believe him to be other than divine. His property and his essence, neither of these is fit for adoration. Such, above, are those who are in my lineage. I have presented them. I do not single them out for any refutation. No, no indeed, nor do I boast. But [I have been] commanded, by my people, so great is their hope for the future on the morrow. Such was what the ancient one bestowed, and such has been my aim, far be it was a blatant boast. What he has given is a pleasure for his forebear, within the family, a vehicle to reveal them as noble men (sharīfs) in both aspect and what is [here] perceived. No disclosure of a secret [now] discloses the [former] secretiveness of my ancestors. Its concealment was [something] akin to

4

4 Var. Darāʾ. 5 Ghubăyd ăgg Alăwjeli, Lexique, p. 25: ‘amăddare’, ‘courageux’.

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the shaking of an aggressor who is hostile. They had [their] personal motives, which in our days, [now], need to be disclosed, like the thrust of one who is amongst a warrior army of a same ancestry that he shares. Nor either, the targeting of ‘proofs’, and for indications to prove their reality, the verifying of that which you have attributed to backsliding. To you he had seemed to be a man from our midst, one who had wandered away from his people, and from the ancestors, the father of light and among the most fortunate. He was the noble one, the son of Ismāʿīl, who had arisen, and what he had said was keen, like a sword of Indian steel. He was a protector who made bear his forearm to remove that which the hands of envious foes had [fictitiously] embellished. His helping hand would not disown each clan among his people, Through his efforts in good counselling and in proof – may his Creator reward him for having been a worthy guide. Among the families his was the house of resolve, of a sworn covenant, of serious thought and of shepherding, of support, and with the power of authority. I have quoted him, in what was beholden to you, from the writing of my paternal uncle, Muḥammad bal-Bakkaʾī. I have cited Idda,6 to be amongst his forebears, and from Rabīʿa, the devout and pious, and from others who I have quoted for al-Murtaḍā in regard to the ‘crown’, ‘The crown of al-Murtaḍā’,7 ‘the master of sovereignty’. Lengthy talk has taken place in quoting his lineage from Adraʿ to the grandchildren of Muḥammad. Behold, his name is found in the Arabic letter dāl, and in the letter rāʾ and in the letter ʿayn, and in the letter qāf and in the letter, dāl, and in the letter rāʾ,8 and he is quoted in the Mushajjarāt,9 a composition of his, in an excellent citation. Step by step, therein, up to culture and to erudition (tahdhīb), with a firm vision, aware of an excellent commitment, ‘Look towards the lineages, and to lineal descent’; such is their refinement in regard to al-Adraʿ. 6 7 8 9

Ādda / Āda? Tāj al-ʿArūs, of al-Murtaḍā al-Zabīdī. D-r-ʿ-q-d-r, part of the word to form QDR, qadar, ‘divine forordainment’. ‘The entwined leaves’ or ‘The figured in the form of trees and shrubs’; cf Lane, Arabic-English Lexicon, p. 1508.

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You will not find him to be a squanderer, nor will any frittering be found. One pedant remarked that, ‘This is the lineage of an ʿAlīd group.10 Its identity is weak. No individual identity descends from al-Adraʿ. The one who determined its descent bore the name of al-Hammām b. alHammām Muḥammad, the son of the amīr. Any linkage was attached to him, who was nicknamed Jaʿfar’, and any offspring was denied. In the same manner, he attached him through the lineage to Kufa11 as Yaʿūq had said, holding the opinion of that excellent doctor. Then he proceeded to cite those whom I have mentioned above as fixed. Thus, he queried and he questioned the way I had traced [their origin]. The lineage of al-Adraʿ is disclosed within my lineage. It is attached to the hero, al-Ḥasan, the lord. How many were the researchers, how many were those possessed, and who confirmed this information! What was to be found there? Despite that, nought had appeared which satisfied any dependence, or reliance, nor one who supported the traditions. Rather it was simply copied citations, traditions plucked from some who had made an assertion, and who were not [as yet] supported, or were supportable. My lineal attribution to al-Ḥasan al-Ridāʾ is correct. I cited it from learned and basically reliable authorities. Such are those who have, to hand, their critical experiences. They have followed and pursued the road in [their] investigation to the very best resource. Yet others, in verifying genealogies, have been so zealous as to take them to the loftiest heights. Yet others, in their critical examination of men will not stop short until their feet have have taken them to the shining star of Ursa Minor; such works as that of ‘The Glory with the Qāmūs’, the approving and outstanding, the Shaykh of Shaykhs, al-Murtaḍā, whose outstanding renown was widely heard and was reported. He was also a man who possessed insight, he was well informed about the lineage of every one of a spotless origin. In every act of collusion, in their company, as a body, there is a super abundance. They seek future progress for themselves so that they will become a people for your model of emulation. However, here is something that I deem should not be hidden from one who is not stupid.

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A group decended from ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib. In Iraq.

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The foundation [of it all] is [no doubt] at times obscure. It is equivocal. It has become uncertain. This is on account of the supplying of a diacritic, or a [missing] word, though [in reality] it has not been lost. Probe, with longing, [to see] whether you have neglected that which was obscure, whilst you, yourself, have supplied a letter [that is faulty]! Or you may have combined two proper nouns, names, together, while you remained complexed, without a diacritic, or word, to be your guide. There may have been a slip, by a copyist, to warrant its exposure. All the same, how many there are, indeed, of misspelt, unintentional, quotations that are due to faulty copyists! Of such is the case of the genealogist who links lineages together, at times, and who attributes, correctly, to a most excellent [status]. Due to the same, not for the servant in his dictionary, Nor for al-Murtaḍā, in his Tāj, has suffering from criticism and rejection been their lot. They are, and so too are others with them, from amongst the ashyākh in my quotation. Their words are sure, and are steadfast, and not to be denied. Our future for their works and texts are like their words. A group of scholars among them have expounded clearly, without a refutation, and confutation, like the most distinguished fuller, the shaykh of the age and the scholar of Fez, Ṣāfī al-Mawrid.12 And the Shaykh, whose wellrope supplies water out of the depths of his well, and who has made it sure and let it gush forth into one well-watered place of his. Then, the Iraqī, the boy,13 like his peers in accomplishment, has made it firm without a rebuttal. This was the lineal aim of my intent. It is to confirm whom I have established within the (close) sharīf ian family relationship, by the citation of my lineage, from the nearest forbear [back] to the son of Fāṭima al-Baṭūl,14 in following the most just, the true way. Blessing and peace be upon His Chosen One in the holy family, and amongst the Companions, the rightly guided, and the pious twain, and

6

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‘The pure source’. Al-Walīd. The poet may be referring to the Baṣran poet, Ibn Durayd (d. 934AD), who was a distinguished philologist and genealogist whose chief works included his treatise on the genealogies of the tribes of Arabia (Kitāb al-Ishtiqāq). ‘The virgin’.

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the Helpers (al-anṣār) in this line. How blessed is Muḥammad for friendship and for affection and for friends. I have concluded [my poem] and I make the following observation. Though we believe that lineage – true lineage – is in piety – one must also know the person himself, his sons and his forebears, to be able, at least, to have such a tie in the womb (riḥm) where it is laid down within the canonic law of al-Islām (al-Sharīʿa). It will be noticed that I have not referred to many of the clans of the KelEssouk in this account. This is not due to my neglect of them, but, simply, because time was short and I was in fear of being too long and tedious. Written by al-Ṭālib Muḥammad Ṭawha [Ṭawjao] b. Muḥammad al-Sūqī al Adrāʿī al-Ḥasanī.

Notes on Archaeological Remains and Inscriptions on al-Sūq A portion of the text of al-Jawhar al-Thamīn fī Akhbār Ṣaḥrāʾ al-Mulaththamīn, contains references to archaeological remains and inscriptions that are to be found on the site of al-Sūq. The Arabic text has been copied by ʿAbd al-Jabbār b. ʿAbd al-Qādir.

The town of al-Sūq: This famous town is dear to the heart and in esteem. It stirs ones’s heart in respect, due to the depths of its antiquity and the innermost thoughts of the ages, a town that, yesterday, was famous but, which is, today a legend, and a remotely situated site in ruins. Before one begins to speak about this historic town of al-Sūq one needs to be aware of the fact that the name in the historical sources of the town is the ‘town of Tādmakka (Tādmakkat)’. The designation by the name of ‘al-Sūq’ – ‘the market’ – came later in time. But it came about that the name of the latter, ‘al-Sūq’, was to become synonymous with Tādmakka, which was hardly remembered by local people save until quite recently. This is something that is well known, namely, that the one town may bear several names, one of which may dominate the rest, for example, ‘the Mother of Cities’ (Umm al-Qurā), and Mecca, and ‘The House of Peace’ (Dār al-Salām) Baghdad, and Medina, and Ṭayba, and other examples. This town is called ‘alSūq’ in Arabic, and Assūk, and Tādmakka, in the Tuareg language. The plurality of names is an indication that what is so named is a location of some standing in its status, a place of regard, of consequence, and of note.

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The Location and Its Limits What remains of this historic town are located in the territories of Adāgh (Adrār). Before its existence ceased, it was one of the independent kingdoms of the Saharan Ṣanhāja [al-Mulaththamūn, the ‘People of the veil’]. It was in the heart of the desert to the south of the Hoggar, in Algeria, and to the north of the lands of the Western Sūdān. It was to the west of Ăyăr (Air) and to the east of Mauritania. Today, it is reckoned to be within the rural communities of the administrative district of Kidāl in the extreme north of the Republic of Mali, at a distance of sixty kilometres, in the northwest. It overlooks the hills of the frontier with Algeria, at Farʿ Tībīnan in the Wādī Ibdaqan. This divides the Adāgh Mountains from East to West, at the head of the level plain (munbaṭaḥ) of Tamesna, up to the lowlands (qīʿān) of Talamsī, to the west. It is bounded to the east by the perimeter of Abibarā, the township of Infīf, and by the municipality of Tassilit, in a westerly direction. The territories that belong to it cover a distance of fifty thousand kilometres. Its inhabitants number approximately forty-nine thousand individuals. A History of al-Sūq (Tādmakka) from the First Century of the Hijra (the Seventh Century AD) up to the Tenth Century AH (the Seventeenth Century AD) Commercial routes tie it to the major cities located around it, both towards the Maghrib and towards the Western Sūdān. The ancient writings and the current stories that are in circulation have continued to tell of this city. It lived in lively activity and it witnessed scholarly and economic movement. Some writers (aqlām), who visited it, praised it in literary works or were contemporary with it, gave it an increasing emphasis, urging and concentrating upon him who had a burning desire and a fondness for: A fresh discovery, even though its novelty has its perplexity and its strange splendour, such a one who has not experienced it has not learnt a lesson from it, other than embellished superstitions, or a flight of fancy of a ghostly dream, Yet those rock engravings, firmly fixed, will scoff and scorn. What motive powers had been stirred up, and destructive and subversive elements of decay, and the laying bare of silent and eternal antiquities, or the utterance of an upright tomb, in confirmation of a deed,

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[Verily], such was the goal sought after, and aspired to, of past merchants, the stopping place of journeys and the gathering place of men of culture, and of refind tastes, and the pulpit of the upright scholars, and the terminal of the towing of the tug. All that is new is doomed. It is doomed to decay and to perdition and to ruin. Between al-Sūq [Tādmakka] and other historical and important cities a network of routes joined by halting stages were to come into being. Amongst these was a route that linked them to al-Qayrawān wherein a number of halting stations were systematically fixed, the most important of them being Ouargla (Warjila) and then Qasṭīliyya. Towards the East, the road led from al-Sūq to Ghadāmis and it continued into Libya. According to the author of the Rawḍ al-Miʿṭār, ‘From Ghadāmis one reaches the town of Tādmakka, and other than it, from the land of the Sūdān’ (al-Rawḍ al-Miʿṭār fi Khabar al-Aqṭār, 1AH/622AD).15 In relation to the (former French) Western Sūdān there is to be found a busy route between it and Ghāna, the capital that was conquered in the jihād of the Almoravids in 469AH [1076AD], after which its ruins were inherited by Mauritania. A direct route leads southward to Gao, one of the commercial cities of the Sūdān, on the banks of the Western Nile [the Niger], likewise the town of Agades (Ikdāz) and its adjacent territory to the south east of it. Today it is within the state of Niger. Al-Bakrī mentioned that the crucial distance between Ouargla (Warjila) and Tādmakka is estimated as fifty days and between Tādmakka and Kāghū is ten days.16 The two states, the Sunnite Almoravid and the Almohads, after their rise, contained Tādmakka, but quickly it was cut off from them and it became independent. In the same manner it was nominally submissive to the state of the Banū Marīn in the seventh century AH [fourteenth century AD]. The town far predated the city of Timbuctoo, which has remained a commercial and a cultural centre and a terminus, where commercial caravans were an event from all directions until misfortunes occurred. The source of its gold vanished and the situations changed, the people of Tādmakka were scattered between Tahoua (Ṭāwa), in Niger, and Iyrawān [Arawān?], Bū Jbayha and Timbuctoo and other locations in Mali. The circumstances of nations and their customs never last

15 16

See Text 1, note 5 above. See The Journal of Arab History, 1, 1982 AD.

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the same nor do they exist in a settled manner. There only is, over the days, and crises, some variation and change and progression from one circumstance to another. The Terrain, Its Surface and Its Natural Aspect The surface of the terrain (saṭḥ) is mountainous. It is divided by valleys, the most important of which is Wādī Ibdaqan which divides the mountains of the Adrār (Adāgh). They occupy a fortified and inaccessible position, that, after being chosen from behind as if picked for an external threat. They are in a valley between two mountainous chains that is surrounded by what is akin to a bracelet worn around a wrist, with the exception of inlets and outlets, as though they were intended for entry and exit. At their summit stand lofty towers, or are found springs of water. They are just as they name them for they keep a watch and are used as a lookout. The springs are named ‘the spring at the very centre of the desert’, ʿAyn al-Jawz, and ‘the spring of the arāk tree’, and ‘the womens’ spring’, ʿAyn al-Nisā, and, on the easterly side, ‘the spring of the mosque’, ʿAyn al-Masjid, ‘the spring of the pebble’, ʿAyn al-Ḥaṣb, and ʿAyn al-Rumḥ, ‘the spring of the lance’, ʿAyn al-Sayf, ‘the spring of the sword’, and ʿAyn al-Khayl, ‘the spring of the horses’, on the westerly side, and so from thence to this town which is lineally linked to the Sũqiyyīn. The Kel-Essouk Who are those who are Kel-Essouk in origin, and who are those that are residents of a more recent date? Undoubtedly, the interest of the location and the caravan’s stopping place emanates from the interest in the nomadic dweller or otherwise in what is to be found within the gift of the survey of ruined buildings that would be devoid of inhabitans, except for some loyalty amongst its goodly folk. It is in the manner of him who says, ‘I pass by the houses, the houses of Salmā, facing this wall, and this wall. It is not the love of the houses that inftuate my heart, but it is the love of him who dwelt within the houses, so who are the people of al-Sūq?’ This is a question that involves us in a distant journey and in a lengthy research, in pages of a past era, that are distant and remote. They cause weariness and boredom, and one has to be dependent herein upon an arena full of excuses, if aims are not grasped and the most insignificant are not dropped. So let us go forth, on a general basis, and here describe the accepted reality of North Africa, from Cyrenaica (in the East) to the coasts of the Atlantic in the West and from the Atlas mountains (in the North) to the sandy belt that divides

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them from the Sūdānic region. All this terrain, be it plain, or be it rugged, its land and its sea, was not inhabited before the arrival of al-Islām, except by the Berbers. They were a wealthy and hardworking people and my pen has been concerned, at random, with their recorded history. The other accepted and received fact is that Tādmakka, when it was founded, was from a branch of that root of the Ṣanhāja in its basic character and its essentials prior to the rise of the sun of al-Islām above it. Afterwards, it was to enjoy an unblameworthy, and by a no means meagre, share (of Islamic culture). It was by no means scanty on account of its Berbers having enjoyed culture through their intermarriage with Arabs and what was owed to the offspring of the Companions of the Prophet. Thus, the city continued to take root and the people become firmly established until they had enjoyed a settled stability and until no longer was the spoken language, in many respects, a yard-stick, or a convincing touchstone, in the division between the two elements (Arab and Berber) and in distinguishing between the rooted progeny in both of the two lineages. The sons of that town had become a striking mixture of close kinships. The people had been altered into communities that had made Arabic their first language and for the local language to be changed. The contrary had also occurred, so that solidarity and the lineal tie had become according to what the forebears had declared as, ‘My father is al-Islām and I have no father but it’. They had once boasted of being descendants from the tribes of Qays or from Tamīm, and when the burden of the pagan age of the Jāhiliyya had come to an end. Its pride in lineages and values were now in ‘the sons of al-Islām’ and they were no longer the sons of Qays or Tamīm. Tādmakka and al-Islām The town of al-Sūq had received the faith of al-Islām. It continued to be something that was fresh and new, since it had first risen high above the sky of the Maghrib and its desert at the close of the first half of the first century of the hijra [the seventh century AD]. Al-Islām had advanced, despite longing and despite thirst. Their thirst was now quenched and it grew and grew and its light shone, more and more. Yes, the people of Tādmakka hastened to absorb the teachings of the Sharīʿa law with a wish for certainty and for perfection. No wonder that those who grasped it were surnamed in the traditions of their venerable forefathers of al-Islām as those of the ‘new Mecca’. They believed, without dissimilation, and they embraced the teachings of the faith until they had confidence and trust in what it had been marked with (uwkita ʿalayhā), nay, rather, it gave birth to a military character

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to the branches of learning and from it, its tide poured forth and watered the country and it transformed death into life. It flourished and flowered, whilst aromatic plants were grown above the hills and on the verges of the oases. It was some time before there came into being the most famous of the strongholds and Islamic centres in the Sahara of the Tuareg. They, its people, were the bearers of jurisprudence and the brothers of orthodoxy (al-sunna) and the enemies of innovation. It was just as Ibn ʿIdhārī alludes in his saying, ‘Verily, they are from those who aided ʿAbdallāh b. Yāsīn to spread the orthodox faith and to subdue heresy in their homeland’. Their circumstance only came about after their migration and their distribution, clan by clan, amongst their tribes in the neighbouring countries. They were the first who carried al-Islām to them. The scholars of al-Islām have not disagreed amongst themselves in regard to the arrival of al-Islām in Tādmakka in the first century [of the hijra]. There is only recorded a ‘plethora of sayings’ as to who it was who first carried to it the good news of true guidance and who bore the torches of the faith. Was this through ʿUqba b. ʿĀmir al-Qurashī, as is the case in some of the reports which were stated clearly by the scholar, the noble al-Idrīsī? The reports were faulty, from both aspects; the first of these, were it to be corrected, that ʿUqba b. ʿĀmir was al-Juhanī and not al-Qurashī, and secondly, that he did not go further than al-Qayrawān, in the territory of Tūnis, at that time and that he did not know who were the commanders in the conquest of the Maghrib. One is faced with a quotation that is quoted on the authority of Abū’l-Ḥasan al-Ṣaghīr, in his commentary of al-Barāʿziyyī. He informs us that the town of Tādmakka was conquered at the hands of the famous conqueror, ʿUqba b. Nāfiʿ al-Fihrī and at that time it was an immense town having a population that was beyond estimation. He stayed there until he stabilized it. He built mosques in it and he dug wells there. It was said that the total number was AYQSH (1111).17 Then he left it and he left behind there a group of the Companions of the Prophet, whether they be Emigrants (muhājirūn) or Companions (ṣaḥāba) and they settled within it and they gave birth to a noble progeny. They were the ancestors of the Kel-Essouk and the author of this quotation that said within it their tombs were still to be found. The narrative, as you may see, is full of errors and the noble shaykh may have thoroughly studied it and had then attached it, through investigation, though with weaknesses, within a number of pages of the content, and had ended up

17

There is a mathematical inconsistency in the original text, as AYQSH in abjad numbering is 176, not 1111. We have not been able to resolve this.

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with all that was within this citation, in respect to al-Sūq, and its province. He had been confused there with what he knew of the town of al-Qayrawān. Perchance what had been quoted about it, in the first instance, was based upon al-Qayrawān, and that he had then added that al-Sūq, at that time, was one of its provinces. The same was confused later by the copyist on the grounds of its greater applicability, and so he had attributed to al-Sūq what was known of the settling of the Companions in al-Qayrawān, together with the building of mosques, and the settling of their progeny, and so on, to the slaying of ʿUqba b. Nāfiʿ by Kusayla … etc. … and thereby he had ‘steered’ the case of the conquest of al-Sūq to this source, whereby, ʿUqba b. Nāfiʿ had conquered a town with strong ties and connections between it and the territory of al-Sūq, ties with towns, such as those between al-Qayrawān, and Ghadāmis and Kāwār (Khāwār), which is in the border district of Niger, today, with Libya, and with the Hoggar (Ahaggar) [in Algeria]. When al-Islām was common in this town, their brethren of the people of alSūq, who were linked to them, received the faith willingly and obediently, and the al-Islām of all of them was linked in lineage with ʿUqba b. Nāfiʿ; he who was the prime cause of it, and it ended up by his prime victory being carried into the depths of the Sahara and, secondly, to the populated area of Ifrīqiyā as far as the Atlantic. The third narrative is linked to the shaykhs of the town. It was cited by Muḥammad b. ʿAlī, citing Shaykh Kalās18 who was from the family of Iderfan, namely that their Islāmisation was due to an army which was sent by ʿUmar b. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz to the Maghrib by an unnamed commander of that army, nor did he name its date. This is possibly more correct than its predecessor, according to the Shaykh, taking into account that ʿUmar b. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz, when he became Caliph in the year 99AH [717AD] empowered and charged Ismāʿīl b. ʿUbaydallāh to go to war in the Maghrib and to impose the land tax in the month of al-Muḥarram in the year 100AH [3 August 718AD]. The Berbers praised his campaign. All of them had been converted to alIslām. The truth has come to me that what is correct in respect to the Islāmisation of al-Sūq is his opinion, and that it was the case as far back as the first century of the hijra. Thereby, the accounts that they possessed were handed down, though they were varied in specifying the route of its arrival with any precision. The paths whereby al-Islām was propagated in the country of the Berbers were numerous, either through the Conquest, or snatched from the

18

‘Cheikh Ben Djellas’ according to Maurice Benhazera in his Six Mois Chez Les Touareg du Ahaggar, Algiers, 1908 AD, pp. 220–223.

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brethren in obedience, or at the hands of missionaries who spread al-Islām, and jurisprudence, and the Arabic language. Al-Sūq in the Written Records of the Authors of Ancient Times It would appear, from the results and the conclusion of the study of antiquities, read and observed, that this city continued, during the fixed passing of time, to be a ‘lighthouse of learning’ and a mighty fortress of power at the crossroads of a network of communications of major towns either in the Maghrib or in the Western Sūdān. Writers amongst the early historians who paid it a visit, or who were contemporary with it, included the qāḍī ʿIyāḍ,19 in regard to the Mukhtaṣar of Muḥammad b. Mawwāz, who lived during the third century AH [tenth century AD]. The former mentioned that he had taken a complete account from him, at first hand, from the people of Tādmakka, while Ibn Farḥūn, in his Dībāja (‘brocade’), page 233, the final preface of the biography of Ibn al-Mawwāz, said that the people of Tādmakka had taken the entire book from him, and he too was from the people of the third century AH [tenth century AD]. After these two, Ibn Ḥawqal added, for our information, that its kings were the Banū Tānamāk and that amongst them were leadership and learning, and also jurisprudence, and administration, knowledge of the campaigns of the Prophet and proficiency in tradition and in history.20 This statement will suffice in conveying the degree of the strength of the academic vitality in the town of al-Sūq, Tādmakka, during a period that did not yet approach, time-wise, the birth of Timbuctoo, and its age, apart from the third seat of learning in the region of Mauritania (Shinqīṭ). It will suffice him who is immersed in knowledge within the levels of the classes in the city of Tādmakka at that date, and what followed it, that learning even embraced the ruling royal family and that amongst them there were scholars, and traditionalists (muḥaddithūn) and jurists ( fuqahāʾ), and that within all were included the encouragement of scholarship in the Sharīʿa and regard for what prompted and lifted the rest of the segments of the society to be joined with it in the gift of a superior status. It was to continue amongst them to the degree that the meaning of the term, ‘al-Sūqī’ was to become synonymous with ‘the lordly and the ideal scholar’. The latter was to possess and to echo the same repute as was the title of ‘al-Azharī’, in Cairo, in the minds of the entire region. 19 20

Kitāb al-Madārik by the qāḍī ʿIyāḍ, p. 407. Compare with the Dībāj of Ibn Farḥūn, p. 223. Sūrat al-Arḍ, by Ibn Ḥawqal, Dār al-Kitāb al-ʿArabī, p. 102. On Ibn Ḥawqal, cf. Nicholson, Literary History, p. 356.

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Al-Bakrī says, in regard to the town, that Tādmakka is the town that is nearest in likeness to Mecca, the ‘town of the world’.21 The meaning of the name, Tādmakka, is ‘like unto Mecca’ [in the Berber language].22 It is a large town, situated between mountains and gorges, and it is more beautiful in its building than the city of Ghāna and that of KawKaw (Gao) … etc. … Al-Bakrī also made mention of al-Islām amongst the people and he praised them and their works, and their appearance and their manners and their quality of life, and their clothes, and the outward appearance of their kings. He mentioned that their currency was named ṣalʿ, ‘baldness’, because it was unstamped and of pure gold, and, in regard to the cause for the town being named Tādmakka, a story tells that Meccan pilgrims from the Maghrib passed through it on their way back from Mecca, and they beheld it just as al-Bakrī has described it. Hence, they said, ‘Tādmakka means “this is Mecca”, by way of the close resemblance of its natural appearance and its location’. See al-Rawḍ al-Miʿṭār fī Khabar al-Aqṭār, to quote: Tādmakka is in the Sūdān, and it is the town in the world that most resembles Mecca, may God the Almighty exalt it. The meaning of ‘tād’ amongst them is ‘appearance’, that is that it resembles it in its appearance. Its position is unassailable and it is large, lying betwixt mountains and gorges and it is beautifully built and is better than the city of Ghāna and of Kāghū. The people of Tādmakka are Muslim Berbers and they wear face veils just as do the Berbers in the Sahara. They eat meat and they drink milk, and they consume grains that the soil grows without any labour,23 and millet and other cereals were brought to them from the Sūdān.24 They wear dyed garments made of cotton and wool and from other materials. Their king wears a red turban and a yellow gown. Their dīnārs are called ṣalʿ because they are made of unstamped gold. Their womenfolk are of surpassing beauty unmatched by any other land. Between Tādmakka and Ghāna are some fifty stages and between them there are towns and whole constructed units of the Sūdānese and the

21 22

23 24

al-Muʿrib lil-Bakrī (the ‘Muʿrib of al-Bakrī’), p. 181. Tăddu/Tidet in Temasheq, according to Ghubayd agg-Alăwjeli, has the sense of ‘vrai’, i.e. ‘true’, ‘real’ and ‘veritable’, hence a simple ‘likeness’ has a much deeper significance, implying a ‘virtual identity’, and more than a simple ‘twinned’ relationship. al-Rawḍ al-Miʿṭār fi Khabar al-Aqṭār, Vol/Part 1, p. 128. Ibid., p. 129.

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Berbers (see Ṣubḥ al-ʿĀshā).25 The fifth kingdom of the Maghrib is in the Berber mountains. Al-Bakrī said in Masālik al-Abṣār that in the southwest, between the kingdom of the shore (barr al-ʿudwa) and Mali, together with what is with it from the land of the Sūdān there are three Berber kings of the ‘white race’. They are Muslims. They are the Sulṭān of Āyar (Ăyăr), and the Sulṭān of Damūnasa (Damūshūh) and the Sulṭān of Tādmakka. Each one of them has an independent kingship and they rule alone and none of them rules another. The greatest of them is the King of Āhīr [Aïr in Niger]. Their dress is akin to that of the North Africans. They wear loose outer garments with sleeves that are slit in front, though narrower, and their turbans cover the lower jaw. Their mounts are camels, not horses, in their land, and the Marīnid has no rule over them, nor to the sovereign of Mali and they are few in powers. He quoted al-Shaykh ʿĪsā al-Zawāwī who said that theirs were the mountains that are inhabited and abundant in fruits. He mentioned that what the three kings possessed was equivalent to half that possessed by the King of Mali amongst the kings of the Sūdān, or, a little less is more likely, but the ruler of Mali has more in what he obtains of monies that are due to his possession of the ‘Land of Gold’, and by what wares are sold in his kingdom, and of the booty that he has seized in raids from the infidel countries due to his proximity to them, as opposed to them. They have no grasp that may extend to acquire gain, nay, rather, to take possession of their wealth in cattle. Then he said that this side of what lies between them, and Marrākush, within the land of Morocco, are the mountains that are home to the Maṣmūda tribes. They are a population too many to be numbered, and they boast of their courage and their noble nature. Next, he mentioned that they are not subjects of any Sulṭān, save of the Sulṭān Abū’l-Ḥasan al-Marīnī. They entered beneath the yoke of obedience to him on condition that they would not appoint a king to lead them and would not deliver their country to him, and in all circumstances they were with him whether in health and in sickness. This agrees with what was said by the author of the Ḥulal al-Mawshiyya [al-Muwashshah] that ‘history has not recorded that these people ever turned their backs, even once’. Muḥammad Ṣāliḥ Manṣūr, in his book, The Connections between the Almoravids and the Party Kings (pp. 32), [says] that ‘there is a jointly held distin-

25

Ṣubḥ al-ʿĀshā lil-Qalqashandī (‘Ṣubḥ al-ʿĀshā’, by al-Qalqashandī), Vol/ Part 5, p. 204.

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guishing mark between the tribes of the veiled Ṣanhāja. However, in fact, those amongst the Tuareg, especially in the past, were not ignorant and they sipped the cup of destiny more deliciously and easily amongst themselves than submission to the quick glance at the facility of geography’.26 To quote: At the western limit of Lūniya mountain,27 betwixt mountains and valleys, is the town of Tādmakka. It is known by the travellers and mentioned in books. Its people are Muslim Berbers who are greatly engaged in commerce and in travel to the Sūdān, and it is located to the side of the mountain and in the north of the line of the Second Clime where the length is forty-four degrees and minutes. At the end of this part on the eastern side are the southern oases, and most of them are desert tracks amid which are islands of date palms in the sand dunes, and the majority of its watering holes are not of sweet water.28 In regard to Tādmakka, he says that tād means ‘form’, though the matter is not so, however, tād means the expression, the articulation, that denotes ‘this’. Whoever refers to al-Rawḍ al-Miʿṭār will find that some of these facts have been quoted by al-Ḥimyarī. He cites al-Bakrī. The error found is not his. The sole one is that he had confidence in what he read as his source. However, the error is spread through copying and by conveyence. The errors of al-Ḥimyarī, himself, are deemed as acceptable by the one who transmits from him, in addition to the errors of others:29 Tādmakka is in the Sūdān and it most resembles the City of the world, i.e. Mecca, may God the Almighty exalt it.30 The meaning of tād, in their language, means an ‘appearance’, namely, it matches the ‘appearance of Mecca’. It is an inaccessible place, large and located, between mountains and gorges, and it is better built than the cities of Ghāna and Gao. The people of Tādmakka are Muslim Berbers. They wear the face veil as the Berbers in the Sahara desert region do and their subsistence is meat, and milk, and cereal which the earth produces without labour, and millet is brought to them and other cereals from the Sūdān.31 They wear dyed clothes of cotton and

26 27 28 29 30 31

Vol/Part 1, p. 21. Ăyăr? [The above is quoted from] al-Rawḍ al-Miʿṭār fi Khabar al-Aqṭār by Ibn ʿAbd al-Nūr alḤimyarī, Vol/Part 1, p. 13. Al-Rawḍ al-Miʿṭār fī Khabar al-Aqṭār, Vol/Part 1, p. 14. Ibid., p. 28. Ibid., p. 129.

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wool and from other commodities. Their king wears a red turban and a yellow dress and their coinage is called al ṣalʿ because it is pure and unsealed. Their womenfolk are extremely beautiful and they surpass the beauty of women elsewhere. Between Tādmakka and Ghāna are some fifty stages and between them are situated towns and settlements of the Sūdānese and the Berbers.32 The town of Tīraqq[kk]ā is in the district of Ghāna in the Sūdān. It is a large city. It possesses crowded markets where many nations assemble from varied countries from Ghāna, and from Tādmakka.33 The town of Tīraqqā is locted on the river Niger (Nile), and from thence the latter turns southwards. Adjacent to Tīraqqā, to the south, is the town of Tādmakka. This is also from the country of the Sūdān.34 Ghadāmis is at seven days distance from the Jabal Nafūsa. It is a pleasant, ancient and eternal town. To it is connected, by name, the Ghadāmisī hide. In it are found catacombs and caves that were prisons of the Kāhina Queen who was in Ifrīqiyā. These caves were constructed by the ancients. Within them there are curious buildings and long, oblong and complex underground chambers that cause worry and puzzlement to the beholder who ponders them. They show that they are antiquities of past kings and nations that have perished, and that the land was not deserted, and that it was fertile and inhabited. The bulk of the food that they eat is dates and truffles. The latter grows to a great size in that country until both jerboas and rabbits adopt them as compartments. It is from Ghadāmis that one enters the country of Tādmakka and other towns in the Sūdān.35 The distance between it and Tādmakka is akin to that of the former with Ṭarābulus (Tripoli). It is possible for us, in our turn, to give a greater weight to this explanation, and especially because we know that what happened afterwards in this aforesaid span of time, namely the close of the fourth century AH [eleventh century AD], when the Kingdom of Ghāna acted threateningly against Awdaghust, the capital of the Ṣanhāja Berbers. It was in order to seize its rulership in the aforementioned method. This had the effect of pushing the Almoravids into unifying their ranks in order to face this threat. In fact, the Almoravids were enabled to take possession of Awdaghust, and to snatch it from the king of Ghāna, as was known in the year 469AH [sic, 448AH/1054–1055 AD].36

32 33 34 35 36

Ibid., p. 145. Ibid., p. 146. Ibid., p. 427. Journal of Arab History, Part 1, p. 77. Journal of Arab History, Vol/Part 1, p. 82.

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In a similar manner, al-Bakrī held the view that the distance that divided Wārijla (Ouargla) and Tādmakka was approximately fifty days, and between Tādmakka and Gao (Ghāw) was ten days. Ibn ʿIdhārī has indicated that it was they who had helped ʿAbdallāh b. Yāsīn to spread the Sunna and to eliminate heresy in their homeland. It has come to our notice that Tādmakka was influenced by the Almoravids, in the heart of the Sahara, and that, to some extent, it submitted to the state of the Banū Marīn, although it nevertheless retained its independence. It has been mentioned that it was one of the chief kingdoms in West Africa between the eighth century AH/fourteenth century AD and the tenth century AH/sixteenth century AD. After that, its echo of fame decreased, and it suffered from a state of senility and decline so that its personality vanished. However, its name remained to shine and this spread in the choice of the élite amongst men of learning who watched over and cherished those traditions through raising the banner of knowledge, embracing them and perfumed by their innate peculiarities, until, even though, in the town, they had no kith and kin of importance, they were acquainted with scholarly portrayal and attitude. That was its mark and the token of its continuation. The Cause of Its Destruction The historical facts go back to a date that fixes the ruin of Tādmakka to the ninth century AH [fifteenth century AD]. There are accounts that do not stand up to microscopic examination and to criticism. These trace its fall to exterior forces. The closest to the truth is that its ruin did not take place on account of the extended hand of any individual, but rather it goes back to factors of severe drought, and a succession of dry years, and to economic causes, namely the disapperance of the gold that is regarded as the revenue and which was brought to it by commercial caravans that were linked to it; hence the town’s isolation, and the population shift away from it following the desertification of all supports and facilities of life there. It is common knowledge that any civilisation that has arisen at a far distance from water aquifers will not survive. Life is water. Due to the absence of this living element that is regarded as the elixir of life, and the secret of existence, is made manifest, namely to dry up and to waste away, and after there comes death and extinction. Such was said by the historian of the district, the scholar, Shaykh b. Saʿd al-Dīn al-Sūqī al-Idrīsī, in his comprehensive work about this subject. It is closer to the truth than that a single individual had brought about the ruin of this city. Rather, what had caused the departure of its people was the desertification of its location in the Sahara. So much drought, and the discontinuance of mer-

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chants and commerce, and of all its facilities, and a poverty of gold that had reached them on account of it all had been the cause of its demise. The Evolution of the Meaning of the Agnomen ‘Al-Sūqī’ Tādmakka, in its origin, was a kingdom of wide expanses and of many peoples, of tribes unaccountable in number in past ages. The noble shaykh, Ibn Saʿd al-Dīn al-Sūqī mentioned, quoting Ibn Ḥawqal, who visited it in the fourth century AH/tenth century AD, that he had enumerated them in a chapter that he had devoted to the names of the tribes of the Ṣanhāja. In all amounting to twenty well known tribes only one of which has traces that still remain with us. Most have vanished from amongst them. They have either disappeared, or their names have been altered. Ibn Ḥawqal had said, ‘… though I have heard little information from their tribes, I have spoken the truth, since the country wherein they are assembled and the districts that surround them are a month’s journey and the scholars, in their reports, and in their accounts, and in their lineages have perished’. The noble shaykh said that ‘the tribes that he had named linked them in their ancestry to Tādmakka. Many of them became tribes in Ăyăr (Aïr) and of those whom he named, those that are left do not survive in having kept the same names. An exception is the tribe of the Īlaghmatan’ (the Īlalaghmūtan according to Ibn Ḥawqal). After the age of Ibn Ḥawqal, a mingling of peoples occurred during the heyday of Timbuctoo. Scholars came to it and so did merchants from Morocco and from Tuwāt (Touat) and from other countries that were linked thereto. Life was renewed by them after inter-marrying into the community. Tribes that were not-existant in past centuries came into being. The above is but a fleeting survey of the origins that formed the first basis of the town of Tādmakka, as a stopping place, namely one that was essential for intermarriage, and as a stopover for passing conversation, and a release for some who bore the name of ‘al-Sūqī’, or the people of al-Sūq, in more recent times. It was a house of ‘climax’, a halting at the ‘hills of the ruined habitations’, and it was a bridge, and on a trading route to it. Whenever the gardens welcome us, we say, ‘Aleppo (in Syria) is our destination and you are on the way there. In you there is pasturage for our camels, and for our riding mounts, and towards it beat our throbbing hearts. You [alSūq] are an associate of ours. We have pressed on in three stages, and via waystations, and so in turns, proceeding ‘step by step’, in its customary meaning, throughout the course of time. Ours is concentration on those unexpected happenings that may have befallen us, and for our victory in overcoming them, and, if there be a passing by other [locations] then something will remind us of you,

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‘Oh al-Sūq’ and its people, by their sheer otherness, and hence have been made known through their very contrast’. Al-Sūq (‘The Market’), in its dictionary sense and meaning, is clear, though here it is a proper noun that has been given to the former town, besides, namely Tādmakka, the ancient nomenclature. It has been discussed that the Ṣanhāja tribes founded the town, to which were brought together varied Libyan, Algerian and Moroccan groups. A mighty principality was formed, and then later to on there came many scholars and families of the ‘Companions of the Prophet’ (al-anṣār) and of the sharif s (ashrāf ). The title, ‘al-Sūqī’, is a widespread agnomen that is applied to all those who are associated with this town, even if it be the slightest connection. On account of the long time the term has been used, it has dwindled to becoming the agnomen of praise, especially of the learned élite (nukhba) of those who passed it by or who remained in its shade. Then it was repeated, and repeated, and was cleansed of its flaws after the curious tale of an experimental plan which its Sulṭān undertook to know who were the lordly scholars, in fact, from those who pretended to be such and who were merely cognizant of scholarship. It ended up with the success of men from sundry origins whom he had assembled and amongst whom he had put together qualities of perfection that were plentiful amongst them. Their most distinguishing features were integrity and sincerity towards God, and the promotion of His pleasure above their own personal wishes. The overwhelming majority of them were of Arab origin, or, to reach a completion amongst them, from the original people of the town. They enjoined one another to hold fast to the religion and to adopt an abstemious ethical code of living, of piety, and of the choice of contentment, and trust in God and to strive to gain the good. Thus done, those qualities would have become a very part of their personalities. When such were remembered and mentioned, then they too would be remembered and mentioned. From here, the agnomen, ‘al-Sūqī’, aquired a descriptive meaning. It triumphed over the lineal descent of those people, or those who were equal to them, and who shared those qualities with them, whoever they might be. The Class Categories of the Kel-Essouk In spite of the unity of the town and the confusion of the relationships between the Kel-Essouk, in reality all are the sons of one mother and different fathers. Let us assume that one mother is the norm, and that it ‘is’ al-Sūq, or Tādmakka, for this reason, they are classified into three class categories.

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The First Category The original inhabitants of al-Sūq were amongst those who had inhabited it before the Islamic Conquest took place. In origin, they were from the Ṣanhāja tribesmen who wore the face veil. The noble shaykh, Ibn Saʿd al-Dīn al-Sūqī alIdrīsī mentioned them. They are characterised by being included amongst the mighty as was customary in former times in al-Islām, and of those who clung to its teachings and as an example to many of their tribes in reference to their new locations. The Second Category They are among the descendants of those who spread al-Islām from those who carried the faith to this town. They mixed with the population and they intermarried among them and through them they formed an Islamic community among those who were scholars and pious folk. Those who prevailed were the ‘brethren of al-Islām’ over the ‘brethren of lineage’, for which they showed little interest, other than that they recollected that their origins went back to the Companions of the Prophet, without having written down, or recorded the way to tracing that source genealogically, save on rare occasions. In their view there was no value in the aversions that prevailed in the age of the Jāhiliyya, or in the glory of lineages, or in a cause, save that of the Prophet – the blessing and peace of God be upon him. In their esteem, and in what implicated them, was something that was far removed from (the Arabic nisba) ‘Tamīmiyya’, and ‘Āmīriyya’. Likewise, they had no need for the pride of the ‘Tuareg’, which was the title of status of their special relatives (i.e. maternal uncles) amongst them, by the mighty, and being people of victory and of conquest. Nay, rather, what sufficed them was by a special name of ‘the people of learning and religion’ (Ahl al-Sūq and al-Sūqiyyūn). Mention has been made of this in three ‘Epistles’ from the ashrāf of those who reached the region en route in later times. These were Muḥammad b. al-Hādi al-Sūqī al-Adrāʿī, in his book Naṣīḥat al-Umma, in the thirteenth century AH/nineteenth cenury AD. Earlier than him, Muḥammad b. Muḥammad al-Sūqī, who was known as Inalbush, and who lived in the twelfth century AH/eighteenth century AD. In the tenth century AH/sixteenth century AD, Muḥammad b. ʿĀlin al-Sūqī al-Idrīsī, had written in a letter, wherein he had addressed the askiyā Isḥāq: Know that the Sūqiyyūn were related in ancestry in origin to ʿImrūn, and to the market (sūq), which they attribute to him. It is a town in the Adāgh [Adrār]. This was the halting place of the Companions of the Prophet

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at the close of their military expeditions and they constructed settlements there, a great mosque, and an oratory, and they also built smaller mosques. They dug wells, therein, many of them to the total of ‘aygash’ (111 in their number) and they diffused learning, and they gave birth to their offspring there. Some returned though many remained, until he said, Verily, ʿImrūn is one of the offspring of the Companions without doubt, and their maternal uncle is ʿUqba al-Mustajāb. They inherited learning and the Islamic faith from their fathers, as occurs up until today – God be praised – and you will find a small child from amongst them surpassing the elders from other than themselves, as was the situation of their ancestors from the people of the Ḥijāz, and they memorize and they hold in safe keeping the categories of learning, all of them, and their religion has not changed since the time God brought them into existence up to today. This is on account of causes, and for this reason they are known in all the country. All who have witnessed the senior qāḍī, who was the unstained teacher, the likes of whom have not been seen in your country, nor in any other country, the meeting place of his learning, his faith, his equitable justice, the master of Timbuctoo, Maḥmūd – may God have mercy upon him – in the course of seeking justice, and in the seeking of his attestation (tazkiya), excluded, and exempted, the Sūqiyyūn. He declared positively, and emphatically, their trustworthiness and their equity, and he also said, ‘I shall not seek their attestation. We have tested them and we have found their stock to be pure and honest, following their ancestors in learning and in the pure faith’, … and so on, and it appears clear that he had turned his attention to this strength, and into cherishing their peculiar distinguishing marks of learning and purity of faith and to their return to their Arabian origins. ʿImrūn is the title that denotes those who are described as such, and it has been mentioned that the name of the Sūqiyyūn, in origin, only referred to them, though they have perished from among others than them, and none of them are now left – by God! – except from [and through], their daughters [the female line].

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The Third Category Those of the Sūqiyyūn who have inherited the nomenclature in recent centuries; this is the latest descriptive attribution to the agnomen of the Sūqiyyūn and it is prevalent among those who possess, and claim, Arabian forebears from among the ashrāf and the anṣār and others besides, who have stopped in alSūq in quite recent periods. It has been bestowed on many from them due to a generalization of the distinguishing mark, perhaps due to likeness, or to being related by marriage, as by maternal uncles, or by spending a span of time within its vicinity. As I have said, they are those, to whom we have alluded, on account of their descent upon and residing at its gates, those whose lineages were well known, and also their Arabian pedigree, and who occupied the leadership in scholarship in those districts, since the ninth century AH/fifteenth century AD, the date of the arrival of the second half of them, and, who, due to that, had acquired a renown in the exploration of knowledge in the district. It was they who were to enjoy the highest success. They enjoyed a distinguished place amongst the Sulṭāns of the country, apart from the other classes. They ruled with equality in religious and in worldly politics. They had continued thus until weakness and disorder had entered into the Sulṭānate of the ‘Imūshāgh’. This followed a war that was to last for ten years. In that war, tribes participated beneath the banners of their Sulṭāns, and their scholars, against the French colonialists. However, their religious energy, in that, even though it suffered the waning of the power that was provided by these offices to them, conversely it was to provide the spur to their teaching, to their guidance, to their issuing of formal Islamic religious opinions (iftāʾ), and to their sermonizing, despite a worsening situation, and one that was always going to get worse. God perpetuated scholarship among them, and labour, and these were to bring forth from them a goodly progeny, one to another. It was to contend for the breast of glory, and they were the ones who were to compete in noble acts and deeds. No wonder God had bestowed al-Islām in their midst during five centuries! They had in no way been changed, nor altered, nor had they been wearied, nor fatigued, rather they were, as one of their poets had said: We are a foundation for the religious sciences. Their basis is a scar, a mark made by the teachers who groomed us in the schools. They were the ones who handed grammar to us. Then, and there, they formed our thoughts before we had even dressed, and poetry and prose continued in what they wrote, lauding their origin, and yearning for their original homeland, and

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they were resigned to it, and they lowered and removed their ‘pagan idols’ between the ‘temples’.37 We assembled a host and we enrolled, enlisting our squadrons for the West, and we did so heroically. They were not with ‘Cannius’ [?].38 While he had surrendered in his impetuosity for the truth, and he had repented (irʿawā), we stood, resisting, between these Nisnās39 without leaving from the circle of generalization that prevailed in what had preceded us from the facts, clarifying some of the reality, namely, that the lineal attachment of many of those ashrāf and anṣār to al-Sūq had no purpose, save on the basis of sympathy for the neighbourhood, and not on the basis of certainty nor probability. They have bestowed a nickname, namely a characterization, over the neighbourhood, one that you have observed, like the saying of some of the ancients. It is as though the spider had sprinkled sand and had spun and woven a wrapped garment. It is a sort of mental sufferance in order to link the neighbourhood and the intimate environment (mulābasa), whereas the true reality is that it was Idrīsid and Adrāʿid families from Morocco that had settled in al-Sūq.

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The translation here is not clear, since the word also means ‘churches’ or, more likely, ‘frames of their saddles’. Text unclear here. Who are the Nisnās, in this context? In the text ‘Qanāʾis’ appears. This is nowhere to be found in Lane’s Lexicon, and although with the definite article, one suggests that it refers to the proper name of ‘Cannius’. The text also refers to the mythical ‘Nasnās’, or ‘Nisnās’ a little later in the text. With these ‘Cannius’ is clearly associated. The author would appear to be referring to the Classical ‘Cannius’ and to ‘Poliphemus’, whose debates and acts are presented in great detail in Two Dyaloges (c. 1549 AD) of Desiderius Erasmus, 1469–1536 AD. These dialogues were written in Latin and translated into English by Edmond Becke; the dialogues were printed in Canterbury, in the parish of St Paul. ‘Poliphemus’ was valiant and noble, and his was the name of a giant who was a one-eyed Cyclops, having this single eye in his forehead. He was a hunter. The author’s poetic choices of the ‘Nisnās’ in this context would appear to be in reference to the point made by Lane (Arabic-English Lexicon, p. 2785), where he quotes Ibn al-Raqīs who said that they are ‘of the son of Sām, brothers of ʿĀd and Thamood, not possessing reason, living in the salt-water (al-Ujāj) on the coast of the Sea of India; the Arabs hunt them, and speak to them, and they speak the Arabic language, and propagate one with another, and poetize, or versify, and name themselves by the names of the Arabs.’ Here, the context in al-Sūq is that of the Arabs and the Berbers. Similar fabulous people, alike in their description, are to be found in areas of Libya in the tale of the ‘City of Brass’, in the ‘One Thousand and One Nights’; this is within the context of the raiding made by the Arabs into the Maghrib during that story.

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In the days of the town’s first settlement and its last farewell, at the end of of the ninth century AH/fifteenth century AD, their Sūqī apellation was to be long drawn out as we have reported. For a descriptive meaning, this agnomen has swallowed it up, due to the length of its circulation, and, with it, the academic and religious distinctive character of it. In fact, it was the most distinguished of descriptions of these families since they first stepped foot in the Sahara, at the date I have alluded to. To it was attached a secondary distinguishing mark and this was referred to by Muḥammad b. al-Bakrī al-Sūqī al-Idrīsī. He was one of their chief men in the eleventh century AH/seventeenth century AD. It was in a letter sent by him to the amīr of Timbuctoo, who was one of the Pāshās of Morocco. In its content there followed, after greetings and compliments: In the first instance, I notify you that, although we were at a distance from Timbuctoo, and we were facing Gao in its desert, we have not removed our hands from your obedience and we have not counted ourselves other than being people of Timbuctoo since it is the homeland of our ancestors. I also inform you that from our community we are the shurafāʾ from the Prophet’s household and that our ancestor is Ibrāhīm b. Saʿīd b. al-Mahdī b. ʿAbdallāh b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Sharīf al-Daghūghī al-Marrakushī. Our residence in this country is on account of our mothers, and our maternal uncles are also from here. The latter statement was written in the middle of the eleventh century AH/seventeenth century AD, by the sharīf, during the duration of Moroccan rule in Timbuctoo. This sharīf made mention of their lineage to this chief, and that their relationship with the country was due to matrilineal descent and on account of geographical proximity. They persisted in their ardent use of their pens [in their compositions], putting at a distance anything that would cover up their true nature by the rule of kinship, and protection by neighbourship. Such were their wont and their custom, both their anṣār and their shurafāʾ, their scribes, their poets and their literary archive, one and all were full of that. Here is the speech of one of their ancient poets: Interrogate, in regard to us, one who knows us, in our villages, in the day of the exposition of the books. Are they the sons of ʿAdnān, or are they non-Arab? They will say, ‘the serious and the interesting amongst the Arabs’, ‘Are we a small copper coin or are we silver?’

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They will say, ‘they are the prime of gold, marked by time, or the choicest and the best’. They will say, ‘Through them, literature has been the support of the misers of time, or perhaps the open-handed?’ They will say, ‘through them, the aim and the object has been attained’ … Until he went on to say, ‘One of us is from Fihr in his ancestry, another from Khazraj, in lineage, with a distinguished descent’, and one of their poets, Ighlis b. Muḥammad b. al-Yamān, has said: The Sūqīs, even if their tribes be tallied up, are certainly ‘Yathrībites’, ‘men of Medina’, ill-fated, and of a deprived state amidst the prosperity in alSūq, since they have been so cut off there. There was no cook there, and no oil dealer, who was qualified for the art of knowledge, without exception, some participating, in the light of a lamp, with scholars, revealing to them the hidden things of knowledge and being aware of the procedures – his witness for the defence and for the prosecution. One of the prattlers amongst their men of good style, Maḥmūd b. Muḥammad al-Ṣāliḥ (‘the pious’) al-Sūqī al-Idrīsī, says: Verily, we are the sons of Yaḥyā b. Ibrāhīm, of whom an ancestor was our Idrīs, the bold, the shaykh of the Moroccans, whom you have heard of, the father of men, the honour that was above the infidels, We are the sons of Hāshim who was the lord of raids and the repeated charge, the son-inlaw of the Prophet, and the ‘sword of our lord’, ʿAlī, and upon his foes the thruster and the slayer, until he went on to say, ‘We were not created as strangers, in al-Takrūr, due to our lack of strength and where men were prostrated’. And in regard to their poet, al-Maḥmūd b. Yaḥyā al-Sūqī al-Anṣārī, ‘To God be the people of their ancestor Yaʿqūb, and the fillet of their right hand, Ayyūb’, both of whom were of the Anṣār, all lineally related from amongst them, in succession, in time: For them are offspring from each of the two branches, They possessed virtues that the unknown quantity reconned. They, who are they? A people, the élite of leaders and chiefs,

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and noble, each one of them was lamented and summoned. They were the heirs of glorious deeds, and they imitated their fathers. They conquered an asylum [?], an evil craving was overcome. Their poet, and their historian, al-Ḥājj b. Muḥammad Aḥmad al-Sūqī al-Adrāʿī speaks, enquiring about our ancestry, and he seems very ignorant (cf. hum man hum, ‘They, who are they?’). We have not made an observation about it. It was simply a mere absent-mindedness on his part! We are indeed from the family tree of the very highest rank, and from the crown of the Arabs, from the sons of Fāṭima, the lords of lords, the lords of understanding, the pure of the pure, from the tribe of the Messenger of God, and besides them, a group from the family of the anṣār, of al-Manṣūr, of alMukhtār, of the Banu Khazraj, and of the Brethren of Purity (Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ).40 Loyalty was theirs in ancient times. They did not waver and turn aside. They swelled in their number, and he who assailed increased in number as a people. They became associated with the family of Fihr and how, in might, their sons were to fight for ʿUqba b. Nāfiʿ, a forebear of theirs, the conqueror of the West, whether in the mountains or in the plains. Rhymed verses are witness to our Arab origin. We formed and fashioned them so, whereby our progeny would not complain of an utterance of incorrect Arabic, or the stuttering of words of a foreign language within them (lukna), – no indeed – nor blemish!41 The Internal Policy [of the Kel-Essouk] The religious establishment of the Kel-Essouk knew of the policy of pacifism and of retirement into a life of peace and tranquillity; hence they lacked being drawn into tribal disputes and into mutual alliances that had no basis in the foundations of the Sharīʿa law. They lacked any past association in internal wars and in squabbles and within that warfare that was never subdued among the Tuareg tribes before the time of French Imperialism. This policy of the tribes of the Kel-Essouk was widespread in Mali and it was to widen the influence of the men of learning, and of the faith, amongst these tribes in view of the status of the men of religion amongst them. As well as this, there was also an absence of acts of revenge and previous hostilities between 40 41

Cf. Nicholson, Literary History, pp. 370–372 & 388. An extensive section of the text that refers to claims and counter claims in regard to the Arabian origin of the Kel-Essouk has been omitted here owing to the length of the text, its personal and bitter quarrelling, and due to several mistypings and other inaccuracies and obscurities in the only text that has been made available for translation.

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the Kel-Essouk and members within these tribes; a sure sign that indicated that the Kel-Essouk had not precedingly joined in their alliances, nor taken part in their disputes. Their unconcealed pacifism did not arise from weakness, or, likewise, due to their submissiveness, but they found themselves in a geographical area that, at many times, had heaved ‘like the waves of the sea’. This was due to feuds and to raids, and they preferred to relinquish some of their rights. This integrity of theirs was, in a majority, the normal case, though it was not common in all circumstances and on all occasions. We should not forget that there was something which was to guarantee for them a safeguarding of this policy; this was through the support of the authority of the Imōshāgh [the imajɜghăn, the ruling class in Tuareg society]. The latter were the apex of the pyramid of authority in the Sahara desert of the Tuareg, and they were the support for the satisfaction of all who put themselves beneath their authority and especially those religious authorities which the Kel-Essouk represented. They, the Imōshāgh, were the defenders and the protectors of them in the face of unexpected dangers and in view of the position of the ʿulamāʾ and the judges among them. The historical sources speak of it as being the consequence of an agreement between the Sulṭāns of the Imōshāgh and the scholars of the Kel-Essouk.42 With the decline (taḍaʿḍaʿa) of the state of the Imōshāgh, it was to become the preservation and the protection of the Kel-Essouk in the state of Mali, as we know it today. The Foreign Policy of the Kel-Essouk Politics was by no means absent in the interest and concerns of the leaders of the Kel-Essouk. They did not shun nor ignore what went on between the herder (rāʿī) and the herd (raʿiyya). They disclosed a religious point of view on many situations before the chiefs of the Tuareg. They were not the diffident (hayyābūn), nor the cowardly (wajilīn/wijāl). They did not turn their backs upon what took place by surprise in that region. Nay rather, the man who is equitable and fair (munṣif ) will judge and decide that the bulk of what occurred in those historic stretches of time; agreements, and treaties and the correspondence between Sulṭāns, were the embellishment by ink wells, and pens of the Kel-Essouk and this is what has made the qāḍīs of the Kel-Essouk the interpretive instrument for the policies of the al-Imāzghiyya [imājɜghiyya] state in the Tuareg Sahara.

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See Conclusion, below.

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It is worthy of note that the historical facts, and the documents which we possess, are a record of the interest of the ʿulamāʾ of the Kel-Essouk in the future of their homeland prior to colonialism and up to the arrival of the advancing French. Some of the academic élite of the Kel-Essouk played an effective rôle in the administration of some of the emergencies that severely shook the region. The memory of Saharan history has preserved the practical applications of these scholars and of their religious rôle in the preservation of the unity of the country, even though, at times, the affair ended with the dismissal of some of the Sulṭāns who did not enjoy the competence sought for in a tribal administration of affairs of the country and of humanity. The scholars of the Kel-Essouk launched political and social initiatives in this direction and they convinced the Tuareg chiefs to accept these initiatives. Amongst such was the letter [partly in verse] of Shaykh Hārūn b. Muḥammad al-Idrīsī al-Sūqī to the Imām, Muḥammad Bello b. ʿUthmān Fūdi. In it he proposed his friendship. He sent to him the sworn allegiance of all the scholars of the Kel-Essouk, all of this being for the sake of his desisting from raiding their country. Here are verses from his ode, namely: To the lord of lords, the forebears that preceded him, to the noble shaykh, the son of the shaykh, and who is the shining landmark, to whom I have submitted, in this night, both the white and the black. We have bestowed praises on you, by God, to one whose mightiness is mighty, through what has been revealed of the ways, by the light of your lamp. I have sent, herewith, an everlasting allegiance that has come to pass on account of that which the hand and foot have performed … Historical sources have mentioned that one of their famous scholars was one who went to Agades in order to take from its prince (amīr/Sulṭan) his post, on behalf of the Ottoman Caliphate, which authorized, thereby, the appointment of the first Sulṭān of the Sulṭāns of the Imōshāgh, named Karidanna [KariDenna] b. Ashwad [Eschaouet (1650? AD)]. These facts afford a proof of what had come before of the concern of the ʿulamāʾ of the Kel-Essouk in the affairs of their homeland and in the defence of it.

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The Reformist Thought of the Men of Learning amongst the Kel-Essouk The schools (madāris) of the Kel-Essouk are not what are seen or are understood by one who has no knowledge of them. They were, and they continue to be, established as a scholarly, educational and inclusive project within all spheres of life. The fields of reform were not found alone on one side to the exclusion of another, but they embraced religious reform and educational reform, in accordance with possibilities that were afforded, likewise the dissolving of disputes, and in the counteracting of the problems which befell, through the spearhead of tongues, and also to root out cowardice, and to advise the leaders of the tribes of the Tuareg, with wisdom, by good spiritual counsel, and with the command to do good and to eschew evil; this from the moment of the setting up of this mutual alliance between them and the Sulṭāns of the Imōshagh up to the time of the French colonial advance. They have not in any way changed since that time. Practical Reforms The schools of the Kel-Essouk in the Sahara have mobilized all their strength and capabilities to conserve the scholarly and legal centres throughout the districts inhabited by the Tuareg and practical steps have been adopted to do that, the most important of them being: 1) The support of jurisdiction and the deliverance of formal legal opinions: These two sides come under two jurisdictions of those who are closely associated within the academic profession. As we have already said, in totality it is entirely approved of and sanctioned by the Kel-Essouk. It is they who have undertaken the same in the best possible manner in all the districts where they are located. 2) The financial side: This comprises the collection of alms and charity, of religious bequests and religious endowments (awqāf ). Moreover, it includes their administration and their distribution to the poor from these schools. Academic Activities Academic activity stems from the fact that it is one of the foremost precedents of the Kel-Essouk. This is due to the fact that their school is the muftīate for the guarding and the preservation of academic research and pursuit. Their men have spent sleepless nights and days, for centuries, in breaking new ground so that this school will remain the academic stronghold of a firm structure, and that it has strong pillars. It has remained a place of scholarly recourse that is unmatched in the Sahara of Azawād, other than that found in the school of

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the Moorish tribe of the Kunta [Kuntiyyūn/Kanāta]. These two schools were famous for their concern for the specialisation within all the disciplines that are studied amongst them. Educational Wish and Order The Kel-Essouk are eager and are covetous for scholarly attainment. Such is the ‘colouring’ from the Sharīʿa, and in its Arabian features, and for its concern for the teaching of the most important books in the school (madhhab) of Mālik b. Anas. Their schools conform to the education of the faculties of the students, and scholars, following along the path of the educational ‘stepby-step’ approach, and through the singling out of the school subjects that are studied. The Ties That Join the Scholars with Those in Authority The scholars of the Kel-Essouk are joined together with their rulers (Imōshagh), however they are also the link (hamzat al-waṣl) between them and the common people in the country. They hold positions with those who are unfair and tyrannical and such men were, and are, infamous. We shall not mention them now. It is essential, however, to be aware that the form of the authority within Tuareg society arises, in most cases, from the fact of being conquered and through force. There is no set down constitution, nor any fixed assemblies, except that the leaders of the Tuareg, in the beginning, were to enjoy a strong religious impediment that made it easy for the judges of the Kel-Essouk and their scholars to apportion the power and authority into two distinct parts, whereby the executive authority for the defence of the land, when dangers faced the country, was in the hands of the Imōshagh, and ajnother, that was judicial, whereby the Kel-Essouk were to enjoy all the legal facilities.

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Ghadāmis, Malāmiḥ wa-Ṣuwar (Ghadāmis, Its Features, Its Images and Its Sights), by Bashīr Qāsim Yūshaʿ Chapter 12 from Ghadāmis, Malāmiḥ wa-Ṣuwar, ‘Ghadāmis, its features (aspects), its images and its sights’ by Bashīr Qāsim Yūshaʿ (b. 1930, AD d. 1994AD). It was published in Misurāta, Libya, in around 2007AD. It was first published in 2001AD.

Chapter 12, The Tuareg Having spoken in regard to Ghadāmis [city], both historically and socially, I shall now attempt to give to the reader a brief account of the history of the tribe of of the ‘Tuareg’ who dwell within Ghadāmis, considering them to be a part [of it], indissolubly linked to the inner life of Ghadāmis itself.

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The Tribe and Quarter of the Īfōghās The Tuareg who inhabit the street of Żahra. Within Ghadāmis certainly stem from two tribes of the Īfōghās. They are the majority. The most famous of the two are the I(u)wraghen. Motylinski in his study on the Berber dialect in the Ghadāmis said, ‘The tribes (ʿarsh) of the Tuareg who intermingle as inhabitants of the town of Ghadāmis are, firstly, the tribe of the Manghasātin of the Azjer/Azgar Tuareg, and, secondly, the Īfōghās from the Azjer/Azgar Tuareg’.1 What has been found to be correct and dependable is that the Tuareg of Ghadāmis who are there, today, are the descendants of Faghīsī and the I(u)wraghen, as we have mentioned. As for the Manghasāten, they are to be found [today] settled in Derj, which is a town that lies 90 kms distance from Ghadāmis. The name of Īfōghās is derived from an animal, now extinct, which is called in the Tuareg language ‘fghs’ / ‘faghas’, this word indicating beasts of prey, such as the lion, the panther and the leopard. Those of former days said, – and it is well known – that they used to name their sons with names of savage animals such as the lion, and the panther and the wolf / jackal. 1 A. de C. Motylinski, Le dialecte berbère de R’edamès, Paris: E. Leroux, 1904AD, p. 252.

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In general, the Tuareg are a topic of disagreement amongst the historians in regard to their ancestry and in regard to [alleged] origin in an Arabian ancestor. Or, in the same way, being the closest, or not, to a Berber, or else, to an ancient Arabian origin [from the Ḥimyarites, i.e., the Yemenites] in particular. This is because the word tawārik, or tawāriq, is an Arabic term. It is connected with Ibn Khaldūn [the author of the History of the Berbers] – may God have mercy upon him – who said, ‘the conquering Arabs were those who dubbed them by this name’. A glimpse at his linguistic speculation about Berber origins, and his specifics, are [so to speak] a door into discussions about the ‘People of the Veil’ (ahl allithām), even though it would appear from what he says about those who dwell in North Africa, in general, clear prejudice and it reveals ignorance, at times. We shall cite what he has said about them overtly. Thereby, this will inform a reader about something that he remarked. Amongst these, he said, ‘Deep In the depths of the Sahara, in the region of the Sūdān, live other peoples from amongst the Berbers who do not [genetically] stem from those groups who have been mentioned already. These are the ‘People of the Veil’, who used to cover their faces with the face muffler. That became a dress that separated them from other peoples. The People of the Veil dwelt in the barren regions that extended within the Sahara where they occupied localities that adjoined the countryside of ‘Ethiopia’ [today, the Sūdān] and likewise the region that separates the land of the Berbers and that of the Negroes. These folk are deemed to be to be among the greatest migrating camel-men. It is this that singles them out from amongst the people of North Africa. They exerted an influence upon the remotest districts that were away from the hilly upland and from fertile countries. It was because they used to survive on the milk of she-camels and upon the flesh of male animals’. However, are they to be reckoned to belong [in race] to Botr, or to Barānis [amongst the Berbers]? Any response to this question is not an easy one since there are two distinct divisions of the People of the Veil. Those in the West are the offspring of the Lamṭa and the Lamtūna. They founded the dynasty of the Almoravids [the alMurābiṭūn]. In their lineage they are ascribed to the body of the Zanāgha in Morocco, since they have made mention of their relationship to the Ṣanhāja. Hence, they stem from the Barānis. However, the eastern ‘People of the Veil’ stem from the Hoggar. They are the tribe of the Hawwāra (Huwārra) who were famous, a people of note at the commencement of the Arab Conquest. It is certain that the Banū Hawwāra came from Cyrenaica (Barqa), in Libya.

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They played a role, their name being related to and centered in Tunisia and within the Aures [mountains]. Hence, they stem from the Botr, the brothers of of the Banū Nafūsa and the Lawāta. The genealogists have plunged [deep] into a chain of complicated intermarriages between the two groups in a manner that is unreliable or is untrustworthy. Even so, there are fundamental aspects that enable us to be confident and reassured and to find solace and wherein to take refuge. All the ‘People of the Veil’, whether they be ‘easterners’ or ‘westerners’, are the sons of ‘Taskī the lame’. The latter was a woman from Botr and descended from Madghis. She was associated with one of the Botr, and then, after him, with the Barānis. She was the original ancestress. First and foremost, the ‘People of the Veil’ are the ‘sons of Taskī the lame’. This affair is both peculiar and complex. However, among the ‘People of the Veil’, today, there is a quantity of evidence and there are indications that point to the fundamental truth of this matter. When we sort out what [evidence] has been passed down to us among the lineages so we are enabled to reach a clear and major result which is precise, then we may conclude that the Berbers are sub-divided into three groups that are both large in number and distinguishable geographically, that is to say, they are derived from three sub-divisions wherein are found three ‘groups’, each of which are derived from three sub-sections wherein are found three ‘clans’ [or ‘tribes’] each one of them different. The Botr, the son of Madghis, has the Zanāta as the most important of their ‘tribes’. On the map, they were encompassed by the ‘People [the wearers] of the Veil’ in the vast Sahara, on the one side, these [people] being the descendants of ‘Taskī the lame’. [On the other side] their neighbours were the Algerian and the Moroccan tribes. They were mountain dwellers and their lineage and geneaology stemmed from Barānis. In this matter [we have] the observations of W. Marçais. He has explained these, through his scope and knowledge of the Arabic language. Marçais thinks that the distinction between the Barānis and the Botr dates back to the eighth century, at least, and he bases this view on the differences in attire which the Arabs observed amongst the Berbers during the period when they first came into contact with them. Amongst them were those who wore the ‘bernous’, hence the name ‘al-Barānis’ was applied to them. Amongst them there were [also] those who wore a shorter garment and hence they were named ‘al-Botr’ (from, abtar, plural butr meaning ‘cut off’ and ‘incomplete’). But how can we classify the ‘People of the Veil’ since their attire is wholly different from both the Barānis and the Botr? Marçais has said that this view is a wholly speculative one and is hypothetical. Here, let us point to the descendants of the Botr as being those who

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wear the bernous, today. It is worn by horsemen, hence this distinction made between the Barānis and the Botr continues to be hidden in obscurity until today.

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Summary [al-Botr and al-Barānis] We have to realize, and with some circumspection, that resorting to the ‘science of [lineal] descendants’ is, as Ibn Khaldūn so informed us, an attempt to discover the origin of ‘the Berbers’. However, we are unable to jettison and undervalue by [mere] rejection. We must hesitate and look hard at what the historian has brought to our notice. This is especially so because we are unable to cite the ‘biological’ sense of what is meant by ‘family’ in the context of another field [of knowledge]. In this case, it is the geographical field that we well understand has its significance. Our tardy and hesitant approach in this field is the fundamental cause of that obscurity that embraces the [entire] history of Muslim North Africa. Researchers have proceeded, step by step, to divide the history of North Africa into two parts for two thousand years up to the present day. Today, we speak about ‘the Arabs’ and ‘the Berbers’, and ‘the tribes’. In ancient times, they spoke about the Numidians and the ‘Maghribis’ (Mauretanians?) and, in the medieval ages, they coined the names of al-Botr and al-Barānis. To me, they are no more than distinct pairs; that of specific groups of the beduin, and for the settled population. Titles and terms have changed following a change of circumstances. In a following chapter I shall mention how the Zenātī al-Botr became Arabized and how we began to know how the emergence of the camel had brought about an upheaval, a revolution (thawra) during the age of the Numidians and of al-Botr. How, [too] we had wanted to ignore this ‘revolution’ and [had preferred] to cling to the heritage of the [distinct] personality of the al-Botr tribes. Of necessity, the history of North Africa must remain hidden in some darkness. It is appropriate for us to mention that the difference of life-style is not something that is peculiar to the al-Botr and alBarānis, since a large section of the Botr have continued to be as strangers to the sons of the Sahara. Then, the original tribe was considerably influenced by the [intrusion of a] new, and by an unexpected tribe. But | the Barānis, and especially those who are in the East, cherished their first connection with Carthage and with the Punic and Roman eras. That is to say, they continued to remain linked to an urbanized culture. They had embraced Christianity at a time when the Muslims first arrived. Many of the Berbers were Jews, or were heathens, as the Arab historians have informed us. How can we understand events, if we overlook the deep differences between these two clans for the inhabitants of North Africa?

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This last feature and characteristic is to be brought to your notice. It reveals a distinction within the existence of two ‘Maghribs’. Each one of them is distinguishable from the other, likewise style, quality, and fashion within its lifestyle. There are [for example] total differences in the style of building construction among the Botr, or the Zenāta, and so too, amongst the Barānis. We bestow the title of ‘tribes’ upon the latter. The first difference is that the tribal house is capped by a brick roof. The Zenāta house is equipped with a balcony, the same being a great indicator of the difference between the two. A balcony is a necessity in Oriental society where the women are shut away and they are secluded. In such a society, women do not enter the street. Alternatively, there is no possibility for the isolation of women, side by side, with balconies. Another difference that I have observed, having found it to have been overlooked, is that the urban dweller living within single properties amongst the Zanātī [on the one hand], and [on the other], the common way of living amongst Saharans may amount to as many as up to one hundred persons. Such dwellings [for so many people] are built from solid mud bricks, not unlike those [built] in Babylonia and in Memphis [in Egypt]. Even so, the architecture is remarkable. It is complex and it is outstanding. This is because the houses are composed from mutiple floors and these are joined together by paved steps. These latter are paved (muraṣṣaf ) with great precision. The house builders have made to perfection (itqān) balconies with bannisters. Down in the street there are roofed alleyways where passers by can sit and rest. Within the village there is found a market that is mixed in amongst the shops of the merchants and the artisans. There are also coffee houses and places to relax. Over this buzzing town, or village (al-Zanāniyya), a spirit of the beduin [who live beyond] hovers, as we behold the scene. It is the wish of the herder, who tends his flocks and herds for months at a time, to return to a secure place where he finds both rest and pleasure. He would not [dare] see his wife coming out of his house in a manner so that others could catch a sight of her. Usually, the house is the property of the noble trader who always bore a sword at his side. He was intensely covetous of his honour. Hence we observe the settled communities in Touat, or in Gharāma, or in Figuig. Their closest resemblance, on a far smaller scale, is to the city of Tilimsān [Tlemcen] despite the different standard of living and their potentiality. As for the collective inhabiting amongst the tribes, it is quite to the contrary. It is totally different. There the man in the tribe, in the village, lived a rough and an independent life. Even the [smaller] towns themselves, such as in Constantine [in Algeria], in Maydiyya and in Malaniyya, are only large villages. In their houses, a tourist takes note that the houses do not match, in respect to their structure and to their planning, Tilimsān, the capital of the Zenātīs, that Ori-

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ental pearl. One’s minds are flooded by thoughts [within it]. They never cease to hunt and to search, since anybody [and anything] is worthy of our interest. It is fitting for us to have [such] recollections of the al-Botr and the alBarānis. They fathered their families and their offspring a long time ago. Both they, and them, had their peculiar qualities and their individual features. These were quite independent, the one from the other. The Tuareg Some travellers have taken a [special] interest in the Tuareg and have described some of their customs and their manners and outward appearance. Hornemann has mentioned [that]:

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Those who form a part of the Ihaggaren are slender in height and in build and tending to be very tall. They walk in a precise manner, and they are resolute, their glance is a piercing one and they are addicted to war and to fighting. Their natural abilities are considerable and, in nature, their personalities are well balanced. The westerly tribes who are among them are light skinned, in colour, and their clothing may be described as being a pair of trousers that are wide and are blue in colour. They wear a blue smock the sleeves of which are broad and loose. They raise them up and they tie them together behind their necks so that their forarms are free. They wear a blue mantle. It covers their heads and faces so that only their eyes are visible. They wrap a belt around their waists. It is blackish in colour. It has been observed that their merchants arm themselves with firearms or with swords, with spears and with knives. In their hands, the Tuaregs | carry lances that are of an excellent manufacture and they carry a knife [or dagger] upon their left forearms.2 [E.F.] Gautier mentioned in his book The Sahara3 that the Tuareg have a distinct personality and that they are in concord with the Tubu over their attire, since they don garments of woven cotton that are black, or dark blue, in colour, and, like them, they wear the veil (lithām) that conceals most of the face with the exception of the eyes. None resemble them, save for the Tubu, as was mentioned in Nachtigal’s book. They have lived in a total isolation from the world over many centuries and they continue to cherish and guard their early customs. They polish stones in order to fabricate their rings and to make the 2 Frederick Horneman, The Journal of Frederick Horneman’s Travels, from Cairo to Mourzouk, London: G. & W. Nicol, 1802 AD, pp. 109–110. 3 La Conquête du Sahara, Paris: A. Colin, 1919 AD.

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connecting rods of their hoes. Likewise, Gautier commented upon some of their customs and he explained how the ‘face muffler’ with them is in no way connected with health in public. They only employ for superstitious reasons in order to keep away, from their persons, evil spirits [which enter] via the nose. The Tuareg go to extremes in their taboos. They do not eat the ‘varan’ [the waran, monitor lizard] and the sihliyya [Egyptian lizards]. They regard the matrilineal line of succession as a priority and this form of familial descent the entitlement to the leadership and to their respect. Those who have the [prime] right to the inheritance are the mother’s sons. They speak the Berber tongue and they write it [in their script]. It has its own orthography. It is called [by them] ‘Tifinaŕ’ [tīfīnār]. They always carry their hand dagger that was so described by Corippus. They are all that remains from the Eastern Libyans. One observes that what Gautier said was but an attempt to re-ignite chauvanism and to make a distinction between the Tuareg and the Arabs. We shall not touch upon this in the history of the region. It was within the plans of the ‘colonialism’ of the French who excelled in that respect. The mutaṣarrif of the Fezzan, Muḥammad Sāmī, had observed the intensive knowledge of the Tuareg womenfolk, known as the Iymanān, in both their reading and their writing. He recorded the same in an epistle that he sent to me, and to Tripoli, for the information data (maʿlūmiyya), the information that was stored [there] in 1911AD. In it he mentioned, ‘I beheld, with a total astonishment, the knowledge of the ināth, namely the womenfolk, in general, in both reading and writing within the tribe of the Iymanān within the Tassili mountains in Ghāt. It is revealed from a [treasure] store of antiquities, from | the dams, and from the ancient tombs and from the cemeteries, in Ghāt, [revealing] that it was governed, as a city, over a very long period in time, and [it reveals also] that the calligraphy used was not Arabic letters, but it was in the Berber script. It was valuable, and it was expressed in tī-fī-nw [Tifinaŕ], while their [everyday working] language was the language of the Turks’. As for al-Ḥashāʾishi, in the account of his travels he extends his narrative to speaking about the Tuareg and [below] we quote a part of what he wrote:

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The scholar, wālī al-dīn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Ibn Khaldūn quoted the text which follows, here: The second category of the ‘Arabs’ are the Ṣanhāja who are the ‘People of the Veil’ (al-Mulaththamūn), together with an account of what happened to them in North Africa relating to their kingship and state

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from this category of the Ṣanhāja. They (the ‘People of the Veil’) inhabit the waterless desert (al-qafār) and the Saharan sanddunes and within the locations, therein, and beyond, and in the wild places since time immemorial. This was before al-Islām. None knows when it began. They went forth at daybreak into the districts that were fertile and there they found what they sought after and fled to hilly locations. Then [afterwards] they turned aside [from the inhabitants] from whom they had seized their compensation; the milk of the livestock and their meat. They cast aside the life in a settled society (ʿumrān) and they found their solace to being isolated, on their own, and in savagery through their right of conquest and through victory. They settled in the open country of ‘Ethiopia’ (the Sūdān), this being their neighbourhood, and they inhabited what lay between the country of the Berbers and the Sūdān, forming a barrier, and they adopted the face veil, as the individual mark of a right of passage, and thus they distinguished themselves by this mark and as a sign amidst the nations. They multiplied in their number, so did their tribes, from the Gudāla, the Lamtūna, the Watrīka, the Nawāka [?], and the Zaghāwa [?], then the Lamṭa, who were brethren amongst the Ṣanhāja. Their [entire] habitat is the territory that lies between the Surrounding Ocean, to the West, up to the town of Ghadāmis, in the direction of Tripolitania and Cyrenaica. The Lamtūna have many clans; among these are the Banū Wartanṭaq, the Banū Zamal, the Banū Sawlān and the Banū Anāsata. Their homeland within the Sahara was known as Kākudam and their religion was utterly pagan (al-majūsiyya, like the Berbers of North Africa) until they accepted al-Islām after the Conquest of Spain (al-Andalus) [after 711AD]. The Tuareg enter the faith of al-Islām 323

The leadership belonged to the Lamtūna. A supreme authority was firmly held by them since [the age] of the state of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. Muʿāwiya al-Dākhil. The kings of the Lamtūna inherited it in succession; Tālākakīn, War-Takāban, War-Tantaq (sc. Warnataq), the grandfather of Abū Bakr b. ʿUmar, the amīr (sc. ‘the amīn’) at the outset of their state. Their deeds took place over a long period of time and they entered the regions of the Sahara desert. They fought those who resided there from amongst the Sūdānic nations. They compelled them to embrace al-Islām and many of them converted.

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Ibn Khaldūn said, quoting Ibn Abī Zarʿa: ‘The first king of the Sahara, from amongst the Lamtūna, was descended from the Banū Lawthān (Lūtān?). He subdued the Sahara, and he enforced and collected the dues that were imposed upon the Negroes. He used to ride forth amid 100,000 noble camel riders. He died in 222AH [836AD]. After his death came Balthān [var. Balūtan, Yalūtan] and he reigned over them. He died in 287 AH [900 AD]. He was succeeded by his son, Tamīm, up to the year 306 AH [918 AD]. The Ṣanhāja killed him and their authority was rent asunder.’ Here ends the quotation from Ibn Abī Zarʿa. Ibn Khaldūn goes on to say that, Amongst the most famous of them was Tīzawban and Inshaqq b. Bīzā. He ruled over the entire Sahara in the age of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Nāṣir, and his son, al-Muntaṣir, in 400 AH [1010 AD] and during the age of ʿAbdallāh, and his son, Abū’l-Qāsim from the caliphs of the Shīʿite sect. He used to ride forth amidst 100,000 noble riders and his realm was at a distance of two months journey. Twenty kings from among the Negro rulers swore allegiance to him and they paid him the poll tax ( jizya). After he died, his sons ruled though their authority was shattered after Tamīm b. Balutān. There followed an interval of one hundred and twenty years after which there arose in their midst Abū ʿAbdallāh b. Ytafawāt, who was known as Yanathiwāt al-Lamtūnī. They rallied around him and they greatly loved him. He was a pious, a religious, man and he, during three years of his reign, was kept busy, to the point of extreme exhaustion, in some of his raids. His son-in-law was Yaḥyā b. ʿUmar b. Talākākīn. Here ends the quotation from Ibn Khaldūn. In this context we single out for special attention these warrior Tuareg whose Tripolitanian actions were concentrated around Ghāt, Ghadāmis and the Fezzān. The title, ‘The entry of the Tuareg into the religion of al-Islām’, is the one that was introduced by al-Ḥashāʾishī. It did not accord with that which he brought to our notice, since he did not refer at all to their first adoption of the faith and when it had begun. Is this not the case? Then he said in regard to the Tuaregs:

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The words that are employed for the Tuaregs; they are three groups, the Azq[g]ār, the Hoqq[g]ār and the Ifūghās (Īfōghās), these are multiplied in thousands around Ghāt and as far as their original country. They are ‘wearers of the veil’ (referred to above), and for that reason you see them always wearing face mufflers, even when they eat and drink. We shall begin by mentioning the famous men who lived in Ghāt. All of them were men of action and were ones who administered them. The first of the Tuareg rulers was Inqidāzan. He was the ruler of the Tuareg and he was the son of the sister of Nakhmūkh who was the grandson of the Tuareg who had preceded him, Tākrūb. He was renowned for what he said amongst the tribes whilst he held the post of wazīr. Mawlāy was also a famous man and he was highly esteemed, [so too] Sīdī Muḥammad b. Nakhmūkh from amongst those notable men. Bināyat b. Mūsā was one of the learned men who knew the circumstances of the Tuareg. Ḥamīdtu b. Bū Wafzān, likewise, also al-Shaykh Muḥammad b. Ibrāhīm. These were the leading men of the Tuareg who commanded the Advisory Council and upon whom the power to ‘loose and to bind’ (al-ḥall wa’l-ʿaqd) rested. Were a grave affair to befall within the tribes of the Azgar and the Hoggar it was they who took charge of the situation. Something about their character They lacked foolish men. They were slow in speech, nor did you behold one who shouted aloud or who raised his voice and frowned. It was uncommon to find one who was competent in reading and in writing. They showed a preference for, and honoured those men who were masters of learning and who were esteemed, and especially those who were adherents of the Sanūsiyya [Ṣūfī brotherhood] and those who called themselves al-Mushshāk4 with the meaning of ‘the independent and the noble’. Ibn Khaldūn said ‘The name of tawārik (spelt with a kāf ) is given to them on account of their having forsaken the truth of [al-Islām] during the first apostasy. Due to this, tawārik is spelt with a tāʾ [and with a kāf ] and not with an emphatic ṭāʾ [and with a qāf ] in Arabic.’

4 ‘Imajeghăn’, ‘Touareg noble membre de la classe des nobles’, cf. Ghubăyd ăgg Ălăwjeli, Lexique touareg-français, p. 126.

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How ‘Tawāriq’ is pronounced They pronounce [the name] with the Egyptian qāf and so do the people of Tripoli. Nowadays, they are Muslims and their language is Tamāshak and they are noble in intent and in their nature (khilqa). How the Tuareg mount and ride their camels They have a peculiar way of doing this. The heavy bodied person is unable to tackle it. Having placed a saddle made from a board, which they tie tightly above the shoulders of the camel, the Tuareg places his provisions and his weaponry upon the back of the camel, using equipment that is made from a goat’s skin which is tanned. He suspends his sword in front of him within the bow (qarbūs) of his saddle and he puts his feet in position separately upon the neck of the camel. He grasps the bit of the bridle (shakīma) with his right hand.

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How numerous are the Azger (Azgār) and the Hoggār? I am told by al-Sayyid Ayyūb al-Anṣārī that their number does not exceed 13,000 and that the total figure is said to be 9,000. The matter fluctatues between the two [numbers]. They exceeded this figure in 1300AH/ 1882AD. The cause of the decline is due to what took place in the country, and to the famine, and to raiding of some of the neighbouring tribes. The death rate increased amongst then and in 1301AH/1883 AD they raided the Tubu tribes.

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The general location of their land Know that [the territory] of the Azgār and the Hoggār, and the Ifūghās/ Ifoghas are mentioned [too], extend from the border of Tuwāt to the town of Ghāt and to Murzūk (Marzūk) within the sandy wastes and the barren mountains of sand dunes between which are found empty territories and uninhabited deserts. Their dromaderies As for the nobles, they ride swift dromaderies. The record speed that the dromadery attains is a three-day journey which is completed within one day. There is no precedent for that which has been quoted by some histo-

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rians that camels are to be found that are dubbed Mahāris al-ʿashariyyāt, with the meaning that they are able, in one day only, to travel ten days distance. This is simply a fanciful tale. Tuareg dress and attire As for their dress, the majority of the animal drivers, who are amongst them, wear a white shirt, or, occasionally one that is black in colour. They make the sleeves of their shirt very long indeed so that the wearer, if he does not lift it up, trails it along the ground. Instead he places it as a turban over his head, leaving the middle of his hair bold and bare. It extends from the nape of his neck to his forehead, reaching a thickness of five centimetres, and thy place a veil over their faces. There are few of them who do not wear charms and amulets around the neck and they compete with each other in doing this. As for the leading men they wear the tarbūsh upon their heads. It is red in colour and rises to as high as twenty centimetres. Such as these are manufactured in Tunis and each one of them competes with another in this attire. Horses and Livestock 327

As for their horses and their livestock, they are few in their number and they do not ride upon these animals. Their country, towns and types of house They inhabit many of the oases in the Sahara. Within them a type of date [is cultivated]. It is of a bad quality, such a type being called tawarghā, which they consume. They own sheep and goats and the rain is very scanty where they live. The largest of their towns is Adalī.5

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The Tuareg Families in Ghadāmis City; Shāriʿ Māzīgh (The Street of the Berbers) Shāriʿ Māzīgh6 street [in Ghadāmis] contains a number of families. Motylinski has mentioned, ‘As for the Banū Māzīgh, they are free men. Their ancestor is 5 Some elements of this also in the French edition, Mohammed ben Otsmane El-Hachaichi, Voyage au pays des Senoussia: à travers la Tripolitaine et les pays Touareg, Paris: Augustin Challamel, 1903 AD, pp. 172–184. 6 Ghubăyd ăgg Alăwjeli, Lexique, p. 126: Imajeghăn.

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Sīdī Yūnis and their ancestry is to be found amongst the Hoggar Tuareg and the slave girls of the Banū’l-ʿAyāt.’ I recall that in Māzīgh Street, one does not find any family that has the name of al-ʿAyāt, nowadays. There are found families that claim descent from a single family. They are the Banū ʿUthmān Hayba b. Zargīna. In origin they are from the Jālū of Awjila and there is the family of Shihāb, who are of Lebanese origin, and the family of al-ʿArabī who originate from Kuwait. Their first ancestor was named Muʿammar al-ʿArabī. He had come to Ghadāmis during the later period of the second century of the Hijra [ninth century AD]. There is also a family, called al-Faqī, who are the offspring of Sīdī Yūnis. Perhaps they were the ones who were mentioned by Motylinski, this, together with other family branches, for example the Timsāḥ (‘the crocodile’), Ibrāhīm, Hammām, Hamīda, Yūnis, and others. Most of these families have relatives who have settled ( jāliyāt) in Nigeria, Algeria, Tunis, Nefta and Egypt this aside from Tripoli, Benghazi and the Fezzan. Amongst the noteworthy who originated from this street within a preceding generation is Shaykh Muḥammad ʿAbdallāh Hayba – may God have mercy upon him – who was a shaykh, a man of piety, and a jurist ( faqīh). He was a scholar and a Qurʾān reader and a contributor to charities that still survive. He had a study circle within the Tandrīn mosque which is located within Shāriʿ Māzīgh. He died in Tunis in the year 1937, following a painful illness. The street is situated in the west of the ancient city of Ghadāmis and it is distinguished from the other streets by its lack of any outlet that link up with other streets. For this reason, it is a cul de sac. However, it is close to the two streets of Dhirār and Tāskū and it is not separated from them save by a few metres [distance]. For this cause, it forms a single entity, unlike Balqīn. Likewise, it is distinguished from the beautiful Shāriʿ al-Tūta, this being an open square in the middle of which is a giant mulberry tree. Its branches extend in all directions and beside it there are held celebrations and wedding ceremonies.

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Some of Their Actions, Their Characteristics, and Their Customs Amongst their customs is that a man in their midst does not marry more than one wife, according to the Sharīʿa. Their place of habitation is in huts made of skins [tents and shacks] which are bound together with reeds. They are excellently crafted and are constructed skilfully in a manner as takes place when a mat is woven. In their view, a village denotes a wādī with palm trees, wherein houses are built, either by using reeds or else by leaves that are bound together by means of a substance that combines pure earth and dust.

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The son of the king’s (āmanūkal) sister is, in their custom, the one who inherits the kingship. It is their wont, that if you, wherever, and whenever, alight upon them, and, if you do not show them respect and honour by the meanest of trifles, then you are one who is despised and shown contempt in their eyes. Many of them ask you openly even though it be for a mere glimpse of wealth and riches. The least of [your] gifts is that you should feed his belly. Their elders have no activities, nor industry, nor trade. I had a personal acquaintance with some of their chiefs, more especially when I was in Marzūq. I gave them some jars filled with jasmine oil with a little rose water. For them it was an esteemed gift … Next then, be aware that the Ifoghās tribes extend from between Tuwāt and Ghadāmis. They are more courageous than either the Azgār or the Hoggār, who are mentioned above. Among their leading men, men of word, of a standing ( jāh), and of influence, is one who bears the name of Abū Fīnayāt, and there are others like him. However, amongst the most authoritarian in status is a man named al-Karab. Abū Finayāt has maintained his control and his influence over the al-Shaʿābana [the Arab Chaamba]. They have powerful feelings and skills in warfare. However, they lack courage!

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[The quote above is from al-Ḥashaʾishi’s account] In order that the reader may acquire some knowledge of the history of the modern Tuareg, in general, I bring [here] some scattered pieces of information that I have gleaned from, and about, them. The Tuareg are called in their language Imuhāq,7 the plural of Amhāq.8 Their language is called, Tamāhaqat.9 It is a Berber language and they have an alphabet called Tīfīnāgh.10 Speakers of Shalha [Chleuh language], and that which is found in Ghadāmis, Nālūt, Iefren and Kābaw (Cabao), find no difficulty in mutually understanding them. It is possible that the dialects that co-exist in the Jabal Nafūsa, and as far as Ghadāmis date back in time to an original common language. The Tuareg, or the Imūhāq, are divided into five tribes; namely the Awrāghan, the Īymanan, the Iyajnan, the Imghāsatan and the Īfūghās [Ifoghas]. The 7 8 9 10

Ghubayd, ibid., p. 126: Imajeghăn. Ghubayd, ibid.: emajegh. Ghubayd, ibid., p. 126: temajeq. Ghubayd, ibid., p. 39, tafineq.

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total number of the Tuareg is not less than 3,000,000 individuals [sic]. They live in vast zones and they are distributed between Libya, Algeria, Mali, Niger, Morocco [sic] and Mauritania [sic]. In Libya they are to be found in Ghadāmis, Derj, Adri, Aw[U]bārī and Ghāt. Before the French occupation of Algeria, they had extended their influence in the Sahara where they lived. I shall shortly mention a little about Sulṭān Akhnūkhan and Sulṭān ʿAmūd – may God have mercy upon both of them. Authority amongst the Tuareg tribes, in general, is sub-divided into two; the spiritual and the political. The Azgār (Azjār) region was the centre of both authorities. When the district was partitioned, after the French entry into Algeria, it surrendered to French influence, whilst the other [unoccupied] land remained subservient to the Turkish authorities. Such was regarded as a part of Libya. Following the division, the political authority there was divided into two authorities, the authority of the Azgār [Ajjer] in Algeria and the other [Ghāt], in Libya. As for the spiritual authority, it is one of the rights [of the tribe of the Iymanān]. They held the office because they were the descendants in the lineage of the noble sharīf s. They took this name. However, the authority was matrilineal, in descent. The last person who assumed this spiritual authority was the late Amūd Muḥammad b. [al-]Mukhtār, who lived during the last years of the nineteenth century. He died in 1928AD in the town of al-Gharīfa in the Wādī’l-Ajjāl in the Fezzan. In power none was a rival for his authority. As for the political authority, it is within the tribe of the Awrāghan. They are to be found in Ghāt, in Ubari, and in Ghadāmis. They call the Sulṭān, the āmanūkal. The last Sulṭān among them [in Ghāt] was the late Abū Bakr ag Laqwā. He lived and died in Ghāt. He was succeeded by his brother, al-Khayr Khamdān. He, at the present time, has his residence in Awbārī. These two Sulṭāns were part of the inheritance of the two tribes who have been mentioned. It lasted a long period of time. It is said that the cause of it all was that the Tuareg tribes of the Azgār (Azjār) of Ghāt differed amongst themselves in regard to them and their [mutual status]. Their intelligensia then reached a consensus and they agreed that they would appoint a political leader from the tribe of the Awrāghan, and a spiritual chief who would be spiritual leader from the tribe of the Iymanān. Their grandsons have inherited the leadership until now, even though, currently, it is nominal rather than practical. Individuals amongst the Tuareg tribes honour and respect their āmanūkal. They consider him to be the spokesman, in their name, and they obey him in all that he commands and his word is influ-

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ential amomg them. He, in his turn, is the shepherd of their interests, he helps the weak and the destitute, and he defends their rights. It was their custom that when one of the two Sulṭāns died, the representatives of the tribes would meet in Ghāt and the lawmakers within the leadership would come there – the latter being elders from the sons of the Awrāghan tribe – well aware that the daughters’ sons were those who ruled over this authority. If the sons who were born to one mother were many, then they chose the oldest of them in age, but – [on the other hand] – if the mothers were many in number and each one of them had sons who were suitable and eligible to rule as Sulṭān, they restricted the right to the Sultanate in the oldest of the mothers. They regarded her as ‘the mistress of the just authority’ (ṣāḥibat al-sulṭa al-ḥaqīqiyya), and her sons as being the most worthy, above [all] the others. So they selected the oldest of these sons. When Algiers fell into French hands in 1830AD and France extended its influence further, the Algerian Sahara preserved and guarded its independence. At that time, Sulṭān Akhnūkhan, the Tuareg, may God have mercy upon him, was that person whose authority extended over that Sahara region, by his capacity as being the legal Sulṭān of the Tuareg. Colonialist France sought for a ruse whereby it could extend its own influence over the Tuareg tribes who ruled the Sahara, with its vastly spread boundaries, fully aware of its routes [though], at that time, the French were ignorant about everything concerned with them. France started to send travellers and explorers and they were quick to explore the Sahara, claiming to be travellers and tourists, and, on occasions, traders and men of commerce. But the Tuareg did not permit them to cross the limits that they ruled, regarding them as part of their homeland and with no right of anybody else to enter it without their approval. In vain [the French] tried to satify them by the aforementioned reasons. But when the French grew weary of that ruse, they sought for refuge in another one. This was to contact Sulṭān Akhnūkhan, himself, in order to fulfil their wishes and to achieve their ends. An official French delegation was formed and it sought for a meeting with Sulṭān Akhnūkhan. During the course of their gathering together with him they asked him to agree upon a treaty of commercial agreement between him and the French government that allowed them to pursue (muzāwala) commerce and trade within the Saharan territories of the Azgār. Sultān Akhnūkhan saw no impediement to the clinching of such an agreement because it effectively recognised from the Governement of France, itself, the independence of that district. With his acceptance, which began with the convening of the agreement, they asked him to meet with Napoleon Bonaparte in Algiers for the final agreement and for its signing. In turn, he agreed to go to the capital of

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Algeria to meet Napoleon, as the French had said. The Sulṭān journeyed from the Azgār and he was accompanied by al-ḥājj ʿUthmān al-Faghīghī, who was considered to be his wazīr and his advisor, together with companions from the French delegation who had come to meet him on his way to Algiers. A court that befitted his status accompanied him. But this āmanūkal resolved to return to the Azgār (Azjār) since he had heard whilst on his way that the Chadic tribes had stirred up feuds with the Tuareg, so necessitating his return in order to subdue it, and so doing to fill the gap left by his departure from normal place of habitation. He ordered al-ḥājj ʿUthmān to begin his journey once more and to him he delegated the completion of the task that was the cause of the departure. Upon the arrival of al-ḥājj ʿUthmān in Algiers, the capital, he did not find Napoleon there. The French informed him that he was present in Europe. The Governor of Algiers asked him to go to Paris where he might find Napoleon. In fact, al-ḥājj ʿUthmān travelled to Paris and upon arrival he was surprised to discover that Napoleon was absent. The French had prepared a residence in the city of Orléans for him and they provided him with every kind of furnishings for repose, rest and comfort. He stayed there for seven years awaiting the arrival of Napoleon. Whenever he showed some interest in a return to his country the French opposed him and they requested that he should delay and tarry longer. After this long period had elapsed, Napoleon returned to Paris, or rather so he was told, and al-ḥājj came to see him and the treaty was completed and concluded. After this he returned to the Azgār. The Tuaregs say that whilst he was on the journey his wife had become pregnant and she had given birth to a daughter who was the first person to meet him. She greeted him before anyone else had done so. The French did not respect this agreement. Only a short time was to pass by and then they carried out a raid upon the Tidikelt, which the Tuaregs considered to be a part of their own territory. The Tuaregs defended this region stubbornly, to the death, and many of them were martyred. A number in the French army were also killed. Amongst them was Colonel Valatris [Flatters], who was French in nationality. In this battle, the Tuareg entered into a series of wars with France. It lasted for many years and many Tuareg heroes and victims were lost. The French concluded it by the extension of their suzerainty over the entire territory of Algeria. Sulṭān Akhnūkhan died in 1302AH/1886AD, in a locality named In Zār. It is situated, at a distance of 200 kilometers to the south of Ghadāmis on the road to Ghāt. His tomb is famous and it is visited. After the division of the political authority among the Tuareg tribes, as we have mentioned, the Sulṭānate within the Azgār (Azjār) territory in Algeria was

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invested in the name of the late Ibrāhīm Bakta, who was of Awrāghan descent. This Ibrāhīm made heroic stands against the French occupiers, and he lit the flame of the revolt in 1914AD. The revolt lasted for long years during which he expelled the French from the region of Djanet and from a number of other districts. In the end, the affair led to a peace treaty with the French. A meeting was held with the mandated committee of the French for this important event, in the Wādī Tārāt, in a location named In-Tabhā and it was signed by the aforementioned āmanūkal Ibrāhīm and by one of the highest French officers after the former had dictated the conditions that he wanted. These conditions were accepted by the French. Āmanūkal Ibrāhīm lived until he saw his country independent, and the intruding and wrathful armies had departed and clebrations had taken place and the festivities of the glorious Algerian revolution. He made an address within the gathered assembly in the Turkish language. Sulṭān ʿAmūd and the Siege of Ghāt Sultān ʿAmūd, who was the representative of the spiritual authority amongst the Tuareg was a descendent from the Iymanān tribe, as we have mentioned. He was honoured and respected, and he opposed the Italian raiders and attackers. He was the representative of the spiritual authority, if such an expression befitted him, since he called for the necessity of a jihād in the ‘Path of God’, and for the defence of the territory of Dār al-Islām. That took place at the moment when the tyrannical Italian hosts attacked the beloved territories of Libya. There had rallied to his banner, besides his Tuareg fighters, many of the Libyan mujāhidīn. A force of men, that was far from negligible, filled the ranks of these mujāhidīn. He took part in a number of battles which included the battle of Sawāni (‘watering holes’) Banī Ādam, and Funduq al-Tawghār, alʿAziziyya, Abū Kumāsh and other battles. He personally participated in these battles, the chief of which was in Nālūt. That was in the year 1922 AD, together with forces of the mujāhidīn amongst the Tuareg, as well as others. Among the most distinguished of the Tuareg commanders, who were with him, was the late Shaykh Ālah Jabūr al-Manghasātnī. However, the latter’s attack was repelled by the Italians. They, together with a number of their men who were extremely hardy and violent, outnumbered his and many of the mujāhidīn died. They had suffered severely in this attack. Yet, with great bravery they had caused fatal casualties amongst the Italians. The remainder withdrew to Sinaouen and then to the Fezzān in order to join the mujāhidīn who were present there. Sulṭān ʿAmūd stayed in the town of al-Gharīfa where he died in 1928AD.

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Turkish colonialism faced, in its later period, many revolts from national revolutions. These included the revolt of the Tuareg in Ghāt. Amongst the causes of the revolt were two sharīf s, Ḥamīd and Muḥammad who arose in revolt in the movement against Turkish colonialism in al-Shāṭiʾ where many citizens in the movement were killed. The two sharif s fled in the face of the Ottoman authorities. The latter undertook to pursue their traces having learnt that Ḥamīd was at al-Birka, a village not far from Ghāt. He urged the Tuaregs to send men with him | to fight the jihād in the name of God. However, the district governor (qāʾim-maqām) of Ghāt surprised him with a force that consisted of twenty-seven men with an officer. There they attacked the sharīf Ḥamīd in his house. When he tried to defend himself, they shot him with their rifles and they wounded him in the foot and then they abandoned him. Tales were told in plenty in regard to this battle, but it was a close thing since the people of al-Birka acted to defend their guest. This evil event in the town of al-Birka ignited the Tuareg revolt in the region against the Ottoman authority. They were joined there by a number of the Hoggar [Tuareg] under the leadership of their chief, Āg Bakr who was accompanied by Maghāta, Muḥammad and Takrūf b. Kalala, they announced their action and opposition to the state. They warned the qāʾim-maqām in Ghāt that the Ottoman garrison (ḥāmiya) should leave it and return to al-Marzūq or they would kill them. They also threatened to kill all who opposed them from among the inhabitants and the merchants. The Turkish administrator (mutaṣarrif ) of the Fezzān made haste, after the return of the messenger, the shāwīsh [staff sargeant], to despatch an additional force to Ghāt. That arrived, in a letter sent by the qāʾim-maqām, Muḥammad al-Ṣāfī, and Shaykh Muḥammad Akhnūkhā11 [sic] to the mutaṣarrif with the information of its arrival. The letter made clear the qāʾim-maqām’s fears. The text read, as follows:

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On Saturday, the 26th of the month, Rajab, we received your informative letter, with [information of] the despatching of one hundred soldiers from the Imperial Ottoman Forces (shāhaniyya) under the command of yūzbāshī Aḥmad Āgha, that, subsequent to the reports that brought the word that the Hoggar Tuareg had resolved to come in order to assault Ghāt and thay they were intending to summon the beduin Arabs. The troops despatched have now arrived and we are happy that they have come. Indeed, the confirmation of the resolve of the Hoggar Tuareg to

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Sic. The name of this Tuareg shaykh is otherwise variously spelled (Muḥammad b.) Akhnūkhan, Akhnūn, Nakhnūkhan, Nakhnūkh, Nakhnūn, Ikhenoukhen.

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come had [already] reached us from the tribes of the Manghasātan, who had received it through oral reports and by a written communication from Ghadāmis, this was because we, in accordance with your command, had stood by, watchfully, for a period of thirty days, with the soldiers in the reserve and [this] until you were to confirm the accuracy of the news. On account of what has transpired and has been conveyed of the appearance of this affair, we have halted the journey of the postal service and we shall despatch it to you on Tuesday, God willing. 336

The rebels besieged Ghāt and they prevented any fresh supplies being sent from al-Marzūq. The qāʾim-maqām of Ghāt wrote to the qāʾim-maqām of Ghadāmes on the 7th Shawwāl 1302 [20 July 1888AD], describing the situation of the suffering in Ghāt. He fully informed him of the gravity of the events (aḥdāth) that were taking place. He mentioned that that the number of those who were leaving was around two hundred souls and that they had said to him, ‘Let the soldiers of the Sulṭān, who are present in Ghāt, leave it, and let them go to the Fezzān. If they do not, we shall come to kill them in Ghāt just as we will kill the population and also kill the merchants if they stand in our way’. Their logic in leaving, yet opposing the authority, was made quite clear and plain. They said, ‘The town was ours beforehand. We gave it to the state in order that they could benefit from the state and to get assistance for what they wished for. Now harm and hardship have befallen them from the state, until the sharīf, who had found refuge with them, was apprehended by the state and then it killed him. For this cause, we shall fight against the soldiers of the state’. He [the qāʾim-maqām] commented upon the state of Ghāt following the siege: During the course of four days of history the town of Ghāt has been surrounded. Guards watch over it, at night, the soldiers and the common people are restricted and confined throughout the day. By night and by day they have been expecting to fight a battle [for survival]. None had slept for four days. Everybody placed his weapon at the ready. He kept it below his armpit. He stood ready for the onset of an attack. The evening before, some of the murābiṭīn came from the Fezzān and they reached al-ʿUwaynāt. They were accompanied by a number of soldiers and by hostile beduin to mount guard over them. When the news of the arrival reached the Maghāta who were subordinate to Shaykh Āg Bakr and his twenty-eight cameleers (ḥajjāna), they sent a camel rider to Shaykh Āg Bakr in order to inform him. He [in turn] despatched four cameleers to al-ʿUwaynāt and they said to the assembled company, ‘Kill the soldiers

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who are there! Seize the food supplied (qūt) that they have with them. If they are many in their number and you are not strong enough, then send a cameleer to us so that we can come to block their route at the place called Tin-Zūf. We shall kill them and we shall [then] kill the garrison who are in Ghāt’. The town of Ghāt is invested, it is hemmed in, nor is there to be found among the soldiers any wheat, I am sorry to say. The aim of the Tuareg is to kill the soldiers without fail. God Almighty will give the victory to them. This is important news. It is correct, and it is, in fact our own view.

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The siege threatened the population of Ghāt. Likewise, it influenced events that had a relevance for the caravan trade, for which Ghāt was a principal and a major centre. The caravan merchants, and especially the people of Ghadāmis, followed the news. They had deputies who were resident in Ghāt. During that period, Shaykh Muḥammad Akhnūkhan, the chief of the Tuareg, died in the oasis. The question about who was to succeed him to the leadership came to the fore. A clash took place between the Tuareg and the Shaʿāniba. Some of the caravan merchants were in danger of being seized within this [tense] atmosphere that had arisen due to the complete lack of security. There is a letter which is dated the fourth of Dhū’l-Qaʿda. It was sent by one of the merchants of Ghadāmis. His name was Muṣṭafā Hayba. It was [addressed] to his maternal uncle, Sīdī’l-Ḥājj Muḥammad al-Kilānī (Gilānī) b. Muḥammad b. ʿUthmān al-Ghadāmisī. In it he recited stories that reached him from Ghāt during that period. Within [it] was a letter sent by a close relative, al-ḥājj Muḥammad Ṣāliḥ, who was a resident there. The latter says: Our paternal cousin, al-ḥājj Muḥammad Ṣāliḥ, has written, begging for the mercy of God, to Him be the glory, from feuds and battles. He mentions that Ghāt, inclusive of its suburbs, is in [great] need. It is tightly surrounded and they are suffering greviously from the Tuareg, who have cut the roads, both within and without, on account of the sharīf who wishes to hold it secure and serene, and the soldiery. They have cut the roads and they have seized supplies for the garrison, and the monthly wages, even the cargoes that come from Tripoli have been impounded in al-Shāṭiʾ. Nothing enters Ghāt, even the supplies upon which the people depend and live by, likewise the individual who lives in Ghāt are deprived of their drinking sources in the water scoops (sawānī), nor anyone in Tadmart either, nor in the surrounding areas of Ghāt. Everybody in these surroundings have fled. They have entered the city and there is patrolling (ʿasas) by day and by night. The gate of Ghāt has never been

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opened, save for two hours in a day, and it is closed in the late afternoon. The people who were within it are full of anxiety on account of this affair. In their opinion, this year the route has been severed for him who comes and goes. The Tuareg were on the lookout for the arrival of Yaḥyā [b. Ukht al-ḥājj Muḥammad Akhnūkhan]. Meanwhile, al-ḥājj Muḥammad Akhnūkhan has died whilst waiting, the mercy of God be upon us, upon him and upon all Muslims. Similarly, the Shaʿāniba raided the Azgār of Amghātan. They seized them, so too al-ḥājj al-ʿArabī. The Meccan pilgrims have left Tuwat for Ghāt. The Shaʿāniba have met him and they have seized him – may God have mercy. The sharīf Ḥamīd had acted, on his part, to draw Yaḥyā b. Ukht al-ḥājj Muḥammad Akhnūkhan on to their side. He was in Borno, and he sent a special emissary to him in order to succeed his maternal uncle within their leadership. Yaḥyā was the legal successor since, in their view, his being the son of the sister of the king (āmanūkal) who is the [eligible] successor to the authority of the kingship12 The qāʾim-maqām of Ghadāmis has gone to the mutaṣarrif of the Western Mountain (al-Jabal al-Gharbī) in order to inform him of the hasty move of the sharīf Ḥamīd and about what had reached him of the reports that were quoted from Tuareg individuals who had come to Ghadāmis with one of the caravans. They carried the message of alSāfī, the qāʾim-maqām of Ghāt, to him. What the message of the qāʾimmaqām of Ghadāmis, dated the third of Dhū’l-Qaʿda had said to him [the mutaṣarrif ] was that one of the reports that had been mentioned by the aforementioned, – namely that Aḥmad al-Shaykh b. Ḥusayn had come to him, the sharīf, he having been personally present – that a private and personal raqqāṣ [bard, jongleur] had been sent to Yaḥyā, the son of the sister of Akhnūkhan Beg, who is in Borno, in hope of [him] being the replacement of his [deceased] maternal uncle. [In view of] what we have heard of his hatred in regard to the Ottoman soldiery, and the paucity of his intelligence, we beseech the Almighty that he will not bring him! They have reported that they have been made aware [of information] that the Shaʿābina, whom we have brought to your attention, have

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They regarded, as Gautier had mentioned, that the mother’s family are those who retain the leadership and the position of esteem in everything. Those who have the right to the inheritance are those in the matrilneal line of descent.

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[now] turned their attention into the launch of a raid against the Hoggār [Tuareg]. They have already raided some of the Hoggār who are in the district and they have seized from them some one hundred and sixty of their camels and they have returned from Ouargla (Warjlān). | Some seven days prior to the date, three persons came with money (ṣarf ) for the purpose of commerce and trade. We enquired in regard to their purchasing of riding camels, drinking vessels and weaponry. Some of the inhabitants have asked them about that and they have been told that their chief had warned all the families that they should mount their camels and their horses and that they should assemble together in the autumn season [and also] that permission had been given to them to raid the Hoggār territories especially on account of the Ghāt garrison being so restricted inside the town. The qāʾim-maqām, al-Ṣāfī, was firm [in his resolve] to make an attempt to seize the sharīf Ḥamīd, whose profile and the quality of his epithets had grown in number enormously – the wretch, the godless, the corrupt, the accused, an immoral debauchee, the enemy of God, His apostate, an intrepid liar and infidel – and al-Ṣāfī had repeated his request to the Tuareg chiefs that they should get rid of him. They should halt any immoral dealings with him and they should forsake their association in any way with the godless betrayer. They should hand him over to the Sunnite (Ottoman) Government and they should not ‘gather the wrath of God who had made necessary their education, their cultural traditions within the rule of the Sunnite statutes and the respectable and respected laws’. The Tuareg in no way responded to him. Such good counsel was of no benefit to them, they did not accept it when now, at this very time, their action had spread abroad in every land, in every district. Both the élite and the common folk were well aware of it. The qāʾim-maqām waited for the arrival of Yaḥyā with a throbbing heart. As for Yaḥyā, until the time of the date [in the calendar] he had not left Borno, and the ‘praise singer’ (raqqāṣ) had travelled on foot towards him. We have no knowledge, if he ever had arrived, that his views were narrated to them or not. He [the qāʾim-maqām] stayed waiting and watching closely the [impending] attack of the Tuareg on Ghāt. This was especially the case after the mutaṣarrif had written to him forewarning him of the attack and after his troops had failed to convert the Shaykh of the Hoggār and his company and Nakrīf [?] from offering support to the sharīf. Sound counsels were of no avail in his case. They did not accept them. So, to date, they are in their former situation and they have not altered in respect to it.

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News had reached him, and this included a message in response to the mutaṣarrif that had said: ‘Their assembly is huge in number. They have swollen its total. Everyone has gone to his habitation and every one of them have committed themselves, that following the feast (ʿīd), they will assemble together in al-ʿUwaynāt. | Their vile opinion is a unanimous one. It is in favour of this course’. Fifty dates of the siege had passed in Ghāt when this letter was written. The qāʾim-maqām, in his letter, dated the fourteenth of Dhū’l-Ḥijja, described the conditions in Ghāt by reporting that: As for us, we, who are struggling to watch over those who are within it, do so all night long until the end of the following day. For fifty days, we have been in a single state and circumstance. We have remained in our houses all of the time and we have not ascended the towers and the castles. We have taken shelter in the heart of the citadel (qaṣaba) on account of the lack of security, and on account of what we have seen and heard and on account of the circumstances that we are facing. It seems from another letter that he wrote the very same day that the bands of the soldiery were subdued, shooting with gunpowder at phantom objects and targets, ‘and that they fled on one occasuon when they imagined that an attack was taking place and in order to save themselves’. The qāʾim-maqām rebuked them, by saying, ‘How can an officer flee without facing a hard won victory?’ In his letter, he prayed that the hour of ease and of relief would come to them. The revolutionary groups interrupted the commerce and blocked it and they looted some of the caravans from Tripoli and from Ghadāmis. Al-Ṣāfī, the qāʾim-maqām of Ghāt, saw that he needed to seek the help and support of Muḥammad b. Akhnūn, the lord of Ghāt. The latter died in the recovery of one of these caravans during the course of which he succeeded [in saving it]. The Governor of Tripoli, Aḥmad Rāsim, was much concerned by what was taking place in Ghāt and, in particular, what events had been connected with the issue of the caravans. We have come across a letter which was sent by him to al-Ṣāfī, and in it he said: The letter which they have written on the eighteenth of Rabīʿ I, 1303 AH [25 December 1887AD] has reached me and it is addressed to the qāʾimmaqām of Ghadāmis. We have read its content in regard to the method

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whereby you have recovered tenty loads from the fifty-two loads of goods that were looted by the Tuareg | from the caravans of the people of Tripoli and of Ghadāmis at a distance of seven days [march] from beyond Ghāt.

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The Governor then proceeded to urge the qāʾim-maqām to seize the sharīf Ḥamīd. We have understood that he has brought upon your noble person such deprecations as to lead us to write to the mutaṣarrif of the Fezzān about the matter of supplying you with the amount that is both useful and needful. There is not to be found anything for which you are blameworthy other than the lack of having stumbled upon, and the capture of, this claimant of an honoured status [of sharīf ] up to now. In truth, a similar example was the way in which you despatched Nakhnūkh in order to recover the looted goods, previously mentioned. Indeed, we call upon you to despatch straight away [sufficient] wealth to arrest the evil person, aforementioned, and to persue a course of action whereby you repatedly notify [us] about this important matter. So, and immediately, devote your singlemindedness and your concern to achieve it [all] and give us joy to learn the news that you have arrested the aforementioned person, be he alive, or be he dead! I am awaiting the success of your efforts and, in this affair, your final attainment with a hoped for result. [However] I warn you and counsel you that you should extend the range of your concerns and your interest in achieving a watch over the security of the caravan routes and their tranquillity. Muḥammad b. Nakhnūkhan came into prominence within the entire field of events, and for the watching for an outcome, and this entailed the alerting of the mutaṣarrif ’s concern about the need to adhere to a precise policy, in no way one that could lead to the rancour and the wrath of Yaḥyā, this besides [other] events which interrupted both security and tranquility. It appeared that the qāʾim-maqām of Ghāt had adopted a position of support for Muḥammad [b. Nakhnūkhan] and it persuaded Yaḥyā to meet with the sharīf in order to announce hostility and enmity towards the Ottoman authorities in particular. Thereby, he competed with him in rubbing up against the authorities. That was one of the reasons for his his departure for Borno. Yaḥyā was to return, this was due to the indications of the summons that had reached him. Events followed swiftly, one after the other, after he had returned. The most significant of these was the murder of Muḥammad al-Ṣāfī, the qāʾim-

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maqām of Ghāt. The official enquires which the authorities effected following this event contains some details of what had actually taken place during that phase. It is clear from the official enquiry that Yaḥyā, when he had returned, took the side of the sharīf Ḥamīd. He sought refuge in al-Birkat. The latter was exposed to the risk of raids being launched that were aimed at hitting the caravans. The merchant al-ḥājj al-Sanūsī al-Kiyānī, in his report to the official enquiry, said that he was exposed to attacks by the rebels against him during the course of his journey to Ghāt from his town al-Marzūq (Murzuq). With him were, ‘four measures of wheat and thirty sugar loaves for commercial purposes’. He further added, ‘When I arrived in the Wādī Tanzrūf, near to al-Tūla, the Tuareg came upon me – in all, thirty-five camel riders – and they seized me and they transported me with them to ʿAin Tahāla – both I and the hirers of the caravans (mukārūwiyya). I found the caravan of the goods of Ibn ʿAlī and al-Ghazālī and the food and the baggage of the people that were also seized by them. They robbed me and took all that I had with me. They collected together all that they had looted on the raid (ghāra) during that aforementioned spring, the food of the common people (mīrī), and merchants’ wares, and they divided it between themselves. They took us up to a spring of water near al-Birka. It was named Tin Kwīh, and the Arabs then took and drove them all to al-Birka with them. The Arabs [in question] had been brought to al-Birka by Yaḥyā’. In the same way, Yaḥyā had made an agreement with the Awlād Sulaymān and with the Shaʿāniba, together with replies for Yaḥyā, and for that griot (raqqāṣa) who had been told by the Awlād Sulaymān that they were coming. They were intent upon causing mischief, and to cause confusion to both the Fezzān and to Ghāt. The next event was that Yaḥyā resolved upon a ruse in order to attack Muḥammad al-Ṣāfī. This he did, according to the report of the merchant Muḥammad b. ʿAlī al-Qatrūnī (Gatrūnī), whom he met, unexpectedly, in Ghāt. This was when Yaḥyā had arrived, and [also heard] from the Tuareg who had come seeking peace. Peace had been made between them and between al-Ṣāfi Pāsha. They celebrated a wedding feast and engaged in joyful merriment. On the following day, certain specified Tuareg came to him (marqūmīn). They said to him, | ‘Go forth with us and write down for us replies of peace’. Then and there, al-Ṣāfī Pāshā [appeared], likewise Ibrāhīm Efendi, at the stockade outside the town, the distance being some thirty paces above the gates of the town. So, he applied himself to collaborating in writing such replies. Two were written but while the third reply was being written they attacked and seized al-Ṣāfī Pāshā and also twenty of the Tuareg within the company of Yaḥyā, the afore-

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mentioned. The captain made a sign when al-Ṣāfī Pāshā was prevented from walking with them, and they beat him with a sword upon his thigh, and upon his head, and upon his hand. One finger was severed. They also tied his neck and feet with a rope. Ibrāhīm Efendi was treated in the same fashion. They tied him up and raised him up and upon his riding camel. When this had happened twelve individuals stepped forth from the soldiers who were free men, amongst the Tuareg, whilst other Tuareg lifted Ṣāfī Pāshā and the captain up to a mountain called the Tassili, at half a day’s distance from al-Birka. The soldiers returned to the town and, thereafter, Ibrāhīm Pāshā fled from the mountain with the intention of returning to Ghāt, but he was overwhelmed by thirst on his way. He walked to al-Birka. The Tuareg caught him up. They seized him and he remained in their hands in al-Birka. Al-Ṣāfī was imprisoned by them within the aforesaid mountain. Al-Qatrūnī [Gatrūnī] confirmed the information, given by al-Kiyānī [al-Giyānī] about the agreement of Yaḥyā with the Awlād Sulaymān and with the Shaʿāniba. The news of what had happened to al-Ṣāfī reached the administrator (mudīr) of the Wādī’l-Gharbī Bū ʿAysha and he, in turn, by a letter to the mutasarrif of the Fezzān. It was dated the 27th Dhū’l-Qaʿda 1303 AH [27 August 1886AD]. He informed him about what had taken place, on the tongue of Aḥmad b. ʿUmar (an oral report) who had come from Ghāt. He had mentioned that the Tuareg had betrayed al-Ṣāfī, ‘They beat him with a lance since he had not wanted to assist them by marching with them. They had tied him up and they had placed him in a barren spot. Then they had raised him aloft and carried him away with them.’ It is clear from the narrative of this Aḥmad b. ʿUmar that Muḥammad b. Akhnūkhan had occupied a position that was quite different from that of Yaḥyā. The narrator had advised that none should come to Ghāt, be they Arabs or Tuaregs. The rebel Tuareg killed Muḥammad al-Ṣāfī and they attacked Ghāt. They occupied it and the Ottoman garrison fled from it. This grieved the mutaṣarrif of the Fezzān, Yaḥyā Nazhat, when he heard the reasons for the Tuareg triumph. It had revealed the failure of the garrison commander in taking precautions that were necessary to respond to such a surprise attack as this. In his report, he mentioned that al-Jarrāḥ Maḥmūd Efendi had not paid heed to the order of the Yūzbāshī and he had suffered a defeat together with the Arab horsemen, thirty troopers who who were returning to al-Marzūq and who had then passed on the word that Yaḥyā had been killed by a bullet that had struck his head. His leadership of the rebels had been taken over by a man named Dānkrūf. That was at the beginning of 1304AH [October 1886AD]. The Ottoman Government bestowed two medals upon the late al-Ṣāfī Pāshā. One of these was the Medal of Distinction and the other was the Military Medal.

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We possess no details about how the movement was dealt with, nor what happened to the sharīf Ḥamīd. God alone knows. One item of information is an exception. A telegram was sent by Aḥmad Rāsim to the Premier’s Office in Istanbul. It is dated the 16th Kānūn al-Awwal, 1308AH [16 December 1890 AD]. It spoke of ‘the appearance of the false Mahdī in al-Shāṭiʾ, in the Fezzān’, and that he had met his fate there and his movement of rebellion had been brought to its end. As for the sharīf Muḥammad al-Kaylānī [Gaylānī], he was arrested in alMarzūq at the close of Jumādā II, 1306AH [Early March 1889 AD]. It was at the hands of Yūzbāshī ʿAlī ʿAbd al-Salām, who was in al-Shātiʾ at the start of the movement. It would seem that Muḥammad had hidden himself from view for a while and that he had come to al-Marzūq and that he had sent a petition to one of the men in the government. He had come to know ʿAlī b. ʿAbd al-Salām and that he had informed him about himself. ʿAlī [in turn] had informed the official enquiry, saying, ‘I have learnt that he is the sharīf Muḥammad and I had told him “Yes, I know who you are. You are the sharīf Muḥammad who has attacked the Ottoman soldiers in al-Shāṭiʾ”. He had replied, “I am your protected guest. Do not inform ʿAlī about me”. So, | I said to him, “It is impossible for me to keep silent with regard to you”. I told Maḥmūd Beg of his whereabouts and he issued an order that he should be stopped. In all probability [in my view] he was killed after that’. The Tuareg revolt in the region of Ghāt led by Ḥamīd and Yaḥyā was one of the revolts that took place afterwards and which broke out during Ottoman rule in Tripoli. The Tuareg had become accustomed to self-government. They were the lords of the Sahara and also lords of the caravan commerce to a great degree and they were to profit from it. It was but natural that they should feel hemmed in by Ottoman rule and especially so when behaviour was bad in their region. It was not a lengthy period that passed before they, as a people, who had suffered a long time, enrolled beneath the Ottoman banner. They rose up at this moment in time. The raising of the Ottoman flag over Ghāt finally took place on Thursday the seventh Rabīʿ II, 1292AH [13 May 1875AD]. This is made clear from the letter of ʿAlī b. Muḥammad, the mutaṣarrif of the Fezzān for the Governorship. This [event] took place in the presence of Shaykh Nakhnūkha and al-Ṣāfī and the townsfolk. In order to conclude our discussion in regard to this movement, we desire to draw attention to al-Ḥashāʾishī who, in his travelogue (riḥla) spoke about the ‘Revolt of the Tuareg against the Turkish soldiery in Ghāt and their massacre’. Al-Ḥashāʾishī visited Ghāt in 1312AH/1894AD. He mentioned that its Governor [qāʾim-maqām] during that year was Sīdī’l-Ḥasan al-Anṣārī, who had

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assumed office in the town after the death of his cousin, Sayyid al-Dawī alAnṣārī. He remarked that Sayyid al-Dawī was a just Governor. He was trustworthy and he was erudite in the circumstances of its policies. The Tuareg were in awe of him, they feared his courage and [even] revered him. He displayed his kindly nature by his non-tolerance of looting, robbery, slaughter and aggressive wrongdoing. During his era the town was at peace. His repute was widespread to the extent that one of the Turks among the governors of al-Marzūq said that here was to be found an ‘upright man’. He was pious and fit for the highest position of Governorship. He was named amongst all the Governors of Tripoli as ‘the just and the fair man’. After having prevented the Tuareg from raiding caravans (qawāfil) and from looting they resorted to treachery and to deceit and to a strong astuteness in their actions and to the tranquillity of the land that belonged to the Ottoman state. It appointed fifty soldiers and a garrison of soldiery. | They positioned a cannon there and the aforementioned Governor posted soldiers above the town in order to guard it, and, having achieved the desired effect, he sent a small number of chiefs (mashāʾikh) of the Tuareg to alMarzūq, men who from amongst them who had committed breaches of the peace. The rule of the Turks over the country from this town began in 1293AH/1876AD.13

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Al-Ḥashāʾishī continues his narrative, by saying: Then, when the Tuareg saw what had befallen these shaykhs, they surprised the soldiers, at night, when they were asleep, and they slew a number of them. The rest fled to al-Marzūq. As for al-Dāwī, the town’s Governor, they surprised him when he was in his lodgings, at a time when he was off his guard. He had no weapon with him at that time. They smote him with their swords after he had killed two of them with a small dagger that he had in his hand. Then they greviously wounded him and killed him in a most horrible fashion. All who were were lovers of justice and equity were filled with sorrow on account of his death.14

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Cf. El-Hachaichi, Voyage au pays des Senoussia, pp. 155–156. Ibid., p. 157.

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We may observe some discrepancy in the narrative of al-Ḥashāʾishī in respect to the content of the documents. Perhaps, al-Dāwī who tells about it [in fact] was al-Ṣāfī. This is especially so in that it conforms with the sequence of the main events in the narrative. Al-Ṣāfī witnessed the raising of the Ottoman flag over Ghāt and he was the qāʾīm-maqām of it. He was famous for his strong desire to maintain its security. As for the details of his assassination, we provide evidence for what has come down to us in the documents because the visit of al-Ḥashāʾishī took place only a few years after the event. Al-Ḥashāʾishī mentioned that the cousin of al-Dāwī assumed the governorship after him whilst he awaited the arrival of his brother from Tuat (Tuwāt) and, when the brother of al-Dāwī arrived, he placed his cousin in the governorship and he was not satisfied with the sovereign power (wilāya). In the same way, he told about how the authorities had subdued (khamada) the uprising and how they despatched Ibn Qadāra, the mutaṣarrif of the Fezzān to ‘smash’ (ḥaṭama) the uprising and to secure the town of Ghāt against the Tuareg assault. He did so by his good planning, and by deliberation, and by accurate thinking, and with precision, and thus security prevailed in the town of Ghāt. The account of al-Ḥashāʾishī confirms for us that amongst the most important causes of the Tuareg uprising was the provision of opportunities for their raiding of the caravans. The qāʾīm-maqām sent [away] a number of the shaykhs of the Tuareg who had acted in a manner that did not suit [him] and that did not comply with security and with calm. We shall round off what has been discussed, at length, by proof, from one of the documents, that intense differences had grown between al-Ṣāfī and Nakhnūkhan before the uprising. The latter had attributed to the former a number of deeds and acts, whereby he had lodged a complaint to the mutaṣarrif of the Fezzān, at a time when the Administrative Council of the Governership had expressed views that had drawn his attention to the matter. ‘Al-Ṣāfī Beg is one of the sincere servants who have made apparent, and who have proved in deed, their honesty, their sincerity and their good intentions’, and that ‘those deeds [are only the invention of Nakhnūkhan] and have been prompted due to the rivalry and the competition of the latter. Naturally, we are unable to find the likes of these assertions to be a point worth heeding and for consideration’. ‘Nonetheless, despite that, the Council has advised the mutaṣarrif of the Fezzān that he needs to investigate further, provided that it follows a wise course’. By analogy to what has been transmitted by the Tuareg from father to son, about the causes of the uprising, – the same being what I have been told, personally, and quote, by al-Shāwī Lillāh al-Bakkāʿī Yakhlās, one of the leading men of the Awrāghan tribe, – we find documents of the Ottoman departments that

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are parallel to such a reality, in the way that they mention the causes of the revolt and its events. The same is a natural interpretation of ‘colonialism’ since it always tries to avoid supplying the true picture about national uprisings and about revolts. In these events, the Ottoman documents reveal al-Ṣāfī as if he were a nationalist and a reformist personality who was trying to to stabilize security and to prevent the Tuareg from raiding the caravans under pressure from the Turkish Governor in Tripoli. So does [the account of] al-Ḥashāʾishī – and this is something that does not ‘cool the eyes’ of the Tuareg, since they regard al-Ṣafī as a willing tool of the Turks – and sufficient proof of that are the two medals that were bestowed upon him by the Governor after his death. Were the boiling anger (īghār) bitter feelings that these claimed to be a historical reality then they would have made correct for us the ‘true causes’ of the reality. We do not take sides against what has appeared from within the documentation and the letters aforementioned. These, in effect, were [to show] that the Tuareg undertook the prevention of entry into Ghāt. If they did so, then one may regard this action of theirs to be the equivalent of an announcement of unforeseen events and emergencies. It is natural that they should arrest any caravans that were trying to tear in shreds the announcement of an entry into Ghāt or a departure from it. The probability is that the causes for the revolt were principally nationalistic ones, since there had been no occurance of these events before the entry of the Turks into Ghāt. It is unreasonable that they should have occurred after that, due to such minor causes, nor for the flight of the sharīf to alBirka. To sum up, the revolt frightened the Turks and it put an end to their somanbulism. Had it not been strong and nationalistic such a fear in their hearts would not have happened, to the extent that the government was compelled to come to their assistance and to back them by an additional force. Here I bring another aspect to note. It may be clearer and closer to the reality from this confused picture and closer to that which was related and told by the Tuareg shaykhs within Ghadāmis itself. Ghāt is reckoned to be amongst the towns that the Tuareg built [de jure] by the rule that they had established over a large part of the Great Sahara. As we have mentioned, authority with them is personified in their chief, who is called the āmanūkal. When the revolt began, he was the āmanūkal Akhnūkhan. Then he died, and his successor was his sister’s son, Yaḥyā. When our country endured the Turkish occupation, they, the Turks, attempted to extend their authority over Ghāt. The Tuareg responded to them and they prevented them from entering within it. So, their expansion terminated at al-Marzūq (Murzuq).

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They remained [there] and continued expanding their efforts to join Ghāt to it and other places in the rest of Libya. At that time, Ghāt was a commercial centre of note and a halting station for the caravans that came from Ghadāmis, Tripoli, Niger, Mali and Chad, and for those caravans that came in the opposite direction. The Ghadāmis merchants, together with those who found themselves in Ghadāmis and Tripoli, or in other countries were the representatives (mandūbūn) in Ghāt as the agents for linking the connection between Ghāt and Ghadāmis and Tripoli, Ghāt and Tunisia. At that time, commerce was greatly progressing and it evoked surprise and amazement, due to the abundance of gains and imagined deals which the merchants could pluck and could gain. The āmanūkal of the Tuareg was to earn and to require for the masters of these caravans amounts of wealth and of profit that was settled and divided up and was agreed upon every camel that arrived in Ghāt, except for a camel that was the bearer of [scholarly] books. That was excused from having to pay the toll. No difficulty stood in the way between the merchants and the Tuareg | nor was there any misunderstanding, whatsoever. The ‘cut’ [the toll] that they used to exact was, in the first instance, a tax, and it was a guarantee [maintainance] for the amounts of money for [the payment of] the highwaymen who might attack the caravans in the Sahara. The Tuareg took payment for themselves and would send back any looted caravan that had been forcibly seized in the territories of Ghāt. Indeed, in the main, and in many instances, the caravans from Ghadāmis to Ghāt, and in the reverse direction, were accompanied by a collection of Tuareg, as was the case in other African countries. Did the atmosphere that prevailed, the mutual understanding and the harmony, such as this, enable the Tuareg to be described [accurately] as highwaymen? Were there not ‘highwaymen’, from time to time, within the caravans themselves, as occurred in that period, not only in Libya, but elsewhere from the neighbouring countries? There was no proof that the Tuareg who were precisely known were those who acted in this way, nor that the chiefs in any location were to participate in a base act such as this, since acts of this kind were a custom that was undertaken by the real scum of the people, those of them who lacked moral standards. Such [behaviour] was unmentioned within this community. We cannot place our faith in such reports in regard to the chief men of the Tuareg, both distinguished and worth mentioning in this uprising and at their head the āmanūkals, Akhnūn and Yaḥyā. The system that the Tuareg laid down [and followed] in Ghāt was that there should be a judge from within – a ‘domestic judge’ – over those who were nonTuaregs, in addition to the āmanūkal to whom the public authorities had resort to. The judge had to be a descendant within the Iyajnān Tuareg tribe. When alṢāfī was born, his mother being a member of this tribe, he earned the right to

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be acknowledged in the position of the ‘internal judge’ over Ghāt though he had no opinion and his remit was beyond the wall of the city. In 1392AH15 the Tuareg were compelled to repel an attack of the Tubu [Teda] tribe, who attacked them from Chadian territories where they extended their chase as far as Waday, within Chad. During this phase, the Turks seized the opportunity and they drew al-Ṣāfī to their side, he who | did not possess the absolute authority in Ghāt. He allowed them to fly the Turkish flag in Ghāt. Thereby, they spread their influence over it. By it, al-Ṣāfī placed the Tuareg amid the central reality [of the situation]. When they came back after a year of this occupation he was placed into their hands. They were reluctant and silent. They continued to await an opportunity to banish the Turks and to free themselves from al-Sāfī who had delivered their town to the foreigners. From this, it would appear that the causes of the nationalist uprising had the clear and the sole aim of gaining freedom from the Turkish yoke and to simply restore the town’s independence. As for the sharīf [Ḥamīd], I am not aware of any Tuareg who mention him in this uprising. It is as though he were a legendary personality, created by the Turks, and with the sole purpose to confuse and to mislead. I do not follow this path since it is possible that the Tuaregs seized the opportunity to engage in a brutal action against him when he enjoyed their hospitality in order to publicise their uprising. They repeated the comparison with the role of Qāsim ʿUthmān, hence this is what made them neglect to mention him when reporting and telling the tales of the uprising in a final and complete form. In regard to the seizure of al-Ṣāfī, the Tuareg tell a tale that runs counter to the Ottoman documents and to al-Ḥashāʾishī, the aforementioned. Contrary to that mention of a seizure, it is [in effect] that Yaḥyā used a ruse in order to arrest al-Ṣāfī. We find them saying that al-Sāfī was the one who worked [and planned] to arrest Yaḥyā. To do this, he sent a messenger to to him, inviting him to meet together with him. Yaḥyā, who knew of the ruse and who took the necessary precautions, arranged for the messenger to agree to the location where the meeting was to take place, namely, al-Lawnan, outside the wall of Ghāt, a few metres away from it. At the place of the rendezvous, Yaḥyā was there, together with two other persons. Yaḥyā, himself, did not emerge until he had set up an ambush in the agricultural farm plots, in order to attack al-Ṣāfī and to seize him, or kill him by stealth. When al-Ṣāfī went out to al-Lawnan he stretched forth his hand to Yaḥyā in order to exchange handshakes. Yaḥyā gripped his hand firmly, he being the one enjoyed an exceptional bodily strength, and he sought the assistance of his two [concealed] companions.

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They mounted him upon a Tuareg riding camel (mahrī) and they led him away quickly. When the ambush saw that the master (al-Ṣāfī) had been captured before the execution of their plan, they began to shoot in their direction though without hitting them. Then they took to their heels and fled. Yaḥyā and his two companions continued their journey until they reached the Tassili mountains as far as a place called Tādrart. They imprisoned al-Ṣāfī in a cave there. This cave is well known to the Tuareg even today. Then they returned and they attacked Ghāt. The organisation of the Turkish garrison was disrupted and some of them fled to al-Marzūq, whilst the remainder took refuge in Ghāt fortress. The Tuareg besieged them on every side. Khabtūl b. Sālim was informed on the authority of one who was present at the event there. His name was Bākū and he was one of the inhabitants of Ghāt [saying] that the Tuareg were close to exhausting their ammunition supplies. One of them, from the Īfōghās, al-Dabb (‘the lizard’), by name, held a high reputation for his shooting with firearms and of hitting the target. They ordered him to spend the night upon the minaret of the mosque, facing the tower [of the fort] to watch the Turks who were within the fort. In the morning, at an early hour, the Turks began to open the shutters in order to look out at the situation. Everyone who opened his window was targetted by a bullet of al-Dabb, and he fell dead. Then the shooting slowly overcame and overwhelmed the garrison on all sides and hence they were compelled to surrender. Here the accounts vary. One source says that the Tuareg wiped out the entire garrison despite the surrender. Another says that the Tuareg placed them in prison and then released them and they reached al-Marzūq. The commander of the uprising, Yaḥyā, was killed during the battle. After it had ended, the Tuareg appointed Ingadāzan Awrāghanī to replace him. Before he died, power passed to the son of his maternal uncle, Abū Bakr ag Lagwī. Ingadāzan signed an agreement with the Turks that had decided their return to govern Ghāt. It was on the condition that they paid the āmanūkal what they took in the toll (‘cut’) levied upon the caravans. Those who made the agreement with the Turks | were Ingadāzan al-Awrāghanī, Sulṭān ʿĀmūd from the tribe of the Īymnān and Awfnāyaf ag Mūsā, the shaykh of the tribe of the Amanghāsatan. The [meeting for] the agreement was not attended by any delegate who represented the tribe of the Ayājman its inherited right was conclusively denied on account of al-Ṣāfī, following the deed [that he had committed] and [the fact that] the Awrāghan tribe was independent in its internal and external authority. The envoy of the Tuareg who was despatched to al-Marzūq (Murzuq) in order to obtain the decree ( firmān) was Abū Bakr al-Lagwī, who held the Governorship of the Ingadāzen, prior to his death. The Turks did not return to Ghāt except after they had obtained the agreement to this decree which

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was recognised as a covenant of security (ʿahd amān), the post in Ghāt having been set up for them. As for the distinguished personalities who had launched the revolt and the uprising, they were the same personalities who had been mentioned by the Turks [in their documents], and [mentioned] likewise the competition between Muḥammad b. Akhnūkhan the son of the deceased chief and Yaḥyā, his sister’s son, the minister of the Sharīʿa law in accordance with this system. The same was resolved as well on the part of the Turks and their protégés (sanaʾīʿ) and men of high rank. What Happened to al-Ṣāfī after His Capture? We have mentioned that Yaḥyā had seized al-Ṣāfī with the assistance of two of his followers and they had taken him away to mount Tassili and to a location called Tādrart, about twenty kilometres from Ghāt. They had imprisoned him within a cave there. His hands were untied and he was free to use them. The cave that they had chosen to be his prison was not an ordinary cave. It is exceedingly deep in depth. It was, and is, surrounded by fearsome mountains on every side. It is impossible for anyone who descends within it to ascend to the exit in order to leave it, unless he is assisted to do so. Yaḥyā posted two guards to watch over him and to handle his affairs until such time as he could decide his future fate. Yaḥyā returned to Ghāt in haste in order to personally supervise and monitor the uprising. But he was struck down the very same day and he died. As for the two guards, after Yaḥyā had left them they lost patience and lacked the endurance to remain in this mountain. They, too, felt the honour of their participation in the fighting. They deemed it certain that their captive would find it impossible to leave the cave. So they placed water and food next to him and then the two of them left together, they also wished to reach Ghāt, to join up with the rebellion. Al-Ṣāfī remained in his prison until his patience was extinguished within him. He died in an unbearable manner because of his belief that Yaḥyā, who had imprisoned him there, had also died during the battle. This is the tradition that the leaders of the Tuareg have passed on, from mouth to mouth, to posterity, about the uprising. It is contrary to, and is incompatible with, the accounts of the Turks and of al-Ḥashāʾishī. The Īfōghās Tribe The tribe of the Īfōghās are reckoned to be one of the greatest tribes of the Tuareg and the most famous amongst them. Their total number may now reach a million souls who are distributed within Libya (Ghadāmis), Algeria, Mali and Niger. They have their own customs and traditions that they observe and that are deeply rooted in the past and they have firm ties and connections amongst

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each other notwithstanding the distance in space and the lack of communications. The camel plays a major part in their communications, as also their customs that are close to one another and are almost indistinguishable except in certain circumstances. I shall provide a glimpse of the customs that are to be found in Ghadāmis. These are graced and embellished by a high standard of morality and they are very jealous in guarding the tribe. They pursue their customs and their observances. All of them are strict Muslims and they worship God following the Mālikī school of law (madhhab). Most of the shaykhs belong to the Tijāniyya Ṣūfī Brotherhood. Likewise, they are greatly drawn and addicted to horse riding and they have acquired the racing camel for the racing during festivals and weddings. I shall follow the same method that I did when I gave information about the customs of the other people of Ghadāmis. I shall begin with the very first stage [of life], namely childbirth.

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Chidbirth When a male child is born in their midst, the womenfolk ululate over him and the men shoot a salvo of shots into the space above, such being a token that the strength of the tribe has been increased [thereby]. If a girl is born there is no ululating, nor shooting. Whether the child be a boy, or a girl, then it is compulsory that an ewe should be slaughtered and that a flour and butter gruel (ʿaṣīda), namely, al-bāzin, should be prepared with ground wheat and oil (ahrash) which is poured over it all. The women assemble in order to take it into the house of the infant who has been born. This ritual must be repeated for seven days. As for the woman who has given birth to a child (al-nafsāʾ), for her, in addition to the bāzin, there is a special dish that is prepared for her that is made from milk and mixed with meat. On the morning of the seventh day, called ‘the day of the naming’ ( yawm al-tasmiya) the baby is carried to the family elder, after it has been dressed in new raiment which is white in colour. The elder takes the child and he utters the call to prayer (adhān) in the infant’s right ear. He performs the entire religious rite in the left ear. He utters, in a low voice, a prayer that the child should be protected, and watched over, and have courage and [then] a fitting name will be chosen for the child. He may select the name of the father of the infant, or he may recommend him to an elder within the family, one of the very close relations from the elders, and the child will be named after him. If the newborn is given the name of such a relative, or among friends who have expressed a wish to bear the name of the child, out of respect he should be given a gift that befits the honour of the family. A fitting gift may be a sword, or a spear, or a metal helm, or a racing camel (mahārī) in accordance with circum-

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stances and possibilities. After the naming [ceremony] the baby is brought to the house. Following the baby’s return, the sacrifical animals are slaughtered. The dishes are then cooked. Then follows cous-cous and fried meat (tablajāt) minced meat soaked in butter (ghee). The bowls (qasaʿ) are distributed to relatives and to friends. So too, to other individuals within the tribe and to others who are invited to partake in the feast in one of the neighbouring houses. | They do not assemble again in the baby’s house since it is left free for the womenfolk who will assemble there. During the night, the women meet in order to hold a joyful party for the occasion. This part is expressed through the singing of songs and in the reciting and singing of poetry and in dances. The instruments that are played include the tambourine (raff ) and the rebec (rabāb, in Tamashegh, inzad/imzad). The men may be present and there is no obstacle to their attending though only as spectators. They do not participate and they sit to one side at a short distance from where the party is taking place. In this way the riruals of the birth are concluded.

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The Circumcision There is a fixed time for the circumcision. If a father decides that his son, or his sons, should be circumcised, then that is made known to individuals within the tribe. They gather in the morning of any day wherein the event is fixed and held. They recite a khatma [recitation within the entire text of the Qurʾān] and they participate in a meal. They then circumcise the infant or infants. On the same day, parties take place and camel riders compete with one another on their mahāris. School and Education When a child, be it a boy or a girl, reaches the age of four or five, his or her father takes him or her to the Qurʾānic school (kuttāb). He brings with him children’s gifts, some sweets and fried chickpeas (ḥummus) in order to distribute them to the children. Upon arrival, he greets the teacher and then the latter writes something from the Qurʾān in his or her right palm and he order him or her to lick it. He prays an al-ṣalāḥ ʿalaykum, then the toys and the sweets are distributed amongst the children. He also cooks a special meal in the house as a token feast. In the past, the children did not remain in one place for an entire year. They moved about and travelled in one direction or another. When the rain falls in the autumn, they leave their tribes and they disperse in God’s wide domain, the Sahara, towards any direction where the rain has fallen. This is the direction they will take. They do not return to their tribal settlements except in the summer, or their treck may be extended for a year or

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two. By the rules of such a shift of residence which their livelihood dictates for them, means that their livelihood will depend upon a lifestyle of pasturing and caring for their animals, and in particular, their camels. They have acquired wide experience and expertise through their transhumance within the countries of the sand dunes and in the Hammāda. One of them, even if he be only young in years, can move from location to location, and penetrate within the Sahara, the limits and spaces of which mount upwards like the ocean, without anything to distract him from his goal, be the measure the ‘width of his fingertip’ (unmala). They excel in tracking, even the tracks of their camels and they can do so with an expertise that is truly remarkable. If one of them spies a camel’s footprints in the Sahara and knows it to be a camel of such and such a person, for example, they may know the father and the mother of the camel and forebear. This they do by tracking and by knowledge of the footprint. When they travel into the Sahara, as we have mentioned, they are accompanied by a ‘reciter’, who will teach their offspring the text of the noble Qurʾān. They are intensely devoted to the memorizing of some portion of the noble book of God for their sons to learn. As for nowadays, they have grown accustomed to being settled in one place and they hardly ever leave Ghadāmis. This is rarely the case whilst their sons are enrolled in the official schools and kuttābs of the people (the Civil Authority), just like the other children in Ghadāmis. When a child memorizes the mighty Qurʾān his father prepares to hold a large feast. Camels are slaughtered (unḥira) as well as sheep. At the feast, individuals of the tribe, and others, without exception also, they bring large plates to the kuttāb. The arrangements are made by colleagues and by other children. On this occasion, the child who has memorized the Qurʾān by heart is given gifts by his father and by his relatives. These gifts are in the form of male camels, she-camels, and sheep, and such is in order to encourage him and others, and to make congratulatory expressions of joy and happiness on account of his having memorized God’s holy book.

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The Age of Puberty and of Adolescence When a young boy reaches the age of puberty a party is organised. It is a simple one and is a token event. His comrades of the same age (atrāb) will be in attendance. On that day, his maternal uncle gives him a turban. It is either white or black. It is four metres and a half in length and its breadth is a metre. He also gives him a sword or another weapon. During the party, one of his servants comes and places the turban upon his head and girds his sword about him. By this act he is considered to have passed beyond the age and stage of his childhood. He has attained the stage of youthhood, a person who has dealings

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with men and who will bear all his responsibilities, vis-à-vis his tribe. As do other individuals. After donning the turban, he is not permitted to walk around without wearing it. This applies equally to his fellows. [All of the] mature young men do not remove (nazaʿa) the turban from the top of their heads as long as they are reckoned to be members of the tribe, whether the season is in the summer or in the winter. Marriage Most male members of the tribe marry after they attain puberty when they are twenty years old. As for the girls, there are some who marry when they are fourteen years. If the young man wishes to marry, he informs his father in the first instance, through a family friend of his father and he names the girl whom he desires to marry to him. It is the responsibility of his father, if his son makes a [good] case for his choice of her as being one who is appropriate and morally correct (kafāʾa). He then replies to the request of his son. It is the responsibility of the girl’s father to initially accept if he sees that the suitor for his daughter’s hand is fit to marry her, with a promise that the settlement will be delayed until the time after the mother of the girl has been consulted. If the latter agrees, she, in turn, will seek the daughter’s agreement. It is the girl’s responsibility to express her opinion clearly and with total liberty. If accepted, then it is a duty that they should publically announce the news. After a period which may be long or short, the legal guardian of the spouse fixes a date for the wedding from the legal guardian of the bride. After this agreement, an official announcement made by drumbeats informs the people and the holding of evening and nightly entertainments and parties by the womenfolk. This lasts from some three to four days. After this, the official party wll commence. It is customary to hold a race between youths who are mounted on racing camels (mahārī) during the course of the evening that precedes the consummation (dukhla) of the marriage and this event will be held on a Monday or a Thursday night. On the night of the consummation of the marriage, large feasts are prepared from cous-cous, or from other dishes and an invitation is sent to relatives, to friends, and to the general public. These are divided into four groups – the elderly, the middleaged, the youth and the infants. Each group from the above is assembled on its own to eat. As for the penning of the marriage contract, namely the dowry (ṣadāq), this will take place in the house wherein the elderly will gather. It is attended by the Imām of the mosque and by some of the teachers [jurists? fuqahāʾ]. This happens before the food is eaten. The contract is written down.

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The dowry (ṣadāq) is normally seven of the choicest camels, preferably shecamels. Postponement is possible on account of hardship. One of these camels should be given to the bride to individuals within the tribe. They are slain in the morning that follows that night. As for clothing and attire, there is no payment or gift offered to the bridegroom. This is one of the duties of the father of the bride. Complete freedom is allowed to the bridegroom to present his gift to his bride (ʿarūs), whether it be clothing and silver adornments, or however he so wishes. The house for the married couple is fixed in a location that is far from normal living quarters. After the evening prayer (al-ʿishāʾ), the bridegroom goes with a group of his companions and colleagues to the house that has been appointed for the occasion. On the way, they repeat these words, ‘The bringer of good tidings and a warning’, ‘the lamp that shines forth’, ‘O, our lord Muḥammad – the blessing and peace of God be upon him’. Upon arrival, they perambulate (ṭawāf ) seven times (ashwāṭ) around the house that is situated to the left of them and they repeat this prayer. Having completed the last perambulation, the bridegroom enters | the house, placing his right foot forward before his left. Then the others follow after him. He sits down on one side and they sit around him. Then they proceed to recite together the Burdat al-Madīḥ, the Burda of alBūṣīrī – may God have mercy upon him – until the bridal procession arrives. She is in the middle of it and is surrounded by the womenfolk on all sides. They chant hymns together with songs that are both touching and moving. In these, they mention the duties of the husband towards his wife, firmly asserting the rights that are hers over him. Before the cortège of the bride reaches its destination, all the young men who wre present within the house make their exit. Only the bridegroom remains. Then the women enter with the bride and they greet the bridegroom. The bride sits in her place within the house, then the other women who were present take their leave. Very early in the morning, the following day, a short time before dawn breaks the bridal pair arise from their sleep and the bridegroom follows his bride to the house of her father. He then returns to his house. Then his comrades come to him in order to sit with him and to take breakfast at his table. This pattern of behaviour continues for seven days. During the first day of the ‘entering’ (dukhla), when the bridegroom meets his friends and his companions, they form a government that is presided by the bridegroom. The group consists of a ‘king’, a ‘vizir (wazīr) of the right hand’ (al-maymana), a ‘vizir of the left hand’ (al-maysara), and a judge (qāḍī). They take charge of, and they care for the ‘king’ and his interests and they defend him when he is in need. They impose ‘taxes’ upon those who stay away from, or who show no interest in, the service

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of the bridegroom ‘king’, or whenever a word ( fāh) is uttered which they find to be inappropriate. So, the first week passes in joy, in joking and in playfulness and rejoicing. On the seventh day the ‘vizir of the right hand’ offers his retirement to his ‘ruler’ who, in turn, is obliged to accept it. By his acceptance of this resignation, he vacates the throne and he leaves it during the morning of that selfsame day. He departs in order to meet his in-laws. In this way the marriage ceremonies come to an end. It should be observed that the marriage ceremonies in the aforementioned form are repeated at every wedding even if one of them does this many times. The ceremonies do not change. Marriage to more than wife is very limited. If a man marries more than once, his first wife will leave his marital home and will not return to him. For this reason, you will not find anyone with more than one wife. Either a divorce takes place and, or else one might say, ‘a mutual understanding and agreement have taken place’. The high morality among them has left little room for a divorce to take place. Mortality At the moment of death amongst them, whether he be male, or she be female, old or young, they spread a white garment above the house, thereby indicating that a death has occurred in that house. Death is acknowledged by the colour white. Thereby, it is made known that there has been an acceptance to the decree, the will of God, and His destiny. Mourning and loud lamentation and weeping over the deceased amongst them is nowhere to be found. No weeping is heard, nor any wailing, within the house of the deceased whoever he [or she] may have been. This does not mean that sympathy is lacking amongst them, rather | to the contrary, they are full of sympathy. They love their nearest and dearest as they do others. But, with the greatest degree of sympathy of which they are capable they display intelligence and understanding. They are realistic and they are practical. They do not ask for ignoble sympathies except for [comfort for] their souls. They grieve for three days for every person who dies in Ghadāmis, be he Tuareg, or be he from another community, be he young or be he old. With the announcement of the decease, they halt their weddings and the rejoicing for three days and then, after that, they begin their festivities. In this there is found no difference, whether it be for near kin or one who is a distant relative. This is even the case if the deceased is the head of a tribe.

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Conclusion Hereby, I close my book. I have gone to the limit of my ability [in order to complete it], having expended my energy and my effort to make known the ‘Bride of the Sahara’ and its jewel, Ghadāmis. It has deep roots in its past and in its civilization, and is strong in its Arabic and the Islamic character which it possesses.

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Conclusion The Arabic documents from Libya and Mali that have been presented in this book shed light upon issues that are highly pertinent to the history of the spread of al-Islām across the Sahara in early medieval times. The routes that were followed from Ghadāmes to West Africa, and the surviving legacy of the characteristics of Islamic practises that are to be found there are relevant to this day. The eighteenth century biography of Shaykh Sīdī ʿAbdallāh b. Abī Bakr alGhadāmisī Tadhkīr al-Nāsī wa-Talyīn al-Qalb al-Qāsī comprehensively demonstrates the major influence that Ghadāmis, in its commerce and in intellectual activities exerted from the early medieval ages almost up to recent times. It also reveals the links that were established between scholars in Libya, in Egypt and in West Africa. This same document illustrates the local view of the expeditions that were made by ʿUqba b. Nāfiʿ, and his successors, and the peculiar importance of those lineal bonds within North Africa in general and within the existing Saharan populations, in particular. The textual style, in places, has a certain religious message, and, in spirit, it seems to foreshadow Ferruccio Busoni’s monumental choral setting in his Piano Concerto from Adam Gottlob Oenlenschläger’s, drama, op. 39, ‘Aladdin’, with its ecstatic cry to ‘Lift up your hearts to the Eternal Power; sense the presence of Allāh, and behold His deed!’ Those documents that refer to the Kel-Essouk are also significant. They show conclusively, despite their overwhelmingly late date, that whatever may have been the local and temporal impact of the Almoravid movement of the eleventh century, within the Sahara, and upon its people, outside the territories that are now in Morocco, in Mauritania and in parts of Mali, the case for its major decisive and lasting historical influence upon the evolution of the way al-Islām was to penetrate North and West Africa, as a whole, is open to considerable doubt. It also suggests much geographical variation in its historical influence. Other forces at work were equally important, if not more so. In Mauritania, there is a widespread claim to descent from the Awlād Ḥassān. The memories of the people of Ghadāmis and of the Tuareg and the Kunta, in Mali and in Niger, would persuade us to look elsewhere for the spur that marked the beginning, and, later, the impetus, and the progress, of shaping an Islāmic identity within the Saharan communities and beyond. In these latter communities, lineages display no particular interest whatsoever, nor any special pride in, the leaders of the Almoravid movement. Aside

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from a passing mention within several of the archives of the Kel Ntṣar – whose forebears may well have been associated with the Banū Wārith who dwelt in, and well to the west and north of, Azawād – the late lineages of both the Imūjāgh and the Ineslemen revolve around and adumbrate a principal, even strict, matrilineal succession, or, if this is unmentioned, rest upon a strongly asserted claim of an early lineal descent from those Arabs who speared the conquest of the Maghrib; the Companions (saḥāba), or the Helpers (anṣār), of the Prophet, or else from families of shurafāʾ whose origins were located within Morocco at a date far earlier, or far later, than the Almoravid movement. Both the Kel-Essouk and the Kel Ntṣar, and even the Moorish Kunta, share such an inspiring claim, as do some amongst the leading lettered families in Ghadāmes. This claim is not only a characteristic feature in Saharan literary works but it also pervades much popular oral tradition and in story telling as is told by Tuareg religious figures in the south. One or two examples are provided by the Tuareg Nigerian scholar, Altinine ag Arias, in areas in the south of Niger where the Kel-Essouk are to be found. They are included in his publication, Iwillimadan. Digga was told by his ‘marabout’ from the Kel-Essouk [Essuk] that their ancestor was a Companion of the Prophet whose name was Ibnu Aljerakh [Ibn al-Jarrāḥ]. He is the ancestor of all the Kel-Essouk, those from Agades and the others from Mali. His son Ghubeydeta [ʿUbayd] was one of the partisans of the Prophet Muḥammad. He was the father of Ukhbata Almustejab [ʿUqba b. Nāfiʿ al-Mustajāb] who had come to Agades from al-Madīna. He was one of the fighters who coerced the people of Gao in Mali. He had a son known as Ghali [ʿAlī]. He was the father of Akhmad [Aḥmad] Egag who was amongst those who commanded the rain to fall.1 Ghubaydata, above, is clearly Abū ʿUbayda b. al-Jarrāḥ.2 Here, a possible identification with Wajjāj/Waggag b. Zalwī, the religious founder of the Almoravid movement has also been suggested. However, this theory may have no historical foundation whatsoever. Even had it been true, it was a claim that was secondary, in terms of lineal priorities, to ʿUqba alMustajāb, or to the anṣār. According to Ghubayd ăgg-Alăwjeli, aggag is a term, or a name, or both. It simply denotes prêtre, religieux, théologien.3 It is not in 1 Centre Nigérien de Recherches en Sciences Humaines, Niamey, Novembre, 1970, p. 143. 2 See Hitti, History of the Arabs, pp. 140, 148, 152 and 154. 3 Ghubayd ăgg-Alăwjeli, Lexique.

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many instances a specific proper name at all, and it may simply indicate a ‘holy leader or preacher of al-Islām’. It is therefore possibly unconnected with any one Saharan historical personality. The above claims may be matched by several examples from amongst the Kel-Essouk and also in a same tradition that is accepted by the Kunta, though each differs in detail. For example, in the Risāla al-Ghallāwiyya, written by Shaykh Sīdī’l-Mukhtār’s son, Shaykh Sīdī Muḥammad, in the early part of the thirteenth century AH/nineteenth century AD, it was claimed that the Kunta originated in al-Qayrawān where the tomb of their ancestor, ʿUqba al-Mustajāb b. Nāfiʿ, was said to lie buried. According to the Ghallāwiyya, ʿUqba’s expeditions took him as far as the city of Ghāna and into Takrūr and that he left his son al-ʿĀqib in Walăta (Mauritania) where he is buried in a mosque located there. It may be noticed that many details relate to the popular claims that are also told in Ghadāmes and which have appeared in our texts. The treacherous murder of ʿUqba by Kusayla is repeated in every account whether this event be associated with al-Qayrawān, or with Ghadāmes, or with Agades, or with Tādmakka, or with Walāta. It is here that all the Saharan storytellers are ‘singing from the same hymn-sheet’. Muḥammad Tawjaw al-Sūqī al-Thānī, in our Text 3, has supported the suggestion that the source for the proliferation of this story was originally to be found in Tādmakka (al-Sūq/Essuk) itself. It was there – forty-five kilometres to the north of Kidāl, – that the exploits of ʿUqba b. Nāfiʿ and other stories of the conquest were well known to the rulers of the town, according to the Arab writer, Ibn Ḥawqal. He wrote, ‘The supreme kings of Tādmakka in our time are Fusahr b. Alfara and Īnāw b. Sabanzāk. They are the rulers who combine leadership with learning, jurisprudence, and political skill, as well as some knowledge of biographies and they are versed in traditions and history. They are the Banū Tānamāk’.4 In the view of Muḥammad Tawjaw al-Sūqī it was very likely that events in the region around al-Qayrawān and beyond, have been applied, adopted and, frankly, have been grafted upon, the legendary content amongst the Saharan populations. This was possibly facilitated by the errors of copyists in genuine historical writings. Who the Banū Tānamāk were is a matter of some speculation. P.F. de Moraes Farias has suggested that their name may be a derivation from the Berber, akku, ekk, or ĕkk, which has the sense of the verb ‘to go, to frequent’ and to ‘pass’.

4 Ibn Ḥawqal in Levtzion and Hopkins, Corpus, p. 51.

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Ghubăyd ăgg-Ălăwjěli, in his Lexique, defines ăķķu as ‘faire aller’ and, on the same page, he includes the form of sănnămăķķu in the same sense. Sūq, ‘market’, is a verbal noun from the Arabic root sāqa, ‘to drive’ and ‘to convey’. While this would appear to be the most likely explanation, Ghubăyd ăgg-Ălăwjěli also mentions anęmęnnak, in the sense of ‘to unite’, and ‘to unify’ and which has a nominal form of tanęmenneka in the sense of ‘union’ – compare it with Levtzion and Hopkins’ translation, ‘They are the rulers, who combine leadership with learning, jurisprudence and political skill’. Two kings are mentioned by Ibn Ḥawqal as the rulers of Tādmakka, though we are uncertain as to their exact relationship. One of these kings is named Īnāw. According to Ghubăyd ăgg Ălăwjěli, ăŋwa signifies ‘parent collatéral’, ‘cousin parallèle’, whilst ěněy can also denote ‘commander’, ‘gouverneur’, and, in its extreme sense, amaņay, ‘l’Omnipotent’ (Dieu). Another word, tanĕmennĕka as aforementioned signifies ‘union’. It would appear that the two men ruled in some form of union or in unity, hence Levtzion and Hopkins translate it as follows: ‘They are the rulers who combine leadership’. In the one figure, this was learning and jurisprudence and, in the other, the political leadership. This dual sharing of the rules of governorship would seem to foreshadow the situation that existed much later in Arawān/Arwān, the town that was a successor to Tādmakka (al-Sūq). As is mentioned on folio 27 of Text 2 (Khabar al-Sūq): ‘The office of the qāḍī is with the sons of Shaykh Aḥmad b. Āddā just as the office of the Imām is with the sons of Shaykh al-Ṣāliḥ b. Abī Muḥammad. Such is the situation in regard to both the offices of the two shaykhs during the course of their lifetime – may God benefit us by the blessing (baraka) of [all the saints]’. According to Elias N. Saad,5 the former of the two, possibly legendary, men had intermarried with several Tuareg groups, including the Kel Ntṣar, though he is rather of the opinion that his chief attachment was with the Kel-Essouk. He obtained this information from a manuscript in the possession of Mawlāy Aḥmad Bābīr of Timbuctoo.6 The author of our Text 3, al-Jawhar al-Thamīn fi Akhbār Ṣaḥrāʾ al-Mulaththamīn, discusses the relationship between the Imōshāgh (Imājaghėn) and the Kel-Essouk. He points out that the former were ‘the apex of the pyramid of the authority in the Sahara desert of the Tuareg. They were the support for the satisfaction of all those who put themselves beneath their authority and especially those religious authorities that the Kel-Essouk represented. They, the

5 Saad, Social History of Timbuktu, p. 150. 6 Saad, Social History of Timbuktu, p. 286, notes 138–140.

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Imōshāgh, were the defenders and protectors of them in the face of unexpected dangers and in view of the position of the ʿulamāʾ and the judges among them’. Hence, the title imām (in Arawān, and elsewhere), has the sense given to it by E.W. Lane in his Arabic-English Lexicon,7 where an imām, in certain circumstances, is described as being the ‘leader of an army’, or one who led travellers, or ‘who conducted and directed caravans’. This latter would support the view of P.F. de Moraes Farias that in Tādmakka, and later al-Sūq, a group meaning is implied in which the rulers concerned were ‘specialising in attracting and launching caravans and in maintaining a market place’.8 The Banū Wārith in the Arabic accounts were a Ṣanhāja group who played a secondary rôle, if indeed any rôle at all, in the Almoravid movement. They dwelt in the region close to the Mandingo Wangara/Wanqara, seemingly inhabiting to the south of both the Almoravid Gudāla and the Lamtūna and clearly towards the south-east of the southern Sahara in the region of the ʿAṣāba district of Mauritania. Like so many of the Ṣanhāja tribes, their name is prefixed by banū, ‘sons’, or ‘tribe’, and it is far from certain that wārith, ‘heir’, or an ‘inheritor’, is their Arabic proper name, or an Arabic word, be this an ancestor, or be it the title of the group. In many respects, they match claims of a kind characteristic of several Berber groups in Libya that were reported at a far earlier date. Ṣabāḥ Ibrāhīm Saīd al-Shaykhly in her 1980AD thesis, ‘Arab Military and Commercial Penetration of the Maghrib’9 has drawn attention to claims made by al-Yaʿqūbī as early as the third century AH/ninth century AD in his Kitāb al-Buldān, that Barqa (Cyrenaica) contained settled Yemenite elements of the Azd, Lakhm, Judhām and Ṣadaf who had participated in the campaigns launched by ʿAmr b. al-ʿĀṣ. Other groups from the Berber Luwāta were integrated with Arabs as far west as Ajdābiyā in Cyrenaica. The situation explains the claims of many Berbers to an Arabian (especially the Lakhmids) to Yemenite lineage. This also applied to the Huwwāra in the Gulf of Syrte region (ancestors of some of the Tuareg). Elsewhere, al-Yaʿqūbī made similar claims for the region of Waddān among the Mazāta branch of the Luwāta, once again asserting a Yemenite ancestry.10

7 8 9

10

Lane, Arabic-English Lexicon, p. 91. De Moraes Farias, Medieval Inscriptions, p. cxiii. ‘Arab Military and Commercial Penetration of the Maghrib and its Sahara, the Western Sudan and Southern Europe during the 5th century AH/11th century AD, a Reinterpretation in the Light of Medieval Arabic Sources’, Ph.D. Thesis, Victoria University, Manchester, 1980 AD, see pp. 11, 14 and 15. Op. cit., pp. 14–15.

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Ghubăyd ăgg Ălăwjěli has included a term and its derivative, in Tamājeq, that may well shed light on the origins of the Banū Wārith. The word, arew, has the sense of ‘enfanter’ and ‘engendrer’, with a causative form of sessirew, ‘faire engendrer’. Another form is ara/aratān, meaning ‘engendrement’, ‘enfant’, ‘descendant’, and, also, ammeterew, ‘progentiture’, all of which, to some degree, express the Arabic root, waritha, to be someone’s heir, that is to say ‘he inherited’. The Banu Wārith are included amongst the Ṣanhāja by Ibn Ḥawqal and by other Arab writers. However, in the Kitāb al-Anīs al-Muṭrib bi-Rawḍ al-Qirṭās fī Akhbār Mulūk al-Maghrib wa-Taʾrīkh Madīnat Fās, by Aḥmad b. Abī Zarʿ of Fez (d. circa 715AH/1315AD), a work that owes much to al-Bakrī, an interesting and peculiar detail is made in regard to the Banū Wārith. He remarks, ‘The Baqara (Qanqara) are tribes of the Sūdān and live near the town of Tātāklāsin (var. Tātāklātin), to the west of it. They professed Judaism. The town of Tātāklāsin is inhabited by a Ṣanhāja tribe called the Banū Wārith. They are upright people who are orthodox Muslims. They accepted Islam at the hands of ʿUqba b. Nāfiʿ al-Fihrī at the time of the conquest of the Maghrib. They waged war on the people of the Sūdān who do not profess Islam’.11 Such a group preceded the Kel Ntṣar and the Kel-Essouk of a later age, even the Kunta who proudly claim the same lineage. Those who claimed this lineage and heritage share sentiments. So, too, in Ghadāmes, where early pages of Tadhkīr al-Nāsī wa-Talyīn al-Qalb al-Qāsī are entirely occupied by an intrusive text that recounts the possibly legendary exploits of the ṣaḥāba, especially ʿUqba b. Nāfiʿ, in the town and region and, in particular, their resting places. Such an attention given to this history is recorded likewise in Tādmakka and it is to be marked throughout in the Arabic documents that survive in this entire region of North Africa. Aside from the biographical details of the life of Sīdī ʿAbdallāh b. Abī Bakr and his family, the Tadhkīr al-Nāsī wa-Talyīn al-Qalb al-Qāsī provides three other topics that are either original or else are well known but, so far, have been little studied. The first of these is the part played in the life of his sons by the scholarly contacts in the central desert regions within Libya of Awjila and Waddān and in Agades and Ăyăr, in Niger, and elsewhere in West Africa. The scholars quoted include, Muḥammad b. Ṣāliḥ b. ʿAbd al-Raḥīm b. Salīm al-Awjalī, and Mawlānā al-Sharīf b. Fāyiz al-Waddāni. The Fezzāni scholars included the ‘Barākila’, who were of Libyan, or of part-Libyan origin. They formed a scholarly fraternity of the Libyan community, principally commercial,

11

Ibn Abī Zarʿ, in Levtzion and Hopkins, Corpus, p. 237.

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that was established both in Agades and in many other towns in the region. In the Western and Eastern Sūdānic countries these scholars are each given the agnomen, ‘al-Barkulī’ (Barkūlī). In the text, reference to them appears principally on the pages of the biography that mention two sons of Shaykh ʿAbdallāh b. Abī Bakr, Shaykh Aḥmad and Sīdī ʿAlī and their not infrequent commercial visits to Agades region during the course of which they met local scholars and discussed religious texts that were primarily concerned with ḥadīth and with referred legal issues that had already been circulated among the scholars of the entire region. A West African scholar who originated in the Fezzān has been mentioned by John Hunwick. The scholar was Ramaḍān b. Aḥmad, who also lived in the eighteenth century, a native of the Fezzān and who studied in Zamfara. He subsequently studied with Hārūn al-Zakzakī al-Fullānī whose prose and poetic works included a poem on the topic of the transmitters of the Ṣaḥīḥ of alBukhārī. In our text the Fezzānī scholars in question were Sīdī Ḥammād alBarkūlī (Barkulī) as well as Shaykh al-Darfī who was also from the Western Sūdān, Sīdī ʿAlī was resident in Agades for a number of years and he studied with the Barākila for some time (see Tadkhīr al-Nāsī, above, Chapter 3 where scholars’ names are mentioned in verse). He also made contact with a saint and clairvoyant who was known for his use of charms as well as his prayers in order to avert witchcraft, Sīdī Aḥmad alBarkulī, and also with the jurist, Sīdi Saʿīd b. Aḥīḥā and with others in the group. Ghadāmis, through its merchant-scholars, had a monopoly of the commercial traffic between Tunis, Tripoli, the Western Sūdān, and even as far as the Eastern Sahara. This fact is given great emphasis by Shaykh Muhammed Ben Otsmane el-Hachaichi [al-Ḥashāʾishī] in his classic work, Voyage au pays des Senoussia à travers la Tripolitaine et les pays Touareg. He was born, in Tunis, on the 26th of Ramaḍan 1271AH/12th of June 1855AD. He has described the commercial and political domination of the class in Ghadāmis into which Sīdī Abū Bakr b ʿAbdallāh was born, and where his sons traded and studied and taught.12 Hachaichi stresses that the people of Ghadāmis exercised a preponderant influence in both the Sūdān and in the Sahara and they monopolized the commerce within these regions. During the course of his conversations in both Murzuq and Ghāt he had accepted the view that the people of Ghadāmes were the ‘first nation to know the Sūdānese’.13 They were the negotiators, so too were the majority of them in Ghāt. One such negotiator known to Hachaichi was

12 13

Voyage au pays des Senoussia, pp. 218–230. Ibid., p. 219.

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al-ḥājj Muḥammad al-Thānī al-Ghadāmsī. He was the companion of Shaykh Sīdī Muḥammad al-Mahdī al-Sanūsī when Hachaichi had reached Koufra in the eastern Sahara. Added to this, he was his minister of commerce and supplies and all the merchandise that passed through the town. Beyond it, he was responsible for much commerce with Wadai, Borno, Chad and other parts of the Sūdān. He was held in such high regard by Shaykh Muḥammed al-Mahdī that he married him to his wife’s sister and took him with him to Koufra from his residence in Jaghbūb. When a zāwiya (religious retreat) was built in Koufra it was given the name of ‘new Ghadāmis’. Hachaichi was also able to furnish a list of the negotiators from Ghadāmis who were established in the principal centres of the Western Sūdān.14 We are unaware as to from where in the Fezzān these lettered men had originally come. One possibility was that it was from the region of Sebha, in Libya, since the name of Barkulī is known in that region, today. Elias N. Saad has drawn attention to a reference to Bīru, namely Walāta, quoted by al-Saʿdī. In it that latter mentions that ‘the most elect of scholars’ came from ‘Egypt, Wajal (Awjila), Fazzān, Ghadāmis, Twāt, Teflālet, Fās, Sūs, Bīru and other places’. These scholars moved to Timbuctoo, and it seems probable that some also moved to Agades. An alternative origin may have been a migration from the towns bordering the region of Ṭanṭana which were mentioned by the Arab geographers as being the home of the Azgār Tuareg, who are also mentioned by several of the Arab writers. The Azgār journeyed to Sijilmāsa in Morocco. Al-Idrīsī says that Ghadāmis was situated at a distance of about eighteen stages from the Azqār (Kel-Ajjėr, according to Ghubăyd ăgg Ălăwjeli).15 They were in the area of the Tassilli (Ṭanṭana), to the west and east of Ghāt, today, and about nine stages from Shāma in the Bilād al-Sūdān. The story of the use of divination (khaṭṭ al-raml) in order to discover the whereabouts of lost camels, and other possessions, had been told to al-Idrīsī by one of the Azqār who was resident in Sijilmāsa which was also linked by a route to Ghadāmes. A feature that one may observe in Tadhkīr al-Nāsī wa-Talyīn al-Qalb al-Qāsī is the common lineal chain (sanad) that is to be found in the ijāzāt; the chains of transmission that are mentioned in the document. Two passages may serve to illustrate this: He said, ‘I was informed, also, from the isnād of the “horizons of learning”, Abū’l-ʿAbbās (Aḥmad) Bābā b. al-faqīh and muḥaddith (reciter of

14 15

Ibid., p. 220. al-Idrīsī, in Levtzion and Hopkins, Corpus, p. 121.

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ḥadīth) (Aḥmad) b. al-ḥājj Aḥmad al-Ṣanhājī [Ṣinhājī]. [He did so], orally, from his father, and also, by license, from the faqīh and muḥaddith, Andagh-Muḥammad b. al-faqīh “al-atharī al-riḥla” [?] Muḥammad b. Aḥmad al-Tāzakhtī [Tīzakhtī] [also] al-Tunbuktī.’ A licence was given to the latter by al-Qalqashandī (d. 1418 AD). Muḥammad b. Aḥmad al-Tāzakhtī came from the Mauritanian town of that name, now deserted, in the region of the Ḥawḍ (Hodh) very close to Walāta. John Hunwick has written in his Arabic Literature of Africa, ‘Like Kano, Katsina was visited by the North African scholar Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-Karīm alMaghīlī (d. 1504AD), and also by Ayda Aḥmad al-Tāzakhtī (from Tīzakht near Walāta, d. 1529–1530AD) who became qāḍī of Katsina, and Makhlūf al-Balbālī (d. after 1534AD) a scholar of the northern Saharan oasis of Tabalbala’.16 Elias N. Saad, op. cit., has much to say about these and other scholars.17 There are, however, some relatively minor differences between our text and that of Elias N. Saad. And-ag [or -agg] Muḥammad al-Kabīr is likewise a very well known scholar. John Hunwick adds that Muḥammad b. Aḥmad b. Abī Muḥammad was a faqīh and a muḥaddith and an excellent calligrapher and that he, whilst in Egypt, studied with the Shāfiʿī scholar, Zakariyyā al-Anṣārī (d. 956 AH/1549 AD) and the Laqqānī brothers, Shams al-Dīn (d. 935 AH/1528 AD) and Nāṣir al-Dīn (d. 958 AH/1551AD), both of whom were celebrated for their teaching of Mālikī fiqh and for their fatwās and contact with other prominent scholars.18 Despite some apparent confusion between the names of Muḥammad and Aḥmad in the two series above, it would seem likely that the same scholar, even scholars, are included in this ‘sanad’ in our text. Ayda-Aḥmad is the same title used in both sources. And-agg-Muḥammad, the prefix being a Tuareg name, is also to be found in both texts, either denoting ‘the son (ăg/ăgg)19 of Muḥammad’, or else some honorific title, relating to the Tamājaq expression mentioned by Ghubăyd ăggĂlăwjeli and-ak ‘allons’, ‘vas-y!’20 This same prefix is also to be found in Arawān/Arwān, where Agadda, ăgg/ăg Adda was the leading personality in the life of the town. His life and times are

16 17 18 19 20

Arabic Literature of Africa, Vol. 2, p. 3. Social history of Timbuktu, pp. 40, 45, 62, 66, 67, 72, 76, 79, 106, 110, 124, 132, 188, 220, 222, 256, 289. Arabic Literature of Africa, op. cit., p. 25. See Ghubăyd ăgg Ălăwjeli, Lexique, p. 47. Ibid., p. 139.

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to be found in Elias N. Saad, Social History.21 He says that Agadda, the scholarchieftain intermarried with the Magsharen, or the Antasar-Idnan.22 The second example in our text is found on page 12: As for the Ṣaḥīḥ of the ‘Commander of the Faithful’, Abū ʿAbdallāh Muslim b. al-Ḥajjāj al-Qushayrī al-Naysābürī, I was told about it by our shaykh, Sīdī Muḥammad b. Muḥammad b. ʿAlī. He said, ‘I was told of the entire text, by al-ḥāfiẓ ʿAbd al-Karīm b. Muḥammad b. Abī Muḥammad b. Aḥmad b. Maymūn b. ʿUmar b. Muḥammad b. ʿUmar al-Marbīnī. He said, We were told told about all of it in an ijāza from “Chain of Authority of the Horizons” (musnid al-āfāq), Abū’l-ʿAbbās Sīdī Aḥmad Bābā. He said, I was told of it by my father, orally, and with an ijāza and by the “the ‘faqīh of a good judgement” Sīdī Muḥammad b. Maḥmūd (Baghīgh [Baghayughu]), from their Shaykh, the most favoured faqīh And-agg-Muḥammad, in an oral hearing, and this on more than one occasion.23 He said, I was told of it by the shaykh al-islām, Abū’l-Faḍl ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn, with an ijāza’.24 The above reveal that the lineage within the ijāza partly fits into the wellestablished pattern that is familiar within the genealogies of scholars in Hausaland, and in other parts of West Africa, including Timbuctoo; lines of transmission of learning in two sanads are cited by Elias Saad.25 Throughout the isnāds and elsewhere in the text, the names of noteworthy Egyptian and other Middle Eastern scholars are to be found and, in particular, several who were Imāms and scholars of al-Azhar University in Cairo. These were either contemporaries of Shaykh ʿAbdallāh b. Abī Bakr, or his sons, who have been mentioned in the biography in the context of literary, scholastic and historical references and citations. A mention has already been made of the Laqqānīs, but one might also mention a leading Egyptian scholar who

21 22 23

24

25

Social history of Timbuktu, pp. 150, 211 and 286. Ibid., p. 150. In Appendix 13 and 14, ‘Selected Lines of transmission of learning (B) and (C)’ of Elias N. Saad, Social History of Timbuktu (pp. 248–249), the descent of transmission to Muḥammad Baghayughu b. Muḥammad Gurdu clarifies the far from clear text of Tadhkīr al-Nāsī. Sidi Amar Ould Ely’s Handlist of Manuscripts in the Centre de Documentation et de Recherches Historiques Aḥmed Bābā includes the name of the above scholar, Maḥmūd b. Baghīgh/Baghayughu b. Muḥammad b. Gurdu, see Vol. 2, p. 533. In the same book, p. 526, a work by ʿAbdallāh b. Abī Bakr al-Ghadāmisī is mentioned. This, no. 53 (903) is his Minhāj al-Sālikīn fi Manāfiʿ al-Qurʾān al-Karīm, written in a ‘Sūdānī’ hand. This same work is mentioned in our text. Saad, Social History, pp. 248–249.

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was quoted by Arab and Tuareg scholars throughout the Sahara, Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī (1445–1505AD). Among the shuyūkh of al-Azhar who are mentioned in this text, one or two of them with a specific relation to Shaykh ʿAbdallāh b. Abī Bakr, are ʿAbd al-Salām b. Ibrāhīm al-Laqqānī, who taught in al-Azhar (d. 1078 AH/1668 AD); Muḥammad al-Kharashī (d. 1690) who was the first Shaykh of al-Azhar to become Imām; ʿAbd al-Bāqī b. Yūsuf b. Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. ʿUlwān al-Zurqānī (1020–1099AH/1611–1688AD), whose son, Muḥammad al-Zurqānī wrote a ‘Commentary on the Mukhtaṣar of al-Jundī’; and Shaykh Ibrāhīm al-Fayyūmī, who was the Mālikī rector of al-Azhar between 1721 and 1725 AD. He contributed an ijāza to our text. He was the author of al-Sharḥ al-Kabīr bi-Mukhtaṣar Khalīl, and al-Farāʾiḍ al-Saniyya fī ḥall alfāẓ al-Sanūsiyya, and Muntahā al-Raghba fī Sharḥ al-Nukhba. Further, the Shāfiʿī shaykh ʿAbdallāh al-Sharqāwī (1793– 1812AD), and also, Abu Isḥāq Ibrāhīm b. Marʿī b. ʿĀṭiyya al-Shabrakhītī al-Mālikī (d. 1694–1695AD) the author of a commentary upon the Mukhṭasar of Khalīl, and the Arbaʿīn al-Nawawiyya, the Kitāb al-Futūḥāt al-Wahbiyya and a commentary upon the Dīwān of Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm b. Abī’l-Fatḥ b. Khafāja alAndalusī (d. 1139AD). The work that forms the centrepiece of our book, Tadhkīr al-Nāsī, besides being, at times, a moving biography of a noteworthy scholar, is also a historical indication of the major part that was played by Ghadāmis during the course of the eighteenth century AD. It was a Saharan town that faced both ways. Commercially, it was linked with the cities of West Africa and also with Egypt and beyond to the North-East. Its scholars, amongst whom Shaykh Sīdī ʿAbdallāh b. Abī Bakr was a shining light of learning, exemplify the importance of Ghadāmis in the history of Islamic institutions to be found in all directions. At the same time, it was a latter-day heir to Tādmakka (al-Sūq), and to Arawān/Arwān, that were once contemporary with it, or had predated it in the first instance, and post-dated it in the latter. Ghadāmis was, and still is, a centre of Berber Islam and of Berber scholarship and Arabic learning. It is also a town where African communities have long met and have lived side by side. James Richardson wrote about Ghadāmis in his Travels in the Great Desert of Sahara, in the years of 1845 and 1846, ‘The united population amounts to about 3,000, but there are many Ghadamsee families established in Soudan and Timbuctoo’.26

26

London: Richard Bentley, 1848, Vol. 1, p. 230.

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Long may this continue, and long may its reciprocal and Islāmic scholarly rôle in Libyan culture continue to prosper. To conclude, I shall quote a comment made about the people who lived in the middle of the nineteenth century in the town of Ghadāmis where he sojourned for some time on his Saharan tour, namely the same James Richardson, who, in his Travels half a century after the death of Shaykh ʿAbdallāh b. Abi Bakr, also wrote: Mounted on my camel, pressing on through The Desert, my thoughts still lag behind, and as I turn often to look back upon the City of Merchants and Marabouts, its palms being only now visible in the dingy red of the setting sun, I endeavour to form a correct opinion of its singular inhabitants. I see in them the mixture of the religious and the commercial character, blended in a most extraordinary manner and degree, for here the possession of wealth scarcely interferes with the highest state of ascetic devotion. To a religious scrupulousness, which is alarmed at a drop of medicine that is prohibited falling upon their clothes, they add the most enterprising and determined spirit of commercial enterprise, plunging into The Desert, often in companies of only two or three, when infested with bandits and cut-throats their journeys the meanwhile extending from the Mediterranean to the banks of the Niger, as low down to the Western Coast as Noufee and Rabbah. But their resignation to the will of heaven is without a parallel. No murmur escapes them under the severest domestic affliction, whilst prayer is their daily bread. Besides five times a day, they never omit the extraordinary occasions. The aspirations of the older and retired men continue all the live-long day; this incense of the soul, rising before the altar of the Eternal, is a fire which is never extinguished in Ghadames! Their commercial habits naturally beget caution, if not fear. In The Desert, though armed, they have no courage to fight. Their arms are their mysterious playthings. Their genius is pacific and to make peace – they are the peacemakers of the Desert – and they always travel under the intrepid escort of their warlike Touarick friends and neighbours. Intelligent, industrious, they are the greatest friends of civilisation in North Africa and the Great Desert. But upon such a people falls as a blast of lightning, rending and shivering the fairest palm of the oasis, the curse of Turkish rule.27 27

Travels, pp. 383–384.

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Figures

figure 1

A map of the Libyan territory to the West and South of Tripoli

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figure 2

figures

One of the streets in the “old city” of Ghadāmis

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figures

figure 3

Art in Ghadāmis

figure 4

House of ʿAbd al-Jabbār b. ʿAbd al-Qādir in the “old city” of Ghadāmis

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figures

figure 5

Objects of art along the walls of a house in the “old city” of Ghadāmis

figure 6

Ancient chests in Ghadāmis

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figure 7

House interior in Ghadāmis

figure 8

House interior in Ghadāmis

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Selected Bibliography Abitbol, M. (ed. and transl.) 1979, Tombouctou et les Arma, Paris: G.P. Maisonneuve et Larose. Abitbol, M. 1982, Tombouctou au milieu du xviii-e siècle d’après la chronique de Mawlāy al-Qāsim. Paris: G.P. Maisonneuve et Larose. Ag Arias, Altinine. 1970, Iwillimadan Niamey: Centre Nigérien de Recherches en Sciences Humaines. Alojali, Ghoubeid [Ghubăyd ăgg Alăwjeli] & K.G. Prasse. 1980, Lexique Touareg Français. Copenhagen: Akademisk forlag. Bates, O. 1914, The Eastern Libyans, London: Macmillan [reprint London: Frank Cass 1970]. Bernus, E. 1970, ‘Récits historiques de l’Azawagh’, Bulletin de l’Institut Fondamental d’Afrique Noire. Série B, 32 (2) (pp. 434–485). Bivar, A.D.H. 1959, ‘Arabic Documents of Northern Nigeria’, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 22:2 (pp. 324–349). Brockelmann, Carl. 1937–1942, Geschichte der arabischen Literatur [GAL], Leiden: Brill. Dubief, J. 1948, ‘Les Ifoghas de Ghadamès: chronologie et nomadisme’, Revue d’Ibla, 13:1 (pp. 141–159). Dubief, J. 1956, ‘Les Ouraghen des Kel-Ajjer; chronologie’, Travaux de l’Institut de Recherches Sahariennes, 14:1–2 (pp. 85–137). Duveyrier, H. 1864, Les Touaregs du Nord. Exploration du Sahara. 2 vols, Paris: Challamel Ainé. Eloufrâni, Mohammed Esseghir Ben Elhadj Ben Abdallah. 1889, Nozhet-Elhâdi, Histoire de la dynastie Saadienne au Maroc (1511–1670) (trans. O. Houdas). Paris: Ernest Leroux. Gautier, Émile-Félix. 1919, La Conquête du Sahara, Paris: A. Colin. Guignard, E. 1984, Les Touaregs Udalen. Paris: l’Harmattan. El-Hachaichi, Mohammed ben Otsmane [Muḥammad b. ʿUthmān al-Hashāʾīshī]. 1903, Voyage au pays des Senoussia: à travers la Tripolitaine et les pays Touareg, Paris: Augustin Challamel. Hamani, D.M. 1989, Au Carrefour du Soudan et de la Berbèrie: le Sultanat Touareg de l’Ayer. (Études Nigériennes 55). Niamey: IRSH. Harrmann, Ulrich. 1998, ‘The Dead Ostrich: life and trade in Ghadames (Libya) in the Nineteenth Century’, Die Welt des Islams, 38 (pp. 9–94). Hitti, Philip K. 1946, History of the Arabs, London: Macmillan. Horneman, Frederick. 1802, The Journal of Frederick Horneman’s Travels, from Cairo to Mourzouk, London: G. & W. Nicol.

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Hunwick, J.O. 1962, ‘Aḥmad Baba’, Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria, 2:3 (pp. 311– 328, table). Hunwick, J.O. 1964, ‘A New Source for the Biography of Aḥmad Bābā Al-Tinbuktī (1566– 1627)’, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 27:3 (pp. 568–593). Hunwick, J.O. 1986, ‘Kunta’ in C.E. Bosworth &al. (eds.), Encyclopaedia of Islam. New Edition. Vol. 5. Leiden: E.J. Brill (pp. 393–395). Hunwick, J.O. (ed.) 1995–2003, Arabic Literature in Africa, Leiden: E.J. Brill. Hunwick, J.O. 1999, Timbuktu and the Songhay Empire. Al-Saʿdī’s Taʾrīkh al-Sūdān down to 1613 and Other Contemporary Documents (ed. & trans. of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Saʿdī, Taʾrīkh al-Sūdān). Leiden: Brill, 1999. Kaḥḥālā, ʿUmar Riḍā. 1957, Muʿjam al-muʾallifīn. Beirut: Dār iḥyāʾ al-turāth al-ʿarabī. Lane, E.W. 1877, Arabic-English Lexicon. London: Williams and Norgate. Levtzion, N. and J.F.P. Hopkins (eds & trans). 1981, Corpus of early Arabic Sources for West African History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Lewicki, T. 1959, ‘À propos d’une liste de tribus berbères d’Ibn Ḥawḳal’, Folia Orientalia, 1:1 (pp. 128–135). Lewicki, T. 1971, ‘Du nouveau sur la liste des tribus berberès d’Ibn Ḥawḳal’, Folia Orientalia, 13 (pp. 171–200). Lewicki, T. 1981, ‘Les origines et l’islamisation de la ville Tādmakka’ in Le Sol, la parole et l’écrit: 2000 ans d’histoire africaine: mélanges en hommage à Raymond Mauny. Vol. 1, Paris: Société française d’histoire d’outre-mer (pp. 439–440). Lewicki, T. 1992, ‘The role of the Sahara and Saharians in the relationships between north and south’, in I. Hrbek (ed.), General History of Africa. Vol. 3, Africa from the Seventh to the Eleventh Century. Abridged edition, London: James Currey (pp. 146–162). Lhôte, H. 1951, ‘Sur l’emplacement de la ville de Tademekka’. Notes Africaines, 51 (pp. 65– 69). Lydon, Ghislaine. 2009, On Trans-Saharan Trails, Islamic Law, Trade Networks, and Cross-Cultural Exchange in Nineteenth-Century Western Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Marty, Paul. 1920, Études sur l’Islam et les tribus du Soudan. Vol. 1, Les Kounta de l’Est, Les Berabich, les Iguellad. Vol. 2, La Région de Tombuctou (Islam songaï). Paris (4 vols): Ernest Leroux 1920–1921. de Moraes Farias, P.F. 2003, Arabic Medieval Inscriptions from the Republic of Mali, Epigraphy, Chronicles and Songhay-Tuāreg History. (Fontes Historiae Africanae, New Series. Sources of African history, 4), Oxford: Oxford University Press / The British Academy. Motylinski, A. de C. 1904, Le dialecte berbère de R’edamès, Paris: E. Leroux. Muṣṭafā Khodja, Ben Ka’sem El-Miṣri. 1904, ‘Text Inédit Communiqué par M. René Basset’ in A.C. Motylinski, Le Dialecte Berbère de R’edamès, Paris: E. Leroux. Nicholson, R.A. 1907, A Literary History of the Arabs. Fisher & Unwin.

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Norris, H.T. 1975, The Tuaregs. Warminster: Aris and Philipps. Norris, H.T. 1982, The Berbers in Arabic Literature. London: Longman. Norris, H.T. 1986, The Arab Conquest of the Western Sahara. Studies of the historical events, religious beliefs and social customs which made the remotest Sahara a part of the Arab World. London: Longman. Norris, H.T. 2005, ‘Les relations littéraires arabes entre les Touaregs et les Bidân dans les régions de frontière de l’Azawâd de l’Adghagh-n-Ifôghâs (Mali) et du Hawd (Mauritanie)’. Awal, 31 (pp. 101–127). Norris, H.T. 2006, ‘Écrits touaregs en arabe classique, un héritage méconnu’, in Hélène Claudot-Hawad (ed.), Berbères ou Arabes? Le Tango des spécialistes, Paris: Non Lieu (pp. 263–282). Ould Ely, Sidi Amar [Sīdī ʿUmar b. ʿAlī]. 1995–1996, Handlist of Manuscripts in the Centre de Documentation et de Recherches Historiques Aḥmed Bābā, Timbuktu. London: Al-Furqān Islamic Heritage Foundation. The Qur’an (trans. M.A.S. Abdel Haleem). Oxford: Oxford University Press 2004. Richardson. James. 1848, Travels in the Great Desert of Sahara in the years of 1845 and 1846 containing a narrative of Personal Adventures, During a tour of nine months through the desert, amongst the Touaricks and other tribes of Saharan people, including a description of the Oases and Cities of Ghat, Ghadames and Mourzuk. Vol. 1, London: Bentley. Richer, Ange (Dr.). 1924, Les Touaregs du Niger: Region de Tombuctou Gao: les Oulliminden. Paris: Larose. Rodd, Francis Rennell. 1926, ‘A paper on the Origins of the Tuareg’, Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, 67:1, Jan (pp. 27–52). Rodd, Francis Rennell. 1926, People of the Veil, being an Account of the Habits, Organisation and History of the Wandering Tuareg Tribes which inhabit the Mountains of Air, or Asben, in the Central Sahara. London: Macmillan. Saad, Elias N. 1983, Social History of Timbuktu: The Role of Muslim Scholars and Notables 1400–1900 (Cambridge Studies in Islamic Civilization). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. al-Shaykhly, Ṣabāḥ Ibrāhīm Saīd. 1980, ‘Arab Military and Commercial Penetration of the Maghrib and its Sahara, the Western Sudan and Southern Europe during the 5th/11th century, a Reinterpretation in the Light of Medieval Arabic Sources’. Ph.D. Thesis, Victoria University, Manchester. Thomas, David. 2008, ‘Burda’, in Ian Richard Netton (ed.), Encyclopedia of Islamic Civilisation and Religion. London: Routledge (pp. 110–112). Trimingham, J.S. 1962, A History of Islam in West Africa. London: Oxford University Press. Vycichi, W. 1966, ‘Étude sur la langue de Ghadamès (Sahara)’. Genève-Afrique, 5:2 (pp. 248–260).

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273

Whitcomb, T. 1975, ‘New Evidence on the Origins of the Kunta’. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 38:1 (pp. 103–123) & 38:2 (pp. 403–417). Wright, J. 2012, A History of Libya. London: Hurst and Company. Yūshaʿ, Bashīr Qāsim. 1972, Ghadāmis Malāmiḥ wa-Ṣuwar. Misurāta: Maṭābiʿ al-Fātiḥ. Yūshaʿ, Bashīr Qāsim. 1986, Fihrist Makhṭuṭāt Ghadāmis al-Muṣawwara. Tripoli: Markaz al-Jihād al-Lībiyy lil-Dirāsat al-Taʾrīkhiyya [An index of photographed manuscripts from Ghadāmis]. Yūshaʿ, Bashīr Qāsim. 1995, Ghadāmis. Wathāʾiq Tijāriyya wa-Taʾrīkhiyya wa-Ijtimāʿiyya, No. 1. Tripoli: Markaz al-Jihād al-Lībiyy lil-Dirāsāt al-Taʾrīkhiyya. [A book of commercial, historical and sociological documents]. al-Ziriklī, Khayr al-Dīn. 1984, al-Aʿlām, 6th edn. Beirut: Dar al-ʿilm li’l-malāyīn. Zouber, Mahmoud Abdou. 1977, Ahmad Bābā, Paris: G.-P. Maisonneuve et Larose.

Unpublished Theses ʿAbdal-ʿAzīz ʿAbdallah Baṭrān, 1971, ‘Sidi al-Muk̲h̲tar al-Kunti and the recrudescence of Islam in the Western Sahara and the Middle Niger, c. 1750–1811’, University of Birmingham. Sabah Ibrahim Said Al-Sheikhly, 1980, ‘Arab Military and Commercial Penetration of the Maghrib and its Sahara. The Western Sūdān and Southern Europe during the 5th/11th Century: a Reinterpretation in the Light of Medieval Arabic Sources’, University of Manchester. Saʿīd Aḥmad, 1996, ‘Commerce et commerçants dans le Sahara central: les échanges entre le vilāyet de Tripoli et les pays d’Afrique central de 1835 à 1911’, Université de Provence-Aix-Marseille.

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Subjects Relevant subjects which are to be found in the Encyclopedia of Islam and from Brill Online Reference Works. al-Azhar Badr Al-Buk̲h̲ārī, Muḥammad b. Ismāʿīl Berbers al-Butr Ḍarība Ḥadīt̲h̲ Hawwāra Ibn Ḥawḳal al-Kāhina al-Ḳayrawān Kawār Kusayla al-Lamtūnī Makka Mālik b. Anas Manāḳib Muḥammad b. Saḥnūn Muk̲h̲taṣar Mawlay Ismāʿīl Nasnās/Nisnas [see Ḳird] al-Ṣafadī [Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn K̲ h̲alīl] Ṣahāba Ṣaḥīḥ al-Sanūsī [Abū ʿAbd Allāh Maḥammad b. Yūsuf] S̲h̲arḥ al-Suyūṭī Ṭāriḳ b. Ziyād Timbuktu Tuggurt ʿUḳba b. Nāfiʿ Waḳf

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Index ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-Ḥafṣī 113 ʿAbd al-Bāqī b. Yūsuf al-Zarqānī 27, 65, 170, 263 ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd ʿAbdallāh al-Ḥarāma 6, 161, 173 ʿAbd al-Jabbār b. ʿAbd al-Qādir vii, viii, 3–6, 8, 11, 40, 43, 44, 169–171, 177, 185 ʿAbd al-Malik b. Marwān 12 ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. ʿAbdallāh b. Abī Bakr alGhadāmisī 28, 70, 75, 95 ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. Muʿāwiya al-Dākhil 218 ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Barkulī 170 ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Bashīr Ḍawī al-Ghadāmisī 114, 116 ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Ḍawī 116n82 ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Nāṣir 219 ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Saʿdī 162, 173 ʿAbd al-Salām ʿAlujānī 170 ʿAbd al-Salām b. Ibrāhīm al-Laqqānī 27, 66, 116n80, 263 ʿAbdallāh b. Jaʿfar 110 ʿAbdallāh b. Mūsā b. Abī Shayna alGhadāmisī 103 ʿAbdallāh b. Nāfiʿ b. ʿAbd al-Qays 11 ʿAbdallāh b. Nāfiʿ b. Ḥusayn al-Fihrīyānī 11 ʿAbdallāh b. Saʿd b. Abī’l-Sarrāj 11 ʿAbdallāh b. Yāsīn 197 ʿAbdallāh b. Zubayr 12 ʿAbdallāh al-Sharqāwī 263 Abibarā 186 Abū ʿAbdallāh b. Ytafawāt 219 Abū ʿAbdallāh al-Marzūqī 29 Abū ʿAbdallāh al-Qarawī 33 Abū Bakr ag Laqwā 225, 244 Abū Bakr b. ʿAbdallāh b. Abī Bakr alGhadāmisī 56, 60 Abū Bakr b. al-ʿArabī 49 Abū Fīnayāt 224 Abū Kumāsh, battle of 228 Abū Maḥdhūra 166 Abū Masʿūd al-Badrī 16 Abū ʿUbayda b. al-Jarrāḥ 254 Abū Zayd al-Barkulī 170 Abu’l-Birr al-Faqīh Muḥammad 170 Abū’l-Ḥasan al-Marīnī 194 Abū’l-Ḥasan al-Ṣaghīr 190

Abū’l-Kharashī 67 Abū’l-Qāsim b. Ibrāhīm Ibn Ṣīla 25 Abū’l-Qāsim al-Warfalī 47 Abū’l-Shaʿtḥāʾ Raḥmān ʿAbd al-Raḥmān 114–116, 118 Adrār 165, 186, 188, 200 Adri 225 Āg Bakr 229, 230 Agades 56, 61, 73, 80, 170, 187, 254, 258 Aḥmad Āgha 229 Aḥmad Aswad 162 Aḥmad b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān 82 Aḥmad b. ʿAbdallāh b. Abī Bakr al-Ghadāmisī 28, 62, 77, 170 Aḥmad b. ʿAbdallāh b. Muḥammad b. Ṣīla 28, 98 Aḥmad b. Ādda 164, 167n20, 168, 168n23, 169, 173, 256 Aḥmad b. Ḥajar 114–116 Aḥmad b. Ḥasan al-Sharīf al-Ḥasanī 77 Aḥmad b. al-Ḥasan al-Sharīf al-Ḥusaynī 170 Aḥmad b. Ḥurays 5 Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. Balqāsim b. Mūsā ʿUrf al-Ḥāris 24 Aḥmad b. Musā b. Abī Shayna 28 Aḥmad b. ʿUmar 237 Aḥmad b. ʿUmar Ḥarīẓ al-Ṭarābulusī 19 Aḥmad Bābā 260 Aḥmad Bābā Centre 161, 173 Aḥmad Bābīr 256 Aḥmad al-Barkūlī 81, 259 Aḥmad Rāsim, governor of Tripoli 234, 238 Aḥmad al-Sūqī vii, 3, 4, 171, 172, 177 Aḥmad ʿUmar al-Mursī al-Anṣārī 169n26 Aḥmad al-Zāhid b. ʿAbdallāh b. Abī Bakr alGhadāmisī 72 Ahriyya 2 ʿAin Tahāla 236 Aïr 179, 186, 194, 198, 258 ʿĀʾisha bt. Balqāsim b. Ibrāhīm 74, 170 Ajjer 225 Akhnūkhan, see Muḥammad Akhnūkhan Ālah Jabūr al-Manghasātnī 228 Aleppo 198 Algiers 227

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276 ʿAlī ʿAbd al-Salām 238 ʿAlī b. ʿAbd al-Ḥaqq al-Zarwīlī 166n14 ʿAlī b. Muḥammad, mutaṣarrif of Fezzān 238 ʿAlī al-Ujhūrī 27 ʿAlī Zayn al-ʿĀbidīn b. ʿAbdallāh b. Abī Bakr al-Ghadāmisī 74, 80, 93 Almohads 187 Almoravids 2, 175, 187, 194, 196, 197, 212, 253, 254, 257 Altinine ag Arias 254 Amanghāsatan, see Manghasāten ʿAmr b. al-ʿĀṣ 257 ʿAmūd Muḥammad b. al-Mukhtār 225, 228, 244 Anas b. Mālik 59 And-ag Muḥammad al-Kabīr 261 And-agh-Muḥammad b. Muḥammad alTāzakhtī al-Tunbuktī 261 al-Andalus 11 Aoraghan 2, 3 al-ʿAqaba, battle of 16–18, 112 al-ʿĀqib b. ʿUqba b. Nāfiʿ 166n14, 255 al-ʿAqīda al-Ṣughrā by al-Sanūsī 70 al-ʿArabī family 223 Arawān 1, 6, 163, 164, 167n20, 168, 169, 173, 174, 187, 256, 257, 261, 263 Arbaʿīn al-Nawawiyya by al-Shabrakhītī 263 ʿAṣāba district 257 askiyā Isḥāq 163, 200 al-ʿAtīq b. al-Shaykh Saʿd al-Dīn 178 Atlantic 12 Awdaghust 196 Awfnāyaf ag Mūsā 244 Awjila 66, 170, 223, 258, 260 Awlād ʿAbdallāh 57 Awlād Aḥmad, Udāʾiy 164, 174 Awlād Bilāl 2 Awlād Dulaym 164, 174 Awlād Ḥamma 164, 174 Awlād Ḥassān 253 Awlād Sulaymān 236, 237 Awrāghan 224, 225, 244 Ăyăr, see Aïr Ayda Aḥmad al-Tāzakhtī 261 Ayyūb al-Anṣārī 221 Azawād 2, 175, 179, 209, 254 Azgar, see Kel Ajjer al-ʿAziziyya, battle of 228

index Azjar, see Kel Ajjer Badr, battle of 16–18, 111–113, 117 al-Bakrī, ʿAbdallāh b. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz 12, 175, 176, 187, 193, 194 al-Balawī, Zuhayr b. Qays 16, 92 Balthān 219 Bānat Suʿādu by Kaʿb b. Zuhayr 101n61 Banū Āʿāl 179 Banū Anāsata 218 Banū Balūw 167 Banū Bayāḍ 167n15 Banū Ḥārith b. al-Khazraj 112 Banū Ḥassān 164 Banū Ibrāhīm al-Daghūghī 179 Banū ʿImrān 78 Banu Khazraj 206 Banū Lawthān 219 Banū Marīn 187, 197 Banū Māzīgh 115, 222 Banū Sawlān 218 Banū Tānamāk 255 Banū ʿUthmān Hayba b. Zargīna 223 Banū Walīd 2, 31 Banū Wārith 175, 254, 257, 258 Banū Wartanṭaq 218 Banū Wāzayt 31 Banū Wazīd 172 Banū Wazīt 2 Banū Zamal 218 Banū’l-ʿAyāt 223 Banū’l-Thamāniya 179 Baqara 258 Barābīsh 164 Barākila 4, 67, 81, 170, 258, 259 Barānis 212–216 Barqa, see Cyrenaica Bates, Orrin 7 Bināyat b. Mūsā 220 Biʾr al-Muntaṣir 73 al-Birka 229, 236, 237, 241 Bīru 260 Bishr al-Tawnīnī 51 Biskra 12 Borno 232, 260 Botr 212–216 Bū Jbayha 187 al-Burda by al-Būṣīrī 43, 250 Burdat al-Madīḥ 250

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277

index al-Būṣīrī 29 Busoni, Ferruccio 253 Byzantium 7, 12

Granada 167n14 Gudāla 218

Cannius 203n39 Ceuta 12 Chidbirth 246 Chleuh language 224 Christians 214 Circumcision 247 Companions 12, 15 Constantine 215 Corripus 7 Cyrenaica 188, 212, 218, 257 Dānkrūf 237 Daradj 2 al-Darfī 259 al-Dawī al-Anṣārī, governor of Ghāt Dawī Khalīfa 162 Derj 2, 3, 31, 211, 225 dhikr 54 Diafunu 1 Djanet 228 Duveyrier, Henri 2

239

Faghīsī 3, 211 Farʿ Tībīnan 186 al-Farāʾiḍ al-Saniyya fī ḥall alfāẓ al-Sanūsiyya by Ibrāhīm al-Fayyūmī 263 Farias, Paulo F. de M. 173, 255, 257 Fatḥ al-Ghayb of Sīdī ʿAbd al-Qādir 108 Fezzān 4, 31, 51, 61, 174, 219, 225, 228–230, 235–238, 240, 259, 260 Figuig 215 Fihr 205 Flatters, Col. 227 France 208, 226 Funduq al-Tawghār, battle of 228 Fusahr b. Alfara 255 Gao 161, 163, 173, 187, 193, 195, 197, 204, 254 Gautier, E.F. 216 Ghāna 175, 187, 193, 195, 196, 255 Gharāma 215 Ghāt 31, 115n77, 217, 219–221, 225–238, 240– 245, 259, 260 Ghubayd ăgg-Alăwjeli 254 Ghubeydeta 254

Ḥabīb b. Abī ʿUbayda b. ʿUqba b. Nāfiʿ 175 al-Hādī al-Mabrūk al-Dālī 161 al-Ḥājj b. Muḥammad Aḥmad al-Sūqī alAdrāʿī 206 Ḥamad al-Barkulī 170 Ḥamīd, sharīf 229, 238, 243 Ḥamīdtu b. Bū Wafzān 220 Ḥammād al-Barkūlī 78, 259 Ḥammāda al-Ḥamrā 1 Hārūn b. Muḥammad al-Idrīsī al-Sūqī 208 Hārūn al-Zakzaī al-Fullānī 259 al-Ḥasan al-Anṣārī, governor of Ghāt 238 al-Ḥasan b. ʿAlī 165 Ḥasan b. Fāyiz al-Waddānī 66, 170 Ḥasan al-Sīnawānī 116n83 al-Ḥashāʾishī, Muḥammad b. ʿUthmān 217, 219, 238, 240, 241, 243, 245, 259 Ḥassān b. Thābit 74 Ḥawḍ 166, 261 Hawwāra 212 al-Ḥimyarī, Ibn ʿAbd al-Nūr 13, 110, 195 Hishām b. ʿAbd al-Malik 174 Hoggār 186, 191, 212, 216, 220, 221, 223, 224, 229, 233 Hopkins, J.F.P. 256 Houdas, Octave 5, 6n4 al-Ḥulal al-Mawshiyya 194 Hunwick, J.O. 259 Huwwāra 257 Ibāḍīs 2, 171 Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr 15–18, 40, 112, 113, 115–117 Ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥakam 174 Ibn Abī Sarḥ 11 Ibn Abī Zarʿ 175, 219, 258 Ibn al-ʿAlqama 15 Ibn al-Athīr 115, 174 Ibn Dīnār 14, 110 Ibn Durayd 184n13 Ibn al-Fakhkhārī 72 Ibn Farḥūn 192 Ibn Ḥawqal 7, 192, 198, 255, 256, 258 Ibn ʿIdhārī 190, 197 Ibn Khaldūn, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān 2, 5, 13, 44, 110, 212, 214, 217, 219, 220 Ibn Makhlūf 167n20

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278 Ibn Marʾī al-Shabrakhītī 116n80 Ibn al-Mubārak 37 Ibn Muhalhil, Muḥammad 4, 5, 8, 9 Ibn Saʿd al-Dīn al-Sūqī al-Idrīsī 198, 200 Ibn al-Shabbāṭ 14, 110 Ibn Yūnus 114 Ibnu Aljerakh 254 Ibrāhīm b. ʿAbdallāh b. Abī Bakr alGhadāmisī 79 Ibrāhīm b. Abī’l-Fatḥ b. Khafāja al-Andalusī 263 Ibrāhīm b. ʿĀṭiyya al-Saynāwunī 57 Ibrāhīm b. Marʿī al-Shabrakhītī 27, 82, 86, 170, 263 Ibrāhīm b. Qaratkīn 113 Ibrāhīm b. Saʿīd al-Daghūghī al-Marrakushī 204 Ibrāhīm Bakta 228 Ibrāhīm al-Fayyūmī 77, 82, 87, 263 Ibrāhīm al-Riyāḥī 116n81 Ibrāhīm al-Tāzī 108 al-Idrīsī, Muḥammad b. Muḥammad 190, 260 Īfōghās 3, 179, 211, 220, 221, 224, 244, 245 Igdash 179 Ighlis b. Muḥammad b. al-Yamān 205 Ihaggaren, see Hoggār Ikhenoukhen, see Muḥammad Akhnūkhan Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ 206 Ilaghwaten 7 Ilaguaten 7 Imagsharen 164 Imdūghan 179 Imghāsatan 224 Imōshāgh (imājeghān) 202, 207, 208, 256 ʿImrān mosque 116n83, 171 ʿImrūn 201 In-Tabhā 228 In Zār 227 Īnāw b. Sabanzāk 255 Infīf 186 Ingadāzan Awrāghanī 244 Inqidāzan 220 Inshaqq b. Bīzā 219 ʿĪsā al-Zawāwī 194 Ismāʿīl b. ʿUbaydallāh 191 Itḥāf al-Murīdīn bi-Sharḥ ʿAqīdat Umm alBarāhīn 70

index Iyajnan 224 Īymanān 217, 224, 225, 228, 244 al-Jabal al-Gharbī 232 Jabal al-Juhalāʾ 114n77 Jabal Nafūsa 1, 2, 14, 110, 196, 224 Jabal al-Ṣaḥāba 114n77 Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī 12, 41, 43, 44, 85, 87, 263 Jālū 223 Jāmiʿ Abū Masʿūd ʿUqba b. ʿAmr al-Anṣārī mosque 172 Jāmiʿ al-ʿAtīq mosque 172 Jāmiʿ al-Saghīr of al-Suyūṭī 85 Jāmiʿ Yūnis mosque 172 Jarassan clan 171 al-Jarīd 12 al-Jarrāḥ Maḥmūd Efendi 237 Jawdar Pāshā 163, 168 Jews 214, 258 Jihād al-Nawādir 31 jizya 12, 219 Kābaw 224 Kabba 62 Kāghū 163, 187, 193 Kāhina 14, 196 Kākudam 2, 218 Kalās 191 al-Karab 224 Karidanna b. Ashwad 208 Kawar 15, 165n10, 174, 191 Kawkas 115n77 Kel Adāgh 179 Kel Ahaggar, see Hoggār Kel Ajjer 3, 211, 220, 221, 224, 225 Kel Askan 179 Kel Essouk, see Kel el-Souk Kel Gunahān 179 Kel Imaglalan 168n21 Kel Intaṣar 4, 164, 175, 254, 256 Kel Ntṣar, see Ken Intaṣar Kel el-Souk 3, 6, 7, 175, 177, 178, 185, 188, 190, 199, 206–210, 253–256, 258 Kel Tabūrāq 179 Kel Taglalat 179 Kel Takarankat 179 Kel Tamūkasīn 179 Kel Taqlalat 179

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index Kel Tīsī 179 Kel Wāmī 179 Kel Yamad 179 Khalīfa b. Khayyāṭ 15, 18, 113 Khalīl b. Ibrāhīm al-Laqqānī 66 Khalīl b. Isḥāq 33, 34, 44, 85, 91 Khārijites 2 al-khaṭṭ al-sūqī 178 al-Khayr Khamdān 225 Khazraj 205 Kidāl 163, 255 Kitāb al-Anīs al-Muṭrib bi-Rawḍ al-Qirṭās fī Akhbār Mulūk al-Maghrib wa-Taʾrīkh Madīnat Fās 258 Kitāb al-Futūḥāt al-Wahbiyya by alShabrakhītī 263 Kitāb al-Istiyʿāb 15–17, 112 Kitāb al-Shifāʿ 41, 64, 87 Koufra 260 Kufa 113, 117, 181, 183 Kunta 175, 210, 253–255, 258 Kusayla al-Awadī 16, 165–167, 191, 255 kuttāb 247 Lāmiyya of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. ʿAbdallāh alGhadamisī 78 Lamṭa 2, 212, 218 Lamtūna 2, 14, 212, 218, 219, 257 Lane, E.W. 257 al-Lawnan 243 Layth b. Shaʿbān ʿUqba b. Nāfiʿ 12 Leo Africanus 3 Leptis 7 Levtzion, Nehemia 256 Luwāta 7, 15, 257 Māʾ Faras 174 Maghāta 229 Maḥāmīd 57 Maḥmūd b. Muḥammad al-Ṣāliḥ al-Sūqī alIdrīsī 205 al-Maḥmūd b. Yaḥyā al-Sūqī al-Anṣārī 205 Makhlūf al-Balbālī 261 Malaniyya 215 Mali, empire 194, 206 Mālik b. Anas 37, 59, 59n47, 65, 89 Mams 166n14 Manāhij al-Sālikīn ilā Manāfiʿ al-Qurʾān alMubīn 28, 48

279 Manghasāten 3, 211, 230, 244 al-Manṣūr, Sultan 163 Maqāṣid al-Taʿrīf bi-Faḍāʾil Ism Muḥammad al-Sharīf 29, 107 Marçais, W. 213 Marrākush 5, 194 Marzūq 39, 224, 229, 230, 236–239, 241, 244 al-Marzūqiyya 29 Massūfa 14 al-Masʿūdī 5, 13 Maʿūnat al-Qārīʾ ʿalā Naẓm Ibn al-Fakhkhārī 72 Mawlāy Ismāʿīl 5, 19, 78 Maydiyya 215 Mazāta 15, 257 Mecca 27, 42, 60, 61, 65, 66, 68, 72, 73, 79, 86, 109, 169, 179, 185, 189, 193, 195 Medina 27, 66, 73, 108, 113, 117, 167, 185, 205 miracles 55 Motylinski, A. de C. 3, 211, 222, 223 Muʿammar al-ʿArabī 223 Muʿāwiya b. Abī Sufyān 12, 165 Muʿāwiya b. Khadīj 12, 15, 118 Muhalhil b. al-Ḥasan 172 Muḥammad, sharīf 229 Muḥammad ʿAbdallāh Hayba 223 Muḥammad Aḥmad 180 Muḥammad Akhnūkhan 220, 225–227, 229, 231, 232, 234, 237, 240–242, 245 Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-Karīm al-Maghīlī 34n36, 261 Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Awjilī 170 Muḥammad b. ʿAbdallāh al-Kharashī 65 Muḥammad b. Abī Bakr b. al-Ḥasan alMarāghī al-Madanī 108 Muḥammad b. Aḥmad b. Abī Muḥammad 261 Muḥammad b. Aḥmad al-Tāzakhtī 261 Muḥammad b. Akhnūkhan, see Muḥammad Akhnūkhan Muḥammad b. ʿAlī 191 Muḥammad b. ʿAlī al-Qatrūnī 236 Muḥammad b. ʿĀlin al-Sūqī al-Idrīsī 200 Muḥammad b. al-Bakrī al-Sūqī al-Idrīsī 204 Muḥammad b. al-Hādi al-Sūqī al-Adrāʿī 200 Muḥammad b. Ibrāhīm 220 Muḥammad b. Ibrāhīm b. Ṣīla 19

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280 Muḥammad b. ʿImrān al-Ghadāmisī 74, 100 Muḥammad b. Maḥmūd al-Fullānī 75 Muḥammad b. Marʿī al-Shabrakhītī 65 Muḥammad b. Muḥammad b. Mūsā b. Balqāsim 33 Muḥammad b. Muḥammad al-Ḥassānī alTuwātī 27 Muḥammad b. Muḥammad al-Sūqī Inalbush 200 Muḥammad b. Muḥammad al-Waqrūtī alTamānṭītī al-Isbāḥī 38 Muḥammad b. al-Mukhtār al-Kuntī 255 Muḥammad b. Nakhmūkh, see Muḥammad Akhnūkhan Muḥammad b. ʿUmar b. ʿAbd al-Wahhāb alGhadāmisī 25, 65 Muḥammad b. ʿUmar b. Muḥammad alGhadāmisī 107 Muḥammad b. Yūnus 116n81 Muḥammad b. Yūsuf al-Sanūsī 70 Muḥammad al-Bakrī b. ʿAbd al-Karīm alTuwātī 27, 36, 38, 66 Muḥammad Bello b. ʿUthmān Fūdi 208 Muḥammad al-Gilānī b. Muḥammad alGhadāmisī 231 Muḥammad al-Kabīr b. ʿAbdallāh b. Abī Bakr al-Ghadāmisī 62 Muḥammad Kaʿtī 164 Muḥammad al-Kaylānī 238 Muḥammad al-Kharashī 27, 116n80, 170, 263 Muḥammad al-Mahdī al-Sanūsī 260 Muḥammad al-Ṣāfī 229, 233–238, 240–245 Muḥammad al-Ṣaghīr b. ʿAbdallāh b. Abī Bakr al-Ghadāmisī 82 Muḥammad al-Ṣaghīr al-Ifrānī 5 Muḥammad al-Ṣaghīr al-Marrakushī al-Sūsī 9 Muḥammad Ṣāliḥ (Ghāt resident) 231 Muḥammad al-Ṣāliḥ (I) b. ʿAbdallāh b. Abī Bakr al-Ghadāmisī 73 Muḥammad al-Ṣāliḥ (II) b. ʿAbdallāh b. Abī Bakr al-Ghadāmisī 73 Muḥammad al-Ṣāliḥ b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. Salīm al-Awjalī 66 Muḥammad Ṣāliḥ Manṣūr 194 Muḥammad Sāmī 217 Muḥammad al-Ṭāhir al-ʿAlawī 161 Muḥammad al-Thānī al-Ghadāmsī 260

index Muḥammad al-Tilimsānī 34 Muḥammad al-Zāhid b. ʿAbdallāh b. Abī Bakr al-Ghadāmisī 5, 28, 72–74, 80, 93, 94 Muḥammad al-Zarqānī 263 Mukhtaṣar of ʿAbbās b. Turkī 111 Mukhtaṣar of Khalīl, see Khalīl b. Isḥāq Mukhtaṣar of Muḥammad b. Mawwāz 192 Muntahā al-Raghba fī Sharḥ al-Nukhba by Ibrāhīm al-Fayyūmī 263 Muqaddimat al-ʿIzziyya 111 Murzūk 221 Mūsā b. Faqīh 3 Mūsā b. Nuṣayr 11 Mūsā b. ʿUmrān 23 Mūsā al-Qulaybī 27 Muṣṭafā Hayba 231 Nachtigal, G. 216 Nāfiʿ 17 Nafzāwa 73 al-Nahrawān, battle of 18, 113 Nakhmūkh 220 Nālūt 2, 224, 228 Napoleon III 226 Nāṣir al-Dīn al-Laqqānī 261 Nawāka 218 nawāzil 30, 36 Nīsar 175 Nisnās 203 Numidians 214 Ogdaden 2 Orléans 227 Ouargla 187, 233 Ouazetan graveyard 171 Oubaden Tuareg 3 Paris 227 al-qāḍī ʿIyāḍ 72, 192 al-Qalqashandī 261 Qamar Faḍlallāh 163 Qanja graveyard 111 Qaraqash al-Ghazzī 113 Qarāwa 79 Qaṣīdat al-Faraj, by Ibn an-Naḥwī 44 Qāsim b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Ḍawī al-Ghadāmisī 28

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281

index al-Qāsim b. ʿAbdallāh b. Abī Bakr alGhadāmisī 73 Qāsim b. Aḥmad b. ʿAbdallāh b. Abī Bakr alGhadāmisī 79 Qāsim ʿUthmān 243 Qasṭīliyya 187 al-Qayrawān 12, 15, 74, 187, 255 Qays 189 al-Quran 15 Qurʾān 47 Raḥma bt. al-Ṭayyib b. ʿĪsā 55, 82 Ramaḍān b. Aḥmad 259 Ramaḍān Bey 18, 113 Raʾs al-Ghūl 114n77 al-Rawḍ al-Miʿṭār fī Akhbār al-Aqṭār 110, 187, 193, 195 Richardson, James 263 al-Risāla al-Ghallāwiyya 166n14, 255 al-Risāla of Ibn Abī Zayd al-Qayrawānī 91 Rodd, Sir Francis Rennel 7 Saad, Elias N. 4, 6, 256, 260–262 al-Saʿāda al-Abadiyya fī’l-Taʿrīf bi-ʿUlamāʾ Tinbuktū al-Bāhiyya, by Aḥmad Bābir alArawānī 164 Sabhā 116n83 Sabta 12 al-Ṣafadī, Khalīl b. Aybak 20 al-Ṣaffār, Tuwātī qāʾid 79 Ṣaḥīḥ of al-Bukhārī 38, 40, 64, 84, 259 Ṣaḥīḥ of Muslim 42, 85, 262 Saḥnūn 31, 32, 45, 86, 92 Saʿīd b. Aḥīḥa 81, 259 Saʿīd b. Huyaya 170 al-Ṣāliḥ b. Abī Muḥammad 164, 167n20, 168, 169, 256 Salṭanat Tamasqada 3 Ṣanhāja 175, 186, 189, 195, 196, 198–200, 212, 217–219, 257, 258 al-Sanūsī al-Kiyānī 236 al-Sanūsī, Muḥammad al-Mahdī, see Muḥammad al-Mahdī al-Sanūsī al-Sanūsī, see Muḥammad b. Yūsuf al-Sanūsī Sanūsiyya 220 Sawāni Banī Ādam, battle of 228 Shaʿāniba 232, 236, 237 al-Shāfiʿī, Muḥammad b. Idrīs 37, 65

Shams al-Dīn al-Laqqānī 261 al-Shaqrāṭīsiyya 71 al-Sharḥ al-Kabīr bi-Mukhtaṣar Khalīl by Ibrāhīm al-Fayyūmī 263 Sharūs 1 al-Shāwī Lillāh al-Bakkāʿī Yakhlās 240 Shaykh ʿAbdallāh b. Abī Bakr 13 Shaykh Juwaylī 80 al-Shaykhly, Ṣabāḥ Ibrāhīm Saīd 257 Shihāb family 223 Sīdī Maʿbad 51 Sīdī’l-Bashīr 171 Ṣiffīn, battle of 113, 117 Sijilmāsa 260 Sīla b. Abī Bakr al-Ghadāmisī 60 Sinaouen 2, 228 Sinoun, see Sinaouen Sīra al-Kalāʿiyya 73 Sirāj al-Murīdīn 49 slaves 2, 46, 54, 62, 109 Songhay 164, 168n22 Sonni ʿAlī 178 Ṣūfism 55, 81 Sulaymān b. Ādda 167n20 Sulṭān b. Aḥmad al-Muzāḥī 66 Sulṭān al-Mazāhī 170 Sulṭān of Tripoli 57 al-Suyūṭī, see Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī al-Sūq 1, 3, 6, 14, 257, 263 al-Sūs 165n11 Sūs 12, 16, 34, 163, 260 Tabakkurin 79 Tādmakka 1, 3, 6, 14, 161, 172, 176, 178, 255– 258, 263 Taghāgh 163, 165 tagharwin ceremony 171 Taghāzā 168n22, 169 Tahoua 187 Tahūda, battle of 166n14 Takhmīs al-Burda 29 Tākrūb 220 Takrūf b. Kalala 229 Takrūr 1, 6, 205, 255 Tālākakīn 218 Talamsī 186 Tamesna 186 Tamīm 189 Tamīm b. Balutān 219

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282 Tandrīn mosque 223 Tangier 12 Ṭanṭana 260 Taʾrīkh al-Sūdān 162, 173 Ṭāriq b. Ziyād 11 Taskī the lame 213 Tassili-n-Ajjer 1, 217, 237, 260 Tassilit 186 Tātāklāsin, see Tātaklātīn Tātaklātīn 175, 258 Taṭāwīn 116n83 Tawjaw, Muḥammad al-Sūqī 6, 177, 255 Teda 243 Teflālet 260 al-Thāyib b. Abī Bakr b. ʿAlī 172 Tidikelt 227 Tifinagh 171, 217, 224 Tijāniyya 246 Tikkit 114n77 Timbuctoo 2–4, 6, 23, 161, 163, 164, 169, 173, 178, 187, 192, 198, 201, 204, 256, 260, 262, 263 Tin Kwīh 236 Tin-Zūf 231 Tiqqit 114n77 Tīzawban 219 Tlemcen 215 Touat 198, 215, 221, 260 Touggourt 73 Tripoli 116n83 Tubu 243 Tunis 65, 73, 74, 77, 80, 85, 93, 222, 223, 259 Ubārī 225 ʿUbaydallāh b. al-Ḥabḥāb 174 Uḥud, battle of 17, 18, 112 ʿUmar b. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz 191 ʿUmar al-Dānī 167 Umm al-Barāhīn by al-Sanūsī 70 ʿUnfuwān al-Zarʿ fī Sharḥ Ḥadīth Umm Zarʿ 72 ʿUqba b. ʿAbdallāh al-Ghadāmisī 112 ʿUqba b. ʿĀmir 16, 18, 111–113, 115, 163, 165, 167, 174 ʿUqba b. ʿĀmir b. ʿAbs al-Juhanī 18, 113, 165n10 ʿUqba b. ʿĀmir b. Balī b. Zayd al-Khazrajī 18, 113

index ʿUqba b. ʿĀmir al-Qurashī 190 ʿUqba b. ʿAmr 117 ʿUqba b. Nāfiʿ 12, 15, 16, 110, 111, 163, 172, 174, 175, 179, 190, 191, 206, 253–255, 258 ʿUqba b. ʿUmar 16 ʿUqba al-Mustajāb 16, 165, 167, 175, 201, 254 Usd al-Ghāba li-Maʿrifat al-Ṣaḥāba of Ibn al-Athīr 115 ʿUthmān al-Faghīghī 227 ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān 11, 12 al-ʿUwaynāt 230 veil 46 Wadai 260 Waddān 13, 15, 110, 165n10, 174, 257, 258 Wādī Ibdaqan 186, 188 Wādī Tanzrūf 236 Wādī Tārāt 228 Wādī’l-Gharbī Bū ʿAysha 237 Waggag b. Zalwī 254 Walāta 166, 166n14, 255, 260, 261 Waldarfan b. Intamnat 170 al-Walīd b. ʿAbd al-Malik 11 Wangara 4, 257 waqf 54, 209 al-Wāqidī 165n9 War-Takāban 218 War-Tantaq 218 Warīka 2 Watrīka 218 Yaḥyā b. Ibrāhīm 205 Yaḥyā b. Ukht Muḥammad Akhnūkhan 232, 233, 235–238, 241–245 Yaḥyā b. ʿUmar b. Talākākīn 219 Yaḥyā Nazhat 237 al-Yamāma, battle of 18, 111, 113 Yanathiwāt al-Lamtūnī 219 al-Yaʿqūbī 257 Yāqūt 174 Yūnis mosque (Ghadāmis) 30 Yūshaʿ, Bashīr Qāsim vii, 3, 7, 110, 112–118, 172, 211 Yūsuf al-Jaʿrānī al-Mislātī 29 Zāfanu 1 Zaghāwa 218

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283

index Ẓahra 2, 3 Zakariyyā al-Anṣārī Zanāgha 212

261

Zanāta 213 Zawīla 11, 110 Zuhayr b. Qays al-Balawī 167n15

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