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Kitāb Al-Farq: A Work on the Habe Kingdoms Attributed to ‘Uthmān Dan Fodio

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2009

M. Hiskett
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Extract

The K. al-farq bayn wilāyāt ahi al-islām wa bayn wilāyāt ahi al-kufr is one of the minor works attributed to the Shehu ‘Umān dan Fodio. The work is not among those mentioned by Sultan Bello in the Infāq al-maysūr, nor is it listed by Whitting or Vajda. It is listed by Kensdale, and Smith notes a MS among the De Gironcourt papers which bears an almost identical title. The writer has been assured by Malam Junaidu, Wazirin Sokoto that the work is well known to be by the Shehu ‘Umān. Malam Abubakar Gumi of the School for Arabic Studies, Kano, and a Sokoto scholar deeply versed in the Fulani Arabic literature, also confirms that the work has been known to him from his youth as that of the Shehu. Finally the author identifies himself in the preamble as ‘Umān b. Fūdī.

Type
Articles
Information
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 23 , Issue 3 , October 1960 , pp. 558 - 579
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 1960

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References

1 Inf M. Whitting, C. E. J., Infaku’ l-maisuri, London, 1951Google Scholar; paraphrase and part translation, Arnett, E. J., The rise of the Sokoto Fulani, Kano, n.d. [1922].Google Scholar

2 Whitting, C. E. J., ‘The imprinted indigenous Arabic literature of Northern Nigeria’, JRAS, 1943–1944.Google Scholar

3 Vajda, G., ‘Contribution à la connaissance de la littérature arabe en Afrique Occidentale’, Journal de la Societe des Africanistes, xx. 2, 1950.Google Scholar

4 Kensdale, W. E. N., ‘Field notes on the Arabie literature of the Western Sudan: Shehu Usumanu ḍan Fodio’, JRAS, 1955.Google Scholar

5 Smith, H. F. C., ‘Source material for the history of the Western Sudan’, Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria, I, 3, 1958, 245.Google Scholar

6 Bivar, A. D. H., ‘Arabic documents of Northern Nigeria’, BOAS, XXII, 2, 1959, 336.Google Scholar

1 B .

2 B .

1 B .

2 B .

3 B omits.

4 B omits.

5 sic, B .

6 B .

7 B , which is correct.

8 B omits.

9 B omits.

10 B inserts .

11 B omits.

12 B inserts .

13 B inserts .

1 B .

2 B .

3 B .

4 read .

5

6 B .

7 B omits.

8 B .

9 B .

10 B omits.

11 B .

12 B .

13 B .

14 .

15 B inserts .

16 B read .

17 B which is correct.

18 B .

19 B

20 B inserts .

21 B which is clearly correct.

1 B omits.

2 B .

3 B .

4 B .

5 B omits.

6 B omits.

7 B .

8 B .

9 B omits.

10 B .

11 B .

12 B .

13 B omits.

14 B .

15 There is an obvious omission here in both MSS; read

16 B

17 B inserts .

18 read .

19 B omits.

20 B omits.

21 B omits.

22 B inserts .

23 B .

1 B .

2 B .

3 B , a better reading.

4 B read .

5 read .

6 B inserts .

7 B .

8 B omits.

9 read . B .

10 B omits.

1 B

2 read

3 read .

4 It is apparent that a transposition of the words has occurred in both MSS. should introduce the words (not ) with which this verse begins. The preceding sentence is not from the Qur'ān.

5 B omits.

6 read .

7 read .

8 read .

9 read .

10 read .

11 B inserts .

12 B .

13 B .

14 read either or .

15 end of MS B.

16 sic.

17 The metre of this hemistich is not correct. The most probable reconstruction is .

18 sic; read .

1 sic; read .

2 read .

3 read or .

1 al-Qāḍī Abū Bakr Muḥ. b. ‘Abd. b. al-‘Arabī; GAL, Suppl., I, 663Google Scholar, Aḥkām al-Qur'ān.

2 The author of Tārī al-ulafā’ is al-Faḍl, Abū ‘Abd al-Raḥmān b. Abī Bakr b. Muḥ. Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī; GAL, II, 180.Google Scholar

1 Sūra, xxv, 46Google Scholar, Arberry, , The Koran interpreted, London, 1955, II, 60.Google Scholar

2 Sūra, XLVII, 13Google Scholar, Arberry, , op. cit., 221.Google Scholar

3 infra, p. 573.Google Scholar

4 infra, p. 573.Google Scholar

5 infra, p. 573.Google Scholar

6 Possibly ‘grain’, and thus by extension ‘native beer’?

7 infra, p. 573.Google Scholar

1 infra, p. 573.Google Scholar

2 infra, p. 573.Google Scholar

3 infra, p. 573.Google Scholar

4 The text in both MBS has hunna (fem.), although clearly hum (mase.) would be a better rendering.

5 infra, p. 573.Google Scholar

6 infra, p. 573.Google Scholar

1 infra, p. 573.Google Scholar

2 of Ibn al-‘Arabī, ; GAL, Suppl., I, 792.Google Scholar

3 Sūra, IV, 115Google Scholar, Arberry, , op. cit., I, 118.Google Scholar

4 infra, p. 573.Google Scholar

5 infra, p. 573.Google Scholar

6 infra, p. 573.Google Scholar

7 infra, p. 573.Google Scholar

8 infra, p. 573.Google Scholar

9 infra, p. 573.Google Scholar

1 Sūra, VI, 154Google Scholar, Arberry, , op. cit., I, 168.Google Scholar

2 Sūra, IV, 71Google Scholar, Arberry, , op. cit., I, 110.Google Scholar

3 end of B8.

1 GAL, Suppl., II, 80Google Scholar; EI s.v. ‘Ibn Ḏjamā‘a’.

2 of Abubakar al-Barikumu; see Hiskett, , ‘Material relating to the state of learning among the Fulani before their Jihād’, BSOAS, XIX, 3, 1957, 572.Google Scholar

3 GAL, Suppl., II, 377.Google Scholar

4 Kensdale, , JRAS, 1955, 166 (22).Google Scholar

1 KCh. English translation by SirPalmer, Richmond, Sudanese memoirs, Lagos, 1928.Google Scholar

2 English translation by Baldwin, T. H., The obligations of princes; Beyrouth, 1932.Google Scholar

3 Journal of travels, London, 1799, 15–20.Google Scholar

4 HCh. German translation and commentary by Mischlich, A. and Lippert, J., Beitrāge zur Geschichte der Haussastaaten, Berlin, 1903.Google Scholar

5 TW. Commentary, and German translation of part of the text, by Brass, A., ‘Eine neue Quelle zur Geschichte des Fulreiches Sokoto’, Der Islam, x, 1920, 1–73Google Scholar. Full Arabic text and English translation by the present writer awaiting publication.

6 Clapperton, H., Journal of a second expedition into the interior of Africa, London, 1829.Google Scholar

7 Barth, H., Travels and discoveries in North and Central Africa. Second ed.London, 1857, 5 vols.Google Scholar

1 I am indebted to Malams Abubakar Gumi and Shehu Ahmed Galadanci for this explanation.

2 The opinion of Malam Abubakar Gumi.

1 II, 16–17.

2 Baldwin, , op. cit., 17.Google Scholar

3 Palmer, , III, 123.Google Scholar

4 II, 203.

5 IV, 104.

6 Palmer, , III, 119.Google Scholar

7 Palmer, , III, 124.Google Scholar

1 II, 83.

2 II, 144.

3 ibid., 144.

4 ibid., 145.

5 ibid., 145.

6 215.

7 147.

8 147.

9 150.

10 151.

11 II, 132.

12 147.

1 That is, during the sixteenth century.

2 II, 100.

3 IV, 98.

4 Barth, IV, 104.

5 IV, 92.

6 Palmer, , III, 126.Google Scholar

1 Palmer, , III, 123.Google Scholar

2 ibid., 124.

3 ibid., 126.

4 Mischlich, and Lippert, , op. cit., 72 f.Google Scholar: ‘At that time none of the Hausa kings judged according to the arī‘a . There were also many learned malams with them, but they did as the kings wished’.

5 f. 56, I. 9 of MS (A) of the TW in my possession.

6 Arnett, 103; Whitting, 125, I. 15 f.

7 215.

8 II, 146.

1 f. 56 of a MS of Tazyīn al-waraqāt in my possession.

2 Baṭṭūṭa, Ibn, trans. H. A. R. Gibb, London, 1953, 327, 330.Google Scholar

3 III, 182, 455.

4 f. 139 of my MS (A).

5 Arnett, 48; Whitting, 67, 1. 13.

6 Unedited, as far as I am aware.

1 Kensdale, , Catalogue, II, 19 (12), 20 (19)Google Scholar. These form correspondence between the emir of Bauchi and Sultan Bello on administrative matters. Bivar, loc. cit., 326, has noted the existence of ‘extensive files of dispatches concerned with the affairs of the Emirates of Kano, Zaria, Misan, Katagum, and Adamawa, together with smaller groups of papers relating to Bauchi, Zamfara, Gobir, Katsina, Kontagora, and elsewhere’.

2 206.

3 IV, 154.