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A New Source For the Biography of Aḥmad Bābā Al-Tinbuktī (1556–1627)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2009

J. O. Hunwick
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Extract

The name of Aḥmad Bābā first became known to European scholarship through the articles of the French scholar M. A. Cherbonneau in the years 1854 and 1855. In 1857, when Heinrich Barth published his Travels and discoveries, Aḥmad Bābā achieved a spurious fame which lasted for over 40 years as the supposed author of the Ta'rīkh al-Sūdān. It was not until 1897 that the learned German's attribution was scornfully refuted by the French journalist Felix Dubois, in his Tombouctou la mystérieuse, and the work was correctly assigned to al-Sa'dī the Timbuctoo scholar who died in 1656. During the twentieth century the name of Aḥmad Bābā has frequently been mentioned by writers about the medieval Western Sudan, usually as the symbol of all that was finest in sub-Saharan Islamic learning in the Middle Ages.

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Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 27 , Issue 3 , October 1964 , pp. 568 - 593
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Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 1964

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References

1 ‘Essai sur la littérature arabe du Soudan d'aprés le Tekmilet ed Dibadje d'Ahmed Baba le Tombouctien’, Annuaire de la Societe Archéologique de Constantine, II, 1854–1855, 32–42Google Scholar; ‘Histoire de la littérature arabe au Soudan’, Journal Asiatique,5e Sér., Tom. VI, 10–11 1855, 391–407Google Scholar.

2 I have tried to give some indication of the widespread use of Arabic and of the teaching of the Islamic sciences in West Africa in a recent paper, ‘The influence of the Arabic language in West Africa; a preliminary historical survey’, Transactions of the Historical Society of Ghana, VII, 1963Google Scholar.

3 See my article ‘Ahmad Bābā and the Moroccan invasion of the Sudan (1591)’, JHSN, II, 3, 1962, 311–28Google Scholar. (A list of abbreviations of works cited in the present article is given on pp. 592–3.)

4 See Nashr, I, 53.

5 See Nail, 340.

6 See Nail, 93.

7 See Nail, 88.

8 See article cited on p. 568, n. 3.

9 i.e. belonging to the Wangara (Songhay, Wankoré; Hausa, Wangaráwa; Fula, Wangarbé), the Dyula-speaking group of the Mande people. In the area of the Niger bend the term is sometimes used to include the Muslim Soninké traders who also speak Dyula. (See Delafosse, M., Haut-Sénégal-Niger, 3 vols., Paris, 1912, I, 124–5.)Google Scholar

10 See Nail, 341.

11 Ahmad Bābā once remarked, ‘We are Khalīlites; if he erred, we err with him’ (Nalinu unās Khalīlīyūn; in dalla, dalalnā). The Khalīl referred to is, of course, Khalīl b. Ishaq, author of the celebrated Mālikī law-book al-Mukhtasar.

12 He is known to have pronounced a falwāin favour of smoking for which he was soundly condemned by the learned men of his time (see Kfuilaf, I, 18).

13 This information is given by al-Shaikh b. al-Tālib al-Sāghir b. Abī Bakr b. al-Hajj ‘Abd al-Rahmān al-Bartilī in a biographical notice of the author inserted at the end of harf al-mīm in the Fath al-Shakūr.According to the author of this notice, al-Bartilī, author of the Fath, also wrote about a dozen other works, mostly commentaries on theological, legal, and grammatical works, an unspecified historical work, and numerous verse compositions (Fath, fols. 23–6).

14 See Smith, H. F. C., ‘Source material for the history of the Western Sudan’, JHSN, I, 3, 1958, 238–8Google Scholar.

15 See Marty, P., Tribus, II, 89Google Scholar. The writer of this present article is planning to prepare a critical edition and translation of the Fathin the near future.

16 See Fath (Paris MS, fol. 1b). Adhghāgh is a watering-place of the Kunta Arabs, north of modern Bourem on the Niger bend; Bahr al-Zanāqiyya is the river Senegal; Bīt (Bitou) isgenerally identified with the Bondoukou region of Ivory Coast. (See Tableau, 298, 359; and Delafosse, M., op. cit., II, p. 276, n.)Google Scholar Delafosse also suggests that Bitou may be located in the region of Bambouk, between the rivers Senegal and Falémé—a more probable location in the present context; Ādrār is the area around Wadān in Mauretania.

17 See also Ta'rikh, 50–1. The nisba al-Tadilsī is probably to Tadeliza (or Tildza), north-west of Agades (see Tableau, 141–2, and map between pp. 514–15).

18 Probably of Reggān in south Algeria, approximately west-south-west of In Salah. The velar plosive g is consistently represented in the Arabic text by the letter kāf with three dotseither above or below it.

19 This may possibly be a copyist's error for 1133 (6 August 1721).

20 Thus in B, Kifāya (R), Kifāya (J); A omits.

21 Breads .

22 Kifāya (R) reads

23 Kifāya (R) reads

24 Kifāya (R) reads

25 B reads ; Kifäya (R) and Kifāya(J) .

26 Thus in B and Kifāya(R); A reads ; Kifāya (J)

27 Kifāya (J) reads

28 Kifāya (J) reads

29 Kifāya (R) reads

30 The following passage is apparently a quotation from Ta'rīkh, p. 35, 11. 10–14.

31 B .

32 B .

33 Thus in Ta'rīlkh, 35; Fath A and B have .

34 Thus B; A omits.

35 B reads .

36 B .

37 This quotation is not in the printed text of Ta'rikh.

38 Thus B; A omits.

39 The following passage, down to is from Kifāya.

40 Kifāya adds .

41 For this vowelling of the name see Ta'rīkh, 43; Nail, 341.

42 Kifāya, in the passage actually quoted above gives but in the biography of Muhammad Baghyu'u gives .

43 B omits.

44 B omits.

45 Thus in Kifāya. Fatfi A reads B reads .

46 Thus, correctly in Kifāya; Fath A and B read .

47 In Kifāya. See also Nail, 341–2; Ta'rīkh,45–6.

48 B reads .

49 Thus Kifāya and Ta'rīkh. Fath, A reads ; B and Nail read .

50 B reads .

51 Thus B; A reads .

52 Thus B; A reads .

53 Thus B; A reads .

54 B reads .

55 Thus Kifāya (J). Fath A and B read ; Ta'rīkh, 46, has ; Kifāya (R) is not clear.

56 Thus Fath B; A reads .

57 B .

58 B adds .

59 Thus B; A reads .

60 Thus B; A omits .

61 B omits all after down to this word.

62 Fath A and B read The reading is on the authority of Kifāya, Nail, 342, and Ta'rīkh, 46.

63 The following quotation is also in Kifāya.

64 This is the reading of Kifāya except for t h e final word where Kifāyahas Fath Areads Fath B reads .

65 B has .

66 Reading supported by Kifāya (J). Kifāya (R) reads B appears to read .

67 Thus B; A reads .

68 Thus, correctly, Kifāya (J); f Fath A and B and Kifāya(R) read .

69 B .

70 Thus B; A reads .

71 B .

72 My correction..FaiA A and B both read .

73 B .

74 B .

75 The account of Ahmad Bābā's deportation is also quoted from the Fihrist of Abū 'Abdullāh Muhammad b. Ya'qūb al-Marrākushī. Al-Bartilī's source is probably Kifāya where Ahmad Bābā quotes the account in his autobiography. The same account also appears in Ta'rīkh referring to the qādī 'Umar b. Mahmūd who was deported along with Ahmad Bābā, (see pp. 173–4).

76 Thus Fath A and B; Ta'rīkhand Kifāya have the interesting variant .

77 B .

78 Ahmad Bābā's account of his teaching in Marrākush is evidently drawn from Kifāya.

79 Fath A and B have The reading from Kifāya is adopted as more suitable after .

80 Thus B and Kifāya; A reads .

81 B omits.

82 Kifāya adds .

83 Thus B; A reads .

84 Thus Kifāya. Fath A reads [blank] B reads .

85 B reads .

86 Sc. .

87 B .

88 Thus Fath A; Fath B reads .

89 Thus B; A omits .

90 This appears to be t h e hadīth quoted by al-Bukhārī beginning .

91 Thus Kifāya, providing a sounder rhyme to the second part of the title than Fath A and B .

92 This ought to be to rhyme with . The title does not appear in any other source and cannot be checked.

93 Thus also Kifāya.

94 Thus also Kifāya. Fath B omits the whole passage from note 93 onwards.

95 B .

96 Thus Kifāya. Fath A reads . The word seems inappropriate in the context of .

97 Thus also Kifāya (R); Kifāya(J) gives .

98 Thus also Kifāya and Nail, 218. GAL, Suppl., II, 716, quoting the Fez lithographed edition of A.H. 1307 gives Irshād al-wāqif li ma'nä niyyat al-hālif.

99 Thus also Fez lithographed edition of A.H. 1307.

100 Thus also Fez lithographed edition of A.H. 1307.

101 Thus Fez lithographed edition of A.H. 1307; Fatfi A and B both read .

102 B adds .

103 Thus Rabat A, No. 508, i n, with t h e alternative title on the opening page of the MS, . The title adopted in our text is also the one given by 'Uthmān b. Fūdī in his Bayān wujūb al-hijra (MS 82/53, University of Ibadan Library, see fols. 4b, 5b, et passim). This is also the title given in GAL, Suppl., n, 716, with the alternative Mi'rāj al-su'ūd fī nail mujallab al-sūd. Fath A and B both read .

104 Thus in the colophon of an early nineteenth-century MS of the work recently examined by Mr. D. M. Last in t h e library of the Nizāmiyya Islamic School, Sokoto, Northern Nigeria. The copy has since been kindly loaned to t he University of Ibadan where a microfilm has been made of i t for preservation in t h e University Library. The MS consists of 12 folios of 28 lines per page. Fath A reads ; Fath B reads .

105 Thus Fath B. Kifāya and Fath A read .

106 Thus B; A reads .

107 Kifāya (R) gives —a better rhyme.

108 B .

109 Thus Kifāya and Fath B. A reads ; Nashr, I, 332, gives .

110 Thus Kifāya. Fatb A and B read ; Khalaf, quoting Safwat man intashar, gives .

111 Thus also Kifāya and Nashr, I, 333.

112 B .

113 Thus RabatA, No. 543, XI. Kifāya reads Fath A and B have: .

114 Thus Rabat C, No. D (471) (2) 407.

115 B .

116 Thus MSS of Dār (ta'rīkh, 1315), Jāmi'a (1298), Bib. Nat. (5257 and 5719), British Museum (Or. 11569). Also Fez lithographed edition of A.H. 1317 and Cairo printed editions, A.H. 1328 and 1351. Fath A and B, Kifāya, Nashr, I, 333, and Rabat C, No. 2229 all give Khalaf, I, 13, gives .

117 Thus Faltāsh, 221, Dār (—see v, 309), Alger (1738), Bib. Nat. (4628), and Jāmi'a (1181 and 765). Fath A and B read (see also Fattāsh, 101). Berlin (10032) has .

118 B .

119 Rabat A, No. 407, II, and RabatC, No. 2241, have a work of Ahmad Bābā entitled (see also GAL., Suppl., II, 716).

120 Thus B; A reads .

121 B .

122 My correction. A read ; B reads .

123 B appears to read .

124 The vowelling of the following Berber names has been based on information provided by a Kunta Moor familiar with this Saharan district.

125 Or al-Sunhājī. The commonly used form al-Sanhājī is not admitted by the Arab philologists. (See al-Fairūzābādī, , al-Qāmūs al-muhīt, Cairo, A.H. 1303, I, 196Google Scholar.)

126 The nisba is to Ke-Maçina, a town on the Niger between Mopti and Segou, which had been the home of his ancestor, Muhammad Aqīt. Other nisbas used are al-Masūfī, al-Takrūrī, al-Tinbuktī, al-Larnasī, and al-Sūdānī. (See my article, ‘Ahmad Baba and the Moroccan invasion of the Sudan (1591)’, JHSN, II, 3, 1962, 311–28Google Scholar.)

127 For his biography see Nail, 102.

128 His nisba is al-Wankarī or al-Wangarī. The name Wangara was applied to the Dyula merchants who arranged the purchase of gold dust and its transportation from the regions of the ‘Gold Coast’ and ‘Ivory Coast’ to the cities along the Niger where it was eventually sold to the Arab traders from North Africa (see Tableau, 363, 365, 387).

129 Presumably of ('Abdullāh) b. Abī Zaid ('Abd al-Rahmān) al-Qairāwanī, d. c. 996 (GAL, I, 177).

130 GAL, I, 276. This is the only work of classical literary prose widely read in t h e Western Sudan; it still forms part of the curriculum of tālibs in Northern Nigeria.

131 Khalīl b. Ishāq b. Mūsā al-Jundī, d. 1374 (GAL, II, 83; Nail, 112, etc.). The Mukhtasar of Khalīl is the standard work of Mālikī figh in North Africa and the Western Sudan. It is the ‘bare bones’ of its subject and hence the style is very terse. This makes it the more useful for pedagogical purposes and has provided fertile ground for the writing of commentaries.

132 Of Mālīk b. Anas al-Asbahl, d. 795, from whom the Malik! law school derives its name (GAL, I, 175; El, III, 205).

133 Tashīl al-fawā'id wa takmīl al-rnaqāsid of Muhammad b. ‘Abdullāh b. Muhammad b. 'Abdullāh b. Mālik al-Ghayānī, d. 1273 (GAL, I, 298).

134 Abū Nasr 'Abd al-Wahhāb b. 'Ali al-Subkī, d. 1370 (GAL, II, 89). The above work is properly known as Jam' al-jawāmi'.

135 Muhammad b. Ahmad Jalāl al Din al-Mahallī, d. 1459 (GAL, II, 113).

136 'Abd al-Rahmān b. Husain al-'Irāqī, d. 1404. The Alfiyya is a versification of the 'Ulūm al-hadīth of Ibn Salāh, d. 1245 (GAL, II, 65). The commentary is known as Fath al-ghaith (GAL, Suppl., I, 612).

137 Of Muhammad b. 'Abd al-Rahmān al-Qazwīnī, al-Khatīb al-Dimashql, d. 1338. The Talkhīs al-Miftāh is an abridgement of the third part ('ilm al-ma'ānī wa 'l-bayān) of the Miftāh al-'ulūm of Yūsuf b. Abī Bakr al-Sakkākī, d. 1229 (GAL, I, 295).

138 i.e. the Shark mukhtasarto the Talkhīs al-Miftāh by Sa'd al-Dīn Mas'ūd b. 'Umar al-Taftazānī, d. 1389 (GAL, I, 295; II, 215). Lévi-Provencal remarks that al-Taftazánl is known in Morocco simply by the nickname al-Sa'd (see Chorfa, 13–14).

139 Muhammad b. Yūnus b.' Umar al-Hasanī al-Sanūsī, d. 1486, wrote three works on tawhīdcalled Aqīdat ahl al-tawhīd al-kubrā, al-Wustā (also called al-Jumal or al-Murshida), and al-Sughrā (also called Umrn al-barāhīn) (GAL, II, 250).

140 i.e. al-Manzūmat al-Jazd'iriyya fī ‘l-tawhīd of Ahmad b. ‘Abdullāh al-Jazā'irī, d. 1497 (GAL, II, 252); al-Sanūsi's commentary is called al-'Iqd al-farīd fī hall mushkilāt al-tawhīd.

141 Ahmad b. Muhammad b. ‘Abd al-Karïm b. 'Atā'allāh al-Iskandarī, d. 1309 (GAL, II, 117; Suppl., II, 145–6).

142 i.e. the Tanbīh dhawī 'l-himam of Zarruq, Ahmad b. Ahmad b. Muhammad, d. 1493 (GAL, II, 117, 253)Google Scholar.

143 Abū Muqri'a (or Muqri'), Muhammad b. 'Alī al-Battīwī (fl. 1331), Moroccan astronomer, wrote an urjūza on the determination of the hours (GAL, II, 255; see also Sarton, G., Introduction to the history of science, Baltimore, 1927–1948, Vol. III, Pt. I, p. 695)Google Scholar.

144 I have been unable to identify this work.

145 'Abd al-Rahmān b. Muhammad al-Tajūrl, d. 1590. His Muqaddima is also called Risāla fī 'l-fusūl al-arba'a (GAL, Suppl., II, 485).

148 Muhammad b. 'Abd al-Karīm b. Muhammad al-Maghīlī al-Tilimsanī, d. 1504, who distinguished himself by persecuting t h e Jews of Tuwat. He fled from there and visited Katsina and Kano where he wrote a treatise on government for Muhammad Rumfa, sultan of Kano (1463–99). Thence he went to Gao where he was adviser to the Askia al-Hājj Muhammad Tūrē (reg. 1493–1528). He was the author of numerous works on tafsīr, hadīth, fiqh, rnantiq, etc. The work in question here would seem to be the Minah al-walthab. (See his biography in Nail, 330–2; Bivar, A. D. H. and Hiskett, M., ‘The Arabic literature of Nigeria to 1804: a provisional account’, BSOAS, XXV, 1, 1962, 104–8CrossRefGoogle Scholar.)

147 i.e. al-Rāmizat al-shāflya fī'ilm al-'arūd wa l'-qafiya of 'Abdullāh b. 'Uthmān al-Khazrajī, fl. c. 1220 (GAL, I, 312).

148 Muhammad b. Ahmad al-Hasanī al-Sharīf al-Andalusī al-Gharnatī al-Sabtī, d. 1359 (GAL, I, 312).

149 i.e. the Tuhfat al-huhkām fī nukat al-'uqūd wa 'l-ahkām of Muhammad, Muhammad b. b. 'Āsim, d. 1246 (GAL, n, 264)Google Scholar.

150 See GAL, II, 264.

151 i.e. Mukhtasar al-Furū' (also called Jāmi' al-ummahāt) of 'Uthmān b. 'Umar b. al-Hājib, Abl Bakr ibn, d. 1249 (GAL, I, 303; Suppl., I, 531)Google Scholar.

152 The Tawdīh is a commentary on Ibn al-Hājib's Mukhtamr by al-Jundī, Khalīl b. Ishāq, d. 1374 (GAL, Suppl., I, 531)Google Scholar.

153 i.e. al-Muntaqā sharh al-Muwatta' of al-Bājī, Sulaiman b. Khalaf, d. 1081 (GAL, I, 419; Suppl., I, 298)Google Scholar.

154 Compiled by 'Abd al-Salām b. Sa'id b. Habīb al-Tanūkhī, nicknamed Sahnūn, d. 854 (GAL, Suppl., I, 299; see also El, IV, 65).

155 Abū '1-Hasan 'Alī b. Muhammad al-Zarwīlī, d. 1319 (see references given in t h e preceding note).

156 i.e. al-Shifā'fīta'rīf huq ūq al-Mustafā of 'Iyād b. Mūsā b. 'Iyād al-Yahsibī (or al-Yahsubi) al-Sabtī, d. 1149 (GAL, i, 369).

157 See El, 2nd ed., I, 1296.

158 See El, I, 756.

159 i.e. the Mudkhal al-shar' al-sharīf of Muhammad b. Muhammad b. al-Hājj, Muhammad ibn al-Fāsī, d. 1336 (GAL, II, 83; Suppl., II, 95)Google Scholar.

160 See p. 582, n. 129.

161 Probably the celebrated thousand-line versification on grammar by Ibn Malik (see p. 582, n. 133).

162 The seventh sūra.

163 i.e. al-Mi'yār al-M.agh.rib 'an fatāwi ‘ulama’ Ifrīqiyya wa 'l-Andalus wa 'l-Maghrib, the major work of fatwās according to the Mālikī rite, compiled by Ahmad b. Yahyā b. Muhammad al-Tilimsānī al-Wansharīshī, d. l.”>08 (GAL, II, 248).

164 Ibn Ya'qūb, a Berber of the Aït Yousi, was chief secretary to the sultan al-Mansur. He was considered to be the outstanding literary man of his day in Morocco (see Nuzhat, 273).

165 “jijg Merciful will have mercy on the merciful. Be merciful to those on earth; He who is in Heaven will be merciful to you.’ (See Sahīh al-Tirmidhī, Kitāb al-Birr.)

168 The term musalsalis used if a hadīth has an unbroken chain of authority back to the Prophet and when the transmitters state certain conditions under which the transmission took place (e.g. that each transmitter swore an oath on the soundness of the tradition before passing it on). In this case the condition is the affirmation by each transmitter that the hadīth in question was the first he had received (bi 'l-awwaliyya) from the muhaddith on whose authority he relates it.

167 ‘The hadīth of shaking hands.’ This consists of t h e formula sāfahanī (wa shabakani wa adāfanī) fulān; qāla sāfahanī…through a chain of hand-shakers traced back to someone who shook hands with t h e Prophet. (See Fath, fol. 8b, for an example of a hadīth al-musdfaha.)

168 i.e. al-Qasā'id al-'Ishrīniyyāt fī mfidh sayyidnā Muhammad, by Muhammad b. 'Abd al-Rahmān b. Yakhlaftān al-Fāzfizī, d. 1230 (GAL, Suppl., I, 482).

169 Abū Bakr Muhammad b. Mahīb (GAL, Suppl., I, 483).

170 i.e. t h e Sahīb or Jāmī of Abū Tsa Muhammad b. 'Isā b. Saura b. Shaddād al-Tirmidhī, d. 883–4 or 888–9 (GAL, I, 161; El, IV, 796).

171 i.e. the Ikmāl al-ilcmāl of Muhammad b. Khalīfa b. 'Umar al-Washtātī al-Ubbī, d. 1424 (GAL, I, 160).

172 'llm al-rijāl was an important branch of hadīthknowledge concerned with verifying the reliability of t h e transmitters (muhaddithūn), especially through a critical examination of where and when they lived and the possibility, if not certainty, of their having come into contact with the man from whom they claimed to have heard the hadīth. It was largely out of the need for this kind of information that the science of biography grew.

173 Presumably a chain of authorities through whom the teachings of the Maliki rite had been handed down and by virtue of admission to which one became an authorized teacher of Maliki law. The term nāwalanī (nom. verb, munāwala) indicates that the student received a written copy of the chain from his master which he then copied for himself. This was then submitted to the master for checking andauthentication.

174 This commentary, popularly known as al-Jalālain, is highly esteemed on account of its conciseness. It was begun by Jalal al-Dīn al-Mahalli (see p..582, n. 135) and finished by 'Abd al-Rahmān b. Abī Bakr b. Muhammad b. Abī Bakr Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūtī al-Hudairī (d. 1505) at the precocious age of 20 in 1485 (GAL, II, 143, 145 (6)). The part which al-Suyūtī wrote is sometimes referred to as al-Takmila.

175 GAL, Suppl., I, 264 (3), mentions- an abridgement of al-Bukhārī's Sahib by al-Qurtubi (d. 1258), who is perhaps to be identified with Muhammad b. Ahmad b. Abī Bakr b. Farh al-Ansārī al-Qurtubī, d. 1269 or 1273 (GAL, I, 415). The latter also wrote a book entitled al-Mufhim fīmā ashkala min talkīus kilāb Muslim which may be the work referred to above (see GAL, Suppl., I, 265 (4)).

176 Al-Jāmi' al-saghīr min hadīth al-bashīr al-nadhīr (GAL, II, 147 (56)).

177 Presumably al-Mu'jizāt wa 'l-khasā'īs al-nabawiyya, also called al-Khasā'is al-kubrā (GAL, II, 146).

178 Of 'Abd al-Rahmān b. Muhammad al-Tha'ālībī, d. 1468 (GAL, II, 249).

179 Probably al-Budūr al-sāfira fī umur al-ākhira of al-Suyūtī (GAL, II, 146).

180 Abū '1-Rabī' Sulaimān b. Mūsā b. Sālim al-Kalā'ī, d. 1237 (GAL, Suppl., I, 634). By al-Kalā'ī the writer may mean the Iklifā' (see below, n. 185) by which he is best known.

181 See my article on Ahmad Bābā and the Moroccan invasion of t h e Sudan referred to on p. 581, n. 126.

182 See p. 582, n. 134.

183 See reference above, n. 177.

184 See references, p. 585, n. 170.

185 i.e. al-Iktifā' bimā tadammanahū min maghāzī Rasūl Allāh wa maghāzī 'l-ihalāthat al-khulafā'. (For al-Kalā'ī see reference above, n. 180.)

186 I use the Arabic word in preference to the English ‘students’ which generally conveys an impression of youth. In Islamic parlance anyone of any age may be a tālib ‘seeker (of knowledge)’

187 The term Qādī 'l-Jamā'a, first used in t h e western Islamic world to designate the qādī of a community of Muslims in a particular town, had, by t h e sixteenth century become synonymous with the term Qādī 'l-Qudāt as used in t h e East. (See Tyan, E., Histoire de l'organisation judiciaire en pays d'lslam,2nd ed., Leiden, 1960, 130 £f.)Google Scholar

188 B o r n 1545? died by assassination in 1623 (see Chorfa, p. 252, n. 2, and references cited there). He is said to have been reproached by Ahmad Bābā for quoting apocryphal hadīths (see Ijāza, 280).

189 Ahmad b. Muhammad al-Miknāsī al-Zanātī, known as I b n al-Qādī (1553–1616), author of Jadhwat al-iqtibās, etc. (see Chorfa, 100–12, 247–50).

190 All texts read here al-nās which I have rendered as ‘scholars’. In another place in the text of Fath, al-'ulamā' occurs with the variant al-nās in Kifāya. It would seem that at this period al-nās meant al-'ulamd'ā, more particularly the celebrated ‘ulamd’ of Egypt.

191 Probably the ‘Abd al-Wāhid b. Ahmad b. Abī 'Abdullāh al-Rajrājī mentioned below.

192 The alternative reading 'uyyintu lahā, would imply that Ahmad Baba was appointed to the post of muftī, but this does not accord with the notion of mirāran.

193 Sūs al-Aqsā is t h e extreme south-west of Morocco.

194 Kurrās or kurrāsa, pl. kardrīs. The general meaning is ‘pamphlet’. Redhouse (Turkish-English lexicon, Constantinople, 1884) gives the meaning as ‘a lift of five sheets of paper, the unit of Eastern bookbinding’. In bookbinding the sheets are usually doubled over and would thus make ten. This approximates to the English ‘quire’ of four sheets doubled to make eight, lience any small pamphlet or opuscule.

195 i.e. about one-fifth of the work. The chapters included in the commentary would be: al-siyārn, al-i'tikāf, al-hajj, al-dhabā'ih wa 'l-said wa 'l-'aqīqa, al-aimān wa 'l-nudhūr, al-jihād, al-musābaqa, and khasā'is al-nabī.

196 This work was apparently written in Marrākush since in his Kifāyāt al-muhiāj, which was completed in Marrākush in 1603, Ahmad Bābā remarks that he has just engaged himself in the writing of it. (Quoted in the Paris (1900) edition of Khalll's Mukhtasar, 7.)

197 Nūr al-Dīn Abū 'l-Irshād All b. Ahmad (Muhammad) b. 'Abd al-Rahmān al-Ujhūrī, d. 1656 (GAL, II, 317). The commentary referred to is the Jawāhir (Mawāhib) al-Iklīl (GAL, II, 84).

198 Evidently a commentary on the words of Khalīl b. Ishāq in his Mukhtasar, 'wa khussisat niyyat al-hālif (see al-Mukhtasar, Paris ed., 1900, 70)Google Scholar.

199 This work enjoyed some popularity in Nigeria. 'Uthmān b. Fūdī (d. 1817), the originator of the early nineteenth-century jihād, and his son a nd successor, Muhammad Bello (d. 1837), used it a s an authority for determining which peoples were pagan and could legitimately be fought.

Delafosse, in an article on t h e Arabic MSS acquired by M. de Meziéres in 1911–13, mentions an opuscule by Ahmad Bābā (item 51) which he describes as ‘Lettre de 13 pages ecrite en 1024 (1615–16) par Ahmad Bābā, aux gens de Touat qui lui avait demandé des renseignements sur le Soudan’ (see Annuaire et Mémoircs du Comité d'études historiques et scientifques de I'AOF, 1916, 120–9). This is clearly al-Kashf wa 'l-bayān. Bib. Nat. (No. 5259, fols. 19–23) has a copy of the work (catalogued as Le Miraz d'Ahmad Baba) which would appear to be the one brought back by Félix Dubois (see Tombouctou la mystérievse, Paris, 1897, 420)Google Scholar. The colophon to this letter gives the two titles: al-Kashf wa 'l-bayān li hukm majlūb al-Sūdān and Mi'raj al-sa'b [sic] ilā nail hukm majlūb al-sūd. The opening page of the MS tells us that it is a reply to the people of Tuwat who had inquired concerning the status of the various peoples of the Sudan with regard to enslavement.

200 The work is a reply to an unnamed inquirer on the legality of ‘imbibing smoke of the leaf called tābgh or tābah [sic], which made its appearance at the beginning of this eleventh century and has since become widespread ‘. This fatwā, probably the one referred to in Khalaf (see p. 582, n. 135) is no doubt one of the earliest so far discovered on the subject of the legality of smoking. It is also interesting that the use of the word tābah antedates by at least a century the previous earliest literary reference to it in al-Barnawi's Shurb al-zulāl (see Bivar, A. D. H. and Hiskett, M., BSOAS, XXV, 1, 1962. 132)Google Scholar. The word tāba or tābah seems to be the common term for tobacco among peoples in the Sudanic region where Islam has spread: ef. Mande, tāba; Songhay, tabā; Kanuri, tābā; Shuwa Arabic, tāba; Bagirmi, taba; Dar Für Arabic, tāba; (var. tāba). The root has also passed into Nupe (tábà) and Yoruba (tábà). It seems clear that the word has diffused along with the product from the Maghrib, though the word itself may ultimately be of North American Indian origin (see Wiener, L., Africa and the discovery of America, 3 vols., Philadelphia, 1922, I, 141et passim)Google Scholar.

201 Presumably Ahmad Bābā was asked by the Mālikī authorities in Egypt to deliberate on certain points of law. The Bibliothéque Nationale has in its collection 11 folios described as ‘Masā'il ilā ‘ulama’ Misr’ (see Bib. Nat., No. 5382, fols. 61–72). The following ‘replies’ by Ahmad Bābā are preserved in the Bibliothéque-Musée d'Alger (see Alger, No. 532, (9), (10), (11)): (9) Reponses faites par Ahmad Baba à des questions de fikh; (10) Reponses ecrites en 1024 par Ahmad Baba a trois questions: sur la préeminence des chérifs ou des docteurs practiquants; sur la mode de prouver qu'on est de descendance cherifienne; sur les docteurs non practiquants et les chérifs ignorants; (11) Note écrite par Ahmad Baba en 1024 sur la question si les saints, awliya, ont besoin d'un cheykh ou initiateur.

202 This is n o t a formal title. The word musāwātīhirnāclearly refers back to t h e previous title, i.e. musāwāt al-fā'il li'l-mubtada'.

203 Presumably a commentary or homily on t h e Qur'anic phrase wa armmā bi ni'mati Rabbika fa-haddith (Sura XCIII, 11).

204 Al-Wishāh fī fawā'id al-nikāh (GAL, II, 153 (208)).

205 A popular abridgement of t h e Nail al-ibtihāj (see Berlin, analysis of 10032).

206 For popular title of this work see p. 580, n. 119. The work is an abridgement of al-Maivāhib al-quddūsiyya fī '1-manāqib al-Sanūsiyya by Muhammad al-Mallālī al-Tilimsāinī, fl. 1492 (see El, I, 192; GAL, II, 250).

207 I have come across one work of Ahmad Baba not mentioned in any of the existing lists called al-Minah cd-hamida fi shark al-Farīda. This is a commentary on al-Sūyūti's al-Farīda fī 'l-nahw wa 'l-tasrīf wa 'l-khatt (OAL, II, 155 (247)), also known as t h e Alfiyya. I have seen several incomplete MSS of this work in Northern Nigeria; the longest of these (75 fols.) has been microfilmed by the library of the University of Ibadan, Nigeria (see Historical Society of Nigeria. Supplement to Bulletin of News, VII, 2, 1962, 1)Google Scholar. Brockelmann (GAL, II, 467) also mentions a work called Tanwīr al-basā'ir wa 'l-afhām bi hukm (bimä qilā fī) hashr al-ajsām ba'd al-i'dām (Berlin, or. oct. 3781 (21)).

208 An outstanding Moroccan scholar and commentator of the tenth/sixteenth century (see Nuzhat,226).

209 This would appear to be Abū 'Abdullāh Muhammad b. 'Abdullāh al-Rajrāji, known as Bu 'Abdellī, qādī of Marrākush from 159–3, died 1613–14 (Chorfa, p. 252, n. 4).

210 Presumably the same man mentioned in Nuzhat,406, as the muftīof Marrākush under Mulay 'Abd al-Malik b. Zaidān (d. 1631).

211 Ahmad al-Sālim was muftī of Marrākush during the reign of Mūlay 'Abd al-Malik b. Zaidān b. al-Mansūr (1629–30—1633^1) (see Nuzhat,406).

212 The MSS of Kifāya agree with this date. Nashr, I, 334, gives 21 Dhū 'l-Hijja 960 (28 November 1553).

213 Ta'rīkh, 244, agrees with this date. Khulāsa, I, 172, gives 7 Sha'bān 1032 (6 June 1623).

214 The arabic numerals in brackets refer to the number of the work as listed in the present text.

215 ‘Written at Tamakrūt (Tamgrout) in the Dra'a region of southern Morocco while Ahmad Bābā was returning from Marrākush to Timbuctoo after his exile.