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Znāga Islam during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2009

H. T. Norris
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Extract

The gibla, the south-west of Mauritania, is a monotonous region of gum acacia trees, baobabs, ‘dead’ dunes, and hillocks. This ‘backwood’ is the last refuge of Znāga Berber, once spoken far to the north in whole regions of the Western Sahara. A number of short poems, a cycle of folk-tales, and a handful of masterpieces of extended odes in praise of the Prophet—some 200 years old and written in Arabic script—this is the meagre literary legacy of a proud and cherished tradition.

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Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 32 , Issue 3 , October 1969 , pp. 496 - 526
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Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 1969

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References

1 A myth common in Mauritania traces these five tribes to a league or band of robbers who alighted near to camp of the Midlish Zwaāya. One of the robbers was sent by his comrades to spy out the camp, and he heard a reciter of the Qur‘ān repeating its contents. The robber, intrigued by its sound, memorized what he had heard and repeated it to his companions on his return, deeming it to be an expetionally fine example of popular folk-song (ghίnā’). His comrades, fully aware of its true meaning were smitten with remorse, repented of their ways, and joined the Midlish as clients.

2 Daymānī tradition dates the sojourn of the Tashumsha in Abbwayr to the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Shinqītī certainly existed in the fifteenth century since the representative in Timbuctou of the Sultan Akil, Muhammad Nadda, came from this town, and he held office prior to 1433 during the dynasty of Mālli. Abbwayr (Timengassen), ‘Old Shinqītī’ was allegedly founded prior to modern Shinqītī. It was regarded as the cradle of many Zwāya tribes which later migrated to the south-west. European accounts seem to confirm that these two settlements existed side by side before Abbwayr disappeared from history. In a letter sent from Arguin to Lisbon in 1591 by Melchior petoney several towns in the Adrār are referred to: ‘One city there is called Couton, another Xanigeton, as alson the cites of Tubguer, Azegue, Amader, Quaherque, and the town of Faroo’. The region is described as rich in well-built towns, cattele, barley, dates, and gold. The following tentative identification may be made: Couton is Wādān, Xanigeton is Shinqītī, Tubguer is (T)Abbw, Azegue is Āzūgī near Ātār, Amader is Āmdayr al-Kabīr and al-Saghīr, both a day and half from Shinqītī in the direction of Ātār. Quaherque is just possibly Asharayrīg in the Adrār, a spring adjoining a mountain where the tomb of the scholar Abmad b. al-Bashīr b. al-Hanshī al-Ghallāw is located. Faroo is hard to identify. Mohammad wuld Mawlūd wuld Dāddāh has proposed Ferenni. Cf. H. de Castries, Les sources inèdites de l‘histoire du Maroc, II Paris and London, 1925,45.

3 The root mghr in Znāga and Tuareg is synonomous with that of the Arabic title of Shaykh. This signifies a man of the age of about 60 and over, and therefore respected for bis age. It also denotes male accendant (paternal uncle or the man who has married the mother after the death of the father), and master of servants, teacher of pupils, chief in general terms or the power which wields authority.

4 cf. Westermarck, Edward, Pagan survivals in Mohammedan civilsation, London, 1933, 6, 7, 18, 20, 96, 97, 122, 142.Google Scholar

5 Shurbubba appears to have been a war cry, and although the name Sharr Bubba also denotes this war, there is disagreement as to which of the two is the more accurate. A Sharr among the Tuareg indicates a war between tribal factions and peoples while a simplel raid for booty (ghazw) is known as an annemensί or amdjer (H. Lhote, Les Touaregs du HoggarParis, 1944,321). Shurbubba embraced both types of warfare. The Moors distinguish between a jihād ‘holy war’ and a sharr, a war without religious significance. It seems clear that during its course Shurbubba had some of the features of both, although most Zwāya regard it as primarily a conflict sparked off by a tributary called Bubba.

6 Mukhtār wuld Hāmidun has provided the following Arabic rendering of this poem.

7 Premier voyage de Sieur de La Corube fait ā la coste d‘ en 1985, Cultru, P., Paris, 1913, 132, 133, 146.Google Scholar

8 According to the author, Tu’ffukt in Znāga indicates‘the sun, and the name means ‘the well of the sun’. (However, for the meaning ‘sund’, Faidherbe, R.Basset and F.Nicolas give forms with non-geminate ƒ. But the last-named does give forms with geminate ƒ meaning ‘clartée, lumiere’, etc.) It lies at the extremity of the Igİidi heartland,

9 The Mukhtasar of Khalıl b. Ishāaq b. MŪusā al-Jundī(d.1374). this is the standard work of Māalikā jurisprudence (figh) in the Maghrib and the Sūdān.

10 ‘Abd al-Qāadir al-Māami of Fūta (1728–1806) established a theocratic elective state in Senegal. He defeated the Trāarza Moors in 1786–7, but was staken prisoner by the Damel, of Kajōr in 1796–7 while attempting to convert the Wolof to Islam. A year later he was released, but he was deposed in 1805. Cf. Triminigham, J. Spencer, A history of Islam in West Africar, London, 1962, 171.Google Scholar

11 See Appendix I and my Shingİtİ folk literature and song, Oxford, 1968, 37İ9.

12 Paper which has a ribbed surface owing to wires used in making i

13 See Appendix I.

14 The greatest polygraph in Islam, Jalāal-Dİ al-SuyŪtİ, 1445–1505.

15 See Appendix II.

16 Al-Khadir or al-Khidr is a mythical personage who is human, angelic, mundane, and celestial; ef. EI, first ed., s.v. ‘al-adir’.

17 He is alleged to have said, ‘We and the Companions of the Prophet on the Day of Judgement will be alike as two crows’.

18 ‘ “It suffices a woman of the BanŪu Daymāan in order to enjoy superor honour to marry a Daymānİ in order to enjoy to enjoy superior honour to marry a Daymāanİ”, he said. The teaching of Nāasir al-Dİin had no appreciable effect on the matrilineal character of his society. This is apparent not only from the Kitāab al-ansāb of Wāalid b.Khālunā, but in an interesting detail preserved from the missing work of Muhammad al-Yadāalİ, Ghazawāt shurbuibba. İThe faqİh al-Amİn informed Nāsir al-Dİin fo his motehrs names. The genealogists had written them down as dictated by the genealogist al-Fāadil b. Id Mudund al-Shaqrāawİ. Nāasir al-Dİn traced them back until he reached one whose name had been erased and the faqİh al-Amin had forgotten her. When Nāasir al-Dİin told him who she was he said, Awbek (Nāasir al-Dİin) has correctly spoken. She indeed it is ”. Then Nāasir al-Dİ Said, “Had I so wished I could have traced them back to our motehr Eve”‚.

19 There was no relationship between Nāasir al-Dİin and the Sultan of Morocco (where at that time the ‘Alawite dynasty had yet to establish itself) comparable to that of Shaykh Māa al. İAynayn over 200 years later. Nāasir al-Dİin and his successors were given the title of Amİir al-Mu minİin by Daymāanİ by Daymāanİn authors, of.Reneé Basset, MIssion au Sénégal, I, Paris, 575.Google Scholar

20 Dhāt alwāh wa dusur states ‘Perhaps the Zwāya(Zawāyā)are named thus because they adopted the zāwiya set aside for learning and for worship, and they were given this name on account of that. Perhaps the reason why they are called Talba is because they are talabat al-‘ilm, and perhaps the readon why one of their number is called Murābit is the derivation of the word from ribāt, namely murābatat al-İw (i.e. being stationed on the enemys border). It may be a nisha associated with the famous Almoravid state in the Maghrib, just as Znāga is related to Sanhāja. The latter are a tribe among the Berbers with whom is sassociated klām znāg, namely the Īdaw ‘Īand all who come from the Īdaw ‘’.

21 Al-Haswa al-Baysānıya ‘l-ansāb al-Hassānıya by Shaykh Muhammad b. ‘Abd al-Wahhāb b. Ahmad b. al-Hājj ‘Abd al-Wahhāb al-Nāsirı (d.c. 1256/1840) states how the Tauma ‘ Berber.Ī Īdaygub tribe and otehrs came to be deemed as one of the tribes of the ‘arab, Banū Hassān: (fol.3) ‘ Here concludes what I have gleaned form the passage written in the margin of the text of Ibn aldūn to which I have referred. I will report what I have heard from the èlite of the Ibn Khaldūn to which I have referred. I will report what I have heard from the élite of the trust worthy. I heard the scholar aykh al-Tālib ‘Abdullāh b. al-Hājj Muhammad al-Rag al-‘Alawı make mention more than once that the fifth of the Awlād Hassn afore mentioned was named ‘Ubaydalla (in Hassānıya colloquial), and that he was the ancestor of the İdaygub of the Zwāya Tashumsha of the furthest Maghrib. I also heard his (correct Arabic) name ‘Ubaydullāh. I have seen written in the hand of al-Hājj Bu Bakr b. Muhammad b. Hassān. I have heard this from others. Excent that I have learnt from a reliable source that Ijummān. I have heard this from others, except that I have learnt from a reliable source that ubaydallaumān stem from the Izammāt Tuareg, and that he “arabised” Izammān. I said that Ijummān are two tribes. One of them is called the İ-Kaytİ and the other the “ Arabs ”. It could be that the İd-Kaytİ are of the seed of ‘Umar B.Hassān while the others are Izammāten. The reverse is possible, that al-Hājj Bu Bakr is related to ‘Umar b. Hassān (and folk are to be trusted in their genealogies), and that the otehrs are called the “Arabs”. This name excludes those who have a lineage from Izammāt since they are assūfa Sanhāja Tuareg, and they are not called “Arabs”’.

22 The doubt of the reporter is unfortunate since the Lamtūna were not the only MurābiŪn, nor were the latter all MulaamŪn. Since MulatamŪn, as a title, lacked the honour and religious sanctity of the former, and as the lithām is a key feature of the stor, the context suggests that Nāṣir al-Dī said Lamtū, if indeed there is any authenticity in this story whatsoever.

23 We journeyed with him (i.e. al-Fā b. Muhammad al-Kawrı) after the noon prayer. We sent (word) to the village of TŪjfat (Ujfat), and they reinforced us with 60 men. We spent the night at a river in amāma known as Abā. A man from the people of the king called Buring (the Brak of Walo, a region south of Rosso) came to his master and informed him that he had seen a “ Moorish” army. That same hour he sent to one of his noblemen who bordered on the power of the “Moors”, and he came to him with right horsemen. He told him the story reported to him by the other man regarding the (Zwaya) camp and that men of it had been conveyed over the river (Senegal). The nobleman said to him, “The man has lied, I know him to be a coward”. The he returned to his people. On the morrow we advanced towareds (The king). He observed our movements, and he said, “How plentiful the game in amāma is to-day”. Al-Najib b. ‘Abdullāh was with the drum on a camel, guiding the army by it and standing behing Nāsir al-Dın. When (the king’) men showed themselves to us with intent to fight, he (the king) fled on his horse. Al-Najıb cried out to the cavelry, and they knew that it was the king they had seen fleeing. The cavalry pursued him, overtook him, and slew him’.

24 In walo Nāsir al-Dın is regarded as the suzerain of the ‘pretender throne. Cadamosto described’ Teedyek whom he helped to the throne. Cadamosto described the innermost court of the king of Budomel (Kajōr) and noted that ‘very few men are bold enough to penetrate thither, save Christains, who are allowed to go about freely when they are present, and also the Azanaghi priests, that is, those who are learned in teh law─for more liberty is bestowed upon these two classes than upon his own negro subjects…Through the great framiliarity which Budomel showed me, I was permitted to enter the mosque where they pray, arriving towards evening, and having called those of his Azanaghi, or Arabs, who are constantly on duty in the mosque─we would call them priests (they are those who are learned in the law of Muhammad), he entered with some of his chief lords into a certain place’ (G.R.Crone (tr.), Cadamosto (Works issued by the Hsakluyt Society. Second Ser., LXXX), London, 1937, 39,40).

25 A proportion of these tribes claimed to Sanhaāja. The Tandagha of south-west Mauritania are among the most ancient Znāga-speakers. They were settled to the north until the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Tradition ascribes to their pride of nobility among the Lamtūna, and one is tempted to suggest tentatively an identification with the eponym Wrtntq (Wr, perhaps the Berber War ‘without’; t>t, d, e.g. Lamta > awlmidden; q > gh ). The Īdayjba were centred in Agān. Their name in Znāga indicated ‘ sont of the calm one’, and they are kinsmen of the Tājakānt.

26 The point is argued by Muhammad al-Yadāl in figgrtrny pstyd of his biography. He supports the view that a jihād against ‘Arabs’ who are ’cutters of the route’ is of greater merit than a jihād against the Christians.

27 The figure of 12.000 corresponds to a force of men, carresponds called in Mauritania a lemhalla. This name is specifically applied to the army of AbŪ Baker b. ‘Umar al-Lamtūnİ when he pursued his jihād in the Sahara and the SŪdān.

28 One Zwāya source has compared the life and death of Nāsir al-Dı with that of his near-contemporary Sıdİ Muhammad al-‘Ayyāshı of Salā in Morocco. Both were alike ‘as one crow to another’. This comparison is interesting. It indicated that local Zwāya did not quate the life of their hero with that of murābitūn, n, but with that of a Moroccan mujāhid who lived at the end of the Sa‘dian empire. Both men had certain aims and circumstances in common. Al-‘Ayyāshī began as a scholar, but later became a mujāhid against the Christians at Azemmur. He was recognized as ruler of Salā and its vicinity where he received the support or many Moroccan ‘ulamā’ in his wish to assume command of the holy war since his ‘fighting of the enemy was not dependent on the existence of the Sultan (who was opposed to him) when a jamā‘a of Muslims could take his place’. Al-‘Ayyāshİ rallied both Arabs and Berbers, and allegiance was sworn to him, although several of the Arab tribes broke their allegiance. Al-‘Ayyāshİ had great success against the Christians at Larache and elsewhere and against Arab and Berber betrayers, in particular the Moriscos who treacherously aided the Christians. Certain ‘ulamā;’ ruled in fatwā that is was lawful for him to fight them because of their infidelity to Islam. The Moriscos were scattered, and the Zwāya Dilā’ interceded for them, but they were rebuffed by al-‘Ayyāshİ, who fought them and their Berber allies on his return from Tangier. Al-‘Ayyāshİ was defeated in battle and fled to tribal nomads who treacherously slew him on 19 Muharram 1051/Tuesday,30 April 1641 at ‘Ayn al-Qasab. His head was carred to Salā, of. Muhammad al-Saghİ b. al-Hājj Muhammad al-Wafrānİ, Nuzht al-hādİ, lithographed edition, Fez, 1307002F1889–90, 225–32.

29 Al-Faqīh b. al-Amī was asked whether the Zwāya dead should be washed and prayed over. The qādī ‘Abdullāh al-shinqītī revealed in a fatwā that they should not be washed and prayed over. Al-Fādil b. Bāba Ahmad said, ‘Treat them as martyrs as they pronounced themselves to be’. It is reported that a light shone from the tombs of the Zwāya deceased when they were buried.

30 His scholastic attainments were compared favourably to those of NŪr al-Dīn, Abu ’l-Hasan ‘Alī b. Ahmad al-UjhŪrī, Mālikī, Mālikī jurist of Cairo (d.1656) who seems to have enjoyed great respect in Mauritania and Morocco at this time.

31 He married Fātima bint ȘAlī b. Ahmad b. Damān.

32 Nāsir al-Dī had prophesied that the qādī ‘Uthmān one of a group0 of his companions who on the Day of Judgement would complain of the heat from Hell, so great would be their labours as intercessors for sinners.

33 Although possible, this act does not appear to have impaired the sanctity of al-Fādil b. al-Kawrī. Two trees unknown to Mauritania grew on his grave at Tin Yadir. Visitors to his tomb used to acquire baraka from their leaves, but after dissencion had broken out among his descendants, the leaves withered and both trees dried up.

34 This name is also rendered as Tin-jummaran.

35 Muhammad al-Yadālī records a miracle which involved the Imām’s head. The Banū Maghfar intended to place his head beneath a pot on the fire but whenever they brought it near to the fire it flew a great distance away from it. Miracles of this kind occur elsewhere in the region. The head of Sīdī’-‘Ayyā ī, for example, was heard and observed reciting the Qur’ān at night. It was returned to its place, and many people repented (Nuzhat al-hādī, 232).

36 Mauritanian scholars who have studied the life of Nāsīr al-Dīn suspect that this 30-year chronology is arbitrary or of esoteric significance. The war itself was very short and localized, the religious movement may have lasted a generation. The date of the death of Nāsir al-Dīn is possibly nearer to 1674than 1650, particularly in view of the seventeenth-century account of Louis Chambonneau entitled ‘L’histoire du Toubenan’, edited by Carson. I A. Ritchie in Bull. de l'iFAN, Sér. B, xxx, 1, 1968, 338–53. News of these events were reprted as far east as the Hawd since the Walāta Chronicle records that a battle between the Banū Maghfar and the Zwāya, referred to as waq‘at Ashrābība, took place in 1084/1674. The Chronicle corroborates evidence of the brevity of the war. The movement of Toubenan (arabic tawba ‘repentance’, Wolof tūbfan) in all likelihood denotes the consepquences of the jihād, the Imāmate, and the reforms of the partisans of Nāsir al-Dțr al-Dțn and his successors. The first Bourguli (Wolof barkeli ‘blessing’#)─‘Le Grand Maistre des Prières’ (Imām ), killed by Haddi (himself not of the Tou benan) may well have been Nāsir al-Dīn, and his brother Mahomet Dine, one of his successors, the fifth Imā Munīr al-Dīn. The latter‘s predecessor’ Hiatmankaly, killed in 1674, was almost certainly the third Imām, the qādī ‘Uthmān. In his decription of the Toubenan movement Chambonneau portrays it as puritanical. opposed to superstition, unlawful polygamy, and musical entertainment. It was aimed at converting the negro ‘proletariat’ and encouraging them to depose their impious rulers. The hostility of the Toubenan to Europeans led to a virtual jihād entailing armed conflicts between m, French and Zwāya (ef. pp. 291,301, and 302), and commercial interests may have been at stake. No mention is made of these in the Arabic accounts, nor of the ‘cultural revolution’ in Senegal, comprehensively described by Chambonneau. To describe Shurbubba as a ‘Berber’ revolt against an ‘Arab’ yoke is wholly misleading. It was a religious movement and a religious war. Ethnic factors admittedly played their part, but these may well have been exaggerated by later biographers and tribal historians.

37 Some recent writers have tended to discount the image of the ribāt, either as a place of meditation or as a stronghold of ascetics, in shaping the beliefs of sharan Muslims. P.F. de Moraes Farian in his survey ‘The almoravids’, Bull. de I’IFAN, Ser. B, xxix, 3–4,1967,847, asserts that ‘For the Mauritanians AbŪ Bakr and his army are the Almoravid Movement… For them the Almoravids were not a movement that started in the south but a religious body coming from the north’. Myth or fact, whether on Tidra island or in riparian amāma or else where, Zwāya scholars undoubtedly regard the archetype of their class to be in some way connected with the physical retreats of Ūggāg b. Zalwī and ‘Abdullāh b. Yāsīn, even if the latter may be portrayed in the guise of al-Khadir, who manifests himself in God’ greatest saints in every age, and who is associated with springs and with the sea, where he perennially dwells on an island or on a green carpet. The perosn of al-Khadir may be of significance in liking the imagery of the eleventh-century murābit and the Zāwī of a later age. Al-Khadir, the spiritual guide, was the inspiration of Nāsir al-Dīn and also of the myth of the life and personality of the Shātirī youth of Shinqītī. Their century was typified by spiritual leaders of a similar type.