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The Wathīqat Ahl Al-Sūdān: a Manifesto of the Fulani Jihād

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

A. D. H. Bivar
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Extract

Not long ago the present writer observed that the oldest original Nigerian chancery documents so far reported to survive go back to about the year 1820, and bear the seals of Muhammad Bello, Sultan of Sokoto, and of Muhammad al-Amīn, Sultan of Bornu. It is virtually certain that in time earlier specimens than these will come to light, and especially original examples of the letters issued by the founder of the Sokoto dynasty, Usuman dan Fodio himself. Concerning official letters and autographs of Dan Fodio, indeed, unconfirmed reports have come in on several occasions. Pending their documentation, it may be of interest to present here a more than usually authoritative transcript of a letter issued by the Shehu Dan Fodio, which has lately come into the custody of the Jos Museum, and which offers proof (were any needed) that chancery letters in the Arabic language played a part in Dan Fodio's system of government.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 2 , Issue 2 , July 1961 , pp. 235 - 243
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1961

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References

1 ‘Arabic documents of Northern Nigeria’, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, XXII, 2, 1959, 326.Google Scholarcf. Kensdale, W. E. N., ‘Field notes on the Arabic literature of the Western Sudan: Shehu Usuman dan Fodio’, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1955, 164, n. 4: ‘All efforts to trace the originals have been unsuccessful.’Google Scholar

2 The golden trade of the Moors, Oxford 1958, 225–32.

3 Hausa versions of many of the works best known in Arabic have been found in circulation. Whether the Hausa texts originate with the author, or were subsequently prepared, is not yet established. For specific compositions in Hausa and Fulani, see below.

4 The Tanbīh al-ikhwān alā ahwāl ard al-sūdān was translated by Palmer, H. R. as ‘An early Fulani conception of Islam’, Journal of the African Society, XIII, 1913–1914, 407–14; XIV, 1914–1915, 53–9;Google Scholar the Nūr ai-aibdb (a description of typically non-Muslim religious practices not without ethnographic interest), by Hamet, Ismail, Revue Africaine, XLI, 1897 297–320; XLII, 1898, 58–70.Google Scholar Most recently and systematically, the ‘Kitāb aI-farq: a work on the Habe Kingdoms attributed to ‘Uthmān dan Fodio’ was published by Hiskett, M., BSOAS, xxiii, 1960, 558–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

5 It seems worth noting the first lines of two of Usuman's ulani poems which have passed through the writer's hands during recent microfilm operations: (a) Miduwet Allah shenido batina zahiri Jatew iki 'am yuminadu Abdulqadiri (b) Nget Allah shenido mando nulnudūbē Burnado mangu tangefi kanda yarībe I understand that my colleague Dr D. W. Arnott has collected a more considerable list of these Fulani poems.Google Scholar

6 The translation of this title will be given on p. 241.

7 This paper appears to have been made in Northern Italy, near Venice, and mainly perhaps at the town of Pordenone by the firm of Andrea Galvani, for export to the Ottoman Empire, especially during the seventeenth century, cf. BSOAS, XXII, 2, 1959, 327, n. 2.Google Scholar

8 In Fulani usage the title Sāi designates the official charged with the collection of the jangali ‘cattle-tax’, and the supervision of relations with the nomadic Fulani.Google Scholar See now Smith, Michael G., Government in Zazzau, 1960, 93. In origin the word is Arabic, meaning ‘messenger’, and still in common use in that sense at Aden, as I learn from my colleague, Mr Norris.Google Scholar

9 I am obliged to the Madawaiki of Daura for the following list of this dynasty for the period from 1807 to recent times: (1) Ishāq. (2) Yūsuf. (3) Muhammad. (4) Zubair. (5) Mubammad Bello. (6) Mubammad Altine (a Fulani sobriquet signifying ‘born on a Monday’). (7) Mubammad Maigardo— the last reigning Emir. [(8) Benfirana Safiji. (9) Magajiya Mamai.]

10 The commander of Usuman's supporters in the campaign against each of the Hausa cities was invested with a flag, whence the term ‘flagbearer’ for these dynastic founders.

11 I accept, perhaps in a slightly restricted sense, the term Ajami adopted by Hiskett, , ‘Material relating to the state of learning among the Fulani’, BSOAS, xix, 1957, 550.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

12 Kensdale, W. E. N., ‘Field notes on the Arabic literatures of the Western Sudan: Muhammadu Bello’, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1958, 56, no. 38.Google Scholar

13 BSOAS, XXII, 1959, 345.Google Scholar

14 Bello, Muhammad, Ināq al-maisūr (ed. Whitting), p. 48 (=Amett, Rise of the Sokoto Fulani, p. 28).Google Scholar

15 ‘Material relating to the state of learning…’, BSOAS, XIX, 1957, 551.Google Scholar

16 ‘Source material for the history of the Western Sudan’, Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria, I, 3, December 1958, 246. Mr Smith, who had occasion to peruse a draft of this article in 1959, kindly pointed out several omissions in the transcript of the Arabic text, and has made a number of suggestions elsewhere.

17 The Muslim legal concept of jmā' may be defined as the unanimous agreement of those qualified in the law. It forms one of the sources of Muslim legislation.

18 The words have the appearance of a quotation, but the source has not been traced.

19 i.e. God.

20 i.e. the Prophet, Muhammad.

21 e.g. of Muliammad b. ‘Abd al-Karīm al-Maghīlī, to judge from Ahmad Bābā, Nayl al-ibtihāj, Cairo 1351, 331. It was no doubt from Maghīlī that Usuman derived the phrase.

22 cf. Abdullahi, Tazyin al-waraqāt apud Hiskett, M., ‘Material relating to the state of learning…’, BSOAS, XIX, 1957, 576.Google Scholar

23 See n. 4, above.

24 See n. 4, above.

25 Unpublished. I have used two manuscripts of this work in the Palmer Collection at Jos. The item is listed by Kensdale, W. E. N., “Field notes on the Arabic Literature of the Western Sudan: Shehu Usumanu dan Fodio’, JRAS, 1955, 167, no. 49, with a minor variant of the title.Google Scholar

26 No less than war can be implied by the words (para. xiii) ‘to take the government from him is obligatory by assent’.