Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7fkt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-21T04:46:17.367Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Towards a New Study of the So-Called Tārīkh al-fattāsh

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 May 2015

Mauro Nobili  and
Mohamed Shahid Mathee
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article advances a new theory about the composition of the chronicle generally referred to as Tārīkh al-fattāsh. The Tārīkh al-fattāsh, allegedly written in the sixteenth-seventeenth century, is one of the most famous chronicles on which scholars have relied for information about West Africa’s pre-colonial history. However, there are still many puzzling issues and unsolved problems associated with this work, as edited by Octave V. Houdas and Maurice Delafosse in the early twentieth century. This analysis uses unexplored manuscripts that were either unknown or unavailable to previous scholars, and advances a new theory on the genesis and authorship of the chronicle: that the edited text in fact conflates two texts, a seventeenth-century chronicle and a nineteenth century one.

Résumé

Cet article propose une nouvelle théorie sur la composition de la chronique généralement appelée Tārīkh al-fattāsh. Supposément écrite entre les XVIème et XVIIème siècles, il s’agit de l’une des chroniques les plus célèbres utilisées par les chercheurs de l’histoire de l’Afrique de l’Ouest précoloniale. Cependant, telle qu’elle a été éditée par Houdas et Delafosse, cette chronique pose toujours des énigmes aux chercheurs et contient de nombreux problèmes. Cet article utilise des manuscrits inusités qui étaient auparavant soit inconnus soit non disponibles pour les chercheurs. Cet article propose donc une nouvelle théorie sur l’origine et la paternité de la chronique en avançant que la chronique telle qu’elle a été éditée réunit en fait deux textes différents, le premier datant du XVIIème siècle, le deuxième du XIXème siècle.

Type
Critical Source Analysis
Information
History in Africa , Volume 42 , June 2015 , pp. 37 - 73
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abitbol, Michel, Tombouctou et les Armas. De la conquête marocaine du Soudan nigérien en 1591 à l’hégémonie de l’Empire Peulh du Macina en 1833 (Paris: Maisonneuve et Larose, 1979).Google Scholar
Da’ūd, Abū, Sunan (al-Qāhira, Matba’at al-Sa’ada, 1370 [1951]).Google Scholar
Diagayété, Mohamed [Muḥammad Jākāyatī], “al-Fulāniyyūn wa-ishāmuhum fī al-ḥaḍāra al-islāmiyya bi-Mālī,” PhD dissertation, Zaytuna College (Berkeley CA, 1427–1428/2006– 2007).Google Scholar
Diallo, Ali K., “Alpha Nuuhu Taahiru, grand érudit et mystique peul (1738–1860),” in: Konare, Oumar (ed.), Culture et civilisation islamique, le Mali (Rabat: ISESCO, 1988), 221–228.Google Scholar
Dramani-Issifou, Zakari, L’Afrique noire dans les relations internationales au XVIe siècle. Analyse de la crise entre le Maroc et le Sonrhai (Paris: Karthala/Centre de Recherches Africaines, 1982).Google Scholar
Dubois, Albert Félix, Timbuctoo the Mysterious [Diana White trans.] (New York: Longman-Greens, 1896).Google Scholar
Eco, Umberto, The Prague Cemetery (Boston/New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2010).Google Scholar
Encyclopaedia of Islam (Leiden: Brill, 1954–2005).Google Scholar
Ghali, Nourredine, Mahibou, Mohammed and Brenner, Louis, Inventaire de la Bibliothèque ‘Umarienne de Ségou (Paris: CNRS, 1985).Google Scholar
Haïdara, Ismael Diadiéet al., Les trésor cachés de Tombouctou. Répertoire général de Fondo Kati (La famille de al-Quti) (Qum: The Grand Library of the Ayatollah al-Uzma Marash al-Najafi, 2012).Google Scholar
Hall, Bruce, A History of Race in West Africa, 1600–1969 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011).Google Scholar
Hofheinz, Albrecht, “Goths in the Land of the Blacks: A Preliminary Survey of the Kaʼti Library in Timbuktu,” in: Reese, Scott S. (ed.), The Transmission of Islamic Learning in Africa (Leiden: Brill, 2004), 154–183.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Houdas, Octave V. (ed. and trans.), Tarikh es-soudan par Abderrahman ben Abdallah ben ‘Imran ben ‘Amir Es-Sa’di, 2 volumes (Paris: Ernest Leroux, 1898–1900).Google Scholar
Houdas, Octave V., and Delafosse, Maurice (eds. and trans.), Tarikh el-fettach par Mahmoud Kati et l’un de ses petit fils, 2 volumes (Paris: Ernest Leroux, 1913).Google Scholar
Hunwick, John O., “Report of the UNESCO Meeting of Experts on the Utilisation of Written Sources for the History of Africa held at Timbuktu, 30 November–7 December 1967,” Research Bulletin – Centre of Arabic Documentation, University of Ibadan 4 (1968), 52–69.Google Scholar
Hunwick, John O., “Studies in the Tārīkh al-fattāsh I: Its Authors and Textual History,” Research Bulletin – Centre of Arabic Documentation 5 (1969), 57–65.Google Scholar
Hunwick, John O., “Studies in the Ta’rīkh al-fattāsh II: An Alleged Charter of Privilege Issued by Askiya al-ḥājj Muḥammad to the Descendants of Mori Hawgāro,” Sudanic Africa 3 (1992), 133–148.Google Scholar
Hunwick, John O., “CEDRAB: The Centre de Documentation et Recherché Ahmad Baba at Timbuktu,” Sudanic Africa 3 (1992), 173–181.Google Scholar
Hunwick, John O., Timbuktu and the Songhay Empire: Al-Sa’dī’s Ta’rīkh al-Sūdān Down to 1613 and Other Contemporary Documents (Leiden: Brill, 1999).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hunwick, John O., The Arabic Literature of Africa. Volume IV: The Writing of Western Sudanic Africa (Leiden: Brill, 2003).Google Scholar
Levtzion, Nehemia, “Was Maḥmūd Ka‘tī the Author of the Ta’rīkh al-Fattāsh?,” Research Bulletin Centre of Arabic Documentation, University of Ibadan 6–1/2 (1970), 1–12.Google Scholar
Levtzion, Nehemia, “A Seventeenth-Century Chronicle by Ibn al-Mukhtār: A Critical Study of Ta’rīkh al-fattāsh,” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 34–3 (1971), 571–593.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levtzion, Nehemia, “Maḥmūd Ka‘tī fut-il l’auteur de Ta’rīkh al-Fattāsh?,” Bulletin de l’Institut Fondamental d’Afrique Noire 33–3 (1971), 665–674.Google Scholar
Ly, Madina, “Quelques remarques sur le Tarikh el-Fettach,” Bulletin de l’Institut Fondamental d’Afrique Noire 34–3 (1972), 471–493.Google Scholar
Moraes Farias, Paulo F. de, Arabic Medieval Inscriptions from the Republic of Mali: Epigraphy, Chronicles and Songhay-Tuareg History (New York: Oxford University Press for the British Academy, 2003).Google Scholar
Farias, Moraes, “Intellectual Innovation and Reinvention of the Sahel: the Seventeenth-Century Timbuktu Chronicles,” in: Jeppie, Shamil and Diagne, Souleymane B. (eds.), The Meanings of Timbuktu (Cape Town: HSRC, 2008), 95–107.Google Scholar
Farias, Moraes, “Book Review of Ta’rīkh al fattāsh: The Timbuktu Chronicles, 1493–1599,” Islamic Africa 4–2 (2013), 249–250.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mouleye, Hassan, and Sayyid, Ayman Fuad, Catalogue of Islamic Manuscripts at the Institut des Recherches en Sciences Humaines (IRSH), Niger (London: al-Furqan Islamic Heritage Foundation, 2004–2008).Google Scholar
Nobili, Mauro, Catalogue des manuscrits arabes du fonds de Gironcourt (Afrique de l’Ouest) de l’Institut de France (Rome: Istituto per L’Oriente C.A. Nallino, 2013).Google Scholar
Ould Ely, Sidi Amaret al., Handlist of Manuscripts in the Centre de Documentation et de Recherches Historiques Ahmad Baba, Timbuktu, Mali (London: al-Furqan Islamic Heritage Foundation, 1995–1998).Google Scholar
Ould Youbba, Muhammed, “The Ahmed Baba Institute of Higher Islamic Studies and Research,” in: Jeppie, Shamil and Diagne, Souleymane B. (eds.), The Meanings of Timbuktu (Cape Town: HSRC, 2008), 287–301.Google Scholar
Robinson, David, “Breaking New Ground in ʻPaganʼ and ʻMuslimʼ West Africa,” Canadian Journal of African Studies/La Revue canadienne des études africaines 24–2/3 (2008), 300–313.Google Scholar
Saad, Elias N., The Social History of Timbuktu (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983).Google Scholar
Stewart, Charles C., “Frontier Disputes and Problems of Legitimation: Sokoto–Masina Relations 1817–1837,” Journal of African History 15–4 (1976), 497–514.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wise, Christopher, and Hala Abu Taleb (trans.), Ta’rīkh al fattāsh: The Timbuktu Chronicles, 1493–1599 (Trenton NJ: Africa World Press, 2011).Google Scholar
Yunus, Baba Mohammed and ‘Ali ‘Abd al-Moḥsin Zakī, Catalogue of Manuscripts in Ghana Libraries (London: al-Furqan Islamic Heritage Foundation, 2000).Google Scholar