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Frontier Disputes and Problems of Legitimation: Sokoto–Masina Relations 1817–1837*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

C. C. Stewart
C. C. Stewart
Affiliation:
Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
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Extract

The nature of relations between the neighbouring West African caliphates of Sokoto and Hamdullahi in the early nineteenth century has been the subject of speculation by students of the western and central Sudan from the time of Barth's visit to the area in the mid-nineteenth century. Now, working from several new manuscript finds and the evidence built up by scholars who have studied the two caliphates in detail, a tentative reconstruction of relations between the states in the crucial period 1817–37 is possible. What emerges is evidence of an intricate balance between the two caliphates and their mutually acknowledged spiritual advisers from the Kunta confederation in the Azaouad in which economic and strategic priorities as well as internal politics and theological matters all seem to play a role in determining the nature of relations between Hamdullahi and Sokoto.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 17 , Issue 4 , October 1976 , pp. 497 - 514
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1976

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References

1 The Mauritanian MSS. come from the personal collection of Cheikh Haroun ould Sidiya, Registrar of the Institut des Hautes Etudes Islamiques, Boutilimit, R.I.M. I am indebted to Cheikh Haroun for permitting me to photograph a copy of the letter, ‘Sidi Muhammad to Husain [Koita]’ and for allowing me to read a draft of his Tarikh Shaikh Sidiyya from which the extract of the second letter in this series is quoted below.

The ‘Abu Bakr Atiku’ MS. is discussed at length in an appendix of the Sokoto Seminar paper noted above, ‘Diplomatic Relations in Early Nineteenth Century West Africa: Sokoto—Masina—Azaouad Correspondence.’ This appendix and the working translation of the manuscript was prepared with the assistance of Mallam A. M. Kani of the Northern History Research Scheme, Zaria. I am indebted to Professor Abdullahi Smith for drawing my attention to a copy of the IFAN version of this MS. (Fonds Brevié', MS. 7, IFAN, Dakar) in Waziri Junaidu's library in Sokoto and to the Waziri for allowing me to use his copy. Professor al-Hajj kindly drew my attention to the second copy of this work, also originally from Waziri Junaidu's library, which is lodged in the Northern History Research Scheme (N.H.R.S.), Zaria (Abu Bakr b. 'Uthman, Ajwibat 'an kitab Ahmad b. Muhammad (Lobbo) MS. 23f/24a).

2 Last, D. M., The Sokoto Caliphate (Longman, 1967)Google Scholar; Balogun, S. A., ‘Gwandu Emirates in the nineteenth century: 1817–1903’, Ph.D. Thesis, Ibadan, 1970Google Scholar; Brown, W. A., ‘The Caliphate of Hamdullahi, c. 1818–1864’, Ph.D. Thesis, Wisconsin, 1969.Google Scholar

3 An approximate chronology of extant items and items mentioned in extant manuscripts is forthcoming by Kani, Mallam A. M. and Stewart, C. C., ‘Sokoto-Masina Diplomatic Correspondence’, Research Bulletin of the Centre of Arabic Documentation, University of Ibadan. Vol. ii (12 1975).Google Scholar

4 For recent studies, see Smith, R., ‘Peace and Palaver: International Relations in Pre-Coioniai Africa’, J. Afr. Hist., xiv, 4 (1973)Google Scholar, and the essays by Boahen, A., ‘Fante diplomacy in the eighteenth century’Google Scholar, and Hodgkin, T. L., ‘Diplomacy and diplomats in the Western Sudan’, in Ingham, K. (ed.), Foreign Relations of African States (London, 1974).Google Scholar

5 Brown, , ‘Hamdullahi’, 20Google Scholar, from Ajwibat ila Alfa Ahmad b. Muhammad Lobbo, Boul Araf library, Timbuctu, internally dated as 1231 H.

6 Ba, A. H. and Daget, J., L'Empire Peul du Macina (Paris, 1962), 62.Google Scholar

7 Brown, , ‘Hamdullahi’, 21.Google Scholar

8 See below pp. 505–6.

9 Brown, , ‘Hamdullahi’, 66Google Scholar; Alfa Ahmad Alfaka, before joining Shaikh Ahmad, seems to have considered launching a jihãd in the Farimake, in the interior delta of the Niger (see map).

10 Smith, H. F. C., ‘A Neglected Theme of West African History,’ J. Hist. Soc. Nigeria, ii, 2 (1961), 179.Google Scholar

11 Genevière, J., ‘Les Kountas et leurs activités commerciales’, Bull. I.F.A.N., xii (1950), 1111–27.Google Scholar

12 For a brief discussion of the Kunta confederation see Stewart, C. C. with Stewart, E. K., Islam and Social Order in Mauritania (Oxford, 1973), 34–53.Google Scholar

13 Barth, H., Travels and Discoveries in North and Central Africa (Centenary Edition, London, 1965), III, 249.Google Scholar

14 Barth, ibid., 201, describes Doré as ‘a great place of resort for the Arabs of A'zawad … who bring to this market the salt of Taodenni in great quantities, and occasionally even reside here for a long time…’. Barth travelled this route on his outward journey to Timbuctu, and he described the Liptako–Timbuctu ‘currency zone’ (of Mossi cotton strips) and portrayed Liptako as the ‘south-eastern limit of the range of the commerce of Timbuctu’ (ibid., 197 and 198).

15 Bello, Muhammad, Jawab 'l-Sayyid Ahmad Lobbo, N.H.R.S. MS. 14a, fo. 7.Google Scholar

16 Brown, , ‘Hamdullahi’, 21–2Google Scholar. With reference to the last sentence, see below, where Shaikh Ahmad does argue the point that Sokoto had been unable to supply a deputy (na'ib) since Shaikh ‘Uthman's death; also relevant to Brown's speculation is the fact that, according to Balogun, , ‘Abdullahi did continue to issue ensigns after Shaikh ‘Uthman's death (‘Gwandu Emirates’, 117).Google Scholar

17 Barth, , Travels, iii, 183.Google Scholar

18 Fonds Brevié, MS. 7, fo. 12.

19 Ibid. fo. 12.

20 Ibid. The last sentence is somewhat garbled but the sense of it is as stated here.

21 Ibid.

22 Ibid. fo. 10.

23 Ibid.

24 Ibid. fo. 9.

25 Brown, W., ‘Toward a Chronology for the Caliphate of Hamdullahi (Masina)’, Cahiers d'éudes africaines, viii, 31 (1968), 432.Google Scholar

26 Brown, , ‘Hamdullahi’, 66.Google Scholar

27 Boutilimit MS.: Sidi Muhammad to al-Husain. I am indebted to Dr I. U. A. Musa for his corrections of my translation of this text.

28 Fonds Brevié, MS. 7, fo. 10; the issue here is a familiar one to students of Shaikh ‘Uthman's movement—it is better to wage jihãd against unbelievers (kafirs) than against dissenters/backsliders (khawarij), but the problem remains of distinguishing between the two groups. See al-Hajj, M. A. and Last, D. M., ‘Attempts at defining a Muslim in 19th century Hausaland and Bornu’, J. Hist. Soc. Nigeria, iii, 2 (1965), 231–40.Google Scholar

29 Balogun, , ‘Gwandu Emirates’, 357 ff.Google Scholar

30 Fonds Brevié, MS. 7, fo. 9.

31 Interview with Waziri Junaidu, 9 Apr. 1974, Sokoto.

32 Jawab 'l-Sayyid Ahmad Lobbo, fo. 7.

33 See Hunwick, J. O., ‘Ahmad Baba and the Moroccan invasion of the Sudan (1591)’, J. Hist. Soc. Nigeria, 11, 3 (1962), ‘Appendix A’, pp. 327–8Google Scholar, for a discussion of these claims.

34 Brown, , ‘Towards a Chronology’, 432.Google Scholar

35 Ibid.; Barth, , Travels, iii, 182Google Scholar. Balogun, on the basis of Kunari kinglists, doubts Barth's estimation that Galajio's emirate was founded at this time, and he prefers the early 1830s. Barth and the Tarikh Fittuga have been accepted here as reliable.

36 Ba, and Daget, , L'Empire Peul du Marina, 127 and 168Google Scholar; see also Brown, , ‘Hamdullahi’, 138Google Scholar, based on Tarikh Lam Dioulbe, Hayyat Ahmad b. Shaikh and Menvielle, , ‘Notice sur les Etats d'Aguibou’ (cited on p. 218, n. 37)Google Scholar. The village of Belehede today stands about 27 km WSW. of Arbinda: see Carte de l'Afrique de l'Ouest, 1: 200,000, feuille ND–30 xvii.

37 Paul Irwin writes, ‘One current tradition puts the western end point of the amirate of Liptako's control, as well as the Caliph's, at a tree, now fallen, located just west of the little village of Banbofa’ (personal communication). See Irwin, P., ‘An Emirate of the Niger Bend: A Political History of Liptako’, Ph.D. Thesis, Wisconsin, 1973Google Scholar. The precision with which tradition demarcates a border is, I think, significant.

38 When Galajio fled Masina he evidently carried with him some property (slaves) which Shaikh Ahmad had reason to claim as belonging to the state treasury (Beit al-Mal). One of the major issues treated in the Abu Bakr Atiku MS. is the legality of Shaikh Ahmad's claims and the legality of Gwandu's disposition of that property (Fonds Brevié, MS. 7, fo. 13–14, in which the property of ‘Galu Ibn Hamma’ is discussed).

39 Boutilimit MS., from Haroun ould Cheikh, Tarikh Shaikh Sidiyya, quoting a letter from Sidi Muhammad to Ahmad Lebbo. Flegel's entry of ‘Sena’ on the right bank of the Benue, opposite Yola, is not an entirely satisfactory identification of ‘Sunar’. See map, p. 501.

40 Barth, , Travels, iii, 178, 484.Google Scholar

41 Last, , Sokoto Caliphate, 47Google Scholar. It has been noted above that the significance of bay'a deserves careful study in the diplomatic interchanges of West Africa in the nineteenth century. Last, ibid., 36, paraphrasing the Infaq al-Maisur of Muhammad Bello (Whitting ed., 104–5), describes Shaikh ‘Uthman's concept of bay'a as rooted in the Qur'an and sunna and intended as ‘an oath that they [the leaders of the Community] would not be corrupted or changed by power’. Bay'a paid to the Shaikh by the Sultan of Ahir, Muhammad al-Baqiri, the Masina bay'a issue and the customary bay'a paid by new amirs to Sokoto points up the political significance which the word also carried, as elsewhere in the Islamic world.

42 D'Ghies, in Missions to the Niger, 1, Letters of Alexander Gordon Laing, ed. Bovill, E. W., (Cambridge, 1964) 309, 311.Google Scholar

43 Ibid. 310–1, where evidence of Laing's difficulties in Timbuctu is reviewed and translations of letters reputed to be from Shaikh Ahmad to his governor in Timbuctu and from Sidi al-Mukhtar al-Kunti to the Pasha of Tripoli are given. Sidi Hassuna D'Ghies, who presented the evidence, seems to have been a curious figure whose plausibility with respect to this account is that he was intimately familiar with western Sudanese politics. These items are noted by Bovill as P.R.O., F.O. 76/33, D'Ghies, Sidi Hassun, 112 and 113.Google Scholar

44 Ibid. 311; in the same note it is claimed that Muhammad Bello was acting on orders received from Egypt. This may be the message which so excited Clapperton on his second journey and which Bello attributed to ‘Hadj Mohammed Bootabli’ on approval of al-Kanemi: Clapperton, H., Journal of a Second Expedition (London, 1829), 199.Google Scholar

45 Lander, R., Records of Captain Clapperton's Last Expedition to Africa (London, 1830), 5, 22–3.Google Scholar

46 Ibid. 23.

47 Fonds Brevié MS. 7, fo. 9. By ‘agreement oikalima’ Khalil is referring to the importance of harmony between Muslims or unity in their mutual affairs. This gloss on the phrase is intended to assure Shaikh Ahmad that inasmuch as the bay'a issue is bound to cause discord in the event of being brought up again, the unity (kalima) of the Community necessitates that it not become an issue again. The phase ‘the previous two shaikhs’ may possibly refer to Shaikh ‘Uthman and 'Abdullahi, but the following folio continues the Arabic dual form with reference to ‘shaikhs’ and identifies them as the Kunta figure and ‘Abdullahi; it is on these contextual grounds that the identification has been made in the text above.

48 Brown, , ‘Toward a chronology’, 432.Google Scholar

49 Ibid.

50 Barth, , Travels, III, 534.Google Scholar

51 The Abu Bakr Atiku MS. seems to have been written about the year 1837/8 (see Kani, A. M. and Stewart, C. C., RBCAD)Google Scholar and in it the author is clearly continuing the debate over defining unbelief that was initiated soon after Muhammad Bello succeeded to his father's position.

52 See Queller, D., The Office of Ambassador in the Middle Ages (Princeton, 1967).Google Scholar

53 The text of this letter, Sultan Mulay ‘Abd al-Rahman to Shaikh 'Uthman, appears in Bello, Muhammad, Infaq al-Maisur (ed. Whitting, , Luzac, 1957, 180–1Google Scholar, and Cairo, , 1964, 264–5Google Scholar.) I am indebted to Dr B. G. Martin for pointing out the Infaq al-Maisur text for a separate manuscript version of this letter which was recovered in Mauritania. The relevant section of this letter reads:

[News] has reached us concerning praise of you and information about your inspirations and your merits and your strength, such that our affection is bestowed upon you and our approval [is also given] to you. This [comes] from the lips of the Sultan of your domain and the Commander of the Islamic troops in your region …

54 Martin, A.-G. P., Quatre Slècles d'histoire Marocaine (Paris, 1923), 122.Google Scholar

55 See Ahmad al-Bakka'i's letter to Shaikh Ahmad's successor (c. 1850) in which he argues there is no reason to detain Barth inasmuch as Muslims are not at war with Christians (with one exception):

… all the tribes of the Christians nowadays are in the convenant and peace, save al-Mūsku [the Russians] whom we have been told in this year have waged war against the Sultan ‘Abd al-Majid. Anyhow, you are not the Imam of the Muslims …. the Imam of the Muslims today is His Excellency ‘Abd al-Rahman or the Sultan ‘Abd al-Majid because His Excellency ‘Abd al-Rahman is religiously the sanctioned leader and the Sultan ‘Abd al-Majid has the greatest and the most extensive domain, whereas you are an Amir from Hamdullahi to Timbuctu, five days’ journey at most, at the extreme end of the Sudan in the West.

tr. by Zebadia, Abdelkader, ‘The Career and Correspondence of Ahmad al-Bakkay of Timbuctu: from 1847 to 1866’, Ph.D. Thesis, London, 1974, 196.Google Scholar