THE SPREAD OF ISLAM
THROUGH NORTH TO WEST AFRICA

a historical survey
with relevant Arab documents

by
Joseph Kenny, O.P.

DOMINICAN PUBLICATIONS
LAGOS
2000

CONTENTS

    Introduction (below)

  1. Christianity before Islam: a summary
  2. Islam meets Christianity in northeast Africa
  3. The conquest of the Maghrib
    A later embellished version by Ibn-`Idharī (c. 1300)
  4. Later history of the Maghrib
  5. Crusaders and preachers in North Africa
  6. Trans-Saharan communication: Early Arab crossings and impressions
  7. West African kingdoms, 8th to 10th centuries
  8. The Murābiṭ movement
  9. West African kingdoms, 11th to 13th centuries
  10. Empires and states, 13th to 16th centuries
  11. Mali in the Arab accounts
  12. The Songhay empire according to Tarīkh al-Fattāsh, Ta'rīkh as-Sūdān and Leo Africanus
  13. The Jihād states, 17th to 19th centuries
  14. 19th century Sokoto, Oyo, Borno
  15. Islam in colonial and independent times

    Bibliography

Maps:
         Northwest Africa—The Maghrib
         Northeast Africa
         West Africa—The Niger River
         Sokoto Caliphate


INTRODUCTION

The present and past West Africa cannot be understood without knowing the major role Islam has played in shaping events in the region.  Islam in one way or another affects the lives of all the people there, Muslims and non-Muslims alike.  To understand the present it is good to take a look at the past, how Islam came to West Africa, took root and spread before the dramatic changes introduced by colonial and independent national rule.

To reach West Africa, Islam had to come first to Egypt, then to the Maghrib, and then filter across the Sahara.  In Egypt and the Maghrib Islam met Christianity;  in West Africa it met Traditional Religion. Its confrontation and interaction with these two religions is a sub-theme of this book.

Since our chief source of information for the period surveyed is Arabic literature, we must not only summarize or refer to it, but present they key passages that give not only information but also the perspective of the writers. Certainly there are distortions, prejudices and exaggerations; these are most easily detected and corrected by presenting the very words of the writers.

We can appreciate the acumen and systematic approach of the Arab geographers with their division of the world by latitude into climes and by longitude into sections.  We can admire the first-hand accounts of travellers and the care of other writers to get accurate information from those who did travel. Nevertheless, considerable confusion emerges from the identification of the Nile with the Senegal and Niger rivers and from place names which are often garbled and vary from one writer to another.  The dating of events and assessment of the state of power, wealth, culture and Islam in an area also vary from one author to another.

There is considerable literature by recent writers who attempt to interpret and resolve the problems raised by the Arabic accounts.  They have solved many problems, but many points are still controverted.  I refer to this literature in the appropriate places.

Since the focus of this book is West Africa, the texts on North Africa and the Sahara are briefer.  Yet in the interest of studying the interaction of Islam with Christianity and African Traditional Religion, I carry the story of Islam in the Maghrib to the final extinction of indigenous Christianity.

Sources for Islam in West Africa

A fair number of Arab writers have left us descriptions of their travels or reports they heard concerning West Africa. Two major studies with translations of the most relevant passages are Joseph Cuoq, Recueil des sources arabes concernant lAfrique occidentale du VIIIe au XVIe siècle (Paris, 1975) and N. Levtzion and J.F.P. Hopkins, Corpus of early Arabic sources for West African history (London, 1981), which I refer to as LH. For the Arabic there is the edition of L.E. Kubbel and V.V. Matreev, Арабские Источники (2 vols., Moscow, 1960 & 65), referred to as KL. This edition is not complete; so for some writers I use other Arabic editions.

The full texts of most of these writers are available on Internet. The selections used in this volume I have posted at: www.josephkenny.joyeurs.com/CDtexts/NWAfr/NWindex.htm. These are:

  1. Al-Khawārizmī, Ṣūrat al-arḍ (d.c. 846), ed. Hans von Mik, Vienna 1926; LH 5-10.
  2. Ibn-cAbdalڵakam (d. 871), Futūḥ Miṣr wa-akhbār-hā, ed. Muḥammad al-Ḥajīrī (Cairo: 1996); C.C. Torrey, The history of the conquest of Egypt, North Africa and Spain (New Haven, 1922); KL 1:15-19; cf. LH 11-13; Cuoq 44-47.  He uses his oral sources which he cites as is done in Ḥadīth literature.
  3. Ibn-Qutayba (d. 889), Kitāb al-macārif, ed. Tharwat cOkāsah (Cairo: Dār al-Macārif, 1981); KL 1:21; cf. LH 14-15.  He quotes Wahb ibn-Munabbih (d. 728-732), but may have altered the material; LH 14-15.
  4. Ibn-Khurradādhbih (d. 911), Kitāb al-masālik wa-l-mamālik, ed. M.J. de Goeje, Leiden, 1889; LH 16-17.
  5. Al-Balādhurī (d.c. 892), Futūḥ al-buldān, ed. M.J. de Goeje, Liber expugnationis regionum, Leiden, 1863-6; LH 18.
  6. Al-Yacqūbī (d. 897), Tārīkh (Beirut: Dār ādir, 1992, 2 vols.); KM 1:38; cf. LH 19-21.
  7. Al-Yacqūbī, Kitāb al-buldān, ed. M.J. De Goeje (Leiden: Brill, 1892); KM 1:43-48; cf. LH 22; Cuoq 48-53.  No doubt based on oral sources, his is the most important information on West African kingdoms until al-Bakrī.
  8. Ad-Dīnawārī (d. 894-902), Al-akhbār a-tiwāl, ed. CAbdalmuncim cĀmir (Cairo, 1960); cf. LH 23. His information is legendary without named sources; LH 23.
  9. Ibn-aṣ-Ṣaghīr (c. 902), Dhikr ba`ḍ akhbār fī l-a'immat ar-Rustamiyyīn, ed. A. de C. Motylinski, Actes du XIVe Congrès International des Orientalistes, Alger 1905, Troisième Partie (suite), Paris, 1908; LH 24-25.
  10. Ibn-al-Faqīh, Mukhtaṣar kitāb al-buldān (completed 903). KM 1:49-68; cf. LH 26-28; Cuoq 53-54.  The book is an abridgement, by cAlī ash-Shayzarī in 1022, of a lost larger work.  It borrows from Ibn-Khurradādhbih (d. 911) and al-Yacqūbī, but contains an original description of the route from Ghana to Egypt.
  11. Al-Hamdānī (d. 945), Kitāb al-Jawharatayn al-catīqatayn al-māicatayn min as-safrā wa-l-bayā.  Christopher Toll, Die beiden Edelmetalle God und Silber. Einleitung, arabischer Text und bersetzung (Uppsala, 1968). LH 29; Cuoq 57-58.
    Al-Hamdānī, Kitāb sifa jazīra al-cArab, ed. D.H. Müller (Leiden: Brill, 1883, 2 vols.; Frankfurt am Main, 1993, vols. 88-89); Cuoq, 57-58.
  12. Al-Mascūdī (d. 956), Murūj adh-dhahab, ed. Barbier de Maynard & Pavet de Courteille (Beirut, 1966); KM 1:221-235; LH 30-2; Cuoq 59-62.  He uses the lost Kitāb az-Zīj, written around the end of the 8th century.
  13. Anonymous: Akhbār az-zamān, sometimes wrongly attributed to al-Mascūdī, written around the year 1000. KM 1:252-256; as-Sāwī (Beirut, 1966); cf. LH 33-37.  It uses earlier lost sources, notably one by Ibrāhīm ibn-Wasīf Shāh.
  14. Isḥāq b. al-Ḥusayn (c. 950), Kitāb āḥkām al-marjān fī dhikr al-madā'in al-mashhūra fī kull makān, ed. Codazzi, "Il Compendio geografico arabo" in Rendiconti della R. Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, series 6, vol. 5, Rome 1929, 374-464; LH 40-42.
  15. Al-Istakhrī (d. after 951), Kitāb masālik al-mamālik, ed. M. Jābir cAbalcāl al-Hīnī, (Cairo, 1961); KM 1:143-146; cf. LH 40-42; Cuoq 64-65.  His encyclopaedia has only passing references to West Africa with no indication of sources.
  16. Ibn-Ḥawkal, Ṣūrat al-arḍ (967-988), ed. J.H. Kramers (Leiden: Brill, 1939; Frankfurt am Main, 1992, v. 35); KM II:33-53; cf. LH 43-52; Cuoq 70-76.  He revised the work of al-Isatakhrī.  Any original information about West Africa comes from his stay in Sijilmāsa.
  17. Anonymous, Ḥudūd al-`ālam (written 982), Persian edited by V Barthold, tr. V. Minorsky. Gibb Memorial Series, 11, 1937. Cuoq 69-70.
  18. Ibn-an-Nadīm (written 987), Al-Firist, Kamal, II, f.3, p. 678. Cuoq 67.
  19. Al-Muqaddasī (writen c. 990), Aḥsan at-taqāsīm tī ma`rifat al-aqālīm, ed. M.J. de Goeje, Leien 1906; LH 53-54.
  20. Al-Qayrawānī (d. 996), Risāla. Joseph Kenny, The Risāla, treatise on Mālikī Law of cAbdallāh ibn-Abī-Zayd al-Qayrawānī (922-996), an annotated translation (Minna: Islamic Educational Trust, 1992); LH 55.
  21. Al-Bīrūnī (written c. 1030), Al-Qanūn al-mas`ūdī, 3 vols., Hyerabad 1954-6, vol 2; LH 56-57.
  22. Al-Bīrūnī (after 1061), Kitāb al-jamāhir fī ma`rifat al-jawāhir; LH 58-59.
  23. Al-Mālikī, Riyāḍ an-nufūs (just after 1061), ed. Bashīr al-Bakkūsh (Cairo: Dār al-cArab al-Islāmī, s1983/1982), 2 vols.  Living in Qayrawān, he wrote biographies of learned men up to the year 967; LH 60-61.
  24. Ṣā`d b. Aḥmad Ṣā`d (d. 1070), Kitāb aṭ-Ṭabaqāt, ed. Louis Cheikho, 1912. Cuoq 109-110.
  25. Al-Bakrī (d. 1094), Al-masālik wa-l-mamālik (written 1068), ed. A.P. van Leeuwen & A. Ferré (Tunis, 1992, 2 vols.); MacGuckin de Slane (Algiers, 1911); KM 1:149-168; cf. LH 62-87; Cuoq 80-109.  He stayed and wrote in Spain, using a lost work of Muḥammad ibn-Yūsuf al-Warrāq (904-973), but also gave contemporary information.  This work is by far the most detailed and accurate Arab description of West Africa.
  26. Ibāḍite extracts (LH 88-91):
    Abū-Zakariyyā' Yaḥyā b. Abī-Bakr al-Wājalānī (c. 1100), Kitāb as-sīra wa-ahbār al-a'imma, in T. Lewicki, Folia Orientalia, 2 (1960), 4.
    Abū-l-Rabī` Sulaymān b. `Abdassalām al-Wisyānī (written c. 1252), Kitāb as-siyar, in T. Lewicki, Folia Orientalia, 2 (1960), 10-11.
    Anonymous (last entry 1166), Siyar al-mashāyikh, in T. Lewicki, Folia Orientalia, 2 (1960), 18-21.
  27. Al-Marwazī (d. after 1120), Ṭabā'` al-ḥayawān, in V. Minorsky, Marvazi on China, the Turks and India, Cambridge 1942; LH 92.
  28. Az-Zuhrī, Kitāb al-jaghrafiyya (completed after 1154). ed. Muḥammad adj-Ṣādiq, Bulletin dEtudes Orientales, 21 (1968), 1-312; KM 2:212-224; cf. LH 93-100; Cuoq 126-165. He has some original material on the aftermath of the Murābiṭs and is the first to mention Ganāwa.
  29. Al-Qāḍī `Iyāḍ (d. 1149), Tartīb al-madārik wa-taqrīb al-masālik li-ma`rifat a`lām madhhab Mālik, ed. Aḥmad Bakīr Maḥmūd, 5 vols. Beirut 1967; LH 101-103.
  30. Al-Idrīsī, Nuzhat al-mushtāq fī ikhtirāq al-āfāq (known as Book of Roger), ed. F. Cerulli etc. (Naples, 1970-78, 8 fascicules); ed. R. Dozy & M.J. De Goeje (Leiden, 1866; KM 2:234-281; Frankfurt am Main, 1994, vol. 1,4,6); cf. LH 104-131; Cuoq 126-165. Completed after 1154, it uses al-Bakrī and has some original material on the aftermath of the Murābiṭs and on the Lake Chad area.
  31. Al-Gharnāṭī, (Abū-Ḥāmid, 1080-1169), al-Mughrib can bacd cajāib al-Maghrib, ed. C. Dubler, Abū Ḥāmid el Granadino y su relación de viáje por tierras euroasiáticas (Madrid, 1953); G. Ferrand, Journal Asiatique (1925), 1-148; esp. 41-46; cf. Cuoq 168-170.  He wrote around 1162; LH 133-134.
  32. Benjamin of Tudela (on period 1159-1167), מסעות, in The Itinerary of Rabbi Benjamin of Tudela, A. Asher, London, 1840; LH 135-136.
  33. Kitāb al-istibṣār (written c. 1135 with additions of a reviser in 1191). Sacd Zaghlūl cAbdalhāmid, (Alexandria, 1958; Frankfurt am Main, 1997); cf. LH 137-151; Cuoq 175-178.  He uses al-Bakrī and a letter of Yūsuf ibn-Tāshfīn to the king of Ghāna, with contemporary material on the aftermath of the Murābiṭs and on Kanem.  The reviser tells of the al-Muwḥḥids influence on Ghāna and Kawkaw.
  34. Ash-Sharīshī (d. 1222), Sharḥ al-maqāmāt al-ḥarīriyya, 2 vols., Cairo, 1888, vol. 1; LH 152-3; Cuoq 188.  He has brief recent information on Ghāna.
  35. Ibn-Ḥammād (written 1220, ref. to 2nd half of 9th c.), Akhbār mulūk Banī `Ubayd wa sīrat-hum, in M. Vonderheyden, Histoire des Rois `Obaidides, Algiers-Paris, 1927; LH 154.
  36. At-Tādilī (d. 1230-1), Kitāb at-tashawwuf ilā rijāl at-taṣawwu, ed. A. Faure, Rabat, 1958; LH 155-156.
  37. Ibn-al-Athī (covering 914-1230; not reliable when against Maghribi sources), Al-Kāmil fī t-tārīkh, ed. Tornberg, 14 vols., Leiden & Uppsala, 1851-76; LH 157-162.
  38. The Gao tombstones (1100-1264), J. Sauvaget, BIFAN 12 (1950), 418-440; M.M. Viré, BIFAN 20 (1958), 368-376; Cuoq 111-114; P.F. de Moraes Farias, BIFAN 36 (1974), 511-522.
  39. Ibn-Khallikān (written 1256-1274, using lost sources), Wafayāt al-a`yān wa-anbā' az-zamān, ed. Iḥsān `Abbās, vol. 7, Beirut, 1968; LH 163-166.
  40. Yāqūt (d. 1229, wrote c. 1220), Mucjam al-buldān, ed. F. Wüstenfeld (6 vols. Leipzig, 1866-73; Frankfurt am Main, 1994, vols. 210-220); cf. LH 167-175; Cuoq 182-187.  He uses Ibn-Ḥawkal, al-Bakrī and, without acknowledgement, Ibn-al-Faqīh and al-Idrīsī.  His most important information is from al-cAzīzī, a lost work of al-Muhallabī (d. 990).
  41. Al-Qazwīnī (1203-1283), cAjāib al-makhlūqāt wa-āthār al-bilād, ed. F. Wüstenfeld (Gttingen, 1849; LH 176-180; Frankfurt am Main, 1994, v. 197); cf. Cuoq 197-201. Written 1275, it plagiarizes from Yāqūt, but has original information from two travellers.
  42. Ibn-Sacīd (1214-1286/7), Basṭ al-arḍ fī ṭ-ṭūl wa-l-carḍ (written shortly after 1269), ed. Juan V. Gines (Tetuan: Instituto Muley El-Ḥasan, 1958); LH 181-194; Cuoq 201-219. He is dependent on al-Bakrī and al-Idrīsī, but has original information on Kanem.
  43. Ash-Shammākhī (d. 1522), Kitāb as-siyar, Cairo, 1883-4, copying from ad-Darjīnī's Ṭabaqāt, of the 13th c.. Cuoq 194-196.
  44. Abū-l-Fidā' (d. 1331), Taqwīm al-buldān, ed. J.T. Reinaud & Baron MacGuckin de Slane, Géografie d'Aboulféda, Paris, 1840; LH 195-203.
  45. Ad-Dimashqī (1256-1327), Nukhbat ad-dahr fī cajāib al-barr wa-l-baḥr, ed. A. Mehren (Leipzig, 1923; Frankfurt am Main, 1994, v. 203). LH 204-214; Cuoq 239-247.  This work is unoriginal and uncritical, using earlier writings often without acknowledgement.  Yet some of his material is of interest.
  46. At-Tijānī, Riḥlat at-Tijānī (completed after 1308), ed. Ḥasan cAbdalwahhāb (Tunis, 1958; Frankfurt am Main, 1994); LH 215; Cuoq 226.  He has brief original information on Kanem.
  47. Ibn-cIdhārī (c. 1300), Al-bayān al-mughrib fī ahbār mulūk al-Andalus wa-l-Maghrib.  The section used is edited by Ambrosio Huici Miranda, Un fragmento inédito de Ibn cIdhārī sobre los Almorávides, Hespéris Tamuda, 2 (1961), 43-111; cf. LH 216-232; Cuoq 219-224.  Written during the first two decades of the 14th century, it uses al-Bakrī and other unidentified sources; it is especially important for the rise of the Murābiṭs.
  48. Anonymous, Mafākhir al-Barbar (written 1312), ed. E. Lévi-Provençal, Rabat, 1934; LH 233.
  49. Ibn-abī-Zarc (d. 1315), Kitāb al-anīs al-muṭrib bi-rawḍ al-qirās fī akhbār mulūk al-maghrib wa-tārīkh madīnat Fās. LH 234-248; Cuoq 228-239.  This work is a summary by Ṣāliḥ ibn-cAbdalḥalīm (d. 1326); it depends on al-Bakrī, but also other unidentified sources, important especially for the history of the Murābiṭs.
  50. Al-Harrānī (written 1332), Kitāb jāmi` al-funūn wa-salwat al-maḥzūn. Cuoq 248-251.
  51. Ibn-ad-Dawādārī (written 1331-1335), Kanz ad-durar wa-jāmi` al-ghurar, pt. 9: Ad-Durr al-fākhir fī sīrat al-Malik an-Nāṣir, ed. H.R. Roemer, Cairo, 1960; LH 249-251.
  52. Anonymous, Ṣuwar al-aqālīm (written in Persian, c. 1347). Y. Kamal, t. IV, fasc. 2, p. 1256. Cuoq 252-254.
  53. Al-cUmarī (1301-1349), Masālik al-abār fī mamālik al-absār (Frankfurt am Main: Institute for the History of Arabic-Islamic Science, 1988, facsimile ed. of Istanbul ms., vol. 46/4 on Sūdān); LH 252-256.
  54. Al-cUmarī (1301-1349), Masālik al-abār fī mamālik al-absār, section: Mamlakat Mālī `ind al-jughraāfiyyīn al-muslimīn, ed. Salāhaddīn al-Munajjid, Mamlakat Mālī cind al-jughrāfiyyīn al-muslimīn, Beirut, 1963, pp. 43-70; & MS 5868 Bibliothèque Nationale 25b ff.); LH 276-278.
  55. Ibn-Baṭṭūṭa (1304-1377), Tuḥfat an-nuzzār fī gharāib a-amsār wa-cajāib a-asfār = Riḥla, ed. C. Defrémery et B.R. Sanguinetti (Paris: LImprimerie Nationale, 1877; Beirut, 1960; Frankfurt am Main: Institute for the History of Arabic-Islamic Science, Islamic Geography, vols.174-177; vol. 4/177, pp. 399 ff.). Cf. LH 281: 682-699.
  56. Ibn-Kathīr (written 1350), Al-Bidāya wa-n-nihāya fī t-ta'rīkh, vol. 14, Cairo, 1932-39; LH 305-308.
  57. Ibn-al-Khaṭīb (d. 1375, quoting al-Maqqarī of 1356), Al-Iḥāṭa fī ta'rīkh Gharnāṭa, ed. M. `Abadallāh `Inān, vol. 11, Cairo, 1974; LH 306-308.
  58. Badraddīn al-Ḥalabā (written before 1376), Durrat al-aslāk fī dawlat al-atrāk. Paris ms. 1719, fol 171r. Cuoq 327-328.
  59. Ibn-Sammāk, Al-Ḥlal al mawshiyya fī dhikr al-akhbār al-Marrākushiyya (entries stop in 1381). Tunis, 1329 h. Cuoq 364-368.
  60. Anonymous, Al-Ḥulal al-Mawshiyya (written 1381), ed. I.S. Allouche, Rabat, 1936; LH 309-316.
  61. Ibn-Khaldūn (1332-1406), Kitāb al-cibar wa-dīwān al-mubtada wa-l-khabar fī ayyām al-carab wa-l-cajam wa-l-barbar, Introduction, called Al-Muqaddima, ed. M. Quatremère, 3 vols., Paris 1858-68, vol. 1; LH 317-322.
  62. Ibn-Khaldūn (1332-1406), Kitāb al-cibar wa-dīwān al-mubtada wa-l-khabar fī ayyām al-carab wa-l-cajam wa-l-barbar.  Beirut: Dār al-Kitāb al-Lubnānī, 1968, 7 vols. LH 322-342; Cuoq 322-363.  He is good on Mali, but depends on Ibn-abī-Zarc for pre-Murābiṭ history.
  63. Al-Qalqashandī (Abū-l-cAbbās Aḥmad ibn-cAlī, d.1418), Ṣubḥ al-ashcā fī sanāca al-inshā (Cairo, 1985, 14 vols.); LH 343-349.
  64. Al-Maqrīzī (d. 1444), At-tibr al-masbūk fī man ḥajj min al-mulūk; LH 350-352.
  65. Al-Maqrīzī, Kitāb al-mawāiẓ wa-l-i`tibār al-khiṭāṭ wa-l-āthār, vol. 2, Cairo, 1853, & Hamaker, Specimen catalogi codicum MSS orientalium, Leiden, 1820, p. 205; LH 352-355.
  66. Al-Maqrīzī, Kitāb as-sulūk fī ma`rifat duwal al-mulūk, vol. 2, ed. Muḥammad Muṣṭafā Ziyāda, Cairo, 1934; vol. 4, ed. Sa`ī `Abdalfattāḥ `Ashūr, Cairo 1972; LH 355-356.
  67. Ibn-Ḥajar al-`Asqalānī (d. 1372, using lost work of Ibn-Rāfi` —d. 1372, and other sources), Ad-Durar al-kāmina fī a`yān al-mi'a ath-thāmina, 6 vols., Haydarabad, 1972-6; LH 357-358.
  68. Ibn-Taghrī Birdī (d. 1470), An-Nujūm az-zāhira fī mulūk Miṣr wa-l-Qāhira, ed. W. Popper, Berkeley, 1929; LH 359-360.
  69. Ibn-Taghrī Birdī Ḥawādith ad-duhūr fī madā l-ayyām wa-sh-shukūr, ed. W. Popper, Berkely, 2930-42. This is an expanded version of the former; LH 360-361.
  70. As-Sakkāwī (d. 1497), Aḍ-Ḍaw' al-lāmi` li-ahl al-qarn at-tāsi`, Cairo, 1934-6; LH 362-363.
  71. Ibn-Iyās (d. 1524), Badā'i` az-zuhūr fī waqā;i` ad-duhūr, vol. 3, ed. P. Kahle & M. Mostafa, Istanbul, 1936; vol. 4, ed. M. Mostafa, Cairo, 1960; LH 364-365.
  72. Ibn-Mājid (finished 1490), Kitāb al-fawā'id fī uṣl `ilm al-baḥr wa-l-qawā'id, ed. Ibrāhīm Khūrī, Damascus, 1971; LH 366-367.
  73. Al-Maghīlī (written c. 1500), Ilā Askiyā, ed. & tr. John Hunwick, Sharī1a in Songhay: The replies of al-Maghīlī to the questions of Askiya al-Ḥājj Muḥammad, OUP, 1985.
  74. Leo Africanus, the Christian name of al-Ḥasan ibn-Muḥammad al-Wazzān az-Zayyātī (c. 1490-1550), written in Italian, French tr. from 1550 ed. & ms. by A. Epaulard, Description de lAfrique (Paris: Adrien-Maisonneuve, 1956, 2 vols.). Dietrich Rauchenberger, Johannes Leo der Afrikaner, Seine Beschreibung des Raumes zwischen Nil und Niger nach dem Urtext. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1999.
  75. Ash-Shammākhī (d. 1522), Kitāb as-siyar, Cairo, 1883-4; LH 368-369.
  76. Al-Maqqarī, Aḥmad ibn-Muḥammad (d. 1632, reporting as-Sarakhsī, 1176-1255) Nafḥ aṭ-ṭīb, ed. Iḥsān cAbbās (Beirut: Dār aṣ-Ṣādir, 1968, vols.), material from around 1203; LH 370-372.
  77. Aḥmad Bābā (1554-1627), Nayl al-ibjihāj bi-taṭrīz ad-dībāj, Cairo, 1932-3.
  78. cAbdarraḥmān ibn-cAbdallāh as-Sacdī, Tarīkh as-Sūdān (written after 1655), ed. O. Houdas (Paris: Adrien-Maisonneuve, 1964, reprint of 1913-14); cf. Levtzion, op. cit. and Charles Monteil, Notes sur le Tarikh es-Soudan, B.I.F.A.N. 27 (1965), 479-530.
  79. Ibn-al-Mukhtār, Tarīkh al-Fattāsh, (written after 1664), ed. O. Houdas (Paris: Adrien-Maisonneuve, 1964); cf. N. Levtzion, A seventeenth-century chronicle by Ibn-al-Mukhtār, a critical study of Tarīkh al-Fattāsh, B.S.O.A.S. 34 (1971), 571-593.
  80. Anonymous, Tadhkirat an-nisyān (finished 1751), Paris: Adrien-Maisonneuve, 1966.
  81. Muḥammad Bello (1781-1837), Infār al-maysūr (written 1812), Cairo 1964.
  82. Al-Ḥājj Sa`īd, Ta'rīkh Sokoto (written early 1860s - acc. to Last), included in O. Houdas' edition of Tadhkirat an-nisyān.

I do not reproduce every passage, since some later writings are merely copying from earlier ones. Also I omit stories and details which are not so important. The translations are my own, although relying much on the interpretations of LH and Cuoq.