Sultan, Caliph, and the Renewer of the Faith

Aḥmad Lobbo, the Tārīkh al-fattāsh and the Making of an Islamic State in West Africa

AvMauro Nobili

Häftad, Engelska, 2022

Del 148 i serien African Studies

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Beskrivning

The Tārīkh al-fattāsh is one of the most important and celebrated sources for the history of pre-colonial West Africa, yet it has confounded scholars for decades with its inconsistences and questions surrounding its authorship. In this study, Mauro Nobili examines and challenges existing theories on the chronicle, arguing that much of what we have presumed about the work is deeply flawed. Making extensive use of previously unpublished Arabic sources, Nobili demonstrates that the Tārīkh al-fattāsh was in fact written in the nineteenth century by a Fulani scholar, Nūḥ b. al-Ṭāhir, who modified pre-existing historiographical material as a political project in legitimation of the West African Islamic state known as the Caliphate of Ḥamdallāhi and its founding leader Aḥmad Lobbo. Contextualizing its production within the broader development of the religious and political landscape of West Africa, this study represents a significant moment in the study of West African history and of the evolution of Arabic historical literature in Timbuktu and its surrounding regions.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum:2022-06-16
Mått:152 x 228 x 16 mm
Vikt:434 g
Format:Häftad
Språk:Engelska
Serie:African Studies
Antal sidor:290
Förlag:Cambridge University Press
ISBN:9781108789820

Utforska kategorier

Afrikas historia inom Historia och arkeologi

Mer om författaren

Mauro Nobili is Assistant Professor at the Department of History and the Center for African Studies at the University of Illinois. A historian of pre-colonial and early-colonial West Africa, he has published on West African chronicles and Arabic calligraphies including in the journal History of Africa. He has been the recipient of several prestigious awards, including a National Endowment for Humanities grant.

Recensioner i media

'A 'whodunit' par excellence! Nobili's engagement with the Tarikh al-Fattash and the Caliphate of Hamdullahi unravels their complicated, intertwined historiography. He reshapes our understanding of the whole Middle Niger region in the early-to-mid- 19th century and convincingly argues for a re-articulated meaning of authority and power as contested at the time. This book is seminal to the field.' E. Ann McDougall, University of Alberta, Canada

Innehållsförteckning

Introduction; Part I. A Nineteenth Century Chronicle in Support of the Caliphate of Hamdallāhi: Nūḥ B. Al-Ṭāhir's Tārīkh al-fattāsh: 1. A century of scholarship; 2. The Tārīkh al-fattāsh: a nineteenth-century chronicle; Part II. A Contested Space of Compating Claims: the Middle Niger, 1810s–1840s; 3. The emergence of clerical rule in the Middle Niger; 4. Aḥmad Lobbo, Timbuktu, and the Kunta; 5. Fluctuating diplomacy: Ḥamdallāhi and Sokoto; Part III. The Circulation and Reception of the Tārīkh al-fattāsh, 1840s–2010s: 6. The Tārīkh al-fattāsh at work; Conclusion.