NOTES ARABIC COLLECTION Arabic Materials for Ghanaian History 74. At the moment, the collection of Arabic manuscripts in the Library at the Institute of African Studies, Legon, contains about 450 manuscripts. More manuscripts are being collected all the time by our excellent and indefatigable collector, Al-Hajj 'Urhman Ishaqci Boyo. A catalogue of this important collection is being prepared. Most of the material has now been roughly catalogued and classified and is available in a card f i l e. Many of the items which are included in the collection, either In the absence of other written records, these manuscripts as actual manuscripts or Xerox copies, are of considerable historical value. As one might expect, most of the manuscripts collected are from Northern and Central Ghana, although there is material from Ashanti and other places. assume a special importance for the historian and sociologist. To give some indication of what this material is like, I thought it might be useful to translate a few specimens of i t. Having no knowledge of place-names in Northern Ashanti and elsewhere in Northern Ghana, Mr. Stephen Andoh and Dr. Jack Goody have very kindly assisted me in this problem, and I am grateful to them for their many suggestions as to the right readings. MANUSCRIPT AR 148 This is a single sheet, having an account of the Mande on one side and of the kings of Ashanti on the other. The section on Ashanti reads as follows:- "The names of the kings of Ashanti (Assanti) which are preserved by the shaykhs who maintain the traditions of past events (hafjzm) • The first of them was Osei Tutu (Antu). He was the one who fought with Ntim Gyakari, king of the laiTcTof Denkyira (Danghira). Then he fought with the enemy twenty times after that, according to what /"people 7 75. NOTES Then ruled Opoku Ware (Fuku Wari) who waged war one It was he who killed hundred and forty times against the enemy. Ameyaw (Hamiyawu) of Takyiman (Takima). Then came Obodum (Budum) who killed his father after he had ruled for three days. His life was short after that. Then ruled Osei Yaw who fought his enemies twenty times. Then Osei Kojo (Kudhu). It was he who fought Ankara Fasu(?) and campaigned twenty times against the enemy. Then Bonsu (Bansu): he fought against the land of Bontuku (Ghotogho) and the land of Kong (Kun) and killed the Sultan of Bontuku, who was called Adinkrah (Dinghara). He fought against the enemy twenty- two times. In all of that the people of Ashanti were never defeated once. After him ruled Kwaku Dua (Kiwaku Duwa), and after him Karikari, who^ook the field against the people of Kumbi, (Kpembe) and the Ewe (Aybi = Ayigbe) country, that is, Yoruba (Yuruba), and Towtaw (?). Then came his sister, Akyaa (Yaki . . . ), and she cheated (?? - reading ghalatat for ghalatat) the land of Ashanti twenty-two times. After her ruled hempen (Firinfi) the Great, who was captured by those Christians". There is no indication of the name of the author or the date of composition of this manuscript, but as it mentions Prempeh, it could not have been written much after his deportation in 1896. MANUSCRIPT AR 410 This is an extract from a printed book, Al-Kanz al-muffd lil-muna1 ol-sadiq, written by Abu'l Fav/z al-jHajj_Ahmad Baba al-Wa'iz, and printed by the firm of Mustafa a I-Bab i al-Halabi and Sons, Cairo, 1379/1950. The author is a prominent TijanT leader in Kumasi. NOTES 76. Arjmad Baba quotes a statement in his book by the famous Ghanaian poet, Al-Hajj 'Umar of Kete Krachi, which is of interest for the history of Hausa settlement in Kumasi and Ashanti territory (pp. 84-86): *.., Our shoykh, Al-Hajj 'Umar b. AbT Bakr B. 'Uthman al-KabbawT- may God be pleased with him '. - says . .. 'What I know about the affairs of Ashanti is insignificant, but what I do know to be true is that not a single zongo (a special quarter for Hausas within a town) was known in that region, or in all of Ashanti territory until after the conquest of Kumasi in the days of Karikari, the Sultan of Ashanti. Before that time, the territory of Ashanti was closed— no Hausa man entered it, and no other person, unless he were a slave when they (Ashantis) purchased him. Their market was the village of Salagha, and they brought many things to it from J.u.z. ghuru (??). The people of Hausa, Moshi, Dagomba, Borgu, Nupe, and Wangara went there with whatever goods they had. At Salagha they joined the people of Ashanti; they bought and sold and then returned to their /"own /'districts. They carried on in this way until the war took place between Karikari and the Christians (1874). He sent to Salagha / 8 5/ for a learned man from among the Hausa, fO help himyvith prayer. Ma I lam Bina^al-HawsawT went to him, and remained, aiding him with prayer. He died there, and he was the first Hausa to enter Kumasi any time. Then, when the Christians had conquered the territory of Kumasi in the days of Karikari, the/"Hausa 7 people began to establish a zongo in Ashanti territory. But at~Kumasi itself, they did not build a zongo until about the time when Prempeh was taken. The Hausas came about that time with the Christian troops who captured Prempeh, and after his capture, the Hausas remained there, and built a small zongo . At that time their headman was Mai lam Ibrahima, known as Mallam Ghardr. He was the first to establish a zongo in Kumasi. 77. NOTES It grew little by little; Mai lam Ghardi was made amir it lasted /until the Yaa Asantewa disturbances (1901), when the / Ashantis caused the Hausas to be besieged by a group of Christians, and the fright and hunger of the Hausas became intensified. So it was, until the second Christian conauest of Kumasi. The Hausas were saved from that difficult situation and they found a place for a zongo. ( i . e. sarkin zongo), and he was the first amfr of the zongo there. Then, when the number of people in the zongo grew, Mai lam Ghardi was deposed. I do not know the reason for this. Then Mai Ghida was made amir. He was a great trader (read tajir for zajjar) ; in the course of his activities he ran up many debts with cattle traders, because he had wasted/ their/- money by squandering it. His creditors brought suit against Tiim before the colonial administration (hukumat Inghlfsh). He was jailed, then deposed and expelled. He was succeeded by Mai lam 'Uthman Kashinawi as amir. In his days the prestige of the sarkinate of the Kumasi zongo was enhanced. Buying and selling increased. Traders came from every side to the Kumasi zongo, and at that time the /"Viausa /people derived a lot of money from it. /"Matters continued / m this way until he ('Uthman) died. Then Mallam"Salaw was made arm r. He was from Katsina /"also / a nd his/"first /name was rjusayn. He achieved /"good results/in~the Kumasi zongo in his days; the thieves fled from Tear of Salaw"- prior to that a lot of Moshi people had been stealing the property of the people. Today, he is alive and in control of the zongo. - As for the first/86/ zongo established in Ashanti territory, it was at Kintampo, then at AteEuEu, then at Yefri (Yeji ?), then at Kamandu* (Akumadan ?), then at Kumayi )Akuma near Nkwaben ?), then Subinso (Subusu ), then Ejura, then Mampong, then Anshat (?), and then Nkoranza (Kuransa), and the establishment of zongos has continued until our own time. All of that took place after the penetration of the Christians into Ashanti territory. That is a short resume* (khulasa) of what I know about that matter. There is no doubt, uncertainty, or conjecture in it. What is short is sufficient and is better than what is long and amusing..." NOTES 78. Apparently, Al-Hajj 'Umar was personally acquainted with Mai lam Salaw, as he wrote a poem in praise of htm, a qasfda ending ending in ra, which begins "Bushra man afaka bashir'1:——— The col lection~includes several copies of this qasida AR 16 (xii), AR 127, AR 239, AR 168. ~* In the preface of a short treatise on letter writing (one of the few representatives of the literary genre of insha ' from the Western Sudan), composed by al-Hajj 'Umar in 1877, (of which the Institute possesses a copy dated Safar 1306 October 1888) the author says that his family came originally from Kabba in Northern Nigeria, but that he was born in Kano (about 1850 ? ) and grew up there, emigrating to. Ghana perhaps in the early 80's of the last century. He died in Kete Krachi on 17 Rab7 I 1353/30 June 1934. His epistolographic treatise is entitled ShaHjat al-wanqa fi 'ilm al-wathlqa, and the Institute's best copy is AR 313 (1306); others are AR 378 and 381. Best known for his poetry, Al-Ha} j 'Umar wrote on a wide variety of subjects, ranging from influenza ("Tunkuyawa "; AR 23, 131, 305), to satirical poetry, religious and praise poems, and other which register his protest against the European conquest of West Africa and the misdeeds of the colonial conquerors, or criticism of the disarray of local rulers and their incessant quarrels. Some of the more important of his poems from the Institute's collection are as follows:- AR 27: Tanbfh al-ikhwan ffdhtkr ol-ahzan, a long poem in rajaz metre (10 folia, about 150 lines) describing the col lapse of religion and morals in Salagha and the misdeeds of its rulers, with a long and detailed description of the Salagha civil war with dates for some of! the important events in the war. Written about 1891, this is a very important, if orthodox religious view of the events leading ug to the civil war, the battle of Kumbi (Kpembe), etc. Hera is al-rjajj 'Umar's description of the raiding, by the Sultans of Kpembe, of the market at Salagha: p I « • - .* 79. NOTES In their town there was much snatching, of salt, meat, alum and cowries From the market place, and clothing, too; You saw them on horseback, racing to. the Market for oppressive purposes. They feared none of the townspeople. In their eyes they were mere slaves; They devoured what they had, by oppression. Stole their cattle and goats, Grabbed the grease from the hands of slavegirls, And stared at them with scorn, They disregarded the warning of God, For they were dubious folk. They drank wine and danced, exchanging conversation Which exceeded all bounds. They treated the people Like dogs, forgetting God's punishment. Didn't they do precisely what they wanted In their town ? They were e v i l. They scorned the kings of the earth, And treated their town as a pasture, where They roamed like browsing beasts. The town their grazing land for booty, Well-provided with open space and water. And they acted so tyrannically in public, That they made their village like a cadaver, On which they sat like vultures... ' AR 3, 8, 139: Nazm al-la'airbi-akhbar wa tanbTh al-kiram, a aasTda rhyming in mim, giving considera&TTdetail about towns in Ghana, and elsewhere in West Africa, which had been occupied and were being controlled by the Christians, along with an enumeration of the misdeeds of the representatives of the colonial powers in each place. Written about 1318/1900-01, this poem is important evidence about the feelings of the conquered towards European colonialism. NOTES 80. AR 4,417: Mashra ma al-khabar li-waridin wariduha bi'l-nazar, a poem on much the same theme, regretting the coming of the Christians to West Africa, and giving a list of the places taken by them, and advising the Muslims to place their trust in God. Dated 9 Muharram 1317/20 May 1899. AR 16 (ii): Jal'al-munafi'a fi dhikr ol-munazi'a# a qasida rhyming in nun alif, giving an account of the civil war in Salagria. Fairly short, to be read along with AR 27 above. AR 109 (ii), 135: Ya Khamayya fo-'a|cbc idh ra'yta al-'ajabo, a qasida ending in ba alif^ criticizing the activities of a certain Musa, who claimed to be a mahdi, and his three companions, who were active in Northern Ghana and were making much money from their "missionary"" activities. Dated 1322H./1904-05. One of al-Hajj 'Umar's pupils, 'All b. Muhammad Baraw al-Salghawi, born at Salagha in 1*302/1884-85 and who died at Accra in 1376/1956-57, wrote an interesting short poem (AR 7, AR 16 (xi), AR 408) entitled Fi noim dhu dhahab wa zalezalat Salagha, on the appearance of a comet in Salagha on 21 Shawwal 1298/16 September 1881, and on the earthquake there (i.e. the civil war) in 1891. He includes praise of his master, 'Umar; other poems by him, mostly on religious subjects are included in the collection'. An event of the mid-1860's, which concerns the histories of both northwestern Ghana and Upper Vol to, and is of general interest for Islamic history in this territory, is the jihad of al-Hajj Mahmud, for which the Institute collection contains a certain amount of material. Mabmud, a Qadiri leader, established a small state at Wahhabu, about 100 miles north-east of Bobo Dioulass in Upper Volra. AR 65 and AR 83, the same text, contain a poetical description of Mahmud and enumerate his excellent qualities, whilst AR 66, Mas'a la 'inda'l-rajalayn, is a dialogue between two young men who discuss the causes and the rights and wrongs of Mahmud's movement. AR 348 and 81 NOTES AR 349_include statements of various individuals in that region about the jihad, and AR 70 is another poem touching on it. Further information can be had from AR 77, an anonymous one-folio ms., which seems to have something in common with AR 66. It reads as follows:- "Two men differ over the cause of the jihad of al-Hajj Mahmud, so the Shaykh of the Time (?), gives them information about it. The most sound tradition has it that al-Hajj Mahmud, whose nisba (Arabic name usually indicating a geographical origin) was Talu, had gone to Shaykh Taslim (sic) Saghanughu, with his companions, for instruction. He (Mahmud) had a beautiful woman named Marya. But one of his companions had intercourse with her. / A f t er that -/ neither one could stay in the same place as the other. For that reason, he (the companion) went to Shaykh Siddiq at Safan, (Sa_fane) and died/there/; but Mahmud remained with his brother Karamoko Yara, the blind walFof Sod, who could perform glorious feats and miracles, studying under him.' God extended his knowledge, and /on one occasion/, when he saw the new moon of Ramadan, he told people about it, who denied it. He was angered at that. /This occurred/ after the death of his shaykh, who was the most learned man at Safan at th*at time. So he went to Sui'unu, but saw nobody who could equal his shaykh in knowledge . For this reason, he set off to see Imam Yahya ibn'Abd a I-Rahman in Bobo Dioulasso (Julasu), considering him to be a sea of knowledge. He studies under him as much* as he could'and attached himself to his sanad (chain of spiritual authorities or teachers), and adhered to his wird, the Qadiriya. He then prepared to make_rhe pilgrimage, and when he reached one of the towns in Dakati (Dagjiati, Dagarti) territory called Bura (or Damakura), he made his afternoon, sunset, evening, and morning pro/ers. They (people of Bura) surrounded him and gathered up the dust from his praying place and sent it with him to Makka and Madina and Syria. NOTES 82. In Syria he befriended 'Abd al-Rahim, a descendant of 'Abd al-Qadir al-Jaylani, and renewed his wird with him. He prayed with him, and promised him ("Abd al-RahTm) to return and to conquer that country, and if he conquered it, to build a mosque in every town. After completing his pilgrimage, he went back to Wa. The people there followed him, and he made a covenant with them to conquer those places. They followed him until he came to a town on the shore of the river (Volta ?), where he sat down under a r[mi tree, I mean at Banda, with his people, and set up his tent. They disliked that on his part, and a dispute took place between him and them. /"Nevertheless/, the first to pledge allegiance to him were the Oaghati Dyula (Jula) an? those people of Wa who were his pupils, Sinu, Konate, Traore, and his clerk Idris. was he who examined me in their library ( ? ? ). The Shaykh won a victory over the unbelievers, took them prisoner, and made his power felt in the remaining towns. He then went to Boromo and captured i t . .. then to the town of the king of the unbelievers, and with the aid of Thani Ibrahim, took it, and named it Wahhabu, and made it his capital. /Likewise/, he took Koho (Kuhu), the most glorious of those towns in resisting and in bravery, and renamed it Shukrallah .* It As for the Hajj's close followers, /"they were/ Nuhu, Wahhabu, Dhamuku, Konate, Bus'aba, 'Umaru, Bamuru, Mukhtaru, Sababu, Dhuma, Baraka. They conquered Bura, then Firaji, A'da (or Wa'da), Kasa'a, and Damakura. The unbelievers laid seige to Damakura until the/defenders/ were eating carrion, skins, and horses, for a period of twenty-five days. Then he /MahmJfd/ relieved them and conquered them. His people did not stop until he was ruling over all of the places, as 'Abd al-Rahim in Syria had promised him. He took away from all the people of Safan the religious books which they possessed, which they had captured, and whose foundations they had denied, in order to glorify others than his Shaykh. He did that to give the lie to them/"for the way they had treated him/ over the matter of the moon of Ramadan. However, he was giving legal decisions according to the Book, establishing the Truth, dividing the booty/canonicaIly/ teaching religion and ordering the Good and forbidding the Bad, until he met God. His tomb is in his mihrab, and I visited it many times when I was •?• 83. NOTES with the Wazir Karamoko Shirbu, as his clerk (katib), and when h i s/ Mahmud's 7son was ruling, the ascetic servant of God, MukTiraru . He'extended his state, and the Christians supported him. Today the ami rate is in the hands of their servant, that is Sadiq .. .b ut the imamate is in the hands of their descendants..." Other interesting items in the collection are AR 240, Qit'.a min ta'nkh Takrur, a portion, perhaps of some longer work, of a historical and geographical nature, including king lists and dates, discussions of wars between the bidan and the sudan, and frequent mention of the Fulani of Walata ana elsewhere". kings and imams from Dagomba, Mamprussi, Salagha, Gonja, Wa, and many other places in Northern Ghana, North Western Togo, and the adjoining parts of Upper Volta and Ivory Coast. If this material could be used for research, it would contribute very greatly to a rewriting of the history of this region, which is so badly needed. irTaddition, there are many lists of B.G.Martin 1. 2. I. would like to thank Sayyid Muhammad Babo Koforidua, the son of ' A lf Baraw al-Salghawf for hfs kind help in giving me information for this article. Shehu A|jmadu of Masina named his capital yamdallah . Perhaps Mahmudwas following his example ? there is a ruined town called Wahhabu about 30 miles North_East of Wa. What is the connection, if any, between this Wahhabu and the town of the same name in Upper Volta ? It is also noteworthy that