Sultan, caliph and the renewer of the faith : Ahmad Lobbo, the Tarikh al-fattash and the making of an Islamic state in West Africa / Mauro Nobili.
2020
DT551.65 .N63 2020eb
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Details
Title
Sultan, caliph and the renewer of the faith : Ahmad Lobbo, the Tarikh al-fattash and the making of an Islamic state in West Africa / Mauro Nobili.
Author
ISBN
9781108804295 (electronic book)
1108804292 (electronic book)
9781108858854 (electronic book)
1108858856 (electronic book)
9781108479509
9781108789820
1108479502
110878982X
1108804292 (electronic book)
9781108858854 (electronic book)
1108858856 (electronic book)
9781108479509
9781108789820
1108479502
110878982X
Published
Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2020.
Language
English
Description
1 online resource (xix, 262 pages : illustrations).
Call Number
DT551.65 .N63 2020eb
Dewey Decimal Classification
966.201
Summary
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 Making extensive use of previously unpublished Arabic sources, Nobili demonstrates that the Tārīkh al-fattāsh was in fact written in the nineteenth century by a Fulani scholar, Nūḥ b. al-Ṭāhir, who modified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.
Bibliography, etc. Note
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Access Note
Access limited to authorized users.
Source of Description
Description based on print version record.
Series
African studies series ; 148.
Available in Other Form
Record Appears in
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
Notes on orthography and other conventions
Introduction
part 1. A nineteenth-century chronicle in support of the Caliphate of Ḥamdallāhi : Nūḥ b. al-Ṭāhir's Tārīkh al-fattāsh.
A century of scholarship
The Tārīkh al-fattāsh : a nineteenth-century chronicle.
part 2. A contested space of competing claims : the Middle Niger, 1810s-1840s.
The emergence of clerical rule in the Middle Niger
Aḥmad Lobbo, Timbuktu, and the Kunta
Fluctuating diplomacy : Ḥamdallāhi and Sokoto.
part 3. The circulation and reception of the Tārīkh al-fattāsh, 1840s-2010s.
The Tārīkh al-fattāsh at work
Conclusion.
Notes on orthography and other conventions
Introduction
part 1. A nineteenth-century chronicle in support of the Caliphate of Ḥamdallāhi : Nūḥ b. al-Ṭāhir's Tārīkh al-fattāsh.
A century of scholarship
The Tārīkh al-fattāsh : a nineteenth-century chronicle.
part 2. A contested space of competing claims : the Middle Niger, 1810s-1840s.
The emergence of clerical rule in the Middle Niger
Aḥmad Lobbo, Timbuktu, and the Kunta
Fluctuating diplomacy : Ḥamdallāhi and Sokoto.
part 3. The circulation and reception of the Tārīkh al-fattāsh, 1840s-2010s.
The Tārīkh al-fattāsh at work
Conclusion.