APPENDIX XIV.

EL BAKA'Y'S LETTER OF RECOMMENDATION.

TRANSLATED BY DR. NICHOLSON.

In a preface in rhymed prose, Ah'med el Bakay, having enumerated ten generations of his ancestors, addresses his letter to all into whose hands it should fall, of his brethren and friends among the Arabs, the Tawárek, the Fullán, and the Sudán, in the land of El Islám, and especially in the land of Ala Fódíye, the noblest of the sons of 'Abdallah and Othman the Imám, among whom the İmam 'Alí ben Mohammed Bello is distinguished; next, to those in the land of the faithful and humane, his brethren of the people of Bórnu, and especially their excellent Sheikh 'Omár; and, lastly, to all Moslims in the land. He then enters on his subject of recommending to them the Christian traveler in the following terms:

"Our and your guest, 'Abd el Kerím Barth, the English Christian, has visited us from your part, and we honored him suitably, and were not wanting to him in any thing, and befriended him openly and privately, and defended him from nomadic wanderers and settlers, until we restored him to you in safety, just as he came from you in respect. Now there is no fault to find with our present reception of him, nor with your treatment of him in time past; for the guest of the munificent is munificently treated, and injury to the good is forbidden; and it is the nature of the good and pure to be helpful, just as malice is the disposition of the wicked; and kind acts and intentions are acceptable both to men and to God. But you require to be urgently admonished to treat our and your guest with honor, beneficence, and equity. And do not be deluded by those who say, 'Behold, he is a Christian! let no kindness be shown to him! let it be counted acceptable to God to hurt him!' For such sentiments are contrary to the Kurán and the Sunna, and are repudiated by men of intelligence. It is written, 'God does not forbid your showing kindness and equity to those who do not wage war with you on account of your religion, nor expel you from your abodes, for God loves the equitable." And God says (in reply to those who say 'we are not bound to deal equitably with the heathen'), 'Nay, with whoever is faithful to his pledges, and fears God, for God loves those that fear him.'t And we have heard from the saints about the dispositions of the prophets, and their inculcation of beneficence to all men. The Prophet used to say, 'Whenever honorable persons come to you, receive them with honor;' and he used to show respect to all that came to him, whether they were Moslims, or Kitábis, or infidels. And he gave injunctions concerning those among them who were on terms of compact, and those who were on terms of tribute; so that he said, 'Whoever kills a companiong shall not smell the odor of Paradise; and its odor can be perceived at a distance of 500 years' journey.' And his forefather, Abraham, was kind to every body, so that God mentions him in his book with reference to his generous conduct to guests, and extols his mildness in his altercation with the angels sent on account of the unbelievers; for he says, 'He disputed with us about the people of Lot; lo! Abraham is humane.' And an embassy from the Christians of Najrán came to the prophet, and he received them with honor, and did them justice, as it was his disposition and his custom to do; then he made a treaty with them on terms of tribute, and did not molest them or their religion after he had invited them to accept El Islám, and they had received his missives; and he kept faith with them. This, too, was the way he treated the Jews of Medina, before he went to war with them. Thus God says, "Thou wilt not cease to discover deceivers among them, with few exceptions; but forgive them, and pardon them, for God loves the beneficent.' And they used to salute him by saying, 'Assilám 'alaika !** with Kesra of the Sín; but he used to make no other answer but And on you!' At last 'Aisha observed it, and reproached them, and cursed them; but he reproved her. So she said, 'Did you not hear what they said?' ti. e. People of the Book, Jews or Christians. Sur., v., 16. **The name of some bitter tree. This story is told in Mishkat el Masâbih, vol. ii., p. 394; but assâm (destruction) is the word there used.

Sur., 1x., 9.

معاشر

+ Sur., iii.,

69.

Sur., xi., 77.

EL BAKAY'S LETTER OF RECOMMENDATION.

765 And he replied, 'But did not you hear how I returned their salutation? Now what I wished them will be granted, but what they wished me will not be granted.' And it was only as respects the enemies of God-persons fighting against God and his prophet, and waging war with the adherents of El Islám for the sake of their religion-that the prophet forbids what he forbade as to this mode of treatment. The injunction with regard to such is what God says: 'O Prophet, persecute the unbelievers and hypocrites, and be severe with them!'* Thus every believer has a special statute. There came to me one day a man of the Fullán, of the Fullán of the West, who pretended to be learned, but who had no learning, who said to me, 'Does not God say, "You will not find any people who believe in God and the last day, loving those who resist God and his prophet," (and the rest of that verse), and yet you love this Christian unbeliever?' I replied, 'Do not you, too, obey this other word of God? "God does not forbid you to show kindness and equity to those who have not borne arms against you on account of religion, and have not expelled you from your dwellings, for God loves those that deal justly; God only forbids your being friends with those who bore arms against you for the sake of religion, and who expelled you from your abode, or who aided in expelling you." Then he held his tongue. So I said to him, 'Speak! Do you think that one of these verses abrogates the other? If so, you lie, and are made a liar. Or do you think that one is contradictory to the other, and that the contradiction is in the mind of God? If so, you are a fool, and are made a fool of, and lead astray and are led astray. Or do you believe part of the book and disbelieve a part? If so, you are one of those of whom it is said, "Do ye believe one part of the book and disbelieve the other?"§ If so, you are an unbeliever crying out against unbelief.' Then he asked me to explain to him. So I said, 'Let it suffice you as to this mystery and difficulty, that your head is sprinkled with gray, but that you are ignorant of the book of your Lord which has been revealed to you, and about the Sunna of your Prophet; for the ordinance about the hostile unbeliever|| and the believer who is not hostile, is well known in the book and in the Sunna. As for the unbeliever who is not hostile, there is no prohibition to treat him kindly, whereas to deal justly with him is a positive duty. As for the hostile one, nothing is said about his being treated with kindness, therefore kindness to him is not expressly enjoined; but God has only prohibited friendship with him in preference to Moslims, or helping him against Moslims. But kindness and equity toward an unbeliever who is not hostile is manifestly lawful; whereas friendship with a hostile unbeliever is expressly unlawful, and kindness and equity toward him are among doubtful duties; and the unbelievers who are hostile, or hinderers, or contumacious belong to one class, and are subject to one ordinance, and with such, affection-whatever belongs to intimate friendship-is forbidden. This is the law with regard to unbelievers. As for Kitábis, they are under special laws, whether they be hostile, or under covenant of peace, or under tribute. We may marry the Kitábis of any description. Now, if any one asserts that it is not lawful to show kindness to a Kitábi, let him tell me what he would do with a Kitábi wife, seeing that God has commanded us to treat our wives with kindness and beneficence, and the Prophet has enjoined it. Therefore, if this were true with regard to the Kitábi wife of a Moslim, there would be absolutely no difference but that of sex between her and her father and brothers; so that whatever kindness and beneficence are due to his wife, the daughter of his connections by marriage, are undoubtedly due to those connections themselves. And the Emír of Másina the Fulláni spoke to me both ignorantly and inhumanely about this Englishman, and insisted on absurd and frivolous postulates. And he-nay, his doctors, without learning, piety, or religion-adduced as evidence certain verses from the book of God which were revealed about hypocrites, about Abdallah ben Obbai Ebn Salul¶ and his compeers, and they disgraced themselves by the display of their ignorance of the Kurán and Sunna. Nay, they could not adduce a single word out of the Sunna, nor a sentence from the Canon Law, ** which is their learning, notwithstanding their ignorance of it! Since they did not find either in the Sunna or Canon Law any thing that agrees with their aims, but only what is merely contrary to them, they had recourse to the Kurán, and they perverted it violently, iniquitously, ignorantly, carelessly,

derisively, and sportively. But woe unto them for what their hands have written! and woe unto them for the reward they will reap! Among what I said to them was this: If what you aim at were a part of the Mohammedan religion, either theoretically or practically, I would have outrun you in receiving it, and Khalil ben 'Abdallah and 'Othman ben Mohammed Bello, the two descendants of Fódíye, would have outrun you; nay, the great Sultan, our lord 'Abd e' Rahmán, the son of your lord, Hishám, and the Khakán of the two lands and seas, the Sultan 'Abd el Mejíd, the son of the Sultan Mahmud, the son of the Sultan 'Abd el Hamid, would have anticipated you. As for your postulate,* that you have inherited the duty of doing battle with the infidels and of hating them from the time of our fathers and grandfathers, we are more nearly related to them than you, for you have no ancestry in it, since you have only adopted your present opinions about thirty years ago, and a man only inherits from his father and grandfather. Whose guest is this Christian? And again, in whose alliance and safe-conduct is this Christian? He is the guest and protégé of the Sultan of the Faithful, 'Abd el Mejíd, and of the Imám of the Moslims, our lord 'Abd e' Rahmán. Lo! he inherited the duty of warring with the infidels from his fathers and grandfathers; and he possesses his religion from the earliest of the fathers, from the time of the prophets. But as for the people of Núkkuma, they have neither religion, nor learning, nor understanding, nor humanity. What then gives them any superiority or pre-eminence over those eminent persons, seeing that they are the tail of mankind, living in the tail of the world, and that, up to this date, the invitation of the Sunna and of indispensable dutiest has not reached them? But there is no need to dilate on what they say in their perversity, nor on what is said to them in disputation. The main thing is that you should know, O you body of believers, that God has sent us prophets with His book and His ordinances, and has elucidated them and made them plain, and that whoever wishes to add to them in what He has enjoined is accursed and cast out, and whoever diminishes aught therefrom is condemned and punished. Therefore treat the Moslim according to the treatment ordered for him in the book of God and in the Sunna of the Prophet, whether the Moslim be an upright or a careless one; treat the Kitábis as they are to be treated, whether they be hostile, or under compact, or under tribute; and treat the Infidel generally as he is to be treated, whether he be hostile or not hostile: 'For all are His servants; His will is irresistible by them; His ordinance sticks close to them; His knowledge comprehends them.'§ Whoever treats these different classes with any other treatment than what He has appointed errs in his judgment and is wicked. And this Christian is to-day the guest of the Moslims, under their protection, their covenant, and safe-conduct. No Moslim can lawfully hurt him. On the contrary, to injure him is a burning shame. Nay, be has the rights of a guest, for the guest of the munificent is munificently treated; and every believer is munificent, and every hypocrite is sordid. And does that munificence which is not imprinted in the disposition make a believer? The recompense of kindness is by kindness, in imitation of the character of the merciful Lord. God says, 'Is there any recompense of kindness except kindness?' And behold! this man's nation, the English, have done us services which are neither doubted or denied: which are their friendship to our brethren the Moslims, and their sincerity to them, and their cordiality with them, and their helpfulness to our two Sultans, 'Abd e' Rahman and 'Abd el Mejíd. This is publicly known and acknowledged about the English. It is, therefore, our right and duty to show gratitude for their kindness, and to strengthen whatever covenant and confidence there is between us and them. And I apply this to you, my brethren. Therefore whoever belongs to the jurisdiction of our Tawárek, the people of Karidénne, the kingdom of Alkuttabu ben Kawa ben Imma ben Ig e' Sheikh ben Karidénne, and then whoever is behind them of my companions and friends, Dinnik, the kingdom of my brother, and nephew, and pupil, Músa ben Bodhál ben Katim; ¶ then those behind them of our partisans the people of Aïr the Kel-gerés and the Kél-owí; then our darlings, A'la Fódiye, their learned men, the intelligent and humane, who have the ordinances and the right of decision, on them be my salutation and el Islám! the people of the Imam,

That is, main principle on which you base your wish to hurt a Christian; or it means pretense. That is, the Fulbe of Másina. About Núkkuma, or Núkuma, see the note, ante, p. 708,

U/

الغرض.

This passage rhymes in the original, and seems to be quoted from some familiar source, but it is not in the Kurán, Sur., lv., 60. See about the Dinnik, p. 724.

EL BAKA'Y'S LETTER OF RECOMMENDATION.

767

the high-minded, the son of Bello, the Imám ben 'Othmán, the perfect. For, lo! my guest is a guest of theirs, who has nothing to fear from them, since they profess obedience to God,* and know that he protects the ordinances. And especially, as their lord, the Imam Mohammed Bello-God favor him!-said to me, and wrote to me with his own hand, that he and his kingdom were at my disposal so long as it was strung on his string;† therefore I have authority, and I admonish you about my and your guest, indeed about whatever Englishman shall come after him, whether he come to me, or pass near you, or abide among you for a time and then return. And what I demand and charge you, the same injunction I lay upon my brethren (though I have not seen them with my eyes, I have seen them by my faith, and I count kindred with them by the ties of religion), the people of Bórnu, especially the Sheikh Omár ben Mohammed, the Emír, the Just. Then let not that which is dreaded hinder you. Lo! he is a distinguished man among the Christians. § However there are between us and them such protectors of El Islám and champions of the peoples (the Christians), that if they break through them to get at us, and attack us, there is no good of life, and no sufficiency in a host. But God is our reliance: surely He outwits every deceiver, betrays every traitor, and makes every unbeliever a liar; for he says in his book, to us and to His Prophet, God is your stay, and those of the believers that follow you.' 'If they try to deceive you, then God is your support. It is He that has strengthened you with His help, and with the faithful, and has united their hearts.'** It is then by the religion of God that we are exalted and are victorious. Religion is weak only through its professors. The blessing of the Book of God and the blessing of His Prophet be on us and with us. So let not fear seize any Moslim that they should deceive him and cheat him, on the ground that there is rebellion against the cause of God among them, and that the Sunna of His Prophet is violated among them. And whatever there is of slaughter and battle with him, let him suppress it for its day; for the weakest of men in sense, and the mightiest of them in ignorance, is he who rushes to evil when its season has not come, and who is no match for it on the day when it arrives. And as for me, brethren, I have written for the Englishman specially a general safe-conduct, in which I have included every one in my land, and have added thereto your land, in reliance on your religion and your sure conviction, and in dependence on your intelligence and humanity. Do you then write for him as I have written, on the condition of our being subject to our Imám, our Lord 'Abd e' Rahmán, and our Sultan, 'Abd el Mejíd; and be not like the people of Nukkuma, for they are like the deaf and dumb, since they are offensive to me. Lo! I love my guest the Christian. Be careful that he be not hindered in any thing; for the Prophet used to love the Kuraish, in spite of their unbelief in him and their hostility to him. God says, 'There has come to you a Prophet from yourselves; grievous to him is your wickedness; he is anxious about you.'‡‡ And he said to him, 'Thou wilt not direct whomsoever thou lovest.'§§ And he used to love his uncles, and to delight in their conversion to El Islám, especially A'bú Taleb; except that he knew the decrees of God about the community, and was liable to them together with the community. The most ignorant of men is he who is ignorant of the Book of his Lord and the Sunna of His Prophet, so that he licenses for himself what is unlawful, and forbids what is lawful, and draws near to Him with that which removes him to a distance from Him, and keeps aloof from that which brings him near to Him, who fancies that he does well as to his actions while he does evil as to what is enjoined. God is not worshiped by any act (or rite) but what He has ordered, and is not approached by a worshiper that he should remit any thing but what is remitted. Now salutation is what is reiterated to you, and honor is what is wished to you. Farewell."

APPENDIX XV.

CHIEF TOWNS AND RESIDENCES OF THE INDEPENDENT SONGHAY BETWEEN THE NIGER AND MY ROUTE BY YAʼGHA AND LIBTAʼKO.

Kulman, a large place, the name of which has already become known in Europe through the information of other travelers, in consequence of its great importance as a well-inhabited strong town, as also as a frequented market. The chief part of the inhabitants belong to the tribe of the Koizé, with the chief (koy) Foní, the son of A ́rkosú (A ́rkosú izze), or, as the Tawárek call him, ag A ́rkosú. It may now be laid down in the map with tolerable accuracy, being said to be distant from Tongi (see p. 499) thirty miles to the west.

Téra, the town mentioned already by Ahmed Bábá, said to be even larger than Kulman, and the very largest of the ksúr of the free Songhay, equaling the city of Timbuktu in size, four days from Tongi S. W., two from Dóre E.N.E. The inhabitants wear their hair in long tresses, and possess a good many horses; they are totally independent.

Darghol, residence of the Songhay princes, the descendants of the A'skia or Sikkía, the chief of whom at the present day is Koy Kálmia; the inhabitants very warlike, armed with shield, spear, and sword, like the Tawárek. But the energy of these Songhay is counterpoised and baffled by the disunion which prevails among themselves, the inhabitants of Darghol waging war with those of Téra, who do not acknowledge their supremacy. The position of this important town, I am sorry to say, I am not able to determine even approximately. It is very desirable that a European traveler should explore this whole region.

The most important of the other towns of the Songhay are: Kósa; Tákala, ruled by Hawa, a woman (even in Timbuktu, before the conquest of the town by the Fulbe, a woman is said to have exercised the chief influence); Dorógun; Kanseka-koira, Bókar-koira (both called after their chiefs); Kúrchi, with the chief Hemma; Tézi; Góroshí; Karta; Kákaru, or Bámbelokoire (called from the chief, Bambelo; a powerful community, dominating the neighboring towns and villages); Bangúm; Kerégu; Fómbiten, with the chief Hamma Fómbit; Kánfulí; Hammakoire; Syrbi; Larba (the town mentioned in a preceding part of this volume, said to be as large as Say, with which and Támkala it was intimately allied at the time of the rising of the Reformer 'Othmán, and offered the most determined resistance); Sifada, Bargul; Kasánni; Alikónchi; Garubánda; Kongozekoire; Wozebango; Sátumen; Wósolo; Badduléji; Barrobónghala; Kalobánda.