HISTORY OF ÁGADES
Previously to Mr. Cooley’s perspicuous inquiries into the Negroland of
the Arabs, this place was identified with Aúdaghost, merely on account
of a supposed similarity of name. But Ágades, or rather Égedesh, is
itself a pure Berber word, in no way connected with Aúdaghost. It is
of very frequent occurrence, particularly among the Awelímmiden, and
means “family,” and the name was well chosen for a town consisting of
mixed elements. Moreover, while we find Aúdaghost in the far west in the
twelfth century, we have the distinct statement of Marmol that Ágades
was founded a hundred and sixty years before the time when he wrote
(that is to say, in 1460), the truth of which statement, harmonizing as
it does with Leo’s more general account, that it was a modern town, we
have no reason to doubt. Neither of these authors tells us who built it;
but as we know that the great Sónghay conqueror Háj Mohammed Áskiá, who
conquered the town of Ágades in the year of the Hejra 921, or 1515 of
our era, expelled from it the five Berber tribes who, according to the
information collected by me during my stay in Ágades, and which I shall
soon lay before my readers, must have been long resident in the town, it
appears highly probable that these Berbers were its founders. And if this
be assumed, there will be no difficulty in explaining why the language of
the natives of the place at present is a dialect of the Sónghay language,
as it is most probable that this great and enlightened conqueror, after
he had driven out the old inhabitants, established in this important
place a new colony of his own people. In a similar way we find the
Sónghay nation, which seems not to have originally extended to a great
distance eastward of Gágho or Gógo, now extending into the very heart of
Kébbi, although we shall find other people speaking the same language in
the neighbourhood of Ágades, and perhaps may be able in the course of our
researches to trace some connection between the Sónghay and ancient Egypt.
It is therefore highly probable that those five Berber tribes formed
the settlement in question as an _entrepôt_ for their commerce with
Negroland, though the foundation of such a grand settlement on the
border of the desert presumes that they had at that time a preponderating
influence in all these regions; and the whole affair is so peculiar that
its history could not fail to gratify curiosity if more could be known of
it. From Bello’s account, it would appear that they, or at least one of
these tribes (the Aújila), conquered the whole of Aïr.
It is certainly remarkable to see people from five places, separated from
each other by immense tracts, and united only by the bond of commerce
and interest, founding a large colony far away from their homes and on
the very border of the desert. For, according to all that I could learn
by the most sedulous inquiries in Ágades, those tribes belonged to the
Gurára of Tawat, to the Tafimáta, to the Beni Wazít and the Tésko of
Ghadámes, to the once powerful and numerous tribe of the Masráta, and
finally to the Aújila; and as the names of almost all these different
tribes, and of their divisions, are still attached to localities of the
town, we can scarcely doubt the correctness of this information, and
must suppose that Sultan Bello was mistaken in referring the five tribes
(settled in Ágades) to Aújila alone.
Though nothing is related about the manner in which Háj Mohammed Áskiá
took possession of the town, except that it is stated distinctly that
he drove out the five tribes, it seems, from the traditions current in
Ágades, that a considerable number of the Berbers, with five hundred
“jákhfa” (cages mounted on camels, such as only wealthy people can afford
to keep for carrying their wives), left the town, but were all massacred.
But no one who regards with the least attention the character of the
present population of the town can doubt for a moment that a considerable
number of the Berber population remained behind, and in course of
time mixed with the Sónghay colonists; for, even if we set aside the
consideration of the language (which is greatly intermixed with Berber
words), there is evidently much Berber blood in the population even at
the present day, a fact which is more evident in the females than in the
males.
It is a pity that Leo says nothing about the language spoken in Ágades;
for he lived just at the very period during which the town, from a Berber
settlement, became a Negro town. His expression certainly implies that
he regarded it as a Negro town. But, while well-informed in general
respecting the great conquests of Mohammed Áskiá (or, as he calls him,
Ischia, whom he erroneously styles King of Timbúktu), he does not once
mention his expedition against Ágades, of which he might have heard as
easily as of those against Kátsena and Kanó, which preceded the former
only by two years. From his account it would seem that the town was
then in a very flourishing state, full of foreign merchants and slaves,
and that the king, though he paid a tribute of one hundred and fifty
thousand ducats to the King of Timbúktu (Gágho), enjoyed a great degree
of independence, at least from that quarter, and had even a military
force of his own. Besides, it is stated expressly that he belonged to
the Berber race. But it would almost seem as if Leo, in this passage,
represented the state of things as it was when he visited the town,
before Áskiá’s time, and not at the date when he wrote, though the
circumstance of the tribute payable to that king may have been learnt
from later information. In general, the great defect in Leo’s description
is that the reader has no exact dates to which to refer the several
statements, and that he cannot be sure how far the author speaks as an
eye-witness, and how far from information.
Of course it is possible that the Berbers found a Sónghay population,
if not in the place itself, which most probably did not exist before
the time of their arrival, yet in the district around it; and it would
seem that there existed in ancient times, in the celebrated Valley of
Ír-n-allem, a small town of which some vestiges are said to remain at the
present day, as well as two or three date-trees, the solitary remains
of a large plantation. From this town, tradition says, the present
inhabitants of Ágades were transplanted. But be this as it may, it is
certain that the same dialect of the Sónghay language which is spoken in
Ágades is also still spoken in a few places in the neighbourhood, by the
tribe of the Íghdalén, or Ighedálen, whose whole appearance, especially
their long hair, shows them to be a mixed race of Sónghay and Berbers,
and there is some reason to suppose that they belonged originally to the
Zenága or Senhája. These people live in and around Íngal, a small town
four days’ journey from Ágades, on the road to Sókoto, and in and around
Tegídda, a place three days’ journey from Íngal, and about five from
Ágades west-south-west. This latter place is of considerable interest,
being evidently identical with the town of the same name mentioned by Ebn
Khaldún and by Ebn Batúta as a wealthy place, lying eastward from Gógo,
on the road to Egypt, and in intimate connection and friendly intercourse
with the Mzáb and Wárgela. It was governed by a Berber chief, with the
title of Sultan. This place, too, was for some time subject to Gógo, or
rather to the empire of Méle or Málli, which then comprised Sónghay, in
the latter part of the fourteenth century; and the circumstance that
here too the Sónghay language is still spoken may be best explained by
referring it to colonization, since it is evident that Áskiá, when he
took possession of Ágades, must have occupied Tegídda also, which lay
on the road from Gógo to that place. However, I will not indulge in
conjectures, and will merely enter into historical questions so far as
they contribute to furnish a vivid and coherent picture of the tribes and
countries with which my journey brought me into contact. I will therefore
only add that this place, Tegídda or Tekádda, was famous, in the time of
Ebn Batúta, for its copper mines, the ores of which were exported as far
as Bórnu and Góber, while at present nothing is known of the existence
of copper hereabouts; but a very good species of salt of red colour
(já-n-gísherí), which is far superior to that of Bilma, is obtained here,
as well as in Íngal. But I recommend this point to the inquiry of future
travellers. I have mentioned above the presence of loadstone on the
border of Aír.
Having thus attempted to elucidate and illustrate the remarkable fact
that the language of Ágades is derived from and akin to the Sónghay—a
fact which of course appeared to me more surprising before I discovered,
in the course of 1853, that this language extends eastward far beyond
the so-called Niger—I return once more to the settlement of the Berbers
in Ágades. It is evident that this settlement, if it was of the
nature described above, was made for the purpose of serving as a great
commercial _entrepôt_ for the commerce with another country; and if
we duly consider the statements made by el Bekri, Ebn Batúta, Leo, Ca
da Mosto, and by the author of the “History of Sónghay,” with regard
to the importance of the market of Gógo, and if we pay due attention
to that circuitous route which led from Gógo by way of Tegídda, not
only to Egypt, but even to Tawát, there cannot be the least doubt that
Ágades was founded by those Berber tribes with the distinct purpose that
it might serve them as a secure abode and fortified magazine in their
commercial intercourse with that splendid capital of the Sónghay empire,
the principal article of which was gold, which formed also the chief
article in the former commerce of Ágades. For Ágades had its own standard
weight of this precious metal, the mithkál, which even at the present day
regulates the circulating medium. And this mithkál of Ágades is totally
different from the standard of the same name which is in use in Timbúktu,
the latter being, in regard to the value of the Spanish dollar, as 1⅓ to
1, and the former only as ⅖ to 1. But for wholesale business a greater
weight was in use, called “kárruwe,” the smaller kárruwe containing
thirty-three mithákel, or mithkáls, and a third, equal to two rottls and
a sixth, while the larger kárruwe contained a hundred mithkáls, and was
equal to six rottls and a half.
The importance of the trade of Ágades, and the wealth of the place in
general, appear very clearly from the large tribute, of a hundred and
fifty thousand ducats, which the King of Ágades was able to pay to that
of Sónghay, especially if we bear in mind that Leo, in order to give an
idea of the great expense which this same King of Sónghay had incurred
on his pilgrimage to Mekka, states in another passage that having spent
all he took with him, he contracted a debt amounting to that very sum.
As for the King of Ágades, his situation was at that time just what it
is now; and we cannot better describe his precarious position, entirely
dependent on the caprice and intrigues of the influential chiefs of the
Tuarek, than by using the very words of Leo, “Alle volte scacciano il re
e pongono qualche suo parente in luogo di lui, nè usano ammazzar alcuno;
e quel che più contenta gli abitatori del diserto è fatto re in Agadez.”
Unfortunately, we are not able to fix a date for that very peculiar
covenant between the different tribes with regard to the installation of
the Sultan of Ágades, and the establishing of the principle that he must
belong to a certain family, which is regarded as of sheríf nobility, and
lives not in Ágades, nor even in the country of Aír, but in a town of
Góber. I was once inclined to think that this was an arrangement made
in consequence of the power and influence which the Emír of Sókoto had
arrogated to himself; but I have now reason to doubt this, for even the
grandfather of ʿAbd el Káder was Sultan. Certainly even now, when the
power of the Fulfúlde or Féllani empire is fast crumbling to pieces, the
Emír of Sókoto has a certain influence upon the choice of the Sultan of
Ágades. Of this fact I myself became witness during my stay in Sókoto in
April, 1853, when Hámed eʾ Rufäy was once more sent out to succeed ʿAbd
el Káder. Indeed, Ittegáma, ʿAbd el Káder’s brother, who thought that I
enjoyed the favour and confidence of the Emír, called upon me (as I shall
relate in due time) expressly to entreat me most urgently to exert my
influence in order to restore my former host to his authority.
I have described already in what way the union of the tribes of the
Itísan, the Kél-gerés, and the Kél-owí is expressed in installing the
Sultan; but though without the presence and assent of the former the new
prince could never arrive at his place of residence, the final decision
seems to rest with the chief Ánnur, the inhabitants of the town having no
voice in the matter. The Sultan is rather a chief of the Tuarek tribes
residing in Ágades than the ruler of Ágades. How difficult and precarious
his position must be may be easily conceived if it be considered that
these tribes are generally at war with one another; the father of Hámed
eʾ Rufäy was even killed by the Kél-gerés. Nevertheless, if he be an
intelligent and energetic man, his influence in the midst of this wild
conflict and struggle of clashing interests and inclinations must be very
beneficial.
What the revenue of the Sultan may at present amount to it is difficult
to say. His means and income consist chiefly in the presents which
he receives on his accession to authority, in a contribution of one
bullock’s hide or kulábu (being about the value of half a Spanish dollar)
from each family, in a more considerable but rather uncertain tribute
levied upon the Imghád, in the tax of ten mithkáls or four Spanish
dollars which he levies on each camel-load of foreign merchandise which
enters the town of Ágades (articles of food being exempt from charge),
in a small tribute derived from the salt brought from Bilma, and in
the fines levied on lawless people and marauders, and often on whole
tribes. Thus it is very probable that the expedition which ʿAbd el Káder
undertook immediately after his accession, against the tribes who had
plundered us, enriched him considerably. As for the inhabitants of Ágades
themselves, I was assured that they do not pay him any tribute at all,
but are only obliged to accompany him on his expeditions. Of course
in earlier times, when the commerce of the town was far greater than
at present, and when the Imghád (who had to provide him with cattle,
corn, fruit, and vegetables) were strictly obedient, his income far
exceeded that of the present day. When taken altogether it is certainly
considerably under twenty thousand dollars. His title is Amanókal,
or Amanókal Imakóren, in Temáshight, Kókoy bére in the Emgédesi, and
Babá-n-Serkí in the Háusa language.
The person second in authority in the town, and in certain respects the
Vizier, is now, and apparently was also in ancient times, the “kókoy
gerégeré” (_i.e._ master of the courtyard or the interior of the palace).
This is his real indigenous character, while the foreigners, who regarded
him only in his relation to themselves, called him Sheikh el ʿArab, or,
in the Háusa language, Serkí-n-turáwa (the Chief of the Whites), and this
is the title by which he is generally known. For it was he who had to
levy the tax on the merchandise imported into the town, an office which
in former times, when a considerable trade was carried on, was of great
importance. But the chief duty of the “serkí-n-turáwa,” at the present
time, is to accompany annually the salt-caravan of the Kél-gerés, which
supplies the western part of Middle Sudán with the salt of Bilma, from
Ágades to Sókoto, and to protect it on the road as well as to secure it
against exorbitant exactions on the part of the Fúlbe of Sókoto. For this
trouble he receives one “kántu,” that is to say the eighth part (eight
kántu weighing three Turkish kantars or quintals) of a middle-sized
camel-load, a contribution which forms a considerable income in this
country, probably of from eight to ten thousand Spanish dollars, the
caravan consisting generally of some thousand camels, not all equally
laden, and the kántu of salt fetching in Sudán from five thousand to
seven and eight thousand kurdí or shells, which are worth from two to
three dollars. Under such circumstances those officers, who at the
same time trade on their own account, cannot but amass considerable
wealth. Mohammed Bóro as well as Áshu are very rich, considering the
circumstances of the country.
After having escorted the salt-caravan to Sókoto, and settled the
business with the Emír of this place, the serkí-n-turáwa in former times
had to go to Kanó, where he received a small portion of the six hundred
kurdí, the duty levied on each slave brought to the slave-market, after
which he returned to Ágades with the Kél-gerés that had frequented the
market of Kanó. I had full opportunity, in the further course of my
journey, to convince myself that such is not now the case; but I cannot
say what is the reason of this custom having been discontinued, though it
may be the dangerous state of the road between Sókoto and Kanó. Mohammed
Bóro, the former serkí-n-turáwa, has still residences as well in Kanó and
Zínder as in Sókoto and Ágades. From what I have said it is clear that at
present the serkí-n-turáwa has much more to do with the Tuarek and Fúlbe
than with the Arabs, and at the same time is a sort of mediator between
Agades and Sókoto. Of the other persons in connection with the Sultan,
the “kókoy kaina” or “bába-n-serkí” (the chief eunuch), at present
Ámagay, the fádawa-n-serkí (the aides-de-camp of the Sultan), as well as
the kádhi or alkáli, and the war-chief Sídi Ghalli, I have spoken in the
diary of my residence in the place.
I have already stated above that the southern part of the town, which at
present is almost entirely deserted, formed the oldest quarter, while
katánga, or “báki-n-bírni,” seems to have been its northern limit. Within
these limits the town was about two miles in circuit, and when thickly
peopled may have contained about thirty thousand inhabitants; but after
the northern quarter was added the whole town had a circuit of about
three miles and a half, and may easily have mustered as many as fifty
thousand inhabitants, or even more. The highest degree of power seems to
have been attained before the conquest of the town by Mohammed Áskiá in
the year 1515, though it is said to have been a considerable and wealthy
place till about sixty years ago (reckoned from 1850), when the greatest
part of the inhabitants emigrated to the neighbouring towns of Háusa,
chiefly Kátsena, Tasáwa, Marádi, and Kanó. The exact circumstances which
brought about this deplorable desertion and desolation of the place
I was not able to learn; and the date of the event cannot be made to
coincide with the period of the great revolution effected in Middle Sudán
by the rising of the Jihádi, “the Reformer,” ʿOthmán da-n-Fódiye, which
it preceded by more than fifteen years; but it coincides with or closely
follows upon an event which I shall have to dwell upon in the further
course of my proceedings. This is the conquest of Gʿao, or Gógo (the
former capital of the Sónghay empire, and which since 1591 had become a
province of the empire of Morocco), by the Tuarek. As we have seen above
that Ágades had evidently been founded as an _entrepôt_ for the great
trade with this most flourishing commercial place on the Ísa, or Niger,
at that time the centre of the gold trade, of course the ransacking and
wholesale destruction of this town could not but affect in the most
serious manner the wellbeing of Agades, cutting away the very roots
through which it received life.
[Illustration: 1, House where I lodged; 2, Great Mosque, or Mesállaje; 3,
Palace, or Fáda; 4, Káswa-n-delélti, or Tama-n-lókoy; 5, Káswa-n-rákoma;
6, Katánga; 7, Erárar-n-zákan; 8, Mohammed Bóro’s house; 9, House
of the Kádhi; 10, Well Shedwánka; 11, Pools of Stagnant Water; 12,
Kófa-n-Alkáli; 13, Masráta Hogúme; 14, Suburb of Ben Gottára.]
At present I still think that I was not far wrong in estimating the
number of the inhabited houses at from six hundred to seven hundred, and
the population at about seven thousand, though it must be borne in mind
that, as the inhabitants have still preserved their trading character,
a great many of the male inhabitants are always absent from home, a
circumstance which reduces the armed force of the place to about six
hundred. A numerical element, capable of controlling the estimated amount
of the population, is offered by the number of from two hundred and
fifty to three hundred well-bred boys, who at the time of my visit were
learning a little reading and writing, in five or six schools scattered
over the town; for it is not every boy who is sent to school, but only
those belonging to families in easy circumstances, and they are all about
the same age, from eight to ten years old.
With regard to the names of the quarters of the town, which are
interesting from an historical point of view, I was not able to learn
exactly the application of each of the names; and I am sure very few even
of the inhabitants themselves can now tell the limits of the quarters,
on account of the desolate state of many of them. The principal names
which can be laid down with certainty in the plan are Masráta, Gobetáren,
Gáwa-Ngírsu, Dígi or Dégi, Katánga, Terjemán, and Arrafía, which comprise
the south-western quarter of the town. The names of the other quarters,
which I attempted to lay down on the plan sent to Government together
with my report, I now deem it prudent to withdraw, as I afterwards found
that there was some uncertainty about them. I therefore collect here, for
the information of future travellers, the names of the other quarters of
the place, besides those mentioned above and marked in the plan—Lárelóg,
Churúd, Hásena, Amaréwuël, Imurdán (which name, I was assured afterwards,
has nothing in common with the name of the tribe of the Imghád), Tafimáta
(the quarter where the tribe of the same name lived), Yobímme (“yobu-mé”
meaning the mouth of the market), Dégi-n-béne, or the Upper Dégi, and
Bosenrára. Kachíy_u_ (not Kachí_n_) seems to have been originally the
name of a pool, as I was assured that, besides the three ponds still
visible, there were formerly seven others, namely Kudúru, Kachíyu,
Chikinéwan, Lángusúgázará, Kurungúsu, and Rabafáda, this latter in the
square of the palace.
The whole ground upon which the town is built (being the edge of a
tableland which coincides with the transition from granite to sandstone)
seems to be greatly impregnated with salt at a certain depth, of which
not only the ponds, but even the wells bear evidence, two of the three
wells still in use having saltish water, and only that of Shedwánka
being, as to taste, free from salt, though it is still regarded as
unwholesome, and all the water used for drinking is brought from the
wells outside the walls. Formerly, it is said, there were nine wells
inside the town.
From what I have said above, it may be concluded that the commerce of
Ágades is now inconsiderable. Its characteristic feature is that no kind
of money whatever is current in the market—neither gold, nor silver, nor
kurdí, nor shells; while strips of cotton, or gábagá (the Kanúri, and not
the Háusa term being employed in this case, because the small quantity of
this stuff which is current is imported from the north-western province
of Bórnu), are very rare, and indeed form almost as merely nominal a
standard as the mithkál. Nevertheless the value of the mithkál is divided
into ten rijáls, or érjel, which measure means eight drʿa, or cubits,
of gábagá. The real standard of the market, I must repeat, is millet or
dukhn (“géro” in Háusa, “éneli” in Temáshight, _Pennisetum typhoïdeum_),
durra, or _Holcus sorghum_, being scarcely ever brought to market. And
it is very remarkable, that with this article a man may buy everything
at a much cheaper rate than with merchandise, which in general fetches
a low price in the place; at least it did so during my stay, when the
market had been well stocked with everything in demand, by the people
who had come along with us. English calico of very good quality was sold
by me at 20 per cent. less than it had been bought for at Múrzuk. Senna
in former times formed an article of export of some importance; but the
price which it fetches on the coast has so decreased that it scarcely
pays the carriage, the distance from the coast being so very great; and
it scarcely formed at all an article in request here, nor did we meet
on our whole journey a single camel laden with it, though it grows in
considerable quantities in the valleys hereabouts.
Ágades is in no respect a place of resort for wealthy merchants, not even
Arabs, while with regard to Europe its importance at present consists in
its lying on the most direct road to Sókoto and that part of Sudán. In my
opinion it would form for a European agent a very good and comparatively
healthy place from which to open relations with Central Africa. The
native merchants seem only to visit the markets of Kátsena, Tasáwa,
Marádi, Kanó, and Sókoto, and, as far as I was able to learn, never go
to the northern markets of Ghát or Múrzuk, unless on a journey to Mekka,
which several of them have made. Neither does there seem to exist any
intercourse at present with Gágho, or Gógo, or with Timbúktu; but the
Arabs of Azawád and those parts, when undertaking a pilgrimage, generally
go by way of Ágades.
I must here add, that I did not observe that the people of Ágades use
manna in their food, nor that it is collected in the neighbourhood of the
town; but I did not inquire about it on the spot, not having taken notice
of the passage of Leo relating to it.
My stay in Ágades was too short to justify my entering into detail about
the private life of the people, but all that I saw convinced me that,
although open to most serious censure on the part of the moralist, it
presented many striking features of cheerfulness and happiness, and
nothing like the misery which is often met with in towns which have
declined from their former glory. It still contains many active germs of
national life, which are most gratifying to the philosophic traveller.
The situation, on an elevated plateau, cannot but be healthy, as the few
waterpools, of small dimensions, are incapable of infecting the air. The
disease which I have mentioned in my diary as prevalent at the time of my
sojourn was epidemic. Besides, it must be borne in mind that the end of
the rainy season everywhere in the tropical regions is the most unhealthy
period of the year.