People of Wadaï — Historical Facts — Sultan Seleih — How
his Dynasty was founded — Abbaside descent — Boundary Mark in
the Desert — Wars between Darfur and Wadaï — A wise Vizier —
Youth of Saboun — His Schemes — How to win a Throne — A Sea
of Blood — Fratricidal Battles — The Victor and the Vanquished
— Ferocious Conduct — The Afrits or Robbers — A Brother still
at large — He is taken and killed — Pacification of Wadaï.
The manners and customs of Wadaï have many points of resemblance
with those of Darfur, but differ in some respects. The food of the
people, the clothing of the women, and the ornaments used, are almost
exactly the same in both countries; but there is a great difference
in the government and the administration. The character of the people
of Wadaï, too, is remarkable for liberality—a virtue not common
in Darfur. I shall, however, before entering into detail on this
subject, give some account of the origin of the reigning dynasty,
for it is impossible to understand the manners of a country without
knowing something of its history.
During my sojourn in Wadaï I noticed, that when I went on Friday
to the mosque the Imâm invariably uttered this prayer,—“May
God grant a victory everywhere to our Sultan Mohammed Abd-el-Kerim,
son of the Sultan Mohammed Saleh, son of the Sultan Mohammed Gaudeh,
son of the Sultan Seleih!” This suggested to me that I could
ask some old men what was the origin of this Sultan Seleih. The
answers given were various. Some said that he belonged to a tribe
named Sennawides, after one of the mountains of the country.
But I afterwards observed, on the seal of the reigning Sultan,
these words,—“The Sultan Mohammed, son of the Sultan Seleih,
the Abbaside.” I sought to find out by what genealogical
affiliation the name of that noble family could be mixed up with
the history of these non-Arab peoples. But those whom I consulted
gave me contradictory accounts, some saying that the reigning
dynasty had no connexion with the Arabs, others affirming the
contrary. A very sagacious person, the Aguid Ahmed, related to me,
that when the Tartars had driven the Abbaside family from Bagdad,
the kaliphate was removed to Egypt, and remained there until the
Turks and the Mamlouks drove them out; that is to say, until the
time of the Fatamites. The children of the Abbaside kaliphs, after
the overthrow of their dynasty, were dispersed, and sought refuge
in various countries. One of them went to Sennaar, and thence passed
on to Wadaï, where he settled among the Pagan inhabitants of Mount
Seloun. He fulfilled exactly the duties of his religion, praying,
fasting, and performing the zikr and reciting the Koran. The people,
whose friendship he had acquired, asked him why he did these things,
and he answered, it was to do homage to God. “And what is God?”
said they. “God is he who created the heavens and the earth,
the night and the day, the sun, and the moon, and the stars, the
trees and the rivers; his hand governs all these things.” The
people of Seloun at length embraced Islamism, and Saleh, whom they
called Seleih, after having well-instructed them, caused himself to
be named the religious chief, and set about converting by arms, or
other means, the neighbouring tribes. The four tribes first converted
became, in some sort, the royal family of the country, from which
the mothers of the Sultan must necessarily be derived. Such of the
remaining peoples of Wadaï as accepted the new faith with readiness
were declared to be free; whilst those who only yielded to force
were reduced to slavery. In this way, according to this informant,
was the dynasty of Seleih founded.
Other persons told me that the Sultans of Wadaï, Darfur, and
Kordofal, were all descended from one father, who belonged to the
Arab tribe called Fezarah; but as all these recitals are founded
on mere oral traditions, God only knows the truth. For my part, I
am inclined to believe the account which derives the great Seleih
from the Abbasides, on account of the elevation of his character,
the nobility of his mind, his piety, and his goodness. If he had
preceded Hatim Tai by a day, Hatim would never have been chosen as
the type of generosity in Arab poetry. How different is the paltry
conduct and the poltroonery of the Forians from the valour and the
easy hospitality of the Wadaïans! The differences of the qualities
of the two nations are sufficient to prove the different origin
of their Sultans; for a people is, in some sort, the creation of
its governors. At any rate, one thing is certain, that the three
states of Wadaï, Darfur, and Kordofal, are of recent establishment,
not exceeding in age two hundred years.
An old man of Senoun once related to me that Salou Selman, sultan
of Darfur, and Seleih, sultan of Wadaï, once met in the uninhabited
space which separates the two countries, and there engaged, by oath,
to live in peace one with the other. They measured the space between
the cultivated land, and drew a line exactly in the centre, which
they marked by very long and thick iron nails, driven into the trunks
of the largest trees. They engaged reciprocally not to overpass this
line with hostile intentions, and called God and man to witness what
they promised. When I was travelling from Darfur to Wadaï, indeed,
I saw in the midst of the forest, at the place where we met so great
a number of rabbits and wild beasts, a line of trees, in each of
which a bar of iron was stuck, advancing about a span. Each nail
appeared to me about a cubit and a half long. The points did not
stick out straight, but were beaten down, to prevent any accidental
injuries to passers-by. The Fakih Ahmed told me at that time that
this was the ancient boundary-mark of Wadaï and Darfur.
After the death of the two wise Sultans, their children, as is
the custom with princes, began to cast covetous eyes on their
neighbour’s property. He of Wadaï invaded Darfur, but was
defeated with great loss, and under the next reign the Forians
penetrated into Wadaï. The war that followed was most terrible,
and in one of the battles the Forian Sultan himself was slain. The
whole of this struggle reminds me of the war of Basous. The corpses
of those who fell were devoured by birds of prey and by lions,
or buried in huge pits.
One of the incidents related in connexion with this war is
curious. The Sultan of Wadaï, Gaudeh, pretending to fly, had
marched round in the rear of the Forian army, and interposed
between them and their country. They believed, however, that he
was utterly routed, and loudly expressed their joy. One vizier,
however, remained silent, and on being asked by his master why he
did not share in the general joy, replied that he did not believe
in this easy victory, and offered to prove that the enemy’s army
was even then marching towards them.
“How wilt thou do this?” said the Sultan.
“Bring me a she-camel,” replied the vizier, “with a man who
knows how to milk.”
The camel was brought, and well washed, and the milk was drawn
into a clean bowl, and placed, with a man to guard it, on the top
of the Sultan’s tent. Next morning the vizier caused the bowl to
be brought to him, and found the milk quite black. So he went to
the Sultan and said,—
“Master, they are coming down upon us, and have marched all
night.”
“How dost thou know that?”
“Look at this blackened milk.”
“In what way has it become black?”
“The dust raised by the feet of the horses has been carried hither
by the wind.”
Some laughed at this explanation, but others believed, and looked out
anxiously towards the west. In a short time, however, the manes of
the hostile cavalry were seen shaking above the eastern horizon. Then
followed the battle, in which the Forian Sultan was slain.
The grandson of the conqueror on this occasion was Mohammed
Abd-el-Kerim, surnamed Saboun, who reigned at the time of my
arrival. His father had two other sons, named Ahmed and Asyl, by
another wife, who was his favourite, while the mother of Saboun and
her child were treated with indifference. However, when Saboun grew
up, his intelligence gave him great influence in the government,
though his half-brothers enjoyed all the royal favour and care.
Saboun early created for himself numerous partisans, for he felt
that he would have to dispute the throne by arms. Instead of wasting
his time in sensual pleasures, he employed himself in study, in
prayer, and, above all, in collecting arms, coats of mail, horses,
and men. On one occasion he met some Magrebyn merchants armed with
guns, and learned from them the use of them. From that day forward
he bought all the fire-arms that came in his way, and made a large
body of slaves study their use under the Magrebyn merchants.
These preparations alarmed the viziers, who went to Seleih,
and represented to him that his son was making ready for an open
revolt. He accordingly ordered Saboun to be brought before him, and
one of the chiefs of the Turguenaks was sent to arrest him. These
Turguenaks, who are also called Osban, are the instruments of the
anger of the Sultan, and are always employed to effect important
arrests. It happened that Saboun was sitting on his Tirgeh, a kind of
platform, on a mound of earth, raised within the great enclosure of
a palace. He descried the Turguenaks from afar off, and, collecting
his people in time, prepared for resistance. It was, therefore,
impossible to arrest him, and sufficient time was given for the
anger of the Sultan to die away. He took counsel of his Ulemas,
and other wise people, and the result was that Saboun’s innocence
was made manifest, and he was suffered to live in quiet.
Some months after this event the Sultan fell seriously ill. His
chief wife, who had borne no children, fearing that the throne would
fall to Ahmed or Asyl, who had not the high qualities of Saboun,
and who would certainly have deprived her of her title of queen,
or, perhaps, put her to death, sent a secret messenger to the heir,
announcing that his father was ill. He immediately collected his
partisans in the villages in the neighbourhood of Warah, which
word corresponds to the Fasher of the Forians, and waited for the
event. When the Sultan died, the queen despatched a messenger to
Saboun, telling him, that unless he acted that very night all would
be lost, and that he must appear before the gates of the palace
two hours after sunset. The sagacious prince collected his force
accordingly, and appeared at the appointed time at the Warah. The
great difficulty was to force the Iron Gate, which is the fourth of
the seven gates. But, by a stratagem, the Fakih Mousa had obtained
admission, and was ready to open. The guards were asleep. Saboun,
with a few of his friends, advanced with naked feet on tip-toe until
he reached the fourth gate; his signal was understood, and Mousa,
who had won the confidence of the porter, and had taken the key,
immediately went and opened.
“For whom dost thou undo the gate at night?” said the porter.
Mousa did not reply, and Saboun passed silently with his troop. The
Fakih then seized a lance which belonged to the porter, who was
half asleep, and said to him,—
“Dost thou know for whom I have opened the door?”
“No.”
“For thy master—the master of thy mother and thy father.”
So saying, Mousa stabbed the porter, and then, falling upon the
guard, struck right and left, and killed fifteen of them. Saboun
had collected a considerable force without, and about five hundred
men entered after him and joined Mousa in the carnage. The people
of the palace, on waking up, met with lance-thrusts hotter than
burning coals. Some defended themselves desperately to the death,
whilst others submitted. By the blessing of God some huts took fire,
so that the Prince Saboun was enabled easily to recognise his enemies
and make a horrible massacre of them. The guards of the palace came
running forth to escape from the flames, and a great number were put
to the sword. Without this conflagration to light up the carnage,
Saboun might have been struck by a traitor-hand and have perished.
When the prince, by these means, saw that he was master of the
palace, and delivered from all danger, he entered the chamber where
were laid out the remains of his father. The corpse was decorated
and adorned, and surrounded with the women of the harem. Saboun
shed some tears, and said, “May God set to my account in heaven
the misfortune that has befallen me—the death of my father!”
Having made this pious observation,[27] he demanded the insignia
of the Sultanship, that is to say, the imperial seal—a heirloom
transmitted from sovereign to sovereign—the imperial sabre,
the amulet, and the throne or seat of the Sultan. Very shortly
all these objects were brought, except the seat, which the women,
being hostile to the turn things had taken, would not at first give
up. However, by threats and promises, Saboun succeeded in obtaining
this precious article.
Meanwhile the combat continued without, and grew hotter and
hotter. The Turguenaks, by this time being wide awake, attacked the
soldiers of Saboun, who fell upon them with fury. The viziers of
the opposite party came up, but were repulsed. The fight lasted the
whole night, when the people of Saboun, having the upper hand, were
joined by the vacillating, and tranquillity was at length restored.
The Princes Ahmed and Asyl, who had been journeying through the
provinces, wantonly oppressing the people, came up next day at
the head of an army, but were defeated and put to flight. Saboun
thereupon gave thanks to God for his victory, and, appearing in the
divan, caused himself to be recognised as chief of the state. He
distributed all the important offices to his relations, and the
whole of Wadaï submitted to him, partly from affection and partly
from fear.[28] The rout of Ahmed and his partisans stifled the
expression of malevolence. The number of the dead was considerable,
and blood had flowed in abundance. A poet has well said, “Men of
great power cannot escape from danger unless they surround themselves
with an ocean of blood.”
This event happened towards the middle of the month of Rejeb,
I believe, 1219 of the Hegira (A.D. 1804). Saboun remained in
peace for nearly two months, after which he marched against his
brother Ahmed, who, having escaped from the carnage of Warah, had
succeeded in collecting a respectable army. The Sultan feared that,
if he did not act with vigour, many tribes might revolt, and thus
produce great disasters. He accordingly marched a whole night and a
whole day without pausing, and came in presence of his brother’s
army. The partisans of Ahmed had spread the report that Saleh was not
dead, and that Saboun must be considered to be in a state of revolt
against him. The wise Sultan, before beginning hostilities, sent a
messenger to the hostile viziers, challenging them to produce the
old king, and offering, if they did so, to fall at his feet. The only
answer made consisted of violent words; upon which Saboun performed
his ablutions, uttered his prayers, and, in presence of his army,
demanded of God to assist him in triumphing over his enemies.
The battle began. In the twinkling of an eye, swifter than the
flight of the falcon on its prey, swifter than lightning, Saboun
rushed upon his enemies, who were at once thrown into disorder,
and took to flight. A proclamation was at once issued, offering a
generous reward to whoever should bring him his brother prisoner. In
consequence, Ahmed was brought in before the setting of the sun,
overwhelmed with shame and despair. By order of Saboun, he and
all his relations were laden with irons, and thus attended the
victorious prince returned to Warah, where he passed a comfortable
night, rejoicing in his success.
Next morning the tambourines were beaten, and the troops were
assembled. The crowd gathered together and filled the court in
front of the palace. The Sultan appeared; the standards were waving
around him; over his head spread the parasol; and the great fans of
ostrich feathers gently stirred the air. Every emir took his place;
every functionary of the state occupied the position reserved for
him. The interpreters unfolded their line, and the Osban stood
around, clothed in the insignia of vengeance and of terror. The
Sultan ordered Ahmed, and all those who had taken part with him, to
be brought forth. These wretched men advanced in the most pitiable
plight, with short, stumbling steps, for they had irons on their
hands and their feet. When they were set out in order Saboun
addressed his brother, and said to him:—
“Debauched scoundrel that thou art, traitor, libertine, impostor,
adulterer, oppressor, contemptible tyrant, brutal despot! dost
thou think that a being such as thou art is capable of acting as
sovereign chief and councillor, of governing men, and dispensing
justice? No! insensate was thy presumption; detestable were thy
thoughts. Thou capable of guiding the servants of the sovereign of
worlds! thou art not even fit to keep sheep.” He then proceeded to
accuse his brother of various acts of tyranny, of dishonouring modest
women, and of spilling blood, of overpassing the bounds set by God,
of trampling on all that was sacred, and concluded by challenging
him to disprove these charges.
Ahmed, with a bold, firm, and resolute voice, replied,—“Hold thy
peace! May God split thy mouth and confound thee, coward, rebel to
thy father, excommunicated from the pity of God! Certainly chance
has made a sad mistake in giving sovereign power to thee; but the
mistake will be repaired, let us hope. Dost thou think that I fear
the savage treatment thou art preparing for me? Do I not know that
the utmost of thy power is to say, ‘Let him be killed?’ Go;
to die is better than to be in the presence of a being so vile as
thou art.” The Sultan then addressed the Ulemas and the doctors of
the law, and said to them: “What is the judgment which the code
of Islam pronounces against this rebel?” They answered that he
must be put to death, or have a hand and a foot cut off. The text
of the words of God is as follows:—“He who revolts against
the Creator and his representative, and shall spread disorder and
rebellion in a country, shall die a violent death, shall be hanged,
or shall have a hand and a foot cut off, or _shall be exiled_.”[29]
Upon this the Sultan ordered the Mirwed, or iron tongs, to be
heated, and applied to the eyes of his brother Ahmed, who, being
thus blinded, was thrown into a prison, where he remained to the
end of his life.
In the same sitting Saboun pronounced judgment on the captive
viziers, ordering them to be put to death by the kabartou, or
executioners. These kabartou accordingly surrounded the unhappy men,
and felled them with iron clubs. The viziers contended who should
meet death in the bravest manner, and vied who should first present
his head. They feared to dishonour themselves by the slightest
act of timidity; for in Wadaï there is nothing so contemptible
as cowardice.
Having in this way got rid of the viziers who were related
to Ahmed, and having nothing to fear from their party, Saboun
reigned with justice and equity, and attracted the admiration of
his neighbours. Crowds came to contemplate him in his glory, just
as of old Pagan races used to throng the temples to behold some
great idol.[30]
One of Saboun’s first cares was to destroy the terrible robbers
called Afrits, or devils. He thus ensured the safety of the roads,
so that during his reign a solitary woman, even covered with gold,
might venture into solitary places and have nothing to fear, except
from the Most High. But whilst the Sultan gave tranquillity to
others he remained himself disquieted. The thought that his brother
Asyl was abroad prevented him from taking rest, and embittered
all his pleasures. He waited impatiently until God should give him
an opportunity of freeing himself from fear. That nothing on his
part, however, might be wanting to effect this desirable result,
he invented a stratagem by which he decoyed Asyl from Darfur, where
he had taken refuge, and, having got him into his power, addressed
him in the same terms which he had used towards Ahmed, and then
ordered him to be put to death. Thus God delivered Wadaï. That
was a day of rejoicing such as the country had never seen.[31]