Tinýlkum Ibrahim, for the purpose of supplying his brother’s house with
what was wanted; and being determined to make only one day’s stay in the
town, he had learned with pleasure that we were about to return by way
of Áfasás, the village whither he himself was going. I myself had
cherished this hope, as all the people had represented that place as one
of the largest in the country, and as pleasantly situated. Hámma had
promised to take me this way on our return to Tintéllust; but having
stayed so much longer in the town than he had intended, and being afraid
of arriving too late for the salt-caravan of the Kél-owí on their way to
Bilma, which he was to supply with provisions, he changed his plan, and
determined to return by the shortest road. Meanwhile he informed me that
the old chief would certainly not go with us to Zínder till the salt-
caravan had returned from Bilma.
Fortunately, in the course of the 29th a small caravan with corn arrived
from Damerghú; and Hámma completed his purchases. He had, however, first
to settle a disagreeable affair; for our friend Zúmmuzuk had bought in
Hamma’s name several things, for which payment was now demanded. Hámma
flew into a terrible rage, and nearly finished the rogue. My Arab and
Tawáti friends, who heard that we were to start the following day,
though they were rather busy buying corn, came to take leave of me; and
I was glad to part from all of them in friendship. But before bidding
farewell to this interesting place, I shall make a few general
observations on its history.
[Footnote 147: I am not quite sure with regard to this place, as I find
a note in my memorandum-book, “The name of the place in question is
Ingal, on the road to Sókoto, and not Aghíllad.”]
[Footnote 148: Delélti is not a Háusa word.]
[Footnote 149: It is remarkable that while _ba_ in the Háusa language
expresses the masculine in the composition of national names, _ma_
originally served to denote the female; but the latter form seems to be
almost lost.]
[Footnote 150: I will here only observe, that “bére” is one of those
words in the Sónghay language which shows its connection with Sanscrit.]
[Footnote 151: The horse of Tawát is as celebrated amongst the Berber
tribes of the desert as the Ímanang woman or “the wealth of Tunis.”]
[Footnote 152: These red caps, however, are an article quite foreign to
the original dress of the Tarki, and are obnoxious to the tribes of pure
blood.]
[Footnote 153: I have brought home a specimen of these tobes, among
various others. The tailelt was my common dress during all the latter
part of my journey. A representation of its distinguishing ornaments
will be given in the next volume.]
[Footnote 154: Who these Turáwa are I shall explain further on.]
[Footnote 155: Here also the name of the country is written with an
_h_—اهير—as is always done by the Arabs (see what I have said above).]
[Footnote 156: ʿAbd el Kerím was the name I adopted from the beginning
as my travelling name.]
[Footnote 157: من امحاربين والظالمين.]
[Footnote 158: I follow the translation of the learned Rev. G. C.
Renouard.]
[Footnote 159: The Rev. G. C. Renouard, in interpreting this passage,
has evidently made a mistake in translating “the Minister _of the_
Sultan,” and adding in a note that Emír “is here a title given to the
Emír el Núr,” while it is to be referred to the sultan himself.]
[Footnote 160: By the expression “el fókarah” the Sultan certainly meant
us, who were not travelling for trading purposes, but rather like
dervishes.]
[Footnote 161: All the tribes in Central Africa, who wear the large
tobes or shirts, tuck their sleeves up when about to undertake any work,
or going to fight.]
[Footnote 162: Leo, in the interesting description which he gives of
this town, l. vii. c. 9., expressly praises the size and architecture of
the houses: “Le case sono benissimo edificate a modo delle case di
Barberia.” He also speaks here of the great number of male slaves whom
the merchants were obliged to keep, in order to protect themselves on
the roads to Negroland.]
[Footnote 163: From Leo’s description, l. vii. c. 9., it would appear
that the palace of the sultan in former times was in the middle of the
town—“un bel palazzo in mezzo della città.” He kept a numerous host of
soldiers.]
[Footnote 164: The hostile disposition of the kádhi towards me was most
unfortunate, as he would have been the very man to give me the
information I wanted; for I did not meet any other native of the place
well versed in Arabic literature, and but a few were able to speak
Arabic at all.]
[Footnote 165: Whether this name be a corruption of Mghíli, meaning the
fanatical Mohammedan apostle Mohammed ben ʿAbd el Kerím el Maghíli, of
whom I have spoken above, I cannot say.]
CHAP. XVIII.
HISTORY OF ÁGADES.
If we had before us the historical work upon the authority of which
Mohammed el Bágeri assured Sultan Bello that the people of Góber, who
formerly possessed the country of Aïr, were Copts[166], we should most
probably find in it the history of Ágades. As it is, however, until that
book shall come to light, of which I do not at all despair, provided
future travellers inquire diligently for it, we must be content with
endeavouring to concentrate the faint and few rays of light which dimly
reveal to us, in its principal features, the history of this remarkable
town.
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 12th
century, we have the distinct statement of Marmol[167], 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[168], 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[169], 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 that 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[170]), 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 Tawát, 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.[171]
Though nothing is related about the manner in which Háj Mohammed Áskiá
took possession of the town[172], 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[173]; for he lived just at the very period during which the town,
from a Berber settlement, became a Negro town. His expression[174]
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 150,000 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.[175] 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.[176]
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[177] 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 Songhay 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[178], and in and around Tegídda, a place three days’ journey from
Íngal, and about five from Ágades W.S.W. This latter place is of
considerable interest, being evidently identical with the town of the
same name mentioned by Ebn Khaldún[179] and by Ebn Batúta[180] 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 Mélle
or Máli, which then comprised Sónghay, in the latter part of the 14th
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 Bílma, 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 Aïr.
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[181], Ebn Batúta[182],
Leo[183], Ca da Mosto[184], 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[185], 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
mithkals and a third, equal to two rottls and a sixth, while the larger
kárruwe contained a hundred mithkals, 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[186] 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 Tawárek, 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[187], and lives not in Ágades, nor even in the country of Aïr,
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 e’ 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 in order
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 Tawárek
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 e’ 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[188] (articles of food being
exempt from charge), in a small tribute derived from the salt brought
from Bílma, 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 obliged only to accompany him on his
expeditions. Of course in earlier times, when the commerce of the town
was infinitely 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[189]
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”[190] (_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[191] (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 Bílma, 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 Tawárek and Fúlbe than with the Arabs, and at
the same time is a sort of mediator between Ágades and Sókoto.
Of the other persons in connection with the sultan, the “kókoy kaina” or
“bába-n-serkí”[192] (the chief eunuch), at present Ámagay, the fadawa-n-
serkí (the aides-de-camp of the sultan), as well as the kádhi or alkáli,
and the war-chief Sidi Ghalli, I have spoken in the diary of my
residence in the place.