Sidi Ahmad al-Baqqai

Sidi Ahmad al-Baqqa'i (also al-Bakkai ; * probably 1803 in the Mabruk oasis in the Azawad region, north of Timbuktu ; † 1865 near Timbuktu) was one of the most important Koran scholars in West Africa in the 19th century.

The al-Baqqai clan

Koran scholar of the Kunta from the area around Timbuktu, 2nd half of the 19th century

The al-Baqqai family came from Mauritania and belonged to the Moorish people of the Kunta , who nomadized in the areas northwest of Timbuktu. The leaders of the clan traced their descent to Uqba ibn Nafi († 683), the conqueror of North Africa. They were considered to be important Koran scholars in the entire Sahara region and belonged to the Qadiriyya tariqa, which is widespread in north-west Africa . In this Muslim Sufi order they carried the title of Sheikh . Individual authors also speak of the fact that the al-Baqqai clan split off from the Qadiriyya and founded their own tariqa ( Mukhtariyya or Baqqiyya ), which was characterized by a particular openness to other religions, including Christianity. Since the conquest of Timbuktu by the Fulbe around 1820 there was a constant conflict between the al-Baqqai and the emirs or caliphs of Massina , who also claimed the rank of religious leader for themselves. The first confrontation occurred in 1826 when the British explorer Alexander Gordon Laing , who openly revealed himself to be a Christian, arrived in Timbuktu and was spoken to by Sidi Muhammad al-Mukhtar (known as "al-Kunti") against the hostility of fundamentalist circles in the City was protected.

Sidi Muhammad al-Mukhtar died in a devastating yellow fever epidemic just weeks after Laing's assassination, which he had been unable to prevent , and his eldest son, Sidi Mukhtar al-Saghir, took his position as the spiritual and political leader of Timbuktu. He was followed in 1847 by the younger brother Ahmad al-Baqqai. This inherited numerous writings from his predecessors; He collected other documents of all kinds and also wrote numerous writings himself, both theological and legal treatises as well as poems in high Arabic. He also had extensive correspondence with other Muslim scholars. Most of his library was lost when his son Za'in al-Abidin had to flee north to the Tuareg of the Ahaggar Mountains after the French occupation of Timbuktu (1895/96) .

Despite the suzerainty of the Fulbe over the area around Timbuktu, Al-Baqqai was the undisputed religious and also political authority among the Muslims of the region. In the ongoing quarrels between the Kunta and Tuareg nomads, he acted as a mediator, and his judge's verdict was respected without hesitation. The French African explorer Henri Duveyrier , who visited the Tuareg in the south of what is now Libya in around 1860 , reports that his reputation extended as far as Tassili n'Ajjer and that his judgment on various questions of religion and jurisprudence was respected by the Koran scholars of the northern Tuareg .

al-Baqqai and Heinrich Barth (1853–54)

Al-Baqqai became internationally famous when he placed the German Africa explorer Heinrich Barth , who came to Timbuktu in September 1853, under his protection and thus conjured up a dangerous conflict with the overlord of the city, the Fulbe ruler of Massina. In his fatwa to the ruler of Massina , a legal opinion based on Islamic belief, he defined the legal status of the Christian traveler and accused the Fulbe ruler of violating the order to expel or kill Barth Violate the principles of Islam. This accusation was all the more serious as the Fulbe ruler regarded himself as the highest political and spiritual leader of all Muslims on the Niger (amīr al-mu'minīn) and allowed himself to be called a caliph . The Sheikh, on the other hand, denied this claim and stated in his fatwa that the ruler was wrongly claiming the rank of caliph and that he and his councilors had to seek the judgment of the chief Koran scholar of Timbuktu on spiritual and legal issues.

Sheikh al-Baqqai's camp in the spring of 1854 near Timbuktu (after Heinrich Barth)

When the Fulbe tried to incite the population of Timbuktu against Barth, the Sheikh brought his guest to a nomad camp outside the city, where the Christian enjoyed the protection of the Tuareg and could continue his research on the culture of the desert warriors.

Barth and al-Baqqai signed a treaty in which Great Britain undertook to protect the sovereignty of the Tuareg and Timbuktus against the French who were advancing from the Algerian Sahara and Senegal against the Niger knee. The fear of a French conquest should have contributed to heating up the mood against Barth anyway. The Sheikh hoped that the treaty would secure his position against the Fulbe of Massina, while the British primarily hoped to open up the Niger area for their trade and wanted to keep French competition away.

Heinrich Barth's presence in Timbuktu has an important place in the history of African exploration. The researcher, who was open to Islam, knew his way around theological literature and spoke Arabic almost perfectly, had long conversations with al-Baqqai about what the two religions had in common - an early example of the intercultural dialogue that is demanded again and again today . Thanks to his language skills and his great interest in West African history, Barth was able to evaluate a number of important chronicles and other writings that al-Baqqai made available to him.

Failure of al-Baqqai's alliance policy

The British government had already lost interest in direct relations with the peoples of the Sahara by the time Barth was in Timbuktu, after it became clear that the advance to the trading centers of the Sahel was also possible via the Niger. Barth's later efforts to get the British side to ratify the treaties he had signed were doomed to failure. A high-ranking delegation from Kunta and Tuareg, led by a relative of al-Baqqai's, had to turn back in Tripoli because no one in London wanted to see them.

London and Paris had meanwhile marked out their areas of influence in North and West Africa. The Tuareg territory was awarded to France. Given the fast approaching French forces on Senegal to al-Baqqai was forced to again move closer to the Fulani, especially after their position of power on the Niger knee by advancing from Senegal troops Tukulor , whose leader Hajj Umar the jihad threat had exclaimed, has been. In 1862, al-Baqqai led a Tuareg and Kunta army that repulsed an attack on Timbuktu. From then on, the Tuareg ruled again over the city. The Sheikh probably died in 1865 (see discussion).

After his death, his son Za'in al-Abidin carried out this policy even more consistently and, unlike his father, no longer denied the claims of the Fulbe rulers to the spiritual guidance of the Muslims in what is now Mali. Behind this about-face was probably also the fear that Timbuktu could become the pawn of the quarreling Tuareg confederations. When the Austrian explorer Oskar Lenz came to Timbuktu in 1880 , he was welcomed by the Tuareg, who took him for Barth's son; but Abidin avoided the traveler in order to avoid a conflict with the Fulbe and did nothing against the Christians either. After the conquest of Timbuktu by the later Marshal Joffre , Sheikh Ahmad nephew Za'in al-Abidin Ould Mohamed al-Kunti led the resistance against the colonial rulers and proclaimed the jihad from the Azawad . However, in view of the French superiority, he had to retreat first to the Adrar n'Ifoghas, then to the Ahaggar Mountains, from where he hoped to control the further resistance. However, when the mountains were also conquered by the French in 1902, he withdrew completely to the home of his family, Mauritania. Nothing is known about its end.

Individual descendants of the al-Baqqai family still live in Mali and some of them are also active in politics.

literature

• Heinrich Barth : Travels and discoveries in North and West Africa in the years 1849 to 1855. Gotha 1857–58, Bd. 4 u. 5.
• Albert Adu Boahen : Britain, the Sahara and the Western Sudan, 1788-1861. Oxford 1964 (contains among other things the text of the fatwa against the Emir of Massina).
• John Hunwick, "Kunta" et al. "Timbuktu", in, Encyclopédie de l'Islam. Nouvelle Édition . Vol. 5 u. 10. Leiden 1986 u. 2002.
• Elias N. Saad, Social History of Timbuktu: The Role of Muslim Scholars and Notables, 1400-1900. Cambridge 1983.
• Paul-Nicolas Marty, Études sur l'Islam et les tribus du Soudan. Vol. 1: Les Kounta de l'Est. Les Berabich. Les Iguellad. Paris 1920.
• Maurice Benhazéra: Six moix chez les Touaregs de l'Ahaggar. Algiers 1908 (on the role of al-Baqqai's son Abidin in the resistance against the French)
• John Spencer Trimingham: Islam in West Africa. Oxford 1959.
• Nehemia Levtzion et al. Humphrey Fisher (ed.): Urban and Rural Islam in West Africa. Westview 1987.

The following two titles are doctoral theses, which mainly evaluate the documents written in Arabic. Both have not appeared in print and can only be consulted on-site at university libraries in the UK.

• Aziz A. Batran: Sidi Mukhtar al-Kunti and the recrudescence of Islam in the Western Sahara and the Middle Niger. Ph.D., University of Birmingham 1971.
• Abdelkader Zebadia: The Career and Correspondence of Ahmad al-Bakkay of Timbuctu, from 1847 to 1866. Ph.D., University of London 1974.