Identification of Extant Tribes

Before passing on to a brief summary of Central African history as a frame into which to fit the Air migrations, I would like to leave on record for some future student to use such conclusions as I have been able to reach regarding the descendants of the first invaders of Air recorded by Sultan Bello.

The geographical areas of the Kel Owi and People of the King respectively had almost ceased to be distinguishable even before the 1917 revolution added to the prevailing confusion. In so far as it is at all possible to lay down broad definitions, Central and West-central Air belonged to the People of the King, Northern, North-eastern and Eastern Air to the Kel Owi, or People of the Añastafidet, and Southern Air, or, as it is more properly called, Tegama, to the servile tribes. The Talak plain was diversely populated.

The first immigrants, the Immikitan, Sendal, Tamgak, Igdalen, Ijaranen and probably Itesan, have for the most part survived in some distinguishable form in or around Air. The survivors are all, of course, as is to be expected, People of the King. The only exceptions are certain nuclei which are known to have been absorbed by the Añastafidet and his people.

In addition to the survivors in Air there are some Igdalen north of Tahua, while others are Imghad of the Tarat Mellet[408] tribe of the Ifoghas of the west. These Imghad may have been a part of the Air group of Igdalen captured in war, or may represent a westward emigration of a part of the stock which came on evil days in Damergu. Generally, I regard the presence of these Igdalen in the west as confirming Bello’s account of their early arrival in the Air area from the east; it may also be taken to substantiate my view that the first wave of Tuareg to the El Suk country came from the south-east and not from the north.[409]

How far can the tribes which are known to exist to-day or whose names have been recorded by modern travellers be associated with these groups of early immigrants? A critical examination[410] of the tribes reveals at least six main tribal groups of the People of the King in Air itself, that is to say, six groups in which the respective tribes either acknowledge themselves to be, or can be shown to possess, certain affinities pointing to a descent from single stocks; but not all of these can with certainty be identified with Bello’s named clans. These six extant groups are the Kel Ferwan, Kel Tadek, Immikitan, Imezegzil, Imaqoaran and Ifadeyen.

Two of them, in some ways the most important, have no proper names of their own at all: both the Kel Ferwan and Kel Tadek are named after places, respectively Iferuan in the Ighazar of Northern Air, and the Tadek valley. Neither of these groups, which have the reputation of great antiquity and nobility, can be affiliated to any of the other four groups; they are indubitably separate clans which in the course of ages have lost their old “I names.” Returning to the five old tribes of Bello we nevertheless find certain points of contact between records and actual conditions, as well as certain differences:

Bello’s tribes.Modern groups.
Immikitan=
Immikitan.
Imezegzil.
Igdalen=Igdalen.
Ijaranen=Ijanarnen (of the Itesan).
Sendal=?
Tamgak=?
?=Kel Ferwan.
?=Kel Tadek.
?=Imaqoaran.
?=Ifadeyen.
(Itesan)=Itesan.

In discussing tribal origins in Air and comparing my results with those of Jean, I found the greatest difficulty in sorting out the tribes of the Immikitan and Imezegzil groups: so much so that I am inclined to think that both clans represent the old Immikitan stock which split into two main branches some time ago. The widespread use of the name Immikitan for Tuareg makes it possible that the original stock of the People of the King was Immikitan in the first instance; in that event, on the analogy of other Tuareg tribes, when one clan grew unmanageable in size, new groups were formed, only one of which retained the original nomenclature as a proper or individual name—a process which no doubt occurred before any migration out of the Chad area took place. But that is too far back to consider.

Leaving the Ifadeyen out of account for the moment we are left with the Kel Ferwan, the Kel Tadek and the Imaqoaran to compete for the right of descent from the Tamgak and Sendal. A remote ancestry is indicated by their undoubted nobility and antiquity. The original home of the Kel Tadek in a valley flowing out of Tamgak and the association of the Tamgak tribe with the Tamgak massif suggest that these groups may be identified, in which case the Sendal might be the ancestors of the Kel Ferwan. Nevertheless there is also a possibility that the descendants of the Sendal are the old tribes of Damergu. That the descendants of the Sendal are to be sought for south of, rather than in Air proper, is further indicated by the record of a war between the People of Air against the Sendal in Elakkos as late as 1727.[411] The Kel Ferwan, would, thus, be descended from the Damergu-Elakkos Tuareg directly, and from the Sendal therefore only indirectly, if their origin indeed is to be sought in this early wave of immigration at all.

The selection of the Sultan of Agades being in the hands of the tribes who traditionally sent the deputation to Constantinople after the arrival of the Kel Geres in Air, and the object of the mission being to settle a dispute as to who should be king, it would be natural to find all the contestant groups represented on the delegation. The Kel Owi would, of course, not figure among them, for they had not at that time reached Air. Now the names of tribes charged with sending the delegation is given by Jean, and I accept his version because all the information which I procured on the subject was very contradictory; and the list is most interesting. It is given as: the Itesan and the Dzianara of the modern Itesan-Kel Geres group, and the Izagaran, Ifadalen, Imaqoaran and Immikitan of the other Tuareg. The Itesan we know about; the Dzianara were a noble part of the Kel Geres but are now extinct: it is natural that both these should be represented. The Izagaran and Ifadalen survive as names of noble Damergu tribes, while the Immikitan and Imaqoaran represent the older clans of Air proper, all four, of course, owing allegiance to the King. From their “I names” these tribes all seem to be old; we have no reason from any other evidence to believe that any recent arrivals are represented in the list. The very choice of representatives from each of three groups may consequently be taken to indicate that these tribes were regarded as the oldest or most important units in each division. It is tempting, therefore, to suppose that the Izagaran and Ifadalen are the descendants of one of the tribes in the first wave of Tuareg which came from the south-east, and therefore perhaps of Bello’s Sendal.

Another version of the method adopted to select the first Amenokal is recorded in the Agades Chronicle, which states that the persons responsible for the task were the Agoalla[412] T’Sidderak, Agoalla Mafinet and Agoalla Kel Tagei. The story relates how the Agumbulum, the title of the ruler of the first Tuareg to enter Air, namely the Kel Innek, desired to settle the differences which had arisen in regard to the government, but was unable to find anyone to send to Stambul until an old woman called Tagirit offered to send her grandsons, who were the chieftains in question. The story emphasises what will have been noticed on the subject of the origin of the Kel Owi, namely, that the tribes of Air generally claim a woman either as ancestress or as a prominent head. The first two names are those of certain Itesan sub-tribes who, from residence in these mountain areas, which still bear the same names in Central Air, had adopted geographical Kel names, and conserve them to this day in their modern habitats in the Southland. The Kel Tagei is another subdivision of the Itesan, and, though a servile tribe of this name exists in the Imarsutan section of the Kel Owi, it is probably a portion of the former enslaved during the later civil wars of Air.[413]

This alternative story is not necessarily contradictory to the first version of the deputation to Stambul, even though it does not allow the remaining tribes of the People of the King to have a share in the election. Since, however, the Itesan were certainly the dominant tribe in Air until the arrival of the Kel Owi, the omission is comprehensible; it is a statement of a part for the whole. If it has any significance it tends to support the view that the Itesan were, in fact, a tribe of the Kel Innek from the Chad lands, as I have supposed, and not a part of the Kel Geres group.

The Imaqoaran and Kel Ferwan, however, remain a difficult problem. The latter are in many ways peculiar and seem to differ in many ways so much from their other friends in the division of the People of the King, that although I have no direct evidence on the subject, I half suspect them of having come to Air from some other part than the south-east and at a later period than the first wave. Certain it is that they specialised in raiding westward, where they obtained their numerous dependent Imghad. Furthermore, in Cortier’s account of the history of the Ifoghas n’Adghar there are stories of the formation of this western group of Tuareg tending to show that while a part of the division probably came from the north, the bulk of the immigration was from the east. He says that after the Kel el Suk reached the southern parts of the Sahara, they divided into two groups. The two groups fought, and one section, which had apparently settled in Air, was victorious, whereupon a part migrated into the Adghar, where the other section had already established itself and had founded the town of Tademekka. In the fighting, which continued, there seems to have been considerable movement between the two mountain groups; the Kel Ferwan portion of the People of the King in Air may therefore be more nearly related to the western group than to the other Air folk.

The Ifadeyen are associated with Fadé, which is the northernmost part of the Air plateau. To-day they are very friendly with the Kel Tadek, and some people have even suggested that they were of the same stock. There is, however, another tribe, the Kel Fadé, the similarity of whose name suggests, quite erroneously, an identification. The Ifadeyen are known to be a very old tribe, while the Kel Fadé are known to have been formed at about the time of the arrival of the Kel Owi in Air and to have lived in the Fadé mountains, whence the Ifadeyen were already moving south. Barth speaks of the Kel Fadé as a collection of brigands and vagabonds, and implies that they were mainly outlaws of mixed parentage. A part of them is certainly Kel Owi and composed of those elements which went on living in the northern mountains when the main body entered Air, while another part is almost certainly Ifadeyen; as a whole they remained outside the Kel Owi Confederation as People of the King. Until about thirty years ago the Kel Fadé used to maintain that the Ifadeyen were their serfs; after many disputes the matter was referred to the paramount chief of the Kel Owi, who, after consulting various authorities, decided that the Ifadeyen were noble and free. Their chief, Matali, nevertheless preferred to evacuate the northern mountains completely in favour of the Kel Fadé in order to avoid further friction, and since then, a full generation ago, they have been gradually moving south to the Azawagh, where they pasture in the winter, withdrawing to Damergu in the dry season. Their original history might have been easier to ascertain had it not been for the fact that despite its “I form” their name is a placename, though it is possible that they gave their name to Fadé and did not take it from their habitat. The presence of the Ifadeyen in an area west and north of country which we know the Kel Tadek held, and their association with the latter, render it likely that we are, in fact, dealing with one and the same stock, namely, the descendants of the Tamgak.

The Ifadeyen are renowned all over Air for their pure nomadism, and above all for the fact that they are almost the last of the Tuareg in the Southern Sahara to retain the current use of the T’ifingh script with a knowledge of reading and writing it. This learning, as is usual among Imajeghan tribes, reposes with the women-folk, one of whose principal functions is to educate the children; it is consistent with their supposed origin as one of the oldest and purest of all the tribes in Air.

As a result of the foregoing argument the following suggestions for the main tribes of the People of the King hitherto mentioned can be made:

Tribes of the King (DivisionI).[414]
Bello’s five tribesgenerically called Kel Innek, originally from the Fezzan,where the Imanen are also found.Immikitan
Immikitan,
Imezegzil.
IgdalenIgdalen (Damergu: Division IV).
TamgakRepresented by the Kel Tadek and ?Ifadeyen.
IjaranenRepresenting the Itesan, whichincludes:
(Itesan)Ijaranen,
Kel Innek,
Kel Manen (Imanen).
SendalRepresented by the Damergu and ElakkosTuareg, who include:
Izagaran,
Ifadalen.
?Imaqoaran.
?Western TuaregKel Ferwan.
MixedKel Fadé.

PLATE 48

EGHALGAWEN POOL

TIZRAET POOL

[356]Letter to the author from G. W. Webster, Resident at Sokoto, dated 20/6/1923.

[357]Journal of the African Society, No. XXXVI. Vol. IX. July 1910. Further references in this chapter will be omitted.

[358]Denham and Clapperton: Account of the First Expedition (Murray), 1826. Vol. II. p. 38 seq.; App. XII.

[359]As reported by Bello, Denham and Clapperton, loc. cit.

[360]It is to these doubtless that Jean is referring when he speaks of Egyptian influence in Air. Jean, op. cit., p. 86.

[361]Cf. Leo, op. cit., Vol. III. p. 828.

[362]Cf. also Asbytæ and Esbet with references in Bates, op. cit., passim. The root is probably, if a generalisation is at all permitted, applicable to the earliest negroid, or Grimaldi race survivors, in North Africa.

[363]Vide supra, [Chap. III.]

[364]Cf. supra, [Chap. II.]

[365]Cf. infra.

[366]Barth, op. cit., Vol. I. p. 337.

[367]Vide supra, [Chap. IV.]

[368]But not necessarily the slaves.

[369]As was the case, for instance, in the days of the Eighth and Ninth Dynasties of Egypt.

[370]“Akel” (plu. ikelan) primarily means “negro,” and from that “a slave.”

[371]Vide supra, [Chap. III.]

[372]Denham and Clapperton, loc. cit.

[373]I.e. Aujila.

[374]Barth, op. cit., Vol. I. p. 460.

[375]Herodotus, IV. 172.

[376]In [Chap. III.]

[377]Idrisi: ed. Jaubert, Vol. I. p. 238.

[378]Cf. [Chap. X.]

[379]Barth, op. cit., Vol. I. p. 460.

[380]To adopt Clapperton’s spelling.

[381]Barth, op. cit., Vol. IV. App. IX and Vol. II.

[382]I.e. Libyans, and not, at this period or in this context, Kanuri.

[383]According to Maqrizi apud Barth, Vol. II. pp. 635 and 265.

[384]El Bekri, op. cit., p. 456.

[385]A tribe of the Ahaggaren.

[386]In a communication to the author, Mr. H. R. Palmer, Resident in Bornu, writes: “After hearing probably all the extant tradition on the subject of the early rulers of Kanem, my belief is that the so-called Dugawa were Tuareg of some kind, and that the appellation Beri-beri applied originally to them and not to the Teda element which later on preponderated and gave the resulting Kanemi empire its language, i.e. Kanuri.”

[387]Denham and Clapperton, op. cit., Vol. II. p. 396.

[388]Though the Tebu are probably themselves a Kanuri stock, a distinction may be drawn between them and the more negroid Kanuri of Bornu and the Chad lands.

[389]See Abul Fida (French ed.), pp. 127-8 and 245; El Idrisi (ed. Jaubert), p. 288. At the time of El Maqrizi the empire of Kanem extended from Zella (Sella), south of the Great Syrtis, to Gogo (Gao) on the Niger. El Maqrizi lived from 1365 to 1442: Abul Fida died in 1331 writing his history, which was finished down to the year A.D. 1329.

[390]Other than a wholesale emigration of Franks and Byzantines to Europe.

[391]Cf. [Chap. XI.] supra.

[392]See [Appendix II.] and elsewhere in this chapter, also Ibn Khaldun, op. cit., Vol. II. p. 3.

[393]In [Appendix II.]

[394]Consider the proportion of such names in the Itesan group, and in the forty-six Kel Geres tribes, respectively. Cf. [Appendix II.]

[395]Jean, op. cit., p. 86.

[396]Jean, op. cit., p. 113, and Barth, op. cit., Vol. I. p. 356, also [Appendix II.] to this volume.

[397]Cf. [Appendix II.] Tribes having the same place names now in Air are not related to these clans; their history is independently established.

[398]Hornemann’s Journal, French ed. p. 102 seq.

[399]Barth, op. cit., Vol. I. p. 339.

[400]Barth, op. cit., Vol. I. p. 343. The Tinylcum (T’inalkum) is an Azger Imghad tribe: cf. [Chap. XI.]

[401]Jean, op. cit., pp. 90-1.

[402]Jean calls them Ahaggaren, but only because all the northern Tuareg are in Air called Ahaggaren irrespective of whether they come from the Azger, Ahaggar or Ahnet divisions. In addition to these Imanen among the Azger and Itesan, there are also some on the Niger who are probably the product of the same early migrations which took the five tribes, including the Itesan, into Air.

[403]Compare the grouping in [Appendix II.] and the comments in [Chap X.]

[404]See [Appendix II.] All these three tribes are People of the King, though the Kel Zilalet are rather mixed, being sedentaries.

[405]This in Air means the west or north-west. The reference may be to the Hawara, regarding whom this type of confusion has always obtained: cf. Arab-Tuareg elements in Hawara group, vide [Chap. XI.]

[406]Cf. [Chap. XI.] with reference to Duveyrier’s information.

[407]Jean, op. cit., pp. 92-3.

[408]Meaning “The White Goat.” Perhaps a survival of Totemism.

[409]Vide supra, [Chap. XI.]

[410]See [Appendix II.] Division I. for details of People of the King in Air, and Division IV. for the Damergu Tuareg.

[411]Agades Chronicle.

[412]I.e. chief of a tribal group.

[413]The Imarsutan Kel Tagei may also have merely fortuitously acquired this name, which only means the People of the Dûm Palm, and is therefore not very individual.

[414]In [Appendix II.]


CHAPTER XIII

THE HISTORY OF AIR (continued)

Part II

The Vicissitudes of the Tuareg in Air

As a division of Tuareg the people of Air cannot be said to have achieved great deeds in the history of the world as did the Sanhaja; but as a part of the race they can justly claim to share in its glory. That they brought culture and the amenities of civilisation from the Mediterranean to Central Africa has been mentioned several times. This progress in the past was responsible for the prosperity of Nigeria to-day.

The People of Air are a small and insignificant group of human beings considered by themselves alone. It may only be when that characteristic of the Englishman displays itself and he seeks to extol the virtues, charm and history of some obscure race, that such a people assumes, in his eyes at least, an importance which to the rest of the world may seem unjustified. There is probably no race so vile, so dull or so unimpressive but that some Briton will arise as its defender, and aver that if properly treated it is the salt of the earth. I am not unconscious of the dangers of this frame of mind, but being acutely aware of the mentality, I trust that this characteristic will not have led me over-much to conceal the unpleasant or unfavourable.

A chapter which attempts to deal summarily with the history of the Air Tuareg[415] set in its appropriate frame of Central African history must inevitably seem in some measure a justification for the trouble taken to piece together an obscure and complex collection of facts relating to the country and its people. But the darkness surrounding the arguments contained in the preceding account of the migrations of the Air tribes has seemed so impenetrable that instead of closing the book at this point, I have felt moved to give the reader some rather less indigestible matter with which to conclude.

To obviate the accusation of attaching unwarrantable importance to the People of Air, it may be well to state that the population of the country is small. It was never very large. Perhaps 50,000 to 60,000 souls, including the Kel Geres and the other clans in the Southland, would have been a conservative estimate in 1904. At that time Jean, numbering only the People of Air and some of the Tuareg of Elakkos and Damergu, arrived at a tentative figure of 25-27,000 inhabitants, but he was certainly misled by his local informants into thinking that the tribes were smaller than they really were. Nor did he take all the septs of Air and the Southland into account. His estimate included somewhat over 8000 People of the King, rather more than 8500 People of the Añastafidet, 4-5000 Irawellan, 2000 slaves and 2500-3000 mixed sedentaries in Agades and In Gall.[416] At the time of the prosperity of Agades the population of these countries, not including detached sedentaries and other groups lying far afield, may have attained a maximum of 100,000.

It is impossible to estimate the total numbers of Tuareg in North Africa with any accuracy. It would be interesting to make a serious study of the numbers and general state even of those in French territories.

The internecine struggles of the Air Tuareg are hardly interesting, and have only been mentioned where relevant to the origin and movements of the three immigrations. The wars between the different divisions, like the Ahaggaren and the Azger, are not really more valuable in a general survey. But even to summarise the principal events in Air in the broad outlines is easier than to describe in a few words the events which took place in the Central Sahara and the Central Sudan during the 1000 years of history which have elapsed since first, in my view at least, the Tuareg reached these mountains from their more ancient northern home.

In early times the Tuareg were already in North Africa. They can be distinguished probably as early as the Fifth, and certainly as early as the Twelfth, Dynasty in Egypt. We can follow much of what they were doing and trace where they were living in Roman times, but it is less easy to discern the groups which composed the immigrant waves of humanity into Air until about the time when the first of them came to the south, and even then the picture is obscure.

When Air was first invaded by the Tuareg it was called Asben and was part of the kingdom of Gober, a country of negroid people who lived both in the mountains and to the south. But before the first invasion took place there was already Libyan influence in the country, both due to the northern trade which had gone on since the earliest times conceivable, and also on account of the Sanhaja Tuareg, whose power and glory had extended thus far eastwards.

The first invasion consisted of tribes who had formed part of a mass of Tuareg of the Lemta division originally from, and now still settled in, the Fezzan and Ghat areas. These people had descended the Kawar road to Lake Chad. They had occupied Bornu, perhaps in the early ninth century A.D., or even before. The Goberawa of Air or Asben seem to have received a slight admixture of Libyan blood derived from the northerners who travelled down the caravan road to the Sudan; the people of Bornu were more purely negroid, and more so than their northern neighbours and probably kinsfolk, the Tebu of Tibesti. The Tuareg who were settled in Bornu were subjected to pressure from the east and north, at the hands of the Kanuri from east of Lake Chad, and of the Arabs. In due course, after being kings of Bornu for many generations the Tuareg began to move westwards. Some of them reached Air, leaving settlers, or having previously settled the regions of Elakkos and Damergu. The date of this movement cannot be fixed with any accuracy; it is probably not as early at the eighth century, but is certainly anterior to the great Kanuri expansion of the thirteenth century. An early date is suggested by Barth and accepted by Jean, probably merely on account of the incidence of the first Arab invasion of North Africa, though as a matter of fact the forces of Islam for the sixty years which elapsed after the conquest of Egypt were not really sufficiently numerous to occasion great ethnic movements. The six centuries between A.D. 700 and A.D. 1300 are very obscure; but if any reason must be assigned for the first invasion of Air by the Bornu Tuareg, it was probably due to the Hillalian invasion of Africa. For this and other reasons it may, therefore, be placed in the eleventh century.

With the opening of the Muhammadan era we find a kingdom at Ghana in Western Negroland with a ruling family of “white people” and the Libyan dynasty of Za Alayamin (Za el Yemani) installed at Kukia.[417] Gao, on the Niger, was already an important commercial centre at the southern end of the trade road from Algeria. In A.D. 837 we read of the death of Tilutan, a Tuareg of the Lemtuna,[418] who was very powerful in the Sahara; he was succeeded by Ilettan, who died in 900; the latter was followed by T’in Yerutan as lord of the Western Sahara. He was established at Audaghost,[419] an outpost of the Sanhaja, who appear at this time to have dominated Western Negroland, including even the great city of Ghana,[420] and to have carried on active intercourse between the Southland and Sijilmasa in Morocco. This and the succeeding century are notable for the influence of the Libyan tribes, in the first instance through the Libyan kings of Audaghost, and later, at the beginning of the eleventh century, by the desert confederation which Abu Abdallah, called Naresht, the son of Tifaut, had brought into being. It was at this time that the preacher and reformer, Abdallah ibn Yasin, arose and collected in the Sahara his band of Holy Men called the “Merabtin,” who were destined to play such a large rôle in the history of the world under the name of Almoravid in Morocco and in Spain. Throughout the latter part of the eleventh century and in the whole of the twelfth, the really important element in all the Western Sahara and Sudan was the Sanhaja division of the Tuareg of the west, and though nothing is heard of the effects of their rule on Air, they must nevertheless have been considerable. The Mesufa branch of the Sanhaja were, according to Ibn Batutah, established in Gober, south of Air; the influence of the Sanhaja in Air itself as well as in Damergu is also recorded. West of Air was the city of Tademekka, nine days northwards from Gao. We also hear of the Libyan towns of Tirekka, between the Tademekka and Walata, and Tautek six days beyond Tirekka; all these appear to have sprung up under the Sanhaja dominion as commercial centres in the same way as the later city of Timbuctoo. Agades, at this time, had not yet been founded.

At the beginning of the thirteenth or end of the twelfth century the second invasion of Air took place. Until now the Tuareg immigrants had lived side by side with the Goberawa despite the assistance which the former must have derived from the Sanhaja influence in the land. The new invaders were the Kel Geres, and their advent led to the expulsion or absorption of the negroid people. Together with the former inhabitants and under the leadership of the dominant Itesan tribe, the Tuareg consolidated their independence in Air. This might never have been achieved had it not been for the Sanhaja empire in the west; there is no doubt that the success of the latter contributed directly to the Bornu and Air movements.

By the time Ibn Batutah made his journey through Negroland in A.D. 1353, Tekadda, some days south of the mountains, as well as Air itself were wholly Tuareg.

Between Gao and Tekadda he had journeyed through the land of the “Bardamah, a nomad Berber tribe,”[421] whose tents and dietary are described in a manner which makes it clear that we are dealing with typical nomadic Tuareg. The Bardamah women, incidentally, are said to have been very beautiful and to have been endowed with that particular fatness which so struck Barth. At Tekadda the Sultan was a “Berber” (Libyan) called Izar.[422] There was also another prince of the same race called “the Tekerkeri,” though further on Ibn Batutah refers to him somewhat differently, saying, “We arrived in Kahir, which is part of the domains of the Sultan Kerkeri.” From this Barth deduces that the name of the ruler’s kingdom, which included Air but apparently not Tekadda, was “Kerker,” but we have seen that the chief minister of the Sultan of the Tuareg is called the Kokoi Geregeri, and it is to this title that I think Ibn Batutah is referring. Nevertheless, as a branch of the Aulimmiden in the west is also called Takarkari, this may signify that the plateau was at this period under the influence of those western Tuareg who have in history often exerted a preponderating part in the history of Southern Air.

The expansion of Bornu under Dunama II in the thirteenth century had, in the course of the conquest of the Fezzan, brought about the occupation of Kawar and other points on the Murzuk-Chad road. This could not but have had a serious effect on the economics of Air on account of the Bilma salt trade, and there is a tradition of a war with Bornu in about A.D. 1300. Raiding on a large scale across the desert no doubt also took place. By the middle of the fourteenth century, however, the greatness of Bornu had commenced to decline; the reigning dynasty was suffering severely at the hands of the “Sô people,” who were the original pagan inhabitants of the country. They had succeeded in defeating and killing four successive Kanuri rulers, and only twenty years after Ibn Batutah’s journey there were sown in the reign of Daud the germs of that internal strife which led to the complete expulsion of the Bornu dynasty from Kanem and continuous warfare between these two countries.

In the west, on the other hand, the power of the empire of Melle was still, if not quite at its height, at least unmenaced by any serious rival. With the death of Ibn Ghania in A.D. 1233 the Sanhaja Confederation had come to an end. There then arose on the Upper Niger a leader called Mari Jatah I. After making himself master of two of the greatest negroid peoples of the west, he was succeeded by Mansa Musa, the founder of the empire of Melle. Mansa Musa, or, as he was also called, Mansa Kunkur Musa, after adding to his dominions all the famous countries of Western Sudan, turned eastwards and conquered Gao, on the Middle Niger. He also subjected Timbuctoo, which had been founded about the year A.D. 1000 by the Tuareg of the Idenan and Immedideren tribes during the Sanhaja period, but its conquest only served to increase its prosperity as a trading centre. It was visited and inhabited by merchants from all over North Africa.

It is interesting, in considering the history of Melle, to observe an attempt which was made at this early period, in a country so long considered by Europeans as savage and barbarous, to solve a problem of government on more rational lines than has ever been tried in modern Europe. A dual system of administration was organised to deal with races foreign to the authority of the central government. There was a national and a territorial bureaucracy: the feature of the government was that Melle was divided territorially into two provinces, or vice-royalties, concurrently with which there were three separate ethnic or national administrations. It almost goes without saying that the military administration was kept strictly apart from the civil.

With the death of Mansa Musa and the succession of his son Mansa Magha, in 1331, the fabric of the empire began to fall in pieces. Timbuctoo had been successfully attacked in 1329 by the King of Mosi, who expelled the Melle garrison. A little later the prince, Ali Killun, son of Za Yasebi, of the original Songhai dynasty of Gao, escaped with his brother from the court of Mansa Magha, where they had been living as political prisoners in the guise of pages. They acquired some measure of independence and, though again subjected by the succeeding king of Melle, Mansa Suleiman, in about 1336 commenced to lay the foundations of the later Songhai empire on the Middle Niger. Mansa Suleiman recaptured Timbuctoo, which at this time, inhabited by the Mesufa, had begun to take the place of the older Tuareg centre, Tademekka, further east. The Mesufa, whom we last saw south of Air, were doubtless being pushed back west again by the pressure of the Aulimmiden and migrants from the East.

In 1373 the Vizier of Melle, another Mari Jatah, usurped the power from the grandson of Mansa Magha and reconquered Tekadda, but it was the last flicker of life in the old empire. The opening years of the fourteenth century saw a succession of weak kings and powerful governors who were not strong enough to resist the incursions of the Tuareg from the desert. Timbuctoo was conquered in 1433 from the Mesufa by some other Tuareg, probably from the west or north-west, under Akil (Ag Malwal), who declined to abandon his nomadic life and installed as governor Muhammad Nasr el Senhaji from Shingit in Mauretania. The Tuareg at this time were everywhere victorious but destructive. They never succeeded in consolidating their power into an empire. In this era of their ascendancy Agades was founded in about the year 1460, just as Sunni Ali, the son of Sunni Muhammad Dau, ascended the throne of Gao and changed the whole political map of North Africa by prostrating the small surviving kingdom of Melle and finally setting up in its place the Songhai empire.

The incessant bickering and local feuds had driven the Tuareg of Air to come to some arrangement by which, nominally at least, they could consolidate themselves against the powers of the Sudan. They had agreed to have a Sultan, and he was installed, and not long afterwards the Amenokalate was set up in Agades, at a most eventful period in Central African history. The empire of Songhai on the Niger seemed invincible. By 1468 Timbuctoo had been overwhelmed and the governor driven out; Akil, the Tuareg, was forced to flee westwards. The city was plundered and the occupation of Western Negroland commenced. In the meanwhile the Portuguese had planted the factory of Elmina on the Guinea coast, and Alfonso V was succeeded by João II, who sent an embassy to Sunni Ali.

Sunni Ali met his death by drowning in 1492, and was followed by his son Abu Bakr Dau, and at a short interval by Muhammad ben Abu Bakr, called Muhammad Askia, the greatest of all the kings of the Sudan, and one of the greatest monarchs in the world of the fifteenth century. He appears to have ruled with great wisdom, depending on careful administration rather than on force to maintain his prestige. In addition to Melle itself and Jenne, which had already fallen, Ghana and Mosi in the far west were added to Songhai. After a pilgrimage of great pomp across Africa and through Egypt, Haj Muhammad Askia turned his attentions to the east. Katsina was occupied in 1513 as well as the whole of Gober and the rest of Hausaland. It was inevitable, to stop the Tuareg raiding down in the settled country, that Air should be added to his dominion as well.

In 1515 Askia marched against Al Adalet, or Adil, one of the twin co-Sultans of Agades, and drove out the Tuareg tribes living in the town,[423] replacing them with his own Songhai people, a colonisation from which the city has not recovered to this day. He remained in occupation a year, and was called the “Cursed.” The conquest is unfortunately not mentioned by Leo,[424] who only refers to the expedition against Kano and Katsina; and this is all the more unpardonable, for he had accompanied his uncle on an official visit to Askia himself. Leo clearly regards Agades at the time he was writing as a negro settlement. According to traditions current in the city, numbers of Tuareg were massacred by Askia’s men, but however many Songhai may have been planted there, and however many Tuareg expelled, there is no doubt that considerable numbers remained behind to mix with the southerners and form the present Emagadesi people. The town must have been in a very flourishing state at that time: “the greatest part of the citizens are forren merchants” who paid “. . . large custom to the king . . . on their merchandise out of other places.” But apart from the yearly tribute of 150,000 ducats due to the King of Gao, the conquest of Air does not seem to have affected the independence of the Tuareg, as no mention is made of a Songhai governor, while the King of Agades, already within a few years of the time of Leo’s journey, is reported to have kept a military force of his own.

The contemporaries of Askia in Kanem and Bornu were Ali, the son of another Dunama, and later, Ali’s son, Idris, both kings of such renown that their country appears on European maps as early as 1489. Not to be outdone by the Songhai kings, whose emissaries had reached Portugal, Idris sent an embassy to Tripoli in 1512. Under the son of Idris, Muhammad, who ruled from 1526 to 1545, the kingdom of Bornu reached the summit of its greatness. This remarkable century in Central Africa deserves examination in greater detail, but lack of space makes it impossible.

Agades was perhaps at the height of its prosperity before and immediately after the conquest of Muhammad Askia. The scale of life in which Air shared is shown by the description of Muhammad Askia’s pilgrimage in 1495. He was accompanied by 1000 men on foot and 500 on horseback, and in the course of which he spent 300,100 mithkal of gold. The prosperity of Agades continued until the commencement of the nineteenth century, but in a form far different from what it must have been in the sixteenth century, when it served as an advanced trading-post or entrepôt for Gao, at that time the centre of the gold trade of the Sudan and probably the most flourishing commercial city in Central Africa. The gradual desertion of Agades, almost complete by 1790, when the bulk of the population migrated to Katsina, Tasawa, Maradi and Kano, commenced in 1591, at which date Gao, the parent city from the commercial point of view, had fallen to be a province of the Moroccan empire.

The heritage of Muhammad Askia was beyond the power of his successors to maintain. Intestine wars and intrigues broke down the authority of the central government. Revolts took place in Melle, and the covetous eyes of Mulai Ahmed, the Sultan of Morocco, in 1549, were turned towards Negroland. He demanded the cession of the Tegaza salt-mines, and though this insult was avenged by an army of 2000 Tuareg invading Morocco in 1586, Tegaza was captured by the Moors soon afterwards and the deposits of Taodenit, north of Timbuctoo, were opened instead. The final blow fell three years later, when Gao was entered by Basha Jodar, the eunuch-general of Mulai Hamed, with a Moroccan army. The final struggles of Ishak Askia in 1591 were unavailing. Henceforth Moroccan governors reigned over the Western Sudan with garrisons in Jenne, Timbuctoo, Gao and elsewhere. In 1603 Mulai Hamed el Mansur of Morocco died, with the whole of Western Africa under his rule.

Power in the west thus passed once more from the negroid to the northern people, but traditions of empire persisted in the centre. In 1571 there came to the throne of Bornu, Idris Ansami, known more usually from the place of his burial as Idris Alawoma. His mother seems from her name—’Aisha-Kel Eghrarmar—to have been a Tuareg; she had the reputation of great beauty. After consolidating his empire to the east, Idris conquered Hausaland as far west as and including Kano, where he must have come into contact with the Songhai empire, just then in process of passing under the rule of Morocco. So Idris Alawoma[425] turned his attention to the north-west, and undertook three expeditions against the Tuareg, the last one of which was against Air itself, the first two presumably being against more southern tribes. The chronicle of Idris’ expeditions is not clear enough to identify the exact areas of his operations. The first one was described as a raid, and the second, an expedition against a tribe. The operations against Air started from Atrebisa and passed Ghamarama, doubtfully identified with Gamram in Northern Damergu, after which a host of Tuareg was overtaken in the open desert between the town, Tadsa, and Air, and many were slaughtered. Idris returned to Munio by way of Zibduwa and Susubaki. At an earlier date than these expeditions his vizier had fought a battle with the Tuareg, who had come with a numerous host of Tildhin (?)[426] and others to attack him at Aghalwen, which is Eghalgawen in Southern Air, on the road to the Southland.

Having broken the power of the Air Tuareg, Idris Alawoma ordered the Kel Yiti, or Kel Wati, who were living in his dominions, to raid north and north-west in order to keep the tribes in a properly chastened frame of mind, until they were obliged to sue for peace and acknowledge their allegiance to the kingdom of Bornu. Barth thinks the Kel Wati are to be identified with the Kel Eti, or Jokto, a mixed Tebu and Tuareg people in the parts near Lake Chad. This is probably the period of raids in South-eastern Air, previously referred to, which obliged the Itesan to abandon their eastern settlements and move west into the heart of the mountains. The supposition is borne out by the record of Idris’ expedition against the Tebu of Dirki and Agram, or Fashi, which was followed by a long stay at Bilma and the opening up of relations with the north. All these events fall into the first twelve years of Idris Alawoma’s reign: of the last twenty-one we know little.

In 1601 at Agades, Muhammad ben Mubarak ibn el Guddala, or Ghodala, deposed the Amenokal Yussif ben el Haj Ahmed ibn el Haj Abeshan, and reigned in his stead for four months. Yussif recaptured the power and ben Mubarak fled to Katsina and Kano, but returning to Air entered Agades with a body of men from Bornu. He went on to Assode, and then retired within a short time to Gamram in Damergu. Yussif in the meanwhile had collected men in the Southland of Kebbi and returned to the charge. Ben Mubarak again fled to Bornu, but was later captured, and died in prison. This period of hostility between Air and Bornu led Idris Alawoma’s grandson Ali ben el Haj Omar ben Idris to wage several wars against the Sultan of Agades, though he was once himself besieged in his own capital by the Tuareg and their allies. To the wars in this reign, lasting from 1645 to 1684 or 1685, belong the events which Jean has recorded incorrectly as occurring in 1300,[427] in the reign of the eighth Sultan before Lamini.[428] The latter is, of course, the famous Muhammad el Amin el Kanemi of Denham and Clapperton’s expedition, who was, in fact, the eighth Sultan before Ali ben Idris.

Tradition in Air and the Agades Chronicle at this point agree tolerably well with the Bornu Chronicle. The Bornu king laid siege to Agades, where Muhammad Mubaraki (1653-87) was reigning, and defeated the Tuareg, who, after a number of engagements in the Telwa valley, retired to the fastness of Bagezan. Their resources enabled them to hold out for three years against the Bornuwi forces, who were starving in the lowlands. The war of 1685 is called in the Agades Chronicle the War of Famine. The people of Bornu eventually withdrew eastwards over the desert, hotly pursued by the Tuareg all the way to the well of Ashegur, north of Fashi, which, as will be remembered, had previously been occupied by Idris Alawoma. Deserted by their Sultan, the Bornuwi were surprised, and left 300-400 prisoners in the hands of the Tuareg, who, from now on to the present day, have exercised a paramount influence over these oases, where they developed the salt trade with the Sudan[429] through Air. The gold trade of Songhai, at one time so important in Agades that it had its own standard weight for the metal, which long after its disappearance continued to regulate the circulating medium of exchange, was replaced by the salt traffic as an asset of much value.[430]

The campaigns of Idris Alawoma and of Ali repeated the effects of the earlier Kanuri pressure on the west. Evidence of the tendency of the southern Tuareg to move west has been noticed on several occasions. The effect of the Bornu campaigns was to exert pressure on the Aulimmiden, which culminated in their attacks on the Tademekkat people and eventually in the Kel Owi immigration into Air. The sequence of events in Air has already been related; the successes of the Aulimmiden contributed directly and indirectly to the decline of Agades as a commercial centre. By 1770 they had captured Gao. Under Kawa, in 1780, they established a dominion over the north bank of the Niger at Ausa; these were doubtless some factors which influenced the Kel Geres in their decision to abandon Air as a result of the arrival of the Kel Owi. The westward move of the Aulimmiden before the Kanuri of Bornu, who were suffering from the reaction which follows greatness, had left an area correspondingly free for the Kel Geres to occupy. The middle of the century had been taken up in desultory fighting between Air and the south. The next notable event had been in 1761—an attack on Kano by the Kel Owi and the defeat of the Kel Geres by the Aulimmiden in the same year. The inroads of the Fulani into Hausaland had commenced, but as yet Othman dan Fodio had not established himself in Sokoto, or the ruling families of Fulani in all the large towns of the Central Sudan.

PLATE 49

EGHALGAWEN AND THE LAST HILLS OF AIR

The protection of the salt trade led to continual struggles between Air and Bornu. An expedition by the Sultan of Agades, in about 1760,[431] to Kuka on Lake Chad is probably part of the war of Bilma in 1759 referred to in the Agades Chronicle as having been made by Muhammad Guma, the son of Mubarak. The Sultan was accompanied by the Kel Ferwan, and returned with a war indemnity of 2000 head of cattle and a promise that trade would not be subjected to interference.

The occupation of part of Damergu by the Kel Owi Tuareg is of course recent, though it had been seized by the earlier immigrants at the same time as Air, with this difference, that the negroid inhabitants were never driven out or absorbed as in the mountains. The Kel Owi interference and immigration took the form of successful raiding or warfare to keep open the caravan road into the south. The fate of Damergu in all this long period of history was to be squeezed between the Tuareg on two sides and the Sudan empires on the other two.[432]

The modern period commences with the passage through Air of the Foureau-Lamy Mission. Beyond what has already been said, it is impossible to discuss this phase, as it is still too recent, but the French version is contained in Lieut. Jean’s admirable review of French colonial policy in the Territoires du Niger.

[415]Some notes on the early history and the origins of the Tuareg race will be found in a paper by the author in the Journal of the R.G.S. for Jan. 1926.

[416]Jean: op. cit., Chap. XIII; and Chudeau: Le Sahara Soudanais, p. 72.

[417]Fifteen days east of Ghana in the Upper Niger country. Not to be confused with Kuka on Lake Chad, or with Gao (Gago) on the Middle Niger. Kukia is called Kugha in el Bekri and Cochia by Ca’ da Mosto (Barth, op. cit., Vol. IV., pp. 583-4).

[418]As we have seen, a section of the Sanhaja, and nothing to do with the Lemta.

[419]Audaghost was for long confused by European geographers with Agades, or, as soon as the first news of Air was received, with Auderas. Audaghost was in Mauretania between Tegaza and Walata.

[420]South-west of Walata and west of Timbuctoo: for all these places see Map I in Vol. I. of the Hakluyt Soc., edition of Leo Africanus.

[421]Ibn Batutah, French ed., IV. p. 437.

[422]Variant, Iraz, French ed., IV. pp. 442, 445.

[423]Barth, op. cit., Vol. IV. p. 603; Vol. I. p. 461.

[424]Leo, op. cit., Vol. III. pp. 829 seq. and 846.

[425]Barth, op. cit., Vol. II. p. 653.

[426]The word may be a corruption of Kindin, the Kanuri name for the Tuareg.

[427]Jean, op. cit., p. 115.

[428]Who did not die 400 years, but barely 100 years, ago, in 1835.

[429]Jean is, of course, quite unjustified in dragging in the Kel Owi. His information, owing to the fact that the Kel Owi had always favoured the French expansion both during the Foureau-Lamy expedition and when Jean occupied Air, seems to be derived largely from this source, which is as prejudiced as the accounts given by all parvenus in the world when discussing history in which they have not been, but would have liked to have been, involved. A parallel unjustified assumption of historical responsibility is found in the Maket n’Ikelan story.

[430]Barth, op. cit., Vol. I. p. 467.

[431]Jean, op. cit., p. 121.

[432]I cannot agree with Jean that the first occupation of Damergu, Elakkos and Damagarim by the earlier Tuareg is at all recent (op. cit., pp. 121-2). Some of the events he records are recent, but not the earlier movements of the tribes.


CHAPTER XIV

VALEDICTORY

Here my account of the Air Tuareg must close. No one can be better aware than myself of the shortcomings and discrepancies of my story. The task would have been easier had a general survey of an unprejudiced character of the history and ethnology of North Africa existed. Where my account has wandered from the field of the Tuareg of Air, it has had to build both a general and a particular foundation for itself, and I am conscious that the result is not as satisfactory as it should be. The subjects of script and of language have scarcely been touched upon at all; they are too large and specialised matters for this volume. If ever there should come a period of leisure for me, they might be made the subject of a separate study.

I cannot conceal the pleasure that writing this account has afforded me in the course of my researches, by making the scenes which I enjoyed in Air live again before my eyes. Had the time available both in Africa and since my return been commensurate with my interest in the subject, the result would have been better. Intended originally as a book of travel, it has in places become complicated, obscure and overladen with some of the fruits of inquiry in a vast field, namely, the origin and nature of all the peoples of North Africa. I shall feel amply rewarded if another student will allow his curiosity to be sufficiently stimulated to continue the work.

As the writer of a book of travel I must complete the tale of the journey. I came to an end of my wanderings where I had begun them, in Northern Nigeria. My two friends and I had started from there on 27th April, 1922; I returned there alone on the 29th December of the same year. After my tour in Northern Air it became apparent that the time at my disposal must prove too short to achieve the object of crossing the Sahara to the Mediterranean with my companions. At Iferuan I regretfully decided to return home by way of Nigeria. At the commencement of December I turned south and marched to Agellal, a large village of stone houses under a singularly beautiful mountain. From there I went to Tefis to see the mosque, and camped at Anu Wisheran, which means “The Old Well.” There were small deserted settlements at both places. After another camp at Garet I descended into the basin of Central Air, over a barren slope intersected by numerous north and south rivulets between bare stony ridges. I halted in the Anu Maqaran valley near the boulder on which I discovered the chariot drawing. The site of my camp had been purely adventitious, but that obscure rock may well prove to be the most important observation of my whole journey. On the following day, Bila was reached at the spur of the Azamkoran mountains, and then we passed by the sugar-loaf hill of Sampfotchi into the Arwa Mellen and familiar Assada valleys. After a long march from the Tamenzaret wells I came again to Auderas, where I rejoined my companions, but only for a day or two, to sort our belongings and part company, I to return south, they to go on north and after many tedious delays to reach Algiers. The pleasant people of Auderas came to say good-bye. My companions walked a mile or so along my road, over the valley and hill, till we reached the plain sloping down to Taruaji. There they turned back. With me were only Sidi my guide, Amadu my servant, and one camel boy. Sidi had not been to Nigeria for many years and I was anxious for him to see modern Kano. We travelled fast, stopping only one day on the way in order to try to save a camel which had caught pneumonia during the bitterly cold nights in Azawagh. We went by Inwatza, the pool of Tizraet near Turayet, Akaraq, Eghalgawen, Milen, Hannekar and Tanut, and then straight into Nigeria without going to Zinder. On 29th December, the thirty-third day after leaving Iferuan, I reached Kano again after a journey of some 550 miles in twenty-nine marches. Even the Tuareg admitted that it was fast travelling. The camels arrived very fit indeed and were sold. A fortnight later I was embarking at Lagos for England.

PLATE 50

MT. BILA AT SUNSET

My guide, Sidi, was astonished at the prosperity and development of Kano. I gave him some small presents and a few things to take back to Ahodu of Auderas. He left Kano before I did, as he had found a caravan returning north and did not want to miss the opportunity of travelling with friends. He came to see me in the morning of the day he was due to leave, and we walked round the European quarter of Kano together. I happened to be with a French officer at the time. We met Sidi waiting where I had told him to be, under a certain tree in front of a well-known merchant’s store in the European town of Kano. Sidi got up and greeted me. His hand and mine brushed over one another’s, the fingers being withdrawn with a closing snap. I gave him the usual greeting: “Ma’-tt-uli,” and he replied very solemnly, “El Kheir ’Ras”; which mean, “How do you fare?” and “Naught but good.” When Tuareg meet these hand-clasps and greetings continue to punctuate their conversation for a long time. They are varied with the question, “Iselan?” meaning, “What news?” to which the right answer is, “Kalá, kalá,” “No, no!” since for them any news must be bad news. Then, as I have said, Sidi and I and the Frenchman walked together; the latter looked wonderingly at the demeanour of my friend, whom he did not know. At last it was time for Sidi to join the camels of his caravan. Their number had been increased by one camel which I had given to him. He turned to say good-bye, but did not speak at all. He took my hand and held it with both of his, and then bowed his forehead till his veil touched my fingers. I gave him the thanks of the Lord in Arabic, and he murmured something incomprehensible. My French friend looked on curiously. And then Sidi without glancing at him turned quickly and walked away like a Prince of the Earth striding over the land. He walked erect and swiftly till I lost him to sight. He never turned his head again.

He was in many ways rather a ruffian, but, like his folk, patient, long-suffering and unforgiving. He was a true specimen of the Tuareg race.

These people never become angry or speak loud: I have rarely seen them excited, but they have an indomitable spirit and for that reason will perhaps survive. They say, “Kiss the hand you cannot cut off,” and again, “The path, though it be winding, and the King, though he be old.” So they may have patience after all to wait for the fulfilment of their fate and not throw themselves fruitlessly again on rifles or machine-guns. I remember sitting at Gamram one evening on the ruins of the walls of the town where once their rulers lived as wardens of the marches of the desert on that great Saharan road. In my diary I wrote:

“Last night I sat on the old walls looking west towards the yellow sunset under a blue-black cloud of rain hanging low in the sky. A man had lit a fire which smoked very much, and the west wind was carrying the smoke away over the wall in a horizontal streak between me and the sunset. They have gone, the Tuareg, from history like that streak of smoke. Even the Almoravids are only a name. I wonder why. They have fought with a losing hand so long. They were driven down from the north by the Arabs and by Europe, and harried by everyone. They have also harried others well. Finally, the French have come and have occupied their country. For long it was thought that the Tuareg would be untamable. They fought well and hard. The fire of old remained. In Air it broke again into flame in 1917 with Kaossen’s revolt, but in the end the force of European arms prevailed. The French killed many and punished the people of Air very hardly, too hardly as some of their own officers think, in dealing with a people which is already so small and tending to die out. But though calm and peaceful to-day like the smoke carried away from the fire by the walls of Gamram, the point of flame remains. I could see the heart of the fire from which the smoke was coming. I wonder if the flame will burst forth again. You have fought well, you people. You would not bow your necks, so they have been broken, but perhaps your day may come again. It grew dark on the walls of Gamram and the sunset of rain faded away; the fire continued to burn, but my thoughts turned elsewhere, to my journey, to my riding camel (wondering whether it would survive: I gave it some millet that night as extra fodder), to England, and to what I should have to eat there. I had an omelette which I made myself, and some fresh milk for supper that evening. Thence my thoughts turned to other things as well. . . .”

And here it is better that I close. It is on the knees of the gods how they achieve their destiny. I hope that the gods will be good to them.

They were my very good friends, and I was very pleased to live with them, for they were very agreeable. Perhaps we shall meet again and travel together once more. And so their proverb, which has seemed to me very true, will be fulfilled for them and for me. They say that:

“Living People Often Meet.”


APPENDIX I

A LIST OF THE ASTRONOMICALLY DETERMINED POINTS IN AIR

The positions given in the following table have been collected from the record of the proceedings of the Foureau-Lamy Mission, from the list given on the second sheet of the “Carte de l’Air” prepared by the Mission Cortier and others on a scale of 1/500,000, and from the observations by the author. Two positions given in Lieut. Jean’s Les Touareg du Sud-Est are also included. The French longitudes have been converted into longitudes east of Greenwich by the addition 2° 20′ 14″.

The author’s observations were carried out with a three-inch transit theodolite by Cary and Porter, and were in all cases stellar sights. The latitudes were in all cases determined from pairs of north and south circum-meridian stars, or from altitudes of Polaris and one south star. The longitudes were determined by calculations based on local mean time derived from pairs of east and west stars, and chronometric differences from points which had previously been determined by French travellers. Where the author’s longitudes for points previously determined by French observers are also given, they are the result of chronometric differences from other points previously or successively visited. The author, however, has not used his own longitudes for determining intermediate points when French observations were available, and his co-ordinates in these instances are only reproduced for purposes of comparison.

The data for the Foureau-Lamy observations are described in the record of the proceedings of the expedition. The source of the positions given on the Cortier map is not stated. The data for Colonel Tilho’s positions are in the record of the delimitation of the northern boundary of Nigeria. The author’s computations are in the records of the Royal Geographical Society in London, where are also the original route reports and prismatic compass traverses made throughout the journey.

Where possible the author’s chronometric differences were checked by opening and closing a series of observations on points previously fixed by French observers. In one unfortunate case, however, the author’s watches stopped as a result of his camels going astray and the series was consequently broken. His watches again stopped at Auderas, where, however, he stayed a sufficient length of time to re-rate them. At this place a number of local mean time observations were taken over a long period.

The author’s longitude observations were carried out as follows:

Series Aopened at Fanisau camp near Kano from a position supplied by the Survey school—closed at Tessawa— Dan Kaba (unreliable), intermediate position.
Series Bopened at Tessawa—not closed: Urufan-Gangara-Tanut, intermediate positions.
Series Cnot opened—closed at T’in Wana: Termit—Teskar-Guliski, intermediate positions.
Series Dopened at T’in Wana—closed at Auderas.
Series Eopened at Auderas—watches rated—closed at Auderas.
Series Fopened at Auderas—closed at Auderas: Abarakan-Teginjir-Telia-Teloas, intermediate positions.
Series Gopened at Auderas—closed at Auderas: Aggata-Assode-Afis-Iferuan, intermediate positions.

The author’s meteorological record, which was kept for nine months, has not been reproduced. It consists of daily maximum and minimum, actual (twice daily), and wet and dry bulb temperatures; aneroid readings; wind and rainfall, and sunset and sunrise notes. It is at any student’s disposal to consult.

The following abbreviations are used in the ensuing table:

F—Foureau; Ch—Chambrun (see Record of Foureau-Lamy expedition); R—Rodd; T—Tilho; C—Cortier’s Map of Air; J—Jean’s Touareg du Sud-Est.

Place.Area.Latitude, north.Longitude (east of Greenwich).Authority.
° ′ ″ ° ′ ″
Dan Kaba[433]Nigeria13-12-407-44-30R
TessawaTessawa13-45-20·57-59-12·6T
13-45-507-59-15R
UrufanTessawa14-04-508-06-25R
GangaraDamergu14-36-308-27-32F
14-36-42Ch
14-36-508-25-40R
Tanut[434]Damergu14-58-208-47-50R
GuliskiDamergu15-00-509-06-20R
TeshkarElakkos15-07-4010-35-10R
TermitEastern Desert16-04-1011-04-50R
AbellamaTegama-Azawagh16-16-327-47-19C
MarandetTegama-Azawagh16-22-207-24-14C
Ain IrhayenTegama-Azawagh16-26-407-55-22C
TabzagurTegama-Azawagh16-36-577-08-17C
Tin Wana(T’in-Nouana)S. Air16-42-328-25-19C
16-42-558-25-15R
In GallS.W.Air16-47-086-54-15C
TebehicS.Air16-47-328-21-14C
EghalgawenS.Air16-48-218-31-19C
Agades (Post)S.Air16-59-197-57-15C
„ (T’in Shaman[435])S.Air16-59-02(8-24-18)J
Tin DawinS.Air17-00-078-26-19C
Tin TaboraqS.Air17-01-508-08-19C
Tagidda N’AdrarW.Air17-04-137-22-21C
Anu AreranW.Air17-15-277-43-20C
FagoshiaW.Air17-16-016-57-17C
TafadekS.Air17-23-327-55-19C
Tagidda N’T’isemtW.Air17-25-386-34-33C
TinienS.Air17-26-548-09-02F
17-26-24Ch
IdikelW.Air17-29-427-37-23C
Teloas-TabelloE.Air17-34-408-49-30R
EgeruenS.W.Air17-35-157-54-22C
Auderas[436]C.Air17-37-508-19-00R
17-38-008-18-14F
17-37-488-19-30(C)
TeliaE.Air17-47-308-49-20R
In KakkanW.Air17-49-227-48-23C
In AbbagaritWestern Desert17-53-475-59-15C
Tamet TedderetWestern Desert17-54-046-36-18C
Anu n’AgerufW.Air17-54-467-24-22C
AureranC.Air17-56-548-23-17F
17-56-42Ch
TeginjirC.Air17-59-20R
AbarakanC.Air18-03-308-39-20R
AggataC.Air18-09-008-26-40R
Ufa AtikinW.Air18-09-267-12-21C
In AllaramWestern Desert18-16-126-15-19C
Tamadalt TanAtaramW.Air18-16-237-49-18C
AfastoW.Air18-17-087-17-22C
ZilaletW.Air18-23-197-51-21C
AssodeC.Air18-27-008-26-50R
SidawetC.Air18-30-548-02-20C
AfisN.Air18-37-308-35-40R
AgellalN.Air18-43-028-07-17C
18-43-008-10-02F
18-43-008-07-14Ch
FaodetN.Air18-47-208-34-50R
Iferuan[437]N.Air19-04-108-22-45R
19-04-288-22-22C
19-04-188-24-32F
19-04-128-21-20Ch
19-04-038-24-24J
ZurikaN.Air19-14-357-50-15C
UrarenWestern Desert19-31-447-08-17C
In GezzamWestern Desert19-33-105-44-20C

Heights above Sea Level.[438]

Iferuan681metres(F)
673(C)
Uraren485(C)
Sidawet554(C)
Agellal613(C)
604(F)
Auderas798(F)
Agades (T’in Shaman)500(F)
In Gezzam374(C)
Zilalet557(C)

Note.—The exact positions of the observations in the same localities are not identical in the case of all observers, which accounts for some of the apparent discrepancies.

[433]The Dankaba observation is of somewhat doubtful accuracy.

[434]The Tanut longitude depends on only one stellar observation for L.M.T.

[435]Jean’s longitude for T’in Shaman, which is the site of the French post and therefore also of the rest-house where the Cortier observation was taken, differs so materially from the latter that it cannot be accepted. It is described (like the position he gives for Iferuan) as “d’après F. Foureau,” but I can find no record in the account of the proceedings of the Foureau-Lamy Mission to justify this statement.

[436]My camp at Auderas was situated about 400 yards east of the camp site which the Foureau-Lamy Mission occupied and where, therefore, Foureau’s observation was probably made. This difference accounts for the discrepancy in our longitudes. The Cortier map shows an astronomically fixed point at Auderas which, when measured on the copy in my possession, gives these co-ordinates, but they are not recorded in the table on the second sheet of the map, as are the other positions in Air. Foureau’s latitude is based upon five observations, one of which is appreciably smaller than the other four; if this result is omitted from the average, the latitude becomes even higher than it is given in the table.

[437]Foureau’s latitude for Iferuan is based upon five observations, one of which is appreciably higher than the other four; if this result is omitted the average practically coincides with my observation, which was taken on the identical spot.

[438]The altitudes obtained by me from boiling-point observations and aneroid readings are not given; they are numerous but have not been fully worked out.


APPENDIX II

THE TRIBAL ORGANISATION OF THE TUAREG OF AIR

[Division I.] The People of the King.

[Division II.] The Itesan and Kel Geres.

[Division III.] The Kel Owi.

[Division IV.] The Tuareg of Damergu.

[Division V.] Unidentified tribes, generic names, etc.

The work of Barth and Jean has been incorporated in these tables; further reference to these authors is therefore omitted. Alternative name forms from these and other sources are given in brackets below the spelling which has been adopted to conform as far as possible with the rules of the Royal Geographical Society’s Committee on names.

(N) and (S) respectively signify “noble” and “servile” tribes.

In many cases no territorial identification is given, as tribes have changed their areas very greatly since 1917-18, nor have they settled down permanently to occupy other ranges since then. When Northern Air was cleared by the French patrols, the tribes were moved south, and for the most part they are therefore now in the neighbourhood of Agades, or in the Azawagh or even further south. But they are arranged in a disorderly fashion and are always moving from place to place; any attempt to give their present areas would be fruitless, since they will probably prove to be only temporary. The process of returning north had already commenced in 1922 and has presumably continued since then. Such locations as are given in the tables refer to periods prior to 1917 unless the contrary is stated.

The left-hand column gives the name of the original tribal stock so far as it has been possible to trace one. The next column gives the names of the tribes and sub-tribes formed by the original group. It is often impossible to state for certain whether large tribes are still to be described as such, or whether they have become independent tribes with subsidiary clans. Thus the whole classification must be considered approximate. It is designed to carry one stage further the system commenced by Barth, and continued by Jean. Where these two authorities are stated to have made mistakes or to have been inaccurate, the brevity of such phrases, occasioned as it has been by the use of a tabular form of arrangement, does not denote more than an expression of different opinion. It is intended to convey no disparagement, but merely to obviate circumlocution. The remarks in the right-hand column are intended to be read in conjunction with the relevant parts of the text of this book to which they are supplementary.

Division I. The People of the King.

Group.Tribes and sub-tribes.Notes.
1.
Kel Ferwan.Kel Ferwan(N.).From its present name the group wasoriginally in Iferuan (Ighazar) valley, whence probably expelled toW. and S. by Kel Owi. Original name unknown. Possibly notoriginally of same stock as others in division, and perhapsimmigrant from W. Tribes ranged over S.W. Air, N.W. Damergu, and W.Tegama, but since 1917 nearly all the nobles have settled inKatsina, leaving Imghad in old areas. Great raiders westward. About4320 souls according to Jean.
Irawattan(N.).At T’intabisgi (S. Talak plain). The only“I name” tribe recorded in the group.
Kel Azel(N.).At T’intabisgi.
Kel Tadele.Large tribe now partially independent ofKel Ferwan group. Described by Jean as servile and by others asnoble; explanation being probably that both castes occur assub-tribes. Apparently originally an Ahaggar tribe which with itsImghad came to Air; if this was due to conquest by an Air tribe,the confusion of status is comprehensible.
Kel Tadele(N.).
Talak-Zurika area. They ownZelim and Tuaghet pools in Fadé, a part of which is also theirs.Their chief is Rabidin.
Tehammam(S.).
Imuzurak (S.).W. Tegama and S.W. Air. Some nobles ofthis name in Damergu are wrongly described by Jean as Imghad of theIkazkazan. The Imghad Imuzurak were probably captured from thenoble sept.
Imuzuran(S.).At T’intabisgi. The name is abusive,meaning “Donkey droppings.” Reputed very fair skinned.
Iberdianen(S.)At Araten.
(Berdianen)
Jekarkaren(S.).At Araten.
Igedeyenan(S.).At Azel.
(Gedeyenan)
(Iguendianna)
Isakarkaran(S.).At T’intabisgi. Both namesare wrongly given by Jean as separate units.
(Zakarkaran)
Ideleyen(S.).At T’intabisgi.
Ikawkan(S.).Do.
Eghbaren(S.).Do.
The last eight serviletribes represent nuclei captured in the W. They are of Tuareg, Araband Moroccan origin, but have been assimilated to the People of theVeil.
Ifoghas(S.).Tafadek area. Said by Jean to be Imghadof the Kel Ferwan and to have come from the Kel Antassar stock(unidentified) S. of Timbuctoo. They came to Air about 1860 andsettled under the Amenokal; they were allowed to retain nobleprivileges. Their inclusion in the Kel Ferwan group indicates thatthe latter may be of W. origin.
(Ifadeyen)(?).Believed to be noble. Included by Jeanamong the Kel Ferwan Imghad, but for a more probable attributionsee Div. I. Group 6.
2.
(Kel Tadek).No original name is traceable, but thatof “Tamgak” is suggested. They were named from the Tidik (or Tadek)valley N. of Tamgak and the Ighazar. One of the oldest tribes inAir. They possessed the country from Agalenge to Tezirzak in Fadéand N. Air. They had the Kel Fares to E. and Kel Tamat to W., andcovered area from Temed to just N. of Ighazar. Now scattered allover Air. Their chief is Ahodu of Auderas.
Kel Tadek(N.).Tadek valley and Gissat. Now scatteredand in small numbers. Their original name is unknown.
Kel Umuzut(N.).Agades area, and Damergu.Practically separate from the other tribes in the division.
(Kalenuzuk)
Kel Tefgun(N.).At Tefgun mosque, Ighazar. A smallpersonal tribe of Ahodu’s own family; keepers of the mosque for atleast five generations.
Kel Aghimmat(?).Probably a sub-tribe of the KelTadek.
(Kelghimmat)
Kel Takermus(N.).
Kel Garet.Garet plain, C. Air. Not tobe confused with the Kel Garet of the Kel Geres. From a place S. ofAgellal pronounced “Anigara.”
Kel Garet(N.).
Kel Aniogara(?).
Kel AnuWisheran.
Kel Anuwisheran(N.).At Anu Wisheran, C. Air. Very nomadic andancient; now in Tegama.
Kel Ezelu(N.).Ezelu valley, S. of above.
Kel Garet(S.).A fortuitous collection of Imghad in theGaret valley. The existence of two Kel Garet may be compared withthe two Kel Garet in Div. II. Group 5, with whom there may be someconnection.
Kel Izirza(N.).
Izumzumaten(N.).
Kel Giga(S.).At Agejir, S. Bagezan. Probablyassimilated to the Ittegen.
Ittegen(S.).Large Imghad section of theKel Tadek. Their “I name” is the only one in the Kel Tadek group,and they are probably dependent on some parent tribe, possibly theKel Giga. They have broken away to form a new tribal group, themodern Kel Bagezan (q.v. sub Kel Owi).
(Etteguen)
Kel Aggata(?N.).Have recently joined the Kel Tadek(Groups 3 and 4).
3 and 4.
Immikitan andImezegzil.The alternative attribution of manytribes to these two groups makes it difficult to distinguish themapart. The reason for the confusion is that both groups occur inareas predominantly Kel Owi, where they form isolated islands ofextraneous people dependent upon the Añastafidet. Both groups wereprobably in occupation of N.E. Air when Kel Owi arrived; latterproved unable to eliminate them completely, and the remnantsconsequently fell under their influence and were thus variouslydescribed as belonging to one or other division. The two groupsperhaps represent a single stock with the Immikitan predominant, but in later times certainlyacquired, as here shown, co-equal status. Immikitan are known tohave been among first Tuareg in Air.
Immikitan.
(Amakeetan)
Immikitan(N.).Also called Elmiki. Originally, after immigration, in N. CentralAir. Now isolated nuclei of this division live among people of Div.II. There are also Immikitan in Div. IV. Jean has rightly notaccepted popular account that they are Kel Owi owing to recentassociation.
Kel Tegir (N.).At Tegir near Assatartar.
(Kel Teguer)
Kel Assatartar(N.).A geographical synonym for theabove.
Kel Aggata.
Kel Aggata(N.).Aggata area. This tribe did not movesouth after the 1917 episode, and thus became affiliated to KelTadek. Their chief is El Haj Saleh at Agades.
Kel Tadenak(N.).Placed by Barth at Tadenak, E. ofAgellal, and later by Jean at Intayet on Anu Maqaran valley.
(Ikaradan)(S.).Placed by Jean at Aggata, but the wordmeans Tebu in Air Temajegh; the nucleus almost certainly consistsof Tebu living near their masters and not a separate tribe.
Kel Mawen(?).Placed by Jean at N’Ouajour,which is probably In Wadjud near Taruaji. No information.
(Kel Maouen)
(Kel Assarara)Wrongly placed by Jean in this groupeither on account of confusion with Kel Assatartar or perhapsbecause Kel Assarara inhabited Assarara area as Immikitan beforethe arrival of the Kel Owi (see above). The only Kel Assararato-day in existence are Kel Owi (q. v.).
Imezegzil.Originally N. of the Immikitan in theAgwau-Afis-Faodet area before arrival of Kel Owi. Jean thinks onlytwo tribes can be assigned to this group, the Kel Faodet and KelTagunar, but others seem to belong. The group is surrounded by KelOwi, who are especially strong in the originally most importantarea of the tribe, namely Agwau. They are now all in the Agadesarea.
(Imezegzil)(N.).No independent Imezegzil survive, but itsexistence is remembered in the Agwau area. Remnants are probablyrepresented by the Kel Afis.
Kel Afis.
(Kel Afess)
Kel Afis(N.).At Afis, N. Air. They are called the “bigmen,” the Imezegzil. In the wider geographical term, Kel Afisincludes some Kel Owi living in the village. Jean rightly calls KelAfis a separate tribe which probably represents the oldest partsurviving to the Imezegzil.
Azanierken(S.).Imghad of the above, but living furtherW. at Tanutmolet in Ighazar. Their “I name” indicates antiquity,and the fact that the Kel Afis possessed such an old tribeindicates that the latter were the parent stock of group.
Kel Tanutmolet(S.).
Izarza.A group of serfs living among Kel Owi atthis village, whose population has come to be called KelTanutmolet, which is also used as a variant for the Azanierken. I have a note thatthese Kel Tanutmolet serfs are also called Izarza, which may be acorrupt form for Azanierken. They are now only two or threefamilies.
Kel Faodet(N.).At Faodet in the upper Ighazar.
Kel Tagunar(?).At Tagunet in the upper Ighazar.
5.
Imaqoaran.Originally in W. Central Air. Althoughbelonging to a category of the People of the King, they were nevermuch under his authority.
Imaqoaran(N.).In the Agellal area. Verysmall, only five families are said to survive. See Kel Wadigi.
(Immakkorhan)
(Kel Agellal)Are probably in great part Imaqoaran,especially when Kel Agellal is used in a general or geographicalsense (cf. Kel Agellal, Div. III. Group 4).
Kel Wadigi.
Kel Wadigi(N,).In Wadigi valley, E. of Agellal. Smallunimportant group of recent origin, consisting of Kel AgellalImaqoaran, Kel Agellal Ikazkazan, and people from Ighazar.
Kel Tefis(N.).At Tefis.
Kel Areitun(S.).Imghad of above in Areitun village, W. ofAnu Wisheran (not the Areitun N. of Agellal).
Kel Sidawet (N.and S.).At Sidawet village. Asedentary group of mixed parentage and doubtful origin. Alsoascribed to Izeyyakan, but on account of the established origin ofthe Kel Agellal Imaqoaran and Kel Zilalet, whose villages are insame area as Sidawet, they are all probably of the sameparentage.
(Kel Sadaouet)
Kel Zilalet (N.and S.).Zilalet village. Wrongly described as anindependent tribe by Jean.
6.Both the last are mixed village groups ofpeople of all castes.
Ifadeyen and KelFadé.No more information is available thanthat given in the preceding chapters (see pp. [399] and [400]).

Division II. The Itesan and Kel Geres.

Note: All these tribes are in the Southland, and their present areas are not, therefore, specified.

Group.Tribes and sub-tribes.Notes.
1.
Itesan.Probably one of the original tribes ofthe Kel Innek who invaded Air from the Chad direction. Being thepreponderant tribe in Air, the Itesan were driven from the countryby the Kel Owi when the latter arrived. Though now in theSouthland, the Itesan still play a prominent rôle in electing theAmenokal of Air.
(Kel) T’Sidderak.Named from a group of hills N. ofAuderas.
Kel Tagei.“The People of theDûm Palm,” possibly a totemic name or else derived from name of avalley so-called. There are many such in Air, in particular one N.of Auderas is probably responsible for the name. Not to be confusedwith the people in Div. III. Group I.
(Kel Tagay)
(? also Tagayes)
Kel Bagezan.Originally inhabitingthe mountains so called. Not to be confused with other later KelBagezan.
(Kel Maghzen- Kel Bagezan)
Kel Allaghan.“The People of the Spears.”
(Alaren)
(Emallarhsen).Probably a misreading for “Im” or “InAllaghan” (where the prefix takes the place of “Kel”), andtherefore identical with above.
(Itziarrame).Probably a corrupt name, perhaps amistake for the above.
(Kel) Telamse.The second isprobably the right form, and is derived from the name of a villageand hills near Auderas.
(Kel T’ilimsawin)
Kel Mafinet.Named after a valley tributary to theAuderas valley.
Kel Duga.The second isprobably the right form, and is derived from Mount Dogam, N. ofAuderas.
(Kel Dogam).
Kel Uye.Kel Wadigi, from a valley E. of Agellal,has been suggested as a more correct version. In this case thetribe would more probably belong to the Kel Agellal of the KelUnnar in Group 3, but the derivation is doubtful.
Kel Manen.Given by Barth as a tribe of theItesan.
Imanen.With the two following tribes they seemto represent the oldest stock of people who invaded Air from the E.These Imanen are obviously of the same stock as the Imanen of theAzger Lemta division of Tuareg in the N.
Kel Innek.Are given by Barth as a part of theItesan. While the name may have survived as a tribal name, it ismore properly applicable to all the people who came from the E.when Air was invaded. The existence of such a tribe name among theItesan, whose original name it may have been, is, however, proof ofthe accuracy of Bello’s statement.
Ijanarnen.This tribe is givenby Bello as one of those who originally invaded Air from the E. Theoccurrence of such a tribe in the Itesan group, according to Barth,substantiates the supposition made above and in the body of thebook.
(Ijaranen)
2.
Tetmokarak.
Tetmokarak.
(Tedmukkeren)
Kel Teghzeren.Kel Teghzeren may be a corruption of “KelIntirzawen” derived from the name of the Asclepias Gigantica. TheKel Teghzeren appear to be the principal tribe of the Tetmokarak,and are possibly the parent group.
Kel Azar.Perhaps derived from a place of that namein the upper Anu Maqaran valley, C. Air.
(Kel) Ungwa.The origin of thename is doubtful, for “ungwa” seems in Kanuri to mean “village.”The name may be a form of Kel Unnar (see below), another Kel Geresgroup.
(Oung Oua)
(Kel Ungwar)
Tashel.
(Taschell)
(Tashil)
Isherifan.Of which the Isherifan in Damergu wereprobably a part.
Kel Atan.
Tegama.See also the People of Tegama in theDamergu group. The two septs are probably of the same stock; theyare more fully discussed in the body of the book.
Kerfeitei.The second version isperhaps more correct.
(? Kel Feitei)
(Kel) Ighelaf.From a group of wellsin E. Damergu.
(Ighlab)
Escherha.
Inardaf
Zerumini.
3.
Kel Unnar.The Kel Ungwa may be the same people, butthere is no information.
Kel Unnar.
Tarenkat.
Alwalitan.A patronymic, from the common personalname among the Tuareg, Al Wali.
Gurfautan.Probably also a patronymic.
Kel Agellal.From Agellal in C.Air, and not to be confused with the present Kel Agellal (Div. I.Group 5).
(Kel Aghellal)
Kel Taiagaia.?, unless a corruption in the manuscriptsof European authors of Kel Agellal.
4.
Kel Anigara.
(Kel) Anigara.There are two places called Anigara(Aniogara) near Agellal, and this group might be named from eitherof them. The present Kel Aniogara are a sub-tribe of the Kel Garet(in Div. I. Group 2).
Tafarzas.No information.
Zurbatan.Do.
Izenan.Do.
Tanzar.Do.
5.
Kel Garet.Doubtless originally from the Garet Mts.and plain in C. Air, and not to be confused with the Kel Garet ofDiv. I., of whom, however, these people may have been a part whichmoved S. when the Itesan also went.
Kel Garet.The people originally inhabiting theplain of that name.
Kel GaretN’Dutsi.I.e. the “Kel Garet of theMountain,” who lived in the mountains in the same area.
Aiawan.No information.
Tiakkar.Do.
Irkairawan.Do.
Tadadawa,Kel Tamei.These are grouped together, largelyperhaps because not enough is known to separate their varioustribes. Their tribes are given without comment, as there is littleavailable on record.
Tadadawa.? the Tadara of Barth.
Kel Tamel.
Kel Amarkos.
Kel Intadeini.Probably from a place Intadeini on theAnu Maqaran, C. Air.
Kel Ufugum.
Tegibbut.
(Tgibbu)
Iburuban.
(Iabrubat)
Toiyamama.
Irmakaraza.Perhaps connected with the name AnuMaqaran.

Note.—Barth also gives the following unidentified names of Kel Geres tribes: Kel n’Sattafan (the Black People), which is also the name of the family of the Amenokal according to Bello: this tribe, if it is a tribe at all, may be attributed to the Itesan group; Tilkatine; Taginna; Riaina, and Alhassan.

The caste of these tribes is not specified, but all the principal units, at any rate, may be assumed noble. The tribes have simply been enumerated here for purposes of record and comparison. They are not adduced as ethnological material comparable with that provided by the lists of tribes in Divisions I. and III.

Division III. The People of the Añastafidet or Kel Owi

Group.Tribes and sub-tribes.Notes.
1.
Imaslagha.The Kel Azañieres, and therefore theImaslagha, with the Izeyyakan and Igururan, are said to be theoldest of the Kel Owi division.
Imaslagha.
Kel Azañieres.
Kel Azañieres (N.).In the Azañieres mountains.
Kel Intirzawen (S.).West of the southern Kel Nugguru in theIntirzawen and T’ilisdak valley, S. of Auderas.
Kel Taghmeurt(N.).In the Taghmeurt Mts. It hascertain unspecified servile tribes.
(Tagmart)
Kel Assarara.In the Assarara and Agwau area, N.E. Air,at the places mentioned. Their chief in Barth’s day was Annur,paramount chief of Air.
Kel Assarara (N.).





Along the great valley of N.E.Air.
Kel Agwau (N.).
Kel Igululof (N.).
Kel Oborassan (S.).
Kel Anu Samed (S.).
Kel T’intellust (S.).
The last is wrongly placed by Jean inGroup 2 with the Kel Tafidet.
Igururan(Igururan) (N.).Apparently now extinct in name.
Kel Fares(N.).At Fares N. of Agwau; now near Agades.Their position is confirmed by Barth, but the place is calledTinteyyat. Their original name was probably Igururan, but since theextinction of the parent stock they rank as connected with theImaslagha group. The “I name” Igururan may have been a group namein the first place.
Kel Zegedan.Name recorded by Barth but not nowtraceable. May be connected with Kel Bagezan, whose position mightbe described as 1½ days from T’intellust.
Izeyyakan(N.).By some described as People of the King,but placed by Jean, probably rightly, in this group. Formerly anoble portion of the inhabitants of Auderas.
Imarsutan(N.).The same considerations as above apply.Wrongly placed at Auderas. Said to have come from unidentifiedplace called Arsu.
Imarsutan(N.).A comparatively modern tribe said to havebeen formed from remnants of the old tribe.
Kel Tagei(S.).Perhaps a totemic name, butreadily derived from any place abounding in “dûm palms.” Perhapsbut not necessarily a conquered part of Itesan Kel Tagei (cf. Div.II Group 1).
(Kel Teget)
(? Kel Tintagete)
Kel Erarar.Name means “People of the Plain,” andprobably refers to plain N. of T’intellust, near which Barth alsoplaces them. Name may therefore be generic and applicable tovarious sections in group.
2.
Igermaden.The name is radically connected withJerma or Garama in the Fezzan.
Igermaden.
Igermaden(N.).At Ajiru, E. of Bagezan. The people ofBelkho, paramount chief of Air after Annur.
Kel Ajiru(N.).Perhaps an alternative name for above,for the sedentary element among them.
Kel Assatartar(N.).The name of the inhabitants of Assatartarother than the Immikitan element there (see Div. I Groups 3 and4).
(Immikitan(N.)).Of Assatartar; have become to beconsidered connected with Igermaden owing to propinquity andgradual absorption.
(Kel Tagermat(N.)).Perhaps a confusion for Kel Taghmeurt inGroup 1; placed by Barth at unidentified place, Azuraiden, E.N.E.of T’intellust, corresponding roughly with Taghmeurtmountains.
Igademawen.Wrongly placed by Jean inImaslagha group.
(Ikademawen)
Igademawen(N.).Afasas and Beughqot areas E.of Bagezan. The name suggests analogies to Kel Mawen of Immikitanin Div. I. Groups 3 and 4. Perhaps a part of group was hereabsorbed as in case of Kel Assartartar.
(Kel Mawen?)
Kel Nabaro(?).Nabaro villages near Tabello, E. ofBagezan.
Kel Tafidet(N.).Also given, but wrongly Ithink, as an independent tribe in this group. Lived in the TafidetMts. with unspecified servile tribes.
Kel Tafidet.
Kel Anfissac.Anfissac well E. of T’imia massif.
Kel Intirzawen(S.).A part of the same tribe which is alsoservile to Kel Azañieres in Group 1.
Kel Agalak(?).Placed by Jean in this group. The name iswell known but tribe was not identified by me.
Jean also places some Ifadeyen, someIkazkazan of Garazu in Damergu, and some people with generic nameof Kel Ighazar in this group; but he is, I think, mistaken in doingso.
3.
Imasrodang.In the Ighazar, whence theyhave acquired the generic name of Kel Ighazar. The latter areplaced by Jean in Group 2, but they are certainly a separate stock,namely, the Imasrodang, who are co-equal with Igermaden.
Kel Ighazar.
The headman of the group is Abdulkerim,now living at Azzal near Agades, but formerly settled atT’intaghoda.
Kel T’intaghoda(N.).At T’intaghoda. Reputed to be HolyMen.
Kel Tamgak orImedideran.Some serfs and some free wild men livingin Tamgak, historically belonging to, but never subjected by, KelT’intaghoda. Their status is undefined, for their inherent nobilityis recognised.
Kel Elar(N.).



All at various points in theIghazar between Iferuan and Iberkom.
Kel Iberkom(N.).
(Kel Abirkom)
(Kel Aberkan)
Kel Seliufet(N.).
Kel Iferuan(N.).Not to be confused with Kel Ferwan inDiv. I.
Kel Tedekel(?).Now believed to be extinct.Originally also in Ighazar, but said to have become merged withother clans.
(Kel Fedekel)
(Fedala)
4.
Ikazkazan.The tribe as such of this name hasdisappeared in the various large groups into which it has becomedivided. It is considered the junior group of the Kel OwiConfederation, the others being called from their chief constituentparts the Kel Tafidet and Kel Azañieres. The use of theseterritorial names corresponds in the Ikazkazan to the use of thenames of the big subgroups, the Kel Tamat, Kel Ulli, etc.
Kel Tamat.A sub-group named from the Tamat acaciatree. It is the great northern sub-group of the Ikazkazan,corresponding with the Kel Ulli in the south. It would include allthe northern Ikazkazan had some tribes not broken off to virtualindependent status.
Kel Tamat(N.).In part near Agellal, where it hascontributed to form Kel Agellal. Also at Ben Guten in W. Air. Thereis also a section in Damergu under the Kel Ulli grouping.
Kel Tubuzzat(N.).W. Air. In some respects almostindependent.
Kel Agellal(N.).Agellal village. The local tribe of thisname is composed of Kel Tamat, or Kel Tubuzzat and of certainPeople of the King (see Div. I. Group 5).
(Kel Wadigi)Formed of certain composite Kel Agellaland other People of the King (see Div. I. Group 5).
Ibanderan (?S.)Sakafat in W. Air, and also in S.W.Air.
Kel Lazaret.As above.
(Kel Azaret)
Igerzawen.Do.
Alburdatan(S.).At Auderas.
Ifagarwal (?S.).At Issakanan in S.W.Air.
(Afaguruel)
Adamber.At T’in Wafara, which isunidentified.
Azenata.No information.
Kel Takrizat(N.).At Takrizat in N. Air. Having unspecifiedservile tribes, including perhaps some of the above.
Kel Tagei (N.).Distinct from Kel Tagei (S.) in Group 1.Possibly, but not necessarily, connected with Itesan Kel Tagei (cf.Div. II. Group 1), W. Air.
Kel Gharus.
Kel Gharus(N.).Gharus valley, Lower Ighazar. Verynomadic and perhaps the largest tribe in Air.
Ahaggaren(S.).Talak plain. Serfs of Kel Gharus but,having had a noble origin in the north in Ahaggar, are consideredquasi-noble in status.
Kel Tattus.Unidentified.
Kel Ulli.Meaning the “People of the Goats.”Collective name for all the Ikazkazan in S. Air and Damergu.
Kel Ulli.Tegama and Damergu.
Imuzurak(S.).Probably a part of older Imuzurak (N.) inDiv. IV.
(Isherifan(N.)).Holy Men. Gamram area (cf. Div. II. Group2 and Division IV.).
Ifadalen(N.).Damergu.
Kel Tamat(N.).Do. (Cf. above.)
The Kel Ulli group, though nominallyIkazkazan and probably including other tribes than those givenabove, seem to have absorbed a number of early Tuareg in Damergu.Their presence in this group has led to the suspicion that thelatter, instead of being absorbed by an extraneous group of Tuareg,namely, the Kel Owi, really represent the true Ikazkazan stock,which was not in truth a Kel Owi family or clan at all, but a massof people who joined forces with the latter at an early period oftheir sojourn in Air.
5.
Independent tribes.Among the Kel Owi there are a number ofindependent tribes of servile status. Their existence is notparalleled in the other divisions. They owe allegiance, not to anyparticular noble tribe, but directly to the Añastafidet. They areconsequently more emancipated than most Imghad, a phenomenon whichconfirms the greater cultural development of the Kel Owi.
Kel Nugguru(S.).Divided into two parts. That of the northcalled the Toshit (part) N’Yussuf in the Assada valley is actuallyunder Ahodu of Auderas. The southern part between Bagezan andTaruaji Mts. is under Khodi, who claims to be headman ofAuderas.
Kel Idakka.A part of, or synonymous with, one ofabove.
Kel Taferaut.Do.
Kel Bagezan(S.).In Bagezan under Mineru or ElMinir. A recent composite tribe, not to be confused with KelBagezan in Div. I.Group 1. Made up of Ittegen of Kel Tadek (Div. I. Group 2) andseveral other elements.
Kel Bazezan.
Ittegen.
Kel Towar.A sedentary group, principally of serfs,at Towar, S. Bagezan.
Kel T’imia(N.).Nobles of various, but all Kel Owi,tribal origins living at T’imia village under Fugda.
Kel Taranet.Unidentified.
Kel Tafasas.Unidentified, unless the inhabitants ofthe villages along the Afasas valley, E. of Bagezan.

Division IV. The Tuareg of Damergu

A. People of the King.

B. People of the Añastafidet.

Tribe and sub-tribe.Notes.
A. People of the King.The oldest tribes in Damergu, as might beexpected, are all of the People of the King. They do not belong toany of the Air tribes of this category; like most of the latter,they probably represent the oldest stock of Tuareg in theseregions.
It has not been possible to identify thenames of the stock or stocks to which the tribes belonged, so nolarger grouping has been attempted.
Ifoghas (N.).The Ifoghas certainly represent a stockas well as a tribe, but it has not been ascertained whether amongthe Damergu Ifoghas several tribal divisions are recognised, norwhether the under-mentioned tribes were originally of the Ifoghasgroup. Though very poor and fallen on evil days, they areconsidered Holy Men, and would be more readily recognised as noblewere their state of destitution less severe. They are the Ifuracesof the classics and have related groups in other parts of theSahara.
Kel Tamizgidda (N.).Meaning the People ofthe Mosque, Holy Men. Farak area. (See further note below.)
(Misgiddan)
(? Mosgu)
Isherifan (N.).In Damergu since the earliest time. Thename is equivalent to “Ashraf,” or Descendants of the Prophet.Gamram area. (See further note below.)
“Mallamei.”A name given by Jean. It appears to be aHausa equivalent of one of the above names, indicating that thetribe is holy.
The last three names (probably only twonames are really involved) are not really proper names. They aredescriptive names connected with the attribution of sanctity to themen of these clans. In view of the well-known application of such adescription to the Ifoghas wherever this tribe appears, it is quitejustifiable to suppose that these clans, which incidentally areknown to have inhabited Damergu from remote times, are reallytribes of the Ifoghas stock.
Izagaran.
(Izagharan) (? N).In Damergu from earliest times.
Izarzaran (? N.).Name recorded by Jean.
Igdalen (N.).A stock known to have entered these partswith the very first Tuareg to arrive. Subdivisions of this stockare not known unless some of the other Damergu tribes and Air clanspreviously mentioned must so be classed.
S. of Agades, W. Tegama and N. Damergu.Holy Men. Very fair. Said not to carry arms.
(Kel Tadek). Kel Umuzut (N.).A semi-independent tribe of the Kel Tadekstock (see Div. I. No. 2). N. Damergu.
Ifadeyen (N.).Now live in Azawagh and Damergu (see Div.I. No. 6).
B. People of theAñastafidet.
Ikazkazan.Kel Ulli.Including various unspecified sub-tribes(N.) and (S.).
Ifadalen (S.).Wrongly placed by Jean as an independenttribe in Damergu. They are Holy Men and probably were of the samestock as tribes in category A (above), but at one time weresubjected by the Ikazkazan.
The Isherifan are wrongly given by Jeanas a People of the Añastafidet, probably on the grounds that theywere at one time conquered by Belkho, chief of the Igermaden (seeDiv. III. No. 2).
The Ikazkazan and Immikitan of Elakkosare specifically referred to at length in the text of thebook.

Division V

Various unlocated and unidentified tribes; generic tribal names; more important village groups of mixed origins owing to breakdown of tribal organisation under sedentary conditions.

Kel Agellal.See Div. I. Group 5 and Div. III. Group 4. Originally an Imaqoaran area, but these, with Ikazkazan of various tribes and people from Ighazar, formed the present Kel Agellal. Principally noble, but also some Imghad. Agellal village.
Kel Zilalet.See Div. I. Group 5. Zilalet village.
Kel Sidawet.Do. Sidawet village.
Kel Auderas.Principally Kel Aggata (q.v. Div. I. Groups 2 and 4) and Kel Nugguru (q.v. Div. III. Group 5). All Imghad except three or four families of Kel Aggata and Ahodu’s own dependents from Kel Tadek who came when he was given the chieftainship of the village by the French at the time of the Foureau-Lamy expedition. Auderas village.
Kel T’imia.All noble Kel Owi, but derived from many different tribes. Present inhabitants occupied village after the Kel T’imia of the Kel Geres went out. T’imia valley. See Div. III. Group 5.
Kel Towar.Mixed Imghad of Kel Owi with one or two nobles from Kel Bagezan and Imasrodang. Towar village.
Kel Agades.Not a strict term: only used in a geographical sense. The real inhabitants of Agades are called Emagadezi (vide [Chap. III]). Songhai colony left in the sixteenth century, and people from all other tribes make up population, which is principally Imghad. Since 1917, when they lost their camels, many of the Tuareg from N. Air settled in Agades, or in the neighbourhood.
Kel In Gall.Population composed of Songhai, Igdalen and some Aulimmiden in addition to Kel Ferwan and Ikazkazan. There are probably some Ifoghas both here and also at the three Tagiddas. In Gall area.
Ikaradan.The Temajegh name for the Tebu, of which there are probably several groups in Air captured on raids; notably one group, a part of the Kel Aggata.
Izeran.Given by Barth as a tribal name, but as the word (in the correct form, Izghan) means “Kanuri” in Temajegh, the same considerations apply as in the case of the Ikaradan. Many Kanuri groups are known to have been captured on raids.
Kel Ighazar.A generic term for all the tribes living in the Ighazar. They are principally Imasrodang Kel Owi.
Kel Aghil.Given by Barth as Kel Aril. A generic term meaning the “People of the South,” and applied especially to the Kel Geres.
Kel Ataram.Meaning the “People of the West,” applied especially to the Tuareg and Moors of Timbuctoo, and the Aulimmiden and Tuareg of the Mountain, in the Western Desert.
Kel Innek.Given by Barth as a tribal name. But it means the “People of the East,” and is similar to the above names.
Kel T’isemt.(Kel Tecoum) Meaning the “People of the Salt.” According to Jean it is applied to a tribe in the Telwa valley, but appears to be in the nature of a nickname given to people who made the collecting of Agha a trade. It is given to the southern Kel Nugguru generally (q.v. Div. III. Group 5) and to the people of the Tagiddas and the Ifoghas of Damergu. The People of the Tagiddas in any case are probably of the Ifoghas, so that Kel T’isemt may have been the name of a large division of the latter on the analogy of the “Kel Ulli” division of the Ikazkazan.
Idemkiun.Seems to be the tribal name of which Tademekka is the feminine form. According to Cortier (Appendix to D’une Rive à l’Autre du Sahara) this tribe survives in Air, but I have been unable to trace the name. They are probably a part of the Tuareg who settled in Air and further west during the very first migrations which took place.
Kel Talak.A generic name for all the tribes which roam about the Talak plain.

APPENDIX III

ELAKKOS AND TERMIT[439]

North of Gure the hills terminate suddenly in a cliff, and the area called Elakkos begins to the north of them. It has an individuality of its very own. A maze of small, closed depressions, that become ponds and lakes after the rainy season, break up the plain into sharp unsystematic undulations, which appear originally to have been sand dunes. They have now become fixed with grass and scanty scrub, but in most cases retain their characteristic shape. Here and there, rising several hundred feet above the plain, are a number of flat-topped hills of red sandstone. They stand alone like islands off a rock-bound coast. The edges of the hills are sheer cliffs, but the lower parts are covered with fallen detritus, which has formed steep slopes above the plain, and the wind has washed the sand up against their sides.

The plain of Elakkos is like a sea floor from which the water has only recently run off. An irregular sand-strewn bottom has been left, churned up by immense waves that, in a succession of cyclonic storms, washed the sand up against the sides of the islands before retreating. When the blinding glare of midday has passed, deep blue shadows in the hills appear, and the country looks very beautiful. The great table-topped hills are blood-red and blue, in an expanse of yellow sea. Little villages are dotted about in the plain with a few trees and some deep green vegetation in the hollows.

[ADDITIONAL PLATE]

TYPICAL TEBU

TERMIT PEAK AND WELL

Lying between the desert and the Sudan, Elakkos has suffered greatly. It has been a field of battle where the Tuareg of Air, the Tebu from the north-east and the people of Bornu have met one another in order to do battle. Until the advent of the French it was considered the legitimate playground for the only international sport known in the desert, the gentle occupation of raid and counter-raid. The flat-topped hills, with scarcely a path worthy of the name to ascend the cliffs, were the citadels of the villages which nestle under their slopes. The huts in the villages are built of straw with conical roofs: neither mud buildings nor walled settlements exist. The inhabitants are Kanuri, sedentary Tuareg, and both nomadic and settled Tebu.

While the Tuareg and Tebu live side by side with the Kanuri, the first two are such uncompromising enemies that they never adventure themselves into each other’s territory. The dividing line between them in Elakkos is sharp and clearly defined; it runs just west of the village group of Bultum, which is the last permanent settlement on the caravan road from Damagarim to Kawar by the wells of Termit, where twice a year pass caravans to fetch salt in the east. They leave at the same seasons when the people of Air, whom they join at Fashi, also cross the desert.

The Tuareg of Elakkos to-day are sedentary, but their tribal names, Ikazkazan and Immikitan, belong to noble Air clans of confirmed nomadic habits. As in Damergu, they are the ruling class. Barth,[440] basing himself on hearsay information sixty years earlier than Jean, stated that they were akin to the Tegama people.[441] The Ikazkazan of Garazu in Elakkos, however, according to tradition, are late arrivals, certainly later than the Immikitan, who live rather further east. The latter seem to have come when the first Tuareg arrived from the east and installed themselves in Air. It is not clear which of the two tribal groups Barth proposed to classify as akin to the Tegama, but presumably he meant the Immikitan.

The Ikazkazan of Garazu are grouped by Jean[442] as a sub-tribe of the Kel Tafidet, probably the, if not actually the, principal tribe of the Kel Owi Confederation. While I had no opportunity during my only too short sojourn in Elakkos, in the course of a rapid march to Termit, to collect information on the ethnology of the Tuareg in this area, my experience in Air leads me to doubt the accuracy of Jean’s attribution. It is very improbable that a section of so important a tribe as the Ikazkazan could in any circumstances have come under the control of another tribe within the same Kel Owi Confederation, like the Kel Tafidet, least of all when it had moved so far afield as Elakkos.

Both from Barth’s description of the “Principality of Elakkos,” that “sequestered haunt of robbers and freebooters,” as well as from other indications, there seem to have been more People of the Veil in this area in former days than now. The decrease may be accounted for by a general movement westwards, as a consequence of the encroachments of the Kanuri from Bornu, who were themselves constantly being driven onwards by pressure from the east, by the advent in the Chad area of the Arab tribes from the north, and by raids of the Tebu from Tibesti.[443]

Barth records that Elakkos was celebrated among the hungry people of the desert on account of its grain. The same reputation and source of wealth continue to the present time. More millet is grown in a limited area on the sandy plains of this country than in almost any other part of the belt which marks the transition between the Desert and the Sown. But Elakkos is especially celebrated among the Tuareg all over North Africa for the shields which are used by the People of the Veil and are made in this country. The hide of the white oryx, which with much other game lives in the bush along the border of the desert, is used for their manufacture. Their reputation in Temajegh speech and poetry points to the country of Elakkos having long been essentially Tuareg, for the traditional shape and technique are not found among the neighbouring peoples.

The strong circumstantial evidence regarding the essentially Tuareg character of the country, is further borne out by a reference in Leo to the Lemta Tuareg. This people, we are told, extended over all that part of North Africa which lay immediately east of the Targa people, from the Fezzan as far as Kawkaw. The latter, for reasons which have been discussed, was not Gao or Gago on the Niger, but Kuka on Lake Chad.[444] But there is more than this, Elakkos is alternatively spelt Alakkos, Alakwas, and Ilagwas, which cannot be denied to bear a marked resemblance to the name of the Ilasgwas people of Corippus, who in Byzantine times were fighting in the Fezzan, or in other words in an area, according to Leo, occupied by the Lemta Tuareg. One would in any case have been inclined to accept the tradition that the early Tuareg in Elakkos were formerly more numerous than now, but in the light of this additional evidence I am satisfied that they are identical with the very Ilasgwas who came from the north, and therefore of the same stock as the Tuareg in the Fezzan. It follows that they were of the old Aulimmiden-Lemta stock and that they were a part of the latter group which entered the Chad area from the north and then moved westwards. I further believe that the Ilasgwas gave their name to Elakkos, where some of them stayed while the rest of the Lemta tribes went on, some of them into Air and some of them further west. The origin both of the Immikitan in Elakkos and in Air is due to this movement.

Elakkos is well supplied with water at all times of the year. Tropical summer rains fall in abundance, leaving pools in the depressions, to which most of the inhabitants of the villages migrate for the few weeks which elapse between sowing and reaping the millet, during and directly after the annual break of the weather. As the pools dry up, leaving a luxuriant Sudanese vegetation around the edges, recourse again becomes necessary to the numerous village wells. They are all of considerable depth, and surrounded by large spoil heaps, but the output is not very copious, or rather not sufficiently large to supply numerous thirsty camels in hot weather, when each animal may drink ten gallons or more. I travelled through Elakkos in June 1922 with a section of French Camel Corps, and we found watering a very tedious operation. The wells we used were 150 to 220 feet deep, and in order that the fastidious animals should drink copiously, the water had to be drawn at noon in a “shade temperature” ranging from 105° to 110° Fahr. in places where invariably there was no real shade to be seen.

After leaving the Bultum group of three Kanuri and Tebu hamlets, the road from Damagarim to Kawar crosses a low scarp and plunges into the belt of thick green bush which merges imperceptibly into small thorn scrub and divides the Southland from the desert. The vegetation in this zone ranges from small thorns to largish trees. It is part of the same belt of bush which surrounds Damergu, with this difference, that the latter immediately south of Air extends considerably further north and forms a salient of vegetation into the desert. The Elakkos bush is luxuriant even in the dry season, and abounds in game. If a few more wells were made available it would soon be thickly inhabited by pastoral tribes, now that immunity from the northern raiding parties has more or less been assured. It is a sanctuary for large herds of various species of gazelle, for the white oryx and addax antelope, as well as for numerous ostriches and some giraffes. There are excellent pastures for cattle, goats and camels, but although some of the Damergu Tuareg use the western part for their flocks and a few Tebu use the eastern side, there are few inhabitants in the country at any time of year. The surface of old fixed dunes is undulating, and in the occasional deep hollows are a few wells like those of Tasr[445] and Teshkar[446] on the Termit road, and Bullum Babá and others to the west. The wells belong to the Tebu, who visit them with their cattle in the summer. Immediately around them the vegetation has been eaten bare and the whitish downs under which they lie show up some distance away. The three wells at Tasr are twenty-seven feet deep; they are the last water before the Termit wells are reached, forty hours’ fast marching further on into the desert. The road, it is true, passes by Teshkar, but the output of the single well there, forty-five feet deep, is insufficient for more than a few animals at a time.

For more than ten hours’ marching N.N.E. of Teshkar, which is in Lat. 15° 07′ 40″ N., Long. 10° 35′ 10″E.,[447] the country gradually gets more barren, but the character of the bush is maintained by small trees and shrubs on a reddish ground. Then suddenly the track descends into a hollow between bare snow-white dunes. A succession of depressions between them is followed, the path crossing the intervening sand-hills diagonally to their general direction. The sand dunes themselves are loose and shifting, but the hollows curiously enough are permanent and contain small groups of vivid green acacias. When we first entered the dunes there was a thick white mist on all the land and the green trees and white sand looked very mysterious and beautiful in the early dawn. This belt of dunes marks the edge of the desert itself. The long, buff-coloured, whale-back dunes of the latter are covered with very scanty salt grass and scrub; they are typical of the Saharan steppe desert. The surface is fairly good; the form of the dunes is fixed, for the sand is heavy. The occasional small tree is a landmark for miles around. At one point we passed a depression with some larger acacias, but otherwise there were no recognisable marks to guide a caravan to Termit and the north-east.

The heat of the June weather obliged us to travel largely by night, and in the course of one march which commenced at 3 a.m. it soon became apparent that the guide had lost his way. He had mistaken a star to the west of the Southern Cross for the one to the east of Polaris, and was marching S.W. instead of N.N.E. We decided to halt until dawn, but not before many precious hours had been wasted and the prospect of reaching Termit on the third day after leaving Teshkar had completely vanished, the normal distance from there to the wells of Termit being twenty-eight hours’ fast marching, or about thirty-five by caravan.

Under ordinary conditions the mountains of Termit are visible for some time before they are reached; in point of fact on our way south we saw the Centre Peak at a distance of no less than fourteen hours’ marching. Approaching it, however, the intense heat and wind had obscured everything in a dense mist which limited the maximum visibility to under two miles. On this day in camp the thermometer registered 113·9° F. in the shade at 2 p.m. The heat usually appeared to last without appreciable change from 11 a.m. till 3 p.m. Owing to the misadventure of the previous night we were not very sure of our position, and dependent on seeing the mountains to find our next water, which we sorely needed as the supply was rather short. Then suddenly as evening came on the atmosphere cleared and an imposing chain of dark, jagged peaks, with no appreciable foot-hills, appeared suddenly in the east. The range faded out of sight to the north and south beneath the sand of the desert. An isolated group of blue mountains in a sea of yellow sand at evening is one of those unforgettable sights which reward the traveller in the desert. Their beauty is never equalled by any snowy peaks or waterfalls in a more favoured land.

After crossing a narrow belt of shifting sand we camped the next morning in a valley at the foot of the Centre Peak of Termit, near the famous well which is reputed to have been made by Divine agency. The water lies in Lat. 16° 04′ 10″ N., Long. 11° 04′ 50″ E.,[448] forty feet below ground. The bottom of the well has become vaulted owing to the continual collapse of the sides. In the course of a week’s stay another well was dug a few yards from the old one, in spite of the pessimism of the well-diggers, who considered it useless as well as very tiring to emulate the Almighty. But about forty feet down through the packed sand of the valley-bottom water filtering through a bed of loose gravel was duly reached. Some 1½ miles west in a continuation of the valley where it turns towards the north, is another group of several wells. They are almost surrounded by sand dunes, and have latterly in part become silted up. Some of them are likely to be covered entirely in a few years’ time by an encroaching dune. We cleared two of these wells, but they proved very saline in contrast with the excellent water of the main wells; nevertheless they were sufficiently good for camels.

Termit is within the area of the summer rains, which form a pool lasting for about two months to the north of the western group of wells. I marched seven miles north with some Tebu who were based on Termit for their hunting season without reaching anywhere near the end of the range. The vegetation got scantier and the loose sand of the outer desert had been washed higher and higher up the eastern sides of the hills, which here extended in a single chain of no great depth in a north-easterly direction. But I never reached the end of the chain.

The foot-hills around the main peak, where the laterite rock in places is in process of disintegration, carry a certain amount of vegetation, principally of the shrub known as “Abisgi” (Capparis sodata), together with several grasses and small acacias. We found many gazelle and antelope were pasturing there. Behind the rugged contreforts rises the steep wall of the main range to a height of over 2000 feet at the main peak, which appears to be about 2300 feet above the sea. To the east, behind the principal chain and some 300 feet higher than the valley where the wells are and surrounding desert, is a small plateau which extends for a distance of some four to five miles as far as a secondary and lower Eastern Chain which divides it from the desert beyond. This narrow plateau tapers away to the north, where the two chains join one another. It is well covered with small trees and scrub and contains several small groups of hillocks. The passes on to this plateau from the west run steeply up to its level; they are, in fact, the ravines formed by the water draining off the plain, which, when we looked down on it from the centre peak, appeared to be the playground of several enormous flocks of antelope and gazelle. The mountain sheep of Air was also found and shot here—the furthest south where this animal has yet been reported.

The rocky slopes of the range are incredibly rough. They are entirely covered with loose pebbles, stones and boulders of all sizes. In some places the black laterite rock has assumed the strangest shapes. At one point on the centre peak the entire slope was apparently covered with stone drain-pipes, whole and broken, including perfectly shaped specimens with ½ in. walls, 15 in. long and 5 in. to 2 in. in internal diameter. In addition to these, plates, bowls, cylinders, small balls and tiles of all shapes were to be seen.

Although capable of supporting the flocks of a limited number of people, there are no traces of inhabitants. Termit never seems to have been anything but a point de passage. It was for long a favourite haunt of Tebu raiders from the N.E. and E., for the road from the south branches here both to Fashi and to Bilma. There is also a track to the Chad country by Ido well, and one to Agadem on the Kawar-Chad road. There were traditions of a direct caravan road from Air to Lake Chad, which I was anxious to investigate, but the condition of my camels made it impossible. I am glad to say that connection between the Elakkos Camel Patrol and Air was successfully established in the course of the summer of 1922 by the unit I had accompanied to Termit, and thanks to the courtesy of my friend, its Commanding Officer, than whom I have never met a more perfect travelling companion, I was supplied with full details which I reproduce in his own words, translated into English:

“From Talras (an old well near T’igefen) we marched together (two sections of Camel Corps) to the north for about 80 km. There we were lucky enough in the middle of a truly desert area to chance on a patch of trees, perhaps some 700 to 800 in number, where we parted company. I marched east for thirty-seven hours and made the peak overhanging the walls of Termit with great accuracy. Lieut. X. (with the other section of Camel Corps), after marching thirty-six hours approximately north-west and following a valley bed, arrived at Eghalgawen (in South Air). I made him come back by Tanut. . . . When I return I shall have a well dug where we separated, and the Agades-Termit road will be possible for going direct to Chad, as I know there is a well between Termit and the lake.”

In improving the water supply at Termit we had accomplished our work. I was obliged to give up my idea of going straight to Air, and consequently returned with the Camel Corps to Teshkar, marching twenty-seven hours in three comfortable stages of seven, nine and eleven hours. There we parted company. I proceeded due west with four camels to rejoin my own caravan, marching to the wells of Bullum Babá (two wells forty feet deep), and thence through impenetrable bush without landmarks or visibility until I crossed the Diom-Talras track, along which I passed in a north-west direction. I had intended to water at T’igefen just south of Talras, but found the wells there as well as those at Fonfoni had been filled in. Like those of Adermellen and Tamatut, they were destroyed in 1917 during the revolt in Air to prevent raiding towards the south. Water was eventually obtained in shallow wells at Ighelaf, though a violent and drenching thunderstorm at T’igefen, the first one of the season, would have provided drinking water had I been really short; as it was, it merely made my men and myself very wet and cold and miserable during the ensuing night. I reached the first village of Damergu at Guliski on the fifth day from Teshkar.

[439]See also Plates [3] and [4.]

[440]Barth, op. cit., Vol. I. pp. 549-50.

[441]Cf. [Chap. II.] supra.

[442]Jean, op. cit., pp. 102 and 109.

[443]Cf. Chaps. [XII.] and [XIII.]

[444]See [map,] page 331, and Chaps. [XI.] and [XII.]

[445]Also pronounced Tars. See [map,] facing page 36.

[446]Spelt Tashkeur on the French maps.

[447]See [Appendix I.]

[448]See [Appendix I.]


APPENDIX IV

IBN BATUTAH’S JOURNEY

Ibn Abdallah Muhammad, better known as Ibn Batutah, seems to have returned to the north by way of Air from a visit to the Sudan which he made after his better known travels in the East. He left Fez in A.D. 1351 for the countries of the Upper Niger by way of Sijilmasa[449] and Tegaza,[450] and returned to Morocco in 1354. His account[451] of Air and the neighbouring parts is brief but very well worth examining, as it raises several interesting historical points.

After visiting all the Western Sudan as far as Kawkaw (Gao or Gago or Gaogao) on the Niger he went to Bardama, where the inhabitants protect caravans and the women are chaste and beautiful, and “next arrived at Nakda, which is handsome and built of red stone.”[452] The variants of this name are spelt نَكْدَا, Nakda; ثُكْذَا, Thukdha; تَكْدَا, Tukda, and by the learned Kosegarten in his version تَكَدَّا, Takadda. The latter, with a somewhat corrupt text, reads: “Takadda scorpiis abundat. Segetes ibi raræ. Scorpii morsu repentinum infantibus adferunt mortem, cui remedio occurritur nullo: viros tamen raro perimunt. Urbis incolæ sola mercatura versantur. Ægyptum adeunt, indique vestes pretiosas afferunt; de servorum et mancipiorum multudine inter se gloriunt.” Lee’s translation, after describing the arrival at Tekadda, proceeds: “Its water runs over copper mines, which changes its colour and taste. The inhabitants are neither artisans nor merchants. The copper mine is without Nakda (Tekadda), and in this slaves are employed, who melt the ore and make it into bars. The merchants then take it to the infidel and other parts of the Sudan. The Sultan of Nakda is a Berber. I met him and was treated as his guest, and was also provided by him with the necessaries for my journey. I was often visited by the Commander of the Faithful in Nakda, who ordered me to wait on him, which I did, and then prepared for my journey. I then left this place in the month of Sha’aban in the year 54 (A.D. 1353), and travelled till I came to the territories of Hakar (هكاَر), the inhabitants of which are a tribe of the Berbers, but a worthless people. I next came to Sijilmasa and thence to Fez.” Kosegarten’s version, however, differs somewhat, reading, “. . . and left Tekadda with a band of travellers making for Tuat. It is seventy stages from there, for which travellers take their provisions with them, as nothing is to be found on the road. We reached Kahor, which is the country of the Sultan of Kerker, with much pasture. Leaving there we journeyed for three days through a desert without inhabitants and lacking water; thence for fifteen days we journeyed through desert not lacking water but without inhabitants. Then we came to a place of two roads where the road that goes to Egypt leaves the road which leads to Tuat. Here is a well whose water flows over iron: if anyone washes clothes with these waters they become black. Thence after completing ten days we came to Dehkar[453] (دَهْكاَر). Through these lands, where grasses are scarce, we made our way, reaching Buda, which is the largest of the towns of Tuat.”

Such are the accounts given by the first intelligent traveller in Air, and they are all too brief. The two versions are not contradictory, but in a sense supplementary to one another, and are probably excerpts made by different persons from a longer original work. The discrepancy between “Tekadda” and “Nakda,” and between “Hakar” and “Dehkar” are not difficult to account for in Arabic script. The first in each case seems to be correct. Ibn Batutah says the people of Hakar wore the veil; and “Hakar” is of course Haggar or Ahaggar, the mountains by which it is necessary to pass on the way from Air to Tuat; the Tuareg in Arab eyes are all worthless, as their name implies.

“Kahor” is a variant for “Kahir,” used indiscriminately by Arab writers with “Ahir” for Air. Barth’s[454] explanation of the insertion of an “h” in “Ahir” (اهير), is interesting but unnecessary if, as is clear, it is derived from “Kahir” (كاهير). These variants seem all to be merely Arabic attempts to spell “Air,” which the Tuaregs write in their own script ⵔⵉⴰ (R Y A).

Tekadda has been assumed by Barth[455] and others to be one, or a group, of three localities, Tagidda n’Adrar, Tagidda n’Tagei, Tagidda n’T’isemt,[456] lying some 40, 50 and 100 miles respectively W. or W.N.W. of Agades.[457] But there are good reasons for not accepting this identification. In the first place, though salt deposits are worked at Tagidda n’T’isemt, there are no signs of copper mines at this point, or indeed anywhere in Air. In the second place, it is very unlikely that the ruler of a locality so close as any of the Tagiddas to the important communities in Air, in any one of which the Sultan of that country might have had his throne,[458] should have equalled the latter in importance; but Ibn Batutah’s Sultan of Tekadda seems to have been at least as important a personage as the Sultan of Air, whom he calls the Sultan of Kerker, Ruler of Kahor.

The problem presented by “Kerker” is not easy, but the existence of a district still called Gerigeri, some fifty miles east of the Air mountains, and about forty miles north of Tagidda n’T’isemt, inclines one to regard this Sultan, who was also ruler of Kahor, as one of the Aulimmiden chiefs who are known at various times to have dominated the mountains. If this view is correct the Sultan of Tekadda must certainly have had his being some way further south than the Tagiddas, since two rulers of such an importance as Ibn Batutah makes them out to be would certainly not have lived only forty miles apart.

Lastly, the traveller speaks of seventy stages between Tekadda and Tuat, which is in fact only forty-five stages from Agades,[459] and therefore the same or perhaps rather less from the Tagiddas, which are in the latitude or even somewhat north of the city. Now forty-five marching stages are equivalent to some sixty caravan days, including halts, while seventy stages correspond to about one hundred days’ journeying. As it is clear that he did not delay on the road, the disproportion between the normal time taken to travel from the Tagiddas to Tuat and the time he did take from Tekadda to Tuat makes it impossible not to look for Ibn Batutah’s point of departure at some considerable distance south of Agades.

An examination of the times assigned to the various stages of the journey makes it apparent that in the first part he actually marched rather faster than an ordinary commercial caravan. Considering the actual times he employed, we find that he took one month crossing Ahaggar to Tuat; the usual time for this section on the Agades In Salah road is twenty marching days, and Ibn Batutah probably took about that time, making thirty days with halts. We next find that it took ten days from Hakar (Ahaggar) to the place where the roads to Egypt and Tuat divided. This point is at the wells of In Azawa or Asiu, which are close together on the northern boundary of Air; the distance between them and Ahaggar is in fact ten days’ marching. It is reasonable to assume that Ibn Batutah’s point where the roads divide is, in fact, In Azawa or Asiu, and has therefore remained unchanged for over four centuries. South of these wells he had spent fifteen days in a country which was barren but had numerous watering-points—a good description of Air by a traveller who was used to the fertile and populous Sudan; the period of fifteen days corresponds accurately with the number of stages between In Azawa and Agades by any of the routes through Air.[460] As Agades was probably not founded at this date, Ibn Batutah in coming from the Niger would have no reason to travel as far as the site of the city and probably therefore kept west of the Central massifs and counted this stage from some point west of Agades like In Gall, though the exact locality is immaterial. South of this stage he crossed a desert where there is no water for three days: this is clearly the sterile tract separating Air from the Southland. The total of these times is fifty-eight days, even counting thirty days in Ahaggar instead of twenty; this, at a generous estimate, may be called sixty, from the northern edge of the Southland across Air and Ahaggar to Tuat, and this reckoning coincides with the usual forty-five caravan marching stages to which previous reference has been made. There are, therefore, still at least ten days to be accounted for, and they are referred to in the passage in which he simply states that he left Tekadda and marched for an indefinite time, making no mention of the number of days employed till he reached the domains of the Sultan of Kerker. I would be inclined to look for Tekadda not at any of the Tagiddas, which are rather north of the River of Agades and consequently north of the three days’ desert travelling, but at some point in the direction of Gao, thirteen days’ journey from the southernmost part of Air, or ten days from the northern fringe of the Southland below the desert belt. I have unfortunately no knowledge of the country west of Damergu to suggest an identification, but am convinced that no place in or just west of Air is intended by the description of Tekadda.

[449]Sijilmasa (Sigilmasiyah) was the capital of the Tafilelt area in Morocco south of the Atlas. Its ruins in the Wadi Ifli are now called Medinet el ’Amira.

[450]The salt mines of Tegaza were referred to in [Chap. XII.] They were abandoned in A.D. 1586, and those of Taodenit, where caravans still go from Timbuctoo to fetch salt for the Upper Niger, were opened instead. Vide Barth, op. cit., Vol. V. p. 612, and Map No. 14 (Western Sheet) in Vol. V.

[451]Ibn Batutah: by Lee in the Oriental Translations Fund, 1829, pp. 241-2, etc.

[452]Scilicet, red mud.

[453]Probably another version of Hakar (هَكاَر).

[454]Barth, op. cit., Vol. I. p. 336.

[455]Barth, op. cit., Vol. I. p. 335.

[456]Tagidda (Cortier, Map of Air—Teguidda) means a small hollow or basin where water collects (De Foucauld, I. 276). The names of the three places therefore mean “Basin of the Mountain,” “Basin of the Dûm palm,” and “Basin of Salt.” Tagidda = basin, is not to be confused with Tiggedi = cliff (as the Cliff S. of Agades), from the root egged, “to jump.” De Foucauld, op. cit., I. 273, and Motylinski, Dictionnaire, etc., 1908.

[457]Not three days south-west, as Barth says.

[458]Agades was probably not founded in Ibn Batutah’s day, or he would certainly have referred to it; there were, however, other large settlements in Air already in existence at this time, such as Assode (see Chap. XVII).

[459]Barth, op. cit., Vol. I., App., and others; also my information.

[460]Cf. [Chap. III.]


APPENDIX V

ON THE ROOT “MZGh” IN VARIOUS LIBYAN NAMES

Many authors have assumed that the word “Imajegh” was a generic or even a national name applicable to the whole of the Tuareg race, and perhaps even to most of the Libyans in North Africa. The “MZGh” root of this word, which properly denotes the noble caste of the Tuareg, does indeed appear in the classical names of many tribes or groups of people in North Africa. Among these may be cited the Meshwesh of early Egyptian records and the Macae of Greek historians, the latter being apparently a racial and not a tribal name. The root reappears in several such forms as Mazices, Maxitani, Mazaces, etc., all belonging to a people found principally in the Great Syrtis, in Southern Cyrenaica, and in Tripolitania, both on the coast and in the interior:[461] a more isolated group with radically the same name, the Maxyes, is placed by Herodotus as far west as Tunisia.[462]

In the Air dialect of the Temajegh language the name for the nobles of the Tuareg takes the form of “Imajeghan” with the singular “Imajegh.” In other dialects the word displays some variations including the forms Amazigh, Imazir, Imohagh, Imohaq, Imoshag, etc., according to the local pronunciation. The word is derived according to an informant of Duveyrier[463] from the verb “ahegh,” meaning “to raid” or, by extension of the meaning, “to be free,” or “independent.” De Foucauld, however, gives the form of the word as “Amahar,” a proper name having as its root ⵗⵂ (Gh H), like “Ahegh,” but not necessarily derived from the latter.[464]

As has already been noted, the name does not cover the totality of the race, for it does not include the servile clans, which, whatever their origin, are considered even by the nobles to belong, like themselves, to the Tuareg people. The word “Imajegh” is a caste and not a racial appellation.

I am doubtful if Sergi is justified in using a statement made by Père de Foucauld in 1888,[465] to the effect that the “Berbers” of North Africa generally, and those of the north-west in particular, who are known to the Arabs under various names, used the MZGh root as a name for themselves in such a manner as to indicate that it was a national appellation or the name of a racial stock of wide extension. It would be interesting to know how far de Foucauld, after a long period of residence as a hermit among the Tuareg of Ahaggar, modified the views he expressed in 1888. Subject to correction by any authority having had access to his notes, I take it he would rather have meant that the MZGh root was used in a quasi-national sense in a number of Berber dialects or by a number of Berber-speaking people when talking of themselves, but not in referring generally to the population of North Africa.

Stuhlmann[466] went so far as to talk of “Die Mazigh Völker,” and stated that all the “Berbers” from Tripoli to Western Morocco call themselves Mazigh: this, however, is not the case. As Lenz, supporting the theory of a dual origin for the Libyans, points out, the “Berbers”[467] even of Morocco are divided into two families, to which he gives the names of Amazigh and Shellakh.[468]

Hanoteau, on the other hand, seeking at least a unity of language, says[469] that “plusieurs de ces peuples . . . ont oublié leur nom national. Mais partout où les populations berbères ont été à l’abri du contact et de l’influence arabe, elles ont conservé des noms appartenant à leur idiome,” and he goes on to mention the various dialectical forms of the MZGh root which he has found in different localities. He concludes, “toutes ces dénominations ne sont en realité que des variantes de prononciation d’un même nom.” This certainly is so, but that he is justified in assuming it to be a national name is more doubtful. He next tries to establish that the signification which “some people” have given to the word Imajegh and its derivatives is not substantiated, and that when a Tuareg wishes to refer to a noble or to a free man he calls them “ilelli” or “amunan” and not “imajeghan.” This, however, is not correct. The first two words may indeed signify an abstract quality, but when the nobles are mentioned, “Imajegh” is invariably used. Hanoteau’s statement is misleading. In addition to the use of the term “imajeghan” to denote the Tuareg nobles, with no reference to their characters or qualities, the Tuareg say “imajegh” to qualify any individual, as “imajegh” to denote someone of a certain class either in their own or in another race. They speak of the “Imajeghan n’Arab,” meaning the upper class Arabs as opposed to the slaves and under-dogs of the Arab countries. They describe the British, I am glad to say, as Imajeghan, or the White Nobles, even in every-day conversation among themselves. It is always a class distinction, and not a compliment, an epithet of virtue or a national name. The dictionaries and grammars of Motylinski, de Foucauld,[470] Masquerey and even of Hanoteau himself on the Tuareg language bear out this point.

One of the principal reasons for using the foreign word “Tuareg” to describe this people is that they do not possess a national name. Barth,[471] who is a meticulous observer, makes this very clear: “as Amóshagh (in the plural form I’móshagh)[472] designates rather in the present state of Tawárek society the free and noble man in opposition to A’mghi (plural, Imghad), the whole of these free and degraded tribes together are better designated by the general term ‘the Red People,’ ‘I’dinet n’sheggarnén,’ for which there is still another form, viz. ‘Tishorén.’” I myself did not hear these two terms used in Air, so prefer to adopt the circumlocution Kel Tagilmus, or People of the Veil, which is used and understood by all Tuareg.

Many of the Imghad, or servile people, are themselves of noble origin, but have become the serfs of other noble clans by conquest. It is clear that the former could not use as a national name what is primarily a caste name to which they had lost their right.

The confusion which has arisen around the word “imajegh” and hasty generalisations such as those of Stuhlmann are nevertheless easy to understand, for a superficial observer talking to nobles of the Tuareg race would so readily be impressed by the recurrence and common use of the term as to assume that it really had some national sense. But Sergi[473] in this connection is misleading in citing the authority of Barth when he writes, with a footnote referring to the great explorer and implying that he is quoting him almost textually, “il nome di questi Berberi è quello di Tuareg, plurale di Tarki o Targi. Ma, osserva lo stesso Barth, questo non è il loro nome nazionale. . . . Il vero nome che essi si danno è quel medesimo che già si dava ad alcune tribù del settentrionale d’Africa, conosciuto dai Greci e dai Romani, cioè di Mazi o Macii, Maxitani è dato loro anche dagli scrittori Arabi. Oggi si adopera la forma di Amosciarg al singolare. . . . Questo sembra essere applicato a tutte le frazioni della tribù mentre quel di Tuareg probabilmente deriva dagli Arabi.” Barth, we have seen, does not do so, and Sergi is making the same error as Stuhlmann. It is true that at one point, in discussing the use of the name “Tuareg,” Barth[474] goes so far as to say, “This (the MZGh root) is the native name by which the so-called Tawarek designate their whole nation, which is divided into several families,” but from the context and from the passage generally, as well as from the other passages already quoted, it is manifest that he was referring only to the noble part of the race and not to the Imghad as well, who, he had not then realised, as he later understood, are a part of the nation.[475] The context of the passage just quoted from Barth is one in which he is showing that the Tuareg are not a tribe, but a nation, as has already been pointed out: He corrects his predecessors, saying:[476] “This name (Terga, Targa, Tarki, etc.), which has been given to the Berber inhabitants of the desert, and which Hodgson erroneously supposed to mean ‘Tribe,’ is quite foreign to them. . . .” Richardson,[477] in a previous trip to the Central Sahara before travelling to Air and the Sudan with Barth, had already made the same point clear. It is therefore with no shadow of justification that Sergi[478] states: “Barth non fa distinzione alcuna delle popolazioni dando il nome etnico di Tuareg o Imosciarg, e le considera tutte come una grande tribù.” He does nothing of the sort.

Bates[479] goes into the question of the MZGh names very fully. He thinks that it is evidence “of an ethnic substratum of ‘autochthones’ of a single race.” He notes the obviously close connection between the MZGh root used by the Tuareg nobles and the names in the Atlas mountains on the one hand, and the root of the Mazices, Mazaces, Macae, etc., names whose affinity with the Meshwesh of the invasions of Egypt is also obvious on the other hand. He draws the inference that a racial rather than a tribal name is involved.[480]

Nevertheless, some explanation must be sought for the appearance of the root both in a Tuareg caste name in the names of certain Atlas tribes and in classical geographical lists of North African people. Much as one might be tempted, however, to believe with Barth in the existence of a substratum of a single race, there is no real justification for assuming that all the people using the root in one form or another were even closely related. Its adoption may well have become widespread among various peoples by the use of a common language. If in its primary sense it had implied nobility or freedom or some such attribute, it is more than likely that the innate snobbishness of one race in contact with, or at one time subjected to, another race using the root in this sense, would rapidly lead them to adopt it and misuse it as their own national appellation. I am not inclined to consider the use of this root as evidence for anything but community of language. With the mixed origins which we know the Libyans possessed, any other conclusion would be dangerous. It must be remembered that there is plenty of evidence to show that in spite of the diversity of races involved, they had by the time of the Arab conquest all come to speak a common language or a series of dialects linguistically of the same origin. It is only at an early period, when the use of a single language in North Africa was probably not widespread, that the common root in the “Meshwesh” and “Macae” names can be assumed as an indication of the affinity or identification of these peoples with the later Tuareg. And at that time the names are found in the centre of North Africa only and not in the west or even in Algeria. The same considerations apply to the “Temahu”[481] of Egyptian records. The feminine form of Imajegh or Amoshagh, etc., is, of course, Temajegh or Tamahek, etc., which is the name given to the language which the Tuareg speak, though were it not for the physical likeness of the Temahu in Egyptian paintings to the Tuareg the similarity of the names alone would probably be insufficient to draw a conclusion to which, however, nearly all evidence also points.

[461]Bates, op. cit., Maps III to X.

[462]Herodotus, IV. 191.

[463]Duveyrier, op. cit., p. 318.

[464]De Foucauld: Dict. Touareg-Fraçais, Alger, Vol. I. p. 451.

[465]De Foucauld: Reconnaissance du Maroc, Paris, 1888, p. 10 seq.

[466]F. Stuhlmann: Die Mazighvölker, Kolonial Institut, Band 27.

[467]I.e. Libyans.

[468]Lenz: Timbuktu: Reise durch Marokko, etc., Leipzig, 1884.

[469]Hanoteau: Grammaire Kabyle, p. ix.

[470]De Foucauld: Dict., Vol. I. p. 452, sub “Amajer.”

[471]Barth, op. cit., Vol. V. App. III.

[472]Or in Air “Imajeghan.”

[473]Sergi: Africa, etc., pp. 342-3.

[474]Barth, op. cit., Vol. I. pp. 222-6.

[475]Where Barth is in apparent contradiction in Volume I with other statements, and especially in Volume V, on this question of the MZGh root as a national name, the explanation, I think, is that he did not apparently consider the Northern Imghad, of whom he was speaking in the first volume, as pertaining to the Tuareg nation. Later on, when this became clear, he corrected himself.

[476]Loc. cit.

[477]Richardson: Travels in the Great Desert of Sahara, Vol. II. p. 140.

[478]Loc. cit.

[479]Bates, op. cit., p. 42 seq.

[480]Ibid., p. 71.

[481]And therefore of the Tehenu.


APPENDIX VI

THE KINGS OF THE TUAREG OF AIR

The following list of the kings of Agades was collected by Mr. H. R. Palmer, now Lieutenant-Governor of Northern Nigeria, in a record which has been referred to in the body of this work as the Agades Chronicle. The information was supplied by a learned Hausa scribe and is derived from Tuareg sources, probably in part MSS. The record ranks as “good oral testimony.” It was published in an English translation prepared by Mr. Palmer and printed in the Journal of the African Society, Vol. IX. No. XXXVI., July 1910. I am indebted to Mr. H. R. Palmer and to Messrs. Macmillan and Co., Ltd., the publishers of the Journal, for permission to reproduce the information in extenso.

In the following pages little more is given than the bare list of kings with the dates, but much of the other information contained in the Chronicle has been incorporated in the text of the third, eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth chapters of this book. The spelling of some of the proper names in the list and in the text has been slightly modified to accord with the system of transliteration adopted.

The genealogical table following the list of kings has been compiled from the information contained in the Chronicle.

Date.Name.Period of reign.Remarks.
A.D.A.H.
I1406809Yunis, son of Tahanazeta20 yrs.
II1425829Akasani6 „Son of the sister of Yunis.
III1429833El Haj Aliso20 „He was killed by his people.
IV1449853Amati?4 „Brother of the above: he also was killedand the dynasty ended.
V??Ibn Takoha4 yrs. 2 mths.A new dynasty.
VI1453857Ibrahim ben Hailas9 yrs.
VIIYusif ben Gashta16 „Brother of the above.
VIII1477882Muhammad the Great10 „
IX1486892Muhammad SottofeDate confirmed approximately fromNigerian records. He was a contemporary of M. Rimfa of Kano,1463-99, and Ibrahim of Katsina, 1493-6.
X1493899Muhammad ben Abdurahman el Mekkaniyi9 „Son of sister of above: he waskilled.
XI1502908The twins Adil and Muhammad HammatKnown as the children of Fatimallat. Theyreigned together. Their date is confirmed by the advent of Askia toAir in their reign in 1515.
XII1516922Muhammad bin Talazar2 yrs.
XIII1518924Ibrahim24-5 yrs.Son of M. Sottofe.
XIV1553961Muhammad el Guddala39-40 „Brother of above (name also given asGhodala and Alghoddala).
XV15911000Akampaiya2½ „
XVI1594?Yusif8 & 28 yrs.Son of sister of above.
XVII1601?Muhammad bin Mubaraki ibn el GuddalaSon of younger brother of Yusif’s father,and presumably grandson of No. XIV; deposed Yusif and was shortlyafter himself deposed.
XVIII1629?Muhammad Attafrija2 yrs.Son of Yusif: his mother was daughter ofNo. XIV. Deposed.
XIX1631?Aukar ibn Talyat1 mth.Deposed.
XX1631Muhammad Attafriya? 31 yrs.For the second time.
XXI16531064Muhammad Mubaraki34 „? Son of father of above.
XXII16871098Muhammad Agabba33-4 yrs.
XXIII17201132Muhammad el Amin9 mths.
XXIV17201133El Wali1 yr. 2 mths.Brother of above.
XXV17211134El Mumuni Muhammad9 mths.
XXVI1722?Muhammad AgageshaSon of No. XXII.
XXVII17351147Muhammad Hammad5 yrs.Son of No. XXI. Deposed.
XXVIII17391152Muhammad Guwa4 yrs. 7 mths.? Son or grandson of No. XVII.
XXIX17441742Muhammad HammadFor the second time.
XXX1759Muhammad Guwa4 yrs. 6 mths.Do.
XXXI17631176Muhammad Hammad5 yrs. 6 mths.For the third time.
XXXII17681181Muhammad Guddala25 yrs.Son of above.
XXXIII1797Muhammad Dani5 yrs. 7 mths.Deposed in A.H.1212.
Interregnum7 yrs.Government of chief learned men.
XXXIV17971212El Bekri [El Bakeri]19-20 yrs.Succeeded in 1797, but was not installedtill later.
XXXV18151231Muhammad Gumma5 yrs. 1 mth.
XXXVI1826Ibrahim Waffa7 yrs.Deposed.
XXXVII1835Guma7 „Killed.
XXXVIII18--Abdul Qader22-3 yrs.Deposed in 1857.
XXXIX18571274Ahmed Rufaiyi12 „Twice deposed, finally in 1869.
XLabout 18691286Sofo el Bekri? 32 „Four times deposed.
XLIabout 19001318Osman Mikitan4 yrs. 5 mths.
XLII19041322Ibrahim Da Sugi4 yrs.Three times deposed.
XLIII19081336Tegama11 „Died in prison.
XLIV1919OmarReigning

APPENDIX VII

SOME BIBLIOGRAPHICAL MATERIAL USED IN THIS BOOK

A great student was showing a friend over his library, and it happened to the friend to ask the obvious question that has occurred to nearly everyone in the same circumstances. The learned man in reply remarked wearily, that neither had he read all the books which adorned his shelves, nor yet were those all the books which he had read. I would say much the same of the lists which are given below. Many as are the works mentioned, those dealing with Air in any detail are very few.

A fuller bibliography of the people and places in the Central Sahara generally will be found in Gsell’s first volume of his Histoire de l’Afrique du Nord and in Oric Bates’ Eastern Libyans.

Maps

General Books about the Central Sahara

Linguistic and Grammatical

Books dealing with the Tuareg and the Anthropology of the Sahara generally

Classical and Arabic Authors

Works dealing more particularly with Air


INDEX

Map showing MR. FRANCIS RODD’S ROUTES in AÏR AND ADJACENT PARTS of FRENCH WEST AFRICA

Published by permission of the Royal Geographical Society.