People of the veil

by Baron Francis James Rennell Rodd Rennell of Rodd

PRAYERS AT SIDI HAMADA

It was made the occasion of much festivity. Every available camel in the vicinity was ridden by a Tuareg in the gayest saddle and bridle from the city to the shrine. These people do not feel that they are making the best of themselves unless they are mounted on a camel. A man and his camel are complementary and reciprocal to one another. When there is an occasion to celebrate they wear their best clothes and borrow any ornaments they can find to adorn their sombre garments. They are vain of their personal appearance and covetous of those pretty things which are considered in good taste, but their unselfishness is nevertheless remarkable. I have seen men forgo the real pleasure of wearing a silver ornament or a new face veil in order to lend them to a less fortunate companion whose general appearance was more ragged, or whose means and opportunities did not allow him to secure anything to smarten his turn-out. I had bought of the local jeweller-blacksmith in Agades a number of small silver ornaments of the sort which are affected by the Tuareg. All these, and even certain articles of clothing from our own scanty wardrobes, were borrowed for the day. It was curious to see that their sombre apparel was never lightened by any of the coloured materials so much in evidence in the Sudan. The best-dressed man is considered to be the one with the newest indigo-cotton robe and veil of the traditional plain design. At the most a red cloth is tied round the head over the face veil, or, in the case of the guides employed by the French, around the waist and shoulders: the robe must, however, always be plain white or dark indigo. The Tuareg of our own retinue picked out the best of our camels to ride. They turned out a very smart patrol, the camel men Elattu, Alwali and Mokhammed of noble caste, with two or three buzus or outdoor slaves, and Ali the son of Tama, the Arab from Ghat.

At an early hour the poorer people on foot began to stream over the tufted plain which lies between the place of prayer and the city. They were followed by little parties of men on camels, black figures on great dun-coloured or white riding beasts, girt about with their cross-hilted swords, and some also carrying a spear and oryx-hide shield. Finally, a larger group of men, preceded by three or four horsemen, was seen approaching. They were the Sultan of Agades, Omar, the Slave King of the Tuareg of Air, with his attendants, and the Añastafidet, a noble of the Kel Owi tribes, who, from the purely administrative point of view, is the most important man in the country. They were accompanied by the chief minister of the Sultan, the notables of the place, and other dignitaries. Among them was El Haj Saleh, the father of our camel man Elattu; he had performed the pilgrimage three times, in the course of which he had acquired the Arab fashion of dress used in the north. He wore the white woollen robe that is supposed to be descended from the Roman toga, with his head covered only by a fold of the cloth. El Haj Saleh has lived so long in foreign parts that he no longer veils his face and prefers speaking Arabic, but he is much respected as a learned and holy man; he is now employed by the French at the fort as Oriental Secretary and interpreter. With him were the Kadhi and the Imam, a solitary exception among the veiled Tuareg in the matter of display, for he had obtained from the south a buff-coloured silk robe embroidered with green. The Sariki n’Turawa, or chief minister of the Sultan, came next; near him gathered a number of Arab merchants from Ghat and Tuat in white robes; with one or two from the extreme west, there were a dozen or fifteen in all, who have the trade of Agades in their hands. Among them I perceived one Arab from Mauretania, a little man with delicate, sensitive features and a brown beard. He came straight up to where I was standing to repay me a debt of five silver francs which he had incurred some months before at Gangara in Damergu.

PLATE 11

PRAYERS AT SIDI HAMADA, NEAR AGADES

When the crowd had collected, the men ranged themselves in rows facing east before the Qibla; the women stood together on one side. The Sultan and his party were immediately opposite the niche with the Imam facing them. He began to read the Quran and the multitude then prayed. On either side of the Sultan, as he knelt to make his prostrations, a Tuareg remained standing with his sword drawn, extended point downwards at arm’s length, in protection and salute. As the Sultan rose to his feet the guard sloped their swords, repeating the salute every time he bowed before the name of God. These two men are distinct from the officials in the local administration;[83] they are the personal body-guard of the Sultan, chosen among the “courtiers of the king,” who are young men selected in turn from the tribes in Air which owe allegiance direct to the Sultan.

After the prayers were over two sheep were slaughtered in the orthodox manner. Their throats were cut by the Imam, reciting the invocation of Islam, and the blood was wiped away with holy water to the accompaniment of suitable prayers.

The Sultan and the people then returned to the city, making a detour by the N.W. side through the ruined suburb outside the walls and past the Great Mosque to the present palace, an indifferent building, both tumbledown and dirty. The reigning Sultan, Omar, like all his predecessors, is of slave descent. He was chosen in 1920 by the tribes which have the right to elect him, from a collateral branch of the ruling family. He is a weak man, and too much in the hands either of interested advisers or of the French, which does not always mean the same thing. His predecessor, Tegama, on the other hand, was a remarkable man. His intrigues with Kaossen were successful in preparing the revolution in Air so quietly that practically nothing was suspected of his intentions until the fateful dawn when the black troops on parade at the post were fired upon from the outskirts of the city. After the French columns had relieved the besieged garrison, both Kaossen and Tegama fled east to Kawar, whence the former found his way to the Fezzan, only to be killed, so it is believed, in obscure circumstances north of Murzuk by some Arabs. The native accounts of the story cast some doubt on his actual death on the grounds that his body was never found among those of his massacred companions. It is further represented that the very Turks and Senussiya whom he had served put him to death for his failure in Air, but it appears more probable that on his way to seek refuge with the Senussiya in Cyrenaica, Kaossen and his friends had the misfortune to fall in with a band of Arabs whom he had raided in the olden days, and to have been killed by them.