Bibliography.—For a general survey of the country, see Travels in Ashanti and Jaman, by R.A. Freeman (London, 1898); Historical Geography of the British Colonies, vol. iii. “West Africa,” by C.P. Lucas (Oxford, 1900); and the Annual Reports, Ashanti, issued from 1906 onward by the Colonial Office, London. The Tshi-speaking Peoples of the Gold Coast, by Col. A.B. Ellis (London, 1887), deals with ethnology. Of early works on the country the most valuable are A Mission from Cape Coast Castle to Ashantee, by T.E. Bowdich (London, 1819); and Journal of a Residence in Ashantee (London, 1824), by J. Dupuis. For history generally, see A History of the Gold Coast of West Africa, by Col. A.B. Ellis (London, 1893); and History of the Gold Coast and Asante ... from about 1500 to 1860, by C.C. Reindorf, a native pastor of the Basel mission (Basel, 1895).
For the British military campaigns, in addition to the official blue-books, consult: Narrative of the Ashantee War, 2 vols., by (Sir) Henry Brackenbury (London, 1874); The Story of a Soldier’s Life by Viscount Wolseley, vol. ii. chs. xliii.-l. (London, 1903); Coomassie, by (Sir) H.M. Stanley, being the story of the 1873-74 expedition (new ed., London, 1896); Life of Sir John Hawley Glover, by Lady Glover, chs. iii.-x. (London, 1897); The Downfall of Prempeh, by (General) R.S.S. Baden-Powell, an account of the 1895-96 expedition (London, 1896); From Kabul to Kumassi (chs. xv. to end), by Sir James Willcocks, (London, 1904); The Ashanti Campaign of 1900, by Capt. C.H. Armitage and Lieut.-Col. A.F. Montanaro (London, 1901); The Relief of Kumasi, by Capt. H.C.J. Biss (London, 1901). The two bocks following are by besieged residents in Kumasi: The Siege of Kumasi, by Lady Hodgson (London, 1901); Dark and Stormy Days at Kumasi, 1900, from the diary of the Rev. Fritz Ramseyer (London, 1901). Many of the works quoted under [Gold Coast] deal also with Ashanti.
(F. R. C.)
[1] The exact area of dense forest land is unknown, but is estimated at fully 12,000 sq. m.
[2] An attempt was made late in 1875, by the despatch of Dr V.S. Gouldsbury on a mission to Eastern Akim, Juabin and Kumasi, to repair the effects of the previous inaction of the colonial government, but without success.
ASH‘ARĪ [Abū-l Hasan ‘Ali ibn Isma‘īl ul-Ash‘arī], (873-935), Arabian theologian, was born of pure Arab stock at Basra, but spent the greater part of his life at Bagdad. Although belonging to an orthodox family, he became a pupil of the great Mu‘tazalite teacher al-Jubbā‘ī, and himself remained a Mu‘tazalite until his fortieth year. In 912 he returned to the faith of his fathers and became its most distinguished champion, using the philosophical methods he had learned in the school of heresy. His theology, which occupied a mediate position between the extreme views on most points, became dominant among the Shafi‘ites. He is said to have written over a hundred works, of which only four or five are known to be extant.
See W. Spitta, Zur Geschichte Abu ‘l-Hasan al Aš‘ari’s (Leipzig, 1876); A.F. Mehren, Exposé de la reforme de l’Islamisme commencée par Abou. ‘l-Hasan Ali el-Ash‘ari (Leiden, 1878); and D.B. Macdonald’s Muslim Theology (London, 1903), especially the creed of Ash‘ari in Appendix iii.
(G. W. T.)