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Secular Power and Religious Authority in Muslim Society: the Case of Songhay*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

John Hunwick
John Hunwick
Affiliation:
Northwestern University
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Extract

The relationship between political power and religious authority has been a delicate one in Muslim societies. On the one hand, governments may attempt to silence religious authorities; on the other, they may themselves succumb to revolutions in the name of religion. More often governments have attempted to co-opt religious authorities as allies in exercising control or have worked directly in a power-sharing arrangement with them. In Songhay, as in several other states of pre-colonial Sudanic Africa, a more subtle balance was achieved between the ruling estate and the diverse body of scholars, mystics and holymen who made up the religious estate. The askiyas of sixteenth-century Songhay, while exercising full political power, saw it in their interest to maintain harmonious relations with these men of religion. Gifts in cash and kind, including slaves, grants of land and privilege, especially exemption from taxation, as well as recognition of rights of intercession and sanctuary, ensured their moral support and spiritual services and, importantly, protected rulers from their curse. Such a symbiosis was important for the stability of a large and ethnically diverse empire like Songhay, especially as regards its conquered western reaches, which were ethnically non-Songhay and had a strong Islamic cultural tradition. This delicate balance was upset by the Sacdian conquest of Songhay in 1591. Despite Moroccan assertions of Islamic legitimacy, religious authorities in Timbuktu were unsupportive, and harsh measures against them dealt a lasting blow to the equilibrium which had prevailed under the askiyas.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 37 , Issue 2 , July 1996 , pp. 175 - 194
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

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References

1 Paper presented to the Fifth International African Seminar, Ahmadu Bello University, Jan. 1964, and published in Lewis, I. M. (ed.), Islam in Tropical Africa (London, 1966), 296–317.Google Scholar

2 ‘Timbuktu under imperial Songhay: a reconsideration of autonomy’, J. Afr. Hist., XXXI (1990), 5–24.Google Scholar

3 In my Sharī a in Songhay (London, 1985)Google Scholar, I argued that although Timbuktu in the sixteenth century was an integral part of the Songhay empire, it managed to be ‘virtually self-governing’ (pp. 20–1); further that, although the askiyas sought the advice of the leading Timbuktu scholars, this was more in spiritual matters than state policy, in which ‘army commanders and other senior officials belonging to the court entourage’ were more influential (pp. 114–15).

4 See Gibb, H. A. R. and Kramers, J. H. (eds.), Shorter Encyclopaedia of Islam (Leiden, 1953), 599.Google Scholar

5 Qur'ān, 4: 59.

6 I.e., dies as an unbeliever. See the Sahīh of Muslim, , Kitāb al-imāra, 58.Google Scholar See further Sharī a in Songhay, 81.Google Scholar

7 See Sharī a in Songhay, 131–2.Google Scholar

8 E.g. Diakhaba and Gunjūru in ancient Mali; see Sanneh, Lamin, The Jahanke (n. p. [London], 1979), 27ff.Google Scholar

9 Levtzion states that the Moro-Naba of the Mossi maintains a show of fasting in Ramadān by ‘hiring’ a Muslim to fast on his behalf; see Levtzion, N., Muslims and Chiefs in West Africa (Oxford, 1968), 169.Google Scholar

10 The relations of the ruling estate with the non-Muslim religious authorities will not be considered here. Such relations were undoubtedly important, especially in the eastern half of Songhay, but our sources afford us only the faintest glimpse into them. On the continuing vigour of Songhay religious cults in the twentieth century, see Rouch, Jean, La religion et la magie songhay (Paris, 1960)Google Scholar, and Stoller, Paul, Fusion of the Worlds: An Ethnography of Possession among the Songhay of Niger (Chicago, 1989).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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12 Although this may represent a bias of our sources, it is noteworthy that we know of no clearly ‘Songhay’ holyman in this period. Even those who resided in Gao appear to have been of Manding origin.

13 Ibid. 334–5, 341–2.

14 In 1588, however, his influence was insufficient to prevent the Timbuktu-koi and the Maghsharan-koi from supporting the Balama's attempt to seize the throne. See ‘Abd al-Rahmān al-Sa‘dī, Ta’rīkh al-sūdān (hereafter TS), ed. and trans. Houdas, O. (Paris, 1898–1900), 125/200.Google Scholar

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20 See translation in Hunwick, J. O., ‘Askia al-Hājj Muhammad and his successors: the account of al-Imām al-Takrūrī’, Sudanic Africa, 1 (1990), 85–9.Google Scholar Since we do not know when this author wrote or what his sources of information may have been, it is possible that he was merely paraphrasing some other author. However, his nisba al-Takrūrī suggests that he was of West African origin, and thus the likelihood of his having been an actual witness is increased.

21 The women were Fulani and hence, it is implied, Muslims. Al-Sa‘dī comments: ‘Those who had no care for the dictates of their religion [took them as concubines] while those who had, took them in marriage’. He points out that his ancestor was one of the latter. The woman he was given became the mother of his father's grandmother; hence it was important to al-Sa‘dī to establish that she was, and was treated as, a free woman. See TS, 67/110.

22 See TF, 82/154.

23 The title Askiya alfa meant ‘the askiya's scholar/holyman’, and he appears to have been the askiya's religious counselor.

24 See TF, 107–8197–99. We may contrast this picture of a rather pliant qādī who accepted gifts from the askiya with the much sterner portrait of al-‘Āqib left to us by his kinsman Ahmad Bābā: ‘He was of stout heart, bold in the mighty affairs that others shrink from, courageous in dealing with the sultan and those under him. He had many confrontations with them and they would be submissive and obedient to them in every matter. If he saw anything he disapproved of, he would suspend his activities as qādī and hold himself aloof. Then they would conciliate him until he returned’. See Ahmad Bābā, Nayl al-ibtihāj bi-tatrīz al-dībāj, on margin of Farhūn, Ibn, al-Dībāj al-mudhahhab fī ma‘rifat a‘yān ‘ulamā’ al-madhhab (Cairo, 1351/1931–1932), 218.Google Scholar

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26 On such practices in these states, see Spaulding, Jay and Salīm, Muhammad Ibrāhīm Abū, Public Documents from Sinnār (East Lansing, 1989)Google Scholar, and O'Fahey, R. S. and Salīm, M. I. Abū, Land in Dār Fūr (Cambridge, 1983).CrossRefGoogle Scholar For a broad survey, see O'Fahey, R. S., ‘“They are the privileged of God and His Prophet”: mahram and zāwiya in Sudanic Africa’, in Hunwick, John and Lawler, Nancy (eds.), The Cloth of Many-Colored Silks (Evanston, forthcoming).Google Scholar

27 I have published the text and translation of this ‘document’ and discussed its problems in ‘Studies in the Ta'rīkh al-fattāsh II: the hurma document issued by Askiya al-hājj Muhammad to the descendants of Mori Hawgāro’, Sudanic Africa, III (1992), 133–48.Google Scholar

28 Both TS and TF use the term hurma which means ‘a state of being forbidden, sacred or inviolable, entitled to respect, reverence, honour’ (Lane, E. W., An Arabic-English Lexicon [10 vols.] [London, 1863–1893], ii, 555, col. 1).Google ScholarTS also uses the term ‘isma which means ‘[divine] protection, preservation, especially from what could cause a man perdition’, see Lane, , Arabic-English Lexicon, 2066–7.Google Scholar

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32 See TF, 112–13/205–7.

33 His title, mori – ‘holyman’, is a Manding word.

34 See Palmer, H. R., The Bornu Sahara and Sudan (London, 1936), 21, 50.Google Scholar

35 Hunwick, , ‘Studies in the Ta'rīkh al-fattāsh I’, 133–48.Google Scholar

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37 On sanctuary (called hurm in Morocco), see Westermarck, , Ritual and Belief, i, 559–64Google Scholar

38 See TS, 83–4/139–40.

39 See TS, 99/163.

40 See TS, 130/207–8.

41 See TS, 131/209.

42 See TF, 134/244.

43 See TF, 51/98–9.

44 See TF, 83/155–6.

45 See TF, 73, 75/139–43.

46 See TS, 85/141–2.

47 See TF, 130/237–8.

48 See TS, 98–9/162–3.

49 There is, even today, a strong belief in the power of the holyman's curse in this area. Africa Confidential reports: ‘The late president of Niger, Seyni Kountché, had as an official marabout Oumarou Amadou “Bonkano”, illiterate in both French and Arabic. He acquired such influence that the president appointed him head of the secret service. Bonkano eventually fell into disgrace and joined a coup attempt in October 1983. Many blame Kountché's long illness and recent death on a curse laid on him by Bonkano.’ See ‘West Africa: the men of power’, Africa Confidential, XXVIII (2 12 1987), 5.Google Scholar