¹ I am encouraged to do this by the fact that Robin Law has recently embarked upon a detailed study of the horse in the western and central Sudan. The results of his work, as they become available, will cancel, correct or confirm my notions. He has kindly read a draft of this paper and has made a number of valuable suggestions, all of which have been taken up and some of which are now incorporated. I have also been greatly helped by the papers on the horse in Africa, submitted to the African History Seminar of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies and the School of Oriental and African Studies of London University in 1962−3.

² Abou-Obeïd-el-Bekri, , Description de l'Afrique Septentrionale, ed. Mac, Guckin de Slane (Paris, 1965), 332, Arabic 177.Google Scholar Notice, however, that al-Idrisi, a century later, dwells more on camels, mentioning for example Ghiyaro, a town eleven days from Ghana and tributary to it, using camels on slaving expeditions; Dozy, R. and de Goeje, M. J., Description de l'Afrique et de l'Espagne par Edrui (Leyden, 1866), II. For the possible military superiority of camels in barren country, see below, p. 7.Google Scholar

³ Al-Bakri, 329, Arabic 176. Gaudefroy-Demombynes cites al-Idrisi's mention of the gold block to which the king tethered his horse, and suggests that the two stalls of gold mentioned in the Rawḍ al-mi'aṭr, where the ruler of Ghana ties his horses when he makes a sojourn, come from this; Ibn Faṭl Allah al-‘Omarī, L'Afrique moms l'Egypte, ed. Gaudefroy-, Demombynes (Paris, 1927), 54 n. and 71 n.Google Scholar

⁴ Quoted in al-‘Umari, 56 n.

⁵ Boulnois, and Hama, B., L'Empire de Gao (Paris, 1954), III.Google Scholar The reference to the apparently wanton killing of a horse is reminiscent of some Hausa folk-lore, where the horse, though he does not enter to any great extent, is usually active in helping men against witches, while in some stories, far from reciprocating this help, a man's affection for his adopted son is measured by the number of valuable horses which he will allow him to kill; Tremearne, A. J. N., Hausa superstitions and customs (London, 1953), 37.Google Scholar

⁶ Mahmoud, Kati, Tarikh el-Fettach, eds. Houdas, O. and Delafosse, M. (Paris, 1913), 119–23, Arabic 62−4;Google Scholar see also Hirschberg, H. Z., ‘The problem of the Judaized Berbers’, J. Afr. Hist. IV, 3 (1963), 331–2.Google Scholar

⁷ ‘Diwan of the sultans of Bornu’, in Ahmed ibn Fartua, History of the First Twelve Years of the Reign of Mai Idris Alooma of Bornu, ed. Palmer, H. R. (London, 1970), 85.Google Scholar

⁸ Lebeuf, J.-P. and Detourbet, A. M., La Civilisation du Tchad (Paris, 1950), 26.Google Scholar They appear to rely on the reference in the ‘Diwan’, which, however, does not mention when these horses arrived. Nachtigal, claiming the authority of Leo Africanus, said that the horse found its way to Bornu from North Africa some 800 years ago, i.e. in the eleventh century; Nachtigal, G., Sahara und Sudan (Graz, 1967), 1, 616–Google Scholar see also Schultze, A., The Sultanate of Bornu, ed. Benton, P. A. (London, 1968), 166, where the Nachtigal reference is wrongly given.Google Scholar

⁹ Patterson, J. R., Kanuri Songs (Lagos, 1926), 1–3.Google Scholar

¹⁰ Fage, J D., An Introduction to the History of West Africa (London, 1962), 35.Google Scholar

¹¹ Yaqut, , Mu'jam, II, 932–3;Google Scholar part of this passage is quoted in Trimingham, J. S., History of Islam in West Africa (London, 1962), III.Google Scholar

¹² Sudanese Memoirs, ed. Palmer, H. R. (London, 1967), III, 3.Google Scholar

¹³ ‘Diwan’, in Ibn Fartua, 86, 87, 89.Google Scholar

¹⁴ Schultze, (1968), 166–7.Google Scholar

¹⁵ Lebeuf and Detourbet (1950), 101–2, 110–12.Google Scholar

¹⁶ Hogben, S. J., Muhammadan Emirates of Nigeria (London, 1930), 165.Google ScholarFrobenius, L., The Voice of Africa (London, 1913), II, 617 ff., discusses the Kisra story at length, but mentions horses only once (p. 624) and that in connexion with Bayajidda. The Kisra account in Sudanese Memoirs (II, 61−3) makes no mention of horses.Google Scholar

¹⁷ Frobenius, (1913), II, 475 ff., gives a very similar story, but about a Fulani from Masina going to Tuareg country; there is a good deal of riding in this version, but horses occasion no special remark.Google Scholar

¹⁸ Alhaji, Hassan and Mallam, Shuaibu Na'ibi, A Chronicle of Abuja, ed. Heath, F. (Lagos, 1962), 2.Google Scholar

¹⁹ Arnett, E. J., tr., ‘A Hausa chronicle’, J. Aft. Soc., IX (1909–1910), 163–4.Google Scholar

²⁰ In Sudanese Memoirs, III, 233–4.Google Scholar Another version of the same document says ‘like an ox and yet not an ox’; ibid., 134.

²¹ Sudanese, Memoirs, III, 135.Google Scholar

²² Palmer, H. R., The Bornu Sahara and Sudan (London, 1936), 273–4 and note.Google Scholar

²³ By Edgar, F. (Edinburgh, 1924), 1, 222–5; I am grateful to Dr M. Hiskett for translating the passage for me.Google Scholar

²⁴ Hallam, W. K. R., ‘The Bayajida legend in Hausa folklore’, J. Afr. Hist. VII, X (1966), 48 and note.Google Scholar

²⁵ Hiskett, M., ‘The “Song of Bagauda”: a Hausa king list and homily in verse’, Bull. S.O.A.S., XXVIII, i (1965), 114–15.Google Scholar

²⁶ Hallam, (1966), 48.Google Scholar Oral tradition in Garun Gabas, where Bayajidda halted on his flight from Bornu, remembers him coming on a mare; Sudanese Memoirs, iii, 135.Google Scholar

²⁷ On the other hand, the ‘Daura girgam’ speaks clearly of Bayajidda lending 3,000 horses and horsemen, who had come with him, to the ruler of Bornu; Sudanese Memoirs, III, 133. But it was only when he had lost all these that flight became imperative for him.Google Scholar

²⁸ Briggs, L. C., Tribes of the Sahara (London, 1960), 21. Leo Africanus discusses the differences, if any, between the Arab and the Barb; The History and Description of Africa, Pory, J. ed. (London, 1896), III, 942–3.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

²⁹ See, for example, Lhote, H., ‘Le cheval et le chameau dans les peintures et gravures rupestres du Sahara’, Bull. I.F.A.N., xv (1953), 1138–228.Google Scholar

³⁰ Rouch, J., Contribution a l'histoire des Songhay (Dakar, 1953), 154 and note, citing his own ‘Gravures rupestres de Kourki’, Bull. I.F.A.N. (1949).Google Scholar

³¹ Marty, P., L'Islam et les Tribus dans la Colonie du Niger (Paris, 1931), 153–5; presumably the World War had something to do with the abandonment. For the Ethiopian practice of riding your mule and leading your horse, to keep the latter fresh until the beginning of battle, see al-'Umari, 6 and 249.Google Scholar

³² Leo, , III, 942–3. Muslims in Africa rarely eat horsemeat, for it is, with that of mules, forbidden in Maliki law, which does however allow wild donkey.Google Scholar

³³ Rudm, H. R., Germans in the Cameroons: 1884–1914 (London, 1938), 106.Google Scholar

³⁴ Koelle, S. W., African Native Literature (1854), 385; cf. note 94 below.Google Scholar

³⁵ al-'Umari, 73–4.

³⁶ Ibn, Abi Zayd al Qayrawani, La Risala…, ed Bercher, L. (Algiers 1945), 323; it is allowed for sheep and goats, as improving the meat.Google Scholar

³⁷ The Travels of Ibn Battuta, ed. Sir Hamilton Gibb (1962), II, 462 and note. Ibn Battuta stayed at a college in the Kastamonu horse market. Recalling the much wider usage of eunuchs in the Muslim African world, we may recall also William Penn's comment in another context: Men are generally more careful of the breed of their horses and dogs than of their children.Google Scholar

³⁸ Bowen, T. J., Adventures and missionary labours (London, 1968), 263;Google ScholarDenham, D. and Clapperton, H., Narrative of travels and discoveries (London, 1826), (Clapperton's account).Google Scholar

³⁹ Mahmoud, Kati, 70–2, Arabic 39–40.Google Scholar

⁴⁰ Clapperton, H., Journal of a Second Expedition (London 1829), 105–6.Google Scholar

⁴¹ Clapperton (1829), 89. Marco Polo tells us that horses and people were slain to accompany the deceased Grand Khan into the next world; Sir, Henry Yule, ed. The Book of Ser Marco Polo (London, 1926), I, 246.Google Scholar

⁴² Smith, R., ‘The Alafin in exile: a study of the Igboho period in Oyo history’, J. Afr. Hist. vi, 2 (1965), 59.Google Scholar

⁴³ Johnson, S., The History of the Yorubas (Lagos, 1921), 161,Google Scholar cited in ibid. 67–8. The idea that an army of such size could thus conceal its tracks seems a little far-fetched. Might the gbaju leaf have had some talismanic significance, or was it perhaps intended, by raising a dust, to give an exaggerated impression of the army's size? This was done once in Wadai, when the Tunjur were overthrown, though the branches this time were attached to camels; Nachtigal, , 1967, iii, 272, or in the English translation, Sahara and Sudan, IV (London, 1971), 207.Google Scholar

⁴⁴ Smith, R., Kingdoms of the Yoruba (London, 1969), 137.Google Scholar

⁴⁵ E.g. Clapperton (1829), 56.Google Scholar

⁴⁶ Kumm, H. K. W., From Hausaland to Egypt (London, 1910), 26–7. At Geji, near Bauchi, there is a cave painting of a horse; Bernard Fagg, in a private letter (31 Jan. 1964), wrote that he was sure this horse represented the same breed as the dwarf ponies of the plateau.Google Scholar

⁴⁷ Koelle, (1854), 211.Google Scholar

⁴⁸ Barth, H., Travels and discoveries (London, 1857), IV, 35 and III, 198.Google Scholar

⁴⁹ Ruxton, F. H., ‘Notes on the tribes of the Muri province’, J. Afr. Soc., VII, 27 (1908), 382; he speaks of them ‘riding on a pad’.Google Scholar

⁵⁰ Fitzpatrick, J. F. J., ‘Some notes on the Kwolla district and its tribes‘, J. Afr. Soc., x, 37 (1910), 50–1; he says that all Ankwe tribes do the cutting.Google Scholar

⁵¹ Barth, (1857), IV, 35, and III, 598.Google Scholar

⁵² Quoted in Clapperton (1829), 335.Google Scholar

⁵³ Denham and Clapperton (1857), 118−19 (Denham's account); these people ate a horse that had died during the night.

⁵⁴ Cheykh, Mohammed ibn-Omar el-Tounsy, Voyage au Ouadáy, ed. DrPerron, (Paris, 1851), 175, 167.Google Scholar

⁵⁵ Nachtigal, (1967), II, 584, 592.Google Scholar

⁵⁶ Ibid. II, 622. Nachtigal had earlier (II, 302–3) heard rumours of thousands of horsemen from the more or less subject pagan regions of Bagirmi flocking to join Abu Sekkin, but this is likely to have been in part a gloss of military propaganda in time of crisis.

⁵⁷ El-Tounsy, (1851), 206.Google Scholar

⁵⁸ Frobenius, (1913), I, 210–12; II, 629.Google Scholar

⁵⁹ See above, p. 4.

⁶⁰ Kano Chronicle, in Sudanese Memoirs, III, 107.

⁶¹ A1-'Umari, 61.

⁶² Abderrahman, es-Sa'di, Tarikh es-soudan, ed. Houdas, O. (Paris, 1964), II, Arabic 6.Google Scholar

⁶³ Quoted in al-'Umari, 86.Google Scholar

⁶⁴ Clapperton, (1829), 93, 106; he was there in 1823. He had earlier received a horse from the king of Oyo, again as a parting present.Google Scholar

⁶⁵ Ibid. 65.

⁶⁶ Bowen, (1968), 263.Google Scholar

⁶⁷ Clapperton, (1829), 56, 34; passing references to horses in Yoruba occur on pp. 8, so, 34, 43−4 and 60.Google Scholar

⁶⁸ Burton, R. F., Abeokuta and the Camaroons Mountains: an Exploration (London, 1863), I, 61–2.Google Scholar

⁶⁹ Barth, (1857), II, 507 he mentions also an indigenous variety of ox, being a distinct species, which is not three feet high.Google Scholar

⁷⁰ Cf. Marco Polo's remark on the horses of Malabar: ‘And another strange thing to be told is that there is no possibility of breeding horses in this country, as hath often been proved by trial. For even when a great blood-mare has been covered by a great blood- horse, the produce is nothing but a wretched wry-legged weed, not fit to ride.’ (Yule (1926), 11, 342, 350 n.) Marco Polo's generalizations about horses seem sometimes rather sweeping; see note 120 below.

⁷¹ Al-'Umari, 94.

⁷² Patterson, (1926), 12–13.Google Scholar

⁷³ Palmer, (1936), 35.Google Scholar

⁷⁴ The Tuareg horse was not, of course, confined to Air, nor were the Tuareg people unimaginative in seeking new breeding stock. About 1717 the Tadmekka Tuareg broke a hole in the citadel wall at Timbuktu, and led out two stallions, none noticing till break of day. These were riding horses of the pasha, well known by their forehead stars and white feet, magnificent animals. The pasha sent men to reclaim them peaceably, but finding the horses exhausted, the Tuareg having meanwhile used them to cover all their mares, the pasha was compelled to mount an expedition; Tedzkiret, en-Nisian, ed. Houdas, O. (Paris, 1966), 40.Google Scholar

⁷⁵ Denham, and Clapperton, (1826), 73–4 (Clapperton's account).Google Scholar

⁷⁶ Clapperton, (1829), 187, 228.Google Scholar

⁷⁷ Olive, Macleod, Chiefs and cities of central Africa (Edinburgh and London, 1912), 17.Google Scholar

⁷⁸ East, R. M., Stories of old Adamawa (Lagos and London, 1934), 67.Google Scholar

⁷⁹ Whitting, C. E. J., Hausa and Fulani proverbs (Lagos, 1940, reprinted 1967), 27Google ScholarBoyd, Alexander (his Last Journey, ed. Herbert, Alexander (London, 1912), 209,Google Scholar in Dikoa in 1909, contrasted the Bornu horse, of 14 to 15 hands, which he thought the best with a larger animal, 16 to 17 hands, bred about Dikoa, in Mandara, and in Logon country long-backed and with little pace. His division clearly does not correspond exactly with the one I have just outlined. I have not attempted to relate my very rough descriptiv categories with those of earlier writers, precise physical details of horses being beyond my scope and skill. Doutressoule, G., L'élévage en Afrique Occidentale Française (1947)Google Scholar a book which at the time of writing I have still been unable to find, divides West African horses into pony (my Southern Sudanic?), barb and Arab (the northern imports to be discussed in a moment?), and Dongola (my larger Sudanic varieties?). Lhote (1953) 1203−5, also speaks of the Dongola horse, introduced into the central Sudan by Juhayna Arabs from upper Egypt. Tothill, J. D., Agriculture in the Sudan (London, 1948), 646–7, says that only two horses are bred in the eastern Sudan, the Dongolawi and Kordofani. The former is larger, as much as 15.2 hands, but may be ‘summed up as large, flashy, ugly, and useless. Its originally small, and now rapidly diminishing, numbers are no cause for regret.’ The Kordofani, located mainly in Darfur, is far better, at least four times more numerous, and smaller, rarely exceeding 14 hands. It seems improbable to me that all the many horses in the central Sudan called Dongola by Doutressoule and Lhote should derive solely, or even principally, from Tothill's Dongolawi type.Google Scholar

⁸⁰ Voyages, , IV, 384.Google Scholar

⁸¹ Ibid. IV, 424–5; in Takadda he bought two riding camels for under 40 ducats, IV, 444–5.

⁸² Sudanese Memoirs, II, 39.Google Scholar

⁸³ Ibid. II, 29.

⁸⁴ Ibid. II, 29–30.

⁸⁵ Leo, , III, 834–5.Google Scholar

⁸⁶ Ibid. III, 833.

⁸⁷ Ibid. III, 830.

⁸⁸ Leo, , III, 825.Google Scholar

⁸⁹ Ch., de la Roncière, ‘Une histoire du Bornou’, Rev. de l'histoire des colonies françaises (1919) 2e. sem., 79, 82–3, 84, 88.Google Scholar

⁹⁰ Sudanese, Memoirs, III, 6–7. The mahram, however, speaks, immediately before this Mai Ahmad reference, of Alooma, and it seems likely that Palmer's attribution of a thirteenth century date is far too early. The passage goes on to state: ‘The Fargama gathered them together at a price of twelve rotals apiece. On each horse was a charge of four totals to the Mulima (master of the horse), and three totals rotals to clothe the attendants of the horses.’Google Scholar

⁹¹ Ibid. III, 6.

⁹² Sudanese Memoirs, III, 6–7 and notes; he also exempted the Tura from all military service.Google Scholar

⁹³ Ibid. III, 7. Nachtigal (1967), I, 165 n., mentions several place names in Fezzan derived from the Kanuri language, including Firfir, which he translates as rich in horses, from fir, the word for horse. Other authorities render it Pr; Koelle, (1854), 377, and Benton, P. A., Kanuri readings (London, 1911), g. Cf. above, p. 8.Google Scholar

⁹⁴ Sud. Mem., 1, 65;Google Scholar this was at Ghuwi Kafokwa. Returning from the seventh expedition Alooma met envoys from someone whom the apparently corrupt text calls Sahib Dubul, the master of Dubul, or Sahib abd Dumbul, and who came with the ruler of Kawar, an important chief. Palmer judged that these are misreadings of Stambul, and that messengers from the Sultan of Turkey are meant; ibid. I, 69, 76. Is it possible that the name Shambul might have been intended, already mentioned as an area with wild horses? see above, p. 8.

⁹⁵ Ibid. I, II.

⁹⁶ E.g. Urvoy, Y., L'histoire de l'empire du Bornou (Paris, 1949, reprinted Amsterdam, 1968), 550.Google Scholar

⁹⁷ Sudanese, Memoirs, III, 10.Google Scholar

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⁹⁹ Denham, and Clapperton, (1826), 43, 44, 48 Clapperton's account).Google Scholar

¹⁰⁰ Denham, and Clapperton, (1826), 2 (Clapperton's account).Google Scholar

¹⁰¹ Tax-gatherers may also have been interested. Marco Polo mentions the handsome profits made by the king of Aden, from export duties levied on horses going to India (Yule (1926), II, 438); and his editor added that the Portuguese required imported horses to enter through Goa, in order to collect a duty of £15 or £20 a head (II, 455 n.). I do not know whether tax records might be found in North Africa to illustrate trans-Saharan traffic in horses, but it seems a likely possibility.

¹⁰² Nachtigal, (1971), IV, 60, 145.Google Scholar

¹⁰³ Ibid. IV, 254.

¹⁰⁴ Ibid. IV, 345 and note, 378.

¹⁰⁵ Cf., perhaps, Tothill's Dongolawi and Kordofani, note 79 above.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁶ Nachtigal, (1971), IV, 60–1, 145, 183, 239.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁷ Nachtigal, (1971), IV, 128.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁸ Ibid. IV, 145; for Tama, see above, p. 11.

¹⁰⁹ Ibid. IV, 149, 181.

¹¹⁰ de Castries, H., ‘La conquête du Soudan par El-Mansour’, Hespéru (1923), 473.Google Scholar

¹¹¹ Denham, and Clapperton, (1826), 91–2, 96, 97–8, 224 (Denham's account).Google Scholar

¹¹² Schultze, (1968), 74–5;Google ScholarNachtigal, (1967), I, 681.Google Scholar

¹¹³ Nachtigal, (1971), IV, 122.Google Scholar

¹¹⁴ Alexander, B., From the Niger to the Nile (London, 1908), II, 122.Google Scholar

¹¹⁵ There are many descriptions of this sort of thing: see Denham, and Clapperton, (1826), 197–8 (Denham's account) (in Kuka); Macleod (1912), 53 (south of Marwa); Alexander (1908), II, I, and Nachtigal (1971), IV, 35.Google Scholar

¹¹⁶ Alexander, (1908), II, 122.Google Scholar

¹¹⁷ e.g. Denham, and Clapperton, (1826), II (Clapperton's account) A1-Bakri mentions a well, Agharef, whither the Sanhaja brought their camels for cures through the salty water; 298–9.Google Scholar

¹¹⁸ Nachtigal, (1967), II, 296–7;Google Scholar for another instance of effective medication, see Nachtigal, (1971), IV, 21, and for a failure, IV, 88.Google Scholar

¹¹⁹ Fyfe, C., History of Sierra Leone (London, 1962), 294.Google Scholar

¹²⁰ The economics of the horse trade in Africa are little known. Perhaps comparisons might usefully be sought elsewhere in the Muslim world, for example in the export of horses from Dhafar to India; Ibn Battuta, ed. Gibb, II, 382, and Yule (1926), 11, 340, 4.44. Ibn Battuta describes also mass exports of Turkish horses to India, and though ‘the greater part of the horses die or are stolen’, heavy taxes are imposed, and so on, ‘there remains a handsome profit for the traders in these horses’; II, 478−9. Marco Polo said that the Indian princes were so avid to possess horses that they would pay huge prices for them, but then treated them so foolishly and ignorantly that at the end of the year, of more than 2,000 imported, not a hundred remained alive; Yule (1926), II, 340, 450. Even with the built-in obsolescence of overproductive western society in mind, this degree of extravagance is hard to credit.