Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 January 2009
One of the units in which prices and exchange-rates are expressed by nineteenth-century travellers is the gold mithqal. This paper is an attempt to discover, and if possible to make some sense of, the various values of the gold mithqal at different times and places in West and North Africa during the nineteenth century.
1 Encyclopaedia of Islam, III (1936): Mithqal. The following general sources have been consulted:Google ScholarRidgeway, W., The Origins of Metallic Currency and Weight Standards (Cambridge, 1892); Encyclopaedia of Islam, articles on Mithqal, Kharub and Habba; Chambers Encyclopaedia (1967),Google Scholar article on weights and weighing by Skinner, F. G. and Davidson, C. St C.; Kelly, P., The Universal Cambist (London, 1835). None of these deals with the West African mithqal, but all throw much light on the grain/ounce weight systems, and the second has interesting material on the Arab mithqal and its subdivisions.Google Scholar
2 Barth, H., Reisen und Entdeckungen im Nord- und Zentral-Afrika, German, ed. (Gotha, 1857), English ed. (London, 1857); vol. v of German edition, pp. 22–23.Google Scholar
3 Skinner, F. G., article on Weights and Weighing in Chambers Encyclopaedia (London, 1967).Google Scholar
4 Leo, Africanus, Description of Africa, III (Hakluyt, Society ed.,London, 1896), 825.Google Scholar
5 Jackson, J. G., Account of Morocco (London, 1809), 59.Google Scholar
6 Mauny, R., Tableau géographique de l'ouest africain au moyen age, IFAN (Dakar, 1961 ), 418.Google Scholar
7 Ch., Monteil, Djenne (Paris, 1903), 251–3.Google Scholar
8 Lyon, G., Narratives of Travel in Northern Africa in 1819 (London, 1821), 277–8.Google Scholar
9 Dupuis, J., Journal of a Residence in Ashantee (London, 1824), Cxiii.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
10 P. Kelly, op. cit.
11 Binger, L. G., Du Niger au golfe de Guinée (Paris, 1892), 241.Google Scholar
12 Dupuis, J., op. cit. cxi.Google Scholar
13 See general note in footnote I above.
14 G. Lyon, op. cit.
15 Hornemann's, Journal in Missions to the Niger, II, 99 ff.Google Scholar
16 A. Ott, The Historical Significance of Akan Gold-weights (forthcoming).
17 J. Dupuis, op. cit.
18 Dupuis, J., op. cit. cxiii.Google Scholar
19 Mungo, Park, Journal of a Mission to Africa (London, 1815), 162.Google Scholar
20 J. G. Jackson, op. cit.
21 Wolf, , Mitteilungen aus den deutschen Schutzgebieten (1881), I ff.Google Scholar
22 Barth, H., op. cit. (English ed. of 1858), IV, 556; v, 22–3.Google Scholar
23 Binger, L. G., op. cit. 165.Google Scholar
24 Dr I. Sellnow, personal communication to the writer.
25 Lenz, O., Tombouctou (French, ed.), I (Paris, 1887), 451.Google Scholar
26 Caillié, R., Journal d'un voyage à Temboctu et à Jenné, II (Paris, 1830), 67.Google Scholar
27 Laing, A. G., letter in Missions to the Niger (Hakluyt Society, London, 1964), 301.Google Scholar
28 ‘The Tartar Wargee’, from the Royal Gold Coast Gazette, 31 12 1822.Google Scholar (quoted in Philip, D. Curtin (ed.), Africa Remembered (University of Wisconsin Press, (1967) 175–89.Google Scholar
29 Caillié, R., op. cit. I, 451.Google Scholar
30 Barth, H., op. cit. I (English ed.), 467.Google Scholar
31 Rabbi, Mordekkai in Petermanns Mitteilungen (Gotha, 1870), 336.Google Scholar
32 Lenz, O., op. cit. II, 162 ff., 98.Google Scholar
33 Mordekkai, loc. cit. 336.Google Scholar
34 Lenz, O., op. cit. I 451.Google Scholar
35 Barth, H., op. cit. II (English ed.), 142.Google Scholar
36 Lenz, O., op. cit. II, 162 ff.Google Scholar
37 Caron, E., De St Louis au port de Tombouctou (3rd ed.Paris, 1893), 278.Google Scholar
38 Dupuis, J., op. cit. cxii.Google Scholar
39 Ibid. cxiv.
40 Lenz, O., op. cit. I, 451.Google Scholar
41 Rohlfs, G., Adventures in Morocco (1861), 167.Google Scholar
42 Caillié, R., op. cit II, 67.Google Scholar
43 Barth, H., op. cit. I (English ed.), 467.Google Scholar
44 Funk, and Wagrall's, New Standard Dictionary, 1913.Google Scholar
45 Dickson, C. H., ‘Account of Ghadames’, Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, (London, 1860), 255.Google Scholar
46 Association for Promoting the Discovery of the Interior Parts of Africa, Proceedings, I, 105ff. quoting Mr Lucas.Google Scholar
47 Lyon, G., op. cit. 277–8.Google Scholar
48 C. H. Dickson, loc. cit.
49 Association for promoting the discovery of Africa loc. cit. 169.Google Scholar
50 O. Lyon, op. cit.
51 Barth, H., op. cit. V (English ed.), 23.Google Scholar
52 Monteil, P., De St Louis à Tripoli (Paris, 1895), 279.Google Scholar
53 Levens, M., letter of 1725, printed in Voyages dans Ia Faléné et la Bambouk, Bibi. Nat. Ms. F. Fr. N. acq. no. 9555, pp. 141ff.Google Scholar
54 Gallieni, J. S., Deux campagnes au Soudan français 1886–1888 (Paris, 1891), 600.Google Scholar
55 Ibid. 595.
56 Ibid. 435–7.
57 Monteil, P., op. cit. 279.Google Scholar
58 Caron, E., op. cit. 278.Google Scholar
59 Mauny, R., op. cit. 414ff.Google Scholar
60 Mungo, Park, Mission of 1805 (London, 1815), 205.Google Scholar
61 Ibid. 58.
62 Raffanel, A., Nouveau voyage dans le pays des nègres (Paris, 1856), 89.Google Scholar
63 Mungo, Park, Travels in the Interior Districts of Africa (London, 1899), 306.Google Scholar
64 Idem, ‘Mission of 1805’, 58.Google Scholar
65 Ibid.
66 Soleillet, P., Voyage à Segou 1878–1879, ed. Gavrier, G. (Paris, 1887), 93.Google Scholar
67 Mage, E., Voyage dans le Soudan occidental (Paris, 1868), 191.Google Scholar
68 Mungo, Park, Mission of 1815, 162.Google Scholar
69 Ba, A. H. and Daget, J., L'Empire peul de Macina (Paris, 1962), p. 80.Google Scholar
70 Binger, L. G., op. cit. I, 375.Google Scholar
71 Ibid. II, 803.
72 Ibid. 165.
73 Binger, L. G., op. cit. 1, 375.Google Scholar
74 Ibid. 142.
75 e.g. Berbain, S., Le comptoir français de juda, (IFAN, Dakar, 1942).Google Scholar
76 Adams, J., Sketches Taken during Ten Voyages to Africa, 1786–1800 (London, 1802).Google Scholar
77 M. Johnson, The Cowrie Currencies of West Africa (forthcoming).
78 Bowdich, T. E., Mission to Ashantee (London, 1819).Google Scholar
79 Binger, L. G., op. cit. II, 165.Google Scholar
80 M. Johnson, op. cit.
81 Binger, L. G., op. cit. I 308.Google Scholar
82 Ibid. II, 241.
83 Monteil, Ch., op. cit. 251ff.Google Scholar
84 Hacquard, A., Monographie de Tombouctu (Paris, 1900), 57ff.Google Scholar
85 Dupuis-Yakouba, A. V., Industries et principales professions de la région de Tombouctou (Paris, 1921), 39, 149.Google Scholar
86 Mauny, R., op. cit. 414ff.Google Scholar
87 Traore, D., Notes Africaines, VII, no. 43 (1949), 81–2.Google Scholar
88 Leriche, A., ‘Mesures Maures’, Bull. de l'IFAN, series B (1951), 1247–8, where danaq is wrongly equated with the kharub.Google Scholar