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rock-salt which is brought as tribute from the salt district, on the road to Muropue's territory, called Luigila, where he has a chief and a relation. named Quibery, who takes account of the Salina, and sends tributes of salt to his Muropue, besides buying it of the travellers who come from Muropue. I have made no cntry of the rainy days we stopped. or of those when we were detained by ~ickness.1 saw nothing but that already statcd.

36. AL-KANAMI
THE CASE AGAINST THE JIHAD. 1813.
In the late eighteerlth century a M~~slirn cleric, Uflznzandun Fc~dio, begun to preuch in the ffausa stare of Cohir against religiozrs corruption and pugan practices. qf Although the Surki (King)of Gohir sought to coutzter the teuchi17.g~ Uthman dun Fodio, he o n b provokt~dhim. to declare a jihad or holy war against the ~mbelievers in 1802. Tlzereufrer. LJthman'.~ Fuinni followers defeated the Hausa armies, cap/rrred the Halrsn city-states, (2nd replaced the Hausu rrtlers. In 1805 Urhrrtan's lieutenunts carried the jihad into the Muslim state of Bomu. deJeated [he annies of the mtri, or king, and comirlced his councillors to request assistance from Mulmmrnad 01-Amin ihn Mulranzmad Ninga, more commonly known as Shaykh al-Kanami. A[Kananli was born in the Fezzan and studied in Cuiro and hfedina; upon his return to Kmrm., he ~.t.on great following as a result of his piep, scholarship, a d charisa ?nu.R(zIIyirrg his n r w , he marched into Bornu, drove. out the Fulani and recaptured h'gaznrgnmu, the capital. During the war he wrote a series oflerter.~ M~rham~lad to Brllo, srrccessor to L~rhrrlan dun Fodio, in tm cztternpt to understand why the Fulani should at/ockkft.llow M~ulitns.Shuykh 01-Ku~~ami continued to govenz Bomu until his death in 1835.

from a learned person, let alone a reformer. They listed the names of books, and we examined some of them, but we do not understand from them the things which they apparently undcrstood. Then, while we werc still perplexed, some of them atlacked our capital, and the neighbouring Fulani came and camped near us. So wc wrote to them a second time beseeching them in the name of God and Ialam to desist from their evil doing. But they refused and attacked us. So, when our land was thus confined and we found no place evei t , wc ing God to deliver us from the evil of their deeds: and we did what we did. Then when we found some respite, we desisted, and for the future God is all-knowing. We believe in writing; even if it makes no impression on you, it is better than silencc. Know that if an intelligent man accepts some question in order to undcrstand it, he will give a straightforward answer to it. Tell us therefore why you are fighting us and enslaving our free people. If you say that you have done this to us because of our paganism. then I say that we are a innocent of paganism, and it is f r from our compound. If praying and the giving of alms, knowledge of God, fasting in Ramadan and the building of mosques is paganism, what is Islam? These buildings in which you have bcen standing of a Friday: ace they churches or synagogues or fire temples? If they were olhcr than Muslim places of worship, then you would not pray in them when you capture them. Is this not a contradiction? Among the biggest of your arguments for the paganism of the believers generally is the practice of the amirs of riding to certain places for the purpose of making alms-giving sacrifices there; the uncovering of thc heads of free women; the taking

Praise be to God. Opener of the doors of guidance, Giver of the means of happiness. Prayer and peace be on him who was sent with thc liberal religion, and on his people who prepared the way for the. observance of His law, and interpreted it.' dust of sin, wrapped in the cloak of shame, base From him who is filthy with ~ h c and contemptible, Muhammad al-Amin ibn Muhammad al-Kanami to the Fulani "ulamn" and their chiefs. Peace be on him who follows His guidance. The reason for writing this letter is &at when fate brought me to this country, I found the fire which was blazing between you and the people of the land. I asked the reason, and it was givcn as injustice by some and as religion by others. So according to our decision in the matter I wrote to those of your brothers who live near to us asking them the reason and instigation of their transgression, and they returned me a weak answer, not such as comes from an intelligent man, much less
From Thomas Hodgkin, A'igerion Prr.~p~rrir.es (London: Oxford Univzrsity Press, 19601. pp. 198-201 Reprinted by penniasion.

I. Funher exuacts from Muhammad Bello, h!fbq of-muysur. Whirling edition. London. 1951, pp. 124-7, 142-4, 150. and 157, translated hy Mr. Charles Smith. I am nluch indebted lo Mr. Smith. no1 only for his translation, but also for advice about the historical significanw of the whole lengthy alLKanamiBello correspondence, from which Lhese brief extracts are rdken. The interesl o l this correspondence ties in the light it thmurs on h e relations hetwem Ihe rulers of Sokoto and Bornu after the Fulmi jilmi!: on the mcthods o i diplomacy of the period; and nn llre political sIandp,lints and characters of the tuso principals. Copies of nine letters were published by Muharnrnad Bello in lnfuq ol~nra~sur, fron~a l ~ one Kanami L Bello, five frunl Bello to al-Kanami, two from Uthman dan Fodio lo sl-Ktanami, and one from o al-Kanami to Uthman. Not all of Bello's letters appear to have been delive~rd. belong to the period All before 1813. The first of the extracts lrar~slated here is lliken from letter No. 1 in Injbq., an cdrly letter of al-r<;inmi, written alter the sack of N g m g a m u , the Bon~ucapital, hy the Fulmi under Gwnni Mukhtar and their subsequcnl expulsion by al-Kansmi. The second extract comes from letter No. 5 in Injizq.. an apparently much later letlcr from Bello, which counlers arguments put forward hy al-Kanami in No. I. Mr. Smith describes this letter ;rs "a remarkable teslinrony to the literary l m i n g s of Rello," and containing "cvidence of his wide reading of the Islan~ic classics." The correspondence ranges over the main questions in dispute hetwcen Bello and al-Eanami, i.e between Sokoto and Bomu. Was the Fulani jihad justifiahlc on accepted Muslim principles? That is to say, was il conducted against stales which ucre iu the snicl sense "pagan.' (katiri, and therefbre ifor alhurb, not dur ol-lslarn? Was Bonlu in fact such a state? Were ~ h ~appropriate precedenla lor such a rc Jihrrd?(Muhammad Bello argued at length that the actions o l another reforming ruler, Muhammad Askia of Ciao, Lhree centuries previously, were in fact a precedent.) Was its real purpose the spreading o l the frontiers of Lslm, nor of Fulani impenal power? Had the jihad bcen condl~ctedaccording ro rhe rlricl rules which ought to be applied in such cases, or had therc been excesses? Had thc Fulani heen the aggressors, or had Bomu, by allying itsell with supposedly pagan Hausa guvernments, heen responsible for provoking the conflict? In the extracts quoted here the main issue under discussion is wherher Bor~ru at the time of thejittod could properly be described as a land of paganism (dm'k~!frn).

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JOllN LEWIS BURCKHARDT

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of bribes; embezzlement of the property of orphans; oppression in the courts. But these five charges do not require yon to do the things you are doing. As for this practice of the amirs, it is a disgraceful heresy and certainly hlameworthy. It must be forbidden and disaplproval of its perpetrators must be shown. But those who are guilty of it do not therehy hecome pagans; since not one Of thcm claims that it is particularly efficacious, or intends by it to associate anything with God. On the contrary, . . . hetthe extent of their pretence IS their ter than otherwise. He who is versed in the hooks ofjiqh [Muslim theology], and in has paid attention lo the talk of the iman~s their disputation, when deviation from the right road in matters or burial and slaughter are spoken of will know the tcst of what we have said. Consider Da~nietta,a great Islamic city between Egypt and Syria, a place of learning and Islam: in it there is a tree, and the common people do to this tree as did the non-Arabs. But not one of the "ulnrnn" rises to fight them or has spoken of their paganism. As for uncovering the head in free women, this is also haram [forbidden], and the Qzrrtzrr has prohibited it. But she who does it does not thereby bccome a pagan. It is denial which leads to paganism. Failing to do something while believing in it is rather to be described as disobcdience requiring immediate repentance. If a free woman has prayed with the head uncovered, and thc time passes, but she does not repeat the. prayer in accordance with what we know they say in the books of jiqh, surely you do not helieve that her prayer is not proper because she has thereby become a pagan? The taking of bribes, embezzlement of the property of orphans and injustice in the courts are all major sins which God has forbidden. But sin does not make anyone a pagan when hc has confessed his faith. And if you had ordered the right and forbiddrli the wrong, and retired when the people did not desist, it would have becn betler than these present doings. If ordering and rorhidding are confined within lhcir proper limits, thcy do not lead to anything more serious. But your forbidding has involved you in sin, and brought evil on you and the Muslims in this world and the next. . . . Since acts of imn~urality disobedience without number have long been comand mitted in all countries. [hen Egypt is like Homu, only worse. So also is Syria and all the citics of Islam. There has been cornrption, embezzlement of the properly of orphans, oppression and heresy in these places from the time of the Bani Umayya [thc Umayyad dynasty] right down to our own day. No age and no country is free from its share of heresy and sin. IT, thereby, they all become pagan, then surely their books are uscless. So how can you construct arguments based on what they say who are infidel according to you? Refuge from violence and discord in religion is wilh God. . . . We have indeed heard of things in the character of the Shaikh Uthman ibn Fudi, and seen things in his writings which are contrary to what you have done. If this business does originate from him, then I say that there is no power nor might save through God, the most high, the most glorious. Indeed we thought well of him. But now, as the saying is. wc love the Shaikh and the truth when they agree. But if they disagree it is the t n ~ t h which comes first. HJe pray God to preserve us from being

those of whom he said: Say: "Shall we tell you who will he the greatest losers in their works? Those whose striving goes astray in the present life, while thcy think that they are working good deed^."^ And from being those of whom he also said: "But they split in their afiair between them into sects, each party rejoicing in what is with them."' Peace.
2. Quran, S u n 1H. verses 1034. This and the three following quotatior~s from Lhe Quran are taken from the English renderings of A. J . Arberry, in The Koran Inirri,reled, London: Macrnillan, 1955. 3. Quran. Sura 23,verse 55.

John Lerri.r Burckhurdt (1784-1817) was horn in Latcsanne nrrd was educated uf

7814 ar Shendr; the important caravan center and marker tuwtz on the Middle Nile. He conlinued his jo~trney ea.rhiwrd from Shendi to Sabr~akinO I I the Red Set(. Burckharrlr died from dysenrery in Cairo in October 1817 ar the czge qf rhiry-rhree.

opposed the ir~vasion the.forces o Alluhammtrd Ali o Egypr h,v os.rossinoting the of f f fronrier where he became n redoubtable warlord 11nti1his death in 1846. Hi.c rlescendtrnis were yrar~ted anlrtesiy in 186.5 and subseq~rentl~~ returned to Sher~cii.

e a a r , and Kobhe (in Dadoour). Shendy is the largest to Soudan, and larger: according to the rcpon of the merchants, than the cauitals of

a sand houses. I t is built upon the sandy plain. at about half an hour's walk from the

From John Lewis Burckh

L
'

'ravr!.srn Nr~hio (London: J.

Mulloy.

In??).pp. 247-256. 363

266