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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 December 2009
The Zawāyā, the lettered fraternity of the Westren Sahara, besides contributing works of merit to Arabic scholarship have also taken an active part in the evolution of Moorish oral and written folk-literature, in the subject-matter, the systemization and classification of poetic metres, the selection of Arabic verse in the various musical styles, and in the way that Islam, and in particular the ideas of the Ṣūfī orders of the Sahara and the Sudan, has become an integral part of the daily lives of the nomad and the oasis dweller alike.
1 Chapella, F. dela, ‘Esquisse d'une histoire du Sahara occidental’, Hesperis, 11, 1930, 35–95. Thoroughout this essay the author argues on the lines of a perennial Almoravid tradition.Google Scholar Similar views are expressed by p, Amilat.‘Petite chronique des Id ou Aģch, heritiers guerriers des Almoravides Sahariens’,Revue des Etdes Islamiques, 1937, Cahier, 1Google Scholar and by Montagne, Rin La civilisation du desert, Paris, 1947, 248–53. 31.Google Scholar
2 cf.paul, MartyLIsalam en Mauritanie et au senegalRevue de Monde Musulman 31 1915 16Google Scholar and Leriche, A L Islam en Mauritanie. Bull. I FAN 11 3–4.Google Scholar
3 cf.Ahmad, bal-Amin al-Shinqiti, al-wasitCairo 1958 578–9 julio Cairo Baroja Estudios Saharianos, Madrid 1955, has doubts a bout Almoravid survivals in the Spanish Saharacf. p.324. The Imam Abu Bakr Muhammad b. al-Hasan al-Muradi al-Hadrami was the first to introduce Islamic studies to the Adrar;Google ScholarAhmad, b.Muhammad al-maqqariAzhar al-riyad fiakhbar Iyad Cairo 1942 3 161Google Scholarand Bashkuwal, IbhKitab al-silah Cairo 1955 572.Google Scholar
4 cf.Hamet, IsmaelChroniques de la Mauritanie Senegalaise, Paris, 1911, 20– (arabic text),179–81 (French text). Perhaps the reference to the litham is based on documents such as that of Ibn AbdunGoogle Scholarcf.Levi-Provencal, ESeville musulmane au debut du XIIe siecle Paris 1947, 61–.Google Scholar
5 Many of these characteristic features of Shaykn Ma al-Aynayn are dramatically portrayed by the traveller Camille Douls Who was brought captive, and then released by the Shaykn himself:
6 According to mahammad al-MustafāMustafa Murabbģn Rabbuh, his father was born on Tuesday,27 Sha bān 1246/10 February 1831.
7 cf. Kitā al-wasģ 365–7.
8 cf. al-Mutabassir, ‘Mâ’EI‘Aģnin Ech Changuîty’, Revue du Monde Musulman 1, 3 1907, 347–8.
9 It is commonly supposed that prior to Tādla, 1910, the Shaykh made this claim, and that it was subsepuently maintained and furthered, albeit, albeit no more successfully by his son Ahmad al-Hayba. This claim is categorically denied denied by Shaykh Muhammad al-Imām wuld al-Shaykh Mā’ al-’ Aynayn. He also denies that Tādla was a defeat, or that his father made a hasty withdrawal to Tģznģt. On the contrary he maintains that he resisted stubbornly until his death. This point of view is not surprising. What is curious is a statement made regarding the last days of his brother by Shaykh Sa‘d Bīh. It is in letter to the French commandant at al-Medhdherdhra (cf. part ii of this article, dection ‘Notes on the poems’, poem 15). In it he portrays his brother Mā‘ al-’Aynayn as a pacific figure, and he disassociates him from the military actions of his followers. Confiming his death at Tģznit-t, he sdds‘When his death from opposition since they had no power to fight the French. They made a covenant and a binding agreement with him to to this effect. The majority of his song complied with his wishes while he was stil alive, especially his successor who was in charge after his death, Abmad al-Hayba‘.Shaykh Sa‘d BŨh then goes on to blame the latter for disgracing his death brothers and for alienating ther following and striving to bring about the failure of their enterprise due to lack of supplies and of adequate provision of weapons and reinforcements. Neither of these two accounts mentions any claim of Shaykh to the title od Sultan. Apart from this they have nothing in common and appear to be incompatible.
10 A comprehesive list of works by Shaykh Mā’ al-‘Aynayn is to be found in the article on him by E.Lévģ-provencal in EI, first ed., and in al-Mutabassir,‘M00E2;’ EL‘ Aģnin Ech Changuity’, Revue du Monde Musulman, i, 3, 1907, 349–50. More comprehensive still is the long list in Qurrat al-‘aynayn fģ karāmāt al-Shaykh Mā’ Aynayn, by Shaykh Murabbin Rabbun, pp.72–80; cf. below, n. 11.
11 Shaykh Muhammad al-Musṣṭafā Murabbģh Rabbuh, Qurrat al-‘aynayn fģ karāmāt al-Shaykh Mā’ al-‘Aynayn, microfilm No. 171, National Library, Rabat.
12 For a comprehensive study of the life of Shaykh Mā’ al-‘Aynayan, particular attention is drawn to Caro Baroja, Estudios saharianos, un santon sahariano y su familia, 285–335, and Muhammad al-Mukhtār al-SŨsģ, al-Ma‘sŨl, Iv, Fedala, Morocco, 1960, 83–101.Extracts, from a Hassānģya poem in honour of the Shaykh have been puyblished by renéBasset,Mission au sénégal, Paris, 1910, 275–377. The style of the poem is simiular to those of Sģdi Sālim, and its metre is lebtayt et-āmm. My Mauritanian friend Mukhtār Wuld Hāmidun, has benn of invaluable nelp in providing commentaries to these texts.
13 The text indicates nũnation, but rrāsiyati in recitation is essential to preserve the rhyme scheme.
