Timbuktu chronicles (Tarikh al-Sudan and Tarikh al-Fattash)
Crónicas históricas de Tombuctú (Tarikh al-Sudan y Tarikh al-Fattash)
- Date
- c. 1655 · confidence medium
- Place
- Timbuktu, Timbuktu Region, Mali
- Credited to
- Abd al-Rahman al-Sa'di and Mahmud Kati (Timbuktu tradition)
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
Two chronicles in Arabic, written by scholars of Timbuktu, narrate the history of the Mali and Songhai empires and the Moroccan rulers of the Sahel. They are the principal internal source for the history of the western Sudan.
The Tarikh al-Sudan (al-Sa'di, c. 1655) is authentic; the Tarikh al-Fattash attributed to Mahmud Kati was rewritten in the 19th century (Hunwick, Levtzion), so its chronology is controversial.
What it led to
- modern reconstruction of the history of Mali and Songhai
- the scholarly tradition of Timbuktu alongside its madrasas
- use by Heinrich Barth and 19th-century Africanists