Description:

Abstract:
This paper advances a new theory about the composition of the chronicle generally referred to as Tārīkh al-fattāsh. The Tārīkh al-fattāsh, allegedly written in the sixteenth-seventeenth century, is one of the most famous chronicles on which scholars have relied for information about pre-colonial African history. However, there are still many puzzling issues and unsolved problems associated with this work, as edited by Houdas and Delafosse in the early twentieth century. This analysis uses unexplored manuscripts that were either unknown or unavailable to previous scholars –and advances a new theory on the genesis and authorship of the chronicle: that the edited text in fact conflates two texts, a seventeenth century chronicle and a nineteenth century one.

Bio
Mauro Nobili is Assistant Professor in African History at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is a specialist of West African History and his research focuses on Arabic manuscript culture and Islam in Africa. He published the Catalogue des manuscrits arabes du fonds de Gironcourt (Afrique de l’Ouest) de l’Institut de France (2013), as well as several articles on the Arabic script styles in West African manuscripts. He is currently on a new book on the Tārīkh al-fattāsh including a new edition and English translation.