Arabic Medieval Inscriptions from the Republic of Mali: Epigraphy, Chronicles, and Songhay-Tuareg History (2005)

Arabic Medieval Inscriptions from Republic of Mali: Epigraphy, Chronicles, and Songhay-Tuareg History. By P. F. de Moraes Parias. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press for British Academy, 2003. Pp. ccxlvi, 280; maps and site plans 14; b & w photos 247 (69 plates). $185.00/£99.00. Given relative scarcity of reliable sources for history of medieval1 polities of Western Sudan, it is ironic that only literally writ large in stone has languished like an unloved stepchild, barely noticed in company of its more privileged siblings Arabic chronicles, archaeology, and oral tradition. The inscribed tombstones, cemetery stelae, and miscellaneous but impressively carved graffiti studied in this book originate in five Malian epigraphic sites including Saney, Gao, Essuk (medieval Tadmakkat), Junhan, and Bentyia (medieval Kukyia),2 with inscriptions dating from 1013-14 C.E. (#106 from Essuk, p. 89) to 1489 C.E. (#233 from Bentyia, p. 198). One is immediately struck by author's ingenuity in formatting of this complex tome, which he presented to publisher in nearly flawless cameraready copy. The first of book's two major sections includes three chapters on historical background and another devoted to textual characteristics of epigraphic corpus. The unusually extended use of Roman numerals for first ccxlvi pages suggests that publisher who required them sees first half of book comprising mother of all introductions. Perhaps rightly so, because in addition to wealth of path-breaking revelations contained therein, first half does play a supporting role to actual inscriptions, which unusual numerical division seems to launch on a symbolic ascent to evidential high ground so long denied. Approximately 400 inscriptions were examined, and 250 of these, most of which have never before been published, are included in latter half of book (four chapters on transcription and translation of inscriptions, pp. 1-218). Preliminary remarks on each epigraphic site describe layout and unusual features of individual necropolises. Each of original Arabic or Tifanay (Berber/Tuareg) inscriptions has its English translation and commentary providing measurements, provenance, and interpretive details. At back of volume is a complete set of black and white photographs of each of tombstones and stelae, with accompanying line drawings for some badly eroded inscriptions. To detriment of objective historical inquiry, epigraphic sources have often been treated, author expresses it, as antiquarian curiosities rather than compelling historical evidence (p. xxxvii). If, Paulo Moraes Farias observes, inscriptions form a unique body of and are the internal source par excellence for medieval history of eastern arc of Niger Bend and neighboring Sahelian of Aday, it seems extraordinary that they have been so undervalued. If this is the only extant body of dateable medieval texts written in medieval West Africa, and if it precedes all surviving chronicles and other works known to have been written in region (pp. xxxiv-v), how could evidence-starved historians be so ill-advised to have (at best) marginalized it or (at worst) ignored it altogether since first examples began being published in 1910? Moraes Farias explains that during twentieth century epigraphic gradually emerged from an extended period of oblivion, reactions ranged from bursts of enthusiasm to paralyzing uncertainty about how inscriptions related to other sources. It was by pure chance, observes author, that seventeenth-century Timbuktu chronicles happened to be first sources consulted for history of Songhay empire.3 A dearth of available archaeological reinforced chronicles' impact while depriving inscriptions of material context. …