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The Paden Collection of Arabic Materials from

Kano
E.N. Saad
History in Africa / Volume 7 / January 1980, pp 369 - 372
DOI: 10.2307/3171678, Published online: 13 May 2014

Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0361541300007221

How to cite this article:
E.N. Saad (1980). The Paden Collection of Arabic Materials from Kano . History in
Africa, 7, pp 369-372 doi:10.2307/3171678
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THE PADEN COLLECTION OF ARABIC MATERIALS FROM KANO

E.N. Saad
Wellesley College

The following is a brief description of a collection of

Arabic materials deposited by John Paden at the Herskovits
Africana Library, Northwestern University. The collection
includes 424 numbered volumes of which about half enclose
manuscript materials while the other half enclose published
books and pamphlets, most of them privately printed in Kano,
Zaria, or Cairo. The collection altogether (and especially so
among the pamphlets) includes a substantial proportion of works
of West African authorship. However, the classical Muslim/Arabic
literature, and especially the basic jurisprudential treatises
and the better known diwans of pre-Islamic Arabic poetry, are
well represented in the collection.
This summary is made up of three parts, beginning with a
few words on the classical Muslim/Arabic works in the collection.
The second part is concerned with the unusual manuscript materials
and includes a listing and description of these materials.
Finally, the third part will be concerned with individual West
African authors whose works are well represented in the collection.
In most cases, these authors are represented by privately printed
materials or by manuscripts of which copies generally tend to be
found elsewhere.
In the references to specific manuscripts below, no attempt
will be made to describe the calligraphy, the size of pages, etc.
The purpose is to call attention to the availability of the
sources under consideration, especially since they are scheduled
to be microfilmed by the Cooperative Africana Microform Project
soon.
Though mostly represented by manuscript copies, the diwans
of Arabic poetry present little interest since they tend to be
recent copies of works long ago published in numerous printings
and editions elsewhere. The same is largely true of the classical Maliki juristic works and of the classical commentaries on
these works. However, it may be noted that some of the manuscripts are relatively early and, therefore, the marginal comments
and colophons by West African copyists may be of interest. That

HISTORY IN AFRICA,,

7(1980)

370

E.N. SAAD

includes, for example, an early copy of Mukhtassar

Khalil
(no. 417),
two copies of the Magamat al-Rariri
(nos. 418-419) and two copies
of Risalat
Tbn Abi Zayd (nos. 420-421). Additionally, there are
two very interesting copies of Bala'il
al-Khayrat
(nos. 226, 422)
of which the first is a most beautiful example of ornamental
Hausa calligraphy.
Among the unusual items in the collection, the following
manuscripts deserve separate listing, all being by West African
authorship:
No. 36

a
(Ahl al-Kitab
Ammat al-Buldan).
No author or title
cited. A poem in 3 folios. A polemic on the expansion
of Europeans (Christians).

No. 39

Muhammad b. cAbd al-Rahman al-Bornowi, Manzumat

al-Akhdari,
A commentary on al-Akhdari in verse by a Bornu scholar.

No. 69

Al-Mukhtar b. Wadi c at Allah, Letters

to Ahmad
(in defence of the Tijaniyya), 20 folios.

No. 76

Qissat al-Tunbak.
No author cited. Arguing against
the lawfulness of tobacco. Cites apocryphal proofs.

No. 78

Ahmad b. Ahmad al-Maghribi al-Sahawi. Ijaza in the

Wird.
Traces chain backwards through Salih b.
Tijani
Muhammad al-Futawi to Ahmad al-Tijani. 29 folios,
incomplete.

No. 79

Muhammad Baba al-Tunbukti, Al-Minah al-Hamida fi

Sharh
al-Farida.
Commentary on Suyuti's Farida by the sixteenth and seventeenth-century scholar of Timbuktu.
29 folios, incomplete.

No. 83

Kayfiyyat
Shaykhuna Umar b. Said al-Futi.
No author
cited. A biography of Hajj cUmar, relating his travels
and conquests. 64 folios in large beautiful lettering.

No. 101

Muhammad al-Tahir b. Ibrahim al-Fulati. No title cited.

A theological (tawhid)
treatise in verse. 11 folios.

No. 131

Ahmad b. Abu Bakr, Risala to Shaykh Muhammad al-Hajj,

Vizier of Said b. Muhammad, Amir of Badda (?) . 3 folios.

No. 137

Muhammad b. Muhammad Tukuma al-Fulati, Muaawanat

alIkhwan fi Muasharat al-Niswan.
On relations with
women, much magical material. Author has a list of
sources on fols. 1-2, including the Bustan of no. 161
below. 10 folios.

No. 142

Sulaiman b. Habib b. Malik...al-Walati al-Banbari alMasini, Misbah al-Tali

fi Sharh Asrar Muthallath
alGhazali.
On Ghazali's triangle. A related treatise
occurs also in no. 115. 18 folios.

No. 146

cUmar b. Ahmad al-Wali, Kitab Lubab cIlm al-Siyar.

A
commentary on Khazruni's Bahr al-Ulum,
on prophetic

al-Bakka'i

PADEN COLLECTION
biography.

Author probably from Walata.

371
77 folios.

No. 161

Muhammad al-Kaburi, Bustan al-Fawa'id

wa'l-Manafi.
A
jurisprudential treatise. The author is identified as
Muhammad b. Muhammad b. Abu Bakr b. 'Ali b. Musa alKaburi. He may be Muaddab Muhammad al-Kaburi of
fifteenth-century Timbuktu. 35 folios.

No. 173

Ishaq of Kano (authorship uncertain). The volume

includes: Dala'il
al-Mahdi on changes in lifestyle
since the European conquest; Qasidat aAja'ib
al-Asfar,
a travelogue in verse; and al-Qasida
al-Siniyya...,
a
polemic against al-Sharif cisa of Kano. 17 folios.

No. 185

Ahmad al-Shafi c al-Masri al-Futajali (of Futa Jalon?).

Letter to the Amir of Futa, QAbdullah b. al-Imam
Ibrahim b. Muhammad. On matters of Sufi orders. 6 folios.

No. 194

Ahmad b. cAbd al-Rahman, Mashurat al-Nasiha...,

on
organizing the tariqas,
addressed to Muhammad Bello b.
c
Abd al-Rahman b. Ibrahim Zaki. 69 folios.

No. 336

Ibrahim b. Muhammad Baqu al-Kanowi, Ajwibat

al-Masa'il
al-Ikhwaniyya....
On Tijani principles. 16 folios.
Another copy in No. 337. A related work by the same
author occurs in No. 335.

No. 339

Kitab Ta aarruf al-Zaman,

Asl Kano.
A list of the kings
of Kano, including regnal durations, followed by a list
of the gates of Kano.

In addition to the above, some of the better-known West African

Muslim authors are represented by several titles each, including a
dozen or so titles, falling mainly between Nos. 261 and 278, by
c
Uthman Dan Fodio.
Abdullah Dan Fodio is likewise represented
by a large number of compositions, including nos. 241-248, while
several works by Muhammad Bello are scattered throughout the
collection.
Among the less-known authors, the scholars of the Tijaniyya
are represented by a very large number of works. That includes
a few works each by the following authors: Muhammad Salagha b.
cUmar al-Kashnawi; Yahudha b. Sa^d al-Zakzaki; cAbd al-Qadir b.
c
Ali al-Nufawi al-Zakzaki; Ibrahim b. Muhammad Baqu al-Kanowi;
Ahmad b. Baba b. Ahmad al-cAlawi al-Shingiti; Ahmad b. cythman
al-Tijani of Kano; Ahmad Baba al-Tijani al-Kumasi; Muhammad Awwal
b. Muhammad Thani (of Kano?). Though mostly in privately printed
copies, the Tijaniyya works are an impressive collection. They
include a vast range of sources from the earliest classical
writings on the Rimah Hizb al-Rahim of Hajj cumar (No. 82, with
Jawahir at-Maani).
Particularly impressive is the collection
of works by Abu Bakr b. Khudr al-Kashnawi (al-Kashni). These
fall between nos. 368 and 383. Even more comprehensive is a
collection of works by Ibrahim b. cAbdullah al-Kulakhi al-Senegali,

372

E.N. SAAD

which fall mainly between nos. 249 and 292. This includes many
short pamphlets, along with a few compositions by Nigerian scholars
(nos. 307 and 308 for example) in praise of al-Shaikh Ibrahim.
Finally, we might mention that the Qadiriyya is represented
by a substantial number of works, though far fewer than the
Tijaniyya tracts. Al-Mukhtar al-Kunti is represented by only
one composition (no. 89), but the collection includes a series
of works (esp. nos. 385-90) by Muhammad al-Nasir b. Muhammad alMukhtar al-Kabari al-Tunbukti al-Kanowi, including al-Nafahat
alNasiriyya
(no. 389) which became a subject of refutation by Abu
Bakr cAtiq al-Kashnawi in his Bisala
(no. 361) in defence of the
Tijaniyya.
A card-mounted handlist of the entire collection has been
deposited at the Herskovits Africana Library; it includes a
numerically arranged listing, as well as a separate alphabetical
listing which includes cross-references.