Islamic Scholarship on the Hausa-Kanuri Frontier: the Malamai of Mirriah

Abstract

This paper provides a glimpse of Islamic scholarship in Mirriah, Niger Republic, at a particular point in time, 1974-1975, before some of the latest currents of religious unrest erupted in West Africa. Through interviews with local scholars, it examines the degree to which they participated in a West African “core curriculum” shared with other Islamic scholars across the Sahel. It also explores the history of the malamai class in Mirriah, noting significant ties to the Bornu empire. Both the ruling dynasty and Mirriah itself also exemplify the process of "becoming Hausa": people of diverse origins have come to define themselves as Hausa, adopting the Hausa language and the religion of Islam.

I. Introduction

This paper provides a glimpse of Islamic scholarship in Mirriah, Niger Republic, at a particular point in time, 1974–1975, before some of the latest currents of religious unrest erupted in Niger. That a widespread network of serious Islamic scholarship existed in West Africa, long known to some western scholars (eg Hiskett 1984), recently has been more widely established (eg Kane 2016, Launay 2016, Bivins 2007). This paper documents the ties of Mirriah scholars to that network, both in the training of scholars and in the texts used. Through interviews with local scholars, it examines the degree to which they participated in a West African “core curriculum” shared with other Islamic scholars across the Sahel (Hall and Stewart 2011). It also explores the history of the malamai class in Mirriah, noting significant ties to the Bornu empire which illustrate one strand of east to west movement of Islam from Bornu into Hausaland (Bobboyi 1992, Lavers 1971). Both the ruling dynasty and Mirriah residents also exemplify a fluid process of “becoming Hausa”:¹ people of diverse origins have come to define themselves as Hausa, adopting the Hausa language and the religion of Islam.

Founded in about 1775, Mirriah is one of several small Hausa-speaking states collectively known as the Sosaibaki, ruled by a dynasty which can be traced back more than four hundred years (Haour 2010). Located in a frontier area on the northeastern edge of Hausaland, the Sosaibaki have ties to the Kanuri-speaking Kanem/Bornu empire to the east near Lake Chad, as well as with Kano and the rest of Hausaland, to the west. The Mirriah area never fell under the control of the Sokoto Caliphate, but remained under the nominal control of Bornu, which had successive capitals about 400 kilometers to the east. By the mid 1800s Mirriah was subject to the growing power of the sultanate of Damagaram, another Bornu vassal, centered at Zinder just twenty kilometers northwest of Mirriah.

The Sosaibaki dynasty offers one example of the fluidity of Hausa identity. Dynastic king lists claim eastern origins, a sojourn in Muslim Bornu, and ties to the rulers of Bornu, yet the name “Sosaibaki” is of Hausa, not Kanuri, origin (Landeroin 1911, 426). Hausa-speaking settlements in the area may date back to the ninth and tenth centuries CE (Saley 1994, 101); traditions recorded for the Mission Tilho of 1906–1909 describe the autochthonous population as Hausa-speaking pagans (Asna) (Landeroin 1911, 425–427). Emigrants leaving today’s Sosaibaki area may have played a role in founding the major Hausa city of Kano (Haour 2010). Brief mentions of the Sosaibaki date from the 1570s, suggesting that they were of some significance by that time (Ibn Fartua [1576] 1987). While the dynasty claimed eastern/Bornu origin, it ruled local populations of a variety of backgrounds. More Hausa speakers arrived from the southern areas of AÏr, while Kanuri speakers from the Bornu empire migrated towards the west (Saley 1994, 101, 113–114). Many sources report that a Tuareg attack on the religious community at Kulumfardu, on the western edge of Bornu, in about 1677 CE, sent migrants into the Sosaibaki area (Bobboyi 1992, 44, 151; Brouin 1938, 469, 478; Saley 1994, 121). To judge from the dynastic name, Hausa became the dominant language early in this process, and many settlements including Mirriah (from murya, voice) bear Hausa names. Barth described Mirriah’s ruler as Hausa when he passed through the town in 1852 (1859, 72). Fifty years later French colonial officials reported the Hausa/Kanuri language frontier as falling east of Mirriah (Gaden 1903, 621).

In 1975 most long-term residents of Mirriah town viewed themselves as Hausa; settlements of other ethnic groups (Beriberi [Kanuri], Bouzou, and Fulani) were also found in the area. The northern Damagaramci dialect of Hausa served as a lingua franca throughout the area. Seat of both a canton and an arrondissement in 1975, Mirriah now holds the status of an urban commune. It serves as seat of a department in Niger’s national administrative system. A member of the Sosaibaki dynasty still holds the title of Sarkin Mirriah (traditional ruler), or Chef du Canton in the national system.

Mirriah informants of the 1970s indicated that members of the dynasty were already Muslims when they settled at Mirriah two hundred years earlier. Islamic names such as Mohaman appear in the earliest known versions of king lists (Landeroin 1911) long before this time period, fitting the tradition of a stay in Bornu, which Islam reached by about 1100 CE (Lavers 1971, 28).² Just when the local population adopted Islam is not certain.³ Mirriah informants said that people came from other towns and villages to celebrate the Id festivals at Mirriah at the time of Sarkin Mirriah Ibil, second holder of the title, around 1800. Like Hausaland generally, Mirriah follows the Maliki school of Islamic law, with a central mosque for Friday afternoon prayers. By the early 1900s one of three “grandes mosquées” of the Zinder area was the Friday mosque of Mirriah (Marty 1930, 424).⁴ In 1975 numerous small mosques, often just a rectangle outlined with mud bricks, also dotted the town. Mirriah mosques were known both as masallaci (Hausa) and as mashidi (a Kanuri term also adopted into northern Hausa).

Given Mirriah’s long history of Islam, Quranic scholars (Hausa malam or malami, pl. malamai) form an important segment of the community. There is no good count of the total number of active scholars. The 1974 census of Mirriah town, which registered households who paid their taxes through Sarkin Mirriah, included 1,972 men and taxable youths from 888 households.⁵ In this census 110 men were recorded with the title malam. Additional scholars were recorded as alkali (one), liman (six), and ladan (three). Some additional clerics were recorded with the title alhaji, including one of the town’s most learned scholars.⁶ Only five were listed as younger than thirty (born after 1944). An undetermined number of younger men could be considered scholars in training, who practiced malamanci as their primary non-farm occupation (sana’a).⁷ Court officials of Sarkin Mirriah included an alkali (judge) and the Liman Juma’a, or prayer leader for the Friday mosque.⁸ Scholars of all levels of learning participated in numerous aspects of daily life from birth to death.

In the 1970s, many Mirriah boys and some girls completed at least a few months of Quranic school. A youth who showed some aptitude for religious studies could choose to take up this high-status occupation, with the support of a family willing to give up his labor for years of study. As with other occupations, malamanci could also be handed down from father to son;¹⁰ many multigenerational scholarly families appear in the census. Religious study could continue for a lifetime; men from many different occupations spent evenings studying with local scholars.¹⁰

Although most residents had no affiliation with a Sufi brotherhood in the 1970s, early Mirriah scholars may have shared the Qadiriyya affiliation found in Bornu possibly as early as the 1500s (Lavers 1971; Hiskett 1984, 244–245). However, Mirriah has had a documented Tijani connection since the early colonial period. Malam Iddi and Malam Issa were two of four Mirriah scholars who studied with an influential teacher in Zinder, Malam Aminu, soon after Aminu settled there in 1909. He converted from Qadiriyya to Tijaniyya in 1916 (Marty 1930, 403–404). It is likely that both Malam Iddi and Malam Issa followed their teacher’s new loyalty and passed it on to their own students. In 1975 Malam Moussa, son of Iddi, led the Tijani-style dhikr (group prayer held at sunset on Fridays) in one neighborhood, while Malan Salissou, son of Issa, led the public reading of devotional poetry held in the oldest section of Mirriah for the celebration of Mohammed’s birthday (Arabic mouloud).

In 1974 Sarkin Mirriah Sabo Mainasara named eight men as the most important scholars in Mirriah, based on their knowledge of the Quran and their advanced studies of other texts. Another member of the court named six more men as important malamai. The Liman Juma’a of Mirriah said that some one hundred men from Mirriah could go into a room and write out the Quran from memory, with at least fifty of them in his part of town (field notes 1974). This is one indication of the Bornu connection of Mirriah malamai: Bornu scholars were known for their expertise in the study of the Quran and the production of manuscript copies (Lavers 1971). This expertise was still recognized in the 1990s: a scholar from Maradi explained that “Pour l’étude du Coran, il faut partir à l’est dans les régions de Zinder, de Miria, de Maiduguri, du Bornu, car ils en savent plus que nous sur le coran et développent une ardeur pour l’apprendre” (“For the study of the Quran, it necessary to go to the east to the regions of Zinder, of Mirriah, of Maiduguri, of Bornu, because they know more than we about the Quran and develop a passion for learning it”) ( Meunier 1997a, 100).

The clustering of malamai in three (of twelve) census wards offers more clues to local history. Twenty-four scholars were taxed through the office of the Marafa. Most lived in neighborhoods called Malamari (“place of the malamai”) and Boukari (“place of the bow”), both located in the Bilmari portion of town. Both names are significant. In the Bornu empire “mallamari” referred to “mallams’ communities such as Kulumbardo and others” where malamai of varied ethnic origins were generally exempt from taxes and work levies (Lavers 1971, 37–38). Since the first Sosaibaki rulers at Mirriah were said to bolster their prestige by recruiting scholars to the town (Saley 1994, 244–245), Mirriah’s Malamari may well have begun as such a community, with scholars of diverse origins. Indeed the ruling dynasty claimed to have spent time at Kulumfardu before settling in the present Sosaibaki area.¹¹ The original village at Bilmari, meanwhile, was said to be home to hunters (using bows, Hausa s. baka) and farmers.

The 28 reported scholars of the ward taxed directly through the traditional ruler, Sarkin Mirriah, lived primarily in the Mirrina neighborhood (“place of the dyers,” remnant of a once-thriving cotton textile industry). An additional 37 were taxed through his second in command, known as the Sarkin Sada, many of them also residing in Mirrina. Some of the earliest malamai who settled in Mirriah by the early 1800s established households there (Saley 1994, 245).

In return for their privileges, scholars of malamari communities were expected to support their rulers with prayer. In 1974 malamai calling on Sarkin Mirriah recited the Fatiha prayer as their gaisuwa (Hausa, greeting gift). ¹² Sacred and secular authority reinforced each other in other ways as well. The Friday mosque was located next to the palace, sharing a public square. Ceremonial events could include large numbers of malamai: sixty-one clerics took part in prayers as Sarkin Mirriah Sabo Mainasara left the palace to participate in welcoming the Libyan leader Muamar Ghadafi to Zinder in March 1974. At times the square was used for political events, such as the installation of a new Chef du Canton on June 1, 1975. Malamai were seated as a group at this event, and the Liman Juma’a of Mirriah was asked to pray over the indigo robe placed over the new Sarkin Mirriah, Zabei Moussa, during the ceremony (field notes 1974, 1975).

Mirriah scholars of the 1970s had followed the well-known path for Islamic education in West Africa, as did their own teaching. Children began with wooden slates (Hausa allo, pl. alluna), learning to read and write the Arabic alphabet in the process of memorizing passages from the Quran, and continued working their way through the Quran, in a particular order from shorter to longer chapters. Many students dropped out after learning basic Quranic passages used in daily prayers. For those who continued, a special ceremony called saubka korani (“putting down” of the Quran) marked the completion of a reading of the Quran.

At this level a student could pronounce the classical Arabic of the Quran, but might understand little of what he read or recited. He or she might also be able to read and write Hausa in Arabic script, known as ajami. A more thorough knowledge of classical Arabic is necessary for continued progress.

To continue, students travelled away from home to study individual texts, with scholars respected for their knowledge of the text. With books scarce and expensive in Hausaland, “the easiest way to keep texts was to commit them to memory, particularly the verse texts composed for this purpose” (Last 1993, 122). The student expected to hear the teacher read aloud or recite from the work, and if necessary to write out his own copy, which he read aloud to the teacher and corrected.¹³ This pathway was open to young men but not to women, although a woman might continue to study at home with her husband or another relative.¹⁴ Local scholars had followed this path.

Despite their frontier location, Mirriah scholars participated in the literate tradition of Islam. In the 1970s, at events such as the poetry readings for Mouloud, they followed along with unbound manuscript books in Arabic open even when reciting familiar poetry (Photo 1). Drawing on their own studies, they offered oral tafsir (Quranic exegesis) as well as commentary on other texts in their teaching. They also wrote in Arabic, from putting passages from the Quran onto wooden slates for students to memorize to creating medicines and charms utilizing studies of “esoteric” or hidden aspects of Islam (Brenner 1985, McIntyre 1996, Kane 2016, 92). Curious about their degree of literacy in ajami, I queried several malamai individually, using a passage from a book of Hausa tales printed with Roman script (boko) and ajami on facing pages (Skinner 1968; also see Kane 2018, 54–59). Each of the men read the passage aloud and understood it. These scholars were not literate in French, but as seen below, they studied and taught from some of the core texts in Arabic known across the Sahel.

Photo 1.

Malamai reading from open manuscript books for Mohammed’s birthday (mouloud, Hausa Sallah Gani)

Hall and Stewart have identified six clusters of Islamic sciences widely studied across the Sahel over a 300-year period from about 1625 to 1925 CE. They argue that a West African “core curriculum” covering these fields can be identified for this time period, based on titles found in representative manuscript libraries across the Sahel from Mauretania to Kano (2011, 110, 112). They grouped the sciences as Quranic studies, studies of the Arabic language, studies of the Prophet Muhammad including the traditions, studies of theology, studies of mysticism, and jurisprudence, and documented widely known titles in each category.

Various authors group these “higher studies” slightly differently, but there is general agreement on major topics (e.g. Meunier 1997a, 122; Sule and Starratt 1991, 36). Basics of Quranic recitation and of law, such as the rules for proper prayer (Hausa salla), are studied by all; at higher levels students may focus on certain topics. Students often study in several locations over a period of years, and scholars may teach in multiple places over the course of their careers, so basic works of law and other Islamic sciences are known over a wide geographic area.

In addition to formal study of such works, Mirriah residents including clerics had access to other sources of religious instruction in the 1970s. Book stalls with paperback books in Arabic were part of the large Thursday market in Zinder, the state capital 20 kilometers from Mirriah. There was also a brisk traffic between Mirriah and Kano in northern Nigeria, which could be reached by daily bush taxis from Zinder, where texts in both ajami and Arabic were readily available.¹⁵

Sermons on cassette tape were also available from market vendors, and many Mirriah residents owned battery-operated radio and cassette player “boom boxes.” Brenner and Last (1985, 439–440) noted “the wide dissemination of cassettes containing tape-recorded tafsir” (Quranic exegesis) in northern Nigeria. In 1975 Mirriah had no television access, but radios reached a wide audience with programming which included religious content.¹⁶ La Voix du Sahel from Niamey and Radio Kaduna from Nigeria were among popular stations broadcasting in multiple languages including Hausa.

II. The Malamai Interviews

Interviews with nine of Mirriah’s malamai conducted in March 1975 give some indication of the range of their religious studies. Interviews were conducted in Hausa with the aid of a male research assistant, at the home of each malam. Following a pattern found in scholarly biographies of well-known Sahelian scholars such as Abdullahi Dan Fodio (Hiskett 1957), their responses included works studied (by locally used titles), brief comments on the contents of some titles, and some information on the fields of study involved, such as tawhidi (the unity of Allah), tafsiri (Quranic exegesis), hadisi (traditions of the Prophet), and fikihu (law). Most named the scholar with whom they had studied each work, usually including the location, both standard elements of the scholarly biography genre. They also named some of their own adult students and where they were from. Although the interviews were conducted in 1975, identifying authors and Arabic titles is an on-going process much aided by resources which did not exist at that time. Information from such sources appears in brackets in the discussion below, while quotations from interview responses appear in quotation marks.¹⁷ Table 1 briefly summarizes information on the texts named by Mirriah scholars which have been identified.

Table 1.

Identified Texts Studied by Mirriah Malamai

SUBJE CT	LOCAL TITLE(S)	ARABIC TITLE	AUTHOR INFORMATI ON	SOURCE (S)
FIQH	Kawa’idi	Qawa’id al Salat	Alhaj Abdoullahi El Yasar Ettidjani; sometimes attributed to Usman dan Fodio, or as “unknown”	3, 5, 6
	Arshada (Irshad al-Salik) (Askari)	Irchadou Salik ila ashraf almasalik ‘ala madh al-Iman Malik	ibn ‘Askar [‘Abd al-Rahman b. Muhammad b. Abd al-Rahman b. Askar al-Bagdadi ] (d. 1332 CE)	3, 5
	Lahallari (Ahalari) (Akhdari)	Al-Mukhtasar al-’Alamat al-Akhdari fi Mathab al-Imam Malik	Abu Zaid Abdul Rahman Ibn Muhammad al-Saghir al-Akhdari al-Maghribi al-Malaki d. 1585 CE)	3, 5, 6
	Izziya	Al-Muqaddimat al-Izziyat lil Jama’at al-Azariyyat	Abu al-Hassan ‘Ali al-Maliki al-Shadhili (d. 1532 CE)	3, 5, 6
	Risala	Al-Risala	Abu Muhammad Abdullah Ibn Abi Zaid al-Qairawani (d. 996 CE)	3, 5, 6
	Ashimawi (Ishmawi)	Al-Muqaddim al-ashmawiya fi ‘l-ibadat	‘Abd al Bari al-Rifa’l al-Ashmawi (fl. 16th century)	3, 5, 6
	Laouali	El awwali, first volume of the Mukhtasar Khalil	Khalil b. Ishaq (d. 1374 CE)	3, 5
	Muwatta Amaluk	Al-Muwatta	Malik Ibn Anas (d. 795 CE)	3, 5
TAWHID	Kurdabi	Manzumat al-Qurtubi fi’ l-’ibadat (Urjuzat al-wildan)	Yahya b.’Umar al-Qurtubi al-Azdi (d. 1171 CE)	3, 5, 6
HADITH	Bohari (Hadisu Boukari)	Sahih al-Bukhari	Muhammad b. Isma’il b. Ibrahim al-Bukhari (d. 870 CE)	2, 3, 5
	Muslim (Musulum)	Al-Jami’al-sahih	Muslim b. al-Hajjaj (d. 875 CE)	2, 3, 5
	Samarkanda (Essamarqandi)	Tenbihu-l-Ghafilina	Abi Llaythi Nasr b. Muhammed b. Ahmed b. Ibrahim Essamarqandi El Hanafi (d. about 983 CE)	3, 5
	Ibn Maja		Ibn Maja (d. 886CE)	2, 5
	An Nasai		An-Nasa’i (d. 915 CE)	2
LUGHA	Ashiriniya Ishiriniya	Ishiriniyyat: Al-Wasa’il al-Mutaqabbala (Qasa’id al-Ishriniyyat fi Madh Saiyidna Muhammad)	Abu Zayd ‘Abd al-Rahman b. Yakkhlaftan b. Ahmed al-Fazazi (d. 1229/30 CE)	3, 5, 6
	Badamassi	Badamassi	Abu ‘Abd shams al-Din Muhammad al-Badamassi al-Maliki (fl. unknown)	3, 5
	Dariya	Al-Burda (al-Kawakib al-durriyya fi madh khayr al-bariyya)	Muhammad b. Sa’id al-Busiri (d. 1295/96 CE)	2, 3, 6
	Dan da Rani		Possibly Muhammadu na Birnin Gwari (fl. 19th century)	1, 4, 5
Sources:	1. Furniss 1996	2. Glassé 1989	3. Hall and Stewart 2011
	4. Hiskett 1984	5. Meunier 1997a	6. Sule and Starratt 1991

All the respondents were born in Mirriah and began their studies there, often with their own fathers. Most carried out a round of higher studies over a period of years between about 1925 and 1955; only one was born after 1930.¹⁸ They studied at numerous locations in Niger, Nigeria, and even (in one case) Egypt and Saudi Arabia before returning to Mirriah.¹⁹ Three mentioned making the Hajj. All continued their own studies, often combined with teaching, in 1975. Although most married women in Mirriah were not secluded at this time, all also secluded their wives.

For example, the incumbent alkali of Mirriah, Alkali Sani dan Liman Mahan, born about 1920, had studied in a village near Dungass in Magaria Arrondissement.²⁰ He returned to Mirriah and continued his studies there with Malam Moussa dan Iddi, who in turn had studied in 17 different locations over the years. Not surprisingly, the alkali’s studies focused on works of jurisprudence and on the traditions of the Prophet, which are one of the sources of Islamic law. He listed the following:

• Foukamiya, which “has everything in it,” (‘ita ce wanda duka a cikinta”) such as hakumshi (authority), arme (marriage), and gado (inheritance)

• Risala, “knowing shari’a law” (“sanin shari’a”)

• Bohari [Boukari], “traditions or hadiths of the Prophet” (“hadisin Annabi”)

• Laouali, which he was currently reading with Malam Moussa [the first volume of the Mukhtasar of Khalil]

• Tafsiri, “for explaining the Quran” (“abin fasar al Korani”)

• Samarkanda [Essamarqandi], [another book of hadiths]

• Musulum [Muslim], [a widely-used collection of hadiths]

• Muwatta amaluk [the Muwatta of Malik, a foundational text of fiqh for the Malaki school]; together with Boukari he felt this book “sums up” the others.

Alkali Sani named six adult students who studied together and the books being read. These included Izziya, Askari, Ashimawi, Ta’alimi, and Lohallari [Ahalari], which all deal with jurisprudence. They also studied Tofidi (tawhid), the unity of Allah. His official duties included hearing disputes both at the court of Sarkin Mirriah and at the Sous-préfecture (county offices). He lived in the Mirrina neighborhood near Malam Moussa. He had held the office of Alkali for nine years, following his elder brother, father, and father’s father. Appointed at about age 46, he felt he was chosen for his willingness to speak the truth: “don in fadi gaskiya aka ba ni alkali.”

These Mirriah malamai ranged in age from 71 to 39, yet the course of their studies was similar. The eldest, Malam Salissou dan Issa, began his studies with his father, Malam Issa, and also spent about twenty years going to Kano, Nigeria, to study (“don karatu,” “for reading”). He listed:

• Kawa’ idi [an introductory book of fiqh]

• Arshada [Irchadou salik, also called Askari]

• Lahallari [Ahalari, also called Akhdari], “shari’a salla,” “ the rules for prayer”

• Ashimawi [Ashmawi], also fiqh

• Risala, “the same” (“gaba daya”) as shari’a [a synopsis of Malaki law]

• Laouali [the first volume of the Mukhtasar Khalil] “daidai da shari’a”, “the same as shari’a”

All of these are fiqh titles, suggesting a teaching library geared toward the resolution of local problems (Stewart 2018). Malam Salissou also named ten adult students who studied with him for long periods of ten to twenty years. One served as a liman, two had made the hajj, and three he named as malamai. He was not currently teaching children.

Malam Salissou lived in Malamari, in the oldest area of Mirriah town, next door to the Liman Juma’a, son of his elder brother. Supporting the claim made by the Liman a year earlier, he said that in his part of town there were about fifty men who could write the complete Quran from memory. He explained: “Before a man can write the Quran, he should saubka four times. At each saubka, one sacrifices a ram because of the importance of the Quran. In this ward one will find about fifty people [who can write the Quran from memory].” (“Kafin mutum ya iya rubutu Kurani, sai ya saubka sau hudu. A kowace saubka za’a yanke rago don girman Kurani. Wannan unguwa za’a samu mutum kamar hamsin.”)

An official title was one source of respect, but for most, respect flowed from reputations for piety, learning, and efficacious prayer. The malam most respected for his piety was Malam Moussa dan Iddi, born about 1910. Malam Moussa was a resident of Mirrina ward where some scholars had settled soon after the dynasty’s arrival. As a sign of respect, Mirriah residents removed their sandals when they walked past Malam Moussa’s compound. His prayers were considered to be especially effective, for example in aiding a childless woman to conceive (field notes 1974).²¹

Malam Moussa began his studies in Mirriah with his own father, and completed his first saubka Korani there. He listed seventeen other places where he had studied for extended periods, including Hadejia, Gumel, and Machina in Nigeria. One, Illéla, was the site of a noted Quranic school in the nineteenth century; its founders reportedly came from the dispersal of the scholarly community of Kulumfardu.²² Hadejia and Gumel are just across the border in Jigawa State of Nigeria, while Machina is in Yobe State; all are in areas formerly under the rule of Bornu. Three men holding the title of liman were among Malam Moussa’s teachers, two were titled alhaji and one alkali; the others he named as malamai.

Malam Moussa listed the following as works he had studied and explained each briefly:

• Tofidi [Tawhid], “knowing that God is one” (“sanin Allah daya”)

• Lahallari [Ahalari], “knowing ceremonial ablutions and the law” (“sanin alwala da shari’a”)

• Ishimawi [Ashimawi], “knowing how to pray” (“hakikan cewa salla”)

• Kawa’idi Lisilami, “foundations of Islam” (“gimshiken misulmi”) [it includes tofidi, salla, azumi, zaka, and haji, the oneness of Allah, prayer, fasting, alms, and pilgrimage, the five pillars of Islam]

• Jirgi, “he who enters Jirgi, he truly knows religion” (“wanda ya shiga jirgi ya san adini sosai”)

• Izziya, “the strength of religion” (“alamura makarfi na adini”)

• Risala ,“knowing the shari’a” (“sanin shari’a ne”)

• Halili, “praising Allah and the Prophet and the wives of the Prophet” (“yabon Allah da Annabi da matan Annabi”)

• Askari, “one who completes this knows adini, religion, well” (“shi mai saubka wa ne bisa adini”)

These titles overlap with those named by Malam Salissou. Halili is an addition, perhaps used for the dhikr, a weekly group recitation of the names of Allah, a common Sufi practice. Malam Moussa served as a leader in recitations which he termed “rokon Allah” (“beseeching Allah”) for a group of men who met in Mirrina ward near sunset on Fridays. (Photo 2)

Photo 2.

Friday evening “rokon Allah” led by Malam Moussa dan Iddi

In 1975 Malam Moussa headed a large Quranic school, with about twenty adult men as students, including Alkali Sani. He personally met with these students, in the entrance hall of his home or in his courtyard, while his sons or other adult students worked with children. Children’s classes included separate sections for about ten young girls and twenty boys; they met under mat shelters in the street just outside his home.

Malam Moussa was one of the earliest Mirriah men to seclude his wives, doing so from the time of his first marriage. In his view the kings of Mirriah had secluded their wives for two hundred years, while in his own childhood most Mirriah women went out to farm. Other than the ruler, only his own father, Malam Iddi, secluded his wives at that time, perhaps 1910–1920. In 1974 he named thirty men from his ward alone who practiced seclusion (Hausa, armen kulle).²³ A sign of the multigenerational links among Mirriah scholars, one of his daughters was among the wives of Malam Salissou (another early adopter of seclusion) in the 1974 census. His elderly sister was one of the few women in Mirriah said to have completed the saubka korani. ²⁴

Another malam of this generation, Malam Tola, born about 1910, also lived in Mirrina ward. He completed his first saubka korani in Mirriah. For his higher studies, he spent four years in Gumel, Nigeria. Returning to Niger, he also studied at six more towns relatively near Mirriah. He listed:

• Lahallari [Ahalari, or al-Akdari ], “for improving prayer” (“don gyaran salla”)

• Kurdabi, also “for improving prayer” (of these two books, he said “their going is the same,” “tafiya su daya”)

• Badamassi, “praise of the Prophet” (“Yabon Annabi”)

• Izziya, “to improve religion, to improve prayer” (“don gyaran addini, don gyaran salla”)

• Ishiriniya, “praising the Prophet” (“yabon na Annabi”)

• Dan da Rani, “praising the Prophet” (“yabon na Annabi”)

• Jirgi: “to carry the weight of religion” (“don dauka nauyin addini ne”) (This unidentified title may refer to the strength of an engine such as one would find in an airplane, train or boat: jirgin sama, jirgin kasa, and jirgin ruwa)

Badamassi, Ishiriniya, and Dan da Rani are works of poetry used in the public readings held in celebration of Mouloud, known as Ishiriniya, from the title. The other four are concerned with jurisprudence and the proper observance of religion. Malam Tola listed ten adult students from other towns who studied, or had studied, with him. They came from locations ranging from Tanout and Zinder to Machina in northern Nigeria.

Alhaji Intchi, another member of this generation, provides a twentieth-century example of “becoming Hausa.” He explained that his grandfather Suleiman, an Arab from the Middle East, came to Damagaram (Zinder) at the time of Sarkin Damagaram Tanimou.²⁵ Suleiman married a Hausa wife, who bore a son, Ismailou; Suleiman eventually returned to his homeland. Ismailou grew up in Mirriah, where he also married and had children, including Mahaman Intchi, born about 1910. The father Ismailou too went to seek his paternal relatives and complete the hajj.

Mahaman Intchi began his studies in Mirriah, but as a young man he too set off to the east. He pursued Quranic studies for eighteen years in Egypt (Masr), where he spent three years as a soldier, from age 27 to 30, probably in the late 1930s. He also completed some karatu likita, medical study, perhaps focused on medical applications of passages from the Quran and other Islamic texts. Then he spent three years studying in Mecca and Medina before returning with a large train of four camels, horses, donkeys, and many people, to make Mirriah his home.

He described himself as having knowledge of the Quran, of the Arabic language, and of many books, and also as having travelled widely (“mai yawo a duniya”). If a person had knowledge, he added, then he should put his knowledge to work; if a man had knowledge, he would not suffer from talauci, poverty. After years of study, when he lived almost like a crazy person, he felt that now Allah was rewarding him: “Because of my knowledge, you see that Allah has given me prosperity now, wherever I live I work with it” (“Sabo da sanin nan, kun ga Allah ya yi mana arziki yanzu, ko ina na zaman in yi aiki da shi”).

Mirriah residents regarded Alhaji Intchi as the most learned cleric in the town, because of the extent of his studies, his knowledge of Arabic, his extensive travel in the Middle East, and his large library of Islamic texts. While he had attracted a large group of adult students, some local residents regarded him with a respect tinged with fear. He said that some Mirriah people even called him “mad” (mahauka), a form of verbal abuse (“sun zage ni”) which he tried to ignore. Although his Arab ancestry must have facilitated his years in the Middle East, which were the foundation for his status as a learned scholar, he emphasized Hausa identity when he returned to Mirriah.

In 1975 Alhaji Intchi lived in a two-story house on a main street in an area called Bakin Kasuwa, near the daily food market.²⁶ The interview took place in his upstairs apartment of two large rooms carpeted in thick wool rugs. One room was furnished with one metal four-poster bed, one bed with a high wood frame, and one chair; he sat on the chair, interviewers on the rugs. Within view in the other room were two locked metal trunks, and bound books were stacked everywhere.

In discussing his own studies, Alhaji Intchi included several works not named by other Mirriah scholars as well as shared titles:

• Ibti da Iya, a “litafi da yara,” “children’s book”

• Usul adinini, the foundation or origin of religion

• Tabifir gafilina [Essamarqandi], which awakens a person who is “maras hankali,” “without sense” [hadith]

• Awai zata

• Tafsiri Korani, “for explaining the Quran” (“fasara kurani ne”)

• Hadisu Boukari [Boukari’s collection of hadith]. One who completed this book would become a “truly senior malam,” (“babban malami sosai”).

• Nisai [An Nasai] “yabon Annabi ne,” “praise of the Prophet” [another hadith collection]

• Ibn majiha [Ibn Maja], “Magana Annabi ne,” “the words of the Prophet” [also hadith]

He said that he owned about five hundred books in Arabic, of different kinds, by far the largest collection in Mirriah. Most were printed books, not hand copied manuscripts. One set was made up of small pamphlets composed of the Quran printed in small units (lissafi biyu, units of two), meant to be passed out to students to study. Many belonged to multi-volume sets with ten to fifteen books in matching bindings. One was written in a special “secret script” which few people could read, an example of esoteric or “hidden” knowledge in contrast to exoteric or “manifest” knowledge represented by most of the titles named by Mirriah scholars (Brenner 1985).

Alhaji Intchi reported that he currently had 46 children as students, including nine girls, and ten or more adult students. Adult students were reading the Quran and the hadiths. Among the adult students were the Islamic judge of Mirriah, Alkali Sani (who also studied with Malam Moussa), and Malam Yacoubou, liman of the Boukari neighborhood mosque; he had attracted men who were respected malamai in their own right. As head of a large family he may have had teaching help from the adult sons still included in his census household or from the three younger brothers listed near him in the census.

Alhaji Intchi said that three of his four wives had completed the saubka korani level of study. One was said to be the daughter of a scholar from Zengou, the town outside the old walled city of Zinder. The wife who had not yet done so was new to the household: he courted her in 1974 with the promise to take her on the hajj, which he did that December. She was a young Hausa zawara (widow or divorcee) from Mirriah.

Having spent long periods in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, Alhaji Intchi was familiar with modern Islamic schools which were uncommon in Niger at the time.²⁷ He also had active contacts in Kano, where modern Islamic schools were also available; he spent two weeks visiting there in February 1974. In March of 1975 he requested government authorization to open a private Arabic school in Mirriah. He sent a letter written in formal French to the national Minister of Education, to the Sous-Préfet of Mirriah Arrondissement, and to the head of the Departmental Service of Primary Education (in Zinder).²⁸ He proposed to give free instruction using the teaching methods used in modern Arab countries. He indicated that he already had a suitable location to receive students, but he asked for a subsidy (subvention) to cover books (manuels) and equipment/supplies (fournitures). Although his request was unsuccessful at the time, it indicates that the idea of creating such schools was beginning to circulate in Mirriah.

Another Mirriah cleric, Malam Yahaya called Alhaji Ladan, had made the pilgrimage to Mecca in 1972 or 1973. Born about 1916, he lived in Mirrina near Malam Moussa. Unlike his fellow clerics, he reported that he had completed all of his studies in Mirriah with Malam Moussa, although his father was also a scholar. He was active in organizing the twelve nights of devotional readings with which scholars from Mirrina ward celebrated Mouloud in 1975. The interview occurred shortly after this holiday, and Alhaji Ladan responded by naming three of the works of poetry used for the public readings:

• Ishiriniya, “it’s praise of the Prophet” (“yabon Annabi ne”)

• Badamassi, “it’s the name of a malam, who is praising the Prophet” (“Sunan wani malami ne, mai yabon Annabi”)

• Dan da Rani, it’s a malam, a Gwari person, who is praising the Prophet” (“Malami ne, na Gwarawa ne, mai yabon Annibi”)²⁹

Alhaji Ladan reported having 15 boys as students at the time, as well as six girls; all were from Mirriah. This may be a subset of the students in Malam Moussa’s large school. His daughter Mariamou was one of the few Mirriah women able to continue Quranic studies after her marriage; she and her co-wives were taught by a relative of their husband. Having begun her studies as a child, she recited a lengthy passage in Arabic when she and her co-wives demonstrated their progress for me. Her senior co-wife recited a poem in Hausa in praise of the Prophet; her junior co-wife named Arabic letters from a wooden slate. Like other adults, all completed their daily prayers in Arabic.

Malam Mahaman dan Malam Abba was another cleric from the Mirrina neighborhood. Born about 1918, he began his studies in Mirriah with Malam Abdu, whom he followed to another town, spending fifteen years with him. Besides the Quran, he named two books he had studied with this teacher:

• Lahallari, [Ahalari, a title of jurisprudence]

• Ashimayi [also jurisprudence]

Malam Mahaman had returned to Mirriah twenty years earlier, about 1955. He named five towns from which his adult students had come. He reported about 20 boys, all from Mirriah, as current students. During the interview, a boy of about ten brought seven or eight ten-franc CFA coins to him, saying they were because of the Mouloud holiday (Hausa Sallah Gani) which was then in progress and naming the student who gave each coin.

As noted above, another large cluster of scholars lived in Malamari and Boukari in the Bilmari section of town. Among Boukari scholars was Malam Yacoubou dan Malam Katchi. He served as liman of the Boukari neighborhood mosque, a position he had held for ten years, after serving as Liman Juma’a for seven years near Tanout. He had also led Id prayers there for five years. He noted with pride that the Boukari mosque was the second Mirriah mosque to have its own building, preceded only by the Friday mosque.

Unique among the respondents, Malam Yacoubou travelled north and west for his higher studies. Born about 1920, he began his studies in Mirriah with his own father; he continued in the Tessawa area west of Zinder and with the Liman Juma’a of Tanout, north of Zinder. He was currently studying in Damagaram [Zinder]. He had also completed the hajj. Nevertheless the titles he listed overlap with those studied by other Mirriah scholars:

• Kawa ‘Idi, “living a Muslim life” (“zaman musulumci”)

• Arshada, studied with Alhaji Intchi, “it’s about knowing the Lord God” (“Sanin Uban giji ne”)

• Lahallari [Ahalari], studied with his father (“uba ya koya mini”), “knowing prayer” (“sanin salla”)

• Kurdabi, with his father: “it’s a song/poem” (“wake ne”)

• Izziya, with his father, “it’s knowing the shari’a, for prayer” (“sanin shari’a ne, na salla”)

• Risala, studied in the Tessawa area and with the Liman Juma’a of Tanout

• Badamassi, studied with the Liman Juma’a at Tanout, “it’s a song/poem, for the Ishiriniya (“wake ne, na Ishiriniya”)

• Samarkanda, which he was currently studying in Zinder with a scholar called Malam Ibrahim mai Samarkanda (“Malam Ibrahim who has the Samarkanda”) [hadith]

Malam Yacoubou described the Samarkanda as a new book which was very good and as a book “new among us.” (“Wannan littafi sabon littafi ne mai kyau,” “sabo ne a garemu”). He described the content as knowledge of shari’a and the customs of the Muslim religion (addinin musulumci). While works of the author known as al-Samarkandi were known in Kano in the 1500s, this book was evidently new to Malam Yacoubou. In contrast Alkali Sani described it as a book of hadith, but not as a new book.

Malam Yacoubou pointed out books as his treasures. He also called attention to a well-worn wooden slate once used by his father some forty years previously. He preferred books to material comforts, noting that some people had fancy metal beds while he did not even have a bed in his room (“ko gado, ba na da shi”).

When he first returned to Mirriah, Malam Yacoubou had students of his own. Later he and his students all moved together to study with Alhaji Intchi: “At first I had students, but now I and my students we are going all together to study with Malam Intchi” (“Da fari ina da almajirai amma yanzu ni da nawa almajirai gaba daya muke zuwa wurin Malam Intchi koya karatu”). He added, “the malam who exceeds everyone in knowledge is Malam Intchi . . . After him the senior Malam Moussa comes next.” (“Malam da ya fi kowa sani, shi ne Malam Intchi. . . Daga shi sai Malam Moussa babba”). Even though he had read through the Quran about thirty times (“na saubka kurani kamar sau talatin”), he planned to continue studies with Alhaji Intchi: “until I die, I will keep coming to Malam Intchi” (“har in mutu, zan rika zuwa wurin Malam Intchi”).

Malam Yacoubou named four men as the most respected malamai in Mirriah. In order of their learning, they were Malam Intchi (“a Makka ya yi karatu,” “he studied in Mecca”), Malam Moussa, Malam Salissou, and finally Alkali Yahaya, the former alkali of Mirria, then elderly.³⁰ All four were among the eight “babban malamai” named by Sarkin Mirriah in 1974, another indication that standards for respect earned by scholars were shared.

The incumbent Liman Juma’a of Mirriah, Liman Laminou dan Liman Mahaman, was the youngest malam interviewed, then about 39 years old. He had held the title since 1969, following the death of his older brother. As liman, he led the Friday afternoon prayers at the Mirriah Friday mosque and delivered a weekly sermon. The limans of Mirriah came from the marriage of a Quranic student named Malam Ma’azu with a daughter of one of the early rulers of Mirriah; Mirriah limans still came from this lineage (Saley 1994, 245). The liman lived next door to Malam Salissou, the eldest respondent and his father’s younger brother (kanen ubanshi), in the Malamari neighborhood.

Liman Laminou completed his first saubka korani with his own father, in Mirriah, and began his higher studies with him as well. He also studied in Zermou, not far from Mirriah. He continued his studies in Machina, Hadejia, and Kano in Nigeria before returning to Mirriah.

The books he named included:

• Kawa’ idi, “foundation of religion” (“tushen adini”), studied with his father

• Lahallari, “to improve prayers,” (“gyaran salla”), with his father

• Izziya, “knowing the law” (“sanin shari’a”), with his father [the rules for prayer]

• Risala ,“ it’s the law” (“shari’a ne”), with Malam Salissou in Mirriah

• Askari, “the same as shari’a,” (“daidai ta shari’a”), with Malam Salissou

• Tafsiri, (tafsir), exegesis/translation of the Quran: “karatun Kura’ani,” “reading the Quran,” studied with Malam Ali, his father-in-law, in Zinder

The mosque of the 1970s was a stark rectangular building with a single square minaret from which the ladan could call the faithful to prayer; a white cement façade covered the exterior (photo 3). The mosque stood next to the Mirriah palace, sharing a large square. Although informants attributed construction of the walled palace complex to Sarkin Mirriah Ibil, second holder of that title, around 1800, the history of the mosque itself is not clear. Several buildings have served that function over the course of time.³¹

Photo 3.

Mirriah Friday mosque with the palace of Sarkin Mirriah at right

In 1975 the Friday mosque was used only for the Friday afternoon community prayers, with the crowd of worshippers, nearly all male, overflowing into the public square (photo 4). Friday prayers were primarily the affair of mature men such as household heads; youths and young men were not proportionately represented. Prayers for the Id festivals were held at a special prayer grounds just outside town to the east, a large tree at the center. Children’s Quranic school classes usually met at the home of the teacher, around millet stalk fires at night, under a mat shelter at the edge of the street by day; some students met under shelters in the Mirriah Sunday market on non-market days. Adult classes met in the scholar’s entrance hall or courtyard. No school or classes met regularly at the Friday mosque. Most men completed their evening prayers as part of neighborhood mosque groups in the open air, while women and girls prayed individually at home, inside the concession.

Photo 4.

Male worshippers overflowing into the public square for Friday afternoon prayers

III. Conclusion

Of the responses about works Mirriah malamai had studied, 15 of 18 identified titles are from Hall and Stewart’s core curriculum. Consistent with Stewart’s account of much larger Sahelian collections (2018) developed in his view primarily for teaching and local legal concerns, well known works of fiqh were the most commonly mentioned: Ahalari (by 5, all describing it as focused on the correct performance of ritual prayer), the Risala (by 5), the Qawa’id al Salat (by 4), and the Irchadou Salik (by 4). Two named the Mukhtasar Khalil, a more advanced text: the Alkali studied this work with Malam Moussa, and Malam Salissou also named it. It is divided into two parts; both men named Laouali (Arabic: el awwali, the first). Only the Alkali named the foundational text Al-Muwatta of Malik ibn Anas, after whom the Maliki legal school is named. Three hadith titles from the core curriculum were named: Boukari (by 2), Muslim (by 1), and Essamarqandi (by 3); Alhaji Intchi, who had studied in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, named two additional hadith collections.

Poetry is an important element in the core curriculum. Al-Qurtubi’s Kurdabi (named by 2) uses versification as a memory aid. It “summarizes the five ‘pillars of Islam’ in rhyming verse designed to be easy for children to memorize, although not simplified in content” (Hall and Stewart 2011:138), again a text useful for teaching. Several works of devotional poetry were also named: Badamassi (by 3), Ishiriniya (by 2), and al Burda (“the Mantle”) (used in the celebration of Mouloud in Mirriah but not named in the interviews) are all part of the core curriculum. A fourth, Dan da Rani (named by 2), is not. These works appealed to a wide public, including non-literate listeners.

Some titles were incomplete, unclear, or still unidentified, however. Some may name a topic of study rather than a title. Alhaji Intchi mentioned Usul adini, “bases or principles of religion.” Three men named Tafsiri; Tafsir al-Jalalayn may be the one used here, but other works on exegesis are also known in Niger. The versified text Kurdabi (named by 2) is a popular work on tawhid, the uniqueness of Allah, and Kawa’idi (named by 4) represents both tawhid and fiqh (Hall and Stewart 2011, 138; Meunier 1997a, 124). While Mirriah scholars named both, they did not give complete titles when they mentioned tawhid.

The longevity of some titles is well documented both in Bornu and in Hausaland. The Risala of Abu Zayd, a classic text of the Malaki legal school, was known in the capital of Bornu in the 1570s, at the time Mai Idris Alooma ruled (Ibn Fartua [1576] 1987). Some writings of al-Samarqandi were among texts available in Kano by the same time period (Meunier 1997b,100). Certain titles from the proposed core curriculum are mentioned repeatedly as works studied in 16th and 17th century Bornu (Bobboyi 1992, 53–54), in northern Nigeria in the 18th and 19th century (Hiskett 1957; Ferguson 1973, 10–11), and in Niger in the early 20th century (Marty 1930, 427; Vieillard 1939, 102). They include many of the titles Mirriah scholars studied and taught, using oral exegesis which moved between Arabic and Hausa.

In addition to their participation in the core curriculum, this paper has shown that Mirriah malamai have a strong historical connection to the Kanuri-speaking Bornu empire. Even in the 1970s few of the places named for their own studies or the sources of their adult students were outside the influence of Bornu. Yet Mirriah scholars form an essential element of a community which now sees itself as Hausa, a transition which occurred early in the history of the Sosaibaki dynasty. This transition was aided by the heritage of Islam shared by both Bornu and Hausaland. The life history of Alhaji Intchi offers a more recent example of “becoming Hausa:” his Middle Eastern grandfather married a Hausa wife and his father grew up in Mirriah. Alhaji Intchi also grew up in Mirriah, speaking Hausa; he returned to Mirriah after a long sojourn in the Middle East, and he added a Hausa wife to his household. Facilitated by a shared language and a shared religion, the process of becoming Hausa operates through such choices.