Za Dynasty
The Za Dynasty or Zuwa Dynasty were rulers of a kingdom based in the towns of Kukiya and Gao on the Niger River in what is today modern Mali.
Oral history and the Tarikh al-Sudan
Al-Sadi's seventeenth century chronicle, the Tarikh al-Sudan, provides an early history of the Songhay as handed down by oral tradition. The chronicle reports that the legendary founder of the dynasty, Za Alayaman, originally came from the Yemen and settled in the town of Kukiya.[1] The town is believed to have been near the modern village of Bentiya on the eastern bank of the Niger, north of the Fafa rapids, 134 km south east of Gao.[2] Tombstones with Arabic inscriptions dating from the 14th and 15th centuries have been found in the area.[3] Kukiya is also mentioned in the other important chronicle, the Tarikh al-fattash.[4] The Tarikh al-Sudan relates that the 15th ruler, Za Kusoy, converted to Islam in the year 1009-1010 A.D. At some stage the kingdom or at least its political focus moved north to Gao. The kingdom of Gao capitalized on the growing trans-Saharan trade and grew into a small regional power before being conquered by the Mali Empire in the early 13th century.
Rulers of the Za dynasty as given in the Tarikh al-Sudan
These names with their diacritics are as given in the translation by John Hunwick.[5] The surviving Arabic manuscripts differ both in the spelling and the vocalization of the names.
- Alayaman[6]
- Zakoi
- Takoi
- Ikoi
- Kū
- ʿAlī Fay
- Biya Kumay
- Bī/Bay
- Karay
- Yama Karaway
- Yuma Dunku
- Yuma Kībuʿu
- Kūkura
- Kinkin
- Kusoy
- Kusur Dāri
- Hin Kun Wunka Dum
- Biyay Koi Kīma
- Koy Kīmi
- Nuntā Sanay
- Biyay Kayna Kinba
- Kayna Shinyunbu
- Tib
- Yama Dao
- Fadazaw
- ʿAlī Kur
- Bēr Falaku
- Yāsiboy
- Dūru
- Zunku Bāru
- Bisi Bāru
- Badā
See also
Notes
- ↑ Hunwick 2003, pp. xxxv, 5.
- ↑ Bentiya is at 15°20′56″N 0°45′36″E / 15.349°N 0.760°E
- ↑ Moraes Farias 1980, p. 105.
- ↑ Kukiya is written as Koûkiya in the French translation.
- ↑ Hunwick 2003, pp. 3-4.
- ↑ Hunwick 2003 on page 3 writes this name as Alayman. This appears to be a typographical error as on pages 5 and 6 and elsewhere the name is spelled Alayaman.
References
- Hunwick, John O. (2003), Timbuktu and the Songhay Empire: Al-Sadi's Tarikh al-Sudan down to 1613 and other contemporary documents, Leiden: Brill, ISBN 978-9004128224.
- Kâti, Mahmoûd Kâti ben el-Hâdj el-Motaouakkel (1913), Tarikh el-fettach ou Chronique du chercheur, pour servir à l'histoire des villes, des armées et des principaux personnages du Tekrour (in French), Houdas, O., Delafosse, M. ed. and trans., Paris: Ernest Leroux. Also available from Aluka but requires subscription.
- Moraes Farias, Paulo F. de (1990), "The oldest extant writing of West Africa: medieval epigraphs from Essuk, Saney, and Egef-n-Tawaqqast (Mali)", Journal des Africanistes 60: 65–113. Link is to a scan on Gallica that omits some photographs of the epigraphs.