Tarikh al-Sudan (Histoire des Songhois et des Rois du Soudan)
Returned to lender
This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.For centuries external Muslim authors used the expression bilad al-Sudan (country of the Blacks) to cast Sahelians as the Other. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Sahelian scholars began composing their own historical chronicles in Arabic. These authors drew upon local oral tradition but lacked direct access to early written sources. This detailed narrative of the Songhay empire was originally composed in Timbuktu during the seventeenth century by a scholar and imam of the Sankore mosque, Abd el-Rahman al-Sa’di.
Artwork Details
- Title: Tarikh al-Sudan (Histoire des Songhois et des Rois du Soudan)
- Date: Date unknown
- Geography: Mali, Timbuktu
- Medium: Composite manuscript on paper
- Dimensions: W. 9 7/16 × D. 3 × L. 7 1/16 in. (240 mm, 7.6 cm, 180 mm)
- Classifications: Paper-Documents, Manuscripts
- Credit Line: Bibliothèque de l'Institut de France, Paris (Ms 2414 pièce 200)
- Curatorial Department: The Michael C. Rockefeller Wing