Papers of R.S. O'fahey at Bergen, Norway

H-IslamInAfrica Papers of R.S. O'Fahey at Bergen, Norway

Discussion published by Neil McHugh on Wednesday, January 31, 2018

Professor Emeritus Rex Sean O'Fahey of the University of Bergen has asked me to post the following note concerning his papers (chiefly on Darfur).

Neil McHugh

17.1.18

R.S. O’FAHEY’S PAPERS AT BERGEN

A Preliminary Description & Current Status

R.S. O’Fahey

Background

The papers that I gave to the University of Bergen (UoB) upon my retirement in 2013 are housed in the University of Bergen Library and are in the process of being catalogued and scanned. This is necessarily a long-term process, but the papers, and my library (to be deposited at a later date), are freely accessible to all interested researchers without restriction.

Brief Autobiography and Background

After studying (1962-66) African and Middle Eastern history at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), London, I was awarded a doctoral scholarship to write a history of pre-colonial Darfur under the supervision of the late P.M. Holt. In 1967, I took up a lectureship at the University of Khartoum, where I taught for three years (1967-70). After a year at Edinburgh University, I moved to the University of Bergen, where I remained until my retirement.

While waiting for a full catalogue, I thought it would be useful to give a brief description of the Papers together with some estimate of their number and the main categories into which they fall together with the current status of the transfer. There still remains a considerable amount of work to be done. I assume that researchers who physically come to Bergen will able to consult the collection while the process of cataloguing is continuing (this has been the case so far).

Citation: Neil McHugh. Papers of R.S. O'Fahey at Bergen, Norway. H-IslamInAfrica. 01-31-2018. https://networks.h-net.org/node/835449/discussions/1282322/papers-rs-ofahey-bergen-norway Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. 1 H-IslamInAfrica

Apart from my collection of books and pamphlets (about 2,000 items) and my research, reading and field notes, the bulk of the papers are mimeographs or photographs of originals in private or public collections. These mimeographs, predominantly in Arabic, almost certainly constitute the largest body of indigenous Sudanese material now in a public collection outside the Sudan. They were collected and copied during the course of my professional career (1966-2013).

Since much of the material is published or described in articles by myself and others, I have listed most of my writings and other relevant sources in the second part of the present note.

If I can end this section on a personal note; researchers of my generation who went into African studies in 1960s were usually forced to become their own archivists in the sense of first needing to find the sources, whether written or oral, before they could begin to write. By choosing to write on Darfur in the Sudan, I inadvertently chose a country where the national archives, set up in the early 1950s by my teacher, P.M. Holt, and my mentor in Khartoum, the late Muhammad Ibrahim Abu Salim, Holt’s successor as Director of the National Records Office, was a haven for researchers both in terms of sources and not least in encouragement.

PART ONE: CATEGORIES OF MATERIAL

a. Darfur material

The Darfur materials were collected in the course of my research on Darfur’s pre-colonial history both for my Ph.D. (which I never published as such) and beyond. My main fieldwork was carried out in 1969, 1970, 1974 and 1976, and resulted in five books and numerous articles (see Part Two).

The most important material I collected are the 350 pre-colonial documents I photographed in the field in 1970, 1974 and 1976. The UoB Library has a detailed catalogue of these as well as positive prints and negatives.

In addition, UoB has files containing my notes on the Arkell Papers (see “Publications List”, no. 23) as well as reading notes. I should note that I went through the Arkell Papers privately (Tony Arkell simply let me borrow them from him). While I was in Khartoum, he died and the papers ended up in the library of the School of Oriental and African Studies, where they were catalogued by P.M. Holt. In my many citations of the Arkell Papers (the single most important source on Darfur’s history and ethnography — about 2,500 pages of notes) in my writings, I used the Holt numbering. They were subsequently recatalogued by SOAS, using a quite different numbering system.

A further category are the original notes I made from the British province archives in al- Fashir in the summer of 1970, when the archives were still intact. Sadly, the province archives were subsequently moved and destroyed by rain. My Darfur and the British (London: Christopher Hurst, 2016) offers an annotated selection from this material, but my notes include unpublished material from Khartoum, al-Fashir and Kutum. Still to come in this category are my fieldnotes, which are still with me. These will be deposited at UoB together with my library.

(b)Sufism

This category of material arises from my research (and that of researchers affiliated to UoB; see below) on Ahmad ibn Idris (d. 1837), his students and their students. The Idrisi tradition gave rise to a number of orders that were and are influential in the history of Muslim Africa and southeast Asia; among them are the Idrisiyya, Rashidiyya, Dandarawiyya, Sanusiyya, Salihiyya, Khatmiyya, Isma’iliyya, Ja’fariyya, Idrisiyya/Sanusiyya (Malaysia), and others. This category includes about 2,500 items (mimeographs, publications, especially pamphlets, etc), of which about 1,000 are photographs of ms. material made by Professor Albrecht Hofheinz in the course of his doctoral research on the Majadhib holy family. Other researchers who contributed to, used and published on the Idrisi tradition include Ali Salih Karrar, Mark Sedgwick, Fred De Jong, Anne K. Bang, Knut S. Vikør, Berndt Radtke and others. The material in UoB Library remains incomplete inasmuch as the printed Sufi material is still in my library.

(c)Arabic Literature of Africa (ALA)

This category of material arises from research leading to ALA, vol. 1 The Writings of Eastern Sudanic Africa to c. 1900, Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1994 and ALA, vol. 3A, The Writings of the Muslim Peoples of Northeastern Africa, Leiden: E.J. Brill, 2003. ALA was a project begun by the late J.O. Hunwick and myself in Cairo in 1980 to produce a multi-volume bio-bibliographical reference work on the Arabic writings of Muslim Africa, although increasingly local languages were included. Hunwick and I edited altogether four vols. published by E.J. Brill.

The material collected in connexion with ALA 3A is now in the possession of Professor Anne K. Bang, who also has the relevant material and a preliminary draft ofALA 3B, The Writings of the Muslim Peoples of Eastern Africa, for which publication she has assumed responsibility. The precise structure of ALA 3B has yet to be decided.

This leaves probably about 5 to 600 items that (printed and mimeograph) that were collected by me in connexion with ALA 1. Again the printed material is still in my library.

This latter category comprises largely literary works and is very heterogeneous in character. Among the items I will mention are a collection of microfilms (about fifteen reels) which I copied from my friend, the late J.O. Hunwick. There are six microfilms comprising most of the Arabic mss. originally held in the Jos Museum in Kaduna, the originals of which are apparently no longer accessible. There are papers and the copy of an Arabic book concerning the career of Satti Majid Suwar al-Dhahab (d. 1963) in the USA between 1904 and about 1930 (see further below no. 96). These are of considerable interest for the early history of Islam among African Americans. Likewise, there is material on the Sudanese scholar, Ahmad Muhammad al-Surkitti (d.1943), who was an important figure in Indonesian Islamic modernist thinking (see no. 53).

(d)Miscellaneous Items

In the CMI Library, there are some hundred boxes of offprints and Xeroxes (mainly nineteenth century European travel literature) collected over the years by Anders Bjørkelo and myself. These boxes also contain items in Arabic, some of which are actually manuscripts.

There is also a collection of internal and public documents from UNAMIS, United Nations Mission to the Sudan, arising from my period in 2005 serving in Khartoum as a consultant on Darfur. These are supplemented by similar documents from a World Bank mission in Darfur in 2006, to which I was an advisor.

PART TWO: PUBLICATIONS

There is much information and research based on the materials in Bergen to be found inSudanic Africa. A Journal of Historical Sources, published in sixteen volumes under the editorship of Knut S. Vikør between 1990 and 2007.

R.S. O’Fahey, Publications List

Books

1. (with J.L. Spaulding) Kingdoms of the Sudan. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd, 1974, ix + 235 pp.

2. State and Society in Dar Fur. London: Christopher Hurst, 1980, xi + 210 pp. Transl. by ‘Abd al- Hafiz Sulayman ‘Umar, al-Dawla wa’l-mujtama’ fi Dar Fur, Cairo: Markaz al-Dirasat al-Sudaniyya, [2000], 203 pp.

3. (with M.I. Abu Salim) Land in Dar Fur. Charters and related documents from the Dar Fur Sultanate. London: Cambridge University Press, 1983, xv + 165 pp. [repr. Paperback]

4. Enigmatic Saint. Ahmad ibn Idris and the Idrisi Traditiion. London: Christopher Hurst, 1990, xvii + 261 pp. Transl. by Abu Dharr al-Ghiffari Bashir ‘Abd al-Habib, al-Wali al-‘alim Ahmad ibn Idris wa’l- madrasat al-Idrisiyya. Khartoum, n.d. [c. 2007], 238. Privately published by the Adarasa [the descendants of Ahmad ibn Idris] of al-Mawrida, Omdurman.

5. The Writings of Eastern Sudanic Africa, compiled by O’Fahey et alii, being vol. 1 of the Arabic Literature of Africa (ALA), ed. J.O. Hunwick & R.S. O’Fahey,. Leiden: Brill, 1993, xv + 434.

6. (with Bernd Radtke, John O’Kane & Knut S. Vikør), The Exoteric Ahmad ibn Idris. A Sufi’s critique of the Madhahib & the Wahhabis, Leiden: E.J. Brill, 2000.

7. The Writings of the Muslim Peoples of Northeastern Africa, by O’Fahey et alii, being vol. 3, fascicle A of ALA. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 2003, xxii + 174.

8. The Darfur Sultanate. London: Christopher Hurst, 2009, xix + 357.

9. Darfur and the British. A sourcebook. London: Christopher Hurst, 2016, xi + 347.

Forthcoming

10. (with Anne K. Bang) The Arabic Writings of Eastern Africa, being vol. 3, fascicle B of ALA

Articles, Notes, & some Reviews (this is incomplete)

11. “Al-Tunisis’s travels in Darfur”, Bulletin of the Centre of Arabic Documentation, University of Ibadan, v, 1969, 66-74.

12. (with Hasan Imam Hasan), “Notes on the Mileri of Jabal Mun”,Sudan Notes and Records, li, 1970, 152-61.

13. “Religion and trade in the Kayra Sultanate of Dar Fur”, in Sudan in Africa, ed. Yusuf Fadl Hasan. Khartoum: Khartoum University Press, 1971, 87-97.

14. “The affair of Ahmad Aga”, Sudan Notes and Records (SNR), liii, 1972, 202-3.

15. “Egypt, Saint-Simon and Muhammad ‘Ali”, in The Exploration of Africa in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries, Centre of African Studies, University of Edinburgh, 1972, 17-36.

16. (with J. L. Spaulding) “Hashim and the Musabba’at”, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies (BSOAS), xxxv, 1972, 316-33.

17 (with Abdel Ghaffar Muhammad Ahmad), Documents from Dar Fur, Occasional Papers 1 (1972) & 2 (1973). Programme of Middle Eastern and African Studies, Department of History, University of Bergen.

18. “Slavery and the slave trade in Dar Fur”, Journal of African History (JAH), xiv, 1973, 29-43.

19. (with J.L. Spaulding), “The geographic location of Gaoga”, JAH, xiv, 1973, 505-8.

20. “Kordofan in the eighteenth century”, SNR, liv, 1973, 32-42.

21. “Saints and the sultans: the role of Muslim holy men in the Keira Sultanate of Dar Fur”, in Northern Africa; Islamisation and Modernisation, ed. Michael Brett, London: Frank Cass, 1973, 49-56.

22. “al-Bulalawi or al-Hilali”, SNR, liv, 1973, 197.

23. “The Sudan Papers of the Rev. Dr. A.J. Arkell”, SNR, lv, 1974, 172-4.

24. Review of L. Holy, Neighbours and Kismen: a study of the Berti people of Darfur”,, New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1974, in The International Journal of African Historical Studies (IJAHS), Boston, 9/4, 1976, 668-71.

25. “The office of qadi in Dar Fur: a preliminary enquiry”, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies (NSOAS), lx, 1977, 110-24.

26. “The Awlad ‘Ali: a Fulani family in Dar Fur”,Gedenkschrift Gustav Nachtigal, 1874-1974 = Veroffentligen aus dem Übersee-Museum Bremen, reihe C, I, 1977, 147-66.

27. “Land and privilege in Dar Fur”, in Central Bilad al-Sudan: Tradition and Adaptation, eds., Yusuf Fadl Hasan & Paul Dornbos, Khartoum: Khartoum University Press, 1977, 262-82.

28. “Islam, state and society in Dar Fur”, in Conversion to Islam, ed. Nehemia Levtzion, New York, 1979), 189-206.

29. “Two early Dar Fur charters”, Sudan Texts Bulletin, Coleraine, I, 1979, 13-7.

30. (with J.O. Hunwick & D. Lange) “Two glosses concerning Bilad al-Sudan on a manuscript of al- Nuwayri’s Nihayat al-arab”, Bulletin of Information, Fontes Historiae Africanae, Cairo, v, 1979, 16-24.

31. (with J.L. Spaulding) “A Sudanese battle in about 1800” Sudan Texts Bulletin, ii, 1980, 42-6.

32. “The case of Adam’s ear”, Sudan Texts Bulletin, Coleraine, iii, 1981, 44-53.

33. “The mahrams of Kanem-Borno”, Bulletin of Information, Fontes Historiae Africanae, vi, 1981, 19-25.

34. (with J.L. Spaulding), “A sultanic present”, Sudan Texts Bulletin, Coleraine, iii, 1981, 38-43.

35. “Fur and Fartit: the history of a frontier”, inCulture History in the Southern Sudan, eds. John Mack & Peter Robertshaw, Nairobi: The British Institute in East Africa, 1982, 75-87.

36. “The Tunjur: a central Sudanic mystery”, SNR, lxi, 1983, 47-60.

37. “The question of slavery in the Sudan”, inSlaveri og Avikling I Komparativ Perspectiv, ed. Ø. Andersen, Trondheim, 1983, 235-49.

38. (with J.L. Spaulding), “A summons from Sinnar”, Sudan Texts Bulletin, v, 1983, 64-7.

39. (with J.L. Spaulding), “An appeal for support”, Sudan Texts Bulletin, v, 1983,73-80.

40. “Slavery and society in Dar Fur”, in Slaves and Slavery in Muslim Africa, ed. J.R. Willis, London, 1985, 2 vols., I, 81-101.

41. “The Eastern Sudan before 1750: biographies and bibliographies”, Bulletin of Arabic Literature in Africa (BALA), I, 1985, 60-75.

42. “Dar Fur in Kordofan. The sultans and the Awlad Najm”, Sudan Texts Bulletin, Coleraine, 1986, vii, 43-63.

43. “The writings by, attributed to, or on Ahmad ibn Idris”,Bibliotheca Orientalis, xliii, 1986, 5/6, 660-9.

44. “The writings of Isma’il al-Wali and his descendants”, BALA, ii, 1986, 68-85.

45. (with Sharif Harir), “Two husbands and a daughter from Dar Fur”,Sudan Texts Bulletin, Coleraine, vii, 1986, 30-42.

46. “The writings of Muhammad ‘Uthman al-Mirghani, his descendants and followers”,BALA , iii, 1987, 62-79.

47. (with Knut S. Vikør) “Ibn Idris and al-Sanusi: the teacher and his student”,Islam et Sociétés au sud du Sahara, i, 1987, 70-82.

48. (with Ali Salih Karrar) “The Enigmatic Imam: the influence of Ahmad ibn Idris”,International Journal of Middle East Studies, 19, 1987, 205-20.

49. “Publishing Sudanese documents: a preliminary bibliography”,History in Africa, 16, 1989, 383-87.

50. “Ahmad ibn Idris and Northeast Africa: notes on a theme”, Islam et Sociétés au sud du Sahara,, 3, 1989, 67-89.

51. “The archives of Shoba”, Sudanic Africa. A Journal of Historical Sources (SAJHS), i, 1990, 71-82.

52. “The Archives of Shoba, 2”, Sudanic Africa. A Journal of Historical Sources (SAJHS), ii, 1991, 79-112.

52. “A prince and his neighbours”, SAJHS, iii, 1992, 57-9The Sufi

53. (with M.I. Abu Salim), “A Sudanese in Indonesia. A note on Ahmad Muhammad Surkitti”, Indonesia Circle, 59 & 60, November 1992 & March 1993, 68-72.

54. “’Games, dancing and handclapping’. A Sufi controversy in South Arabia”, in The Middle East — Unity and Diversity. Papers from the Second Nordic Conference on Middle Eastern Studies, Copenhagen, 1993, 123-32.

55. (with Einar Thomassen), “Letters to Makki b. Abd al-Aziz”, in The Letters of Ahmad ibn Idrıs, ed. Einar Thomassen & Bernd Radtke, London: Christopher Hurst & Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1993, 11-41.

56. (with Bernd Radtke), “Miscellaneous letters”, in Letters of Ahmad ibn Idrıs, 144-75.

57. “Islamic hegemonies in the Sudan. Sufism, Mahdism and Islamism”, in Muslim Identity and Social Change in Sub-Saharan Africa, ed. Louis Brenner, London: Christopher Hurst, 1993, 22-35.

58. (with Bernd Radtke), “”Neo-Sufism reconsidered”, Der Islam, 1993, 52-87.

59. Review of World Survey of Islamic Manuscripts, ed. Geoffrey Roper, 4 vols., London: Al-Furqan, in SAJHS, 5, 1994, 277-78. See also SAJHS, 3, 1992, 187-89.

60. “The past in the present? The issue of the Sharia in Sudan”, inReligion and Politics in East Africa,, eds. Holger Bernt Hansen & Michael Twaddle, London, 1995, 32-44.

61. (with Abu Agla El Hussein Abu Agla and Albrecht Hofheinz) “Sudan”, in World Survey of Islamic Manuscripts, ed. Geoffrey Roper, vol. iii, London, 1995, 140–54.

62. “Somalia”, in World Survey of Islamic Manuscripts, ed. Geoffrey Roper, vol. iii, London, 88–90.

63. “Ahmad ibn Idris” and “The Idrisiyah” in The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World, New York :Oxford University Press, 4 vols., 1995, ii, 163–64 & 177–78.

64. “Salihiyya”, Encyclopaedia of Islam, new edn., 1995 viii, 990.

65. “Islamism and ethnicity in the Sudan”, in al-Tanawwu’ al-thaqafi wa-bina’ al-dawla al-wataniyya fi’l-Sudan, ed. Haydar Ibrahim ‘Ali,. Cairo: Centre for Sudanese Studies, 1995, 93-107.

66. “An hitherto ‘unknown’ Darfur kinglist”, SAJHS, vi, 1995, 157-69.

67. (with Ali Salih Karrar & Yahya Muhammad Ibrahim) “ The life and writings of a Sudanese historian: Muhammad ‘Abd al-Rahim, 1878-1966”, SAJHS, vi, 1995, 125-36.

68. “Some recent Sudanese biographies, memoirs and histories (including music): a bibliographical note”, SAJHS, vi, 1995, 137-55.

69. “’They have become privileged of God and His Prophet’: mahram and zawiya in Sudanic Africa”, in The Cloth of Many Silks. Papers on History and Society, Ghanaian and Islamic in Honor of Ivor Wilks, ed. N. Lawlor, Evanston, 1996, 339-54.

70. “Islam and ethnicity in the Sudan” Journal of Religion in Africa, xxvi/3, 1996, 258-67.

71. “A Zanzibari waqf of books: the library of the Mundhiri family”, SAJHS, vii, 1996, 5-25.

72. (with Bernd Radtke & John O’Kane) “Two Sufi treatises of Ahmad ibn Idris”,Oriens, 35, 1996, 143-78.

73. “Defining the Community: the National Islamic Front, its opponents and the Sharia issue”, in Human Rights and Religion: The Case of the Sudan, ed. Suvikki Silvennoinen and Markku Suksi, Institute for Human Rights, Abo Akademi University, 101-13. Also inIslam et Sociétés au Sud du Sahara, 11, 1997, 55-65.

74. “Endowment, privilege and estate in the central and eastern Sudan”, Islamic Law and Society, iv, 1997, 334-51.

75. “Richard Leslie Hill, 1901-1996”, SAJHS, viii, 1997, 1-15.

76. “’His Master’s Voice’. The Sufis, the Mahdists and printing”,Culture and History, Copenhagen, 16, 1997, 136-44.

77. (with J.O. Hunwick & Ahmed Ibrahim Abu Shouk), “A Sudanese missionary to the United States: Satti Majid, ‘Shaykh al-Islam in North America, and his encounter with Noble Drew Ali, Prophet of the Moorish Science Temple Movement”, viii, 1997, 137-92.

78. (with J.O. Hunwick, S. Kanya-Forstner, Paul Lovejoy & al-Amin Abu-Manga), “Between Niger and Nile: new light on the Fulani MahdistMuhammad al-Dadari”, SAJHS, viii, 85-108.

79. “The conquest of Darfur”, SNR, NS,1, 1998, 47-67.

80. “Tariqa in northeast Africa”, Encyclopaedia of Islam, 1998. x, 248-50.

81. “Sufism in Suspense. The Mahdi and the Sufis”, in Mystical Islam Contested, ed. F. de Jong and Berndt Radtke, Leiden: Brill, 1999. 267-82.

82. (with Ahmed Ibrahim Abu Shouk) “The Musabba’at of Jugo Jugo: three documents”,SAJHS , x, 1999, 49-64.

83. “A colonial servant: al-Salawi and the Sudan”, SAJHS, 12, 2001, 33-42.

84. “’They are slaves, but yet go free”. Some reflections on Sudanese history”, inReligion and Conflict in Sudan, eds. Yusuf Fadl Hasan & Richard Gray, Nairobi, 2002, 48-57.

85. “Neo-Sufism, pietism and enlightenment in nineteenth century Islam”,Kyrkohistorisk Årskrift, 2002, 89-101.

86. (with J.O. Hunwick) “Some waqf documents from Lamu”, SAJHS, xiii, 2002, 1-20.

87. “A history of the Awlad Hindi”, SAJHS, xiii, 2002, 75-82.

88. “’Small World’: neo-Sufi interconnexions between the Maghrib, the Hijaz and southeast Asia”, in The Transmission of Learning in Islamic Africa, ed. Scott S. Reese, Leiden: Brill, 2004,274-88.

89. “A distant genocide in Darfur”,Babylon.Tikdskrift for Midt-Østen og Nord-Afrika; earlier published in International Herald Tribune, 15 May 2003.

90. “Al-Zubayr’s early career”, SAJHS, xvi, 2005, 53-68.

91. “Some recent publications from and about the Sudan”, SAJHS, xvi, 2005, 137-54.

92. Darfur Historical Documents: a Catalogue: located at http://www.smi.uib.no/Darfur/

93. “Does Darfur have a future in the Sudan?”, The Fletcher Forum of World Affairs, 30, 2006, 27-39.

94. “Umm Kwakiyya or the damnation of Darfur”, African Affairs, 106, 2007, 709-17.