Conceptualising the Sahara: The world of nineteenth-century Beyrouk commerce

Journal of North African Studies

Volumn 10, Issue 3-4, 2005, Pages 369-386

  McDougall, E Ann ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA   (Canada)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

COMMERCIAL ACTIVITY; ECONOMIC HISTORY; HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY; NINETEENTH CENTURY;

AFRICA; SAHARA;

EID: 31044444375     PISSN: 13629387     EISSN: 17439345     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/13629380500336730     Document Type: Article

References (78)

1. While selected excerpts appeared in various articles, the two major sources were: Nehemia Levtzion and J.F.P. Hopkin's (eds. and trans.), Corpus of early Arabic Sources for West African History (Cambridge: CUP 1981), p. 104
2. Joseph M. Cuoq (translation and notes), Recueil des sources arabes concernant l'Afrique occidentale du VIIIe au XVIe siècle:BIlād al-Sūdān), (Paris: Ëditions de Centre national de la recherche scientifique 1975).
3. A good example are the multiple interpretations of al-Bakri's description of eleventh century trans-Saharan itineraries. Rod McIntosh, the well-known American archaeologist of West Africa, once commented to me that there were times he wished the Arab 'travellers' had not written so much, as their vision of the Sahara - based on some very wrong notions of the local terrain and river patterns had for so long determined where archaeologists dug. In other words, the 'terrain' had already been staked out by those external written sources and archaeological 'finds' were only expanding knowledge within pre-conceived parameters. (Personal communication)
4. Reference is to the famous Catalan Map of Charles V (1375), reproduced in many places but most relevant here, as front piece to E W Bovill, Caravans of the Old Sahara. An introduction to the history of the Western Sudan (London: International Institute of African Languages and Cultures 1933).
5. I refer to this process and identify relevant sources the reader might like to consult in '"The Caravel and the Caravan": Reconsidering Received Wisdom in the Sixteenth-Century Sahara' submitted for publication in proceedings from The Atlantic World and Virginia: 1550-1624' organised by The Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, Virginia (originally presented at the conference of the same name, Williamsburg, March 2004).
6. Maurice Barbier (ed.), Voyages et explorations au Sahara occidental au XIX siècle. (Paris: Editions l'Harmattan 1985) gives an overview of these voyages as well as an excellent selection of excerpted texts for the western Saharan region.
7. Barbier has also published a similar book of texts from the late eighteenth century produced by three French shipwrecked seamen taken prisoner in the desert (Trois Français au Sahara occidental en 1784-1786, (Paris: Editions l'Harmattan 1984). Any number of books on Timbuktu identify the major travellers through the central region, such as René Caillié (1828), Heinrich Barth (1853-4), Oscar Lenz (1880), Félix Dubois (1890s), who tend to be better known precisely because of the famed Timbuktu connection. John O. Hunwick's 'Timbuktu: A biography' is helpful here (http://www.sum.uio.no/research/mali/timbuktu/research/articles/ bibliography.pdf), no date.
8. These maps are common to most texts dealing with the Sahara. A typical example can be found in A. G. Hopkins, An Economic History of West Africa, (London: Longman Group Ltd 1973) in the chapter on 'External trade: The Sahara and the Atlantic', p. 84.
9. For a discussion of how the abolition movement gave particular 'life' to these, see E. Ann McDougall, 'Discourse and Distortion: Critical Reflections on Studying the Saharan Slave Trade', Revue Française d'Histoire d'Outre Mer. Traites et esclavages: Vieux problèmes, nouvelles perspectives?, special issue ed. Olivier Pétré-Grenouilleau (December 2002), pp. 55-87.
10. al-Sa'di, 'Abd al-Rahman b. 'Abd Allah, Ta'rikh al-sudan, ed. & trans. O. Houdas, Tarikh as-Soudan (Paris: Publications de l'École des langues orientales vivantes 1898-1900; repr. Paris: Librairie d'Amérique et d'Orient Adrien-Maisonneuve 1964)
11. most recently re-edited by John O Hunwick, Timbuktu and the Songhay Empire: Al-Sadi's "Ta'rikh al-Sudan" Down to 1613 and Other Contemporary Documents (Leiden: E J Brill Publishers 1999)
12. Mahmoud Ka'ti bin al-Hajj al-Mutawakkil, Tarikh el-Fettach, ou chronique du chercheur pour savoir à l'histoire des villes, des armies et des principeaux personages de Tekrour, ed. O. Houdas and M. Delafosse (Paris: Librairie d'Amerique et d'Orient Adrien-Maisonneuve 1964)
13. J.O. Hunwick, 'Studies in the Ta'rikh al-fattash, I: Its Authors and Textual History', Research Bulletin, Centre of Arabic Documentation [Ibadan], v, 1969, pp. 57-65
14. Ahmad Baba Miské, Al-Wasit. Tableau de la Mauritanie au début de vingtième siècle (Paris: Librairie Klincksieck 1970)
15. Ahmed Lamine Ech Chenquiti, El Wasit. Excerpts from original Arabic, trans. Mourad Feffahi (Saint-Louis, Senegal 1953)
16. John O. Hunwick (ed. and trans.), Sharia in Songhay: The replies of al-Maghili to the questions of Askia al-Hajj Muhammad (London: The British Academy 1985)
17. see also Hunwick's 'Timbuktu: A Biography' for Ahmad Baba and other relevant sources.
18. Abdel Wedoud ould Cheikh, "Nomadisme, Islam et Pouvoir Politique dans la société Maure Précoloniale: Essai sur quelques aspects de tribalisme" (Doctorat d'état, Paris V, 1985). This as yet unpublished thesis is essential reading for anyone working on the Mauritanian Sahara, written by a scholar familiar with all the relevant Arabic manuscript materials and steeped in the culture necessary to interpret them.
19. Pierre Bonte, 'L'émirat de l'Adrar. Approches Anthropologiques et Historiques' (Doctorat d'état, Paris, 1997). Bonte's work employs the results of thirty years of repeated visits with the people of the Adrar; he has become a valued source of oral history among Mauritanians themselves as he retains information given him by elders long since deceased.
20. Timothy Cleaveland, Becoming Walata: A history of Saharan social formation and transformation (Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann 2002).
21. Raymond Taylor, 'Of Disciples and Sultans: Power, authority and society in the 19th century Mauritanian Gebla' (PhD Thesis, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1996).
22. James L. A. Webb, Jr., Desert Frontier. Ecological and economic change along the western sahel 1600-1850 (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press 1995).
23. Ghislaine Lydon, 'On Trans-Saharan Trails: Trading networks and cross-cultural exchange in Western Africa, 1840s-1930s' (PhD. Thesis, Michigan State University, 2000).
24. I have been for many years questioning 'what does it mean to be Saharan?' and in so doing, sought to move beyond earlier conceptions of the Sahara as seen by outsiders. While my ideas have been explored in papers and articles, there is as yet no comprehensive development of them in monograph form. It is not surprising, therefore, to see that Ghislaine Lydon's work, following many of the same sources, both oral and written, has begun to explore some of the same questions. Her thesis, 'On Trans-Saharan Trails' approaches issues of economic, Islamic 'culture', as well as defining a 'trab al-Bidan' that corresponds largely with the one I have worked with over the years. It is also noteworthy that for many years, my work on Ijil salt and the Adrar was developing independently of but, it turns out, parallel to that of Pierre Bonte's. While his interests, and his masterful doctorat d'état 'L'emirat de l'Adrar', extend far deeper into the theoretical aspects of power and authority in this region than mine, it was fascinating to see how many lines of inquiry we had both followed in response to the 'evidence' suggested to us by the Adrar sources. And even more fascinating to discover how many conclusions we shared. I thank Pierre for the hours of conversation and hospitality he generously shared with me while allowing me to consult his (at the time) unfinished thesis. What these developments suggest to me is that there is something essentially 'Saharan' here and that if we listen closely to the voices of the past in all their modalities, we will eventually come to understand this fascinating cradle of culture and commerce in very different - hopefully more relevant - ways. These ways need also to be contrasted to a different historiography, a largely Moroccan one, in which the Sahara as an entity essentially disappears. This absorption of the Sahara to Morocco is not only an overtly political issue; for an excellent example of how it also shapes the writing of economic history see Zahra Akhchichine-Tamouh, 'Le Maroc et le Soudan au XIXè siècle (1830-1894). Contribution à l'une histoire interrégionale de l'Afrique' (Thèse pour le doctorat de 3ème cycle, Paris-1, 1982).
25. Bruce Hall, 'The Question of "Race" in the Pre-colonial Southern Sahara', in this volume.
26. 'Snapshots from the Sahara: Salt the essence of being' in Journal of Libyan Studies, special conference proceedings (Forthcoming 2005); paper originally presented at 'Conference on the Natural Resources and Cultural Heritage of the Libyan Desert', Tripoli, December 2002. The documents I am referring to are the following: (1) Letter from Shaykh Sidi al-Mukhtar al-Kabir (Kunta) to the Moroccan Sultan Sidi Muhammad b. Abd Allah (1757-1790) concerning Teghaza salt. (n.d.) A partial copy of this letter was obtained in Nouakchott, Mauritania by Mohamed Lahbib Nouhi from Sidi Ahmad ould Ahmed Salem. The latter had himself copied a number of documents from an archive supposedly housed in Tichit. Unfortunately, there is no indication on the letter as to the exact whereabouts of the original. (2) Letters from Moulay Ismail (Sultan of Morocco) to his son, al-Mamoun Governor of Tafilelt and Dra'a, 1692, 1699 and n.d. Notes from Mohamed al-Gharbi, Rio Oro (As-supiya al-hamra wa wadi dhahab dar al Kibab, Casablanca, s.d): Pp. 217-26; 227-36; 237-43. (3) Muhammed b. al-Muktar Bel-La'amech al-Shanqiti (d.1696), "Nawazil", Ms. # 5742, al-Khizana al-Hassaniyya (Archives Royales, Rabat, Morocco): 94 pages (microfilmed). My appreciation to Mohamed Lahbib Nouhi for acquiring the microfilm, translating relevant sections and working through an analysis of them with me.
27. These ideas are developed further with respect to the emergence of a 'dynamic Saharan world' on the margins of the emergent Atlantic world in McDougall, 'The Carvel and the Caravan'.
28. On the history of Ijil, see McDougall, 'The Ijil Salt Industry', (PhD Thesis, University of Birmingham, 1980).
29. These ideas were first expressed in McDougall, 'A "Qadi" from Shinqit and the Question of Salt: The nawazil of Mohammed bin al-Mukhtar bin Laamech (late 17th C.)', paper presented at the African Studies Association meeting, November 1999. Lydon devotes several pages of discussion to this nawazil in Chapter 2 of 'On Trans-Saharan Trails', and more recently notes that 'Bel 'Amish set the tone of Saharan legal discourse since it is widely agreed that Maruitanian jurisprudence begins with his [late 17th century] nawazil'. She also reiterates the centrality of salt both to this document and those of other scholars and traders, referring to salt as a 'Saharan currency'. ('Inkwells of the Sahara: Reflections on the production of Islamic Knowledge in bilad shinqit', in Scott S. Reese (ed.) The Transmission of Learning in Islamic Africa (Leiden-Boston: Brill 2004), pp. 39-71; quotation 65.6; comments re: Salt and scholarship p. 60.
30. The main European sources are those found in Barbier,... Sahara Occidental, in particular Charles Cochelet (1821), Leopold Panet (1850), Bou el Moghdad (1861 - a Senegalese 'metis' working for the French) and Oscar Lenz (1884). Tamouh also has a section in her thesis on Goulimine in general and the prominent Beyrouk family in particular ('Le Maroc et le Soudan...', pp. 205-19). Her discussion rests heavily on Panet and a somewhat problematic (but nevertheless informative) colonial ethnography by F. de la Chapelle, 'Les Tekna du sud marocain', t. 1-4, 1933-4 Bulletin du comité de l'Afrique Française. She also draws on a locally-compiled ethnography (also 'colonial' in context, being a set of oral materials originally collected in the 1930s) by al-Mokhtar al-Soussi, al-Ma'sul 20 tomes, Casablanca, 1961; the Beyrouk are treated in volume XIX. 'Mbarek' meaning 'blessed or good'; the use of diminutives and nicknames are common ways to distinguish between people and families who carry the same name. The Beyrouk family, along with another well-known commercial family settled in Morocco's Tazerwalt area (Illigh), were actively engaged in the ransoming of Christian prisoners. Cochelet, himself a shipwrecked prisoner ultimately sold to the Beyrouk and then ransomed, gave a detailed description of the 'business' in his 1819 account. (On Illigh, see also Tamouh, 'Le Maroc et le Soudan...', pp. 219-225).
31. (With Mohamed Hassan Mohamed), 'Les Maisons Beyrouk et Illigh: construction d' identité au Maroc de Sud, 16ème à 18 ème siècles', paper presented at the second Table Rounde de Goulimine, conference jointly sponsored Centre National de Recherche Scientifique Paris (organisers Pierre Bonte, Claude Lefevre) and Institut de Recherche Scientifique, Rabat (Mustapha Naimi), Rabat, Morocco, February 1999. This effort built on my research-in-progress 'Saharan Business & Merchant Capital In the Nineteenth Century: Preliminary findings from Southern Morocco', paper presented at the International Economic History Conference, Milan, September 1994. Mohamed Mohamed has since completed a thesis specifically looking at the Beyrouk as a case study in Saharan identity: 'Born in the Text: The Bayrouk of Southern Morocco, a Study in History and Identity', (PhD Thesis, University of Alberta, 2004). This research, entirely independent from my own, is strongly critical of all the European sources and challenges the supposition that the Beyrouk had anything close to the significance that even our jointly-authored earlier paper postulated. Both suggest, however, that in looking at the Beyrouk, we are looking at a case of identity construction in which Europeans unwittingly played a large role and in which contemporary historians, continuing to use these sources largely unquestioningly, have further entrenched the Beyrouk in their chosen historical role. My interest here is in the documentation left by the Beyouk rather than in an examination of this identity.
32. As far as we can tell, a particular Ait Moussa ou Ali fraction led by Fal Abeid Allah ould Salem was attracted into the Wadi Nun region in the early eighteenth century and had achieved some prominence by around 1750. Abeid Allah is much discussed in the Arabic sources, while the European ones focus more on another 'ould Salem' Mohammed Beyrouk. Cochelet introduced both Beyrouk and his brother Ibrahim as the 'powers that be' in early nineteenth century Goulimine. Ibrahim then tends to drop out of the European story, leaving center stage to the increasingly active Beyrouk. ('Les Maisons Beyrouk et Illigh').
33. Leopold Panet, Relation d'un voyage du Sénégal à Souera (Mogador) en 1827 (Paris, 1968), pp. 155-156.
34. Ibid. In Panet's account, we can see clearly the 'trans-Saharan tradition' of focusing on and listing the value of desert exports, but as well, something of Beyrouk's own agenda in impressing European visitors with his business acumen.
35. See 'Les Maisons Beyrouk et Illigh';
36. also Mohamed 'Born in the Text' (chapter dealing with Beyrouk commerce)
37. and Lydon, 'On Trans-Saharan Trails', Chapters 4-6, parri passu.
38. According to al-Soussi (and referenced by both Mohamed Mohamed, 'Born in the Text' and Tamouh, 'Le Maroc et le Soudan...'), the family originated in Touat, migrated into the Wadi Nun region in the 17th century and assimilated into the Ait Jemal 'clan' of the Tekna. Its political rival was the Ait Bella, to which belonged the Azwafid family. Mohamed Mohamed puts forth an intriguing 'reading' of this particular family text, noting the proclivity towards dichotomy in all historical explanations of identity formation as he questions the validity of much of what we have come to accept as 'truth'.
39. In July 1994, with the assistance of Mohamed Lahbib Nouhi, I micro-filmed and photocopied a number of 'family documents' in Goulimine, Morocco. These documents, including the 'registers' I refer to here, are kept by family members and are made available to researchers only on the basis of individual negotiation and agreement. There is no desire on the part of these families to centralise these materials or to grant carte blanche access. (Consequently, there are no copies of my micro-films deposited either at the closest university in Agadir or at the Centre of African Studies in Rabat.) While this is entirely understandable, as these 'documents' are their personal and familial history, it means that it is difficult to arrive at any kind of universal cataloguing that would easily permit subsequent researchers to consult the documents cited here. It also means that researchers may or may not have consulted the same materials even if they have worked in the same town and consulted with the same families; the decision as to what 'history' will be revealed remains with the proprietors of the documents (a point I will return to in the conclusion of this paper). In general terms, I reference the 'Beyrouk Registers' according to the following family collections: [A] Ahmed Salek: 1. Documents primarily belonging to Shaykh M'Hammad/Muhammad ("al-Shlayyah") bin Shaykh Beyrouk/M'barek, but also including documents belonging to Shaykh Beyrouk's other children. 2. Documents primarily belonging to Shaykh M'Hammad bin Shaykh Beyrouk (as above). 3. Documents primarily belonging to Shaykh M'Hammad bin Shaykh Beyrouk (as above), involving dealings mostly with the Tajakant and Reguibat (Trans-Saharan nomadic tribes covering much of the desert between southern Morocco, Algeria, Mauritania, central Mali; Tajakant in particular actively involved in transport). 4. Documents primarily belonging to 'Abidin bin Shaykh Beyrouk. [B] Raji Aaoussi: Documents primarily belonging to Abd er-Rahman [Dahman] bin Shaykh Beyrouk (only a few seem to have been generated by 'Abidin bin Shaykh Beyrouk, as above) [C] Laghzaoui Bachir: Documents primarily belonging to Shaykh M'Hammad bin Shaykh Beyrouk (as above), involving dealings mostly with the al-'Arib (Trans-Saharan nomadic tribe with special relationship with the Beyrouk, actively involved in transport).
40. In addition we micro-filmed may diverse documents that I have catalogued in terms of 'Family Archives', as well as 'Registers' belonging to other families (eg Lamti Sidi Mohamed l'Araibi of the rival 'Azwafid' clan). I will reference these individually in the course of the text below; most of this particular discussion relates to the Beyrouk Registers as described above. There are also a few references to Tekna documents photographed by Mohamed Nouhi in September 1997, in the Mauritanian town of Shinqit, including a Beyrouk-type register belonging to another Ait Mousa ou Ali family, the Ahl Arwayli, who were apparently related through marriage to the Beyrouk proper. These too will be introduced as is appropriate (below).
41. The first attempt to situate and analyze Beyrouk registers was Musapha Naimi's some years ago, 'La rive sud saharienne de 1842 a 1872 dans les registres comptables de la famille bayruk. (L'apport de trois nouvelles sources)', in Le Maroc de l'Avenement de Moulay Abdelaziz à 1912 t.3 (Mohammedia: Juillet 1987), pp. 167-192. I will discuss Naimi's article further in the conclusion; for the moment suffice it to say that there are issues to be raised as to the methodology he used; this paper incorporates additional registers. Mohamed Mohamed's thesis ('Born in the Text') also uses the Naimi collection of register material. Lydon has also accessed most if not all of the same texts; it is my understanding that they were the original books and not copies from Naimi's library. (Curiously, Tamouh made no use of these sorts of documents, relying solely on printed and Library materials).
42. The exceptions are the register belonging to the Lamti family of Sidi Mohammed l'Arabi (Azwafid) from the neighbouring town of Asrir, and that of the Ahl Arwayli in Shinqiti (as indicated above).
43. Register Lamti, Sidi Mohamed l'Araib (1900).
44. Registers Beyrouk, Amed Salek [A-4], dates ranging from c.1867-1882.
45. Registers Beyrouk, Amed Salek [A-2]; the declaration concerning his slave Belaid bin Barka is dated September 1875; the document on mudarat, 1881.
46. This is discussed in more detail, below.
47. Register Laghzaoui Beshir, no date regarding the mudarat payments; 1850 mentioned in one account involving al-A'rib credit.
48. Registers Beyrouk, Ahmed Salek [A-3], 1874.
49. Register Raji Aaourssi, (1874-5).
50. This raises the question of the actual intent of these registers. Some entries are specific that so-and-so has 'in hand' a recognition of such-and-such a debt, which may indicate the existence of a legally-written acknowledgement; others simply list debts and/or travel expenses and may be personal accounts without any legal implications, reflecting a certain level of confidence between the individuals involved. As we find all of these different forms of entry in any given register, the problem of determining a universal 'intent' becomes further complicated. Thanks to Mohamed Nouhi for discussion on this question.
51. Registers Beyrouk, Ahmed Salek, [A-1 through 4, passim but especially #2 and #4].
52. Register Laghzaoui Beshir, no date;
53. Register Beyrouks, Ahmed Salek [A-3], 1832 (date somewhat unclear); Ibid. 1849. This last documentation is interesting, showing that in spite of the rivalry that developed between the Ait Moussa ou Ali and the Azwafid during Shaykh Beyrouk's time (which intensified after his death), there was a flow of credit moving across the line of competition that would seem to have been substantial. More work is needed on the registers before this observation can be elaborated upon.
54. Register Lamti, Sidi Mohamed l'Araib, no specific dates given on the Arawan-Timbuktu salt commerce documents but one document interspersed with them is dated 1899
55. Registers Beyrouk, Amed Salek [A-1], 1848.
56. Suggested by Mohamed Nouhi.
57. Register Laghzaoui Beshir, no date. My thanks to Mohamed Nouhi for his insight on this document.
58. Unfortunately, the documents immediately preceding and following this one are not dated, nor is this account.
59. Register Ahl Arwayli (Shinqit), entries dating between 1828 and 1905. (Photographed in the Bibliotheêque Hammoni, September 1997 by Mohamed Lahbib Nouhi.).
60. One of the Bibliothêque Hammonni documents photographed by Mohamed Lahbib Nouhi (as above), attestation dated 1808.
61. It was also long-lasting, in the sense of a 'process'. Another letter in this collection dated 1907, addressed by a Tekna named Mohamad al-Mokhtar to 'Abidin bin Shaykh Beyrouk, informs him that while the Reguibat and Awlad Bou Sba have recently reconciled after a period of pillage and bloody warfare, he ('Abidin) should remain on garde, as rumour has it the Awlad Bou Sba plan to destroy the houses of all Ait Moussa ou Ali in Shinqit. His Tekna leff (Ait Jemal) awaits the word of 'Abidin to 'act'. The same letter tells 'Abidin that the price of camels and slaves is high.
62. Register Raji Aaoussi, 1861. Mawlay al-Mahdi Ibrahim's connection with Tafilelt is not spelled out in this document but it appears elsewhere in the commercial documents (personal communication, Mohamed Nouhi,).
63. Registers Beyrouk, Ahmed Salek [A-1], c. 1850.
64. Ibid.
65. Ibid.
66. Registers Beyrouk, Ahmed Salek [A-3]. The other two entries were undated. The one following states simply: 'credit in cereals contracted in 1903'; it may well be between the same creditor and debtor.
67. The two shurfa are identified in documents in Registers Beyrouk, Ahmed Salek, probably [A-3]. The uncertainty here lies in the fact that not all of my micro-films have been translated; however sections of the microfilms were available earlier in photocopy form. These particular examples are drawn from those (which are translated) and they seem most consistent with the documents in [A-3]. I return to the problem this earlier photocopied collection poses for us, in my concluding section below.
68. In so doing, he drew on a model developed by the late Paul Pascon. Pascon had plumbed an extensive fond of documentation from a major trading operation in the Tazerwalt region of southern Morocco, the House of Illigh. I would argue that the Beyrouk Registers are not comparable to the Illigh material and therefore do not lend themselves to the same kind of analysis. Among Pascon's prolific publications, the most relevant here are: 'Le commerce de la Maison d'Iligh', Les Annales ESC, 3-4, mai-août (1980), pp. 700-729
69. La Maison d'Iligh et l'Histoire Sociale du Tazerwalt SMER, Rabat (1984), pp. 43-91.
70. With the exception of one reference to Mokhtar al-Soussi, all references are either to a handful of contemporary theses or (for the most part) European travelers like Cochelet and Panet, and colonial writers like de La Chapelle, Paul Marty and the doyen of colonial economic history, J.-L. Miège. Naimi's understanding of the registers is derived through the prism of these external frameworks.
71. Nowhere in the article is there mention of additional materials; the modelling on Pascon's work implies that these three registers are the equivalent of the exhaustive documentation Pascon had to work with in the Iligh estate.
72. This is a truly puzzling aspect of Naimi's work. The 'sample' pages reproduced by photocopy in the article are clearly from a 'book', just like the registers we micro-filmed. And Naimi made available to me (as well as to others, see below) photocopies of what he has called the 'three registers'. They too seem to be 'registers' properly speaking. But either they are completely different books than we were shown (and this is not consistent with what the 'owner' of the registers, the late Ahmed Salek, or what Naimi himself told us) or the pages have been re-arranged.
73. To a considerable extent, the fact that we know nothing of their provenance (as noted above) already compromises their value as historical evidence.
74. And in so doing, potentially influencing fieldwork. I originally assumed, for example, that I already had copies of Ahmed Salek's registers belonging to M'Hammed and Dahmane and therefore did not need to re-photo them. I decided to do so anyway in order to have a filmed collection that I could later scan (in the pre-digital camera era!). It was only after the fact that I realised none of the registers was consistent with any one of BI, B II or B III. Similarly, the register of Dahmane identified here as 'Register Raji Aaoussi' is completely different from the one Naimi refers to (and was 'held' by a different Beyrouk family member).
75. Mohamed Moahmed's thesis, 'Born in the Text' challenges the notion of the Beyrouk's importance, especially with respect to the slave trade - entirely contradicting Naimi, Tamouh and others. The thesis is a provocative one that may well be correct. However, building on the already weakened 'Naimi collection' compromises an otherwise convincing argument. This thesis deserves to be published. Hopefully, the issue of these registers and the difficulty of working with them in this form will be addressed.
76. Such as the Register Arwayli, in Shinqit (Mauritania) mentioned earlier. It has been suggested to me that others may be with Beyrouk relations in Nouakchott as well. Lydon has searched exhaustively from Louga (Senegal) to Goulimine and throughout much of Mauritania - yet even this degree of diligence has not necessarily turned up 'all' such materials.
77. Such as the Lamti family represented in the 'Register Lamti Sidi l'Araibi', referenced to above.
78. This raises yet another conundrum for researchers: Ethically, we are obliged by granting agencies to make and leave copies of interviews and micro-films in the country of origin; practically, these same agencies encourage projects that make materials as widely available as possible (web-based dissemination, for example). But the 'owners' of the history (oral or written) feel that the right to decide who hears/sees their history is theirs. Therefore, they do not want 'copies' made available either in their country or abroad, as this removes control from their personal purview.