Gobir and the Copts

A list of Gobir rulers contained in the Agadez manuscripts translated and published by Yves Urvoy.

Although we lack firm evidence of any connection, one of the interesting traditions of Coptic or Egyptian or eastern origins in West Africa is that of the Gobirawa Hausa peoples. Although the Gobirawa, according to their own traditions and that of others, were the original inhabitants of Ayar or Air, to the North, they claim ultimate roots in Egypt. Indeed, when Landeroin collected oral traditions from the Gobirawa in the early colonial period, they reported that their ancestors were Copts who survived the splitting of the Red Sea. Undoubtedly, their claim of Coptic origin was influenced by the Islamic and Biblical stories, and perhaps the prestige attached to the ancient pharaohs. Islamic traditions of an ancient Pharaoh of the time of Joseph who conquered the Maghrib and Sudan may have also influenced West African traditions of ancient Egypt. Other West African peoples similarly claimed roots in the East, but few with any Christian population. The Songhay, further west, recorded a tradition in the Timbuktu Chronicles of Kukiya once providing sorcerers to the Pharaohs of Egypt, but that tradition is quite different from claiming actual descent from the Egyptians. Nonetheless, our medieval Arabic sources suggest Maranda and neighboring polities were under the influence of Kawkaw, whose rulers may have originally came from Kukiya and could have represented an early influence from the Songhay regions on Gobir traditions.

But was it just an invented tradition or legend? Was it invented and promulgated by Gobir kings who wished to separate themselves from the Bayajidda legends and traditions of the other powerful Hausa states? Malam Issoufou seems to think so, although he lacks direct evidence for his proposition. However, he believes that Bawa Jan Gwarzo (r.1771-1789), a powerful Gobir king, was the one who started the tradition of Coptic or Egyptian origin to deny descent from Bawo and the tribute payments to Borno partly based on that tradition. Unfortunately, we lack direct evidence for this tradition being a late 18th century invention, although it is documented a few decades later by Muhammad Bello and Shaykh dan Tafa of the Sokoto Caliphate. Both authors referred to the Gobir tradition of free, Coptic origin, with the latter specifically linking it to Bawa Jan Gwarzo's refusal to send tribute to Borno (and mentioning their previous sojourn in Air before moving south). For Bello, on the other hand, he merely reports that what he could find out about Gobir was their alleged Coptic descent, perhaps based on informants from Gobir and other Hausa lands. 

While it certainly does seem plausible that the Copt tradition was a late 18th century invention, we are surprised that it would be seemingly accepted by Sokoto-era writers like Bello. Indeed, after the enmity and hostilities between Gobir and Uthman dan Fodio, one would expect more resistance or skepticism from Bello and Shaykh dan Tafa. Indeed, it makes one wonder if the tradition is actually far older and reaches back to distant memories of a Coptic and/or Nubian Christian presence in Air. In fact, one of the sites remembered by the Gobirawa as a former center before they left Air, Maranda (or Marandet), happens to mean henna in the Hausa tongue. Gobir, the name for the people, also resembles the Coptic word for henna. The first Gobir capital outside of Air, Birnin Lalle, also referred to henna, according to Djibo Hamani. While this may be a coincidence, it is interesting how the connection to henna was important for the Gobirawa in two separate capitals and it just so happens that Gobir almost sounds like the Coptic word for the same plant. Archaeologists have also found evidence of copper mining and proof that Maranda was a settlement by the 7th century if not earlier. While more work remains to be done about possible trans-Saharan trade goods or signs of cultural exchange, Maranda was known as an important trade center in the early Arabic sources on West Africa. For instance, Maranda was a major stop on the route that connected Egypt to Kawkaw (Gao) and Ghana. 

Our Arabic sources also suggest Egyptians and Nubians used to travel through the Oases route west of the Nile to reach the Maghrib and Sudan until the late 9th century, and that before the Islamic conquest, Rum (Greeks) were found in the oases. These Arabic sources likewise report that Egyptians and Nubians used to travel to the Fazzan and Barqa by another route. While Maranda itself appears, at least in al-Ya'qubi's 872 reference, to be a tributary state of Kawkaw (Gao), it was still around in the 12th century when al-Idrisi described it as a populous town attracting nomads. From Djibo Hamani's reconstruction of the region in the late 9th century, one can already see it was polyethnic with Berbers to the north, probably Zarma to the west, and the ancestors of the Gobirawa and Azna in Air. Groups related to the Zaghawa or Toubou were likely also present to the east and northeast, while Fazzanis, North Africans, and Egyptians would have traversed the region through this Central Saharan route. 

Is it possible that this early Hausa, ancient Gobirawa state or polity with a trading center, one which included copper and almost certainly textiles, leather products, beads, gold, salt, slaves (reported in Zawila in the Fezzan by al-Ya'qubi) was engaged in pre-Islamic trans-Saharan exchange? Is that the origin of the claim of Coptic descent? Christianity was said to have penetrated the Fazzan by the 6th century, when the Garamantes sent an envoy to Byzantium requesting peace and conversion to Christianity in 569 (according to John of Biclar). In addition, Procopius recorded churches built by Emperor Justinian in Augila and Ghadames in the mid-6th century. This would match Justinian's interest in spreading Christianity in Nubia to the 3 kingdoms there, Nobadia, Makuria and Alodia. In the case of the Fezzan and the Central Sahara, our sources are too few to give us any sense of Justinian's success there. However, Cosmas Indicopleustes did include the land of the Garamantes as one including churches when he wrote in the 6th century. Furthermore, the town of Qasr Umm Isa (possibly Djado) in Kawar, a region south of the Fazzan that was known to be in communication with the Garamantes by the 7th century (if not far earlier), may have had a Christian presence. Perhaps Garamantes who converted to Christianity or their trading partners from North Africa or Egypt influenced some of the toponyms in the region, as perhaps was the case for Gobir. Certainly, we know from Roman sources the Garamantes had southern contacts that included the mysterious Agisymba and probably other locations. Considering the early signs of pre-Islamic trans-Saharan trade at Kissi, and the importance of a northeasterly route from West Africa to Egypt, perhaps the Garamantes and Christian traders from the Nile Valley made it to Air and, despite the absence of churches, bequeathed aspects of their Christian heritage to the residents. This might explain why some of the Tuareg, for instance, use words of Latin or Greek origin to express concepts like sin or why the Gobirawa, whose ruling elites in ancient times may have welcomed these traders, incorporated them into their myth of origin.

I'm now more convinced that Christians from Egypt, Nubia and the Garamantes were engaged in trans-Saharan trade by the 6th century. We have Procopius's On the Buildings, describing Emperor Justinian constructing churches in Augila, Ghadames and promoting Christianity in Nubia. In addition, Cosmas Indicopleustes included the land of the Garamantes as an area that included churches (although this might have been more rhetorical). Last, but certainly not least, John of Biclar recorded a Garamantian delegation to Emperor Justin II of the Byzantines, requesting conversion to Christianity. The Garamantes by the mid-6th century may have not been a unified, powerful kingdom by this era, but since they were already engaged in trans-Saharan trade prior to their conversion in the 6th century, one can assume that some Christian Garamantes likely trekked into Kawar and southern lands. After all, the Garamantes were already experienced traders in the Sahara, and if the ruling elite converted to Christianity, it is possible some of its traders also converted.

The Egyptian and Nubian and Byzantine connection is important since we know that Justinian's attempt to convert Nubia was taking place not long after the Vandal Wars in North Africa. According to Procopius, Justinian was eager to convert pagans to Christianity while also strengthening and defending the borders. In Byzantine North Africa, we know Berbers from the Sahara were an occasional problem for the Empire, but perhaps the spread of Christianity in Ghadames and Garama was linked to this idea. Later Arabic sources also attest to an old trans-Saharan route used by Nubians and Egyptians to travel to the Maghrib and the Sudan. It is possible that at least one of these routes was used in Christian times, since the Arabic sources mention the Wahat route was once full of people (including Rum, or Greeks). So, if Egyptians and Nubians (the latter Christianized by the 6th century) were using this route to the west through the deserts, and probably trading with Garamantes or people further south, one can suspect that the Qasr Umm Isa in Kawar might actually have been named due to this early Christian presence.

Of course, one must admit that Christianity's influence was probably only slight upon the populations south of the Fazzan. And even the Fazzan itself may not have been deeply Christian since Uqba b. Nafi would conquer (or at least raid) it in the 660s, about 1 century after their conversion. A 9th century source, Sahnun, also records Malik ibn Anas (died in 795) responding to a question about the people of the Fezzan, declaring them blacks and implying they were pagans. If accurate, then perhaps the population had already lost the faith or were never deeply evangelized to begin with. If the Garamantes themselves were not deeply Christian, and the period of Christian evangelization among the Garamantes and their neighbors was brief, then it is no wonder that the Christian presence in trans-Saharan trade was quicky forgotten. The Gobirawa themselves, who were still not Muslim when described by Ibn Battuta as pagans of Kubar, may have welcomed Christians from the north as trading partners and possibly intermarried with them but little evidence of other influences can be seen. We imagine the situation to have been analogous with the Islamic era of trans-Saharan trading, with local rulers only gradually, sometimes over centuries, adopting Islam. Christianity, which was not in the region long enough for this, thereby never having the chance, although it may have influenced local beliefs and arts in ways overlooked by scholars.

So, was Gobir influenced by Christians and Copts who participated in the pre-Islamic trans-Saharan trade? The evidence, weak as it is, suggests yes. As a Hausa people with a more recent history in the far north, and in an area under the influence of Kawkaw in the 9th century and part of an important route that led to Egypt, Maranda and the neighboring polities were likely interacting with the Fazzan and beyond. By the 600s if not earlier, Maranda, one of the sites remembered in Gobirawa tradition, was already engaged in long-distance trade to places like Kissi and, probably, the Fazzan and Kawar. The Maranda polity, never one of the great kingdoms, nonetheless existed for centuries before the Gobirawa finally left Air by the 1400s if not earlier in the 14th century or so. That Gobirawa traditions even claim their ancestors were in Kawar for a long time before migrating into Air, one wonders if the claim to Coptic ancestry might, indeed, reflect the pre-Islamic trade in this part of the Sahara and Sahel.