One of the best features of Abubakar Mustapha's thesis, "The Contribution of Sayfawa Ulama to the Study of Islam C. 1086-1846 A.D.," is the inclusion of the Arabic text of Muhammad Yanbu's Idarah fi nizam Mulk Kanem-Borno. According to Mustapha, this text was composed in 1771 by the amir of Alarge. Perhaps better known as Muhammad Yanbu, he was the son of the Sayfawa mai, Ali b. al-hajj Dunama (r. 1747-1792, according to the chronology of Lange). While extracts from this text were translated and used for analysis by Kyari Tijani in Dynamics of Administrative Change in pre-Colonial Borno: A Comparative Study of the Sayfawa and Kanemi Dynasties (thanks to a copy provided by al-Miskin), Mustapha's thesis contains the complete Arabic text. This work, better known as the Al-Idara fi nizam al-mamlaka wa-l-imara according to Tijani, is essential for understanding the administrative structure of the state. Perhaps a more accurate reflection of the court as it was in the 18th century, it nonetheless includes information from the early history of the Sayfawa. For instance, the tale of a hyena, an old woman, and Ali b. Umar (r. 1639-1677).
According to Al-Idara fi nizam al-mamlaka wa-l-imara, a hyena seized the sheep of an elderly woman. Subsequently, she attributed the loss to the injustice of the king. When word of this reached Ali b. Umar, the mai and some of his men tracked the hyena, noticed the sheep was dead, and brought the hyena back to the old woman. The mai had the hyena killed, gave the woman sheep in compensation, and apparently ordered the deaths of other hyenas in the region.
In order to explain the story, here is the Arabic text (from p. 444 of Mustapha's thesis):
وناهيك من ذلك ان ضبعا افترس شاة عجوز في برني من عهد سلطان علي بن عمر فقالت العجوز بأعلى صوتها سبحان الله على ظلم يعني سبحان الله ان السلطان ظالم ولولا ظلمه لما افترس الضبع شاتي فانتهى هذا الكلام إلى الملك فأمر الملك بالركوب إلى نصرتها على الضبع فاتبع اثر الضبع حتى انتهوا إلى جبل مورانسيك فرأوا احد الضبع واتوا بها الى العجوز ولم تأكل الضبع الشاة إلا أنها جرجرتها وقتلتها وأمر الملك لها بشياء واراها عدوتها فقتلها وكذا في سائر بلاد برني
According to our friend, a specialist in hadith literature, the style, scan quality and possible corruption in the text complicates translation. We were also wondering about the place (Bornu or Birni?) and the name of the mountain. Yet he provided two translations for us:
A hyena preyed upon and captured an old woman's sheep in Bornu [??]. This was during the reign of 'Ali b. 'Umar. When this happened, the old woman said: "Praise be to God, what an injustice!" she meant "Praise be to God, the Sultan is unjust and were it not for his injustice, the hyena would not have preyed upon my sheep." The Sultan heard what she said and went out with a group of riders to help the old woman against the hyena. They tracked the hyena following it to mountain named MWRaNSYK. They found that the sheep hadn't been devoured but had merely been dragged around and killed. Then they brought back one of the hyenas to the old woman. They gave her some sheep [as compensation] and they killed the hyena before her eyes. And then they killed all the hyenas in the area.
Moreover, a hyena preyed upon and snatched away a sheep of an old woman in Bornu during the reign of Sultan 'Ali b. 'Umar. The old woman cried out in her loudest voice, "Glory be to God, what an injustice!" meaning, "Glory be to God, the Sultan is unjust, and were it not for his injustice, the hyena would not have devoured my sheep." This reached the king, who ordered his men to ride out [with him] to aid her against the hyena. They followed the hyena's tracks until they reached Mount MWRaNSYK, where they saw one of the hyenas and brought it to the old woman (The hyena did not eat the sheep, but it merely dragged it and killed it). The king ordered that she be given sheep and showed her its enemy, and he killed it. The same thing happened in all the lands of Bornu.
What is most remarkable about this anecdote, which is perhaps not meant to be taken literally, are the similarities to a tradition about Ibrahim b. Idris recorded by H.R. Palmer in Bornu Sahara and Sudan. According to Palmer, Ibrahim b. Idris (r. 1612-1619) was impious until later in life. Moreover, a familiar tale of an old woman whose goat was taken by a hyena led to the elder criticizing the mai. She allegedly said, "You take part in plays and dancing and racing; but you do not pray, neither do you follow religion or righteousness" (p. 244).
This leads one to suspect that we are dealing with tropes meant to illustrate ideal and poor leadership of the Sayfawa maiwa. Ibrahim b. Idris was allegedly not religious and pursued a lifestyle of pleasure, signs of poor leadership in the mai. Consequently, the elderly woman berated him. As an elderly woman, she could represent the vulnerable subjects an ideal Muslim ruler must protect. However, Ali b. Umar, the nephew of Ibrahim b. Idris, was so pious and responsive that when an old woman's sheep was stolen and killed by a hyena, the mai tracked the hyena, killed it, and compensated the old woman's property. Muhammad Yanbu, a descendant of Ali b. Umar and able to look back at his reign as one of an ideal Islamic ruler, naturally inserted a story of an old woman and a hyena to show how a mai should respond to the needs of his most vulnerable subjects.
Whether or not the events actually transpired is likely not the point. Instead it is meant to illustrate ideal sultans or kings. Similar traditions of Sayfawa maiwa responding to the complaints of women whose communities were attacked by the Tuareg (see Landeroin for an example on Ali b. Dunama's Air campaign after a Magumi woman's village was raided) or had their property stolen may reflect this trope. What is remarkable in the case of Muhammad Yanbu's anecdote about Ali b. Umar is the way it possibly reflects this larger traditional discourse, and may contain an implicit critique of Ali b. Umar's uncle, Ibrahim. Although tradition, which was likely the main source for Palmer on the reign of Ibrahim b. Idris, acknowledged Ibrahim b. Idris's transition to a pious and proper ruler, one cannot help but wonder if Yanbu was also glorying his own ancestor by inserting a similar story of Ali b. Umar.
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