Revisiting Tamerlan: The Case for a Borno Origin

Let us examine the case of a literate African named Tamerlan in Saint Domingue (Haiti) for evidence of another link between Haiti and Kanem-Borno. We have attempted an analysis of Tamerlan in a previous post. For those who don't remember, Tamerlan is mentioned in a book by Colonel Malenfant. In one anecdote, after mentioning Arabic amulets in Saint Domingue, he describes meeting Tamerlan, in 1791, a man who could read and write in his own language, as well as that of a type of "mulattoes" with long hair. Tamerlan wrote a prayer and the name of his language on a piece of paper for Malenfant, who later lost it.

At first he thought Tamerlan wrote something in Arabic, but he said no. So, there's some mystery about Tamerlan's writing. If we look at other clues in his story, however, it seems likely he wrote in ajami for his own language, possibly Kanembu or Kanuri. The writing of the long-haired mulattoes may have been the Tuareg Tifinagh, something he could have picked up from being an educated man of Borno who interacted with Tuaregs. Perhaps a mere coincidence, but Niebuhr's description of Borno uses the Kanuri word for Tuareg, and describes them as long-haired, suggesting Kanuri descriptions of Tuareg in the 18th century also linked them to long-hair. Additional clues suggest Tamerlan was from the interior of western Africa (it took more than 3 months for him to reach the coast after being taken captive). He also described himself as the teacher of a prince and as someone who produced books or texts. This would suggest a respected scholar or royal tutor, which would have been a common practice in Borno, as various mais aligned themselves with scholars and supported students. In West Africa, such a person would almost certainly be of a Muslim background and probably from a region with a long tradition of scholarship. Borno would fit the bill quite well.

He also describes the royal town as being a vast city, estimating it to have as many inhabitants as Port-au-Prince, the Cul-de-Sac plain, Arcahaie, and Leogane. Malenfant takes this to mean the city of Tamerlan had around 300,000 people, but a more reasonable estimate would be far less, as those areas of Saint Domingue probably didn't have a total population of 300,000 people in 1791. The towns would have been usually small, with a very large enslaved population in the Cul-de-Sac plain near Port-au-Prince (tens of thousands). But something on the scale of 100,000-200,000 would be more realistic, which could easily have been the case if Gazargamu had around 10,000 houses in the late 18th century. Either way, Tamerlan describes himself coming from the African interior, being literate in 2 writing systems (one possibly Tifinagh), and coming from a vast capital city ruled by a powerful king who would pay a fortune to have him back. We know in other incidences that Borno's rulers paid ransoms for the return of relatives or valuable persons, exemplified by Ali ibn. Umar and his nephew or as Nicholas Said reveals in his autobiography.

I don't know about you, but we could see Tamerlan being from Borno. While people from Borno were not very common in Saint Domingue, "Bernon" or "Beurnon" Africans were in Saint Domingue. Indeed, Descourtilz wrote about Borno based on discussions with "Beurnon" people in the colony, who told him how highly valued religious texts were in their homeland. In addition, Hausa captives were also there, so perhaps Tamerlan could have been from Katsina or Kano, or a tributary state of Borno. Yet the vast metropolis of his king sounds like Borno's capital. Of course, Malenfant remembers Tamerlan describing a well aligned city built of wood, where most of the houses were a single story. Gazargamu would have included brick and clay structures, but very likely a lot of wooden structures or "huts" as part of household compounds or the housing of the less fortunate. Perhaps Tamerlan was exaggerating how well-aligned the streets of the city were, as North African sources suggest Gazargamu had an irregular layout without proper "streets." Indeed, with the exception of the dendal and the street leading to the principal mosque, we find it hard to believe the city of Gazargamu was well aligned. 

With these caveats, we still think there's a good chance Tamerlan was indeed a native of Borno. Perhaps someone with a thorough education, who could understand Tuareg Tifinagh, and was respected and supported by the ruler of his state. While he could have been from other parts of West Africa, the fact that he claimed to be from a vast city in the African interior and comes from a society where scholarship, ajami writing, and books were highly valued, suggests a Borno origin. The enormous city he described may have been the Gazargamu said to have had 200,000 inhabitants. If so, Tamerlan's story of his origin can be additional evidence for the substantial urban civilization of Borno under the Sefuwa dynasty. In order to confirm this story, we would need to find a source that mentions a royal prince of Borno being killed in the attack that led to Tamerlan's enslavement, perhaps the very same cruel prince mentioned by Descourtilz? Alternatively, Tamerlan could have hailed from East Africa, perhaps Ethiopia or Sudan, but we consider that less likely due to the much higher numbers of West and Central Africans in Saint Domingue. 

The Mystery of Tamerlan's Writing

 

The case of Tamerlan, an enslaved African living in Boucassin, Saint Domingue on the eve of the Haitian Revolution, has sparked interest and debate about the presence of Islam among captives in the French colony. A few revisionist scholars assume Tamerlan was a Muslim because of his name and the account of him left to posterity by Colonel Malenfant, who managed a plantation. His position ensured he had easy access to diverse captive population. Nonetheless, based on Malenfant's account of Tamerlan's literacy in two non-Arabic African languages (one associated with "long-haired mulattoes," perhaps the Tuareg), historians know a few details of Tamerlan's life before captivity. Unfortunately, Malenfant lost the examples of writing Tamerlan gave him, and, writing decades after this encounter, could not recall in detail the appearance of Tamerlan's script. He knew it was a long prayer, based on what Tamerlan told him. And Tamerlan assured him it was not Arabic, although some scholars speculate it could have been an example of Ajami writing (adapting the Arabic script to write local West African languages). This has not stopped some scholars (Gomez, Diouf) from asserting a Muslim identity for Tamerlan or concluding his writing was Arabic or an adaptation of Arabic script). But if Tamerlan was indeed using an adapted Arabic script, wouldn't he have been able to communicate that to Malenfant?

However, a Haitian blogger and historian who opposes the lazy historical reasoning of revisionist scholars who thrust a Muslim identity upon Tamerlan, has demonstrated quite clearly how unlikely it was Tamerlan was Muslim or wrote in Arabic or even Ajami. Using Malenfant, he demonstrates quite clearly that the Frenchman would have probably known if Tamerlan was a Muslim based on their rarity and the knowledge of other slaveholders familiar with Muslim slaves. He also, in a series of blog posts, demonstrates how one cannot assume a Muslim identity based on the names of Africans. Names of Arabic or Islamic origin appeared in the colony from European sources, and were sometimes assigned to Africans from non-Islamic parts of the continent (like Central African "Congos). Consequently, the name of Tamerlan and the fact that did not identify his writing as Arabic suggest he probably wasn't a Muslim. If true, however, who was Tamerlan and what was the script he used?

The aforementioned blog posits an intriguing theory. Salnave's article suggests an attractive theory linking Tamerlan to the Bambara kingdom of Segu. It is plausible that Tamerlan had been an instructor to a prince of Segu, and maybe, although there is no evidence for it, was using a proto-N'ko script. Supposedly, at least one Segu leader spent time in Timbuktu centers of learning, and it is not surprising that some West African peoples were familiar with Arabic, Tuareg tifinagh, and Ajami. However, all established theories of the N'ko writing system point to a 20th century origin. If it is true Tamerlan wrote in N'ko, or another Bambara or Mande script (like Vai, which appears to have been invented in the 1830s in Liberia), then researchers or scholars should, hopefully, encounter it in Segu, Timbuktu, or other towns and villages in West Africa where manuscripts were found (assuming they exist and were not destroyed). 

Ajami manuscripts and texts have been located, but Salnave has demonstrated somewhat convincingly that it probably was not Ajami writing, at least based on how Malenfant vaguely recalls it. But if it is not Ajami, does it point to a proto-N'ko or pre-Vai Mande-speakers script? The Vai peoples probably had some form of contact or trade with Mande-speakers further north (not to mention the Americo-Liberians, and the Cherokee among them), so maybe the Vai script in some form or another may have ties to an older system of writing from the Bambara or other groups in Mali? If so, what were the conditions of writing and literacy for non-Muslim West Africans in the 18th century? If most West African writings in local languages, that we know of, have been Ajami and tied to Islamic cultures or scholars, shouldn't there be evidence for non-Islamic manuscripts and book production, besides the Vai syllabary?

What else can one possibly surmise from Malenfant's brief account of Tamerlan? In addition to be an instructor to a prince and maker of books or manuscripts, or so he claims, he told Malenfant that the city from which he came had 300,000 inhabitants.  When he was captured, it took more than 3 months for him to reach the coast, where whites loaded the captives onto slave ships. This suggests he was from deep in the interior or what was most likely West Africa. The city of his king was built in wood, mostly of single-story homes. Salnave speculates that this could be a description of Segu, which Mungo Park estimated to have 30,000 inhabitants and mostly built in clay. If any of this is accurate, then Tamerlan came from a very large city ruled by a powerful king. Segu would fit the bill, although other large urban centres in West Africa did exist in the 18th century (although none would have contained 300,000 people, unless you count the surrounding countryside?). It is possible Tamerlan exaggerated some of these details to give an image of greater grandeur to his African past, but he clearly longed to return home. According to Malenfant, he was one of the "few" Africans who wised to return to the continent, which suggests he probably enjoyed a position of great status. 

Unfortunately, Malenfant's account is too brief and vague to fill in the dots, but it is clear that Tamerlan came from a part of Africa with a history of writing, manuscript production, and large urban centers. One of the forms of writing he was familiar with was possibly the tifinagh of the Tuareg, which was often used for poems, short correspondence, funerary inscriptions. Considering all these factors, one can understand why some historians assume Tamerlan was a Muslim and possibly wrote his prayer in Ajami. With the exception of parts of West Africa, North Africa, Ethiopia and the Horn, and the Swahili Coast, writing systems in Africa with a history of manuscript production were quite limited. One can surmise from Malenfant that Tamerlan was not from North Africa or the Swahili Coast (where a tradition of ajami writing also exists). It is possible but unlikely that he was from Ethiopia or the Horn of Africa. If he was from Ethiopia, who were the long-haired mulattoes he described to Malenfant (fairer-skinned Habasha who maybe wrote in Ge'ez or Amharic)? Where was this large city he described? Gondar? Surely, if Tamerlan was from Ethiopia, it is possible he was a Christian and described the castles of stone in Gondar? And last, but worthy of consideration, was Tamerlan literate in a Central African language, like Kikongo? But that would have likely been composed in a Portuguese-inspired Western script that Malenfant should have recognized.

So, what can one say about the mystery of Tamerlan and his lost text? It seems he was not a Muslim, and presumably did not write Arabic or in Ajami. He was probably from West Africa, which is what Malenfant seems to believe when he later mentions how useful someone like Tamerlan would have been as a guide or navigator to explorers like Mungo Park. If one of the writing systems he was familiar with was tifinagh, then he was probably from the West African Sahel or savanna regions. Salnave's theory of a Segu origin is plausible, although he could have been from other parts of that eco-region. Since the origin of N'ko is most likely traced to the 20th century, although maybe inspired by earlier Ajami writing, Tamerlan's mysterious script could point to an older script that may have existed among Bambara, Mandinka, or other West African peoples. It is possible that he was promoting a system of writing akin to the Vai syllabary, and books were made on paper imported via the trans-Saharan or other trade networks. The chances of an Ethiopian or East African origin of Tamerlan appear unlikely, although some East Africans were sold into slavery in the Caribbean. One cannot completely deny the possibility that Tamerlan was indeed writing in Ajami, but surely he could have explained that to Malenfant when the latter asked if he was writing in Arabic. The mystery endures, at least until one finds documents written in African languages or Arabic from Saint Domingue. Malenfant mentions amulets with Arabic inscriptions used by some of the rebel slaves, but that does not prove they were Muslim (except that some literate Muslims were involved in their production). 

Bibliography

 

Rodney Salnave. "Tamerlan wasn't muslim". February 26, 2017 ; Updated Sept. 25, 2020. [online] URL: http://bwakayiman.blogspot.ca/2017/02/tamerlan-wasnt-muslim.html ; Retrieved on 10/1/2020.