Durar al-hissān fī Akhbār Baad Mulūk al-Sūdān by Bābā Ghūrū: A Study of a Lost Source and Its Impact on the Historical Narrative of the Tārīkh al-Fattāsh

Abstract:
This study examines Durar al-hissān fī Akhbār Baad Mulūk al-Sūdān (“Pearls of Excellence on the History of Some Kings of the Sudan”) by Bābā Ghūrū ibn al-ḥājj Muḥammad ibn al-ḥājj al-Amīn Kānwā, a lost historical source that represents a particularly significant example of the problem of missing sources in African historiography. The study is based on the premise that the absence of a text does not necessarily imply the absence of its influence, since the quotations preserved in the Tārīkh al-Fattāsh allow the reconstruction of an intellectual and methodological profile that reveals a first-rate historical source.

Through three complementary lines of inquiry, the study seeks first to identify the author and his work through hypotheses supported by converging textual evidence; second, to demonstrate the contribution of the book to the historical narrative of the Tārīkh al-Fattāsh, particularly in the verification and correction of information and in the preservation of data overlooked by parallel sources; and third, to investigate the circumstances surrounding the disappearance of the manuscript and to trace its journey from Timbuktu to Niamey in light of the direct testimony of a recognized specialist.

The study concludes that Durar al-hissān has probably not been permanently lost but was instead mixed with the manuscript collections of the Institute for Research in Human Sciences (IRSH) in Niamey under documented political circumstances. Consequently, its identification and possible recovery constitute a shared scholarly responsibility requiring cooperation among academic institutions in Mali, Niger, and Morocco ■