Travels and discoveries in North and Central Africa : $b Including accounts of Tripoli, the Sahara, the remarkable kingdom of Bornu, and the countries around Lake ChadBarth, Heinrich
History
Travels and discoveries in North and Central Africa : $b Including accounts of Tripoli, the Sahara, the remarkable kingdom of Bornu, and the countries around Lake Chad
Barth, Heinrich
Africa, Central -- Description and travel; Africa, North -- Description and travel
Then, without much ceremony or delay, the installation, or “sarauta”
of the new Sultan took place. The ceremonial was gone through inside
the fáda, but this was the procedure: First of all, ʿAbd el Káder was
conducted from his private apartments to the public hall. Then the chiefs
of the Itísan and Kél-gerés, who went in front, begged him to sit down
upon the “gadó,” a sort of couch or divan made of the leaves of the
palm-tree, or of the branches of other trees, similar to the angaríb
used in Egypt and the lands of the Upper Nile, and covered with mats
and a carpet. Upon this the new Sultan sat down, resting his feet on
the ground, not being allowed to put them upon the gadó, and recline in
the Oriental style, until the Kél-owí desired him to do so. Such is the
ceremony, symbolical of the combined participation of these different
tribes in the investiture of their Sultan.
This ceremony being concluded, the whole holiday procession left the
palace on its way to a chapel of a merábet called Sídi Hammáda, in
Tára-bére, outside the town, where, according to an old custom, the
prince was to say his prayers. This is a rule prevailing over the whole
of Mohammedan Africa, and one which I myself witnessed in some of
the most important of its capitals—in Ágades, in Kúkawa, in Más-eña,
in Sókoto, and in Timbúktu; everywhere the principle is the same.
Not deeming it prudent on such an occasion to mix with the people, I
witnessed the whole procession from the terrace of our house, though I
should have liked to have had a nearer view. The procession having taken
its course through the most important quarter of the town, and through
the market-places, turned round from the “káswa-n-delélti” to the oldest
quarter of the town, and then returned westward, till at last it reached
the above-mentioned chapel or tomb of Sídi Hammáda, where there is a
small cemetery. The prayers being finished, the procession returned
by the southern part of the town, and about ten o’clock the different
parties which had composed the _cortège_ separated.
In going as well as in returning the order of the procession was as
follows: In front of all, accompanied by the musicians, rode the Sultan,
on a very handsome horse of Tawáti breed, wearing, over his fine Sudán
robe of coloured cotton and silk, the blue bernús I had presented to
him, and wearing on his side a handsome scimitar with gold handle. Next
to him rode the two sáraki-n-turáwa—Bóro, the ex-serki, on his left,
and Ashu, who held the office at the time, on his right—followed by the
“fádawa-n-serki,” after whom came the chiefs of the Itísan and Kél-gerés,
all on horseback, in full dress and armour, with their swords, daggers,
long spears, and immense shields.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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