Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

The Pilgrimage and Death of Sākūra, King of Mali

1953; Cambridge University Press; Volume: 15; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1017/s0041977x00111164

1474-0699

C. F. Beckingham,

Biblical Studies and Interpretation

It is recorded in a number of standard works on the western Sudan and northern Nigeria that about the year A.D. 1300 Sākūra, the usurping King of Mali, performed the pilgrimage to Mecca and was murdered by the Danakil on the return journey. Delafosse writes: ‘C'est en revenant des lieux-saints par le Yémen et l'Erythrée, vers l'an 1300, que Sakoura trouva la mort: il fut dévalisé et assassiné par des Danakil sur la côte de Tadjourah, comme il venait de débarquer sur la terre d'Afrique.’ Meek, de Pedrals, and Bovill give the same story, and the last-named comments: ‘He was not returning by the customary route through Cairo, but through Eritrea and the Eastern Sudan, following what has now become the great pilgrim road of West-Central Africa.’ Now if Sākūra was killed in what is to-day French Somaliland, or for that matter anywhere in Somali or Dankali country, he was far to the south of ‘the great pilgrim road’, which does not cross Eritrea at all. Nor is it conceivable that it should ever have done so. It goes through Bornu, Wadai, and Darfur to the Nile and now reaches the Red Sea at Port Sudan. There is no reason why pilgrims should have gone so far to the south of the latitude of Jidda and so have given themselves the task of climbing over the Abyssinian plateau which was, moreover, in Christian hands. A glance at the map will show what a very strange route Sākūra is alleged to have chosen. Having landed at Tajura he would have had three alternatives. The first was to follow approximately the line of the modern railway to Addis Ababa, climbing the steep escarpment in Shoa, and then making his way across Ethiopia and down the other side of the plateau to the Nile valley in Sennar, whence he could have reached Darfur. This would have been very difficult for topographical reasons and would have necessitated a long journey through Christian territory. The second possibility was to travel northwards along the coast until he reached a place such as Suakin where he could have turned westwards and headed for the Nile. This would have been even more difficult, given the character of the Danakil and their country. Last and most difficult of all, he could have attempted the little-used and circuitous route that led through the Sidama States, on the southern borders of Ethiopia, to the White Nile. It is almost inconceivable that he should have been trying to do any of these things.