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ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Saʿdī

Savant

ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Saʿdī was born in Timbuktu, Mali, in 1594, and died around 1656. He lived in the period following the conquest of the Songhai Empire by the Moroccan army in 1591. A scholar at the service of the city Coming from a family of scholars, he studied with the masters of Timbuktu. He was imam in Djenné, then secretary and diplomat in the service of the authorities of Timbuktu, which allowed him to know the political life of the region well. The Tārīkh al-Sūdān Completed around 1655, the Tārīkh al-Sūdān (“The History of Sudan”) tells the history of the empires of Mali and Songhai, the founding and life of Timbuktu and Djenné, the biography of numerous scholars and saints of the region, then the Moroccan conquest and its consequences. Al-Saʿdī demonstrates a great sense of observation and expresses his attachment to science and his city. The book was translated into French by Octave Houdas at the end of the 19th century and remains essential to historians. Photo: manuscript of the Tārīkh al-Sūdān.