Maḥmūd Kaʿti

Savant

Maḥmūd Kaʿti is a scholar and qadi from Timbuktu, Mali, who lived in the 16th century. According to tradition, he was part of the entourage of the askia Muḥammad, sovereign of the Songhai empire, whom he accompanied during his pilgrimage to Mecca at the end of the 15th century. The Tārīkh al-fattāsh His name is attached to the Tārīkh al-fattāsh (“The Chronicle of the Seeker”), which tells the history of the empires of Ghana, Mali and especially Songhai, the life of the askias, the organization of the State and the scholarly life of Timbuktu and Djenné, until after the Moroccan conquest of 1591. The text was started by Maḥmūd Kaʿti then completed by his descendants, notably his grandson; historians still debate the exact part of each and the history of the manuscript. A family of scholars The Kaʿti family preserved an important library of manuscripts for centuries, today partly preserved in Mali. The Tārīkh al-fattāsh, translated into French in 1913 by Octave Houdas and Maurice Delafosse, remains with the Tārīkh al-Sūdān of al-Saʿdī one of the two great chronicles of Timbuktu. Photo: manuscript of the Tārīkh al-fattāsh (Mamma Haïdara library, Timbuktu).