The Pate Chronicle: edited and translated from MSS 177, 321, 344, and 358 of the Library of the University of Dar es Salaam

MS 177

MS 177 This is the only original MS among the copies of the Pate Chronicle in the Library of the University of Dar es Salaam. The paper is old, of European manufacture. The sheets appear to have been formerly sewn together at the top in the middle. The text is written on one side only. Attached to the pinkyellow folios is a smaller, newer sheet with English notation in black ink, in an old-fashioned hand: "History of Pate. For another MS of this history see volume 10." According to the late Neville Chittick, a translation of MS 177 was made by G. S. P. Freeman-Grenville and circulated in typescript. This was never published and this author has not seen it. The text is in Ki-Amu. In general outline, it follows the narrative of the Hollis-Werner MS. There are two postscripts, each naming Muhammad bin Furno 'Umar al-Nabahani as the source; only the first postscript cites his nickname "Bwana Kitini." In turn, Bwana Kitini's source is said to be his grandfather Muhammad bin Bwana Mkuu al-Nabahani. The first postscript cites the latter's nickname "Bwana Simba," the second names him "the senior elder of Pate," mukap(w)a wa-wazee wa-Pate. The MS names as its copyist Salih bin Salim bin Ahmad bin'Abd Allah bin Muhammad bin 'Abd Allah Ba Sharahil. There is no date but the absence of other names as well as references to Salih bin Salim in other MSS make this the earliest of the four inedited versions being offered here. Moreover, MS 321 dates Salih bin Salim's copy 1318/1900, which makes MS 177 or its prototype the earliest extant version, if not the earliest copy. This would correspond to MS "KI" in A. M. J. Prins' 274 MS 177 Stemma (see General Introduction), from which MS "K2" was produced in 1903 (the Hollis-Werner MS). Some of the readings offered by MS 177 are an improvement over the Hollis MS (as on ff. 5, 11, 15). Alice Werner mentions that she consulted a MS which, though faulty, on occasion provided better readings than the Hollis MS which she published. There is great likelihood that MS 177 is the one, as both it and the unnamed MS Werner saw mention "forty men of Kau" seized by Bwana Furno Madi about 119111777. (The detail does not occur elsewhere). Especially important seem passages on ff. 16 and 17 concerning the government of Pate during the transition period from 1273/1856 to the accession of sultan Ahmad Simba. This version also contains a unique wording of the passage on f. 19 regarding negotiations between Shaykh Muhammad Mataka and Sayyid Majid (cf. MS 321, p. 24). F. 21 uniquely names the village of Ndapi as a target of the British punitive expedition of 1891 (other names, in addition to those in the Hollis MS above, are Kilimani and Nyando-za-Pwani). A relatively rare use of ethnonyms Wa-Pate and WaMombasa (instead of the more usual watu wa-Pate, watu wa-Mombasa) occurs in the description of the Battle of Shela on f. 11. Also in a unique reading, MS 177 reports the nickname of Sultan Ahmad, the father of Furno Bakari, to be Bwana Madushi (f. 16). On the other hand, the passage on f. 10 regarding a war between Lamu and Pate seems corrupt; the mention of Siu in the Hollis MS and MS 321 makes better sense. On f. 18 one presumably should read "Pate" for "Lamu" in the description of Shaykh Muhi al-Din's negotiations (as in MS 321). Names of rulers occasionally differ from those in Hollis MS and in the following MS 321 (ff. 7, 11, 19); some of the differences may be due to INTRODUCTION 275 scribal error. In fact, the copyist occasionally had to insert skipped passages on the right margin. The narrator exhibits a somewhat irregular familiarity with Arabic grammar, to the extent of using the form Abi in the name Aba Bakr, but sometimes incorrectly placing it also at the start of the name (as the first kunya), where the nominative Aba is appropriate rather than the genitive of the status constructus following bin. The founding Nabahani is assigned the title Imam al- 'Arab (f. 21; cf the incorrect Imam al- 'Arabi in MS 321). This is not historically correct since the Nabahani rulers in Arabia were not...