[wvns] Darfuris: The Builders of Al-Khalawi
Darfuris: The Builders of Al-Khalawi
By Imam El-Leithy, IOL Correspondent
Translated by Abdelazim R. Abdelazim
http://www.islamonline.net/English/ArtCulture/2004/08/article06.shtml
Let peace prevail,
Cleanse your conscience, keep prosperity alive,
The Moura Hill now wears a green shawl,
Pick your sickles, drop your weapons, bow;
Our Sudan is happy with her faithful youth.
That was the song chanted by the Darfuri girls who had been escorted
by their mothers to attend the graduation of a new class of Qur'an
hafiz1 youth being held in a football playground in Al-Fasher city,
northern Darfur.
All Darfuris have been used to this lifestyle since they voluntarily
embraced Islam in the third Hijri century. Their efforts have focused
on learning the Qur'an by heart and reciting its verses. Darfur has
always been well known for producing large numbers of educated Qur'an
hafiz scholars. A Darfuri, not long ago, used to cultivate the land
and teach religious principles across the whole Sudan in khalawi
(religious classrooms) which successive Darfuri sultans were in a
habit of building so as to maintain their reputation of righteousness.
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View & listen to Video Clips From Darfur:
Celebrating the Graduation of Qur'an Hafiz
As-Salam Song
Ar-Ratana Song
http://www.islamonline.net/English/ArtCulture/2004/08/article06.shtml
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The girls danced and sang in successive patterns to celebrate the
graduation of 1,000 Qur'an hafiz males and females. The scene—in my
opinion—is but field evidence that refutes the false claims of
genocide, ethnic cleansing, and rape. The playground, crowded with
girls, women, children, and local administration officials, included
boys and girls from the African Zaghawa, Masalit, and Fur tribes
mingling with their peers from the Arab Rozayqat and Mahamid tribes.
Historical Snapshots of Darfuri Sultans
Islam reached the Sudan in AH 31 after the Baqt Treaty had been signed
by both `Abdullah ibn Abi As-Sarh and the King of An-Noba, the
northernmost part of Sudan, in Dongola. During the next 300 years,
Islam gradually spread among the people of Darfur—more rapidly than to
those of An-Noba—where the first Islamic sultanate (the Dayyo
Sultanate) had been established in the third Hijri century. The Dayyo
Sultanate was also an African tribe. Although that sultanate cherished
the basic African traditions and heritage of magic, drums, and dances,
it also introduced the Islamic Shari`ah as an essential aspect of
Darfuri life along with the Dali Law.
Serious crimes, like theft, murder, adultery, and so on, were adjudged
by the Dali Law, which used to be interpreted and enforced by the
sultanate's trustee, known back then as Dali's Sheikh. Pursuant to
that law, punishments were estimated in numbers of heads of cattle to
be decided according to the degree of the offense. Murder, for
example, was redeemed by a number of cows, while adultery was purged
by a number of sheep.
The Sultanate's Grand Judge used to observe and enforce the Islamic
Shari`ah on matters like marriage, divorce, zakah2, Hajj, jihad,
inheritance, contracts, and other civil affairs.
Al-Hawakir Supported Islam
In 1445, the Islamic Kingdom of Fur was established. After 200 years,
in 1640, that kingdom passed the leadership of Darfur over to the Arab
Sultan Sulayman Sulun because his father had married a Darfuri
princess from the Sultan's household. After that time the Arab
civilization prospered in that sultanate.
However, Sultan `Abdur-Rahman Ar-Rashid was, in fact, the real factor
behind that power transfer in the sultan's court. He built Al-Fasher
city in 1792 and brought scholars from Al-Azhar University3 and
neighboring Arab countries so they might teach the Sudanese the
principles of Islam.
During Ar-Rashid's reign, the khalawi became widespread and were
financially supported by the hawakir—arable land monopolized by the
khalawi sheikhs so that they could support their students, other
knowledge seekers, and the khalawi affairs. The sultan's regulations
definitely forbade tax collectors from levying any kind of taxes from
the hawakir.
Who Unmuzzled the Rifle?
When the Arabs took over the rule of Darfur, the titles of sultanate
officials changed. The title "Trustee" replaced "Dali's Sheikh," while
the "Superintendent" and the "Tribe's Sheikh" replaced other titles
that had been used previously. Dali's Law was completely abolished in
1812 after Sultan Muhammad Al-Fadl executed Dali's Sheikh upon a clash
between the two men in power. The rule of Darfur had thus become fully
Arabic.
The most notable tradition cherished by the Darfuri sultans, until the
fall of the sultanate in 1916, was the upbringing of the sons of the
tribes' sheikhs inside of the sultan's palace. When it was time for a
tribe's sheikh's son to take over after his father, as when his father
died or became unable to look after the tribe's affairs, that son left
the sultan's palace in a special procession in which the sultan
appointed him as the new sheikh.
Throughout the various phases of its history, Darfur did not witness
any discrimination between the Arabs and the Africans in the sultan's
court, neither during the African reign nor when the Arabs took over.
Official appointments in high sultanate positions used to be made on
the basis of individual competence and knowledge. No minister or high
official was ever known by his tribe in Darfur.
Who Unmuzzled the Rifle?
Different stories have been told about the first Darfuri conflict that
would have deserved external interference to be resolved. Conflicts
were usually insignificant disputes between herdsmen and farmers.
According to Mahjoub Al-Zayn, manager of Darfur's Heritage Center, the
first case in which conflict transcended its normal limits—yet an
unarmed conflict—was recorded in 1968. It was a political,
administrative, inter-Arab conflict between the pastoral Rozayqat and
Ma'aliyya tribes in which the Ma'aliyya parties pledged to seek
independence from the Rozayqat administration and requested that they
have their own independent administration with a separate electoral
system.
The rifle began to speak in Darfur only after the Libya-Chad war in
the late 1980s, and the Chadian civil war that followed. Robbers have
been called janjewid only after Chadian tribes immigrated to Darfur.
The term janjewid, originally borrowed from Chad, consists of three
syllables: jan means "man"; je means "G-3 machine gun," very popular
in Darfur; wid means "horse." The whole word therefore means "the man
who rides a horse and carries a G-3 machine gun." The Chadian tribes
that had immigrated to Darfur changed the Darfuris' code of conduct
and brought new behavior like armed robbery, plundering, and carrying
heavy arms into the region. The original native Darfuri was armed
simply with the old Enfield rifle, which was used to drive the wolves
away from his sheep.
Darfur has always been known for the inherent tolerance of its Arab
and African tribes alike. The migration from the South to the North
during autumn was always seen as evidence of the harmony and love
between the more than 85 Darfuri tribes. That movement had its own
regulations that were observed by all. The journey made by the nomadic
Bedouins had its own specified time, and permission was taken from
arable land owners.
The 11 routes, known as marahil, taken by the pastoral tribes, had
been predefined by the sultan. When the journey began, the traveling
tribes used to send envoys to the villages they would pass by so that
those villages could prepare to receive their guests and organize
festivals for them on time. Inter-tribal marriage and commercial
exchange was popular during such journeys. The intimate relationship
between those tribes reached its peak when they took the oath that
they are but one family and that their relationship was a bond of
blood, an event known as The Book Oath.
Such friendly scenes were sometimes disturbed by minor transgressions
between one tribe and another, but soon such troubles were resolved
via the watti', rakuba, and the ajawid council. The watti' was land on
which all presented their problems; the rakuba was a very spacious
straw cottage in which sessions were held; the ajawid were the tribes'
inspectors and sheikhs whose word and judgment were accepted by the
guilty and satisfied the aggrieved.
Blood money used to be paid in the rakuba, but often the guilty was
pardoned on the condition that the perpetrator's tribe remember that
act of pardon if the latter tribe happened to transgress against the
first at a future time. Both tribes were said to hold a rakuba.
Furthermore, the sinful tribe had to help the other tribe pay its
blood money and solve its other problems.
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