Defining "Power" in the Eighteenth-Century Sahara: Moroccan Sultans, Kunta Clerics, and Saharan Salts

This paper is about the mid-to-late 18^th century intersection of articulated ‘legal’ legitimacy and unspoken ‘magical’ (sufi) power in determining who controlled the Sahara’s most important commercial resource: salt. It builds upon two different genres of source material (‘legend’, recorded by colonial administrators from 1930s onwards and ‘text’, written and retained by ‘actors’ involved) and involves two different salt resources (Ijil, in contemporary Mauritania and Tawdeni, in contemporary Mali). It argues that these two case studies reveal what was at stake in establishing something called ‘power’ in the Sahara in the second half of the eighteenth century: the Moroccan Sultanate was one key player, while the emergent clerical Kunta clan was the other. The exploration of the ‘stories’ pushes us into discussion of the role of ‘magic’ alongside ‘law’ as employed by both the Sultan and the Kunta. It highlights the significance of both in late-18^th century Islam – not as ‘pre’ or ‘low’ Islam versus ‘real’ or ‘high’ Islam, but as fused concepts necessary to defining Saharan power and identity. This exploration also draws upon 20^th century materials to argue that the legacy of this 18^th-century ‘debate’ continues to echo, at least locally. The paper also comments upon several ‘received wisdoms’ about Saharan history: the 18^th century as the ‘dark watershed’; the relationship of the Moroccan sultanate to the Sahara as one of violence; the nature of  power in the Sahara as military-versus-economic prowess; the concern to control trans-Saharan commerce. Here I look at how the specific desire to control ‘resources’ (as distinct from trade) altered the nature of the debate and ultimately, the nature of the power in the Sahara. The winner of this ‘battle’ was quietly acknowledged by Saharans themselves; in the process, ‘being Saharan’ was moved towards a new definition.