Tarikh al-fattash

Tarikh al-fattash
Folio claimed to be from the Tarikh al-fattash, Mamma Haidara Memorial Library. In fact, it is a passage of the Tarikh al-Sudan.
Also known as	Tarikh ibn al-Mukhtar
Place of origin	Timbuktu, Macina Empire
Language(s)	Arabic
Author(s)	Ibn al-Mukhtar Mahmud Kati (claimed) Nūḥ b. al-Ṭāhir
Patron	Askiya Dawud b. Harun (Tarikh ibn al-Mukhtar), Ahmad Lobbo (Tarikh al-Fattash)

The Tarikh al-fattash is a West African chronicle that provides an account of the Songhay Empire from the reign of Sonni Ali (ruled 1464-1492) up to 1599 with a few references to events in the following century. The chronicle also mentions the earlier Mali Empire. It and the Tarikh al-Sudan, a 17th century chronicle also giving a history of Songhay, are together known as the Timbuktu Chronicles.^[1]

The French scholars Octave Houdas and Maurice Delafosse published a critical edition in 1913. Since then, however, other scholars have shown that this edition in fact conflates two separate manuscripts. The first, usually referred to as Tarikh ibn al-Mukhtar, was written in the 17th century in Timbuktu by Ibn al-Mukhtar, a grandson of Mahmud Kati. The second, which bears the title Tarikh al-fattash, is a re-written forgery produced early in the 19th century by Nūḥ b. al-Ṭāhir but which claims Kati as its author.