Tarikh al-Fattash and Sonni Ali’s Omens

Record summary

Tarikh al-Fattash is a Timbuktu chronicle associated with Mahmud Kati and later transmitters, containing traditions about Songhay rulers including Sonni Ali. Researchers can examine how dreams, divination, signs, and religious reputation were used to portray an ambivalent ruler whose memory was contested between Islamic scholars and older political-religious traditions. It matters for comparison because extraordinary knowledge is presented as part of historiography rather than isolated psychology. Authorship, dating, manuscript integrity, and the relationship between older material and later additions remain debated.