Boutilimit

Boutilimit (Arabic بوتلميت, DMG Būtilimīt ) is the capital of one of the six districts in the administrative region Trarza in southwestern Mauritania. The small town is an old handicraft center and famous for one of the largest collections of medieval Arabic manuscripts in West Africa. The founding by an Islamic saint in the 19th century made ​​Boutilimit to a religious education center.

Location

Boutilimit is located 154 km southeast of the provincial capital Nouakchott before the transition of the Mauritanian Sahara in the southern Sudan zone. Within a few kilometers switch to the 17th parallel vegetated desert areas with grassy plains of the dry savanna. The sand dunes ( ergs ) of the area do not allow agriculture and impede the expansion of the residential development. To Boutilimit beside goats and some cattle are kept, which are otherwise only to be found further south in large flocks. Rain falls during the summer months until September / October usually in the form of short bursts of thunderstorms.

The now dry environment is caused by several droughts over the last few centuries. The pre-colonial Emirate Trarza, the extent of which corresponds approximately to the present-day administrative region was involved in the gum arabic trade with the Europeans. Until the early 20th century Boutilimit was known for his position in the midst of Verek - acacia, from which this tree juice is extracted. The disappearance of the forests led to a deterioration of soil quality.

Coming from Nouakchott reached the through traffic on the only paved, leading from west to east main road to Mali 108 km southeast of the nearest town Aleg. According to other directions only bad slopes go off.

History

The establishment of a settlement was made in the 19th century on the site of an ancient nomadic campsite. Then the name Boutilimit goes back, which can be translated as " place where a lot of millet grows". The religious significance of the place is due to the Holy Sheikh Sidiyya (1774-1868), called al - Kabir ("the Great "). The Marabout founded here a religious center ( Zawiya ).

In his time, from about 1810, was started to create a collection of Islamic manuscripts which has grown to over 2000 books, letters and contracts. The substantiated by Sidiyya by his son Sidi Muhammad (1827-1869) and other family members continue to run Islamic school earned Boutilimit into a center of Islamic scholarship. The great-grandson of the founder, Isma'il Ould Sidi Baba (1900-1988) added the family library added more fonts. Similarly, extensive manuscript collections are available in Mauritania Chinguetti Tichit, smaller in Tidjikdja and Kaédi.

The Orientalist Louis Massignon published in 1909 as the first a description of the library of Sheikh Sidiyya. He shared a 1195 then the fonts in theological, legal and basic texts, of which he was one of 683 printed over 512 handwritten works. In the Paris Revue du Monde Musulman appeared, this was the first description of an Islamic library in the Sahara.

From French military leader Xavier Coppolani comes the plan for a peaceful penetration of Mauritania. The French colonial territory reached around 1900 until the Senegal River as the northern boundary. 1902 signed Sidiyya Sheikh Baba Coppolani with a peace treaty, which the province Trarza and the subsequent east province Tagant zusprach the French. The sheik from the Sidiyya family at this time was probably the most influential marabout in the south of Mauritania and a friend of the French. By 1904, French troops were in the south of Mauritania present, the subsequent " pacification " took considerably longer. 1934, the travel in the region for Western foreigners had become safe. This year, the French travel writer Odette Puigaudeau you got to see the library. She mentions in her experience report Korans from different countries of North Africa, including one from the 13th century, as well as other valuable writings whose quality they felt standing in stark mismatch for poor situation of their retention. In collaboration between the resident in Nouakchott Institute Mauritanienne de Recherche Scientifique ( IMRS ) under the direction of Ahmadu Ould 'Abd al -Qadir and the University of Tübingen made ​​Rainer Osswald and Ulrich Rebstock between 1980 and 1985 across the country microfilms and catalogs of ancient writings on.

The French colonialists built in the larger settlements schools on the Western model, the primary goal should be to train local staff for administrative tasks. The traditional Islamic educational institutions in the Berber -Arab Bidhans that Mahadras were suppressed, however. The resistance to this school policy came particularly from the native Bidhan elite, the children of their workers and slaves in the French schools rather sent as their own. Especially the women opposed the involuntary commitment by French school inspectors. Nowhere in the French colonial territories in Africa, the French school model was so unpopular in the Arab world as part of Mauritania.

As compensation, the French designed a project of the partly Arabized teaching by they established four madrasas, whose range of subjects was mainly focused on traditional Islamic education. The first of these Arab-Islamic colleges was founded in 1914 in Boutilimit. My curriculum was based on that of the Mahadras whose core customer Koran, Islamic law ( Sari ʿ a), Islamic traditions (hadith ), grammar and Arabic literature exists. The additionally introduced subjects were French, arithmetic, geography and history. Even from remote areas of the country traveled to the students who were housed in a traditional way in tents. 20 years after founding the madrasah could be rated as exemplary and prosperous institution. The other three madrasahs in this pattern - 1933 Timbedra, 1936 in Atar and founded in 1939 in Kiffa - on the other hand proved unsuccessful, had her too much emphasis located on the French education.

In 1953, the Madrasa of Boutilimit was renamed Institut Musulman. 1961, a year after independence, it became the Institut National des Hautes Etudes Islamiques which, however, only in 1968 began operating. With his transfer in 1979 to Nouakchott meanwhile funded by Saudi Arabia Islamic educational institution was renamed the Institut Supérieur d' Etudes et de Recherches Islamiques ( Iseri ).

At independence of Mauritania, the few inhabitants of the village lived mostly in tents. In 2000, the census showed 22 257 inhabitants. For 2005 27.170 inhabitants were calculated. According to another calculation, the number should be increased to 38 952 inhabitants in 2010. The importance of the place before and after independence was significantly greater than indicated by the number of inhabitants.

Cityscape

The city has developed into a wide valley between hills of sand from one street village about two kilometers along the thoroughfare. At the southwest end of the road leaves the valley and turn east toward Aleg order. Straight continues the level Oued, where only Calotropis procera grows. The remains of former French buildings are available at the top of the hill in the northwest. The road to Nouakchott goes way around the hill before it turns west. On the sand dunes are scattered acacia, from which gum arabic can be obtained. The agricultural cultivation is confined to tiny experimental gardens, in which are planted with well irrigation millet and melons.

The past as a nomadic settlement is to be considered Boutilimit more than other cities. The transition from living in a nomad tent ( Khaima ) to settle in a brick building is done in stages. Outside the city building former nomads who have fled to the city because of drought or other economic difficulties, their tents at a greater distance from each other. The next step for sedentary is a metal frame that is covered with fabric or corrugated iron to an open pavilion. These mostly blue saddle roofs stand out among the brown one-story flat-roofed houses emerged as patches of color. The thin-walled masonry cement hollow blocks houses are climatically unfavorable. You can heat up in the sun and leave little in cooling wind. Frequently, therefore, the latter placed beside the houses awnings or gazebos remain the actual whereabouts of the family. A rare in the south semi-nomadic design make braided straw huts ( Tikkits ) dar.

One began in 2008 and funded by the emirate of Qatar study is to show the shortcomings of infrastructure. In the unplanned grown city lacks a water supply of most homes, academic institutions and an adequate health service. A 2004 Ministry of Education finished college is empty.

The busy market in the town center has the usual assortment of plastic goods and imported fabrics. A number of food stalls provide passing travelers with grilled meat. Boutilimit also has a long tradition in the production of wrought-iron goods and household goods made of leather, which are offered in some small shops. These are from the caste of blacksmiths (Ma ʿ llemīn ) produced not only iron, but also wood processing belongs to their field of activity. Previously, especially wood and horn bracelets were decorated with inlaid ( hammered in hot condition ) silver threads. Among the products manufactured by women leather goods include the now rare camel saddles ( Rahla ) and the arm rests everywhere used ( Surmije ). Furthermore, there are carpets made ​​of camel and goat hair. Most of the manifold, an intricate, made of wood and leather, household goods of the nomadic culture are very little demand.

Sons and daughters of the town

• Moktar Ould Daddah (1924-2003), first President of Mauritania, a member of the local marabout strain Oulad Berri