Title: A Journey in Aïr. Author: Francis Rodd Publisher: London: Edward Stanford, Royal Geographical Society, 1923. Pre-Dates Book! Item is in Original Condition, with Blue Wrappers - As Issued, Complete with All the Ads! Notes & Condition: Visiting the geographically breathtaking and ecological diverse Aïr Massif within the Sahara Desert, only five years after the devastation of French-Tuareg battle which annihilated numerous villages, Rodd provides an enlightening first-hand account of the Tuareg people groups, including the dominant Kel Owey. With the Cortier map in hand (the first map made of the Aïr, in 1912), and at times accompanied by a local guide, Rodd navigates through the vast mountain corridors and plains. He comes to previously thriving towns which had since been reduced to struggling villages, and also to newly emerging settlements. In the latter he learns a great deal about Tuareg custom including courting and marriage, child rearing, raiding practices, ongoing slavery, food preparation, construction of grass huts and stone houses, hunting which led to the extinction of the lion of Aïr, and more. A fascinating history of their origin also unfolds as he travels. Rodd's is a primary source account of previously unexplored places in Aïr, featuring an excellent and detailed account of the oasis village of Aouderas and some inhabitants whom he came to know well during his stay over the entire rainy season. References are made to Heinrich Barth, who had travelled through Northern Aïr in 1850, as Rodd follows Barth's route for part of his expedition. A lovely colour map illustrates his own route through mountains, plateaus, valleys and deserts, a most exciting journey. Rodd published the full account of this expedition in 1926, his book title being foreshadowed to in this paper, "People of the Veil: Being an Account of the Habits, Organisation and History of the Wandering Tuareg Tribes which Inhabit the Mountains of Aïr or Asben in the Central Sahara." 8vo. 22 pages, plus a fold-out colour map and photographic plate for illustration. Original condition with blue wrappers, titles to front, and containing all the ads. This is a complete issue, seldom found in such good and original condition. Excerpt from the text: "Aïr, apart from the fact that it is a comparatively unknown country, especially in England, is of particular interest to the traveller for two reasons. In the first place, it is a volcanic area of considerable extent in the Central Sahara, inhabited by an exceedingly interesting people, the Tuareg, or the people of the Veil; and in the second it occupies a prominent position on one of the oldest trade and cultural roads in the world...." "Between Kano and the south of Aïr we followed much the same road as Barth in 1850-1, but in the opposite direction... The country has been much deserted since the days when it was known as the "Granary of Aïr, subject to the Tuareg of the mountains, whose sultans ruled in Gamram, Jajiduna, Tademari, and Demmili, towns now either totally abandoned or reduced to small villages..." "T'in Wana and Eghalguen are two of a number of watering-points in this massif. The former is a ravine... arched sides carved with T'ifinagh inscriptions, the peculiar writing of the Tuareg, the use of which is almost extinct in Aïr." "The Tuareg in North Africa are divided into various groups... But they have no name for the totality of their people other than Kel Tagilmus, the People of the Veil." "... the Tuareg fall into very distinct categories of noble tribes, called Imajeghan, and seville tribes called Imghad, in addition, of course, to the slaves which they still possess, though the practice is forbidden; that is to say, there is no traffic in human beings, but master and slave continue to regard each other by mutual consent in the light of their original relationships." "Like most nomads, they are thieves and raiders by choice... they are poor... as tough as any race there is in the world. They can travel 120 miles twenty-four hours on one camel, and suffer the extremes of heat and cold alike... They never lose their temper..." "A Tuareg woman enjoys great freedom before her marriage, and has love affairs of a most romantic description. A man and girl will ride long distances to meet one another, and at no time are they subjected to censure or surveillance... children are admirably brought up..." "Auderas [Aouderas], especially famous for the magnificent grove of date palms, and the little village of Towar...Barth here records seeing a plough yoked to two slaves being used. The plough is not known in Aïr now." "The Kel T'intaghoda were Holy men, but that did not prevent them about the massacre of Barth's expedition on three occasions, when he camped here here..." End Excerpt. Major General Francis James Rennell Rodd, 2nd Baron Rennell KBE CB JP (1895-1978) was the second but eldest surviving son of the diplomat James Rennell Rodd, 1st Baron Rennell. Fluent in no less than four languages, during the First World War he was an intelligence officer in France, Italy, North Africa, Egypt, Libya, Palestine and Syria. He then made two great expeditions into the central Sahara (1922 and 1927). The Aïr Mountains or Aïr Massif (Tuareg: Ayar; Hausa: Eastern Azbin, Western Abzin) is a triangular massif, located in northern Niger, within the Sahara Desert. The town of Agadez in the heart of the Tuareg country is the capital of Aïr. Much of the Tuareg population of Aïr until recently led a nomadic life, relying essentially on camel and goats from which they take milk, meat and skins used in the production of local handicrafts. Most sedentary populations were either dependents of higher caste Tuareg pastoralists or the Ikelan (Bouzou in Hausa / Bella in Songhai), former slaves and captives of the Tuareg from Hausa and other southern peoples. These peoples were settled in northern oases, to tend the date palm plantations held by the noble clans. In 1591 came under rule of the traditional polity of the Tuareg Sultanate of Aïr, and remained so until it was conquered by the French in 1900. The emergence of the French weakened the Tuareg Kels and provoked both infighting and resistance to colonialism. From the 1880s, Toubu raids increased. During an uprising against the French in December 1916, led by Tuareg chief Ag Mohammed Wau Teguidda Kaocen on his way to the siege of Agadez, many towns were destroyed. When the French retook Agadez in December 1917 a brutal punitive expedition through the Aïr left many formerly populous places abandoned, razed by Kaosen and the French successively.
