The Kunta family is among the best-known examples of a lineage of Islamic scholarship with widespread influence throughout Mauritania

Mauritania

Mauritania is a country in the Maghreb and West Africa. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean in the west, by Western Sahara in the north, by Algeria in the northeast, by Mali in the east and southeast, and by Senegal in the southwest...

, Senegambia, and other parts of the Western Sudan

Sudan

Sudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the...

.

The Kunta shaykhs and the family or clan they represent, are an outgrowth of the Kounta

Kounta

The Kunta are a Berber–Arab tribal group of Saharan Nomads, today residing mostly in northern Mali and southern Mauritania.Believed to be descended from the Zenata Berbers, the Kounta consider themselves related to the Arab nomads and warriors who brought Islam to North Africa in the eighth century...

 Bedouin peoples (of both Arab and Berber origins) who spread throughout what is today northern Mali and southern Mauritania from the mid-sixteenth to the early eighteenth centuries (CE).

Family background

The family's history goes back to Sheikh Sidi Ahmad al-Bakka'i (d.1504) who established a Qadiri zawiya (Sufi residence) in Walata. In the 16th century the family spread across the Sahara

Sahara

The Sahara is the world's second largest desert, after Antarctica. At over , it covers most of Northern Africa, making it almost as large as Europe or the United States. The Sahara stretches from the Red Sea, including parts of the Mediterranean coasts, to the outskirts of the Atlantic Ocean...

 to Timbuktu

Timbuktu

Timbuktu , formerly also spelled Timbuctoo, is a town in the West African nation of Mali situated north of the River Niger on the southern edge of the Sahara Desert. The town is the capital of the Timbuktu Region, one of the eight administrative regions of Mali...

, Agades, Bornu

Bornu

Bornu may refer to:* Bornu Empire, a historical state of West Africa* Borno State, Nigeria...

, Hausaland, and other places, and in the 18th century large numbers of Kunta moved to the region of the middle Niger where they established the village of Mabruk. Sidi Al-Mukhtar al-Kunti

Al-Mukhtar al-Kunti

Al-Mukhtar al- Kunti was a West African sufi saint and a political leader.-References:*Phyllis G. Jestice, Holy people of the world: a cross-cultural encyclopedia, Volume 3, ed. ABC-CLIO, 2004, p. 613...

 (1728-1811) united the Kunta factions by successful negotiation, and established an extensive confederation. Under his influence the Maliki

Maliki

The ' madhhab is one of the schools of Fiqh or religious law within Sunni Islam. It is the second-largest of the four schools, followed by approximately 25% of Muslims, mostly in North Africa, West Africa, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and in some parts of Saudi Arabia...

 school of Islamic law

Sharia

Sharia law, is the moral code and religious law of Islam. Sharia is derived from two primary sources of Islamic law: the precepts set forth in the Quran, and the example set by the Islamic prophet Muhammad in the Sunnah. Fiqh jurisprudence interprets and extends the application of sharia to...

 was reinvigorated and the Qadiriyyah order spread throughout Mauritania

Mauritania

Mauritania is a country in the Maghreb and West Africa. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean in the west, by Western Sahara in the north, by Algeria in the northeast, by Mali in the east and southeast, and by Senegal in the southwest...

, the middle Niger

Niger

Niger , officially named the Republic of Niger, is a landlocked country in Western Africa, named after the Niger River. It borders Nigeria and Benin to the south, Burkina Faso and Mali to the west, Algeria and Libya to the north and Chad to the east...

 region, Guinea

Guinea

Guinea , officially the Republic of Guinea , is a country in West Africa. Formerly known as French Guinea , it is today sometimes called Guinea-Conakry to distinguish it from its neighbour Guinea-Bissau. Guinea is divided into eight administrative regions and subdivided into thirty-three prefectures...

, the Ivory Coast, Futa Toro, and Futa Jallon. Kunta colonies in the Senegambian region became centers of Muslim

Muslim

A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...

 teaching.

Political Involvement

The Kunta family has historically played a leading role in Timbuktu

Timbuktu

Timbuktu , formerly also spelled Timbuctoo, is a town in the West African nation of Mali situated north of the River Niger on the southern edge of the Sahara Desert. The town is the capital of the Timbuktu Region, one of the eight administrative regions of Mali...

, and have been power brokers in many states of the upper Niger.

See also

• Ahmad al-Bakkai al-Kunti
  Ahmad al-Bakkai al-Kunti
  Ahmad al-Bakkai al-Kunti was a West African Islamic and political leader. He was one of the last principal spokesmen in precolonial Western Sudan for an accommodationist stance towards the threatening Christian European presence, and even provided protection to Heinrich Barth from an attempted...
  
   (d.1865)- West African Islamic and political leader and one of the last Kunta sheikhs.

Other sources

• Elias N. Saad, Social History of Timbuktu: The Role of Muslim Scholars and Notables, 1400–1900. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, (1983), 150, 214–15