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46 CHAPTER 1Arab, pan-Islamic and Moroccan or Algerian nationalist sentiments. 60 His ideasand recommendations would return later that year in the debates surroundingthe OCRS.If there has been one advocate of the OCRS and the loyalty of the Saharanpopulation to France, it is undoubtedly Mohamed Mahmoud ould Cheick, the‘Qadi of Timbuktu’ and principal informant to Cardaire on Saharan matters.Mohamed Mahmoud ould Cheick originated from theAhlAraouan tribe of theBerabish federation living north of Timbuktu. He was installed as Qadi of theAhl Araouan in 1932, but had to resign his post in 1935, due to resistance fromthe local religious elite. Although he was reinstalled in his function, he resignedfor good in 1949. 61 Nevertheless he kept using his title of Qadi, and remainedinvolved in the social and political games of the Tamasheq chiefs’ milieu. Hismain advantage over other Bidân and Tamasheq chiefs was that he could speak,read and write French, and had an extensive knowledge of French political andgeneral culture through his travels and his library, which contained works onFrench penal and criminal law and the Petit Larousse Illustré. 62 In 1946 MohamedMahmoud joined the PSP. He was befriended by its leaders (except forMohamed Ali ag Attaher Insar, who was a bitter enemy), but left the party in1956. 63 The Qadi’s finest hour came with the creation of the OCRS. Like thevarious senators and ministers discussing the creation of a Saharan territory inFrance, Mohamed Mahmoud ould Cheick was convinced that the existing bordersin the Sahara were a problem. But unlike French administrators and jurists,ould Cheick did not see any problem in drawing a new border in the Sahara thatwould separate the ‘white’ nomads from their ‘black’ sedentary neighbours. Orrather, ould Cheick felt that his native Timbuktu and the whole of the NigerBend belonged culturally and economically to the Sahara, and should fall underthe political supremacy of the nomads inhabiting the region, under the aegis ofFrance. To prove his point he wrote a book on the history of Timbuktu and theNiger Bend entitled Kitâb al-turjuman fi tarîkh al-Sahrâ’ wa-’l-Sudân wa bilâdTinbuktu wa Shinqît wa Arawân (A Biographical Book on the History of theSahara and the Sudan and the Lands of Timbuktu and Chingetti and Arawan).60616263Personnel de l’Administration Affaires Musulmans, 1942-1959. ANSOM – 1affpol/2235/2.Affaires politiques, Soudan, administration générale, évolution politique (rapports,télégrammes officiels, presse), 1947-1957. ANSOM – 1affpol/2198/11.Rapports politiques et tournées Cercle Tombouctou 1943-1957. Fiche de renseignements(personnages religieux) concernant le Mohamed Mahmoud o/ Cheick. ANM– FR 1E-42/II.After the PSP’s dissolution, the Qadi formed a new party – the Parti du Rassemblementdu Soudan – together with PSP’s second man Hamadoun Dicko. This partywas short lived. Schachter-Morgenthau, R. 1964: 298.