Chapter One: The Daoudi Tribes 47 He rendered great services thanks to his knowledge of the country, and as a warrior scout, he also led several counter-raids on enemy camps and participated as a volunteer warrior in several battles. Due to his legendary generosity, his wealth began to be depleted by gifts, but thanks to his intelligence and acumen, he knew how to reshape his faction, which was mostly in a state of complete disintegration after the death of Sidi Al-Amin. He had to confront notables such as Hamidah bin Sidi Ahmed and Sidi Mohamed bin Sidi, who wanted to release the killers of one of our former agents and prevent us from intervening in this tribal matter. He threatened him by abandoning him if the killers were not released, namely Mohamed bin Jikatah, Ali bin Mohamed, and Suwaydah bin Al-Mukhtar. The court of Timbuktu convicted Ali bin Mohamed and acquitted the others, thus bringing about calm. And Boubaker, son of Abd al-Rahman, did not descend from a Tirmizi origin, but was a Daoudi of ancient lineage, according to the lineage he provided us himself, which contains some confirmed gaps. They are: Boubaker, son of Abd al-Rahman, son of Ali, son of Ahmed, son of Ali, son of Mohamed, son of Issa, son of Omar, son of Moussa, son of Abu Bakr, son of Ubaid, son of Hadaj, son of Jaafar, son of Daoud, son of Uruq, son of Audi, son of Hassan. And Boubaker [this one] has a brother, the son of Ahmed, who sometimes succeeds him. As for the main faction of Tirmiz, the leadership of [Sidi] Al-Mukhtar, son of the Khalifa, remained after the secession that occurred around 1885, which led to the independence of the Sidiq bin Al-Sheikh group under the name of Tirmiz Al-Gharb. [Sidi] Al-Mukhtar maintained continuous relations with the Braouish, and his faction was sometimes counted among that tribe. He died in April 1911, and was succeeded by his son Hamtah, born around 1865. He was capable of competing with Boubaker, son of Abd al-Rahman, in Tirmiz Al-Gharb due to his intelligence and loyalty. He rendered very great services to Lieutenant Bobussilwald following the formation of the "Goum" of the Beidani, of whom he was a member, then became their chief. He participated in many counter-campaigns, and his stance was clearly loyal, and in opposition to the stance of Al-Taher [leader] of the Kalnasr tribe, so that in the years 1915-1916 he prevented the Tcharigef tribe from being plundered and prevented the spread of the Tuareg uprising in the Niger [River] region, so that it would not include the Sahel regions. Hamtah's position was somewhat precarious, as he was the overall chief in principle of the entire Tirmiz tribe. He had to ignore the rivalry of Boubaker, who was logically administratively subordinate to him, and whom France treated as an equal. However, Boubaker knew how to deal with Hamtah on an equal footing when they were in the Sahel desert.