It was the middle of the caravan season when Baghlīl started out with his team of camels on a voyage from which he would never return. The year was 1265 Hijri in the Islamic calendar (1848–9), and by all accounts it was a time of intense warfare aggravated by an outbreak of smallpox that brought about great insecurity on trans-Saharan trails. Baghlīl was a Muslim caravaner of the “Berber” Tikna clan, originally from the Wād Nūn region on the southern desert edge of present-day Morocco. He held residence in the then thriving oasis of Tīshīt, located in the heart of today's Islamic Republic of Mauritania. There he collaborated with other Wād Nūn traders in outfitting camel caravans to transport goods among the markets of Mali, Senegal, and the northwestern shores of the Sahara. When news broke of Baghlīl's passing, one of his partners was chosen to manage his estate and sort out the inheritance, while his Muslim and Jewish “creditors rose to claim their rights,” terminate their written contracts, and settle their accounts in various currencies. Soon another Wād Nūn trader residing in Tīshīt lost his life whilst trading in Senegal. In time, a string of misfortunes and deaths would precipitate a long-distance legal battle, fought with pen and paper by Muslim jurists mediating for the inheriting families of these traders on both sides of the Sahara Desert.