Yoruba people

==Etymology==
The oldest known textual reference to the name Yoruba is found in an essay (titled – ''Mi'rāj al-Ṣu'ūd'') from a manuscript written by the Berber<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lorcin |first=Patricia |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LmxQDwAAQBAJ&dq=Ahmad+Baba+al-Timbukti+&pg=PP1 |title=The Southern Shores of the Mediterranean and its Networks: Knowledge, Trade, Culture and People |date=2017-10-02 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-39426-6 |page=42 |language=en}}</ref> jurist [[Ahmad Baba al-Timbukti|Ahmed Baba]] in the year 1614.<ref>{{cite journal |author=John O. Hunwick |title=Ahmad Bābā on slavery |journal=Sudanic Africa |volume=11 |date=14 October 2021 |pages=131–139 |jstor=25653344}}</ref> The original manuscript is preserved in the [[Ahmed Baba Institute]] of the [[Mamma Haidara Commemorative Library|Mamma Haidara Library]], while a digital copy is at the [[World Digital Library]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.wdl.org/en/item/9661/ |title=The Ladder of Ascent in Obtaining the Procurements of the Sudan: Ahmad Baba Answers a Moroccan's Questions about Slavery |date=14 October 2021}}</ref> ''Mi'rāj al-Ṣu'ūd'' provides one of the earliest known ideas about the ethnic composition of the West African interior. The relevant section of the essay which lists the Yoruba group alongside nine others in the region as translated by [[John Hunwick]] and Fatima Harrak for the Institute of African Studies Rabat, reads:
<blockquote>We will add another rule for you, that is that whoever now comes to you from among the group called [[Mossi people|Mossi]], or [[Gurma people|Gurma]], or [[Bussa, Nigeria|Bussa]], or [[Borgu]], or [[Dagomba people|Dagomba]], or [[Tem people|Kotokoli]], or Yoruba, or [[Dogon people#Languages|Tombo]], or [[Bobo people|Bobo]], or K.rmu – all of these are unbelievers remaining in their unbelief until now. Similarly [[Dogon people|kumbe]] except for a few people of [[Hombori]]<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.artsrn.ualberta.ca/amcdouga/Hist347/autumn%202012/additional%20readings/ahmad_baba.pdf |title=Mi'rāj Al-Ṣu'ūd |page=39 |date=14 October 2021}}</ref></blockquote>

This early 1600's reference implies that the name Yoruba was already in popular demotic use as far back as at least the 1500s. Regarding the source and derivation of this name, guesses were posited by various foreign sociologists of external sources. These include; [[Ya'rub]] (son of Canaanite, [[Joktan]]) by Mohammed Bello,<ref>{{cite journal |title=Braima Alias Abraham a Study in Diffusion |date=14 October 2021 |jstor=1258069 |last1=Jeffreys| first1=M. D. W. |journal=Folklore |volume=70 |issue=1 |pages=323–333 |doi=10.1080/0015587X.1959.9717164}}</ref> ''Goru Ba'' by [[Thomas Jefferson Bowen|T.J Bowen]], or ''Yolla Ba'' ([[Mali Empire|Mande]] word for the [[Niger river|Niger River]]) etc.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XkM6AQAAMAAJ&dq=bowen+yolla+ba+yoruba&pg=PA264|title=Central Africa: Adventures and Missionary Labors..., Pg. 264|date=1857|last1=Bowen|first1=T.J.|publisher=Sheldon, Blakeman |isbn=978-0-598-72128-0}}</ref>
These guesses suffer a lack of support by many locals for being alien to (and unfounded in) the traditions of the Yorubas themselves.<ref>{{cite journal |author=E.G. Parrinder |author2=M. Wight |author3=John O'Leary |author4=C. M. Botley |title=Letters to the Editor |journal=Folklore |date=June 1959 |volume=70 |issue=2 |pages=423–425 |doi=10.1080/0015587X.1959.9717182 |jstor=1259324}}</ref> In his work, ''Abeokuta and the Camaroons Mountains'' c.1863, the English ethnologist [[Richard Francis Burton|Richard F. Burton]] reports of a Yoruba account in 1861, noting that the name "Yoruba" derives from ''Ori Obba'', i.e. -The ''Head King''.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6H3N0L3x2SAC&q=229%2F|title=Abeokuta and the Camaroons Mountains, Pg. 229|date=14 October 2021|last1=Burton|first1=Sir Richard Francis}}</ref> Based on oral and written sources, this name existed before the 1500s. It was applied ex-situ originally in reference to the Yoruba sociolinguistic group as a whole. Centuries later however, it evolved to be applied exclusively to the Ọ̀yọ́ subgroup when this subgroup rose to attain imperial status, particularly at its apogee (c.1650 — c.1750) until in the mid-1800s when this trend was reversed back to the original context.