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diff --git a/78434-0.txt b/78434-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ab745a8 --- /dev/null +++ b/78434-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6043 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78434 *** + THE NEGROLAND + OF THE ARABS. + + + THE NEGROLAND + OF THE ARABS + EXAMINED AND EXPLAINED; + OR, + AN INQUIRY INTO THE + EARLY HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY + OF + CENTRAL AFRICA. + + BY + WILLIAM DESBOROUGH COOLEY. + + LONDON: + PRINTED BY JAMES HOLMES, TOOK’S COURT. + PUBLISHED BY J. ARROWSMITH, 10, SOHO SQUARE. + * * * * * + 1841. + + + + + TO SEÑOR + DON PASCUAL DE GAYANGOS. + + MY DEAR GAYANGOS, + + The following Essay owes its origin wholly to the extracts from +the writings of Ibn Khaldún and Ibn Baṭúṭah, which you had the kindness +to communicate to me. Not only did you occasion the present developement +of my speculations, but you have also at all times cheerfully aided me +in the researches to which they gave birth; you have placed at my +disposal, as it were, your perfect knowledge of the Arabic language, +and, from the abundance of your learning, have in some measure made good +my deficiency. To whom, then, can this little work be dedicated so +justly, as to you? Nor, while acknowledging my obligations, can I forego +the pleasure afforded by such an opportunity of expressing towards you +the friendship and esteem of + + Yours sincerely, + WILLIAM DESBOROUGH COOLEY. + + _London, March_ 3, 1841. + + + + + PREFACE. + + * * * * * + + +The following Essay has for its object to establish the early geography +of Central Africa on a solid basis. It aims at offering a clear and +well-grounded explanation of the geographical descriptions of Negroland, +transmitted to us by Arab writers; and, by thus connecting the past with +the present, at giving an increased value to the historical information +derived from the same sources. The attainment of that end will throw a +steady light on the past condition of a country now awakening a general +interest. It will enable us to trace some important political +revolutions; to discern the nations which have stood forth politically +eminent, and to estimate correctly, by means of a lengthened and +authentic retrospect, the progress of civilization in Africa. + +The task here undertaken has more of novelty in it than may be at first +suspected. Hitherto no attempt whatever has been made to explain the +Arab geography of Negroland by treating it as a whole, and as the +immediate subject of investigation. Yet no department of the wide field +of literature stands more in need of critical labour, or appears more +justly entitled to it. The Arabs in the Middle Ages were copious and +circumstantial writers, though neither profound nor exact. Geography was +one of their favourite studies. The interests of trade and religious +zeal led them across the deserts of Northern Africa to Negroland, of +which they have left us accounts bearing in every lineament the +expression of unaffected sincerity. Yet such has been the difficulty +found in recognizing the places described in those accounts, that, up to +this day, scarcely any addition to our positive knowledge of Negroland +has been derived from the writings of the Arabs. + +Ibn S’aíd, a writer of the thirteenth century, has enumerated thirteen +nations of Blacks, extending across Africa, from Ghánah in the west, to +the Bojá on the shores of the Red Sea in the east. Yet it is not till we +arrive at the tenth of these, or Kánem, that we are able to identify +satisfactorily the nomenclature of Ibn S’aíd with that of modern +geography. The first nine nations towards the west, or nearly three- +fourths of the whole, remain undetermined. + +The Arab geography of Africa lies, at present, a large but confused heap +of materials, into which modern writers occasionally dip their hands, +each selecting what appears to serve his purpose, and adapting it to his +views by an interpretation as narrow and partial as his mode of inquiry. +Modern geographers—D’Anville and Rennell not excepted—have allowed +fancied resemblances of sound to lead them far away from fact and the +straight path of investigation. They have, for example, unanimously +assumed the Kanó of the present day to be the Ghánah of past ages. The +disorder introduced into the early geography of Central Africa by this +false method of proceeding, has deprived it of all its value. It seems +incapable of combining with the results of modern discovery; and instead +of the harmony which ought to subsist between our present information +and the ample accounts of Negroland written five or six centuries ago, +we find in almost every application of the latter, the jarring +consequences of false assumptions. + +To give a new value to such confused materials, we must have recourse to +a new and improved method of treating them. + +The course here followed is, to examine the Arab authors of greatest +value, and to develope, as completely as possible, the information found +in them, their meaning being collected altogether from internal +evidence, and without any regard to extrinsic systems. Where their +statements are clear, natural, and consistent, no attempt has been made +to interfere with or strain them by arbitrary conjectures. Where, on the +other hand, they are obscure, absurd, or contradictory, care has been +taken to inquire,—1st, What were the sources or channels of the author’s +information? 2ndly, How far it must be taken in strictness, or may claim +the latitude allowed to the language of ordinary discourse? 3rdly, The +state of knowledge, and prevalent geographical systems in the writer’s +time? 4thly, What portions may be looked upon as original or authentic, +and what as founded on inference or surmise?—The point of greatest +difficulty, and which demands the utmost care and perspicacity, is to +distinguish between the language of experience and that of system; to +separate the original information from the supplementary additions made +to it, for the purpose of filling up or rounding the description, or of +reconciling it with theoretical conceptions. + +In all parts of the world, and in every age, the human mind moves in a +constant cycle. In like stages of its progress it occupies similar +positions, and goes through the same round of error. This truth is +exemplified in the history of Geography, as well as in that of every +other branch of human knowledge. The corrections made in our maps of +Africa during the last three centuries; those made by Ptolemy in the +geography of the same quarter of the globe, written by Marinus Tyrius; +and those of which the great Alexandrian himself stands in need, are +nearly all reducible to one common rule. The errors to which +systematical geography tends, while it is not as yet founded on science, +are so fully shown by experience, that we can safely derive from our +knowledge of them a principle of rectification, applicable to all the +materials of unscientific geography, presented to our notice, and +obviously needing correction. The endeavour to trace errors according to +fixed analogies, will at least lead us from mere conjecture towards a +rule of reason. + +The most vexatious and frequently recurring hindrance in researches of +the kind here undertaken, arises from the defects of the Arabic written +character, and the uncritical servility of Arab copyists and compilers. +In Arabic writing, some of the characters closely resemble one another, +and are distinguished only by diacritic points: the vowels likewise are +chiefly indicated by points, which, like those of the former kind, are +often wholly omitted. Hence it follows, that proper names, the correct +reading of which cannot be inferred from the context, easily sink, when +written in such ambiguous characters, from corruption to corruption, +till at last they altogether cease to be recognizable. Misnomers arising +in this way were perhaps often adopted in discourse, till, in process of +time, they became authorized by usage. Uncertainty with respect to the +true reading of proper names, besides being in itself a source of great +perplexity, has the ill effect of encumbering the truth with much +preliminary discussion of an apparently trivial kind. Nor are our +difficulties with respect to proper names confined to the writings of +the Arabs. In some parts of Africa, different races are so commingled, +that five or six languages may be heard spoken within a narrow extent of +territory. Travellers arriving in such a country from different +quarters, and associating with different portions of the population, +will naturally report in different ways the names of places. If +Europeans, they variously represent, each according to the genius of his +own language, articulations which, being strange to their organs, they +did not invariably seize correctly. Names have been also transferred +from one language to another, without due regard to the sound originally +sought to be represented. Here, then, are abundant sources of confusion, +which, so far, at least, as it involves the genius and construction of +African languages, we are not always in a condition to clear up. Yet it +is necessary, as we proceed, to endeavour to distinguish between the +more and the less doubtful; and if any one should feel surprised at the +attention occasionally bestowed in the following pages on proper names, +let him only reflect, that the errors arising from the neglect of so +many inevitable causes of variance, would at least equal what may ensue +from even the least skilful discussion of them. + +It would have been easy to lengthen the list of Arab authors here made +use of; but little would have been gained for Geography by reference to +works equally deficient in judgment and originality. The authors chiefly +relied on are, El Bekrí, Ibn Khaldún, and Ibn Baṭúṭah. El Idrísí is +analysed in some passages, chiefly for the sake of explaining certain +discrepancies between him and the first-named writer, and to estimate +the weight due to his authority. The conjectures scattered through the +following pages are much fewer than the nature of the subject and the +course of investigation would have permitted; but it was thought +advisable to keep conjectures within bounds, even where they could not +have interfered with the reasoning. Reserve and circumspection are +especially necessary for an author whose conclusions differ widely from +those of his precursors in the same field of inquiry, and who aims at +deciding definitively questions which have long divided the judgments of +the learned. Reference to the systems of recent authors has been, in +general, avoided, lest the frequent recurrence of the language of +refutation might give the whole an air of controversy. Pains have been +also taken to abridge whatever was not strictly geographical, the object +here aimed at being properly the consideration of geographical +questions, the careful and satisfactory discussion of which demands a +special treatise. + +The mode here adopted of writing the Arabic names, is fully explained in +the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, vol. VII. p. 245; but in +its application will probably be found much unsteadiness and +imperfection, arising partly from the want of familiarity with it, and +partly from the difficulty of setting exact bounds to the employment of +a foreign orthography, which jars disagreeably with the necessary +reference to the orthography of our modern travellers. The attempt at a +systematic reform of the mode of writing African names, has been +avoided, and therewith the alternative also, of either multiplying +without end the subordinate topics of discussion, or else of allowing +much hypothesis to steal in under the mask of precision. + +In conclusion, it may be remarked, that the attempt here made, however +successful it may be deemed—and it cannot be denied that it broaches +some truths, and discloses a new and logical method of treating an +interesting subject—is yet but a sketch, which remains to be filled up, +after a careful examination of the numerous Arabic MSS. preserved in the +public libraries here and abroad, by some one better qualified for that +labour, and enjoying fairer opportunities than the writer of these +pages. + + + + + CONTENTS. + + * * * * * + + + INTRODUCTION 1 + + GHÁNAH, AÚDAGHOST, AÚLÍL. + + Támedelt — Route to Aúdaghost — Line of Drifting Sands — 5 + Position of Aúdaghost — Route to Ghánah — The Desert — Tíser — + Azawad — The Zenágah — Genéwah — Lumtúnah — Goddálah — Aúlil + — Trade of Aúdaghost — Aúkar — Sínghánah — Tekrúr — Tádmekkah + — River of Ghánah — Samaḳanda — Ghaïárú — Bokmo — Manners of + Ghánah — Ghánah near the site of Tomboktú + + EL IDRÍSÍ COMPARED WITH EL BEKRÍ. + + Measures of El Idrísí — His delineation of the Great River — 48 + History of the Maghráwah + + MÁLÍ. + + Ghánah subjected by the Molaththemún — The Ṣúṣú — The People of 61 + Málí — The Kings of Málí — Table of their succession + + IBN BAṬÚṬAH’S JOURNEY. + + Tegháza — The Desert — Aïwalátin — Kársekhó — The Ṣanṣarah — 70 + Málí — Manners of the Court — Departure from Málí — Position + of that capital — Mímah — Tomboktú — Kaúkaú — The Berdámah — + Tekaddá — Káhir — Limits of Málí — Múlí and Malla — Kombori — + Yúfí — Remarks on Ibn Baṭúṭah’s Journey — Kanó not Ghánah + + TEKRÚR. + + Zághah — The Zagháï — Sanghee — Sungai — Sokai — Zachah — 97 + Eastward Movement of the Tekrúr — Abuse of the name Tekrúr + + KÚGHAH, KÁGHÓ, KAÚKAÚ, KARKAR. + + El Bekrí’s account of Kúghah and Kaúkaú — El Idrísí’s hesitation 103 + — More than one Kaúkaú — Karkar — Gargari — Surmise as to the + present existence of Kághó + + LEMLEM, REMREM, DEMDEM, EL-LÍMIYÍN, + + Various names of one people — Originally one name — Its probable 111 + origin — Refers to Houssa — The modern Yemyem — El-Límiyín + + NEGROLAND DIVIDED INTO NATIONS. + + Ibn Sʿaíd’s list — Makrízí’s additions — Ibn Sʿaíd compared 116 + with Leo — Results of the comparison — Kingdom of Kúra — Lake + Kúra — Compared with the Kowára — Interference of theory — + Recapitulation + + POSTSCRIPT. + + REMARKS ON HOUSSA. + + Routes from Ashantí to the Kowára — The letter r often changed 140 + into a ḍ — The Kambaroa — The Kadunía — The River Kowára + probably so called from the country in which the Quorrama rises + + + CORRECTIONS. + + Page 14, note 31—for Moallakah read Maḳámah. + + Page 60, note 107—for A’walílí read Awalílí. + + + + +[Illustration: Sketch _of a_ Map _to illustrate_ the ARAB GEOGRAPHY of +NEGROLAND _By_ W. D. Cooley, Esqr. + +_London, John Arrowsmith, 10 Soho Square 1841._] + + + THE + NEGROLAND + OF THE ARABS. + + * * * * * + + INTRODUCTION. + + +Nature has marked out, in a plain and peremptory manner, the chief lines +of communication between the maritime regions of North Africa and the +fertile Interior beyond the great desert. The Oasis, or habitable tract +of Fezzán, south of Tripoli, projects far into the barren waste, and a +journey of not more than forty days conducts thence to Kánem or Bornú. +In the west, a route of equal length connects the last traces of +cultivation at the back of Atlas, with the Great River of Negroland, +where, winding in a long circuit towards the north, it seems to drive +back desolation, and narrows the limits of the desert. The two routes +here described, are those chiefly frequented at the present day by +caravans proceeding to Central Africa; and the preference given to them +is due to their combining such advantages of convenience and security, +as must have constituted them the chief routes in all ages. + +The first of these, or the road between Fezzán and the interior, may be +presumed to have been frequented by the ancients. If we assume that +commerce spread westward from Egypt, or if we fix our eyes on Augila or +the Greek colony of Cyrene, the eastern route will certainly seem +entitled to be the channel of the earliest intercourse with the Blacks. +But the discussion of such questions does not lie within the scope of +our present inquiry; and it will be here sufficient to observe, that so +far as the Arabs were concerned, the western route, though last reached, +was the most frequently trodden and most diligently explored. The stream +of Arab invasion in Northern Africa flowed rapidly to the west, till +accumulating between the shores of the Ocean and Atlas, it pressed on +the Berber clans inhabiting all the fertile recesses of this range of +mountains. Continual wars thence ensued, in the course of which the +discomfited party always fled to the desert, wherein they wandered to +the borders of Negroland. + +It is by the western route that we have derived, through Arab writers, +the amplest and earliest accounts of Central Africa. For the Arabs in +Spain who cultivated letters maintained a constant intercourse with +their rude but active brethren of Western Barbary, whom trade and +warfare alike occasionally impelled to visit the countries beyond the +desert. In the beginning of the eleventh century of our era, the hills +on the south side of Wád Nún and Darʿah, or the northern portion of the +western desert, were occupied by the Lumtúnah, a tribe of the +Zenágah.[1] Separated from them by an uninhabited tract, were the Benú +Goddálah of the same nation, whose territory, comprising the southern +zone of the Ṣaḥrá, extended eastward from the sea shore to the country +of the Blacks.[2] The more sterile tracts of the desert in the interior, +within the limits possessed by the Zenágah, were abandoned to the +wandering tribe of the Benú Masúfah, by their more powerful brethren +near the coast.[3] These three tribes, inflamed with religious zeal, to +which their intestine feuds had given a martial character, shaped their +course northward, and being united under the name of Al Morábiṭún, or +Champions of the Faith, they subjugated the fertile countries on both +sides of the southern Atlas, and founded, in 1073, the empire and city +of Morocco. The Al Morábiṭún, or Morabites, subsequently extended their +sway into Spain, in the history of which country they figure under the +name of Almoravides. But long before they carried their arms into +Europe, they corresponded intimately with the polished courts of +Mohammedan Spain; and while they had not yet quite relinquished the +desert, nor forgotten their acquaintance with the frontiers of +Negroland, they communicated their information to the inquisitive, and, +for that age, well instructed Spanish Arabs. The age immediately +preceding the foundation of Morocco is that in which we should +accordingly expect to find the most valuable accounts of the Western +Desert, and of the Negro kingdoms contiguous to it. The events of that +period were calculated to bring within the reach of literary activity, +full, fresh, and authentic information respecting the interior of +Western Africa. It is fortunate for us, therefore, that we possess an +account of that country written in the very age referred to, by one who +resided at the most accomplished court in Spain; whose station in +society and official rank afforded him the amplest means of satisfying +his curiosity; and whose perspicuity and good sense entitle him to a +distinguished place among Arab writers. The author here alluded to, Abú +ʿObeïdi-llah Abdullah el Ḳorṭoby, was son of the independent ruler of +Huelva. He resided chiefly in Cordova, at that time the centre of Arab +refinement, and filled the highest offices in that kingdom. His account +of Negroland, entitled ‘Kitábu-l-mesálek wa-l-memálek,’ or the Book of +Roads and Realms, was written in the year of the Hijra 460, or A.D. +1067, just fourteen years after the first rise of the Morabites, and six +before the foundation of Morocco. We shall therefore take El Bekrí as +our guide while endeavouring to determine the true position of Ghánah, +in his age the principal kingdom of Negroland.[4] + + +[Footnote 1: Wád Nún is also called by early writers Núl, or Núl el +aḳṣa. Darʿah دَرعَه is also written Dirʿah دِرعَه (MS. B.M. fol. +101)—Lumtúnah لمتونه—The Berber name Zenághah زناغه was corrupted by the +Arabs, as Ibn Khaldún informs us, into Ṣinhájah صنهاجه, pronounced in +the west Ṣinhágah.] + +[Footnote 2: Goddála, so pronounced, though written by El Bekrí Joddála +جدَّاله (MS. B.M. fol. 106); by Ibn Khaldún and others, Godálah ڭداله.] + +[Footnote 3: Benú Masúfah بنو مسوفه.] + +[Footnote 4: For an account of this valuable author, see the recently +published History of the Mohammedan Dynasties in Spain, by Don Pascual +de Gayangos, p. 324. The excellent MS. in the library of the British +Museum (No. 9577) there described, shall be here briefly cited as MS. +B.M. A translation of El Bekrí’s Book of Roads and Realms, by M. +Quatremère, has appeared in the 12th volume of the Collection entitled +‘Notices et Extraits des MSS. de la Bibliothèque du Roi.’ But the +Parisian MS. is so deficient in points, that the translator, +notwithstanding his learning and acuteness, has not always been able to +divine the true reading. A fragment of the same work, containing what +relates to Ghánah, has been translated by M. Jaubert, to whom it was +sent from Barbary, and inserted in the 2nd volume of the ‘Recueil des +Voyages et Mémoires,’ &c. published by the Société de Géographie in +Paris. Wherever this extract, which is taken from a MS. of inferior +authority, is quoted alone in the following pages, the reader may +understand that the readings so adopted agree in characters with the +readings found in the MS. B.M., and have in addition the vowel points.] + + + + + GHÁNAH — Aúdaghost — Aúlíl. + + +Previous to the foundation of Morocco, all the trade of Negroland with +Western Barbary was directed towards Sijilmésah, a town on the eastern +side of Atlas, eight or ten days from Fás or Fez, and in the district +which is now called Táfílélt.[5] From Sijilmésah, a two months’ journey +southward conducted to the nearest kingdom of the Blacks, which was that +called Ghánah.[6] But in propriety of speech Ghánah was the title of the +king, whose dominion, anterior to the rise of the Al Morábiṭún or +Morabites, extended to Aúdaghost, a town on the southern border of the +great desert, and containing a Berber population.[7] Driven from +Aúdaghost, the negro king fixed his residence at Aúkár, fifteen days’ +journey south-westward from the former place, and not far from the great +river of the interior, called by Arab writers the Nile of the Blacks.[8] +But the new capital, as well as the kingdom, was still generally known +by the name of Ghánah. + +A desert of forty days’ journey in extent lay between Aúdaghost and +Támedelt,[9] a town of Sús el Aḳṣa, on the verge of the desert, and +eleven days from Sijilmésah. The two months’ journey between Ghánah and +Sijilmésah, would, if literally interpreted, place the capital of the +Blacks forty-nine days distant from Támedelt. But where could a route of +forty-nine days southward from the borders of Sús el Aḳṣa meet the Great +River, unless in the vicinity of Tomboktú?[10] This city is distant +about two months from Táfílélt, and not more than fifty days from Sús el +Aḳṣa.[11] It owes all its importance to its advanced position, near the +very point where the river turns eastward, after repressing the desert +in its northerly course, and making its nearest approach to Western +Barbary. The advantages of such a position could never have been +overlooked while caravans traversed the desolate plains of the interior. +The site of Ghánah then, and Tomboktú, being equidistant from Sús el +Aḳṣa, both in a southerly direction from it, and both in the vicinity of +the Great River, which, within the distance of fifty days from Sús el +Aḳṣa, washes the desert during only a short part of its course, cannot +have been far asunder. This brief argument is in reality unanswerable. +Within the assigned time, a caravan travelling at the ordinary pace, +could reach the Great River nowhere but in the vicinity of Tomboktú. The +site of Aúkár then being near Tomboktú, Aúdaghost fifteen days distant +from it towards the north-east, must have been situate in the same tract +as the modern town or encampment of Mabrúk.[12] Thus the first view of +the routes to the chief towns of the ancient Ghánah suggests the +approximate positions of those towns. Let their positions be assumed +accordingly, so as to give distinctness to our conceptions, while we +follow, step by step, the routes to them across the desert; and the +examination of these routes in all their particulars will, in turn, +illustrate and confirm our assumptions, if they be correct. + +The position of Támedelt, the starting point of the caravans to +Negroland, must be in the first place determined. That town is stated to +have been five days westward (or, we must rather suppose, south of +westward) from Darʿah, and six days south-eastward from Iklí, the +capital of Sús, which town, situate on a river flowing northward, was +two days from Mésah and five from Wád Nún. Now the capital of Darʿah was +five days distant from Sijilmésah, which was nine ordinary journeys from +Fez.[13] Támedelt was therefore twenty days from Fez, by the road on the +eastern side of the mountains, and it was also six days south-eastward +from Iklí, which town must accordingly be so placed within five days of +Wád Nún, and two days northward from the river of Mésah, as to allow +Támedelt a somewhat westerly bearing from Darʿah. These conditions being +fulfilled, the position of Támadelt will be nearly in lat. 28° 45′ N., +long. 7° 10′ W., and not far from the modern Tatta.[14] The position +thus assumed, though not quite free from uncertainty, will yet involve +no inaccuracy capable of endangering the argument depending on it. + +The starting point being ascertained, there remains no difficulty in +tracing the route to Aúdaghost. The first day’s journey from Támedelt +conducted to a deep well called Bír el Jemmálín:[15] the second led +through a narrow defile. Then for three days the road went over the +mountains of Azawwar,[16] strewed with masses of iron-stone. These +mountains extend, according to El Bekrí, ten days’ journey from the +ocean to the road (from Támedelt probably) to Sijilmésah. They are +evidently the same chain of mountains which caravans now pass at the +distance of six days from Wád Nún. It is apparent also that the road to +Aúdaghost must have crossed them at a distance not exceeding ten days’ +journey from the sea; and therefore could have scarcely inclined towards +the east. Three days beyond the mountains was the watering place of +Tendefas, and three days further a great well called Weínhílún.[17] Then +another three days led to a scanty spring named Tázḳa, or the House.[18] +Four days further were the brackish wells of Weítúnán, and after another +four days the watering place of Aúkázenta.[19] There ended the hard +desert, and the region of loose sand-hills commenced, the passage of +which presented the greatest difficulty to the traveller, and was +fraught with danger. + +The northern limit and general direction of the sandy region of the +great desert are marked out with tolerable distinctness in the +narratives of some modern travellers. It was on the twenty-fifth day of +his journey from Wád Nún to Tomboktú that Sidi Hamed entered the region +of drifting sand.[20] This must have been somewhere between the twenty- +third and twenty-fourth parallels of latitude. In the same line, or +twenty-two days from El Harib, between Tatta and Darʿah, Caillié left +the sand-hills on his journey from Tomboktú northwards.[21] Laing, on +his way from Twát to Tomboktú, entered the sands in lat. 23° 56′ N.; and +Scott crossed a similar tract, eleven days’ journey in extent, +apparently from the twenty-first to the twenty-third parallel inclusive, +and not far from the ocean.[22] The vast expanse of light sand thrown up +into wave-like hillocks, which change with every wind, is a remarkable +feature of the great desert, depending not more on the mineralogical +constitution of the country than on the excessive dryness of the +climate. The permanence of its general position, therefore, in spite of +local fluctuations, is as certain as its extension from west to east, +between the zones fertilized by rains. Now the site of Támedelt was four +or five days westward from El Harib; and since on the road to Tomboktú +from the former of these places the loose sand is entered on the twenty- +fifth day, from the latter on the twenty-third; while from Támedelt to +Aúdaghost the sands were entered also on the twenty-third day, there is +reason to infer, that so far, the direction of the road from Sús el Aḳṣa +to Aúdaghost differed little, if at all, from the modern road to +Tomboktú. The ancient and modern roads to Negroland ran nearly parallel +between the hills south of Sús el Aḳṣa and the zone of drifting sands. + +The most difficult part of the journey, according to El Bekrí, lay over +the ridges of loose sand, on entering which there was no water to be +found till, after four days’ toil, the traveller reached the wells of +Wanzamín, where all the roads to Negroland met together.[23] The roads +thus said to meet that from Sijilmésah must have been those from +Wergelán, Twát, and Télemsén or Tremecen. Now the roads from these +places to Tomboktú all unite at Telig, about thirty days from El Harib, +and our hypothesis respecting the position of Aúdaghost derives no +slight confirmation from the circumstance that it gives to the meeting +of the roads to that place, twenty-seven days from Támedelt, a position +which harmonizes perfectly with their present junction on the road to +Tomboktú. Near the meeting of the roads was a mountain, the recesses of +which concealed bands of various tribes of the Zenágah, as the Lamṭah, +Gezúlah, Geráwah, &c., all from the south-western extremity of Atlas, +who lay in wait to attack caravans. + +From the wells of Wanzamín the road continued through sand-hills in the +province of Wárán for five days to a large well belonging to the Benú +Wáreth, thence in two days to Agharef, and in three more to Akríri, that +is to say, the reservoir of water.[24] Near this place was a mountain +named Azgúnán, where caravans were in danger of being attacked by the +Blacks.[25] One day further, over hot sands, lay the brackish wells of +Wárán, then, for three days, fresh water was found in wells belonging to +the Zenágah, and another day led over the high mountain, at the foot of +which stood Aúdaghost. This town was situate in a hilly country, within +the limits of the rains, and does not appear to have had any water but +that of wells. It can hardly be supposed that the limit of the rains in +the interior of the African continent, at a distance from the sea coast, +ascends beyond the twentieth parallel of latitude.[26] Now if a distance +of forty days’ journey be measured from Támedelt, so as to intersect the +twentieth parallel towards the interior, it will be found that fifteen +days’ journey south-westward (according to the distance and bearing of +Aúkar from Aúdaghost) measured from that intersection, will reach to the +neighbourhood of Tomboktú. + +The foregoing account is evidently that of a route frequented by +caravans, and therefore the distances mentioned in it may be received +with confidence. Its general direction, as Abulfedá tells us, was to the +south. El Bekrí describes also the journey from Darʿah to Ghánah, in a +brief and uncircumstantial manner; but his description, though wanting +in the minuteness and precision derivable from the experience of +caravans, is yet not wholly uninstructive. From Wádi Darʿah to Wádi +Tárḳa, on the margin of the desert, was a journey of five days. Then the +traveller entered the wilderness in which water occurred only every two +or three days. Of the wells first met with, one was called Tezámt. +Eastward of it were Bír el Ḥammálín, or the porters’ well, and another +named Nálellí or Málekí.[27] “From these wells,” says our author, “to +the country of Islám, is a distance of four days; and at an equal +distance are the Adarérén Wazzél, or mountains of iron.[28] There a +desert begins in which there is no water for eight days; it is, indeed, +that which is emphatically styled The Desert. The water in it belongs to +the Benú Yentesír, a tribe of Zenágah. The village of Moddúken, which is +next arrived at, belongs to the same race. Thence to Ghánah is a journey +of four days.”[29] + +Wádi Darʿah was three days from Támedelt, probably east by north. Wádi +Tárḳa may be conjectured to have been on the southern side of the +mountains of Azawwar mentioned in the account of the route to Aúdaghost. +But the particular here chiefly deserving of attention, is The Desert, +in which no water was met with for eight days. The name of this desert, +omitted by El Bekrí, is supplied by subsequent writers. We are informed +that the merchants going to Ghánah passed through the desert of Tíser, a +dry and desolate wilderness of sand, with only a few pools of bad water, +the chief of which was that called the well of Tíser.[30] The extent of +this desert is variously stated to be eight, ten, twelve, and even +fourteen days’ journey.[31] At its eastern extremity stood Aúdaghost, +and hence it is not surprising that the journey to that city should +present diminished difficulty; though the loose, hot sands, and +intervals of four or five days without water, in the latter half of the +route thither, between the 23rd and 32nd days, clearly mark the +continuation of the inhospitable tract.[32] On the west, the desert of +Tíser adjoined the division of the Ṣaḥrá called Kamnúdíyah, which +bordered on the ocean in the vicinity of Cape Bojador, as shall be shown +hereafter. Unless we assign, therefore, to the territorial divisions of +the Ṣaḥrá a disproportionate extension from west to east, the contiguity +of the maritime district of Kamnúdíyah to the desert of Tíser, +strengthens the presumption that the latter could hardly have reached +beyond the twelfth meridian from the shores of the Atlantic; or, in +other words, that it did not extend far east of the meridian of +Tomboktú, and, consequently, that the road to this city from the north +passes over the tract of desert anciently named Tíser. + +But it will naturally be asked, is there such a tract of peculiarly arid +desert on the road to Tomboktú? Certainly there is; a desert of like +extent, presenting the same physical character, and occupying a similar +position in the route. Ibn Baṭúṭah, on his way from Sijilmésah to +Tomboktú, arrived at Tegháza, near the edge of the desert, in twenty- +five days. In ten days more, he came to the wells, or rather muddy pools +of Táserahlá, where the caravan halted to prepare for the march over the +formidable waste of sand, which it required ten days to traverse in +order to reach Aïwalátin, a town on the southern border of the +Ṣaḥrá.[33] Had that traveller crossed obliquely from Táserahlá to +Tomboktú, he might perhaps have found the waterless desert to exceed a +ten days’ journey in extent. But towards the east its width seems to +diminish; whether it be that the northward course of the Great River, or +the chain of mountains determining that circuit of the stream, and +stretching across into the desert, modifies the atmosphere so as to give +a greater range to the periodic rains in that meridian, we have no means +of deciding. But the whole of the western Ṣaḥrá and the peculiar tract +under consideration, are described by Leo Africanus in the following +manner:— + +“To begin with the desert of Zenaga; this is a dry and barren tract +beginning from the ocean on the west, and extending eastward to the salt +pits of Tegaza. On the north it is bounded by Numidia; that is to say, +by Sus, Acca, and Darah; and it extends towards the south as far as the +land of the Blacks; that is to say, to the kingdom of Gualata and +Tombutto. There is no water found in it, except at intervals of a +hundred miles, and this, after all, is salt and bitter, in wells of +great depth, particularly on the road from Segelmesse to Tombutto. There +are many wild animals and serpents in it, as shall be related in the +proper place. In this waste is found a desert very difficult and dismal, +called Azaoad, where neither water nor dwelling-place is met with for +two hundred miles, from the well of Azaoad to the well of Araoan, which +is a hundred and fifty miles from Tombutto, and in which great numbers +of men and animals perish of heat and thirst.”[34] + +The same writer elsewhere informs us, that the desert of Azawad was so +called from its barrenness and dryness. It is not unreasonable to +suppose that when the local designation of Tíser fell into disuse, the +epithet expressing the general aspect of the region took its place. The +name Azawad still remains to the tract of desert northward of +Tomboktú.[35] And it cannot escape attention that the deserts of Tíser +and Azawad resemble each other not only in extent and physical +character, but that they are also equidistant from Sijilmésah; that they +are both on the road southward from it, and both reaching to the +southern limit of the Ṣaḥrá. There is still another point of resemblance +between them, which, of itself, is almost sufficient to prove their +common identity. El Bekrí remarks, that in travelling from Sijilmésah to +Ghánah, a desert of two months’ journey was traversed, in which there +were no fixed habitations, and the only people met with were wanderers, +such as the Benú Masúfah, a branch of the Zenágah. The Benú Masúfah +then, were in the middle of the eleventh century the tenants of the +inhospitable plains over which lay the road to Ghánah; and it is +remarkable that, three centuries later, the same miserable tribe hovered +over the road to Tomboktú. Ibn Baṭúṭah found them to be the regular, +and, as it were, hereditary guides across that desert, with the +intricacies of which, tradition as well as personal experience had made +them perfectly acquainted. In a region where the natural landmarks are +so broad and unchangeable, and where man is comparatively so weak; where +there is so little to tempt ambition or to nourish caprice, and where +the whole tribe laying claim to a long extent of territory, could never +exceed a handful of individuals,—the fact that the roads to Ghánah and +Tomboktú, traced over peculiarly arid and forbidding tracts, both passed +through the encampments of the same tribe, is a strong proof of the +proximity of those roads: for the occupiers of the most inhospitable +region in which life can with difficulty be supported, are not likely to +be disturbed in their possessions. + +It has been seen that Leo Africanus represents the country of the +Zenágah, or Ṣinhájah, to have extended from the sea shore as far +eastward as Tegháza and Tomboktú. He obviously meant to intimate that +the road to Tomboktú formed the eastern boundary of that nation or +division of the Berbers. But his expressions are not such as require to +be strictly interpreted; on the contrary, they have a claim to that +latitude of explanation which reconciles them with the state of things +at present, when the Zenágah occupy the country round Tomboktú and to a +short distance eastward of it. His expressions, however, militate most +strongly against any hypothesis which would place Aúdaghost remote from +Tomboktú, since the road to the former of those cities lay wholly within +the limits of the Zenágah. If these people held as large a share of the +Ṣaḥrá in the beginning of the sixteenth century as in the middle of the +eleventh,—and, since they figured as conquerors in the only revolution +generally affecting them in the meantime, this can hardly be +disputed,—it must follow that the road to Aúdaghost, being within their +limits, could not have passed far eastward of Tomboktú. + +The Zenágah extended southward, according to Leo, “to the country of the +Blacks, where are the kingdoms of Gualata and Tombutto.” To the words, +“the country of the Blacks,” Marmol, while borrowing largely from the +Arab writer, adds the gloss, “which is called Geneúa.”[36] And herein he +accords with all other authorities respecting the position of Genéwah, +which region, however vaguely defined, is yet always placed on the +frontiers of Negroland, westward from Tomboktú. In early ages however, +before the Berbers had derived strength from Arab instruction, the +Blacks probably possessed a larger share of the desert, or at least the +name Genéwah reached further northward. An Arab writer informs us, that +Genéwah extended from the ocean in the west, to the country of Wergelán +in the east, and from Amímah in the south to Arkí and Núl el Aḳṣa in the +north.[37] The longitudinal dimensions of this country are here +expressed in terms of obvious inaccuracy. Wergelán, though far to the +north-east of the country called Genéwah, is yet made conterminous with +it, owing to the great share which that Berber state took in the +commerce of Negroland, at that time concentred in Ghánah. But the line +on which the breadth of Genéwah is measured, drawn from north to south, +from Arkí to Amímah, may be presumed to mark its central or principal +section. Now Arkí was on the hills of the Lumtúnah, seven days distant +from Wád Nún, and Amímah stood at a short distance westward or south- +westward from the future site of Tomboktú.[38] The mean position of +Genéwah being thus indicated, the author adds, “and of its cities, is +Ghánah.”[39] Here, then, is another proof that Ghánah was contiguous to +the western desert and to western Negroland, and that the tract of +country in which it stood and flourished, was the same in which Tomboktú +subsequently rose into importance. + +The country assigned to Genéwah, in the above-cited passage, really +belonged for the most part to the Zenágah, who, anterior to their +conversion to Mohammedanism, lived much intermingled with the Blacks. +The latter may have had the upper hand; or, though in a servile state, +they may have been the more numerous class of the inhabitants; or +finally, the slave trade being carried on universally in the desert, the +Arabs of Barbary may have easily confounded the country exporting slaves +with that which produced them; and thus applied the name Genéwah to the +deserts of which Berber tribes were, if not the sole occupants, at least +the masters. But the movements of the Morabites revealed more completely +the partition and social condition of the Ṣaḥrá. The northern portion of +it, towards the ocean, was possessed by the Lumtúnah, whose dwellings +covered a range of hills (probably those called by El Bekrí Azawwar) +said to be six days’ journey in length, and to be shaded by 20,000 palm +trees.[40] On these hills, and about seven days from Wád Nún, stood the +fort or town of Arkí, the chief place of the Lumtúnah, whose flocks +wandered from the shores of the ocean as far eastward as the road to +Ghánah. + +South of the Lumtúnah, but separated from them by an uninhabited tract +ten days’ journey in width, were the Benú Goddálah, the most powerful of +the Berber tribes. In the uninhabited tract ten days wide, it is easy to +recognize the sandy region south of Cape Bojador, and forming the +continuation of the desert of Tíser or Azawad. The country of the Benú +Goddálah is said to have extended a two months’ journey in length and +breadth, a description which is applied also to the whole western Ṣaḥrá, +and to the dominions of Ghánah; and considering that in each case the +Atlantic Ocean is taken as a boundary, it is evident enough that no +exact limits were set to territorial possessions in the desert, and that +claims of sovereignty often extended from opposite quarters over the +same ground.[41] + +In the country of the Benú Goddálah was a mine or natural deposit of +salt near a town or place of fixed habitation on the sea shore, called +Aúlíl. At this place was a point of land, or peninsula, insulated by the +tide, but accessible on foot at low water. Close to it was the port. +Ambergris was collected on it at the sea side, and turtle, which +constituted the chief food of the inhabitants, were there so large, that +fishermen, as our author assevers, went to sea in their shells. From +Aúlíl salt was carried inland to Ghánah and other cities of the Blacks. +The road from the same place to Wád Nún was a two months’ journey in +length, going along the sea shore, where fresh water was found by +digging in the sand when the tide was out.[42] + +There is little room for doubt or hesitation in determining the position +of Aúlíl. One point only on the whole coast of the Ṣaḥrá can be selected +for it with any show of reason: and that point is in the bay of Arguin, +where the natural deposits of salt, the little island or peninsula, and +the abundance of large tortoises, are all found together; and exactly at +a distance of two months’ journey from Wád Nún, along the shore.[43] At +Arguin also existed, in the fifteenth century, a trade derived from the +natural productions of the place, exactly similar to that ascribed to +Aúlíl in the eleventh century. Since the shores of the Great Desert +offer one locality, and but one, answering to the description given by +El Bekrí of Aúlíl, we must necessarily conclude that this town was +situate in that locality,—namely, near Cape St. Anne in the bay of +Arguin.[44] + +Thus it appears that the Benú Goddálah were the possessors of the +maritime region of the Ṣaḥrá, from Cape Blanco southwards. They also +extended far inland (a two months’ journey, as has been already stated), +and were separated by a distance of only six days from the Blacks on the +Great River, and in the vicinity of Ghánah. They were the possessors, +therefore, of the vast country which is now divided among the Ludayas, +Brebísh, Trarzas, Erghebat, and others. Though esteemed the most +powerful of the Berber tribes, they were yet compelled to yield the pre- +eminence to the Lumtúnah, in the wars which immediately preceded the +coalition of both under the name of Morabites. It may be fairly assumed, +therefore, that these great tribes which divided between them the entire +breadth of the Ṣaḥrá where it was least inhospitable, constituted the +main body of the Berber nation to which they belonged; and therefore +that the road to Aúdaghost, which left them on the west, lay near to the +limit of the country occupied by the Zenágah, and consequently passed +through the same tract as the road subsequently traced to Tomboktú. + +Having thus examined the routes from Sijilmésah to Ghánah, and briefly +surveyed the state of the western deserts, with a view to illustrate the +geographical position of the latter country, we may now proceed to +consider also its internal condition and character; to inquire who were +its neighbours in Negroland; how these were placed in relation to each +other; and how far the accounts given of them, taken collectively and in +the plainest acceptation, accord with the knowledge which we at present +possess of the interior of Africa. + +Aúdaghost, once the residence, as we are told, of the king styled +Ghánah, was situate in a hilly country, on the margin of the desert, but +within the limit of the summer rains. Its water was chiefly drawn from +wells; its irrigated gardens had small extent, yet to eyes accustomed +only to the monotony of the sandy waste, the groups of palm trees around +it formed a luxuriant scene. Its population, gathered from various +tribes in the Belédu-l-Jeríd, belonged chiefly to the Berber nation of +the Zenátah.[45] Nor is it difficult to explain why an isolated Zenátah +population should fix and maintain itself in immediate contact with the +roving and predatory Zenágah; for during the period referred to in these +accounts, Sijilmésah, with which Aúdaghost was connected by ties of +commerce, belonged to the Zenátah. The latter town was, in reality, but +a trading colony on the frontiers of Negroland; and its mercantile +inhabitants, content with the town and trade, seem to have never +affected political independence. + +In the year of the Hijra 350 (A.D. 961), the king of Aúdaghost was Tín +Yerátán, son of Wasenbú, of the Zenágah nation. His empire is said to +have had an extent of two months’ journey in length and breadth, and +more than twenty negro kings paid tribute to him. But, at a later +period, Aúdaghost became tributary to Ghánah. This submission of a +Berber people to a nation of Blacks and unbelievers, served as a pretext +to the Morabites, who, in 446, (A.D. 1054, the same year in which they +made themselves masters of Sijilmésah,) destroyed Aúdaghost, carrying +off the women and children into slavery.[46] Arab writers, of a later +date than the fifth century of the Hijra, still speak of Aúdaghost and +its Zenágah rulers. It is not unlikely that, regardless of events, they +only re-echo the words of ancient historians; otherwise, we must suppose +that place to have revived for a short time under the descendants of its +Morabite conquerors. But the same revolution which yielded up the old +and circuitous channel of commerce to the owners of the Western Desert, +must have tended to let it fall into disuse. Under the new state of +things, the Lumtúnah and Masúfah would naturally take the nearest road +to Ghánah, through their own country and over the desert of Tíser; and +thus Aúdaghost would be forgotten.[47] + +The trade centering in Aúdaghost embraced not only the gold and slaves +of Negroland, but also the productions of the Western Desert, and of the +shores of the Atlantic Ocean. The skins of the antelope called Dant, or +Lant, were wrought into bucklers by its artisans; who also manufactured +ambergris, their supplies of which, we are told, they owed to their +vicinity to the sea shore.[48] From this it may be concluded, not that +Aúdaghost was near the sea, but that, in those early times, the +possessors of the Western Ṣaḥrá were generally in too wild a state to +allow trade to be carried on through their country; and that +consequently the maritime productions of Aúlíl passed eastwards through +the hands of the Benú Goddálah (who, occupying a favoured tract, had +acquired more settled habits) to Aúdaghost, and thus reached Sijilmésah, +after making the circuit of the domains of the rude Zenágah. El Bekrí +says also, that on the hills round Aúdaghost grew trees yielding the gum +which was used in Spain to dress silks.[49] Though this statement is not +improbable, yet it is more likely that the Benú Goddálah, while +conveying their salt and amber to the interior, likewise carried thither +the produce of their rich gum forests. Wealth in Aúdaghost consisted +chiefly in slaves, of which single individuals sometimes possessed a +thousand each. That mercantile spirit had there fixed its abode in the +midst of natural sterility, is forcibly expressed in the acknowledgment +that slaves were the only luxury of the place. Aúdaghost exhibited the +extreme licentiousness of manners characteristic, as will appear from +other examples occurring in these pages, of all the towns in the +southern border of the great desert, where the traveller, just escaped +from the perils of the wilderness, indulges in the pleasures offered by +a degraded population; and where the recklessness usual in a seaport is +increased by the opportunities of the slave-mart. + +After the destruction of Aúdaghost by the Morabites, Aúkár, fifteen days +distant from it towards the south-west, became the capital of Ghánah; or +rather that capital was composed of two towns, viz.—Aúkár, inhabited by +Mohammedans, and containing no less than twelve mosques; and Ghábah, +where the king resided, in the midst of a black population.[50] Dark +woods environed the latter town, and spread a gloom well suited to the +pagan rites for the performance of which they were reserved, and which +often involved the sacrifice of human victims. An interval of six miles, +covered with habitations, separated the two towns. The inhabitants drew +their water from wells. The climate was deadly to all but the natives. + +El Bekrí’s description of Ghánah evidently brings us within the limits +of Negroland. It exhibits to us, on the one hand, the Blacks summoned +before their king by beat of drum, sprinkling dust on their heads, and +prostrating themselves in his presence; or performing the rites of their +cruel superstitions in the darkness of their woods: and, on the other, +the Arabs or Berbers dwelling apart in a more elevated and open +situation, and yet suffering from the noxious humidity of the air. But, +it is to be remarked, that he makes no mention of running waters, the +importance of which no Arab author ever overlooks; and indeed, it must +be inferred from that author’s words, that there was no river—certainly +no great river—in the immediate vicinity of the capital of Ghánah. + +The Benú Goddálah, who possessed the southern portion of the Ṣaḥrá from +the shores of the ocean eastwards, carried their salt and other +merchandise to the Ṣínghánah, the nearest black nation, from whom they +were separated by a distance of only six days’ journey, and whose chief +city stood on both banks of the Great River, called the Nile of the +Blacks. When it is considered that the Lumtúnah reached within ten days +of Ghánah; that they were separated from the Goddálah by a broad tract +of uninhabitable sand; and that all accounts agree in representing +Ghánah as the most western of the kingdoms of the Blacks,—or, in other +words, that the desert alone intervened between it and the ocean; it +will be apparent that the Ṣínghánah, who were nearest to the Goddálah, +lay towards the south or south-west from Ghánah.[51] South-westward from +the Ṣínghánah, at no great distance, was Tekrúr, and a little further on +stood Silla, both likewise on the Great River or Nile of the Blacks. The +last-named place was twenty days’ journey from Ghánah; and, from what +has been already said, it will be manifest that its bearing from that +capital was between south and south-west.[52] + +Going eastward from Ghánah, through Aúghám, a fertile and well- +cultivated district, the traveller arrived in five days at Rás el má, or +the Water-head, “where the Nile issued from the land of the Blacks.” On +the northern bank of the river dwelt the Merásah, a Zenágah tribe. Pagan +blacks inhabited the opposite side. Six days further down the river +stood Tírḳa, a market frequented by the people of Ghánah as well as of +Tádmekkah. From Tírḳa the Nile turned southwards, and in three days +entered the territory of the Seghmárah, a tribe depending on Tádmekkah. +“On the side of the river opposite to them,” observes our author, “is +Kaúkaú, which belongs to the Blacks.”[53] + +Tádmekkah was a town situate, like Aúdaghost, on the southern frontier +of the Great Desert. According to El Bekrí, it was fifty days eastward +from Ghánah, fifty from Wérgelán, and forty from Ghodémis.[54] Another +author, whose measures of distance are not so easily appreciated, places +Tádmekkah forty days westwards from Tajúah (in the northern part of +Darfur), through the country of the Molaththemún—that is, the people who +muffle up or conceal their faces (the Tawárik), and thirty days +eastwards from Ghánah, beyond which is the ocean.[55] These intimations +combined will place Tádmekkah in the hilly country north of Aghades. It +owed its name, signifying the Likeness of Mekkah, to its situation +between two hills, in the manner of the Holy City.[56] In the +miscellaneous composition of its mercantile population, and in dissolute +manners, it was the counterpart of Aúdaghost. Our author adds, that it +was nine days from Kaúkaú; but as he appears to be involved in the +general mystification enveloping that name, it will be more convenient +for the present to waive the consideration of so embarrassing a +particular, and to avoid touching on the difficulties attending Kaúkaú +till we can make them the immediate subject of discussion. + +The route from Ghánah to Tádmekkah leads us again expressly eastward, in +the following manner: three days to Safnaḳú, a town on the Nile, and the +limit of Ghánah in that direction. Thence along the river to Búgrát, a +town of the Merásah. From Búgrát to Tírḳa, and thence over the desert to +Tádmekkah.[57] + +From all this it appears that the capital of Ghánah was three days +distant from the river (at Safnaḳú); and five days from Rás el má, or +the Head of the Water, where the river issued from the land of the +Blacks—that is to say, where it emerged, in its course northwards, from +the marshes and dark forests, and laved the open plains of the desert. +It thence flowed eastwards, for six days, to Tírḳa, where it turned +southwards towards Kaúkaú. + +Thus we find the river called by El Bekrí the Nile of the Blacks, +described by him throughout its course for above thirty days with a +distinctness and completeness of detail quite sufficient to enable us to +recognize it with certainty at the present day. If we assume, as we may +reasonably do, that Safnaḳú and Ghánah were equidistant from Silla, then +from this town to the first-named place was a distance of twenty days. +Rás el má stood at least two days further down the stream towards the +east or north-east; Tírḳa was therefore twenty-eight days, and the +commencement of the country of the Seghmárah thirty-one from Silla. + +This winding of a great river, in such a compass, from Negroland +northwards to the desert and down again, is a remarkable feature, which +cannot be overlooked or mistaken; and it is one which we find in the +river of Tomboktú at the present day, exactly as it was described in the +river of Ghánah eight centuries ago. And that which renders it more easy +to identify the Nile of Ghánah with the Nile of Tomboktú, is the +circumstance, that the towns situate at the extremities of the great +circuit of the stream comprised within the descriptions of Arab writers, +and near the apex of which the emporium of Negroland has always stood, +still bear the same names as in ancient times. From the modern Silla, +which is evidently identical with the ancient town of that name, a +journey of twenty-two days will conduct to the place where the Great +River gets clear of the greenland or inundated country and touches the +desert, which point is near Tomboktú; thence it flows eastward for six +days, and then turns southward or south-eastward to Kaúkaú.[58] Ibn +Baṭúṭah, who descended the river from Tomboktú to Kaúkaú, omits indeed +to describe the course of his voyage; but Leo Africanus, who likewise +visited those countries, says that Gago, as he writes the name, is four +hundred (Italian) miles south by east from Tomboktú.[59] Nor can we +doubt that the Gago of Leo is identical with the Kaúkaú of Ibn Baṭúṭah, +for Ibn Khaldún expressly informs us that the Kaúkaú here spoken of was +also called Kághó.[60] + +The exact parallelism of the rivers of Ghánah and Tomboktú, throughout +such a length of course, the compared portions being in each case +terminated by a Silla on the west, and a Kaúkaú on the east, is of +itself quite sufficient to establish their identity with one another. +There is, in fact, but one great river on the south side of the Ṣaḥrá to +which such descriptions will at all apply. But their resemblance may be +traced much further, through a long series of particulars. The Nile of +Ghánah was navigated in large boats or barques, just as the river +between Jenni and Tomboktú is navigated at the present day.[61] The +Berbers inhabiting the shores of the Ṣaḥrá carried their salt and other +merchandise in the eleventh century to the Sínghánah, who dwelt on the +Great River between Silla and Ghánah: and now they resort in like manner +to the banks of the Great River between Silla and Tomboktú.[62] A part +of the river between Silla and Ghánah was remarkable as the haunt of +hippopotami or river-horses, which animals were killed by the natives, +with javelins attached to cords, for the sake of their skins;[63] and +Ibn Baṭúṭah, while travelling north-eastward to Tomboktú, probably not +far from Jenni, had his attention called to the multitude of those +animals frequenting the river in the vicinity, and gives a similar +account of the means used to destroy them. + +Tekrúr, the town or community of Negroland first converted to the +Mohammedan faith, was in the neighbourhood of Silla, as already stated, +and probably eighteen or twenty days south-west, or south-south-west +from Ghánah. It would be, therefore, a decisive proof that this capital +stood not far from the position of Tomboktú, if it could be shown that +the original site of Tekrúr was near the modern Silla. But to touch this +argument here, would be to enter prematurely on the discussion of a +question of some magnitude. The application of the name Tekrúr may be +more conveniently examined further on, when the historical connexion +between Ghánah and Western Negroland shall have been disclosed. For the +present it will be sufficient to observe, that the early history of +Tekrúr seems to be in a great measure appropriated by the +Mandingoes;[64] that the date usually assigned to the conversion of +Ghánah, exactly coincides with the epoch of conversion adopted by the +Mohammedan nations of western Guinea; and that the glory of the first +acceptance of the faith is conceded by undisputed tradition to the +country on the Joliba immediately below Silla.[65] + +The Nile of Ghánah turned eastward at Rás el má, the most northern part +of the river, and not more than five days from Ghánah. Towards that +point, therefore, may be said to have been directed the great caravan +route from Sijilmésah to Negroland; and now the frequented route from +the same quarter conducts to the most northern point of the Great River +flowing by Tomboktú, and which, in like manner there turns eastward. It +might be added that since the Kaúkaú and Gago, visited from Tomboktú by +Ibn Baṭúṭah and Leo, are shown to have been the same place, the distance +of 400 Italian miles between that place and Tomboktú, according to the +latter writer, agrees perfectly with the distance of fifteen journeys +between Ghánah and Kúghah, according to El Bekrí, assuming that Kúghah +is here written for Kaúkaú or Kághó; but until the peculiarly equivocal +character of these names be discussed, no reliance can be placed on any +argument involving either of them separately. But they may be dealt with +safely when taken together, and where it is not necessary to +discriminate between them. Now both El Bekrí and El Edrísí mention +Kaúkaú and Kúghah; and if it be conceded that either of these places was +identical with the Kaúkaú or Kághó, which, from the 14th to the 18th +century, ranked as the most important city in Negroland (a supposition +which seems highly probable), then it follows that Ghánah was at least +fifteen days higher up the stream, or, according to the construction of +the Arab geographers, westward from the same place, which was 400 miles +lower down than Tomboktú; and, consequently, was either near the site of +the latter city, or, if remote from it, must have been still further +westward. + +Again, the rivers of Ghánah and Tomboktú closely resemble each other in +this respect, that on turning eastward, after attaining their most +northern point, they both approach the limits of the Zenágah, whose +eastern boundary sloped south-eastward from the road to Ghánah, till, +near the river, it reached a distance of ten or twelve days from that +capital; and now its relation to Tomboktú may be described in nearly the +same terms.[66] + +The Nile of the Blacks has been thus traced from Silla, a distance of +twenty days north-eastward towards Ghánah; then to a distance of eleven +days eastward from the latter place, and then three days southward, +where our author’s continuous account of its course unfortunately +terminates. But we are again led to it by a route through Negroland, so +obscure and uncertain indeed as to be in itself of little value; but the +discussion of which, as a means of comparing authors, may be indirectly +turned to advantage. We are informed by El Bekrí that much of the gold +collected in Ghánah was brought from Ghaïárú, eighteen days distant from +the former capital, and near the Great River. It is manifest that +Ghaïárú did not lie south-westward from Ghánah, for, in that direction, +a journey of eighteen days near the river brings us into the vicinity of +Tekrúr and Silla, of which our author has already spoken. It must +therefore have been situate down the river, below Kaúkaú, or south- +eastward from Ghánah; and the described route, not following the stream, +must also have gone directly through the interior, till it met the river +after its circuit eastward. It seems necessary to suppose that the route +does not begin from the capital of Ghánah, but from its frontiers and +the opposite side of the river; and also that the day’s journey in +Negroland was a conventional measure, founded perhaps on the speed of +couriers or messengers on horseback, and exceeding that of the loaded +caravan in the desert. The construction here given to this route, as +described by El Bekrí, agrees in the main with that adopted by +subsequent Arab writers, though their misconceptions have in some +instances wholly perverted his meaning.[67] The route was as follows: + +From Ghánah four days to Sámaḳanda, the inhabitants of which place were +the most expert archers among the Blacks. Thence two days to Ṭáḳah; one +day more to the branch of the Nile called Zúghú, fordable by camels, but +which men were obliged to cross in boats.[68] Thence to Gharnatil or +Ghúntil, an extensive and powerful country wherein Mohammedans +experienced good treatment, but had no establishment.[69] Elephants and +giraffes were there numerous. From Ghúntil the route went directly to +Ghaïárú, a town twelve miles from the Nile. In the latter place, as well +as in Bersana, a town on the Nile westward of Ghaïárú, were many +Mohammedans, chiefly engaged, it would appear, in the slave trade.[70] +“Beyond Bersana, and at the other side of the river,” says El Bekrí, “is +a great country, eight days in extent, the king of which is called Daúr, +and beyond it is Melil or Malelo, the king of which is a true believer, +while his people are still Pagans.” We may suppose the countries here +mentioned to be the Daúri and Mallawa of modern geography, the former +northward of Kanó, extending towards the desert, the latter a large +region, comprising apparently in the acceptation of the indigenous +population, the north-western portion of the country called Houssa.[71] +But it must be acknowledged that little confidence is due to conjectures +guided only by such obscure and equivocal indications. + +Among the countries depending on Ghánah, according to El Bekrí, was +Sámah, four days distant from Ghánah. Its inhabitants, who were called +the Bokmo, used poisoned arrows, and were reckoned the best archers +among the blacks. In this circumstance, as well as in their distance +from Ghánah, they resemble the people of Sámaḳanda; so that we are led +at once to suspect that the latter place was the metropolis of +Samah.[72] But it is a curious coincidence that a people named Bokmo +should be at a short distance from Ghánah, towards the south, and that a +district called Bagamo should have a similar position with respect to +Tomboktú. For Marmol, copying the words of De Barros with a few slight +additions, thus expresses himself respecting the various names of the +rivers of Tomboktú, in conformity with the erroneous opinion prevalent +in his time, that it flowed into the sea by the Senegal. “The Portuguese +(he says) call it Zenega; the Zenagas, Zenedec; the Gelofes, Dengueh: +the Tucorones, further in, call it Mayo; the Saragoles, higher up, name +it Colle; and when it goes through a district called _Bagamo_, more to +the east, they call it Zimbala; in the kingdom of Tombut it is called +Yça.”[73] The name Zimbala or Jimbala has always hovered in the +neighbourhood of Tomboktú and vicinity of the river. Its exact position +has been matter of controversy. Yet there seems little reason for +dissenting from the statement of Caillié, who says that a large tract of +country south of Tomboktú bears that name.[74] The tract in question +therefore must be on the eastern bank of the river between lake Debú and +Tomboktú, and there also we must look for Bagamo.[75] + +The King styled Ghánah, while residing in Aúdaghost, aided, we are told, +the King of Másín in a war of the latter with the King of Aúghám. But it +appears that the last-named place was close to Aúkár, subsequently the +capital of Ghánah, and was passed through in going from that city to Rás +el má. One of the belligerent parties being thus found near Ghánah and +the river, it is natural that we should look for the other in the same +neighbourhood; and the conjecture seems as unobjectionable as it is +obvious, that the Másín of El Bekrí is the Másín or Maséna of the +present time, situate on the western side of the Great River, not far +north from Silla.[76] The same writer tells us that to the west of +Ghánah was the hostile country of Anbárah, nine days from Kúghah, which +was fifteen from Ghánah. This statement presents insuperable +difficulties; inasmuch as it contradicts the general testimony which +places Ghánah at the extreme west of the Black nations on the frontiers +of Negroland, and because by referring to Kúghah it introduces the +confusion accompanying that name. If, however, we boldly solve the +problem by supposing Kúghah to be written for Kaúkaú or Kághó, and by +placing Anbárah accordingly south by east from Ghánah, we shall then +recognize it in the warlike state of Oonbori, situate in the Hajri or +mountainous country south of Tomboktú.[77] + +But an anonymous Arab writer expresses himself more intelligibly +respecting the political relations of Ghánah; he says that twenty +parasangs or leagues east of that city was Ráyún, or perhaps rather +Ráyawen, the nearest city (on the southern border) of the desert, to +Sijilmésah and Wergelán. Between Ráyawen and Ghánah were the encampments +of the Morabites, with whom the people of the latter place waged war, as +well as with the inhabitants of Amímah, a town, as has been already +observed, not far from Tomboktú towards the west or south-west.[78] + +Of the laws and usages of Ghánah, such as were capable of enduring after +subjection to a foreign power and conversion to the Mohammedan faith, +but scanty notices have been transmitted to us. It deserves to be +remarked, nevertheless, that the law of inheritance in Ghánah gave the +preference to the sister’s son, and that the same law remained in force +in the fourteenth century in Waláta, as well as in the Mandingo kingdom +of Málí, where, however, its existence need not create surprise.[79] But +in Waláta, on the border of the desert, with a population chiefly of +Berber origin, the existence of a law so singular, so characteristic of +Guinea, and so exactly coinciding with the law of Ghánah, strongly +argues the influence of Negro rule, and favours the presumption arising +out of what precedes, that Waláta was comprised within the limits of +Ghánah. + +One of the customs of Ghánah, transiently mentioned by El Bekrí, calls +for some remark. In the presence of the king, the people prostrated +themselves, and sprinkled their naked bodies with dust. This agrees +exactly with what Ibn Baṭúṭah witnessed and justly reprobated at the +court of Málí.[80] Such slavish manners could never have originated on +the border of the desert, nor where local circumstances give the least +encouragement to the love of independence. They are the manners of +Western Guinea, and cannot be supposed to have ever existed in Houssa, a +hilly country, divided into petty states, each cherishing a rude spirit +of liberty. Succession to power in Houssa, is said to be elective among +the sons; the hereditary principle being thus blended with the exercise +of a popular right.[81] In Bornú it has been always customary to consult +the dignity of the sovereign by concealing him from the vulgar gaze, and +not by debasing the subject. Those admitted to the presence of the king +sit with their backs to the curtain which screens the royal person.[82] + +In El Bekrí’s time the dominion of Ghánah extended toward the east but +three days’ journey from the capital. Toward the south it could not have +reached very far. The independent kingdom of Tekrúr was, at the utmost, +eighteen or twenty days distant in that direction. Still nearer was +Ṣínghánah, apparently an independent state, which carried on trade with +the Benú Goddálah. This trade was guided in its channel, as must always +be the case in the early stages of society, by natural circumstances. A +branch of the desert penetrates south-eastward to the very banks of the +Great River, in a tract of which we know not the exact width, but which +embraces the western shores of Lake Debú.[83] Such a road, laid open by +nature, could not fail to exert a great influence on the history of +Negroland. And indeed, the fact that Tekrúr, situate near that part of +the river, was the first converted of the Negro states; that the trade +of the Berbers occupying the sea shore at Aúlíl, and subsequently their +sway also, extended to the same quarter, might alone create a suspicion, +that the tribes of the desert found in that tract of country a nature +congenial to their habits. This suspicion is converted into certainty by +the narrative of Alexander Scott, who crossed the tract in question.[84] +The Berbers were actual possessors of territory south of Ghánah, where +the desert approached the Great River between that country and Tekrúr. +North of Ghánah, the dry desert of Tíser or Azawad was but eight or ten +days distant. In that direction, however, as well as towards the west, +the wilderness opposed no precise limits to the claims of empire, but +allowed pretensions of sovereignty to expatiate freely over territories +of two months’ journey in extent. + +Thus we have seen that Ghánah was the frontier kingdom of the Blacks +contiguous to the advanced portion of the Great River at its north-west +angle; and extending in front of that portion of the desert, over which +lay the commerce with Sijilmésah,—a commerce guided by a principle, +which if not strictly unchangeable, at least fluctuates only within +narrow limits,—namely, that of choosing the shortest and safest route +across the desert. It comprised the country between Waláta and the Great +River, near the future site of Tomboktú, and enjoyed the identical +advantages of position which subsequently made the latter city so +prosperous. + +But what were the revolutions, it may be asked, which caused Ghánah to +disappear? This question shall be fully answered hereafter; our inquiry +at present regards the place where Ghánah existed, and not the events +which led to its extinction. Yet it will not be alien from our purpose +to observe, that although the name, or rather title, of Ghánah became +politically extinct, and was erased from the list of sovereignties, yet +it still adhered obscurely, in the sixteenth century, to at least one +spot of the territory originally designated by it. For Marmol informs +us, that in his time Walata was also called Ganata; and that he did not +in this instance hazard an erudite conjecture, but spoke the plain +language of habit and experience, is evident as well from the +unostentatiousness of the remark, as from the frequency with which he +indifferently employs these two names one for the other.[85] + +Let the reader now recal the account of Negroland, and of Ghánah in +particular, given in the preceding pages; let him fix his attention on +those features of the description pointed out for the purpose of showing +that Ghánah was near the site of Tomboktú; let him consider well that +those features have a magnitude incompatible with the supposition of +their being repeated, and a permanence derived from their dependence on +the physical constitution of the African continent. Let him, in fact, +figure to himself a great and navigable river, flowing from a town +called Silla north-eastwards for three weeks, through the country of the +Blacks who first embraced the Mohammedan faith, skirting the desert +eastwards for six days, and then turning southwards to a place called +Kaúkaú, or Kághó; let him place the emporium of Negroland near the +north-western angle of that river, at a distance of two months’ ordinary +travelling from the shores of the Atlantic, two months from Sijilmésah, +and fifty days from Tádmekkah, not far from the modern Aghades. He may +then trace the road from Sijilmésah to that emporium, dividing the whole +distance into its distinct portions, viz.—eleven days south-westward to +the border of the desert, then six days over the hills, about seventeen +more to the zone of drifting sand, passing near the salt mines of +Tagháza, and eight or ten over an utterly inhospitable tract near the +southern limit of the Ṣaḥrá. Along this road he may distribute the tents +of the wandering Masúfah; and, a little to the east of it, he may mark +the boundary line of the great Berber nation, the Zenágah. Let him then +write above Silla, on the left hand, this remark:—“Trade carried on with +the Berbers on the sea shore;” and below Kaúkaú, on the right,—“Obscure +and little known:”[86] and when, having finished this delineation, he +finds that, though drawn in conformity with the descriptions of Ghánah, +it is yet perfectly applicable to Tomboktú; and that it is equally true +and faithful, whichever of these names be given to the emporium of the +Blacks: then, even if he throw aside all other considerations, such as +the relations of Ghánah with the Morabites and with Mímah, the town +whence Tomboktú derived its Berber population, he certainly cannot +refuse to admit that the Ghánah of Arab writers was contiguous to that +part of the Great River where Tomboktú now stands. + +In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, when numerous accounts of +Barbary were published in Europe, and when the trade of Morocco and +Táfílélt (the ancient Sijilmésah) with Negroland was highly rated, we +find that, besides Tomboktú, whither the routes from Táfílélt and Wád +Nún conducted, no places of any importance in Negroland were mentioned, +except Jenni near Silla, and Gago, which is the same as Kaúkaú. The +caravans across the desert directed their march to the nearest point of +Negroland, and the merchants, arriving there, never looked beyond the +marts with which they could thence maintain a direct intercourse. In the +same manner, and exactly within the same limits, was El Bekrí’s +information circumscribed. He says nothing of the Mandingoes, +Serakholies, Wolofs, Fellatah, or other black nations of the west. He is +equally silent respecting Houssa, toward the south-east. Of Kánem, which +was reckoned to be only forty days distant from Zawílah, he speaks in +terms indicative of the faintness of his knowledge:—“The people,” he +says, “are blacks and idolators; and the country is hardly ever visited +by travellers.”—Thus the analogous modes in which Ghánah and Tomboktú +present themselves respectively to the ancient and modern historians of +Negroland, corroborate the opinion that the site of the former of those +places was in the vicinity of the latter.[87] + +In the attempt here made to demonstrate that Ghánah was near the site of +Tomboktú, it will be perceived that no aid has been sought from +etymologies or fancied resemblance of names; much less have such +delusive lights been allowed to guide our investigations. The arguments +urged in the foregoing pages rest wholly on necessary deductions from +the obvious sense of our Arab authorities, without any attempt to wrest +their meaning. The topics touched on in those arguments may be thus +briefly recapitulated: + +The description of Ghánah in respect to its bearing and distance from +Sijilmésah—the details of the road to it, and characteristics of the +desert—the relations of Ghánah with the Zenágah, and particularly with +the Morabites—its intercourse with the tribes on the sea shore—the +position of Genéwah—the course of the River—the relations of Ghánah with +Mimah, Másín or Masena, Anbárah, &c.—the name Ganata remaining to +Walata—the laws and usages of Ghánah. + +There still remains an argument of no common weight, the substance of +which, though belonging to another part of this inquiry, yet may, +without impropriety, be briefly stated here. The Blacks of the country +named Málí, who, it will be seen, were Mandingoes, issuing from the +south-west, conquered Ghánah. Their empire (to use the words of their +historian) extended from Ghánah in the east, to the ocean in the west. +Nearly a century after that conquest, they advanced eastward (or rather +south-eastward) to Kaúkaú, whence they marched into the desert and made +themselves masters of Tekaddá. They subsequently relinquished, however, +the possession of that place, and retired to Kaúkaú; so that the Great +River formed the boundary of their sway towards the east, with the +exception, perhaps, of a short space below Kaúkaú. Now there can be no +uncertainty respecting the ground over which these conquerors marched. +The celebrated traveller, Ibn Baṭúṭah, visited, in the fourteenth +century, the capital of Málí, on the Joliba above Sego; he thence +travelled to Tomboktú; thence descended the river to Kaúkaú, and from +that place he went to Tekaddá, which was on the road from Kaúkaú to Ghát +and Ghodémis. He thus appears to have followed exactly the course which +had been taken by the Mandingo conquerors; the only difference in his +described route being, that he found Tomboktú where they had found +Ghánah. + + * * * * * + + +[Footnote 5: Chénier (Recherches sur les Maures, tom. III. pp. 16 and +79) was the first to pronounce, Walckenaer (Recherches sur l’Afrique +Septentrionale, 1822, p. 285) the first to prove, the identity of +Sijilmésah سجلماسه with Táfílélt تافيلالت. The arguments of the latter +amount to demonstration, and need no reinforcement. Yet we may be +permitted to add, that all the Arab writers, without exception, make +Sijilmésah contiguous to Darʿah درعه; and that the uncritical Marmol, +although he subjoins to his description of Sijilmésah (vol. III. fol. 8) +an account also of Táfílélt, denuded of every circumstance which could +help to determine its geographical position, yet in copying Leo’s list +of the provinces of Numidia, omits Sijilmésah, and substitutes for it +Táfílélt (Leo Africanus, pt. I. c. 5. in Ramusio, 1554, vol. I. fol. 1 +V, Marmol, I. fol. 12). The name Táfílélt seems to have come into use +with the rise of the dynasty of the Fílélí sherífs. The tribe, ennobled +by events, gave its name to the country in which it was established. M. +Gråberg af Hemsö, therefore (Specchio di Marocco, 1834, p. 65), who +refuses his assent to M. Walckenaer’s conclusions, and separates +Táfílélt from Sijilmésah for reasons of comparatively little weight, +cannot certainly vindicate his mode of using the former of these names, +by showing that it occurs in the pages of any historian, native or +foreign, anterior to the sixteenth century. The Fílélí tribe or family +are however of ancient standing, for Ibn Baṭúṭah informs us that at +Kaúkaú, in Negroland, in A.D. 1353, he became acquainted with the faḳíh +or doctor, Mohammed the Fílélí الفيلالي.] + +[Footnote 6: Ghánah غَانَة and غَانَةَ (MS. B.M.). The final _hé_ ﻪ of +the Arabs, when pointed ﺔ, is pronounced as _t_ before a vowel; غَانَة +and غَانَةَ therefore, when not immediately followed by consonants, are +read Ghánat̤ and Ghánat̤a. But the suppression of the _t_ in this +instance seems to be due altogether to the analogies of the Arabic +language, and probably was not always imitated by the Berbers, in which +language _t_ is a frequent termination. Hence it is not surprising that +in an extract from El Bekrí, sent from Tripoli by M. Gråberg af Hemsö, +to M. Jaubert (Recueil, &c. par la Soc. de Géogr. tom. II. 1825), we +should find Ghánat غَانَتْ constantly written instead of Ghánah غانه. +The importance of this remark will appear hereafter.] + +[Footnote 7: The Arabic _wa_ و when it begins a word, is a consonant, +like our _w_. Hence, when the Arabs would write a name beginning with a +long _o_ or _u_, they are obliged to prefix an aleph ا to the wa و to +preserve to the latter its vocal function; thus اودغست, اوليل, اوكار, +would be written to express Odaghost or Udagost, Olíl or Ulíl, Okár or +Ukár. The áú او may be also intended for a diphthong. But it must be +observed that the prefixed aleph in the Berber language is a sign of +case, and may have other offices; there is some temerity therefore in +excluding the form Awadagost, and in reading Berber names according to +the analogies of a foreign language.] + +[Footnote 8: Not. et Extr. p. 642. The reasons for concluding that Aúkár +lay to the south-west of Aúdaghost, will be shown hereafter. El Bekrí +states more than once that Ghánah was the king’s title. Not. et Extr. +pp. 630 and 642.] + +[Footnote 9: Támedelt تَامدَلتْ (MS. B.M.) is read by M. Quatremère, +Tamdoult. Sús el Aḳṣa, i.e. the remote Sús, is the most southern +province of Morocco, on the confines of the desert.] + +[Footnote 10: The routes to Ghánah and Aúdaghost went southward, +according to Abulfedá, but this expression need not be strictly +understood. (Abulfedá’s Geography, translated by Reiske in Büsching’s +Magazin, vol. IV. 212, V. 354). Tomboktú is here spelt as dictated by +Ibn Baṭúṭah. The river of Negroland, which, in the successive parts of +its course is named Joliba, Issa, Quorra, &c., and which theory and +false learning have styled the Niger, will be generally denominated, +throughout the following pages, _the Great River_.] + +[Footnote 11: Caillié reckoned fifty-seven days of actual travelling +between Tomboktú and Táfílélt.] + +[Footnote 12: Mabrúk is said by some (Itinerary of Ḥáj Ḳásim, in +Walckenaer, Rech. p. 426) to be eleven days, by others (Mohammed of +Tripoli, in the Quarterly Review, No. 45, p. 231) fifteen from +Tomboktú.] + +[Footnote 13: Since the intercourse between Fez and Támedelt need not be +considered as merely commercial, it would be injudicious to measure the +routes between them by the journeys of a loaded caravan. El Bekrí (Not. +et Extr. p. 598) reckons eight days’ journey between Fez and Sijilmésah, +but one of them was a long journey (across the desert of Angad) of sixty +miles. Abulfedá makes the distance between these cities to be ten days’ +journey. We reckon nine days, so as make the whole distance of Fez from +Támedelt twenty days’ journey, and allow twenty-two geographical miles +to each. The bearing of Támedelt from Iklí is said to have been in the +direction of the Ḳibla بقبلي (MS. B.M. fol. 105), or temple of Mekkah, +towards which the followers of Mohammed turn their faces when they pray. +The direction of the Ḳibla is understood in Morocco, according to Windus +(Journey to Morocco, p. 49) to mean east by south.] + +[Footnote 14: The caravans from Sijilmésah to Ghánah, like those to +Tomboktú, assembled on the confines of Sús, Darʿah, and the desert. +Tatta, the gathering place of the merchants going to Tomboktú, as placed +by Major Rennell, on information derived from the British consul at +Mogadore (Proceedings of the African Assoc. 1810, vol. I. p. 254), is +not more than two days distant from the site of Támedelt; and El Harib, +the point at which Caillié, travelling northward, quitted the desert, +was but four or five days distant from these places.] + +[Footnote 15: Bír el Jemmálín بير الجمالين (MS. B.M. fol. 101), the +Camel-keepers’ well. M. Quatremère (Not. et Extr. p. 612) reads Bír el +Ḥammálín, that is, the Porters’ well. But as this name occurs in the +route from Wádi Darʿah, it is fortunate that a pointed MS. enables us to +distinguish clearly between those two places, the proximity of which +would conduce to the embarrassment likely to result from their being +confounded together.] + +[Footnote 16: Azawwar أزَوَّرْ MS. B.M. fol. 102; Azour in Not. et Extr. +p. 613. This name may, with much probability, be read Azawwad ازود, that +is, the dry or sterile country.] + +[Footnote 17: Tendefas تندفس MS. B.M. fol. 102; Tendefak, Not. et Extr. +p. 613. Weínhílún وَيْنهيْلُون MS. B.M.; Wirhaloun, Not. et Extr.] + +[Footnote 18: Tázḳa تازقَي MS. B.M.; Tarka, Not. et Extr. This word, +written _Taskha_ by Capt. Lyon (Travels in North Africa, p. 315), is +still retained in the dialect of the Tawárik.] + +[Footnote 19: Weíṭúnán ويْطُونان MS. B.M.—Aúkázenta اوكازنْتَ MS. B.M.; +Oukarit, Not. et Extr.] + +[Footnote 20: Sidi Hamed, leaving Wád Nún, went six days round the +mountains towards the south, that is, he cleared the hills on the sixth +day. He then travelled fifteen days over hard ground, on which the +camels left no trace; then three days on hard sand, and then entered the +hills of drifting sand. Riley’s Narrative of the Shipwreck of the brig +Commerce, p. 322.] + +[Footnote 21: The Harib of Caillié, who was not fortunate in seizing the +sounds of the Arabic and Berber languages, ought probably to be Gharíb +غريب M. D’Avezac (Bulletin de la Soc. de Géog. 1834, tom. II. p. 169) +proposes reading ʿArib; but since the tribe of the Gharíb is mentioned +in M. Gråberg af Hemsö’s list of Berber names (Journal Roy. Geog. Soc. +vol. VII. p. 255) and Marmol (tom. III. fol. 9,) places a tribe named +Garib in the neighbourhood of Tatta, we cannot avoid concluding that the +French traveller means to speak of the same tribe as the last-named +author, and that its true name is El Gharíb. But in the map drawn by M. +Jomard to illustrate Caillié’s journey, the position of El Harib is even +more faulty than its orthography. It detracts little from Caillié’s +merit to say, that under all the circumstances of his journey his +observations of the compass were worth but little, and his estimates of +distance are not to be implicitly relied on. Nineteen miles a day for +the average of forty-three days between Tomboktú and El Harib, and +twenty-nine miles daily during the worst part of the journey, over deep +and burning sands, are rates of travelling much too high for a loaded +caravan. By the undue lengthening of the early part of the route, El +Harib has been carried about fifty miles too far north, so that Tatta, +instead of being north-west of it, according to the traveller’s text, is +made to lie to the south-west. All the other bearings described are in +like manner displaced. M. D’Avezac has corrected this error of latitude, +but has, at the same time, unfortunately introduced a new error of +longitude, and carried all his positions too far eastward.] + +[Footnote 22: Quart. Rev. No. 75, 1828, p. 102; Edinburgh Phil. Journal, +vol. IV. p. 42.] + +[Footnote 23: Wanzamín ونزمين MS. B.M.; Wabermin, Not. et Extr. p. 614.] + +[Footnote 24: Wárán وارَان. The name of the inhabitants of this part of +the desert has been read by M. Quatremère, Benú Hareth, instead of Benú +Wareth وارث; but the restoration of this name is important; since we +learn from another passage in El Bekrí that the Benú Wareth were to the +east of the Lumtúnah; and are thus enabled to perceive that the road to +Aúdaghost lay eastwards from the road to Ghánah.—Agharef أَغَرَفْ MS. +B.M. 102 v.—Akríri اقرٮري Not. et Extr. p. 615. اقرٮٮدى MS. B.M.] + +[Footnote 25: Azjúnán (pronounced Azgúnán) ازجونان MS. B.M.; Arkounat, +Not. et Extr.] + +[Footnote 26: In Nubia showers of rain are of rare occurrence north of +the 18th parallel (Rüppell, Reisen in Nubien, &c. p. 75). Denham +(Travels, &c. I. p. 164) fixed the first appearance of fresh vegetation +and the limit of the tropical rains on his route to Bornú, near the 16th +parallel, which is probably too low for the limit of rain. Tomboktú, we +are told, has annually six weeks or more of rain (Proc. Afr. Assoc. I. +p. 285; Narrative of R. Adams, p. 42)—and this blessing seems to extend +some distance north-eastward of it (Riley’s Narrative, p. 346). Towards +the coast the gum forests which extend as far north as the 18th degree +of latitude probably do not fall far short of the limit of regular +rains.] + +[Footnote 27: Tarḳá ترقا Not. et Extr. p. 623; Tárga تارجي MS. B.M. 105 +r.—Tezámt تزامت MS. B.M. 105 v; Baramet, Not. et Extr. p. 624.—Bir el +Ḥammálín بير الحمالين—Máleki مالكي Not. et Extr. p. 264; Nálelli ناللِّي +MS. B.M. 105 v.] + +[Footnote 28: In the Parisian MS. the expression is “the mountains, the +name of which, in Berber, signifies _the mountains of iron_.” Not. et +Extr. 624. But the MS. B.M. gives the Berber name Adarérén wazzél +ءَاَدَرَارَانْ وَزّالْ in which Adarérén is the plural of Adrar, a +mountain, and wazzél, iron, corresponds with the _ouzail_ of Shaw’s +vocabulary (Travels in Barbary, II. p. 382).] + +[Footnote 29: Yentesír ينْتسِير, MS. B.M.; Belis, Not. et Extr.—Moddúken +مُدُّوكَن MS. B.M.; Merouken, Not. et Extr. From the village of +Moddúken, which belonged to the Zenágah, to the city of Ghánah مَدَينة +غَانة was a journey of only four days. But for Ghánah in this place M. +Quatremère proposes reading Akka, عاقه, being perplexed by the +faultiness of his MS. which seems to conduct beyond Ghánah to the +country of the Lumtúnah. The MS. B.M. p. 105 v, clears up the difficulty +by these words; “and from the wells before mentioned, (viz. the wells of +El Ḥammálín and Nálelli,) the water is carried a four days’ journey to +Mount Aízal or Izal ايزَلْ in the desert,” &c. Thus the road to the +desert (the Lumtúnah not being named in this passage) does not begin +from Ghánah, but from “the before-mentioned wells.” Jebel Aízal may be +suspected of being another form of Adarérén Wazzél.] + +[Footnote 30: The name Tíser تيسر (Jaubert’s Idrísí. Recueil de Mém. &c. +tom. V. p. 106) is extremely doubtful. Some of the MS. copies of Idrísí +have Níser نيسر, others Nesír نسير. The epitome offers Bansar بنسر; +Abulfedá writes Yasr يسر.] + +[Footnote 31: El Bekrí (Not. et Extr. 624) gives to the absolutely +waterless desert between Sijilmésah and Ghánah, an extent of eight days’ +journey. Sheríshí, in his commentary on Harírí (Maḳámah 9) gives it a +width of ten days. Ibn el Wardi increases it to twelve days, and El +Idrísí (Jaubert’s Transl. p. 106) to fourteen. It was natural enough +that the first of these writers, who may be supposed to have derived +much of his information from the early Morabites themselves, should +receive a less exaggerated account of the inhospitable nature of the +western desert than those who followed him.] + +[Footnote 32: The road to Aúdaghost passed through the territory of the +Benú Wáreth. But this tribe were to the east of the Lumtúnah, through +whose country was traced the road to Ghánah (see note 24). And Ghánah +was at least four days south of the desert of Tíser, while Aúdaghost was +east of that desert, according to Abulfedá (Büsching’s Magazin, vol. IV. +p. 212). El Idrísí also places Aúdaghost in the northern part of the +kingdom of Ghánah; and by stating its distance from Wergelán and Jermah, +he plainly intimates that it was likewise in the eastern part. All these +particulars combine to prove that Aúdaghost was to the north-east of +Ghánah.] + +[Footnote 33: Ibn Baṭúṭah travelled at the slow rate of a heavily laden +caravan. Halts included, he was two months in reaching Aïwalátin, or +Walata, on the southern border of the desert. His accounts of the pools +of Táserahlá which shall be given hereafter, exactly correspond with El +Idrísí’s description of the wells of Tíser. In Jaubert’s ‘Idrísí’ (p. +11), is the following passage: “Il y existe cependant des mares d’eau de +pluie qu’on rencontre après deux, quatre, cinq ou douze journées de +marche, semblables à celle du désert situé sur la route de Sedjelmasa à +Ghana, et où l’on ne trouve de l’eau qu’au bout de quatorze jours de +marche.” Instead of the word _desert_ in this place, the Epitome of El +Idrísí has the name Bansar بنسر, evidently for Tíser تيسر.] + +[Footnote 34: Leo Afr. pt. VI. c. 54. Marmol writes Azaoat. Beyond, or +eastward of the desert of the Zenágah, Leo places that of the Zuenziga, +“which extends from Segelmesse, Tebelbelt, and Benigorai, to the desert +of Ghir, in the south, which faces the kingdom of Gubar. On the west it +has Tegaza, and on the east the desert of Air, inhabited by the Targa +tribe (the Tawárik).” It is manifest that the several divisions of the +desert described by Leo (pt. VI. c. 54-8), all extend from north-west to +south-east, conformably to the boundary line which we have ascribed to +the country of the Zenágah on the east. It is plain also, that these +people were not in the vicinity of the Houssa country. The desert of +Ghir brings to mind the Káhir كاهر of Ibn Baṭúṭah; but we can have no +doubt that the Air of Leo is the country of Ahír (Ḥáj Ḳásim in +Walckenaer, Rech. p. 448) or Aáheer (ʿAhír?), which we learn from Sultan +Bello (Denham’s Travels, II. 447, where Aáheer is erroneously said to be +south of Bornú) to be the portion of the desert lying north of Houssa +and Bornú. But it appears that the name in question has extended further +southwards since Leo’s time, a proof that the Tawárik have been gaining +ground.] + +[Footnote 35: The account of Major Laing’s journey to Tomboktú +(Quarterly Review, July 1828, p. 103-5), after stating that he was +attacked by the Tawárik, makes frequent mention of _Azoad_, whence, on +recovering from his wounds, he wrote his last letter. Caillié mentions +“the tribe of Zaouât, who wander in the desert of _the same name_” +(Voyage à Temboctou, tom. II. p. 349). It was the Sheikh of this tribe, +Hamet aúlád Habíb, who put Major Laing to death, meeting him five days +north of Tomboktú, on the road to Arawan. The name of this murderer +brings to mind the fact that the chief wells on the roads to Aúdaghost +and Ghánah were dug by a Sheikh of the Aúlád Habíb. It is plain that the +tribe called Zaouât by Caillié, were so named from their country; and it +is probable that he, or the editor of his volumes, deprived the name +Azawad of its initial letter, in the belief that it was thereby freed +from the Arabic article. The desert of Azawad is described by Lyon +(Trav. in N. Afr. p. 148) under the name of ʿAsheríyah, or _the ten +days’_ desert.] + +[Footnote 36: Marmol, Descripcion de Africa, vol. I. fol. 34 r. In +another place, however, (vol. III. fol. 16,) he uses the name Genéwah in +a restricted sense, and says that the Zenágah have on the south, “the +Benais, Gelofes, the kingdoms of Gualata, Geneúa, Meli, and +Tumbuto”—Genéwah being here evidently identified, by hypothesis, with +Jenni.] + +[Footnote 37: Kitábu-l-Jʿaráfíyah (Book of Geography), &c. MS. in the +collection of D. P. de Gayangos. This anonymous work, though ill +written, contains much which is not to be found in El Idrísí and his +numerous copiers.] + +[Footnote 38: Arkí أَركِي MS. B.M. fol. 107; Azdji أَرجي Not. et Extr. +p. 629.—The copies of El Idrísí present this name in a variety of forms. +In M. Jaubert’s translation of this author (p. 206), there is the +following passage: “La ville s’appelle Azoucaï ازقي en langue Berbère, +et Cocadam قوقدم en génois.” By _génois_ we are here to understand the +language of the Genéwah. But the name here read Cocadam, or, as we +should write it, Ḳúḳdem, deserves a moment’s notice. Leo Africanus +informs us (pt. VI. c. 55) that the caravans from Telemsén to Tomboktú, +pass over a difficult tract of desert, where no water is found for nine +days, and which is named Gogdem. It is probable that this desert, as +well as the town further west, owed its name to wanderers from Goghidem, +a mountain of central Atlas, in the province of Hascora, of whose +emigration Leo himself furnishes the explanation (pt. II. c. 71). Arkí, +the chief town of the Lumtúnah, is placed by El Idrísí, seven days from +Wád Nún. As little reliance, however, can be placed on that author’s +measures, we may allow Arkí to be even fourteen days from Wád Nún, and +yet its site will not be eastward of the road to Tomboktú. But, +according to El Idrísí (_ut supra_), those who went to Silla, Tekrúr, +and Ghánah, passed near it of necessity. Our knowledge of the position +of Mímah, or Amímah, we owe to Ibn Baṭúṭah, whose narrative shall be +examined further on.] + +[Footnote 39: Ghánah, in the country of Genéwah, من بلاد جناوه is an +expression frequently used by the same author. Where others would have +written Beléd es-Súdán, or land of the Blacks, he always writes Genéwah. +This name, indeed, became in Morocco the general designation of blacks +and slaves. Thus we are told that Muley Hamed grew rich “by husbanding +his Maseraws (oil-mills) and Ingenewas (slave farms) where his sugar +canes did grow. (A True Historical Discovery of Muley Hamet’s Rising, +&c. 1609, c. 3.) The initial letter of the name Genéwah جناوه being +pronounced hard by the Moors, the southern Europeans, in imitation of +them, wrote Chinoia, Gheneoa, and Ghinéa; from which we, by throwing +back the accent, made Guinea. “The kingdom, says Leo (pt. VI. c. 3), +called by our merchants (the Moors) Gheneoa, is by the natives called +Genni, and by the Europeans who have any knowledge of it, Ghinea.” It is +certain that Ghinéa and Guinea are derived from Genéwah; but we see no +sufficient reason to admit that the name of the city of Genni or Jenni +has the same origin. But since general names, not merely appellations, +are rare among a rude people, it is natural for us to inquire what was +meant by Genéwah, or, to conform to the sound, Ghinéwah. Did it mean +_the Blacks_? On the coast, the negroes contiguous to the Whites are, +for contra-distinction, named in their own language Wolof, that is, +_Blacks_. The name Jelofe (Wolof) is used in this general sense by +Marmol (III. fol. 27 v). And why should not the people of the interior +designate themselves according to the same universal and simple +principle? Now, in the language of Tomboktú, _gnewa_, or, as Major +Rennell, who had the original information, writes it, _genewa_, +signifies Black (Proc. Afr. Ass. I. p. 124 and 428), so that we are +justified in suspecting at least that we have here found the origin of +the name Genéwah.] + +[Footnote 40: Not. et Extr. p. 629.] + +[Footnote 41: The extent of desert here assigned to the Benú Goddálah, +may enable us, if carefully considered, to ascertain their interior +limits towards Ghánah. Numerous authorities, which need not be here +cited, agree in estimating the distance of Tomboktú from Táfílélt or +Morocco to be, in general terms, a two months’ journey. The more +circumstantial accounts reckon, between Tomboktú and Akka, Tatta, or El +Harib, near the frontiers of Sús and the desert, thirty-six (Jackson’s +Morocco, p. 241)—forty-three (Shabeeny’s Narrative, by Jackson, p. 7)—or +thirty-nine days (Caillié, Journal, &c.), exclusive of halts. We find +the distance of Tatta from Tomboktú estimated also at fifty days +(Proceedings of the African Association, vol. I. p. 225). Davidson +(Notes on a Journey in Africa, 1839, p. 101) learned that the courier’s +track from Wád Nún to Tomboktú is travelled in forty days, and that from +the same place to Jenni is usually reckoned a distance of sixty days, +though frequently traversed in less time (Notes, &c. p. 113). But it +must be observed, that, with respect to caravans, the time allowed for +halting at the chief wells often exceeds that spent in travelling. Now +to estimate the longitudinal dimensions of the western desert, we have +the distance of forty days’ journey from Arguin to the French factory at +Fort St. Joseph, on the Senegal, and from the latter point forty-eight +days to Tomboktú, the latter distance being established by a concurrence +of testimony which places it beyond dispute (D’Anville, Mem. de l’Acad. +tom. XXVI. p. 73; Rennell in Proc. of Afr. Assoc. vol. II. pp. 225, +464). Circuits being allowed for, these distances combined will place +Tomboktú about two months and a half from Arguin. In confirmation of +this conclusion, we find that Sidi Hamet (Riley’s Narrative, p. 319), +taking the road by the sea shore, travelled from Wád Nún southwards for +four months to the borders of Negroland, and then went eastward two +months to Tomboktú. On his return he travelled westward one month, and +encamped at a little Negro town called Jathrow—probably the Dgazzara of +M. Roger’s informant (Rec. de Voy. II. p. 62), whose estimate of +distances, however, uniformly fall far short of the reality. Sidi Hamet +then turned northward, and reached Wád Nún in three months and a half. +Though the people dwelling on the margin of the desert are apt to talk +of speedy journeys, as was experienced by Park and Davidson, yet the +inhabitants of the wilderness itself, having little provision and weak +cattle, which they pasture as they go, rarely travel at a rate exceeding +twelve or thirteen miles a day. Alexander Scott (Edinburgh Phil. Jour. +vol. IV.), a shipwrecked sailor, and captive in the desert, travelled +from the vicinity of Cape Bojador two months and a half, to the line of +gum forests, which lie chiefly between the 17th and 18th parallels, and +then continued his march for another month before he reached Lake +Dibbie, which is formed by the waters of the Great River. It is needless +to collect more authorities to show that a desert of two months in +extent and bounded by the Atlantic, must be supposed to lie wholly +westward of Tomboktú.] + +[Footnote 42: Aúlíl اوليل. It is also written Aúlílí اوليلي by Ibn el +Wardi and others. It is probably a variation of the name Walílí وليلي, +formerly belonging to a village near Fez, and also to Tangier.] + +[Footnote 43: If the well-ascertained route of forty-eight days from +Fort St. Joseph to Tomboktú, measured on Mr. J. Arrowsmith’s map, be +taken as the scale, and sixty days be then measured along the shore from +Wád Nún, it will exactly reach Arguin. But the Benú Goddálah, possessing +a desert of two months in extent, were separated by a six days’ journey +from the Ṣínghánah, who dwelt on the river between Silla and Ghánah. Now +from Arguin to the nearest point of the Great River, towards the east, +is a distance of about sixty-eight days’ journey, measured as above. It +is necessary, therefore, if we would treat El Bekrí as a sensible and +sober writer, to infer that Aúlíl was at Arguin, and that the Ṣínghánah +dwelt near Lake Debú, between Silla and Tomboktú.] + +[Footnote 44: At Cape St. Anne, in the bay of Arguin, where the beds of +salt are found, is a small island which appears to answer El Bekrí’s +description. Labat (L’Afrique Occidentale, tom. I. p. 58) says of it, +“On trouve à la pointe de la Saline une petite isle qui ne se distingue +presque pas du continent.” De Barros (Decad. I. liv. I. c. 10) explains +why Arguin is the only inhabited spot on the shores of the Desert.] + +[Footnote 45: El Bekrí in Not. et Extr. p. 630. It is Abulfedá, who, +quoting Ibnu Sʿaïd, informs us (Büsching’s Mag. IV. 205,) that Aúdaghost +was within the limit of the rains.] + +[Footnote 46: Not. et Extr. p. 631. The fact that the campaign of the +Morabites in one year embraced both Aúdaghost and Sijilmésah, is enough +to show that the former place was contiguous to the Western Ṣaḥrá.] + +[Footnote 47: The language of El Idrísí (Rec. de Voy. V. p. 109), paints +the decay of Aúdaghost: he describes it to be “a little town, deficient +in water; with a scanty population and miserable trade, which consists +in camels.” This is the town which modern geographers, induced by a +supposed resemblance of names—though Rennell (Geogr. Illust. of Park’s +Journey, in Proc. of Afr. Assoc. I. p. 501,) took the precaution to +convert Aúdaghost into Agadost—have chosen to identify with Aghades, or +Aghdes, which Leo Africanus (pt. VII. c. 9), writing in 1541, calls “a +city built by the moderns;” while Marmol (III. fol. 24), more precise, +says that it was founded 160 years before the time of his writing, or in +1438.] + +[Footnote 48: Not. et Extr. p. 630. Bucklers made of the skins of the +Dant or Lant (probably el-ant), which is supposed to be the _Antilope +Leucorix_, were chiefly manufactured in Wád Nún. By the amber carried to +Aúdaghost from the sea shore, we must understand ambergris, to which El +Idrísí alludes when describing the western shores of Africa (Rec. de +Voy. pp. 64 and 135).] + +[Footnote 49: Not. et Extr. p. 615.] + +[Footnote 50: Ghábah غابه MS. B.M. fol. 112 r; Alghábat الغابت Rec. de +Voy. II. p. 2; Ghaïah غايه Not. et Extr. 643. The predominant idea in +the meaning of the name Ghábah or Ghábat̤, which is undoubtedly the true +reading, is _obscurity_: lowness of situation and overhanging gloom are +both implied by it.] + +[Footnote 51: Ṣínghánah صينغانه. Caillié (tom. II. p. 237) mentions a +place called Sangouno, on the left bank of the Great River, three or +four days from Jenni.—Tekrúr تكرور.] + +[Footnote 52: Silla سلي, سيلي, and سلا. El Bekrí mentions cotton as one +of the chief productions of this country; no house, he says, was without +its cotton tree. Leo, in like manner, says (pt. VII. c. 3), that cotton +was the staple merchandise of Jenni, which is but two days from Silla; +and Caillié observed the general cultivation of that article in the +country south-westward of Jenni (tom. II. pp. 156-167.) The people of +Silla, being slave-dealers, made constant war on their pagan neighbours, +of whom the nearest were the Kalembú قلنبو, a day’s journey distant. Now +the district of Negroland at present characterized by the termination +_bú_, is that contiguous to the modern Silla towards the west, and on +the northern side of the river. There we find Modiboo, Doolinkeaboo, +Fanimboo, &c., within a small compass. “From Tarankat̤i ترنْقَةِ (MS. +B.M. fol. 111 r), near Silla, the inhabited country (says our author) +extends to Záfḳú زافقو” which name M. Quatremère reads Afnou (Not. et +Extr. p. 641). But if we suppose that a Nún ﻨ is here mistaken for the +Maghrebí Kaf ڧ, the two readings will be reconciled in Zafnú, the Jafnoo +of our maps, which is a very likely limit to our author’s exact +information. To point out unequivocally the direction in which his +narrative led him, he adds, that “the country continues populous to the +ocean.”] + +[Footnote 53: Aúghám اوغام MS. B.M. 1140; Audagam اودعام Not. et Extr. +p. 651—Merásah مراسه—Tírḳa تيرْقَي MS. B.M.—Tádmekkah تادمكه—Seghmárah +سغمارة—Kaúkaú كوكو.] + +[Footnote 54: Not. et Extr. pp. 652, 653. The ten journeys allowed +between Wérgelán وارجلان MS. B.M., وارقلان Not. et Extr., and Ghodémis +غُدامِس, show the scale by which we are to measure this route, and allow +us to stretch the forty journeys between the latter place and Tádmekkah +farther than could be done without such an intimation.] + +[Footnote 55: Macrízí, in Hamaker’s Specimen Catalogi Cod. Or. MSS. +Academiæ Lugd. Bat. pp. 207, 9. In the passage in question M. Hamaker +reads Taoumcah تاومكه, instead of which it is an obvious correction to +restore Tádmekkah تادمكه. If we increase forty in the ratio of thirty to +fifty, the numbers by which our authors respectively measure the +distance between Ghánah and Tádmekkah, we shall have sixty-six days for +the distance of the latter place from the Tajúah, according to El +Bekrí’s scale. The Tajúah or Tajuwín of the Arabs, are the people whom +Browne calls Dageou (Travels in Africa, p. 325), and who once ruled +Darfur.] + +[Footnote 56: The name Tádmekkah signified The Likeness of Mekkah, (Not. +et Extr. p. 653.) But Ned Roma, as Leo informs us (pt. IV. c. 6), +signified The Likeness of Rome. A single point in Arabic writing +discriminates between these two prefixes. But since El Bekrí, who writes +Tádmekkah, also writes Nádrúmah, we must be satisfied to ascribe the +apparent discrepancy, in this case, to difference of dialect. But it may +be here remarked, that the pages of Leo Africanus are not quite free +from the inaccuracies which originate in an unpointed Arabic text. They +offer, for instance, Perzegreg for Ber Zegzeg, Nefreoa for Nefzeoa, +Amarig for Amazig, and frequently Ibn Racu for Ibn Rachic. In the early +French translation of Leo (by Jean Temporal, 1556), we find also +Cairaran frequently written for Cairaoan, Azarad for Azaoad, and Araran +for Araoan. Whether these errors have been all copied from the version +of Leo in the first edition of Ramusio’s first volume, we have not had +the means of determining; but the second edition of Ramusio (1554) is +free from the more glaring of them.] + +[Footnote 57: Safnaḳú سفنقوا—Búghrát بوغرات MS. B.M. 115 v; Not. et +Extr. 652.] + +[Footnote 58: Silla is fourteen days from Tomboktú by land, and a month +by water. From these extremes it is easy to derive the distance assigned +above. Sidi Hamed (in Riley’s Narrative, p. 334) going from Tomboktú to +Houssa, first travelled six days along the river, a little south of east +till he came to hills, where the stream turned southwards.] + +[Footnote 59: “Verso mezzogiorno, e quasi inchina alla parte di +scilocco.” Pt. VII. c. 3.] + +[Footnote 60: The statements of this valuable writer, as well as the +journey of Ibn Baṭúṭah, will be given at length further on.] + +[Footnote 61: Jaubert’s Idrísí, in the Rec. de Voy. V. p. 17; Ibn el +Wardí.] + +[Footnote 62: Alexander Scott, in his pilgrimage beyond the Great River, +found that the desert continues to the very shores of Lake Debú, where +there was a town or encampment of the Orghebets (Raghabát?)—Edinb. Phil. +Journ. vol. IV. p. 43.] + +[Footnote 63: Not. et Extr. p. 640.] + +[Footnote 64: The people of Melli (Málí), according to Leo (pt. VII. c. +4), were the first to embrace the Mohammedan faith.] + +[Footnote 65: This point will be more fully considered when we come to +speak of Tekrúr.] + +[Footnote 66: The Brebísh often encamp eastward of Tomboktú, in which +quarter nevertheless the Tawárik seem to have gained ground on the +Zenágah.] + +[Footnote 67: It is a strong argument in favour of the construction here +given to the route to Ghaïárú غيارُوا (MS. B.M. 1120), that it +establishes a uniform and consistent method in El Bekrí’s narrative. +That author begins his account of Negroland with the Ṣínghánah, who +traded with the Benú Goddálah in the west. He then goes to the south- +west to Silla and Tekrúr; then having mentioned Ghánah, he passes to the +route to Ghaïárú, and finally turns due east, and describes the route to +Tádmekkah. It is requisite for clearness and exact order, that the route +to Ghaïárú should lie between the south-west and the east.] + +[Footnote 68: Sámaḳanda سامَقَنْدَي MS. B.M. 113 r; Sámaghondi +سَامَغُنْدِي Rec. de Voy. II. p. 4. The corruptions of this name, which +is probably significant, are enumerated in the notes to Hartmann’s +Idrísí, p. 42.—Ṭáḳah طاقة MS. B.M.; Ṭáḳat طاقت Rec. de Voy. p. 5; Tanah, +Not. et Extr. p. 646.—Zúgú زوغُوا MS. B.M.; Zoghárá زُغَارَا Rec. de +Voy.; Rougou, Not. et Extr.] + +[Footnote 69: Gharnatil غرنتل MS. B.M.; Garbil, Not. et Extr. عُونْتِل +Oʿuntil, Rec. de Voy. This latter reading brings to mind the place +called by Mohammed Maséní (Clapperton’s Second Journey, p. 330), Oodel +or Goodel (with the same doubtful initial letter), where the Great River +is crossed between Sokkatú and Maséna. In the absence of better +guidance, Ghúntil غونتل shall be here assumed to be the true reading, +and the name of the identical place called Goodel by Bello’s servant.] + +[Footnote 70: The MS. B.M. fol. 113, has Yersana يرسني, which seems too +violently opposed to the other MSS. In the Rec. de Voy. and Not. et +Extr. it is Bersa برسي.—This is the Berísa بريسي of Idrísí, the Berísá +بريسا of Abulfedá. Bersana was the resort of certain negroes who brought +gold from the interior, and were called Benú Nʿamrát بَنو نَعمْرَات +(Rec. de Voy. p. 7), or Wangamranah ونعمراٮه (Not. et Extr. p. 647), or +Benú Zammakhrátah بنو زمخْراتة (MS. B.M. 113 v). It is plain that the +text translated in the Not. et Extr. has been curtailed of the first two +letters of the name, but if these be supplied, together with the +diacritic points, it agrees with the text of the Rec. de Voy. The name, +therefore, will be Benú Nʿamrátah, or Namrát. But who can be the negroes +bearing such a name? Sultan Bello informs us, (Appendix to Denham and +Clapperton’s Travels, vol. II. p. 454) that the people of Yarba or +Yariba “originated from the remnants of the children of Canaan, who were +of the tribe of Nimrod.” The people of Yariba therefore seem to be the +Benú Nʿamrát. But to this it may be objected that Nʿamrát is not the +correct Arabic mode of writing Nimrod. Truly not; neither can the blacks +of Yariba, we verily believe, prove their descent from the great hunter. +But the name and the historical tradition in this case are both equally +spurious; they were both probably suggested by a sound—we think indeed, +by the same sound, or, in other words, we believe that the name which +was shaped into Benú Nʿamrát, and afterwards into Benú Nemrúd or +descendants of Nimrod, belonged to the people of Yariba.] + +[Footnote 71: Daur دور Not. et Extr. p. 647; Daú دوْ MS. B.M. fol. 113 +v.; Dawa دَوَ Rec. de Voy. II. p. 7.—Malelo مَللُ MS. B.M.; Malik مَلكْ +Rec. de Voy. For the various readings of the names Ghaïárú (Ganarah of +D’Herbelot) and Ghuntil, see Hartmann’s Edrísí.] + +[Footnote 72: In the Kissour language, spoken, according to Caillié, in +Tomboctú, Jenni, and in the intervening country, the word Ganda (Caillié +III. p. 313), or Gunda (Clapperton’s First Journey, p. 182), signifies +Land or Country, so that Samaḳanda or Samaghondi, explained by it, would +mean Samah-land. Nor is this explanation less probable from the +circumstance that the name Sami, and the termination Kanda or Konda, +signifying town, is common among the Mandingoes, who overwhelmed Ghánah +from the south, as shall be shown hereafter, and who now people the +country south of Tomboktú (Caillié, tom. II. 252).] + +[Footnote 73: Marmol (vol. III. fol. 17). Yça, that is, Issa, (Hissa in +Caillié’s vocabulary) signifies _river_ in the language of Tomboktú. The +Serakholies inhabit Galam. The Tucorones therefore interposed between +them and the Wolofs, must be the Fúlah or Fellatah, who occupy both +banks of the Senegal, in the neighbourhood of the Isle de Morfil. We +find in a MS. vocabulary of their language, brought home by Clapperton, +the word _mio_ signifying a lake, probably any large sheet of water. +With respect to the name here applied to them, a respectable authority +(Dard, Grammaire Wolofe, p. 148) informs us, that a division of the +Fúlah nation bears the appellation of Teukirères. The name Tucorones +seems related to the plural Tekayrne, used by Burckhardt (Trav. in +Nubia, p. 365); while Teukirères rather resembles the Tekrírí of Ibn +Baṭúṭah. It is manifest that the route pointed out by this series of +names is that of the slave-dealers between Galam and Tomboktú. They +cross the desert at a distance from the Great River where it is called +Joliba, and first reach the stream where it turns eastward, north of +Lake Debú. There, according to Bowdich’s informant (Mission to Ashantee, +p. 193), Jinbala is on the left bank of the river. It is placed on the +right by all other authorities except Marmol and his copiers, who give +the name to the river.] + +[Footnote 74: Caillié’s account of Jimbala, or, as he writes it, +Ginbala, was confirmed by Abú Bekr, the intelligent native of Tomboktú +who accompanied Mr. Davidson in his ill fated attempt to cross the +desert from Wád Nún; and of whom an interesting account may be read in +the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, vol. VI. p. 100. The +initial sound in Jimbala is one hard to be seized by a foreign ear. It +is the same which Caillié (II. pp. 82, 160) sought to express by a +triple form in Jaulas, Diaulas, and Iolas. Park wrote the same name +Jules (First Journey), while Mr. Watt preferred Nyalas (Proc. Afr. Ass. +I. 436). The natives themselves often express the sound in question by +yʿe يع.] + +[Footnote 75: Marmol elsewhere (III. fol. 27 r) distinctly places the +_Baganos_ on the river at the point where the road from Galam to +Tomboktú first reaches its banks. Livio Sanuto also (Geografia, 1588, +fol. 83) says, “that Zimbala or _Bagano_ adjoins Tomboktú on the south, +beyond the Sanaga,” that is, the Great River. Mohammed Maséní +(Clapperton, p. 331) mentions a lake Búkma as being in the same tract as +Lake Jeboo, that is, Dhiebú or Debú.] + +[Footnote 76: Not. et Extr. p. 617. Másín ماسين MS. B.M. fol. 103. For +Aúghám, see page 29. The Massina of our maps, and Maséna of the +Translations appended to Clapperton’s Second Journey, is generally +written Másín or Máshín by the natives (see the documents appended to +Bowdich’s Mission, and to Dupuis’ Residence in Ashantee).] + +[Footnote 77: Anbarah اَنْبارَة Rec. de Voy. p. 8. The king of this +country was styled Tárim تَارِمْ. If for this we could read Farim فارم, +we should have a true Mandingo title. The difference between Anbárah +اَنْبارَهْ and Oonbori, probably اُنْبُرِي supposing the vowels not to +have been supplied conjecturally, (for otherwise the latter might be +read Anbara,) is no greater than may be expected where orthography is +unsettled. The title of the king of Oonbori is Farma (Clapperton’s +Second Journey, p. 331), which, as well as Farim, imports a governor or +local chief. That by Kúghah كُوغَه (Rec. de Voy.) El Bekrí meant the +Cochia of Cadamosto (Ramusio, I. fol. 108 v) and Gago of Leo, can hardly +be doubted; but this point shall be examined hereafter. His statement, +that Anbárah, nine days from Kúghah, west of Ghánah, does not admit of +any plausible defence; but if Sámah سامه be read in this place for +Ghánah غانه then not only does all difficulty vanish, but the author’s +discourse acquires coherence and natural order.] + +[Footnote 78: Kitábu-l-Jʿaráfíah (Book of Geography), &c. MS. in the +collection of D. Pascual de Gayangos. Ráyawen رايون has a suspicious +resemblance to Arawan. It is quite gratuitous to suppose that the +Morabites, who were all of the Zenágah nation, and who rushed at once, +as soon as they felt their strength, from their own deserts to the +conquest of Barbary and Spain, ever went eastward as far as Houssa, or +even to Kághó.] + +[Footnote 79: “No one (in Aïwalátin, that is, Walata) is named after his +father, but after his maternal uncle; and the sister’s son always +succeeds to property in preference to the son: a custom I witnessed +nowhere else except among the infidel Hindoos of Malabar.” (Lee’s Ibn +Baṭúṭah, p. 234.)] + +[Footnote 80: “Of all people the Blacks debase themselves most in +presence of their king.... When the Sultan addresses one of them, he +(who is addressed) will take the garment off his back and throw dust +upon his head” (Lee’s Ibn Baṭúṭah, p. 240). The ceremonial of Tomboktú +(Leo, pt. VII. c. 5), and that of Ghánah (Not. et Extr. p. 644), are +described in nearly the same terms.] + +[Footnote 81: Proc. of Afr. Assoc. I. p. 149. Though Clapperton says +little of the laws or government of Houssa, yet his narrative discloses +the subdivision of power in that country. The people there have never +been trained up under a paramount tyranny.] + +[Footnote 82: Makrízí (Quatremère, Mémoires sur la Nubie, tom. I. p. 28; +Burckhardt’s Travels in Nubia, p. 456) relates of the court of Kánem, +and Ibn Baṭúṭah of that of Bornú, the ceremony of audience, as it was +witnessed in the latter place by Denham (I. p. 231).] + +[Footnote 83: Caillié saw (Voy. II. p. 253) a line of hills of red +sandstone without any vegetation, on the left bank of the river, about +forty miles south of the lake; and, at an equal distance north of it, +sand hillocks bordered the stream (p. 266). It is explicitly stated by +Marmol (III. fol. 15 v), that Jenni had all the trade of the Zenágah, +the Brebísh, the Ludayas, and the Arabs of Arguin. But he erred in +supposing that the conflux of Arabs and Berbers from the shores of the +Ṣaḥrá to that city was owing to its western position. It was rather due +to the character of the intervening country, which may be called a fine +desert.] + +[Footnote 84: It is plain, from Scott’s narrative (Edinb. Phil. Jour. +vol. IV. p. 45), that the level desert continues, without any change, +save in the frequency of brackish rills, to the very shore of the lake; +southwards from which the country seemed uninhabited; but a little to +the north was the town of the Orghebets, in which the dwellings were +constructed of canes and bamboos.] + +[Footnote 85: “_Gualata_, que otros llaman _Ganata_.” Marmol, III. fol. +21 v. It is hardly necessary to observe, that, in the orthography of +Southern Europe, Gualata represents our Walata: “_Gualata_ o _Ganata_,” +(I. fol. 17.) “Vled Vodey andan en los desiertos que estan entre Iguaden +y _Ganata_; son señores de Iguaden, y el Rey Negro de _Ganata_ les paga +cierto tributo,” &c. (I. fol. 39.) “Alarabes llamados Udaya, y por otro +nombre Vled Vodey, que moran el desierto de Lybia que está entre esta +poblacion (Guaden) y _Gualata_ reyno de negros.” (III. fol. 3.) “En +Gelofe, Geneúa, Tombuto, Meli, Gago y _Ganata_, hablan una lengua +llamada Zungay.” (I. fol. 44.) This last sentence is taken from Leo (pt. +I. c. 11), who, however, writes Gualata. Marmol, in his first volume, +seems to prefer Ganata, but, in the third, he generally follows Leo with +little deviation. When Ali Bey (Badia) speaks of caravans going “from +Sús and Táfílélt to Ghánah and Tomboktú,” (Travels in Barbary, &c. I. +45,) does he inadvertently mix ancient with modern times—his reading +with his recent intelligence?—or does he mean by Ghánah, Ghanata, that +is, Walata? What was surmised in Note 6 respecting the predominance +gained by the analogies of the Berber language over those of the Arabic, +and the change of the contingent t̤ into the absolute t, seems confirmed +by the MS. extract of El Bekrí published in the Rec. de Voy. II. That +MS., however inferior in other respects, is yet good authority on the +subject of the relation subsisting between ancient Arabic and Moorish +orthography; and we find that it writes Ghánat, Sámat, and Ṭáḳat, for +Ghánat̤ or Ghánah, Sámat̤, Ṭákat̤, &c.] + +[Footnote 86: “It appears singular that the country immediately to the +eastward of Timbuctoo as far as Kashna should be more imperfectly known +to the Moorish traders than the rest of central Africa” (Quart. Rev. No. +45, May 1820, p. 234.) The reviewer, however, errs in ascribing the +obscurity which involves that tract to the wars of the Fellatah. But the +fact is, that between Tomboktú and Houssa passes the line of demarcation +separating what may be called the two commercial provinces of Negroland, +which depend on the two great roads (from Fezzán and Táfílélt), and have +little communication with each other on their northern frontiers. +Besides, the interposed desert supports a formidable population of +Tawárik.] + +[Footnote 87: The Arab geographers, unable to form an exact conception +of the country westward of Ghánah, diminished the distance between that +place and the ocean. El Idrísí makes the distance between Silla and +Aúlíl to be sixteen days’ journey (Rec. de Voy. V. p. 11); but Abulfedá +sets Ghánah only four degrees eastward of the ocean (Reiske’s Trans. in +Büsching’s Mag. V. p. 354). In like manner Leo (pt. VII. c. 3) says that +the kingdom of Jenni, extending 250 miles along the river, reaches the +ocean; and he supposes Walata to be only a hundred miles from the sea +shore. As he was copied in all his errors, our maps of the sixteenth and +seventeenth centuries uniformly placed Tomboktú too far westward.] + + + + + EL IDRISI COMPARED WITH EL BEKRI. + + MAGHRAWAH. + + +The account of Negroland contained in the foregoing pages is drawn +altogether from El Bekrí. So much does his description of Ghánah and the +adjoining countries excel in copiousness of detail as well as in +clearness, that in all the Arab writers succeeding him, there is hardly +a single new particular worth adding to it. Some of these writers, +nevertheless, are much better known than El Bekrí; and one of them, El +Idrísí, whose work, entitled ‘The Amusement of one desirous of knowing +all the Countries of the World,’ was composed about the year 1153, has +been long regarded as the first authority on questions relating to the +geography of Central Africa. It will be worth while, therefore, to set +these two authors side by side, and to compare them carefully, so that +we may be able to choose between them when they disagree, and to +determine whether the later of the two improved on his precursor. + +The first peculiarity of El Idrísí that strikes the attentive reader, is +his general reduction of distances in the desert. He begins to contract +even in the vicinity of Atlas, and makes Sijilmésah to be only thirteen +days distant from Wád Nún; whereas these places must be at least twenty +good journeys asunder.[88] But to confine ourselves to the consideration +of the principal dimensions of the Ṣaḥrá, we may recal the statement of +El Bekrí that Aúlíl was a two months’ journey distant from Wád Nún, +going along the shore. Now from Sijilmésah to Aúlíl, which was a greater +distance, is reckoned by El Idrísí to be a journey of only forty days. +This supposes (since Arguín is exactly 900 miles from Sijilmésah) a rate +of 22½ geographical miles a day in a straight line—a rate far exceeding +what is practicable on a journey of such a nature and extent.[89] Nor +can El Idrísí have here the benefit of any objection to the hypothesis +which places Aúlíl at Arguín, since he informs us that Aúlíl was one +day’s sail from the mouth of the river called the Nile of the Blacks, by +which he must be understood to mean the Senegal. But the mouth of this +river is at least two days’ sail from Arguín; so that to make that +author consistent with himself, it must be allowed not only that Aúlíl +was in the Bay of Arguin, but also that his numerical expressions of +distance are, in this instance, too low.[90] In like manner he reduces +the distance between Sijilmésah and Silla to forty days; and that from +Wád Nún to the latter place to thirty-two days,—viz. seven from Nún to +Arkí, and thence twenty-five to Silla; his estimate in each case being +less than two-thirds of the reality.[91] + +But the same author’s reduction of the longitudinal dimensions of the +Great Desert is still more remarkable. Instead of a journey of two +months between Aúlíl and Silla, as may be inferred from El Bekrí, whose +measures of distance accord strictly with the results of modern inquiry, +El Idrísí separates those places by a distance of only sixteen days. +Again, he makes Aúdaghost to be but a month from Aúlíl, and twenty-five +days from Jermah in Fezzán; so that from the latter place to the shores +of the Atlantic, the desert should be crossed in fifty-five days, or +less than half of the time actually required for that journey.[92] +Again, he states Kúghah to be a month from Dongolah, and six weeks from +Ghánah (though the genuineness of the text is here liable to suspicion); +and consequently he reduces the whole distance between Dongolah, or the +Nile in the east, and the Atlantic Ocean in the west, to a journey of +three months and a half, which is not more than a moiety of the true +distance.[93] + +The incorrectness of El Idrísí exemplified above, cannot be explained +away by supposing that he made use of a large scale of measures, or a +conventional day’s journey of great length. His contraction of space is +not sufficiently uniform to sustain that plea: it operates chiefly on +the uninhabited country. Like modern geographers, he seems to have had +an invincible dislike to large blanks in a map; and among the expedients +to which he had recourse for the purpose of filling them up, was the +common one of dilating as much as possible the contiguous inhabited +countries. A perfect illustration of this remark is afforded by his +description of the course of the Great River in the vicinity of Ghánah. + +It has been seen that El Bekrí places the capital of Ghánah not +immediately on the Great River, but at a distance of perhaps three days’ +journey from it. But Ṣínghánah, with which place he begins his +description of Negroland, is described by him as standing on both banks +of the river, and having Tekrúr on the south-west. Now in El Idrísí’s +geography there is no mention made of Ṣínghánah, but its description is +transferred to Ghánah, which is made to stand on both banks of the +river, and to have Tekrúr on the south-west. The distance of twenty +days, according to El Bekrí, between Silla and Ghánah, is increased by +El Idrísí to twenty-four days. The former of these writers thus +describes the route eastward and along the river from Ghánah. First, +five days to Rás el má, then six days through the country of the Merásah +to Tírḳa, where the river turned southwards, and three days further +along its banks, to the country of the Seghmárah, which commenced, +therefore, at the distance of fourteen days from Ghánah. The same course +is thus described by El Idrísí:—From Ghánah, six or eight days to Tírḳa; +six more to Merásah; and another six to Seghmárah: so that the fourteen +days of his author are here increased to eighteen.[94] + +In accordance with the construction given above to El Bekrí’s route from +Ghánah to Ghaïárú, El Idrísí makes the portion of the river therein +mentioned to form a part of its course below Seghmárah. But the manner +in which the latter writer puts together his materials in this place +demands attentive consideration. The following are his details of +distance and bearing:— + + From Samghadah (Sámaḳanda) to Seghmárah, 8 days. + + From ditto to Kúghah, _eastwards_, 10 + + From ditto to Gharbíl (Ghúntil), 9 + + From Seghmárah to Gharbíl, _southwards_, 6 + + From Gharbíl (Ghúntil) to Ghanárah (Ghaïárú), _westwards_, 11 + + From Ghánah to Ghanárah, 11 + +Thus it appears that El Idrísí makes the river flow first north-eastward +from Silla to Ghánah; then eastwards to Seghmárah; then southwards to +Ghúntil, and finally westwards again to Ghaïárú. + +The Sámaḳanda of El Bekrí, which was four days from Ghánah, and his +Kúghah, fifteen days from the same capital, and nine from Anbárah, +(which appears to have been near Sámaḳanda,) are evidently the Samghadah +and Kúghah of El Idrísí. This writer agrees with his predecessor in +making the river flow, first north-eastwards from Silla to Ghánah, then +eastwards, and then southwards. So far he seized with some felicity the +idea of the general winding of the river. But his turning it westward +from Ghúntil can be explained only by supposing that he misunderstood +his authority. El Bekrí says, that opposite to the Seghmárah, whose +territory extended from the Great River to Tádmekkah, was Kaúkaú. And +again, he remarks, that the road to the country of the Remrem went +westwards along the river from Kaúkaú. Now this last passage furnishes +the explanation of the westward course which El Idrísí has given to the +river, if we suppose that he confounded for a moment Kúghah with Kaúkaú. + +[Illustration: _The River according to El Bekrí._] + +El Bekrí mentions Bersana after Ghaïárú; and accordingly El Idrísí sets +this place, under the altered name of Berísa, due west of Ghaïárú, and +on the Great River, half way between Silla and Ghánah. The series of +names which the latter found in his author he thus arranged in a circle, +under the influence of misconception, so as to make it terminate in +itself. But the artificial division of climates, by severing Berísa from +the group of names to which it originally belonged, fortunately obviated +the ready exposure of so absurd a concatenation.[95] The Malilo and Daúr +or Daú of El Bekrí are evidently the Malel and Daú of El Idrísí; and in +consequence of the same mistake which placed Berísa on the river between +Ghánah and Silla, they are brought into the neighbourhood of the latter +place. Their character, too, is as much misrepresented as their +position. Instead of being countries of some extent and importance, they +become, in the pages of El Idrísí, only towns of Lemlem, the wretched +inhabitants of which, possessing but few camels, wander over deserts +destitute of water;—a picture of Negro poverty, more likely it must be +confessed, to originate in the imagination of an Arab, than in the +physical character of the country south of the Great River. + +[Illustration: _The River according to El Idrísí._] + +From El Idrísí’s delineation of the Great River we may return with +advantage to consider the position assigned by him to Aúdaghost. That +town was, according to him, thirty days from Aúlíl, thirty-one from +Wergelán, and twenty-five from Jermah. The short distance of fifty-five +days herein allowed between Aúlíl and Jermah, will not admit of being +applied to a circuitous route. The distance from Wergelán, therefore, +which is relatively long, and by reaching far southwards has the effect +of elongating the preceding line, must be supposed to be circuitous. And +this is a well-founded supposition, inasmuch as the road from Wergelán +to Aúdaghost must have passed through Twát, and probably also by +Wanzamín. Now the point which satisfies the conditions of distance +specified above, and at the same time best eludes surrounding +difficulties, will be found to be not far from the 20th parallel of +north latitude, and the 1st meridian of east longitude, or about 120 +miles east of the position assigned to Aúdaghost in our map. Thus it +appears that El Idrísí’s statements respecting the position of +Aúdaghost, do not, when taken together, lend the slightest countenance +to the hypothesis which makes that place identical with Aghades. For +that position, deduced in the strictest possible manner from the +assigned conditions, still leads to the conclusion that Ghánah was +situate on the northern bend of the river of Tomboktú. But since we +likewise learn from the same writer, that it was situate on the western, +and not the eastern portion of that northern bend, we have no +alternative but to correct his distances with respect to the angle of +the river, and to remove Aúdaghost further west, so as to place it +exactly half way between Aúlíl and Jermah; the correction, in this case, +amounting to only a twenty-second part of the whole distance between +those places. + +It would be running into needless digression to point out all the +contradictions in which El Idrísí involves himself by reducing distances +so as to fit them to the frame in which he combines his information, or +by expanding details so as to distribute them more equally. It will be +here sufficient to have shown that he learned the course of the Great +River from El Bekrí, yet that he did not copy his author faithfully, but +took liberties with him, which are rendered more conspicuous by the +incongruities into which they lead him. He contracts the Desert, spreads +out the River; makes Silla on one side only sixteen days distant from +the Ocean, and Kúghah, near Seghmárah, on the other, only a month from +Dongolah. He wholly misunderstands the account of the lower portion of +the river, and by turning the stream westward, he falls into glaring +inconsistencies. In conclusion, whatever is reasonable in El Idrísí’s +account of Ghánah and its vicinity, is taken from El Bekrí, and nearly +all of it which is not taken from El Bekrí is absurd. Nevertheless, his +statements, when carefully analysed and freed from misconceptions, +plainly indicate that Ghánah was situate near that part of the Great +River where Tomboktú now stands.[96] + +The only novelty worth notice in El Idrísí’s account of Western +Negroland, is his statement respecting the river of Ghánah, which he +informs us was navigable in large boats, and flowed into the ocean. Its +mouth was one day’s sail from Aúlíl. The river flowing into the ocean +near the Bay of Arguin, where it has been shown that the isle and salt +mine of Aúlíl were situate, is obviously the Senegal. The short distance +of one day’s sail, allowed by the Arab geographer in this case, is in +just proportion with all his other measures affecting the area of his +map.[97] He supposed the Nile of Ghánah, or Great River of the Interior, +to unite with the Senegal, and to run westwards into the ocean. Nor is +there any rashness in ascribing to him so great a misconception. Leo +Africanus makes a precisely similar statement respecting the river of +Tomboktú. Having navigated that river from Tomboktú to Jenni, the latter +author affirms most positively that it flows westward to the ocean. The +only excuse that can be offered for Leo’s mistake is, that the part of +the river with which he was practically acquainted, has little current, +and shows no diminution of magnitude as it is ascended; to a careless +observer, therefore, it presents nothing capable of controlling +speculation, or guiding to a correct inference respecting the course of +the stream. Higher up, the hypothesis was less tenable, and so Melli was +placed on a branch of the river. Being biassed by the early Arab +writers, particularly El Idrísí, Leo zealously adopted their erroneous +opinion, which being repeated by De Barros and other writers on African +geography, continued in vogue till the middle of the last century, or +nearly six centuries after it was first promulgated.[98] El Idrísí +states that salt was carried from Aúlíl to the mouth of the Nile, one +day distant, and then up that stream to Silla, Ghánah and Kúghah. Modern +authorities, on the other hand, have reported the Senegal to be +navigable up to Jenni (two days from Silla), Tomboktú and Gago, at which +point their information always terminated. And herein is another point +of resemblance between Ghánah and Tomboktú; inasmuch as they hold +similar positions in the hypothetical system, connecting the Senegal +with the Great River of the Interior.[99] + +The Western Desert is represented by El Idrísí with the changed aspect +consequent on the movement of the Morabites. The Lumtúnah had gone +northwards to Morocco, and the Benú Goddálah, to whatever quarter they +had migrated, were no longer predominant in the south-western portion of +the Ṣaḥrá. The inhospitable tract extending between the desert of Tíser +and the Ocean, is named by El Idrísí Kamnúdíyah, the chief town of which +was half way between Silla and Arkí. South of Kamnúdíyah, he places a +country, the name of which, vitiated by copyists, occurs under a great +variety of forms, as, for example, Maghráwah, Meghrárah, Meghzárah, &c. +Of these readings, the first alone admits of a satisfactory explanation, +and shall therefore be here adopted.[100] Maghráwah lay to the west of +Ghánah, and as it extended from Aúlíl, on the sea shore, to Silla and +Tekrúr inclusively, it also embraced a territory lying to the south of +that State.[101] The country named by El Idrísí Maghráwah is therefore +obviously the same which a century earlier had been occupied by the Benú +Goddálah, and the change of its name may be naturally ascribed to the +revolution which carried away the latter people with the hordes of the +Morabites. The Arab historians are silent with respect to those who took +the place of the Benú Goddálah; but the want of information may be in +this instance supplied by a very probable conjecture. + +When the Morabites, having subjugated Sús, Darʿah, Sijilmésah, and the +province wherein they afterwards founded Morocco, still continued to +press northwards, they met with a vigorous resistance from the +Maghráwah, who had long ruled over Fez and its dependencies, and who now +united with the Miknésah and other Zenátah tribes to oppose the +invaders.[102] The victory fell to the Morabites, who entered Fez in +triumph in A.D. 1067. But, grown negligent through continual success, +they were soon after taken by surprise, overpowered, and expelled. Their +enthusiasm, however, was not to be subdued by slight reverses; they +returned to the struggle, and again entered Fez in 1069, slaughtering, +it is said, 20,000 of the Maghráwah, whose sway in the west thus +terminated, after a continuance of just a century.[103] + +Of the fortunes of the defeated tribes, there is nothing recorded; but +the general tenor of the history of Barbary justifies the supposition +that they betook themselves to the desert.[104] In 1084, Yúsef ben +Táshifín, the Amír or chief of the Morabites, sent messengers into the +Ṣaḥrá, to the Lumtúnah, Goddálah, and Masúfah, announcing to them that +he possessed extensive territories, well watered, which he was ready to +bestow on the first comers; “and in a few days,” says the historian, +“the whole land of Maghreb [Western Barbary and Morocco] was filled with +colonists from the Lumtúnah and the other tribes of the desert.”[105] It +is manifest that the Maghráwah, and their adherents, must have deserted +the fine country around Fez, before the half-wild tribes of the Ṣaḥrá +were called in to occupy it; and it is probable that, in the course of +revolution, they stepped into the place of the Benú Goddálah soon after +the latter had accepted the invitation sent to them to fill the vacancy +left by the expelled tribes. Thus we are led to conclude, that the +territory of the Benú Goddálah passed into the possession of the +Maghráwah at a period subsequent to, and probably not far removed from, +the year 1084. + +The natural and probable supposition, that the tribes expelled from +Mauritania by the Morabites changed places with the latter, and fixed +themselves in the desert at the same time that their conquerors rushed +into the occupation of the cultivated country, explains at once the +great difference between the accounts given of the Western Desert by two +authors, one of whom wrote seventeen years before the migration referred +to, and the other sixty-nine years after that event. Nevertheless, the +desire inherent in the human mind to give importance to whatever is +obscure, favoured by the corruption of the name Maghráwah, and the +garbled accounts of the country so designated, may revolt against a +conjecture which confines that name to the Desert, instead of extending +it over a large tract of Negroland. Yet El Idrísí plainly states that +Maghráwah was a desert; that it was bounded on the north by the middle +tract of the Ṣaḥrá, named Kamnúdíyah; and that it extended from Aúlíl, +which was its capital, to Silla and Tekrúr; so that it must have been on +the northern side of the Great River, of which the Senegal, according to +his system, was a part.[106] The same writer indeed includes Silla and +Tekrúr in Maghráwah, whence it may be inferred that the exiles from Fez +soon obtained the ascendancy due to superior civilization, and became +the rulers of their black neighbours. But since the Arabs nowhere +mention the Mandingoes, Serakholies, Fúlahs, Wolofs, or other black +nations between Silla and the ocean, it must be presumed that they had +no direct intercourse with that part of Negroland, and knew nothing of +it; and, besides, it is unreasonable to suppose that they described the +country south of the Senegal under the general name of Maghráwah, of +which general name, in any shape, not the least trace now remains in the +region to which it is supposed to have been applied. North of the river, +on the other hand, the disappearance of a particular tribe, or of its +name; or a loss on the part of any tribe of that predominance which +determines the name of a territory, is much more explicable. And if it +be admitted that the name Aúlíl or Aúlílí was derived from that of +Walílí, the chief place of the Maghráwah and the capital of Western +Barbary under their dominion, then the presumption will arise, that some +of that nation were always mingled with the Goddálah, and carried the +local name to which they were attached, from the shores of the +Mediterranean to those of the Ṣaḥrá.[107] + + +[Footnote 88: El Idrísí places Nún, or as he writes it, Núl, at a +distance of three days from the sea, and thirteen (erroneously reduced +to three by Hartmann) from Sijilmésah (Rec. de Voy. V. p. 205). But the +town of Wád Nún is one or two days (22 miles) from the sea (Davidson’s +Notes), twelve from Tatta, and sixteen from the chief town of Darʿah +(Proc. of Afr. Assoc. I. p. 224), which is six days from Sijilmésah +(Jackson’s Shabeeny, p. 3). The last-named place must, therefore, be +twenty-two days from Wád Nún, and twenty-three, at least, from the sea. +In like manner El Idrísí reduces to three and eight days respectively +the distances of Sijilmésah from Darʿah and Aghmát, which El Bekri, +confirmed by modern itineraries, estimates at six and fourteen days.] + +[Footnote 89: Major Rennell, in his ‘Memoir on the rate of Travelling as +performed by Caravans’ (Phil. Trans. Vol. LXXXI. p. 144), concludes that +in Africa fourteen geographical miles and five-sixths of horizontal +distance, is the mean daily rate of loaded caravans. M. Walckenaer +(Recherches, &c. p. 266,) adopts fifteen geographical miles as the +ordinary rate.] + +[Footnote 90: From Cape St. Anne in the Bay of Arguin, to the mouth of +the Senegal, is a distance of 260 nautical miles, or about forty hours +of moderate sailing.] + +[Footnote 91: Rec. de Voy. pp. 12, 206. Arkí (see Note 38) appears under +various forms in the copies of El Idrísí; as Arḳi ارقى Rec. de Voy. pp. +12, 107; Azḳi ازقى; Azki ازكى Ibid. p. 206, and in the Abridgment. Ibn +el Wardi also writes Azki, which, he says, is the place where travellers +(ascending the Desert from Wád Nún) begin to climb the rocks (Not. et +Extr. II. p. 23). Ibn Baṭúṭah travelled forty-five days from Sijilmésah +to Aïwalátin, or Walata, whence Silla cannot be less than twenty days’ +distant. From the latter place to Wád Nún is now reckoned a journey of +fifty-five days (Davidson’s Notes, &c.).] + +[Footnote 92: From the capital of Fezzán to Tomboktú is reckoned a +journey of three months (Lyon, Travels in N. Afr. p. 144); or to +calculate more accurately, from Morzúk to Twát is a distance of thirty- +nine or forty days, and thence to Tomboktú, is a journey of forty-five +or forty-seven days (Walckenaer, Rech. p. 423; Quart. Rev. No. 45, p. +230). If to the sum of eighty-four days thus found, be added the journey +of two months, or rather two months and a half, between Tomboktú and the +sea (see Note 41), we shall have for the distance between Fezzán and the +ocean nearly three times the space assigned by El Idrísí; and, reducing +the route to a straight line, with all possible allowance, more than +double.] + +[Footnote 93: The text stating the distance of Kúghah from Ghánah to be +a month and a half, occurs in the Abridgment of El Idrísí (Hartmann’s +Idrísí, p. 42), but is wanting in the larger work. There is good reason +for believing it to be an interpolation. From Ghánah to Seghmárah, +according to El Idrísí, was eighteen days; thence to Sámaḳanda eight +days; and thence to Kúghah ten days. So that if these places be all +arranged in a straight line from west to east, Kúghah will be still only +thirty-six days from Ghánah, instead of forty-five. But while El Idrísí +expressly traces eastwards the route from Ghánah to Seghmárah, and sets +Kúghah eastward of Sámaḳanda, he says nothing of the bearing of +Sámaḳanda from Seghmárah; so that we are at liberty to set the former +place west by south from the latter, under the guidance of El Bekrí, +whose Sámaḳanda was only four days from Ghánah. The two authors will +then be found to coincide in general design, and El Idrísí’s Kúghah will +be not above twenty days from Ghánah. It would be easy, were it worth +while, to explain why the epitomator, trying to supply an apparent +deficiency in his author’s ill-connected details, should have separated +Kúghah from Ghánah by a month and a half’s journey.] + +[Footnote 94: From Silla to Berísa, according to El Idrísí, was twelve +days; thence to Ghánah twelve days; or to Aúdaghost twelve days; and +between the two last-named places twelve days. This is a handsome +arrangement. Again, from Ghánah to Tírḳa six days; thence to Merásah six +days; thence to Seghmárah six days; thence to Ghúntil six days. Then +come distances of eight, nine, ten, and eleven days. These numbers alone +are enough to excite suspicion.] + +[Footnote 95: The Berísa of El Idrísí is the same place of which the +name is written in the copies of El Bekrí, Bersa برسى Not. et Extr. p. +647; Yerma يرمى (rather Yersa يرسى), Rec. de Voy. II. p. 6; and Yersana +يرسنى MS. B.M. El Bekrí represents Ghúntil as a great country; he does +not state the distance of Ghaïárú from it, but places the latter twelve +miles from the river, and Bersana, or Yersana, west of it on the river. +But, in El Idrísí, the corresponding names all designate towns which +stand eleven or twelve days’ journey asunder.] + +[Footnote 96: The map of El Idrísí does not represent the conceptions +explained above. It makes the Great River divide at Tírḳa into two +branches, so as to form a great island, which he names Wangárah. On the +southern branch he places Ghúntil and Ghaïárú, the latter place being 75 +days, or 2½ months from Aúlíl, measuring along the river, while only 3½ +months at the utmost are allowed for the whole breadth of the continent. +El Idrísí writes sometimes in conformity with one of these systems, +sometimes with the other. He appears, on examination, to be an unsound +author, who, with good materials before him, often wrote without +understanding them.] + +[Footnote 97: The distance of Aúlíl (in the Bay of Arguin) from +Sijilmésah, as stated by El Idrísí, supposes, as we have seen, a mean +daily journey of 22½ geographical miles, instead of 15, which is the +ordinary rate. Now, if the forty hours’ sail from Arguin to the mouth of +the Senegal, be reduced in the ratio of 22½ to 15, or 3 to 2, we shall +have 26⅔ for the number of hours, according to El Idrísí’s scale. But +there is no need of such exactness. It is highly improbable that the +navigation spoken of by the Arab author, and which formed an ornament of +his theory, had any existence even so far as it was within the limits of +possibility.] + +[Footnote 98: Labat (Ethiop. Occid. 1728, tom. II. p. 125) describes the +course of the Niger or Senegal from the lake of Bornú to the sea. Moore +(Travels in the Inland Parts of Africa, 1738) also maintained that the +Senegal (of which the Gambia was supposed to be a branch) is the Niger, +although he at the same time published the Journal of Capt. Stibbs, who +was adverse to that opinion. An earlier writer tells us that “the +English were frustrated in their attempts to ascend the Niger to the +gold countries of Gago, by the osiers among other things.” (Charant, +Réponses à diverses questions, &c. appended to Frejus, Voyage dans la +Mauritanie, 1666.)] + +[Footnote 99: El Idrísí says (Rec. de Voy. p. 11) that the salt of Aúlíl +was carried up the river to Silla, Tekrúr, Berísa, Ghánah, Kúghah, and +the other countries of the blacks. Let it be observed, that while +propounding the hypothesis of a navigable river extending across Africa +from the Western Ocean to Bornú, the Arab author knew nothing of its +navigated course except between Silla and Kúghah or Kághó; that is to +say, the generally navigated part of the river of Ghánah, which was +evidently identical with that of the river of Tomboktú. The information +of our early travellers respecting the Great River of the interior +always terminated at Gago. This form of the name was taken from Leo; but +Cadamosto had written Cochia (Kúghah), which was probably borrowed from +the Mandingoes.] + +[Footnote 100: To the usual various readings, Meghzárah, Meghrárah, +Meghwárah, Meḳzárah, &c., M. De Humboldt (Histoire de Géographie, I. p. +291) has added Mufráda. D’Herbelot (under the title Maczarat) seems to +consider this to be the name of a fortress, and not of an extensive +region. In the Rec. de Voy. V. this name, where it first occurs (p. 10), +is written Maghráwah مغراوة (afterwards changed into Maghzárah مغزارة); +and the copy of Ibn el Wardi, in the possession of D. P. de Gayangos, +has Maghráwah throughout.] + +[Footnote 101: Rec. de Voy. V. pp. 10, 13, 18. In the first of the +passages here cited, Maghráwah is represented as extending from Aúlíl to +the Great River, and including also those countries which the author, by +misconstruction of El Bekrí’s statements, brought into the vicinity of +that part of the river. It is to be lamented that the Translation of El +Idrísí’s Geography, published in the Rec. de Voy. swarms with false +readings, against which little care has been taken to guard the reader.] + +[Footnote 102: The Maghráwah مغراوة rose into importance about A.D. 945 +(Marmol, I. fol. 127). Their name is written, by Leo Africanus, Magraoa; +by Marmol, Magaraoa, or Magaraúa; by Moura (Historia dos Soberanos +Mohametanos, &c. Lisbon, 1828) Magraua; and by Conde (Historia de la +Dominacion de los Arabes, &c. Madrid, 1820) Magaraba and Magarava. Their +original seat, according to Ibn Khaldún, was on the western side of the +province of Afrikíah. They are evidently the Machurebii (Μαχυρήβιοι) of +Ptolemy, who places them on the right bank of the Chinalaph or Shelíf, +near Julia Cæsarea or Shershel, where Dr. Shaw (Travels, I. p. 56) still +found an encampment of them; and also on the northern side of the +Daradus, the modern Wádi Darʿah. El Idrísí, in giving their name to a +country, only took the same liberty with it as with those of the +Merásah, Seghmárah, &c. which he has converted into the names of towns. +The appellation Maghráwat̤ es-Súdán, or of the Blacks, clearly intimates +that there was another Maghráwah not on the borders of Negroland. To the +scanty account of Maghráwat̤ es-Súdán given by El Idrísí, nothing has +been added by later Arab writers save their mistakes.] + +[Footnote 103: Moura, Hist. dos Soberanos Moham. p. 121.] + +[Footnote 104: The Miknésah, with whom the Maghráwah were associated in +their misfortunes, had formerly inhabited the Ṣaḥrá, whither they +returned in their adversity (Marmol, I. 95; Conde, Dom. de los Arab. I. +411).] + +[Footnote 105: Conde, II. pp. 99, 100.] + +[Footnote 106: After naming the towns of Maghráwah, he adds (Rec. de +Voy. p. 11) that the rest of the country bordering on the river is a +sandy desert; and again, he says (p. 107) that the country between +Kamnúdíyah and the river, that is, Maghráwah, is all desert. Hence Ibn +el Wardi (Not. et Extr. II. 35) describes Maghráwah as an unfrequented +and uninhabitable region. The same writer also observes, in a passage +not translated by M. De Guisnes, that Maghráwah is the same country as +Maghrebu-l-aḳṣa, or the Extreme West, a name certainly not applied to +Negroland.] + +[Footnote 107: Tanjah or Tangiers was anciently called Walílí. Another +place of the same name, and of much celebrity, was situate near Fez. Let +it be observed, that the name read in the text Aúlílí, may be also read +Awalílí; and that there is some reason to suspect that nouns of race or +nation are formed by prefixing aleph.] + + + + + MALI.—The Extinction of Ghánah. + + +The catastrophe which caused the disappearance of Ghánah from the +political horizon of Negroland, is not distinctly described by any of +the Arab historians. Nevertheless, so much light is thrown on the +circumstances attending the extinction of that kingdom, in Ibn Khaldún’s +sketch of the history of Málí, as may enable us to trace the course of +those early events with tolerable precision. The statements of that +valuable author shall be here given in his own words[108]:— + +“When the conquest of the West (by the Arabs) was completed, and +merchants began to penetrate into the interior, they saw no nation of +the Blacks so mighty as Ghánah, the dominions of which extended westward +as far as the Ocean. The King’s court was kept in the city of Ghánah, +which, according to the author of the Book of Roger (El Idrísí), and the +author of the Book of Roads and Realms (El Bekrí), is divided into two +parts, standing on both banks of the Nile, and ranks among the largest +and most populous cities of the world.[109] + +“The people of Ghánah had for neighbours, on the east, a nation, which, +according to historians, was called Ṣúṣú; after which came another named +Málí; and after that another known by the name of Kaúkaú; although some +people prefer a different orthography, and write this name Kághó. The +last-named nation was followed by a people called Tekrúr.[110] The +people of Ghánah declined in course of time, being overwhelmed or +absorbed by the Molaththemún (or muffled people—that is, the Morabites), +who, adjoining them on the north towards the Berber country, attacked +them, and, taking possession of their territory, compelled them to +embrace the Mohammedan religion.[111] The people of Ghánah, being +invaded at a later period by the Ṣúṣú, a nation of Blacks in their +neighbourhood, were exterminated, or mixed with other Black nations. + +“As to the people of Málí, they surpassed the other Blacks in those +countries in wealth and numbers. They extended their dominions, and +conquered the Ṣúṣú, as well as the kingdom of Ghánah in the vicinity of +the Ocean towards the west. The Mohammedans say, that the first King of +Málí was Baramindánah. He performed the pilgrimage to Mekkah, and +enjoined his successors to do the same.[112] + +“But the great King of Málí who conquered the Ṣúṣú, and took their +country, was named Mári Jáṭah, which means, in the language of that +country, Amír Lion, for _Mári_ signifies an Amír, or prince of the blood +royal, and _jáṭah_ means a lion. These people also style the relatives +and connexions of the royal family _Tikin_.[113] We were not able to +learn anything further respecting this king, and cannot therefore give +his genealogy. Nevertheless I was informed that he reigned five and +twenty years. + +“He was succeeded by his son Mansá Walí—that is, Sultan ʿAlí—who was one +of the greatest kings that ever reigned over the people of Málí. He +performed the pilgrimage to Mekkah in the reign of the Sultan Ez̤-Z̤áhir +Bíbárs.[114] To him succeeded his brother Walí; after whom came another +brother, named Khalífah, who was insane, and amused himself with +shooting arrows at his subjects. They rushed on him one day and killed +him. + +“After him came Abú Bekr, who was descended from Mári Jáṭah in the +female line. The people of Málí, following in this respect the custom of +the ʿAjem (strangers), among whom the sisters and sisters’ sons succeed +to the inheritance, chose him for their king. We have not been able to +learn his lineage, nor the origin of his father. + +“Abú Bekr was followed by a freedman named Sákúrah, who usurped the +throne.[115] This king made the pilgrimage to Mekkah, during the reign +of Almalik Annáṣir; but on his return was killed at Tájúrá. The empire +was increased, under him, by the subjugation of other Black nations. It +was in his time that the people of Málí made the conquest of Kaúkaú, and +added it to their dominions, which already extended from the Ocean and +Ghánah in the west, to the country of Tekrúr in the east. Some, however, +maintain that the conquest of Kaúkaú was made later. Hájí Túnis, +interpreter of Tekrúr, says that the conquest of Kaúkaú was achieved by +a general of Mansá Músa, whose name was Saghminḥuh. + +“After Sákúrah the kingdom reverted to the posterity of Mári Jáṭah, and +Mansá Músa, son of Abú Bekr, ascended the throne. He was an excellent +prince, and performed the pilgrimage in 724. The number of people +employed to carry his baggage and provisions amounted to 12,000, all +dressed in tunics of figured cotton, or the silk called El-Yemení. The +Hájí Túnis, interpreter of this nation in Káhirah (Cairo), said that +Mansá Músa brought with him to Egypt no less than 80 loads of Tibar +(gold dust), each weighing 300 pounds. He brought the whole on camels, +though in his own kingdom camels are not used, baggage being there +carried on the backs of slaves.[116] Mansá Músa, on his return, +conceived the idea of building himself a fine palace. Abú Iṣḥaḳ showed +him a model, and erected the edifice, with plaster and all kinds of +ornaments, for which he received 12,000 mithḳáls of gold. Mansá Músa +maintained an intimate and friendly correspondence with Sultan Abú-l- +Ḥasan, of Al-Maghreb, and reigned twenty-five years. + +“On his death the empire devolved on Mansá Maghá—that is, Sultan +Mohammed, for in their language Maghá signifies Mohammed. He died after +a reign of four years, and was succeeded by Mansá Suleïmán, son of Abú +Bekr, and brother of Musá, who reigned twenty-four years. After him came +his son, Mansá Ibn Suleïmán, who died nine months after ascending the +throne. Then followed Mári Jáṭah, and Mansá Maghá, son of Mansá Músa, +and reigned fourteen years. He (Mári Jáṭah) was a wicked and dissolute +prince. He sent an embassy to Abú Selím, son of Abú-l-Ḥasan, Sultan of +Al-Maghreb (the West), which embassy arrived in Fez in the year 762; and +among other presents which came with it, were some very tall animals +called Zeráfah (camelopards), as high as obelisks, and strange in the +land of Al-Maghreb. + +“Abú Abdullah Mohammed Ibn Wásúl, a native of Sijilmésah, and who +inhabited for a long time the city of Kaúkaú, in their country (_i.e._ +in the empire of Málí), where he performed the duties of Cadhi, told me, +when I met him in 776, much more respecting the kings of that country +than I can relate. He said that this Sultan Jáṭah was the worst king +that ever existed; that he wasted the treasures, was on the point of +destroying the palace erected by his ancestors; and that he even sold to +certain Egyptian merchants, for a trifling sum of money, a huge mass of +native gold, weighing 20 cwt., and preserved among other curiosities in +the royal treasure. Providence, however, punished him; for he was +afflicted with a disease very common in those countries, and the ravages +of which are particularly frequent among the higher classes. It begins +with a kind of lethargy or stupor, which renders the sufferer insensible +during the greater part of the day. After lingering two years under this +incurable malady, Jáṭah died in 775.[117] + +“The people of Málí chose his son Músa to succeed him. He was a just +prince, but was overpowered by his wazír Mári Jáṭah, who threw him into +confinement, and usurped all the powers of sovereignty. This Wazír has +made some conquests towards the east. Passing the limits of Kaúkaú, he +arrived at the stations or fixed habitations in the land of Tekaddá, +which is behind the country of the Morabites; but he has since restored +that territory to its own Sultan. Tekaddá is seventy days from Wergelán +towards the south-west; the road of the pilgrims (from Kaúkaú to Egypt) +passes through it. Sultan Músa is on friendly terms with the rulers of +Záb and Wergelán.”[118] + +Ibn Khaldún further relates, that, after having written the preceding +historical sketch, he learned that Mansá Músa died in 789, and was +succeeded by his brother Mansá Maghá. He being killed a year after, the +vacant throne was seized by Ṣanadaki, who had married Músa’s mother, and +whose name means Wazír.[119] But this usurper was deposed in a few +months by a descendant of Mári Jáṭah. A prince named Maḥmúd, who came +from the country of the Infidels in the interior, and who was descended +from Mansá Kú, son of Mansá Walí, son of Mári Jáṭah the First, was king +of Málí in A.H. 792. + +It is stated in the foregoing extract that Ghánah merged in the empire +of the Morabites, an event which may be assigned, with much probability, +to the year of the Hijra 469, when the Mohammedan faith was forcibly +imposed on the pagan nations of Negroland contiguous to the Western +Desert.[120] But the Morabites, bred up in a wild life, and under a +loose patriarchal authority, cannot be supposed to have thought much of +social or political organization. It is likely that they extended their +dominions without propagating a form of government, and that the kingdom +of Ghánah remained little changed by the loss of its independence. In +the time of El Idrísí, or a little before the year of the Hijra 548, it +was ruled by a descendant of Abú Táleb—that is, by a Zenágah—and this +state of things continued probably half a century longer.[121] + +But towards the interior, or south from Ghánah, were the following +nations, viz.:—the Ṣúṣú, Málí, Kaúkaú or Kághó, and Tekrúr. In arranging +these nations all eastward from Ghánah, Ibn Khaldún showed a very +imperfect conception of the geography of Negroland, and particularly of +its comparative geography. Though the name Tekrúr may have belonged in +his time to a country beyond Kághó, or south-eastwards from Ghánah, yet +it certainly designated a kingdom south-westwards from that capital in +the period anterior to the rise of Málí. The Ṣúṣú at present occupy a +maritime district comprising the basin of the river Scarcies, wherein +they have been established at least three centuries. Their language +would favour the supposition that they are remotely connected with the +Mandingoes. The people of Málí were certainly of the latter race; and it +is probable that they and the Ṣúṣú were kindred tribes, who, like the +Manes and Mosí of later times, issued from the interior; or—if for the +sake of preciseness we may in this instance hazard a conjecture—from the +country lying between Kong, Bergú, Ghúrma, and Dahómy.[122] The precise +dates of the invasion of Ghánah by the Ṣúṣú and the people of Málí are +not given by Ibn Khaldún. We are informed, however, that Mansá Suleïmán, +a prince bearing a Mandingo title, founded Tomboktú in A.H. 610; and +since he is not included in the list of the kings of Málí, we are +warranted in considering him a king of the Ṣúṣú, whose conquest of +Ghánah must therefore have taken place between the years 548 and 610 of +the Hijra, probably not long anterior to the latter date. + +From the dynasty of the Ṣúṣú, then, dates the importance of +Tomboktú:[123] but their empire did not continue long. The reign of Mári +Jáṭah, the conqueror of the Ṣúṣu, probably commenced about the year 630; +and with the kings of Málí begins a connected historical record. + +It is worthy of observation, that the conquests here related proceeded +in the direction of wealth and commerce, and stopped where these +allurements terminated. Ghánah and Tomboktú appear to have remained for +a long time the furthest bounds of the empire of Málí. Eighty years +elapsed before Kághó was annexed to that empire; and as many more before +the passion for conquest led Ṣanadaki to invade Tekaddá, a worthless +possession, which was soon abandoned. Thus the Great River formed for +many hundred miles the boundary of the empire of Málí, that is, of the +Mandingoes, who are still extensively spread over the same ample region, +and who chiefly uphold its trade, industry, and civilization. It is +evident that Ghánah, conquered by the Ṣúṣú, the founders of Tomboktú, +and annexed to Málí eighty years before this empire extended to Kághó, +was the frontier of Negroland facing Sijilmésah, and consequently the +tract wherein Tomboktú now stands. Nor is it difficult to explain why +the kingdom of Ghánah disappeared from the political horizon in the +course of these events; for the conquerors had, with a new language, a +form of government capable of absorbing all foreign and inferior titles, +and of establishing its own in their stead. The title GHANAH, therefore, +was superseded by that of MANSA.—The principal events recorded in the +history of Ghánah, and the succession of the Kings of Málí, shall be +here repeated in a tabular form, and arranged chronologically; the date +subjoined to each reign being, as far as can be ascertained, that of its +commencement. + + A.H. A.D. + + GHANAH deprived of Aúdaghost in 446 1054 + (properly + the + King’s + title) + + Still independent in 460 1067 + + Compelled by the Morabites to relinquish + Idolatry and embrace the Mohammedan faith 469 1076 + + Ruled by a descendant of Abú Táleb (i.e. one + of the Zenágah nation) 548 1153 + + ṢUṢU. Ghánah conquered by the Ṣúṣú. + + Tomboktú founded by Mansá Suleïmán 610 1213 + + N.B.—The title Ghánah superseded by that of Mansá. + + MALI. Mári Jáṭah conquered the Ṣúṣú, and reigned + 25 years. + + Mansá Walí (son of the preceding) performed + the pilgrimage to Mekkah in the reign of + Bibárs 658-75 1259-76 + + Mansá Walí (brother of the preceding). + + Mansá Khalífah (another brother). + + Mansá Abú Bekr (descended from Mári Jáṭah in + the female line). + + Sákúrah, a usurper, went to Mekkah in + the time of Almalik An-Nasír, and + therefore subsequent to 710 1310 + + (The conquest of Kaúkaú is ascribed by + some to the reign of Sákúrah, by others + to that which follows.) + + Mansá Músa (son of Abú Bekr) performed the + pilgrimage in 724 1324 + + Mansá Maghá (son of the preceding) reigned 4 + years 732 1331-2 + + Mansá Suleïmán (son of Abú Bekr) reigned 24 + years 736 1335-6 + + He was visited by Ibn Baṭúṭah in 753 1352 + + Mansá Ibn Suleïmán (son of the preceding) + reigned 9 months 760 1359 + + Mansá Jáṭah (son of Mansá Maghá) ascended + the throne in 761 1360 + + and reigned 14 years. + + Mansá Músa (son of the preceding) reigned 14 + years 775 1373 + + His Wazír, Mári Jáṭah, usurped the + sovereign power, and conquered Tekaddá, + which was soon after relinquished. + + Mansá Maghá (brother of the preceding) 789 1387 + + Ṣanadaki, (i.e. the Wazír) and another + usurper. + + Maḥmúd, a descendant of Mári Jáṭah the + first, was king of Málí in 792 1390 + +The position of all the places mentioned in the preceding historical +sketch, may be satisfactorily ascertained from the narrative of Ibn +Baṭúṭah, who visited Negroland about half a century earlier than the +date of Ibn Khaldún’s history, and whose remarks throw a valuable light +on the geography and social condition of the countries then known under +that denomination. A succinct account, therefore, of his journey into +Negroland shall be here given, for the sake of the elucidations +derivable from it. + + * * * * * + + +[Footnote 108: This extract is taken from Ibn Khaldún’s Prolegomena, +contained in the first volume of his ‘General History of the Arabs and +Berbers,’ of which volume the library of the British Museum possesses a +copy. (MS. B.M. No. 9,574, fol. 90 v.) A few passages here omitted, will +be discussed elsewhere.] + +[Footnote 109: This is manifestly a mistake. El Bekrí did not, though El +Idrísí did, give such a description of Ghánah. But the positive +statement preponderated. The Arabs were not critical enough to weigh +negative against affirmative evidence.] + +[Footnote 110: Ṣúṣú صُوصُو, or Súsú سُوسُو—Málí مالي—Kaúkaú كَوْكَوْ; +Kághó كاغو. The expression _east_ must be here understood to mean +towards the interior, or _south_. The Arab geographers in general had no +idea of Negroland west of Ghánah, and very inadequate conceptions of its +extent southwards.] + +[Footnote 111: The tribes of the Desert in general, Tawárik, Zenágah, +&c. cover the lower part of the face with a muffle or wrapper called +_lithám_. They consider it an impropriety to let the mouth be seen. From +wearing the lithám they are named Molaththemún, or Muffled. The invasion +of Ghánah by the Berbers, alluded to in the text, took place in the year +of the Hijra 469.] + +[Footnote 112: Baramindánah بَرَمِندَانة. “Thus the name was spelt (says +Ibn Khaldún) by the Sheikh ʿOthmán, a doctor and theologian of the +people of Ghánah (Ahli Ghánah), and one of the chief men of that +country, whom I met in Egypt in 796,” &c.] + +[Footnote 113: Mári Jáṭah ماري جاطه—Tikin تكن. These words belong to the +Mandingo language. _Mari_, master, is found in the Rev. R. M. M‘Brair’s +Grammar of the Mandingo, p. 40; _jatto_, a lion, p. 42. In Moore’s +vocabulary, (in Astley’s Collection, II. p. 294,) this word is written +_jatta_. The obscure and frequently nasal sound of the final vowels, +seems common to both the Súsú and Mandingo languages. The title +_Tiguing_ occurs in Isaaco’s Journal (Park’s Second Journey); and in +Tomboktú according to Caillié’s vocabulary (III. p. 313), the word +_Tigini_ signifies _King_.] + +[Footnote 114: Mansá Wali منسا ولي. Mansá, king, is found in all the +Mandingo vocabularies. Changed into Manso, and taking a nasal +termination, it becomes Mansong. The name here read Wali is evidently +the Woolli so frequently occurring in the modern accounts of Tomboktú +and the country of the Mandingoes.] + +[Footnote 115: Sákúrah سَاكُورة.] + +[Footnote 116: Mansá Músa منسا موسي is styled the King of Tekrúr by +Makrízí, who relates his visit to Egypt on his way to Mekkah, and +describes the wealth and pompous retinue of the Negro king, in language +to which even that author’s great reputation will hardly secure implicit +credit. See Not. et Extr. tom. XII. p. 637.] + +[Footnote 117: It is surprising that a historian of so much sense as Ibn +Khaldún should join in censuring King Jáṭah for the imaginary offence of +selling a mass of gold of a ton weight. The fable of a large mass of +gold in the royal treasure first referred to Ghánah (Not. et Extr. p. +645), then to Málí, and lastly to Tomboktú; where, however, the precious +lump was reduced to the weight of 1,300 lb. (Leo, pt. VII. c. 5.) +Winterbottom (Account of the Native Africans at Sierra Leone, II. p. +29), a competent medical authority, describes the disease above alluded +to, which, he says, proves fatal in every instance. “The disposition to +sleep is so strong as scarcely to leave a sufficient respite for the +taking of food. Even the repeated application of the whip, a remedy +which has been frequently used, is hardly sufficient to keep the poor +wretch awake.”] + +[Footnote 118: Tekaddá تكدا—Az-záb الزاب. This is the country of the +Mezzábí, north-west of Wergelán.] + +[Footnote 119: Sanadaki probably means High or Supreme Counsellor, from +_san_ or _sanon_, high, and _adégué_, a counsellor. (Dard’s Dict.) +Jarric (Hist. des Choses Mémorables, III. p. 372) pleasantly describes +the mode of dubbing a _Solatequi_ among the Zapes (now called _Bullom_, +or lowlanders), near Sierra Leone. In Isaaco’s Journal (Park’s Second +Journey, 8vo. p. 238), mention is made of a king styled _Sallatigua_- +Koura. From this word is evidently derived the title _Seratik_, borne by +the King in Bambúk and some of the Fellátah states.] + +[Footnote 120: Not. et Extr. p. 642, note. Marmol, III. fol. 21. Abú +Bekr ben Omar was the Morabite conqueror of Negroland, whither he +retired after the rise of Yúsef ben Táshifín. Moura, Hist. dos +Soberanos, &c., p. 146.] + +[Footnote 121: “The Zenágah,” says Ibn Khaldún (fol. 68 v), “claim to +stand in the same relationship to Abú Táleb, as do the Maghráwah to +ʿOthmán ben ʿAfan.”] + +[Footnote 122: The Mandingo and Ṣúṣú languages at present differ widely +from each other, but many circumstances, nevertheless, combine to prove +the ancient affinity of the two nations. They are so frequently +confounded together, that it is not easy to discover the limits of the +Ṣúṣú country. Rennell, writing from Major Houghton’s information +(Elucidations, &c. in Proc. Afr. Assoc. I. 275), calls “Mandinga, the +country of the Susos.” Adanson (Voy. au Senegal, 1757, p. 89), after +stating that the people dwelling on the banks of the Gambia are +Mandingoes, adds, “ou Sosés, pour m’exprimer comme eux.” The Ṣúṣú +language, which is widely understood, is most correctly spoken by the +Mandingoes (Gram. and Vocab. of the Susoo Language, 1802, p. 48). The +Jesuit missionaries unite the two nations; “Zozoes, casta de Mandingos,” +says Sandoval (Hist. de Ethiop. p. 43; see also Jarric, Hist. des Choses +Mémor. III. p. 411). Winterbottom (Account of Nations at Sierra Leone, +I. p. 5,) extends the Ṣúṣú country from the River Kissee to the Rio +Nuñez.] + +[Footnote 123: Leo says (pt. VII. c. 5) that Tomboktú was built by Mansá +Suleïmán, but yet there is reason to suspect that he only improved and +raised into importance a place previously existing. Conde (Hist. de la +Dominacion, &c., I. p. 402,) speaks of a chieftain named Mansur el +Tombuzi; but this title is probably a misreading for Tombúṭí; Tomboktú +being commonly called in Barbary Tombúṭ, or Tombúṭo. The passage here +referred to occurs in the annals of the year 297 H. (A.D. 909.)] + + + + + IBN BAṬÚṬAH’S JOURNEY. + + POSITION OF MALI. + + +Ibn Baṭúṭah returned to his native city in 1350, after an absence of +five and twenty years, during which time he had visited nearly all the +countries of the east, from Constantinople to China, from Bulghar and +Kipchak Tatary to Zingebar and the Indian islands. He employed the next +year in visiting Spain and Barbary; and then, to complete his +acquaintance with the habitable earth, he undertook the perilous journey +over the desert to the country of the Blacks.[124] In Sijilmésah he was +hospitably entertained by the brother of a merchant whom he had met at +Kan-chan-fu in China, and, purchasing camels and provisions for four +months, he joined a Káfilah which set forward on its march to Negroland +on the 1st of February 1352, under the guidance of Abú Moḥammed +Bandakán, of the tribe of Masúfah. + +In twenty-five days the Káfilah arrived at Tegháza, a town in the +desert, where the houses were built of rock salt, and roofed with camel +skins. The inhabitants of the place were slaves of the Masúfah, employed +in excavating and cutting the salt required for the trade with +Negroland. After a delay of ten days on the hill near Tegháza, and +renewing its stock of water at the salt and muddy wells in the hollow +(the supply for the next ten days in the desert being precarious), the +Káfilah resumed its march.[125] It fortunately escaped the much dreaded +difficulties: fresh rain-water lay in all the hollows and crevices of +the rocks; and at one place was found so copious a spring of delicious +water, that the travellers, after satisfying their thirst, washed +themselves and their clothes in the limpid stream. The fine truffles +growing in this tract, compensated in some degree for the troublesome +insects infesting it. One of the merchants belonging to the Káfilah +strayed too far from it, and was lost. This misfortune served as a +warning to Ibn Baṭúṭah, who had previously made it a practice to march +in advance and wander over the plains. The dead body of the strayed +merchant was afterwards found by another Káfilah about a mile from +water. + +Táserahlá, the station at which the Káfilah next arrived, was a stagnant +pool, where it was customary to halt three days, for the purpose of +repairing and replenishing the waterskins. It was also usual to send +forward from this place the couriers (el takshíf), a name commonly given +to all of the tribe of Masúfah.[126] For merchants arriving at Táserahlá +always despatched letters to Aïwalátin, apprising their friends of their +approach, and engaging them to meet the Káfilah with water four days +from the latter place. If the courier died on the way, as often +happened, then no assistance came from Aïwalátin, and the Káfilah +perished in consequence. “For,” says the Arab author, “that desert is +filled with demons; and if the courier goes alone, they forthwith +appear, bewilder and startle him, till he strays from the way, when his +destruction is inevitable; for there is no path or track to guide him, +nor anything but an immense wilderness of sand driven about by the +winds, so that where there is now a level plain, there arises in a few +minutes a hillock, which again quickly disappears. The guides in this +desert, therefore, have nothing to rely on but constant practice, and +require no ordinary share of intrepidity and self-possession. The +appearance of our guide, who was one of those best acquainted with the +country, caused me much surprise, inasmuch as he had but one eye, and +that one diseased.”[127] + +The merchants of the Káfilah engaged a Masúfí courier for 100 mithḳáls +of gold, and on the sixth day after leaving Táserahlá, they descried +with delight the signal fires of those who had advanced to meet them +from Aïwalátin. The tract passed over abounded in herds of the baḳr el +wuḥash (the Antelope Bubalis), which were chased by the Masúfah, and +killed with arrows. Their flesh, causing thirst, was little eaten: but +their stomachs contained water; and Ibn Baṭúṭah saw with astonishment +their contents drained by the people of the desert. Serpents were also +numerous in the same region. A merchant of Telemsán, who accompanied the +Káfilah, amused himself with catching these reptiles; but he was on one +occasion bitten in the hand, and the inflammation that ensued continuing +to increase, he killed a camel, thrust his wounded hand into the stomach +of the slaughtered animal, and kept it there for some hours, till the +pain was assuaged. The desert travelled over in the last four days to +Aïwalátin differed much from the preceding tract. It was dry and hot in +the highest degree. The Káfilah occasionally met with parties of the +Masúfah and Berdámah, who carried water about for sale. In the foregoing +account of the desert between Táserahlá and Aïwalátin, it is easy to +recognize “The Desert,” properly so called, of El Bekrí, the Desert of +Tíser of El Idrísí, and the Azawad of Leo. The breadth of the dreaded +tract, peopled by the fears of travellers with demons; its distance from +Sijilmésah, and from the southern limit of the Ṣaḥrá; its possessors the +Masúfah; and the numerous serpents infesting it, are all so many marks +whereby it may be discovered under its various denominations.[128] + +Two lunar months were spent in the journey from Sijilmésah to +Aïwalátin.[129] This was the frontier territory of Málí, and had for +ruler a black officer named Ḥuseïn Farbá, the word _farbá_ signifying +_governor_ in the language of Málí. Ibn Baṭúṭah was but little pleased +with the manners of the Blacks, among whom he had expected to see more +homage paid to men of his complexion. He even thought of returning +immediately to Sijilmésah, but his original plans preponderated, and he +resolved, at any rate, to explore Negroland. His attention was engaged +by the singular character and customs of the Masúfah, who formed the +higher class of the inhabitants of Aïwalátin. Though Mohammedans, they +had a law of succession resembling that of the pagans of Malabar. Their +women, handsome and finely-formed, went unveiled, and conversed with the +men on terms of freedom and equality which fully spoke the dissolute +manners of the place.[130] + +After staying fifty days in Aïwalátin, Ibn Baṭúṭah engaged a Masúfí +guide, and, in company with three merchants, set forward for Málí, which +was a good twenty-four days’ journey distant. In ten days he came to +Zágharí, a large town inhabited by black traders, and some whites of the +Ibádhíyah sect, called Ṣaghanghú. Leaving Zágharí, he arrived at +Kársekhó, “a city on the bank of the Great River which is the Nile.” +After describing the downward course of the river in terms which shall +be examined further on, the traveller’s narrative thus proceeds:—“We +marched from Kársekhó and came to the river Ṣanṣarah, which is ten miles +from Málí, and it being the custom of the country that no one enters +there without asking leave, I wrote to the company of Whites, and to its +chief, Moḥammed ben Alfaḳíh Algezúlí, and also to Shemso-d-dín, to +engage me a lodging; and so, when I came to the river (Ṣanṣarah), I +embarked in a canoe, and without further trouble, arrived at the city of +Málí, the residence of the Sultan of Negroland; and, landing near the +burial ground, I walked directly to the quarter of the Whites, and found +Moḥammed ben Alfaḳíh, who had procured me a lodging opposite to his own +house.”[131] + +Ibn Baṭúṭah fell sick soon after his arrival in the capital of Málí, and +two months elapsed before he was able to visit Mansá Suleïmán. Returning +on that occasion from the palace, he was followed by those who brought +the King’s present. They called to him to rise and receive it, while +they bore it towards him with an air of much importance. But what was +the surprise of the Arab traveller, who expected to receive a handsome +garment, or a sum of money, to find the royal gift to consist of only +three scraps of bread, some hashed mutton, and a calabash of milk. He +subsequently took occasion to reprove Mansá Suleïmán for his want of +munificence, and thereupon received from him, as a conciliatory gift, a +robe, lodging, an allowance while he remained, with a sum of money at +his departure. + +But the arrangements of Mansá Suleïmán’s court did not betray the sordid +disposition imputed to him. They appear to have been conceived in a +style of rude pomp and majesty no longer witnessed in the same country. +Within the royal palace was an alcove or vaulted chamber communicating +with the interior, and having towards the hall of audience three windows +covered with silver gratings, and as many more with gratings of gold or +silver gilt. Over these gratings hung silk curtains, the drawing of +which served to show that the king was seated within. The officers and +people then assembled. The Farárí or chief captains, with their archers, +spearmen, and musicians, ranged themselves on both sides of the alcove, +and on the signal being given, by thrusting a handkerchief of Egyptian +muslin through the grating of one of the windows, the musicians fell to +work with drums, ivory flutes, pipes of cane and calabashes, and made an +extraordinary din. Outside the alcove stood Dúghá, the interpreter, and +near him a man who carried his words to the king, and brought back the +royal answer.[132] + +At times the king gave audience in the open air, seated on a platform +covered with silk, and called Bámbi. A large silk umbrella, like a +canopy, was held over his head, having on the top a golden bird as large +as a falcon. He walked slowly on these occasions, surrounded by 300 +armed slaves. Two horses and two rams were led forth, among other +emblems of royal state. The King’s words gave rise to laudatory +harangues in the assembly, in the course of which the soldiers signified +their approbation by twanging their bows. Whoever spoke to the King, or +was addressed by him, stripped himself to the waist, and, throwing +himself prostrate, sprinkled dust or clay over his head, and beat the +ground with his elbows. The frequent exhibition of this abject humility +offended Ibn Baṭúṭah, who also reprobates the custom of allowing the +female slaves and young girls, not excepting the King’s daughters, to go +completely naked, and to appear in that state before the King himself. +He censures also the grotesque exhibitions of the poets or mimes, who +were called _jolá_ (the plural of _jál_).[133] He witnessed the +performance of one who wore a masquerade dress of feathers, with a +wooden head, like that of some bird, and, thus disguised, delivered an +extemporaneous harangue before the King. He says nothing of the industry +or trade of Málí; yet the length at which he describes the dresses of +the courtiers, and his frequent mention of silks and of gold and silver +ornaments, show that the Negro city did not impress his mind with the +idea of poverty. The King wore a gown of European manufacture. + +Among the Mandingoes or other nations in Western Africa, no trace at +present exists of the manners of Málí, or of the pompous forms of a +great monarchy. But in Yariba and Bergú, on the banks of the Quorra, we +find absolute sovereigns, who are approached with the same humiliating +ceremonies above described. While the King sits richly clothed, and the +musicians strain their efforts, the courtiers strip themselves to the +waist, and bow their heads to the dust. In Bergú the King is followed by +a troop of naked girls.[134] The idea of royalty as regards both its +internal principle and external form, is now in Yariba precisely what it +was five centuries ago in Málí; and this remarkable fact may perhaps +justify the suspicion that the people of Málí originally issued from the +country adjoining Bergú, Yariba, and Dahómy, and wherein there now +exists a Mohammedan, and probably a Mandingo state called Magho.[135] + +Ibn Baṭúṭah relates his departure from Málí in these words: “I arrived +in Málí on the 14th of the month Jumáda-l-awwal, of the year 753 (29th +June, 1352), and I left it on the 22nd of Moharrem in the following year +(27th February, 1353). I departed in company with a merchant named Abú +Bekr Ibn Yakúb, and we took the road to Mímah. I rode on a camel, +because horses are so dear in that country that one often costs 100 +mithḳáls.” From these expressions, combined with those in which he +describes his arrival in Málí, it appears evident that he never crossed +the Great River, and therefore that the city of Málí must have stood on +the northern side of that stream. He came to Kársekhó, situate on the +northern bank of the Great River, “which is the Nile.” He did not cross +this stream, but proceeding to the river Ṣanṣarah, and embarking on it, +he reached Málí. When quitting this place, he mounted his camel at once, +and took the road to Mímah. It is therefore certain that Málí was on the +same bank of the Great River as Kársekhó and Mímah. + +To this conclusion it may be objected, that Leo Africanus places Melli +(Málí) on a southern branch of the Great River, or Niger, as he styles +it. But that writer’s statements, if viewed comprehensively, and +thoroughly understood, will be found to afford, in this instance, no +firm ground whereon to build an argument. He says that the country +called by the Moors Gheneoa (Genéwah), and by the natives Genni (Jenni), +extends 250 miles along the Niger, to the place where that river enters +the ocean. And again, he says that Melli lies to the south of Gheneoa, +and extends 300 miles along a branch of the Niger. Now it is obvious +that the river on which Melli stood, is converted into a branch of the +Niger by the same hypothesis which led the river of Genni directly +westward to the ocean; and we are not bound, while rejecting the +erroneous theory, to respect the modifications forced by it on +collateral information; nor to admit Leo’s descriptions, clothed in the +language of system, in opposition to Ibn Baṭúṭah’s clear statement of +facts.[136] + +But if we cannot admit that the capital of Málí was situate on any +stream entering the Joliba from the south, so neither can it be supposed +to have stood on any tributary stream joining that river on its left or +northern bank. For why should a traveller make such a circuit as to +continue his route southwards to Kársekhó, and then ascend a stream in +order to reach a point to which he might have gone directly by land? And +besides, the left bank of the Joliba, within the limits wherein we may +reasonably look for the site of Málí, has been travelled over by Mungo +Park, who found there no tributary stream. The mention of the river +Ṣanṣarah, therefore, presents difficulties which admit of only one +explanation. A great river like the Joliba, periodically overflowing the +adjacent country, will probably form many channels, and insulate, +perhaps by permanent canals, long tracts of low land, as is exemplified +on a small scale in the course of the Medway below Chatham. Now, if we +suppose that Málí stood in a low tract, intersected by a canal of the +Joliba, called Ṣanṣarah, then Ibn Baṭúṭah’s movements may be easily +explained. That the banks of the Joliba are almost impassable in the +rainy season we know from the narrative of Park, who, being a stranger +in the country, struggled through difficulties which a native perhaps +would never have thought of encountering. But Ibn Baṭúṭah had an +experienced guide; going to Málí, therefore, at the commencement of the +rains (the end of June), he directed his course to an easily accessible +point of the Joliba, and thence proceeded to the capital by the canal: +leaving Málí in the middle of the dry season (the last day of February) +he mounted his camel and crossed the country. Moreover, we are +fortunately able to show that our hypothesis respecting the Ṣanṣarah, is +not only not unnatural nor improbable, but that it truly represents the +physical character of that part of the Joliba now under consideration, +and that there is, in fact, a canal or arm of the river in the very +place where we should expect to find the Ṣanṣarah. Mungo Park, +describing his voyage down the Joliba from Samee to Sego, says, “We +passed down a small stream to the north of Sego-korro, and halted +opposite to Sego-sikorro, near the sandhills, where I formerly waited +for a passage.” In explanation of these words, it must be observed that +Sego-korro is on the northern bank of the river; Sego-sikorro, where the +King of Bambara resided, on the southern bank. The small stream north of +Sego-korro, therefore, down which the traveller passed, (in the middle +of August, when the floods were at their height,) must have been a canal +or arm of the river insulating the ground on which Sego-korro +stood.[137] Park does not state the length of the _small stream_, nor +say whether he entered it near Samee; but these particulars are here of +little consequence, since our object is not to identify the small stream +of Park with the Ṣanṣarah of Ibn Baṭúṭah, but only to show how perfectly +our hypothesis respecting the latter harmonizes with nature and with +fact. Yet it must not be concealed that there is reason for believing +that the site of the capital of Málí was near Samee. Ibn Khaldún writes +the proper name of that capital in characters wanting, unfortunately, +the diacritic points; but these being supplied by probable conjecture, +the passage in question will run thus: “And the residence of the king of +the people of Málí is the city of _Benní_,” (or Benna).[138] A place +called Binni, of little importance, stands on the north bank of the +Joliba, about seven miles above Samee. + +The sequel of Ibn Baṭúṭah’s journey shall be related in his own words, +though with some curtailment. He thus proceeds:—“We came to a wide creek +or arm of the Nile, which can be crossed only in boats, on the third +night after we left Málí. On arriving at its banks, I beheld, with +astonishment, about sixteen immense animals, which I took to be +elephants. However, when I saw them plunge into the water, I called out +to Abú Bekr Ibn Yakúb, and asked him what are these? And he replied, +‘They are river horses (Hippopotami), which come ashore to feed.’ They +are much larger than common horses, yet resemble them in their heads and +the fulness of their manes, but their feet are like those of elephants. +On another occasion, when navigating the river from Tomboktú to Kaúkaú, +I had a view of these animals. They were swimming about with their heads +above the water, and snorting. The natives attack them with javelins, to +which are attached a number of cords. If the animal be struck in the +neck or the leg, he is soon overcome, dragged to the bank, and killed. +The natives eat the flesh, and the banks of the river are strewed over +with the bones of these animals.[139] + +“At this arm of the Nile we rested in a village governed by a negro +named Farbá Maghá, one of those who had accompanied Mansá Músa on his +pilgrimage. He related to us, that when Mansá Músa came to this place, +he gave to Abú-l-Abbas Aldukálí, a white man and Kadhi who attended him, +4,000 mithḳáls for the expenses of his journey. Abú-l-Abbas, however, on +arriving at Mímah, complained that his money was stolen. The King +thereupon sent for the governor, and threatened him with death, if the +money and the thief were not immediately discovered. The search seemed +at first fruitless; but on the slaves of Abú-l-Abbas being menaced and +strictly questioned, one of them, a young girl, pointed out the spot +where her master had buried the money. Mansá Músa, on hearing this, +banished the Kadhi to the country of the Unbelievers, who eat men. There +he stayed four years, before he was permitted to return; and the Blacks +did not eat him, because they say that white man’s flesh is bad meat, +being flabby and immature. And here I must relate a curious anecdote. +Some of these cannibals, led by a chief, came on a certain occasion to +the court of Mansá Suleïmán; they were clothed in silk wrappers, and had +enormous pendants in their ears, the holes in which were an inch in +diameter. The King received them with much distinction, regaled them +sumptuously, and, as a token of regard, gave them a slave girl. They +immediately killed the girl, and ate her; then, besmearing their hands +and faces with her blood, they visited the Sultan, and thanked him for +his present. In the country of these cannibals there are mines of +gold.[140] + +“Leaving the village on the water side, we came to Korí Mansá, where the +camel that I was riding died. When my servant told me of this accident, +I went out to witness it with my own eyes, and there I beheld the Blacks +already devouring the carcass, their custom being to eat every kind of +dead animal. I then sent two of my followers to a town called Zagharí, +about two days’ journey from Korí Mansá, to buy me another camel. In six +days they returned, and we then took the road to Mímah. We did not enter +that town, however, but encamped outside near the wells. Thence we +arrived at Tomboktú, a city four miles distant from the Nile. Most of +its inhabitants are people of Mímah, or of the tribes called +Almolaththemún. One day I went to visit the governor, Farbá Músa, and +met at his house a Masúfí, who had just arrived in Tomboktú, to take the +command of the people of his tribe established there. The governor gave +him a robe, a turban, and pair of trowsers, all of figured cotton; and +made him sit on a shield, while the chief people of his tribe lifted him +above their heads.[141] + +“At Tomboktú I embarked in a small canoe made of a single trunk of a +tree, and went down the river. We landed every night, and went to some +inhabited place to procure what we wanted,—such as oil, and other +necessaries—giving in exchange for them salt, drugs, and trinkets. We +came to a place, the name of which I have forgotten, but where Farbá +Suleïmán, a Hájí of sterling worth, was governor. He was a man of great +size and strength, and had a bow which none of the Blacks but himself +could bend. I went into his house to ask for a little durrah, and my +request being interpreted for him by a faḳíh who was present, he took me +by the hand, and led me into his principal chamber, which was filled +with arms of various kinds, shields, bows, and javelins. There was then +brought to me a drink called Aldaḳnó, prepared from bruised durrah, with +milk and honey. We then ate of a water melon; and in conclusion, a young +slave coming into the room, Farbá Suleïmán presented him to me, and I +have him at the present day.[142] + +“From this place we went on to Kaúkaú, one of the largest, handsomest, +and strongest cities in all Negroland. It stands on the banks of the +Nile, and abounds in rice, milk, poultry, fish, and fruit of matchless +excellence. The people there, as well as in Málí, use shells for money. +I stayed in Kaúkaú about two months, and then went by land in the +direction of Tekaddá, with a large Káfilah of people of Ghodémis.[143] +We came into the country of the Berdámah, a Berber tribe, whose +protection and friendship are indispensable for the safety of travellers +in this region. The Berdámah are wanderers, and never remain long in one +place. Their tents are of a peculiar construction; they fix poles in the +ground, and place on them a matting of reeds; over this they form a +trellis-work of boughs of trees, and cover the frame thus constructed +with skins and cotton cloths. Their women are the prettiest and best +shaped that I have ever seen; they are as white as snow, and the fattest +in the world. Whoever wishes to have a woman of this tribe, needs only +to go to the wells near their encampments in the evening, and she will +be sure to follow him; but he must not take her further than Kaúkaú or +Aïwalátin.[144] + +“We continued our march to Tekaddá, where the houses are built of red +stone; the water is coloured by running over copper ores, which impart +to it a disagreeable flavour. The people of Tekaddá sow no grain; they +are wholly devoted to trade, and live in affluence; their luxury +consisting, as in Málí and Aïwalátin, in slaves of both sexes, of whom +some classes fetch exorbitant prices. The king of Tekaddá is a Berber. +The copper taken from the mines near the town is made into small bars +about an inch and a half thick, which are exchanged for grain, meat, +fuel, and other necessaries. These bars are carried to Kúber, in the +country of the Infidels, to Rághá, and to Bornú, which is forty days’ +journey from Tekaddá. The king of that country (who is named Idris) +never speaks to his subjects, unless from behind a screen or +curtain.[145] + +“From Tekaddá we set forward on our march to Twát, which is seventy days +distant, and came to Káhir, which belongs to the Sultan of Karkar, and +yields sufficient pasturage. Then going three days over a waterless +desert, and fifteen through a tract uninhabited but not waterless, we +came to the place where the road to Egypt separates from that to Twat. +The water of the wells in that place being impregnated with iron, stains +linen. In ten days more we came to Dekhár, and in another month reached +Búdá, one of the largest towns of Twát.” + +To the foregoing narrative a few remarks may be here advantageously +subjoined. If it be granted that Ibn Baṭúṭah, in sending to Zagharí for +a camel to replace that which died at Korí Mansá, had recourse to the +nearest town, then it follows that Mímah, one stage at least from +Tomboktú, must have been more than two stages from Korí Mansá. But this +place, in a mean position, will be nearly as far as Zagharí, or fourteen +days, from the capital of Málí. This capital must therefore have been, +at the lowest calculation, eighteen days from Tomboktú.[146] + +It is worthy of attention, that, in the fourteenth century, Tomboktú was +peopled chiefly by natives of Mímah, and by the Molaththemún, the very +parties with whom Ghánah, three centuries before, had to maintain a +constant warfare. The Masúfah, the early occupants of the desert between +Sijilmésah and Ghánah, extended from Tegháza to Tomboktú, and mercenary +bands of them were at the court of Málí. But the caravan road seems to +have been their only territory; eastward they were bounded by the +Berdámah, who carried water for sale into the desert of Azawad, and +whose encampments were probably not ten days distant from Tomboktú. + +There does not appear to have been any place of note between Tomboktú +and Kaúkaú; nor does Ibn Baṭúṭah say a word favourable to the +supposition that the former of these cities was in his time +intrinsically important. Kaúkaú, on the other hand, then enjoyed that +eminence among the cities of Negroland which it continued to retain for +at least four centuries.[147] The morals of the Berdámah, of Aïwalátin, +and Tekaddá, as described by Ibn Baṭúṭah, bear a close resemblance to +those characterizing Aúdaghost and Tádmekkah in earlier times, and +indicate the same fundamental conditions of society. The women of the +Berdámah, he says, were willing to follow strangers, on the implied +condition that they were not to be taken beyond Kaúkaú or Aïwalátin. +This is as much as to say, that they willingly accompanied merchants +arriving with the Káfilahs from the north-east, to a certain distance on +either of the two frequented roads; but it is remarkable that no mention +is here made of a road to any part of Houssa. + +Tekaddá was seventy days from Twát, and as fifty-eight of these are +accounted for, we may conclude that Tekaddá was twelve days from Káhir, +and thirty from the place where the roads to Twát and Egypt divided +(probably near Ghát); it was also forty days from Bornú, so that its +position may be ascertained with sufficient accuracy. Leo Africanus +states, that beyond or eastward of the Desert of the Zenágah lay that of +the Zuenziga, “which extends from the neighbourhood of Tegaza eastwards, +to the borders of the Desert of Air, inhabited by the Targa (Tawárik); +and from the confines of Segelmessa, Tebelbelt, and Benigomi southwards +(south-eastwards), to the Desert of Ghir, which is opposite to the +kingdom of Guber.” It has been already shown that by Air Leo meant the +Desert of ʿAhír east of Aghades; and it seems equally certain that his +Ghir is the Káhir of Ibn Baṭúṭah.[148] The copper of Tekaddá was taken +to Bornú, Kúber (Guber), and Rághá (Raka in Yariba?); and here it is +worthy of remark, that Guber, the frontier province of Houssa towards +the desert, and the province to which native historians concede the +superiority derivable from an early intercourse with white men, was +still pagan in the fourteenth century. This fact alone would be +sufficient to prove that Houssa formed no part of the Negroland which +fell within the range of the Morabites, even if the general tenor of +their history did not contradict such an extension of their conquests; +or if the question were not decided by the authority of Ibn Khaldún, who +says expressly that “Tekaddá was behind the country of the +Morabites.”[149] + +Ibn Baṭúṭah makes no allusion to the extent of the empire of Málí +towards the west or south; but he clearly indicates its limits towards +the north and east. When first mentioning the river, he describes its +course in the following terms:—“We came to the Great River, which is the +Nile, and on the banks of which stands the city of Kársekhó. Thence the +Nile descends to Kábrah and to Zághah, and the Sultans of these two +cities are tributary to the Sultan of Málí. The inhabitants of Zághah +were the first [in these countries] who embraced Mohammedism. They are +religious, and fond of learning. From Zághah the river descends to +Tomboktú; thence to Kaúkaú; thence to the district of Múlí, in the +country of the Límiyín, which terminates [in that direction] the +dominion of Málí. It goes thence to Yúfí (Núfí), one of the greatest +states in Negroland, and the Sultan of which is among the most powerful +princes of that quarter of the earth. No white man can reach that +country, for sure death awaits him from the natives before he penetrates +so far. From Yúfí the Nile descends to Nubia, the inhabitants of which +are Christians, and to Dongolah,” &c.[150] + +Notwithstanding the confusion into which the writer of Ibn Baṭúṭah’s +narrative here falls, placing Zághah below Kábrah, evidently in +ignorance of the proximity of the latter place to Tomboktú, yet as we +know that Zághah was not on the part of the river which Ibn Baṭúṭah +actually navigated, viz. between Tomboktú and Kaúkaú, we may rest +satisfied that it was above Kábrah. The empire of Málí extended along +both banks of the Great River as far as Tomboktú. On the left it +stretched northward to the border of the desert and the route of the +caravans, thus comprising the territory of the ancient Ghánah. Eastward +of Tomboktú it appears to have been bounded by the river; the Berdámah +and other tribes of the desert on the left bank retaining their +independence. Kaúkaú had been annexed to the empire, but no advance made +eastwards from that place, nor had Tekaddá been as yet invaded. Below +Kaúkaú the river flowed by the district of Múlí in the country of the +Límiyín (who were on its left bank, as shall be shown hereafter), and at +that point terminated, towards the east, the empire of Málí. + +The Múlí of Ibn Baṭúṭah is apparently the district called by Mohammed +Masíní Mouri (Múrí), four long days’ journey west of Sokkatú. It is said +to be mountainous and well watered; it immediately adjoins the Desert of +the Tawárik, and its inhabitants are still pagans. It is therefore the +northern limit of the negro population on the left bank of the Kowára, +or on the side of Houssa.[151] + +By the possession of Múlí the people of Málí had ready ingress into the +countries whence slaves were taken, but there is no authority whatever +for the supposition that they ever extended their dominion farther +eastward; and care must be taken, therefore, not to confound the +Mandingo empire of Málí with the country called Marra or Malla, situate +on the confines of the former in the north-western part of Houssa. It +seems clearly ascertained that the north-west part of Houssa, or the +territory between Zanfara and the Kowára, is called by the natives +Marra, or by those who affect the Arab sounds, Malla. The ancient +greatness assigned to Marra in the historical traditions of the natives, +favours the opinion that it was the Melil or Malilo of the early Arab +writers. At present the name Marra is used only by the indigenous +population, and it is curious to observe that its former importance +never brought it to the ears of Clapperton or Lander. But its partial +obscurity only renders it more likely to lead to confusion; and +therefore, in order to distinguish clearly between Málí and Malla, let +it be observed, that the former of these lay on the west of the Kowára, +the latter on the east. Málí was the empire of the Mandingoes; Malla a +kingdom of Houssa. These two states approached, and may have met each +other near Múlí; but there is no positive ground for believing that they +were in any degree connected, or that the conquests of Málí ever +extended into Malla.[152] + +Opposite to Múlí, or on the right bank of the Kowára, the dominion of +Málí probably extended a little southward to the borders of Bergú. Ibn +Baṭúṭah relates that Bálbá Ḳásá, the queen of Mansá Suleïmán, sent, in a +fit of displeasure, a confidential messenger to Mári Jáṭah, the King’s +nephew, instigating him to revolt, and promising to gain over the army +to his interest. Mári Jáṭah was at that time governor of Kombori.[153] +Now this name occurs in the fragments of native geographers collected by +Capt. Clapperton. It is therein stated that Kanbari (Kombori) lies north +of the River Kadúna; and again, we are told, that the river of that +country is called Kantagoora (Kotú-n-kúra). Yet the Kombori, of which +Jáṭah was governor, could not have been the country on the river of +Kotú-n-kúra, for this is beyond Múlí, where the dominion of Málí +terminated. This objection may be removed, however, by a little +attention to the comprehensiveness of the name under consideration. +Clapperton informs us that the aboriginal inhabitants of the country of +Boussa (Busá) are the negroes called Cambrie or Cumbrie (Kombori), who +still preserve their own language, and dwell in the woods on both sides +of the river, their villages extending also a long way up the Kotú-n- +kúra. From them, therefore, it is evident that the country on this river +takes the name of Kombori. But they also occupy all the islands in the +river above Busá, and are the indigenous inhabitants of the territory of +Busá, which extends eleven days’ journey northwards up the right bank of +the Kowára. They occupy, therefore, the country opposite to Múlí, where +we may accordingly place with much probability the province of Kombori +belonging to Málí.[154] + +“From Múlí (says Ibn Baṭúṭah) the river descends to Yúfí (Núfí), one of +the greatest kingdoms of Negroland, but to which white men cannot +penetrate; and thence it flows to Nubia.” It would appear, from this, +that the superiority now enjoyed by the people of Núfí in arts and +industry, was already acknowledged in the fourteenth century. It is +manifest also that the system of the native geographers which converts +the Chadda into a continuation of the Kowára, by which the waters of +this great river are carried across Bornú to the Nile of Egypt, is of +some antiquity. Ibn Baṭúṭah believed that the great river below Múlí +flowed some distance to the south or south-east before it turned +eastwards to Nubia. In speaking of Kulwá (Kilwá, or Quiloa), on the +eastern coast of Africa, he uses these words:—“A merchant there told me, +that the town of Sofálah is half a month’s journey from Kulwá, and one +month from Yúfí in the country of the Límiyín, and that gold is brought +from Yúfí to Sofálah.”[155] The boldness here evinced in bringing +together and joining in commerce countries far asunder, is constantly +exhibited in the geographical speculations of an early or ill-informed +age. Distances are then enlarged as expediency requires; hypothesis +leaps over the vacant spaces, and forcibly stretches the known portions +in the opposite sides of a continent till they meet in the centre. +Illustrations of this truth may be found in all ages. During the +sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Abyssinia, Congo, and Monomotapa +were all supposed to meet together. One of the Jesuits resident in +Abyssinia asserts, that salt was carried from that country to +Tomboktú.[156] The reasoning which led to this statement was, in its +nature, exactly the same as that from which the Arabs inferred an +intercourse between Sofálah and Yúfí. It is not surprising, therefore, +that Ibn Baṭúṭah, who had far less accurate means of ascertaining the +true positions of the places visited by him than the Catholic +missionaries, should believe that the remote interior, whence gold was +brought to Sofálah, was occupied by the same nation who filled the +interior viewed in the opposite direction from Málí. Erroneous as this +kind of inference may be, it yet rests on ideas of direction so manifest +and unambiguous as to be of material service in explaining an author’s +meaning. It is plain, then, that Ibn Baṭúṭah thought Yúfí to lie between +Málí and Sofálah, and that the Great River from Múlí to Yúfí flowed +towards Sofálah, but beyond Yúfí turned eastwards to Nubia. + +It is impossible to quit the narrative of Ibn Baṭúṭah’s travels without +making an important reflection on the extent and direction of his +journey to Negroland. We see in him an enterprising, experienced, well- +informed traveller, whose ambition it was, apparently, to explore all +the known parts of the earth; he goes from Sijilmésah across the desert +to Málí, thence to Tomboktú, and then descends the river as far as +Kaúkaú, and from Kaúkaú he turns off north-eastwards to the Desert on +his way back. Now can it be reasonably doubted that, in this tour, he +visited _the Negroland_ with which Sijilmésah had maintained an +intercourse from the earliest times, and which had been so minutely +described by El Bekrí and others? Can it be doubted that he accomplished +his proposed task in the sense in which it was understood by his +countrymen, and that the Negroland of western writers consequently lay +between the capital of Málí and Kaúkaú or Kághó? When he alludes to +Gúber as a pagan country, but says nothing of Kanó, can it be seriously +maintained that he slightingly passes over in silence the only part of +Negroland described with copious and connected details by the best Arab +writers? + +The hypothesis identifying Kanó with Ghánah appears to have originated +with Leo Africanus, and rests on no better foundation than the supposed +resemblance of those names, which to an impartial critic must appear +widely dissimilar.[157] Neither can it be admitted that Aghades was ever +called Aúdaghost, or that it is only twenty-five days from Jermah in +Fezzán. Kanó is two months from Jermah, four or five months from the +Western Ocean, and an equal distance from Sijilmésah, with which country +it certainly never maintained any intercourse. It is not close to the +desert, nor is there any desert of extreme aridity within much less than +a month’s journey from it.[158] It has no navigable river near it, nor +even any stream which is not quite dry in summer; much less can the +series of names placed on the river of Ghánah be found in its vicinity. +Neither do the descriptions of Ghánah, with all their details, contain +the names of any of the countries near Kanó. The tribes of the desert on +the frontiers of Houssa have all come from the neighbourhood of Fezzán, +and not from Sijilmésah.[159] Kanó is removed far from the deserts of +the Zenágah and of the Morabites, who always hung over Ghánah, and at +length became its masters: nor was Kanó included in the empire of Málí +when this power had attained its greatest extension, and had advanced +far beyond Ghánah. To one who examines with patience and attention the +accounts of Ghánah, it cannot but appear surprising that its identity +with Kanó should be maintained and acquiesced in even at the present +day. + + +[Footnote 124: For an account of Ibn Baṭúṭah, whose Travels at least +equal in interest those of Marco Polo, see the ‘History of the +Mohammedan Dynasties in Spain,’ by D. Pascual de Gayangos, p. 348. This +gentleman possesses a copy of the complete narrative of Ibn Baṭúṭah, and +from his translation of it (which we hope will be presented to the +public ere long) have been collected the passages given above, which are +not in general to be found in Professor Lee’s translation of the +abridgment of the same work.] + +[Footnote 125: Tegháza تَغَازَي is described, though not named, by El +Bekrí (Not. et Extr. p. 436). The salt mines, he says, are two days from +the Great Desert, over which passes the road to Ghánah, and twenty from +Sijilmésah. Ibn Baṭúṭah, travelling slowly, found the latter distance to +be a journey of twenty-five days. The Morabite general, Abú Bekr ben +Omar, purchased Negro slaves at a place in the desert called Gasza, whom +he sent to Spain, and exchanged for European slaves, to recruit his army +(Conde, Hist. de la Dom. II. p. 86). The Gasza here mentioned is +probably Tegháza mutilated in the original text, and further disfigured +by the Spanish writer. El Idrísí (Rec. de Voy. p. 107) mentions a place +in the desert called Taghíza. According to Cadamosto (c. XII. fol. 137 +v), Tegháza signifies _Cargadore_, or a loader (an old word, ill changed +into _Caricatojo_ in the recent edition of Ramusio); importing that the +place so called was the residence of those who loaded the camels, or +furnished the freight for the trade with Negroland. Peritsol (Itinera +Mundi, ed. by Hyde, p. 124), explains it otherwise, and translates +Tegháza, _earth_ loaded _with gold_. Ibn Baṭúṭah says, that at Aïwalátin +the salt fetched from ten to eighteen mithḳáls the load, and at Málí +twenty or thirty, or sometimes forty mithḳáls; and Leo states that when +he was at Tomboktú, the price of a load of salt rose there to eighty +ducats. Cadamosto quotes much higher prices. The ducat or mithḳál is +valued by Jackson at 3_s._ 8_d._ Another writer informs us, that the +load of salt (600 lb.), worth 4_s._ at Tegháza, paid 5_l._ duty at Gago +(True Historical Discourse of Muley Hamet’s Rising, c. II.). It has been +asserted by Jackson (Account of Morocco, p. 241), and too readily +believed, that there is a second Tegháza near the coast. But that +author’s meaning is explained by his map, in which we find written _East +Tarassa_ (Tegháza) and _West Tarassa Arabs_ (the Trarzas, or, as Labat +writes their name, Eteraza). According to Jackson’s orthographical +system, the same Arabic name may be written Tegháza, Tegrassa, or +Terassa. Caillié (Voy. &c. tom. II. p. 417,) came to some wells called +Trarzas, or Trasas, within the region of loose sand, and which have been +nevertheless mistaken for the site of Tegháza, whereas they obviously +owed their name to the tribe that dug them.] + +[Footnote 126: Táserahlá تَاسَرَهْلا. Respecting the Masúfah, who were +generally called el Takshíf, that is, the scouts or couriers, and who +appear to have occupied the whole road from Tegháza to Tomboktú, there +is a passage in Ibn Khaldún (fol. 89) which, with a little abridgment, +is worth transcribing.—“After the fall of the Morabite dynasty, the +tribes of the Molaththemún returned to the desert, and now occupy the +countries which they originally possessed in the vicinity of Negroland. +But as we have already observed, the emigration of the Zenágah tribes +was but partial: a few only of the Masúfah and Lumtúnah obeyed the +impulse, while the majority of the tribes remained behind, and _keep in +our days their old settlements in the Sahrá_, paying tribute to the +Kings of Negroland, on whom they depend, and in whose armies they serve. +The Goddálah are directly opposite to the Dhawi-Hassán, a branch of the +Moʿakel Arabs, settled in Sús el Aḳṣa; the Lumtúnah are opposite to the +Dhawi-Mansúr and Dhawi ʿObeidu-llah, branches of the same great tribe +living in Maghrebu-l-Aḳṣa. The Masúfah face the Zaghabah, an Arab tribe +in Maghrebu-l-Aúsat; and the Lamṭah adjoin the Benú Riyyah, who occupy +Ez-Záb.”—Thus it appears that the Masúfah inhabiting the tract of desert +between Sijilmésah and Tomboktú were in _their old settlements_, and, +therefore, in the tract between Sijilmésah and Ghánah. (See page 17.) +Leo (pt. I. c. 17-19) points out the situation of the various families +of the Machil (Moʿakel) tribe of Arabs.] + +[Footnote 127: The solitude and dangers of the desert naturally incline +the mind to the terrors of superstition. Marco Polo (Marsden’s edit. p. +159) relates that the Desert of Lop, in Tatary, is haunted by spirits +who call travellers by their names in the voice of friends, and lead +them astray.] + +[Footnote 128: A hundred mithḳáls was a large hire, if we estimate it by +the price of salt at Tegháza, which was probably but one mithḳál the +load. In the descriptions of the Desert of Tíser, the serpents infesting +it are always mentioned. They were dressed with salt and wormwood, +according to El Idrísí (Rec. de Voy. p. 108), and eaten by the Blacks. +If the loose hot sands abruptly approach the limits of vegetation on the +southern border of the Ṣaḥrá, between the 4th and 9th westerly +meridians, this phenomenon must be ascribed to the prevalence of +northerly winds, which drive the sand within the limit of the rains. On +the coast the drift of the sand seems to lean towards the north.] + +[Footnote 129: Aïwalátin ايْولَاتِنْ is a regular plural, formed from +the singular Walet or Waláta. Thus _afíus_, a hand, makes in the plural +_aïfásen_ (Höst’s Marokos, p. 137); _tar_, a foot, makes _itaren_. The +Berber names of towns are often in the plural number, comprehending the +several villages within the limits of a _Tenzert_, or district. Waláta +(Gualata) is described by Leo (pt. VI. c. 60), not as a town, but a +territory containing three hamlets (casali) and some scattered +habitations. Hence he might with propriety have written _Igualaten_, as +he wrote _Iguaden_ for Wádán, the Hoden of Cadamosto. The commercial +importance once enjoyed by Aïwalátin is agreeably illustrated by an +anecdote related in the History of the Mohammedan Dynasties in Spain, p. +302. While Ibn Baṭúṭah was at the court of Málí, he witnessed one day a +Masúfí rushing into the presence of the King, and prostrating himself in +the manner of a suppliant. When asked who had wronged him, he replied, +Manshajú biwalátin منشاجوا بولاتن, which means the Governor or Viceroy +of Aïwalátin. Manshajú or Manshagú is obviously derived from Mansá, with +the Berber pronunciation; the _b_ prefixed to the following word is the +sign of the possessive case (Venture on the Berber Language, in the +Appendix to Langlés’ Translation of Hornemann’s Travels, p. 420).] + +[Footnote 130: The title Farbá فربا, borne by the chief officers in the +empire of Málí, is originally the same as that of Farma or Farim, usual +among the Ṣúṣú and Mandingoes near the coast. Jobson (The Golden Trade, +p. 58) distinguishes between the Ferrans (Farims) and Ferambra (the +Farinba of Park). Golberry (Fragm. d’un Voy. I. p. 425) observes, that +in Bambúk, the power has passed from the Seratik, or nominal king, to +the Farims. The same is true of the neighbouring states, which at +present hardly acknowledge a paramount authority. For the Masúfí law of +succession, see p. 40.] + +[Footnote 131: Zághari زَاغَرِي. Its inhabitants were called Zangarátah +زَنْجَراتة. While the followers of the Ibadhia doctrine were named +Ṣaghanghú صَغَنْغُوا, orthodox sunnites were called Túri تُورِي. Ibn +Baṭúṭah mentions no river on his route from Aïwalátin to Karsekhó +كَارْسَخَوُ, nor does he state the distance, which probably was not +great, from this place to the Ṣanṣarah صَنْصَرَة.] + +[Footnote 132: The terms Faráriah فَرارية and Farári فراري, applied by +Ibn Baṭúṭah to the chief officers of Málí, and which he translated +Amírs, are respectively the collective and plural of Arabic form, from +the word _Fary_, which in the Bambara language (a dialect of the +Mandingo) signifies _valour_ or _courage_. From this word comes +_Fariba_, a valiant man (Dard, Dict. Wolofe et Bambara). The Mandingoes +form personal nouns with the suffix _ma_: thus from _fanko_, power, +comes _fankama_, a powerful man (M‘Brair’s Gram. of Mandingo, p. 6). +Thus it is probable that from the word _Fary_ is derived the titles +Farba, Farma, or Farim, which the conquests of the Mandingo race have +spread so widely through Guinea. But the Farims, or Lieutenants, are now +superior to the Seratiks, or Kings, and the title of the latter was at +one time secondary (see Note 119); so that sovereign titles in Guinea +standing on the ruins of preceding titles, are so many monuments of +revolution.] + +[Footnote 133: It is obvious that the poets here described are the +_Jelli-kés_, or _singing men_, of the Mandingoes (see Laing’s Travels, +p. 232). But it must not be supposed that by Jál حال, in the +(Arabicized) plural Jolá حُلا, Ibn Baṭúṭah meant to represent the word +Jelli-ké. He must be understood to say that the Jelli-kés, in Málí, were +of the nation called _Jolá_. Park says (Second Journey, 8vo. p. 57) that +“those who trade on credit are called _Juli_.” But this appears to be a +rash and incorrect explanation of the name. The word _julo_ signifies +_debt_ or bondage, but not a _debtor_. The same author, in describing +further on (p. 228) the route southward to Bé-dú, mentions several Juli +towns, and observes, that “the Julis are people who understand the +language of Bœdoo and Miniana, and are employed as brokers,” &c. But our +difficulties respecting the application of this name are removed by +Caillié, who informs us (Voy. à Temboctou, II. pp. 82, 160), that in +Bambara the Mandingoes are called _Jaulas_, _Diaulas_, or _Jolas_. It is +probable, however, that the name properly belongs to the inhabitants of +the country south of Bambara, where Park pointed out the Juli towns. But +in the Bambara language _Dhioli_ (according to Dard’s orthography) means +_red_; may not the Jolá, Julis, or Jaulas, therefore, be the people +referred to in the document procured from the Governor of Senegal, and +published in the Appendix to Adams’s Narrative (p. 197), wherein Bé-dú +is described to be “un pays habité par un peuple _rougeatre_”?] + +[Footnote 134: Clapperton’s Second Journey, pp. 47, 52, 72. The persons +prostrating themselves before the King of Yariba were contemptuously +called “Sandeaters,” by Clapperton’s Houssa servant; so little are the +usages of Ghánah now known in the neighbourhood of Kanó! Lander +(Expedition to the Niger, I. p. 172), describing these ceremonies, names +the king Mansolah, of which the Mandingo title Mansá may possibly be a +part.] + +[Footnote 135: It is manifest that the kingdom called Maha by Clapperton +(Second Journey, p. 56) is the Magho of Dupuis (Residence in Ashantee, +p. xcviii), and is also identical with the Mohammedan kingdom of Zogho, +said by the latter writer (p. civ.) to adjoin the Yagah tribes (Bergú) +and the Ayah (Yariba). The road from Ashantee to Niki, the capital of +Bergú, after passing through the town of Zogho, conducts to Salamo, +Jambodú, and Súsú, or Súso. The last two names are apparently Mandingo. +The name of the Sultan of Magho, residing in the city of Ghoroma +(Ghúrma) is said (Dupuis, p. cxxix.) to be Mariba Sheky, an obvious +misreading for Farba Shego. It seems very likely that the title of Maha +or Magho, vaguely given by the people on the coast to a Mohammedan +prince in the interior, is the Mandingo name Maghá, that is, Mohammed.] + +[Footnote 136: Leo Africanus, pt. VII. c. 3 & 4.] + +[Footnote 137: Park’s First Journey, p. 195. In the Rec. des Voy. tom. +II. p. 53, it is maintained that all the villages composing Sego are on +the right or southern bank of the river. But the general character of +the information there given will not bear to be weighed against the +clear testimony of Park. It seems not improbable that Kársekhó was a +part of Sego, but there is no necessity for insisting on that point. +Perhaps if Caillié, who applied the Wolof term _Marigot_, which he had +learned in Senegal, to all the creeks of the Great River, had inquired +how they were called in Bambara, or lower down, he might have learned +the name Ṣanṣarah. Perhaps, too, the Gozen-zaire of Sidi Hamed’s +narrative (Riley, Loss of the Brig Commerce, p. 362), might have been +more correctly written Go-sansarah. It seems to owe its present form to +Riley’s partiality to the hypothesis uniting the Niger with the Zaire.] + +[Footnote 138: In the original thus: وحاضرَة الملك الاهل مالي هُوَ بلد +ٮٮى] + +[Footnote 139: The wide arm of the river (Khalíj) reached by our +traveller on the third night after his leaving Málí must have been the +branch observed by Caillié to join the river from the west at Isaca. He +supposed it to come from Sego (Voy. à Temboctou, p. 239), but its +separation from the main stream must be lower down. There is, as yet, no +sufficient reason to deny that the river of Sego is also the river of +Jenni, and that the latter place stands between its branches, and not +between two distinct rivers.] + +[Footnote 140: This anecdote, like most stories of cannibalism, has the +defect of not proceeding from an eye witness; but it proves one fact, +namely, that the people of Málí were not cannibals.] + +[Footnote 141: Korí Mansá كُرِى منسا. Perhaps this place was the +residence of the chief (Mansá) who levied the tax on cotton (Korí). The +name written in the original Rʿarí رعري has been here changed into +Zagharí (See above, p. 75), as the existence of two places not far +asunder, and with names written so much alike, is much less probable +than a lapse in the MSS. Mímah ميمه is the Amímah of older writers.] + +[Footnote 142: The Daḳnó of Ibn Baṭúṭah is the Dokhnou of Caillié:—“Un +mélange de farine de mil et de miel que l’on délaie pour ensuite le +boire.” (Voy. à Temb. II. p. 236.) This word belongs apparently to the +Kissour language.] + +[Footnote 143: The word here rendered merchants of Godémis, is Ḳodémiyín +قداميين.] + +[Footnote 144: The Berdámah بردامه were probably a family of the +Beghámah, a nomade tribe mentioned by El Idrísí, whose country lay +behind that of the Merásah, to the east of Ghánah.] + +[Footnote 145: Ibn Baṭúṭah himself bought a female slave at Tekaddá for +twenty-five mithḳáls, no exorbitant price apparently. Kúber كوبر. Rághá +راغا. Káhir كاهر. Of Karkar some notice will be taken hereafter.] + +[Footnote 146: Cadamosto learned that Málí was thirty days from +Tomboktú. The last-named city is generally said to be ten days from +Jenni by land, and twenty-five by water; but the land journeys here +meant cannot be those of a loaded caravan, but nearly half as long +again. Sego is five or six days above Jenni.] + +[Footnote 147: It is fortunate that Ibn Khaldún removes all doubts as to +the identity of Ibn Baṭúṭah’s Kaúkaú with Leo’s Gago. The latter writer +calls it (pt. VII. c. 7) “una grandissima citta.” He also says that, +compared with the rest of Negroland, it was “molto civile.” His list of +prices is curious, as well as his Macchiavellian remark on the ignorance +and oppressed condition of the lower orders.] + +[Footnote 148: When Ibn Khaldún says that Tekaddá is seventy days south- +west of Wergelán (see p. 65), it is evident that he measures the +circuitous route by Ghát; and that the bearing of Tekaddá from Ghát is +incautiously taken by him for the direction of the whole journey.] + +[Footnote 149: The superiority of the people of Guber is plainly +asserted by Sultan Bello, who says (Appendix to Denham and Clapperton’s +Travels, 8vo. II. p. 450) that they alone, of all the Houssa tribes, are +free born, being descended from the Copts, while the rest are the +progeny of Bawwa, or Baúwa, that is, a slave (not Ba-oo, as in Mr. +Salamé’s Translation). The country of the Baúwa is Baúchi, or Baúji, +commonly written Bowshee. Sultan Bello’s History, brought to Europe by +Clapperton, would well deserve a critical study: but where is the +original? Did it belong to the public? and if it did, why is it not in +the library of the British Museum?] + +[Footnote 150: The Arabic MS. here varies a little in its readings. It +says—“from Kársekhó the Nile descends to Kabúrah كَبُورة and to Zághah +زاغه; and these two cities, namely, al-Kábrah الكابرة and Zághíah زاغيه, +pay tribute to Málí.” Tomboktú تُنْبُكْتُوا is carefully spelt by Ibn +Baṭúṭah, the letters with which it is written being named by him, with +their vowel points. Ibn Baṭúṭah never alludes to the native names of the +Great River, but always calls it the Nile. The local names of the +theoretical Niger (the Senegal and Great River together) collected by De +Barros (Dec. I. liv. 3, c. 8), do not contain the Mandingo name Joliba. +This name was first announced to the geographical world when speculation +was unusually active, and it was immediately explained to mean _the +Great Waters_. Park, though he seems to have adopted this interpretation +(Travels, p. 194), can hardly be supposed to have been its author. Laing +joins the statement of his precursors to his own information, and says +(Travels, p. 327), that the Niger “is known by the synonymous +appellations of Ba Ba and Joli Ba—“_Large River_.” Ba Bá certainly +signifies Great River, the substantive _Ba_, a river, preceding the +adjective _Bá_, great, according to the general rule of the Mandingo +language. Thus in Ba-fing, black river, Ba-koé, white river, Ba- +woollima, red river, the word _Ba_, a river, has precedence; but when +joined with a substantive, as in Kuara-ba, the river of Kuara, it +follows. With these examples before our eyes, it is impossible to admit +the explanation of the name of Joliba given above, which receives +moreover no support from the vocabularies. It is likely that the name +Joliba, or, as written by Caillié, Dhioliba, by Mollien, Dialiba, means +the river of the Jál or Jolá, Juli, Jaules, Diaules, or Dhioli (red +men), from whose country it descends, whether its sources be, as stated +by Park (Travels, App. p. xliv.), in Jallonké-dú, _i.e._ Jallo-man’s +land, or in Bé-dú, where are the Juli towns and men of a red +complexion.] + +[Footnote 151: Beldeh Múlí بلدة مُولي. The Fellátah geographer wrote +sometimes Mouri (Appendix to Clapperton’s Second Journey, p. 332), +sometimes (p. 340) Mouli (Múlí). He says, that the people of Núfí +conquered, among other countries, “the west of Malee, or Moulee, and +Abyou.” And again, that they subdued “the country of Abbi (in which we +now are) and Kanbari” (Kombori). Abbi is probably the same as Abyou (or +rather Abbíwa), and appears to have been near Sokkatú. In Hannah +Kilham’s Specimens of Languages spoken in Sierra Leone, we find the +Appah and Tapua, both related to the Aku or Yariba. The Tapua is +evidently the Tappawa, or language of Núfí (called Tappa by its +inhabitants), and the Appah is perhaps the language of Abbi. One of the +native itineraries appended to Dupuis’ Residence in Ashantee (p. +cxxix.), places Maury (Múri) next to Kábi on the west.] + +[Footnote 152: From Marra is formed the gentile noun Marrawa; just as +Asbenawa is derived from Asben, Kachenawa from Kachena, Killiwawa from +Killiwah. But the carelessness of authors has given to the country the +name Marrawa, Mallawa, or Marroa, which properly belongs to the people. +According to Dupuis (Resid. in Ashantee, App. lxxxviii.), Marroa was +conquered by the Arabs at the close of the eighth century of our era. +For Melil see p. 37. Bowdich (Essay on the Geogr. of N.W. Afr. p. 24) +has laboured to show that Mallawa (or Malla) is the Melli of Leo, or +Málí; and Dalzel (History of Dahomy, p. 34) speaks of a people of the +interior called Malays or Mulays; but though the resemblance of the +names Malla, Melli or Málí, and Múlí, favours confusion, all that we +know of their application is on the side of discrimination.] + +[Footnote 153: Ibn Baṭúṭah relates the transaction above alluded to with +many details illustrative of the manners of Málí. The King, it appears, +grew tired of his chief wife, Bálbá Ḳásá, who, by the custom of the +country, shared his authority: (Ḳásá, the Caza of old vocabularies, +means Queen;) he therefore placed her in confinement in the house of one +of his Farárí or captains, and took for queen in her stead his other +wife Banjú, who was not of the blood royal. The people manifested +dissatisfaction at this change. The female relatives of the King, in +visiting Banjú, put dust on their elbows, but not on their heads. When +Bálbá Ḳásá, however, was soon after released from confinement, the same +parties presented themselves before her with their heads covered with +dust and ashes. Thereupon Banjú complained that the deposed queen was +treated with more honour than herself. Mansá Suleïmán was incensed; and +his relatives, fearing his vengeance, fled to the sanctuary. He soon +pardoned them, however, and then the ladies, according to custom, +presented themselves before him naked. But the public discontent with +the King continued to increase, till one day the Royal Interpreter Dúghá +led forth before the assembly a young female slave in chains, who +disclosed the conspiracy above related. It was then agreed that Bálbá +Ḳásá deserved death.] + +[Footnote 154: The situation of Kanbari (Kombori) is described in the +Appendix to Clapperton’s Second Expedition, pp. 339 & 340. For some +account of the people who give their name to this country, see +Clapperton’s Narrative, pp. 97, 102, 147, &c.; and also Lander’s +Expedition to the Niger, II. pp. 87, 299.] + +[Footnote 155: For Yúfí يُوفِي Professor Lee (Travels of Ibn Baṭúṭah, p. +238) reads Yúwí, and Burckhardt (Travels in Nubia, p. 491) Bowy. It is +obviously Núfí mispointed.] + +[Footnote 156: In like manner the supposed Christian King named Ogané, +of whom the early Portuguese navigators received intelligence at Benin, +was at once assumed to be the King of Abyssinia. The fable of an +intercourse between Abyssinia and Western Africa has been gravely +repeated by a recent writer (M‘Queen’s Survey of Africa, p. 5). +Fernandez de Enciso (Suma de Geografia, 1518) says, that in the Bight of +Benin are the Blacks who trade with Libya and Meroe. Lalande (Mémoires +de Paris, 1795, p. 15) has collected with equal industry and credulity +the stories of an overland commerce between the eastern and western +coasts of Africa.] + +[Footnote 157: Leo says (pt. VII. c. 1), “Our ancient writers on Africa, +as El Bekrí and El Mesúdí, have written nothing respecting any part of +Negroland, except el Waḥat (the Oases) and Cano.” This sentence, which +has been of course copied with little change by Marmol (tom. III. fol. +21), can be explained only by supposing that Cano (Kanó) here means +Ghánah. However ill-considered or obscurely intimated may be Leo’s +opinion, it yet probably influenced not a little the decision of +D’Anville in favour of the identity of Kanó with Ghánah. Major Rennell +most unaccountably assumes that by Cano Leo meant the town of Ganat (or +rather Janat), between Fezzan and Ghát. Perhaps the latter writer’s +statement that “Cano is a great province, about 500 miles distant from +the Niger towards the east,” contained something incompatible with the +Major’s system, and made it absolutely necessary for him to expel Leo’s +Cano from Negroland. Major Rennell disserted always shrewdly, and +sometimes with a very imperfect knowledge of his authors. Thus he +asserts that, under the name Genni (Jenni), Leo meant to describe +Ghánah; and that he was wrong in placing Genni or Ghánah, and Melli, +west of Tomboktú, “for Leo certainly never saw the Niger.” Now Leo, when +he speaks of Genni, says that it is the name used by the natives, and +derives it (with little reason) from Gheneoa (Genéwa), a name as ancient +as Ghánah, and quite distinct from it. Moreover Leo not only saw the +Niger, but actually navigated it to Jenni and Málí (pt. I. c. 3). It is +not easy to discover from Major Rennell’s dissertations the position +assigned by him to Ghánah, but his map shows that he confounded it with +Kanó. These two names, as pronounced in Africa, have much less +resemblance in sound than is commonly imagined. Written in Arabic, they +have but one letter in common. Ghánah begins with a peculiar sonorous +guttural, which is followed by a long vowel; Kanó is like our word +canoe. Einsiedel (Cuhn’s Merkwürdige Reisen, vol. III. p. 435) writes it +_Gnou_.] + +[Footnote 158: In order to prove that Kanó was the Ghánah of early +writers, it was necessary to assume not only the close resemblance of +those names, but also that the name Aghades was a corruption of +Aúdaghost. Then the distance between this place and Jermah, according to +El Idrísí, is called in as a confirmation. A single particular is taken +from that writer, all the others with which it stands connected being +disregarded, though the rejected details are founded on experience, and +the retained one on inference alone. Yet this arbitrary reasoning cannot +after all attain its desired ends. Aghades is not twenty-five but forty- +five days from Jermah, and Kanó is not twelve but twenty-eight days from +Aghades (Walckenaer Rech. p. 448; Lyon’s Trav. p. 131). The deserts of +ʿAhír and Káhir, beyond Aghades, are far from being utterly inhospitable +tracts.] + +[Footnote 159: According to Sultan Bello (Denham and Clapperton’s Disc. +8vo. II. p. 447), the people of Guber at one time held possession of the +Desert of ʿAhír, but were dispossessed by five tribes of the Tawárik, +who came out of Aowjal (Augila).] + + + + + TEKRÚR. + + +Ibn Baṭúṭah, in describing the course of the Great River below Kársekhó, +makes no mention of Tekrúr, the first converted of the Negro communities +in that quarter. That designation, though widely and vaguely extended in +process of time, was certainly at first applied to a spot between Silla +and Ṣínghánah, and not far from the former of these places. Wárjání, the +chief of Tekrúr who first adopted the Mohammedan faith, and induced his +subjects to follow his example, died in 432 H. (A.D. 1040-1); so that +the conversion of his principality preceded, by thirty-five years at +least, that of Ghánah and Western Negroland in general. Such a priority +explains at once the religious eminence implied in the title Tekrúr +(whatever may have been its original signification), and which caused it +to be usurped till its proper application was at length forgotten.[160] + +But though Ibn Baṭúṭah does not expressly mention Tekrúr, yet he says of +Zághah, situate between Kársekhó and Tomboktú, that it was the first +city of Negroland which received the Mohammedan faith. Hence it may be +inferred that Zághah was the proper territorial name of the place styled +Tekrúr. And this conjecture receives from Ibn Khaldún strong +confirmation, falling short of completeness only through the unsteady +orthography which so often hinders the exact coincidence of Arab +authorities. His words are as follows:—“I was told by the Sheíkh +ʿOthmán, a learned man and theologian of the people of Ghánah, and one +of the chief men of that country in respect to rank, intelligence, and +piety, when he came to Egypt on his way to Mekkah in 796 (A.D. 1393), +that the people of Ghánah employ the name Tekrúr to designate the +Zagháï, and give the name Málí to Atakárthah.”—It can hardly be doubted +that the people here called Zagháï derived their name from the place +called by Ibn Baṭúṭah Zághah. The name Atakárthah does not admit of +quite so easy an explanation; yet it may with much probability be +assumed to be the original and complete Berber form of the name, now +written in our maps, Kaarta. The statement of the Sheíkh ʿOthmán then +amounts to this: the people of Ghánah discriminated, in terms naturally +arising out of their local position, between Tekrúr and Málí, giving the +former name to a certain tribe dwelling to the south, and the latter to +a particular region higher up the river, and the frontier of which, +facing Ghánah, was Atakárthah or Kaarta.[161] + +The country of Tekrúr or of the Zagháï thus discriminated from Málí, +which lay further west, may be clearly recognized in modern accounts, +notwithstanding the disguise of a variable orthography. Sultan Bello, +after describing the country of Mósí, thus proceeds:—“Adjoining to it on +the north side, the province of Sanghee (Zághí) lies. Its inhabitants +are remnants of the Sonhaja (Zenágah), wandering Arabs and the Felateen. +They profess the Mohammedan faith, and their princes ruled them always +with equity and justice. A great number of learned and pious persons +have distinguished themselves from among them. Next to Sanghee on the +west side, the country of Málí is situated. It embraces the province of +Bambara,” &c.[162]—The situation here assigned to Sanghee, and the +reputed piety of its inhabitants, clearly show that it is the country of +Tekrúr or of the Zagháï mentioned by Ibn Khaldún, and the Zághah or +Zághiyah of Ibn Baṭúṭah. The commercial activity of the people, or +perhaps their social ascendency due to their religious reputation, +appears in the wide diffusion of their language; for, according to Leo, +the _Sungai_ (Zagháï) language was used in Walet, Tomboktú, Jenni, Málí, +and Kághó.[163] + +The geographical sketch of Negroland drawn by Sultan Bello, differs +materially from that made by his follower Mohammed Másíní, inasmuch as +the former exhibits the territorial divisions of the indigenous +population, whereas the latter offers only Fellátah names, and totally +overlooks the aboriginal inhabitants. Nevertheless, the Zagháï, or +people of Sanghee, are to be found in Mohammed’s descriptions with +little change of denomination. In describing the road from Sokkatú to +Másín, he places, seven days east of the latter country, “the territory +of Hajrí,”—that is, the rocky or mountainous tract. The Fellátah, he +says, possess the valleys, “but the mountains are inhabited by a people +called Benoo-Hami, of the tribe of Sokai (Zagháï), who are great +warriors. In the middle of this country is a great and lofty mountain, +on which is a town called Oonbori, whose king is named Noohoo-Ghaloo- +farma, of the tribe of Sokai, and is renowned for his generosity and +munificence.” Further on we are told that Oonbori is comprised in the +dominion of the Sultan of Másín, so that the people here called the +tribe of Sokai probably extend from the mountains to the river. +Alexander Scott received from his ignorant companions a distorted +account of the Zachah (Zagháï) dwelling on the eastern shores of Lake +Debú; and the town of Sankhaguibila, placed by Caillié on the right bank +of the river farther south, appears to owe its name to the same tribe +(Ḳabílah).[164] + +The Benú Hami, who are also Zagháï, or of the tribe of Sokai, are said +by Mohammed Másíní, to dwell not only in the mountains near the western +course of the Great River above Tomboktú, but also in the desert, +mingled with the Tawárik, on the left bank of the same river below +Kághó, and between that river and Sokkatú. And this information accords +with the statement of Sultan Bello, who, speaking of the province of +Kábi, west of Sokkatú, says, “its inhabitants, it is supposed, had their +first father from Sanghee and their mother from Kashnah;” clearly +implying by this genealogy, that the Zagháï, Sanghee, Sokai, or Benú +Hami, have dwelt from time immemorial in Kábi, intermingled with and +ruling the indigenous population.[165] The advance of the tribe or +nation originally styled Tekrúr, from the vicinity of Jenni eastwards to +Marra or Western Houssa, completely explains why Ibn Khaldún, placing +the Ṣúṣú and then Málí next to Ghánah (an arrangement expressing +historical perhaps rather than geographical relations), and beyond these +Kághó, sets Tekrúr beyond, or, as he supposed, eastward from, the latter +place; and also why Makrízí makes Tekrúr the western boundary of the +great empire of Kánem or Bornú. In the last century Niebuhr the +traveller learned that Tekrúr was the residence of a sultan, the vassal +of Afnú (Houssa), who possessed Mara (Marra) and Adana (perhaps +Ader).[166] + +Though the people of Ghánah always kept in view the original application +of the name Tekrúr, even after the territory where it grew into +importance became part of the empire of Málí, yet beyond the circle of +exact local knowledge, such propriety of language was never thought of, +and at a distance the name Tekrúr was employed in a very comprehensive +and indefinite manner. Makrízí, in describing the pilgrimage of Mansá +Músa, King of Málí, in A.D. 1324, styles him King of Tekrúr; but again, +in the annals of A.D. 1351, he mentions another king of Tekrúr, who +likewise passed through Egypt, and who certainly was not Mansá Suleïmán, +at that time King of Málí. It is manifest therefore that Makrízí used +the name Tekrúr in no properly restricted and perhaps in no fixed +acceptation.[167] The Western Fellátah apply the epithet Tekrúrí to the +religious classes of their own nation. In Egypt it is given generally to +Mohammedan devotees, natives of Negroland; and when Sultan Bello makes +Tekrúr comprise all Negroland from Dárfúr inclusively westward, he +offers an example not of the correct use of that name, but of its widest +abuse.[168] + +The history of Tekrúr may be thus briefly recapitulated:—The Zenágah +early established themselves on the Great River, above Lake Debú, where +the continued tract of desert conducted them to its banks, and there +founded the city of Zághah, from which they afterwards took their name. +They embraced Mohammedism, nearly half a century before the Blacks in +their neighbourhood, and thereby obtained a reputation of sanctity which +was nowise diminished by their activity as slave hunters. The general +conversion of Western Negroland compelling them to go to a distance for +their prey, they proceeded eastwards to Marra or Western Houssa, where +the hilly region has been always, in an eminent degree, the country of +slaves.[169] They thus broke the path in which they were afterwards +followed by the people of Málí, and more recently still by the Fellátah. +The kingdom of Tekrúr being extinguished in the west by the empire of +Málí, rose more conspicuously in the east: though the people retained +their old habitations, the political denomination completely shifted its +place, and Tekrúr stood between Málí and Bornú. In the meantime the +religious title Tekrúrí being widely usurped, the original and proper +application of the name fell into neglect and oblivion. + + * * * * * + + +[Footnote 160: Tekrúr, according to El Bekrí (Not. et Extr. tom. XII. p. +637), was at no great distance from Ṣínghánah towards the south-west. El +Idrísí always unites Silla and Tekrúr. The date of Wárjání’s death is +given by El Bekrí (MS. B.M. fol. 110), who also states that the people +of Silla embraced Mohammedism at that chief’s persuasion. Wárjání was +probably a Zenágah, a great number of proper names in the Berber +language beginning with the syllable _wer_ or _wár_ (the negative +particle?). A prince of Tekrúr accompanied the Lumtúnah in their first +religious wars.] + +[Footnote 161: The name Zagháí زغاي cannot, it is true, be formed from +Zághah زاغة; but considering that they are taken from different authors, +and that the orthography of African names is extremely unsettled, there +is no great boldness in the hypothesis which connects them. It is easier +to believe that one of these names requires a little correction, than +that the Tekrúrí did not bear the name of the town which first received +the Mohammedan faith. Makrízí, or Ibn Sʿaíd, from whom he copies, says +(Hamaker, Specimen Catalogi, &c., p. 209,) “that all the nations +comprised between Abyssinia on the south, Nubia on the east, Barkah on +the north, and Tekrúr on the west, are called Zagháï.” Here the name +Zagháï is derived from Zagháwah, and the Tekrúr spoken of is that of +Houssa. An anecdote related in the ‘History of the Mohammedan +Dynasties,’ by Gayangos (p. 303), shows that in the thirteenth century, +there was a state called Tekrúr in the neighbourhood of Aïwalátin. An +Arab writer of little merit apparently (in the Library of the British +Museum, MS. No. 7,483), says that “the Blacks are now in general styled +Tekrúr; but anciently the name Tekrúr was applied only to the +inhabitants of the country called Atasama اتسمي.” It may be conjectured +that Atasama is an ill-written derivative from Sámah, the country of the +Bokmo or Bagamo. The _t_ is a Berber article; the initial _a_ the sign +of the possessive case, and perhaps also of adjectives derived +therefrom. Thus the Berbers say, Mohammed a-Mohammed a-Mast, to express +Mohammed, son of Mohammed, of or belonging to Messah. Hence also from +Mazig, the reputed ancestor of the Berbers, and personification of the +μαζίκες of the Greeks, was formed the name Amazig (see De Sacy’s +Analysis of Shehabeddin in Not. et Extr. tom. II. p. 153, and the +extract from Ibn Khaldún’s History of the Berbers in the Nouv. Jour. +Asiatique, No. VIII., 1828, p. 132). The reader may consider how far +these remarks are applicable to such names as Atakárthah, Atasama, +Amímah, and perhaps Awalílí or Aúlílí (see Note 107).] + +[Footnote 162: For Mósí, the translator of Bello’s History has written +Moosher (Denham’s Discoveries, &c. 8vo. II. p. 455), just as he has +written Bowsher for Baúshí (p. 450). The Arabic letter _ghain_, here +represented by _gh_, easily becomes nasal; and on the east coast of +Africa, where the nasal sound occurs frequently in the native names, as +in Songa, Tongata, Mongallo, it is always expressed by _ghain_ alone. +Hence Zághah in the mouth of a Mandingo, becomes Zanghah and Ṣanghah.] + +[Footnote 163: Leo, pt. I. c. 11. Marmol (tom. I. c. 23, fol. 44) +includes Gelofe (the country of the Wolofs), also within the range of +the Zungay or Sungai language; but the origin of this mistake is perhaps +not undiscoverable. He says (tom. III. fol. 22) that the people of +Gualata or Ganata are commonly called Benais, and that they speak the +Zungay language. Whence did the people of Gualata (Walata) obtain that +name? Were they colonists from the capital of Málí? In the ‘True +Historical Discovery of Muley Hamet’s Rising,’ it is said that “the +grasshoppers (locusts) come into Barbary every seven years from the +parts of Benie, or Genie, as the country people imagine.” Although the +names Beni (Benin) and Guinea were often coupled together by old +writers, yet it seems more natural to suppose that, in the passage here +cited, the parts of Negroland nearest to Barbary were intended, and that +by Benie, or Genie, we are to understand the country of Marmol’s Benais, +or Jenni. But Marmol (tom. I. fol. 2 & 15) also places a people named +Benais on the coast near the Senegal. In this, perhaps, he was guided by +the Jesuit missionaries, who visited, from Cape Verde, a king of Bena +(Ragguagli d’alcuni Missioni, 1615, p. 75); probably the Benay of +Mollien. But the king of Bena was a Mandingo or Suso, and boasted of +being superior to all other Farims (Jarric, tom. III. p. 411). Marmol +appears to have confounded the Bena near the coast, with the Benai +people of the interior, and thus to have made one language extend from +the mouth of the Senegal to Houssa. Hence Moore, in his Travels in +Africa, (1737), calls the Wolofe language the Zanguay.] + +[Footnote 164: Oonbori, possessed by the Benú Hami of the tribe of Sokai +(App. to Clapperton’s Journal of a Second Expedition, p. 331), is +probably the Anbárah of El Bekrí (see above, p. 39). It is to be +observed, that the chief of Oonbori has the Mandingo title _Farma_, a +remnant of the supremacy of Málí, following his name, contrary to the +usage of the Mandingo language. If the _Sungai_ then be the language of +the Sokai, it is probably the same which Caillié calls the _Kissour_. +May not the pilgrimage on which Scott was led into the country of the +Zachah (Edinb. Phil. Jour. IV. p. 49), have been directed to the tomb of +one of the early apostles of Negroland, and to a consecrated spot of +Tekrúr? Notwithstanding the intrinsic weakness of an argument founded on +the resemblance of ill-written names, there is more of coincidence here +than can be ascribed to accident. Near the site of Tekrúr, the first +converted Negro state, is the town of Zághah, having a like reputation. +The title Tekrúr is given to the Zagháï; the devotees of the desert +direct their steps to the country of the Zachah at that part of the +river; there also we find a country called Sanghee, a tribe named Sokai, +and the Sungai language. It can hardly be denied that these names are +related.] + +[Footnote 165: Sultan Bello, in Denham, II. p. 452. From the Benú Hami +of the tribe of Sokai, who live in the desert on the left bank of the +river, the country of Sóghy, where Mungo Park was attacked (Clapperton, +p. 334), obviously derived its name.] + +[Footnote 166: Deutches Museum, 1790, cited by Walck. Rech. p. 73. +Yakút, in his Geographical Dictionary, says, that the King of Kaúkaú +made war upon the Moslim of Ghánah on the west, and those of Tekrúr on +the east. According to Ibn Sʿaíd (Hamaker, Specimen Cat. p. 209), +Tekrúr, which thus appears to have been east (rather south-east) of +Kaúkaú (Kághó), was also the western boundary of the Zagháï (of +Zagháwah), or the empire of Kánem.] + +[Footnote 167: Not. et Extr. tom. XII. p. 637-8, note.] + +[Footnote 168: See _ante_, Note 73. Mollien (Voyage dans l’Intérieur de +l’Afrique, I. p. 176) says, that in the Fellátah language, the word +Toucolor signifies a Mohammedan priest. But he elsewhere (pp. 207, 215) +seems to use that name as the designation not of a class but of a +community. Toucolor, whence the Tucorones of De Barros, is an obvious +corruption of Tokrúr.] + +[Footnote 169: The name Boushy (Baú-shi), now given to the hilly country +south of Zegzeg, means the country of the Baúwa, that is, of the +Slaves.] + + + + + KÚGHAH — KÁGHÓ — KAÚKAÚ — KARKAR. + + +Kúghah is said by El Bekrí to have been fifteen days from Ghánah; and if +to this scanty information be added the statements of El Idrísí, that it +stood on the Nile or Great River, and was nine days east of Samaḳanda, +which was four days distant from Ghánah towards the south or south-east, +it will be apparent that Kúghah was the place otherwise named Kághó. It +was, of all the cities of the Blacks, that which furnished the largest +quantity of gold,—the very remark made of Gago (Kághó) by Leo +Africanus.[170] When Cadamosto relates that, of the gold collected in +Melli (Málí), part was sent to Oden (Waddán), part to Tombutto +(Tomboktú), and the remainder to “a place called Cochia, which is the +road to Syria and Cairo,” it is manifest that he meant to speak of Kághó +under the name of Kúghah.[171] But it has been shown that Kághó was also +called Kaúkaú. It is therefore clearly ascertained that one place—the +most important in Negroland—bore three different names,—viz. Kúgháh, +Kaúkaú, and Kághó, of which the last alone was proper to it; the first +two also designating, or appearing to designate, other places. But it is +worth while to inquire more closely into the confusion arising from this +frequent use of equivalent and equivocal names. + +El Bekrí does not speak quite so concisely of Kaúkaú as of Kúghah: he +enters a little into detail respecting the former place; he says that it +was nine days from Tádmekkah, which was situate fifty days eastward from +Ghánah, and forty from Ghodémis. Tádmekkah was evidently a Berber town, +in the desert, while Kaúkaú was considered as belonging to Negroland; +yet if we suppose Kaúkaú to have been south of Tádmekkah, or forty-nine +days from Ghodémis, and little more than fifty from Ghánah, still it +could not, within nine days of Tádmekkah, have been in Negroland +properly so called, but only on its frontiers towards the desert. +Indeed, it may be inferred from El Bekrí’s words, that its inhabitants +were of Berber rather than of Negro origin. They were called by the +Arabs, he says, Baẓarkáyín; they dressed _like the Blacks_, they +worshipped idols _like the Blacks_, but their king was a Mohammedan. +They always threw the remains of the King’s dinner into the Nile,—an +expression on which but little stress can be laid. El Bekrí, in tracing +the course of the Great River eastwards from Ghánah, states that +fourteen days below the latter place, it entered the territory of the +Seghmárah; and “opposite to the Seghmárah,” he adds, “on the other side +of the river, is Kaúkaú.” Now the Seghmárah also occupied the country +north of Tádmekkah; they possessed therefore, or roved over, a desert +exceeding a month’s journey in extent. In so wide a compass, it conduces +little to accuracy to learn that Kaúkaú stood opposite to them; and as +to the river, it may have been the theoretical stream uniting the Nile +of Ghánah with that of Egypt. It is plain enough that Kaúkaú, nine days +from Tádmekkah, was a very different place from Kúghah on the Great +River, fifteen days below Ghánah; but since Kúghah was also called +Kaúkaú, it is not quite clear that El Bekrí has not confounded in some +degree those two places, and ascribed to the one the characteristics of +the other.[172] + +In El Idrísí’s accounts of Kúghah and Kaúkaú, there is nothing so +remarkable as his tone of uncertainty and the doubts uttered by him. +Thus he says of Kúghah, that “it stands on the northern bank of the +Nile, the waters of which are drunk by its inhabitants. It belongs to +Wanghárah, _but some of the Blacks place it in Kánem_.” Again, he tells +us that “Kaúkaú is the most celebrated city of Negroland: it is large, +and stands on the banks of a river flowing through it from the north. +_But_ many of the Blacks affirm that this city is built on the sides of +a canal; _others say_, on a river running into the Nile; but the more +probable opinion is, that the river of Kaúkaú has a course of many days +before it reaches that city, and is afterwards lost in the sands.”[173] +Doubts of this kind respecting the most important and celebrated cities +of Negroland may be more naturally ascribed to ambiguity of information, +than to actual want of it. Kúghah on the Great River below Ghánah, may +have been confounded with Kaúghah adjoining Bornú, and thus transferred +eastwards into the vicinity of Kánem. The celebrity of Kúghah (called +also Kaúkaú) may have lent a semblance of importance to some place in +the desert bearing apparently the latter name, and the physical +geography of which was but little known. + +Respecting the position of this Kaúkaú of the desert, our information is +far from being satisfactory; yet it all points towards the desert +fronting Houssa, or between that country and Aghades. East of Ghánah, +and behind the Merásah, El Idrísí places the nomade tribe of the +Beghámah. Between the Beghámah and the Azḳár who passed the summer on +Ṭanṭanah, the range of hills bounding Fezzán on the south, was a +distance of twenty days. Now from Kúghah to Kaúkaú, he tells us, was a +journey of twenty days going _northwards_ through the country of the +Beghámah. It was the natural consequence of a system which arranged the +frontier of Negroland in an undeviating straight line from west to east, +to suppose that a route from Negroland to the desert went northwards: +but, stripped of such inference, El Idrisí’s statement amounts to +this,—that Kaúkaú was twenty days distant from Kúghah, not in Negroland, +but in the desert. Again, when speaking of Ṭanṭanah and the Azḳár, he +says, “further south are Kaúkaú and the Demdem;” and then repeating the +various opinions current respecting the river of Kaúkaú, he adds, “the +country contiguous to this territory (Kaúkaú) on the east, is chiefly +that of Kawwár, well known and much frequented.” The well-known country +of Kawwár lies half-way between Fezzán and Bornú, westward of which +situation, and consequently in the desert, we must look for Kaúkaú. +Obscure as these indications are in many respects, they are conclusive +in showing that Kaúkaú, according to the Arab author’s conception, was +in the desert, between Kúghah and Kawwár, Ṭanṭanah and the country of +the Demdem.[174] + +Ibn Sʿaíd, who wrote in the latter half of the thirteenth century, or +above a century later than El Idrísí, after stating that Kánem is the +greatest kingdom of Negroland, that it has Fezzán on the north, and that +it is the head of Bornú, adds, that it has on the west Kaúkaú, Baghárah +or Taghárah, Tekrúr, &c. He says also, that “from Tádmekkah to Kaúkaú +are ten stages, from Kaúkaú to Ghánah twenty; then follows the Ocean.” +The reduced distance here allowed between Tádmekkah and Ghánah, may have +arisen from confounding the Kaúkaú of the desert with the city of the +same name (called also Kúghah and Kághó) on the Great River. But on one +point Ibn Sʿaíd speaks clearly, namely, that Kaúkaú was not comprised in +the kingdom of Kánem, which then included Bornú and part of the desert, +but lay further west, between Tádmekkah and Ghánah. + +Numerous as are the Arab writers of Geographical Treatises and +Dictionaries, it is vain to seek in their pages for any information on +so obscure a point as the position of Kaúkaú. They all copy preceding +writers literally, particularly El Idrísí; and on opening their volumes, +we are almost sure of reading, that “Kaúkaú stands on a river of the +same name, coming from the north, and afterwards sinking in the sands of +the desert, though some say,” &c. Yet they present one striking +variance; many, if not even a large majority of them write, not Kaúkaú, +but Karkar. It may be said, indeed, that in Arabic writing, Kaúkaú is +easily changed into Karkar, and that the latter name is probably only a +clerical corruption of the former.[175] But can it be shown _à priori_ +that there could not have been a city or country named Karkar? and is +not the readiness to suppose the corruption of Kaúkaú into Karkar, +itself the result of a prejudice founded on the celebrity of the former +of these names, and which was likely at all times to prompt copiers and +compilers to a corruption of an opposite kind, namely, that of Karkar +into Kaúkaú? Of two names resembling each other, the more famous and +better known may be well presumed to have had the benefit of all doubts +in the process of transcription; while on the other hand, if there were +actually two important places named Kaúkaú in Negroland, it is +inconceivable that Arab travellers visiting that region should have +never called attention to so remarkable an instance of homonymy; nay, +that Arab Geographers should never have even suspected the existence of +two places of that name, but should have uniformly endeavoured to draw +to a single point the double image before their eyes. The manifest +double use of the name Kaúkaú; the remarkable absence of all direct +testimony as to the existence of two places of that name; and the +various readings of geographers compiling from the same authorities, +being maturely considered, it is impossible to avoid concluding, that +there actually were not two places named Kaúkaú, but that there was in +the desert a tract called Karkar, which Arab authors easily transformed +into Kaúkaú. They separated this well-known name from the names Kúghah +and Kághó, with which it had no apparent relationship, and set it on +Karkar, wherewith it almost naturally coincided.[176] + +But is there any direct and positive evidence, it will be asked, of the +existence of a place or territory named Karkar? Yes, we reply, there is +direct evidence to that effect, sufficient to confirm the authority of +the numerous Arab geographers who write Karkar instead of Kaúkaú. Ibn +Baṭúṭah informs us that the Desert of Káhir, eastward of Tekaddá, +belonged to the Karkarí Sultan.[177] There is here no possibility of +confusion; Kaúkaú, which that traveller had visited, was included in the +empire of Málí; and Tekaddá, an independent state, stood between that +place and Káhir, depending on the Karkarí. But Káhir had ʿAhír, the +desert of the Tawárik, on the north and east; Tekaddá on the west; and +southwards it extended—as we learn from Leo, who calls it Ghír—to the +frontiers of Guber: in this latter direction, then, we may naturally +look for the head quarters of the Karkarí. + +A modern writer, who has collected much, but not always distinct +information relating to the interior of Africa, after mentioning the +Kadarko (probably the Kotú-n-kúra) and the Shaderbah (the river of +Kábi), adds,—“some of these rivers open a communication with a tribe of +heathens named Gargari, who live in tents, and are not black, but a red- +skinned people, yet they are not of the Arabian stock. The best breeds +of horses and mules come from these parts.”[178] This is evidently a +description of a Berber tribe, whose loose observance of the Mohammedan +rites has caused them to be mistaken for pagans. They reared their +horses and mules in the desert, and visited the high countries of +Kachenah, Zamfarah, and Gúber, whence the rivers alluded to descend. +Clapperton found the Tawárik near Kachenah to be in possession of a +remarkably fine breed of horses. The same traveller learned that, five +days south of Katagum there is an independent people named Kurrikurry, +probably a colony of the Karkari who have fixed themselves on the +eastern slopes of the hills of Baúshi.[179] In a route from Kanó to +Tomboktú, described by an intelligent native of the former place, the +following names occur in succession:—Berni-Kachenah (Berni means city), +Berni-Gurgar, Zamfarah, Ulumdar, Mallay, Galefaty and Asben. Ulumdar is +the name of one of the Arab tribes frequenting Houssa; Mallay means a +town belonging to the indigenous population, or the Mallawa; Galefaty +(Kiliwatí, in the Houssa language Kiliwawa) is the town of the Kiliwah, +a Berber tribe; and Berni-Gurgar, on the frontier between Kachenah and +Zamfarah, is probably the chief place of the Karkarí.[180] + +The obscurity and indistinctness which hung over the most important +place in Negroland being thus removed, there still remains the inquiry, +whether Kúghah, Kaúkaú, or Kághó, still exists and flourishes; has it +mouldered to decay, or does it still retain the pre-eminence which we +know it to have held during at least six centuries? These questions, in +the present state of our information, cannot be answered with perfect +confidence. The brief journal of Amadi Fatouma, the only survivor of +Park’s second expedition, seems to contain no mention of Kághó. But +without the original of that journal, how can a critic decide +peremptorily as to its contents? Is there nothing to awaken suspicion in +the published translation of that journal; or is it not possible, nay +even probable, that the name there read Kaffo was really Kághó?[181] +Bowdich says, that the places passed on the river below Tomboktú are +Uzzalin, Googara, Koolmanna, Gauw, &c. The last-named place is in Marra; +Koolmanna is probably the Gourmon of Amadi Fatouma, in the kingdom of +Ghurma; and Googara is Kúghah, the burr of the letter ghain being +represented by an _r_.[182] Mohammed Másíní, in his description of the +Kowára, places on its banks, ten days below Tomboktú, a city named +Ghagró, which name, as we have neither the original document, nor an +explanation of the translator’s mode of representing the Arabic letters, +we feel justified in supposing to be intended for Kághó.[183] Finally, +in an account of the travels of an Egyptian-Arab, procured by Major +Laing, are the following words:—“To the westward, between Houssa +(Kachenah) and Yawoori [this is an indication of direction by the +traveller in Núfí] is situated on the Niger, a town of immense magnitude +and importance, called Kuku (Kaúkaú), of the power of which surrounding +tribes stand in much awe.” These allusions, taken together, seem to +warrant the conclusion that Kúghah, Kághó, or Kaúkaú still exists and +flourishes.[184] + +The argument urged above to show that Kaúkaú is often written for Karkar +may be thus briefly stated: Kaúkaú is described by Arab geographers with +impossible conditions, the analysis of which shows that either there +were two places named Kaúkaú, or two places not so named indeed, but of +which the written names were so much alike, that, in nine cases out of +ten, they would be both read Kaúkaú; and this is the preferable opinion. +Having thus decided that the eastern Kaúkaú, or rather Karkar—as it +shall be called hereafter for the sake of avoiding ambiguity—was the +territory extending from the vicinity of the modern Aghades, to the +frontiers of Gúber and Kachenah, we must now give a little attention to +its river. Enough is known of Negroland in that quarter, to render it +certain that a river described in such doubtful language, must belong to +the desert. Streams flow southward from the mountains of Muḳsim near +Aghades, and one of these was probably the river of Karkar.[185] Passing +through this place, it turns westward (or rather south-westward), and +then, according to some accounts, it winds towards the desert (or +northward), and is lost in the sands. But some say that it joins the +Nile (the Great River, or Kowára); and as the country north-west of the +Quorrama is described as being well watered, and having rivers flowing +through it to the Kowára, the river of Karkar may be assumed with +probability to be one of them.[186] + + * * * * * + + +[Footnote 170: Not. et Extr. p. 649. Leo (pt. VII. c. 7) says, that not +above half or a third of the gold brought to Gago could find purchasers. +Cowries were imported into Kúghah, and they were also the money of Gago. +A Spanish writer (D. Jorge de Mendoza Dafranca) says of Muley Hamed,—“He +increased his empire by the conquest of Gago and Tumbocotum, whence they +bring an immense quantity of gold. And here I must state as a curious +fact, that in the taking of Gago there was found, in that place, a piece +of artillery, bearing the arms of Portugal; a small image of Our Lady, +and a metal crucifix.” (Papeles Curiosas, in the Egerton Collection, +Brit. Mus. Additional MSS. No. 10,262, p. 235).] + +[Footnote 171: Ramusio, 1554, tom. I. Navig. di Aluise Ca da Mosto, c. +XIII.] + +[Footnote 172: Not. et Extr. p. 656.] + +[Footnote 173: Jaubert’s Idrísí, pp. 21, 22, 116.] + +[Footnote 174: Jaubert’s Idrísí, pp. 116, 117.] + +[Footnote 175: Hartmann (Commentatio de Geogr. Afr. Edrísianâ, p. 43) +says, that Ibnu-l Wardi alone has Karkar. But this is a hasty assertion. +The Kitábu-l-jʿarafíah, above cited, has also Karkar; and of four +Geographical Dictionaries among the Arabic MSS. in the Library of the +British Museum, viz., Nos. 7497, 7503, 7504, and 7505, the first three +read Karkar. Ibnu-l Wardi sometimes writes Karkarah.] + +[Footnote 176: Kaúkaú كوكو in ordinary Arabic writing can hardly be +distinguished from كركر, and the latter name is thus assumed to be the +former.] + +[Footnote 177: Ibn Baṭúṭah writes “es-Sultan el-Karkarí,” the latter +word expressing not Sultan’s dominion, but his native country or tribe.] + +[Footnote 178: Dupuis, in the passage referred to (Resid. in Ashantee, +App. 55), says, that the Moslem merchants of Benin trade with the +Gargari by means of those rivers. It is evident that he has here +mistaken Bini, a name given by the people of Houssa to the countries +adjoining Núfí, and even to Bornú (Clapperton’s Second Expedition p. +103), for Benin.] + +[Footnote 179: Clapperton points out the situation of the Kurrikurry in +the journal of his first expedition, II. p. 246. He speaks of the +Tawárik horses in p. 317.] + +[Footnote 180: About twenty years ago, M. Andrada, the Portuguese +Minister in Brazil, collected much information from the natives of +Houssa whom he found there in slavery. The most interesting portion of +it was transmitted by M. Menézes de Drummond, to the Journal des +Voyages, and afterwards appeared in the German periodical the Hertha, +July 1827, whence it is here quoted.] + +[Footnote 181: Park’s Second Journey, 8vo. p. 288. In coarse Arabic +manuscript, Kaffo would be hardly distinguishable from Kagho.] + +[Footnote 182: Bowdich’s Account of a Mission to Ashantee, p. 199.] + +[Footnote 183: Clapperton’s Second Journey, p. 330.] + +[Footnote 184: Journal of Science, edited at the British Institution, +vol. XIV. 1823, p. 8.] + +[Footnote 185: The rivers in ʿAhír on the northern side of Muḳsim +(Walckenaer, Rech. p. 448) can hardly be supposed to flow southwards. +But the Tatar merchant Wargee (Asiatic Journal, 1823, p. 16) also speaks +of a great river one day’s journey south of Aghades; though perhaps it +was one of those rivers which have but a short existence after the rains +(Walckenaer, Rech. p. 450).] + +[Footnote 186: Clapperton’s Second Expedition, App. 332, 333.] + + + + + LEMLEM. + + Remrem — Demdem — Yemyem — Al-Límiyín. + + +“Going along the river,” says El Bekrí, “westwards from Kaúkaú (Karkar), +you come to the country of the Remrem (or Demdem), who eat all who fall +into their hands.” This sentence is copied verbatim by the greater +number of the Arab geographers. El Idrísí however satisfies himself with +merely stating that south of Ṭanṭanah are Kaúkaú (Karkar) and the +Demdem; leaving it to be inferred that the last-named people are +furthest south. From what has been said of the position of Karkar and +the course of its river, it will be apparent that the Demdem, being +negroes and savages, must have been situate, not due west, but rather +south-west of that place, and consequently must be sought in the hills +of Kábi, facing the desert, and still inhabited at the present day by a +wild and intractable race.[187] + +In all accounts of Central Africa, from the time of El Bekrí to the +present day, mention is made of cannibals variously called Remrem, +Lemlem, Demdem, Yemyem, or N’yumn’yum. These names differ only in the +consonants employed, one liquid being changed for another, except in the +case of Demdem, which might be naturally an oral corruption of Remrem; +if it be not merely a variety originating in error of +transcription.[188] Are we then to believe that there are so many +different nations of cannibals in Negroland, bearing names so singularly +related to one another? Or is it not more likely that these various +names are but modifications of one, which being the nickname of a +particular class of savages, would be naturally carried about to the +slave markets, and fashioned to suit the genius of every language which +adopted it?[189] It is true that El Idrísí speaks of Lemlem and Demdem +as of two distinct countries; but the position of his Lemlem depends on +the westward course of the Great River to Ghaïárú, the absurdity of +which has been already pointed out; and this error being corrected, his +Lemlem and Demdem will be found to coincide. + +In modern accounts of Negroland, frequent mention is made of a race of +cannibals, styled Yemyem or N’yemn’yem; and every precise indication of +them, from whatever quarter it may come, points to the same spot, namely +the hilly country extending southward from Kanó.[190] The Yemyem of the +present day, therefore, dwell at no great distance from the site of the +Demdem of earlier ages. They occupy the remote continuation of the chain +of mountains once inhabited by the latter: and if the changes +necessarily effected in the northern part of that region, or Houssa, by +the introduction of Mohammedism, the influx of Berbers, Zagháï, and +Fellátah, be duly considered, together with the fact that a wild people +still keep possession of the hills on the frontier of the desert, it +will appear a natural inference that the reproach of cannibalism, or the +barbarity itself, has receded, owing to the progress of civilization, +and that the Yemyem are the Demdem, changed in site and appellation only +by the variations of the medium through which we view them. + +If the Yemyem or N’yemn’yem of the present day be not the same people as +the Lemlem, Remrem, or Demdem of early writers, it must then be +inquired, What has become of these latter?[191] To deny such identity is +to plunge back into obscurity: to suppose nations of negroes become +extinct, or—a still bolder hypothesis—to have wholly changed their +character. On the other hand, the supposition that the Baúwa (or Slaves) +in the hills south of Kanó, to the remoter portion of whom the epithet +Yemyem is now applied, once occupied the hills of Zamfara and Kábi, and +were stigmatised as Demdem or cannibals, reconciles ancient with modern +authorities; it attributes a just permanence to a great moral feature of +Negroland, depending on peculiarity of race, modelled by physical +circumstances; and it adjusts with remarkable precision the geographical +elements involved in the question, assigning to the Demdem a position, +which exactly coincides with that deduced from the statements connecting +them with Karkar and the Great River. It may be assumed as certain, +therefore, that the Demdem peopled the hills of the country now called +Houssa.[192] + +There is another name, much less known than Lemlem or Demdem, and +apparently more comprehensive, applied to the inhabitants of the same +region. Ibn Baṭúṭah says that Múlí, on the Great River, where the empire +of Málí terminated, was in the country of the Límí (Al-Límiyín); and +again, he says that Yúfí (Núfí) was in the country of the Límí; whence +it is evident that the people so named were on the left bank of the +river. The Blacks at Sofálah, he adds, were tattooed like the Límí of +Genéwah, the latter name being in this instance used in the wide sense +in which it was generally understood in the systematic geography of the +Arabs. The practice of tattooing the body all over in fine patterns, is +confined, in Central Africa, to the people of Marra. The Límí were said +to wear clothing made of a plant called _worzi_, capable of resisting +fire. The productions of their land seem to have been in general of a +marvellous description.[193] + +We are told that in the country of the Remrem or Demdem was a castle, +whereon was a statue of a woman, adored by the people; and it is +remarkable that in the traditions of Houssa the history of Zegzeg begins +with the conquests of a female. It matters not that her name is +Arabicised or her antiquity underrated by the native Chroniclers; they +leave untouched the essence of the tradition, which is, that Zegzeg was +founded by a heroine.[194] + + * * * * * + + +[Footnote 187: Not. et Extr. tom. XII. p. 655. Jaubert’s Idrísí, p. +116.] + +[Footnote 188: The _l_ of the Arabs and _r_ of the Africans so often +displace each other, that the change of Lemlem into Remrem is quite +regular. In Arabic writing Remrem is hardly distinguishable from Demdem, +which might therefore have originated in the ambiguous characters of the +former name. But it will be shown further on, that in Marra (adjoining +the original Demdem) the _r_ is often changed into _d_.] + +[Footnote 189: It may be naturally presumed that the slave market, +whence the designation first proceeded, was that of Ghánah, and +therefore that its meaning should be found in the language of Tomboktú +or territory of Ghánah. Now in that language _lemlem_ signifies _to eat_ +(Caillié, tom. III. p. 311); and if the Kissúr be as simple in its +construction as the Mandingo, it also signifies an _eater_ or cannibal. +Thus from _domo_, to eat, in Mandingo, comes the verbal noun _domo_, in +the plural _domolu_, eaters—not man-eaters, as it is translated by Park +(First Journey, p. 217), who writes _dummulo_—the name with which the +Bambarans stigmatize their neighbours the Maniana.] + +[Footnote 190: Burckhardt (Trav. in Nubia, p. 441) mentions the Yemyem +without assigning their position. Einsiedel (Cuhn’s Merkw. Reis. III. p. +436) vaguely connects them with Kanó. Hornemann (Trav. p. 119) sets them +ten days south of the same place. Clapperton (Denh. and Clapp. Disc. II. +p. 248) learned that the Baúwa in the country of Jacoba, between Kanó +and Adamawa, are styled Yemyem; though Sultan Bello (Clapp. Sec. Exped. +p. 250) removed the reproach of cannibalism to the country of Umburm, +adjoining Jacoba. Hutchison also was informed in Ashantí (Bowdich’s +Mission, &c. p. 203), that the Yemyem are in Quollaliffa, and couples +their name with that of Dall, a mountainous district, a few days south +of Kanó. According to Abdu-r-Raḥmán Aga, the informant of Niebuhr +(Deutches Museum, 1790), the Yemyem are in Adamawa. Again, Lander +(Exped. to the Niger, III. p. 83) was told that the journey from Funda +to Bornú might be accomplished in fifteen days, and that the only +dangerous place on the road was the country of the Yemyem. Browne (Trav. +in Afr. p. 356) and others who have gathered their information on the +eastern side of the desert, speak of cannibals under the name of +Gnumgnum (N’yemn’yem), in vague terms, not indicating their situation. +But a Tatar merchant named Wargee, who visited Cape Coast in 1822, +stated that the Namnam (as he called them) were fifteen days south of +Kanó, a distance reaching to the country of Jacoba. The ocular testimony +of this intelligent man (Asiatic Journal, vol. XVI. p. 19), and of +Sultan Bello, seems fully to establish the fact that cannibals exist in +the quarter indicated.] + +[Footnote 191: It must not be supposed that Yemyem is the native name of +any country or people south of Kanó: it is a foreign term applied with +more or less vagueness to the inhabitants of that region. The misery and +degradation of a people marked out especially as the prey of the slave +hunter, exposes them to the imputation of cannibalism, which draws on +them fresh injuries. Lander (Clapp. Second Exped. p. 292), on his way +southwards from Kanó to Funda, saw at Fali-n-dúshi (the White rocks) for +the first time, a people completely naked and ready to sell their +offspring. But the natives of Zamfara also go nearly naked (Clapp. p. +178): the Kombori in Kotú-n-kúra, are still treated as Demdem (id. p. +146), and the pagan negroes near the desert (id. p. 334) are certainly +not placed in circumstances more secure or favourable to civilization +than the Baúwa further south. The change effected in Houssa by +Mohammedism, and the influx of strangers, may be learned by comparing +together the descriptions of that country by Clapperton and Leo +Africanus. The latter writer (pt. VII. c. 11) knew of no city named +Kachenah; the villages of the country so called were small and of the +meanest construction; the people were of the deepest black, with noses +and lips disproportionately large. He speaks of the people of Zamfara +(c. 13) in still less flattering terms, concluding that “they are rather +brutes than men.”] + +[Footnote 192: On the eastern side of the desert, the Shillúks are +pointed out as a remarkably barbarous people, but yet they are not +styled Yemyem. In the west, the people of Bambara accuse their +neighbours, the people of Maniana (the Manegnan of Caillié), of +cannibalism, yet without applying to them the epithet Lemlem, Demdem, or +Yemyem. From east to west there is but the one spot to which this name +is constantly and distinctly given. With respect to the Manegnan (or +rather Manegna, the nasal final being superfluous) it may be suspected +that the imputation cast on them by their enemies has its origin in +tradition, and that they are descendants of the Manes, reputed cannibals +who overran the coast in the latter half of the fifteenth century.] + +[Footnote 193: Al-Límiyín الليميين. This name occurs three or four times +in Ibn Baṭúṭah’s Narrative. M. Quatremère (Not. et Extr. 650) has read +it Lâmes, in the unpointed Parisian MS. of El Bekrí. May not the Worzi +be the Bordi (Walck. Rech. p. 448) of the Moors? Marmol (vol. I. fol. +31) quoting Ibn Gezzar, places the people called Lime (Límí) in Genéwah +on the eastern side of the desert (that is, in the eastern part of the +western division of the desert), between the cities of Rafin and Cuco. +Rafin might be easily read for Rágha in Arabic text. Cuco is probably +Kaúkaú or Kághó: it elsewhere occurs in the same author (vol. I. fol. +34, and II. fol. 221), but evidently referring to the place so named in +the province of Algiers (Peyssonel et Desfontaines, Voy. dans la Régence +d’Alger, &c., 1838, tom. I. p. 380). Marmol again places the Limin +(Límiyín) (fol. 45) between the Zinj and Western Ocean, and calls them +savages. All his hints combined show that they possessed the interior of +Houssa.] + +[Footnote 194: Not. et Extr. p. 655. The founder of the state of Zegzeg, +which includes Baúshí, was ʿAmenáh, according to Bello (Denham’s Disc. +II. p. 450). Lander (Clapp. p. 290), who learned a different version of +her history, says that she built a town called Almena. May not the +remarkable rocks described by him, on the hill above that town, have +given rise to the story of the statue?] + + + + + NEGROLAND DIVIDED INTO NATIONS. + + +Ibn Khaldún, after making some prefatory remarks on the origin and +genealogy of the Blacks, borrows from an earlier writer the following +account of the nations into which they were supposed to be divided:— + +“Ibn Sʿaíd, a most diligent writer, enumerates nineteen nations of +Blacks, beginning with the Zinj on the shores of the Indian Ocean, who +have a city called Mombásah. They profess idolatry, and are the same +people who in the reign of Al-Muʿatamid, seized on the city of Baṣrah; +where great numbers of them were in slavery. They took up arms against +their masters, and, assisted by the Zinj, got possession of the +city.[195] + +“Near the Zinj are the Berber, among whom Islamism made great progress. +They have a city named Maḳdishó, which is partly inhabited by Mohammedan +merchants. In their country are the people called Demádem, who go naked. +It is recorded in history that these made an irruption into Abyssinia +and Nubia, exactly at the time when the Tatars invaded Irak. After +laying waste the country, however, they retreated homewards.[196] + +“Adjoining the Berber are the Abyssinians, the most numerous and +powerful of the Blacks. From their country Yemen once had its kings. The +king of the Abyssinians was entitled Al-Negáshí, and the capital of his +kingdom was the city of Kʿaber. The Abyssinians are Christians, but it +is said that one of their kings embraced the true faith when Mohammed +visited their country in the Hijra. They believe that they are destined +to become masters of Yemen and all Arabia.[197] + +“Next to the Abyssinians are the Bojá, a mixed nation of Christians and +Mohammedans, who possess Suwákin, an island in the sea of As-Suweís (the +Red Sea).[198] They have for neighbours the Nubians, who are brethren of +the Zinj and Abyssinians, and have, on the west of the Nile, a city +called Donḳalah. They are chiefly Christians, and border on Egypt, where +many of them are sold as slaves. Adjoining them are the Zagháwah, who +are Mohammedans, and from whom are sprung the Tájúah.[199] + +“Next comes Al-Kánem, a populous kingdom, wherein the true faith is +largely disseminated. Its capital city is Jíma. At one time the people +of Kánem held the whole Ṣaḥrá in subjection; their ascendency being due +to their intimacy with the Sultans of the house of Ḥafṣ, when this +dynasty flourished in its prime.[200] + +“Next to the people of Kánem, on the west, are the people of Kaúkaú, and +after them Beghárah, and At-Tekrúr, and Kimi, and Yemyem, and Jábi, and +Kúra, and Inkizár; by the side of the ocean towards the west they reach +the people of Ghánah in the west. What precedes has been copied from Ibn +Sʿaíd’s work.”[201] + +It is observable that the names in this list of places or countries +lying west of Kánem (nine in number) are not recognized at all, or not +confidently, by modern geographers. But before we proceed to determine +the position of each of them, it will be advantageous to examine the +information which Makrízí, in quoting Ibn Sʿaíd, adds to that of his +author.[202] His words are as follows:—“Al-Kánem is an extensive region +watered by the blessed Nile, and distant a ten days’ journey from the +borders of At-Tájú. In that country (Kánem) are naked Blacks, among whom +are the Iklí, ruled by a just and mighty king; and Afnú, whose King, +called Mastúr, guards his wives with extreme jealousy. Near this is +another kingdom named Mambó, next to which lie Kátakúmá, Kátakú, and +Ibkarem (Bekarmi), and another kingdom greater than the preceding, named +Rábúmá (Umburm), the great kingdom of Haúdama (Adamawa), and the tribe +of Ankarú, rich in herds, flocks, and elephants.[203] Next to these are +the tribes Shádí, Mábiná, Abham, Atʿaná, Yáfalam, and Makabá, who are +all naked Blacks, and hold clothed men in derision. The tribe of Mábiná +is the most numerous, and the chief part of it is called Kálkín.[204] +This region is covered with great trees and with pools from the +overflowing of the Nile. It was invaded in the year 650 (A.D. 1252-3) by +the King of Kánem, who killed many of the natives, or led them into +slavery. Beyond this, westward to Kaúkaú, are many populous tribes, of +which those next to Mábiná are the Adermá and Dafúmú, among whom are +Mohammedan temples. Also the Abkalá (Ankalá), who have camels, wear +skins for clothing, and are accounted unbelievers; and the Túkámá, who +dwell on the borders of At-Tájú, possess palm-trees, and drink of the +Nile. Al-Kánem is the greatest kingdom of Negroland, and has on the west +Kaúkaú, then Baḳárah, Tekrúr, Nama, Temím, Já, and Inkizár, which extend +in the west from the ocean to Ghánah.”[205] + +In this list of countries or tribes lying within the circle, as it were, +of Kánem, the name Afnú, given by the people of Bornú to the adjacent +part of Houssa, stands conspicuous, and cannot fail to be recognized. +The Arab writer appears to have commenced his survey from a prominent +point, the Iklí being probably on the frontier of Negroland, between +Afnú and the desert.[206] Kátakúmá may also be fairly assumed to be the +Katagum of Clapperton; the writer therefore proceeds eastwards or south- +eastwards, and consequently Mambó or Manbú will be near the country +called Anbur by the English traveller. Continuing in the same course, he +necessarily arrives at Kátakú and Bekarmi, having thus traced the +frontiers of the independent tribes of Bornú facing Kánem.[207] He then +seems to make the tour of the hilly country forming the remote boundary +of the same region; but, it must be confessed, that this portion of his +path is less easily investigated, and leaves a larger scope to +conjecture. However it is a natural supposition that he enumerates the +chief nations or tribes behind the line already traced, and so, eastward +from Bekarmi, are Rábúmá (Umburm, a kingdom near Jacoba), Haúdama +(ʿAdám, or, in the language of Houssa, Adamawa), and Ankarú (Angarú), +the western part of Bornú.[208] + +Adjoining these, we should expect to find Baúshí, with its decried +inhabitants; and accordingly our author here names several tribes of +savages “who hold clothed men in derision.” Shádí is certainly the name +of a place in Baúshí; but we must not yield to the temptation of +detecting resemblances of names which may easily prove deceitful.[209] +It is more important to consider the force of the words “from Mábiná +westwards to Kaúkaú,” from which it may be concluded that Mábiná lay +towards Kaúkaú, or was the north-westernmost point of the region +described, and consequently that the Arab author proceeds in a circle, +agreeably to our hypothesis, and terminates at a point in Afnú whence he +first started. His picture, too, of a region covered with great trees +and pools from the overflowing of the Nile, corresponds exactly with the +physical character of Zegzeg and Zamfara.[210] The invasion by the King +of Kánem for the purpose of carrying off slaves, further confirms the +supposition that the country described was Houssa and Baúshí. What other +region had equal attractions for the slave hunter,—or where else could +be found a long line of savage tribes extending to the frontiers of the +desert and of Kaúkaú? Next to the Mábiná, towards the desert, followed +the Adermá and Dafúmú, who were not strangers to the Mohammedan rites; +and then came the Túkámá (Togáma) and Angála, of whom the former have +given their name to a place in the desert not far from Kachenah, while +similar traces of the latter remain on the shores of Lake Chad.[211] The +Túkáma of Makrízí, it is true, were on the east of Kánem, near Tajúah; +but so easily do the tribes of the desert change their dwellings, that +there is no improbability in the supposition that the same tribe +subsequently spread westwards and settled near Houssa. + +In considering the interpretation here offered of Makrízí’s statement, +less weight is to be allowed to the resemblance of names than to the +order, coherence, and accordance with probability which the whole +passage acquires from the mode of viewing it. Some points in it may be +obscure; but others, as Afnú and Katagum, hardly admit of doubt; and we +feel justified, therefore, in concluding that the nations or countries, +as Kaúkaú, Baḳárah, Tekrúr, &c., which Makrízí (copying Ibn Sʿaíd) +arranges west of Kánem, are all excluded from the region above +described—that is to say, from Bornú and the hills of Baúshí and Houssa +immediately encompassing it on the west. + +In endeavouring to ascertain the positions of the various nations +mentioned by early Arab writers as extending across Negroland, it will +be advantageous to compare the whole series of those nations with the +list of kingdoms arranged by Leo Africanus in the same line. For this +purpose Ibn Sʿaíd’s list shall be inverted, or taken from west to east; +and then the names which are clearly related being placed opposite to +each other, we shall have the geography of Negroland in the latter half +of the thirteenth century, contrasted with that of the beginning of the +sixteenth, as in the following table:— + + IBN SʿAÍD. LEO. + + Ghánah ············ Gualata. + + Ghinea. + + Melli. + + { Tombuto. + Inkizár ···········{ + { Gago. + + Guber. + + Kúra. + + Agadez. + + Jábí. + + Cano. + + Yemyem. + + Casena. + + Kimí. + + Zegzeg. + + Tekrúr. + + Zanfara. + + Baghárah. + + Guangara. + + Kaúkaú. + + Kánem ············ Borno. + + Gaoga. + + Zagháwah. + + Núbah ············ Nubia. + +Here then, in the first place, it is manifest that Ghánah coincides with +Gualata (Walata). The salient point of Negroland towards the north-west +ranks as the extreme west, and the countries which lie to the south, +though extending further westward, are placed after it. Hence the Ghinea +and Melli of Leo, both supposed by him to reach the ocean, nevertheless +follow Gualata. + +From the southern countries, Ghinea and Melli, Leo turns eastwards down +the river to Tombuto and Gago; and thence proceeds across the desert to +Guber, on the northern frontiers of Houssa. Ibn Sʿaíd, on the other +hand, goes in two steps from Ghánah to Kúra, the western frontier (as +will be seen further on) of the same region. He seems to take the +straight road through Negroland to the eastern settlements of the +Tekrúrí, while Leo keeps to the desert and the roads frequented by +Moorish merchants. Inkizár then appears to be the region encompassed by +the great circuit of the river between Jenni and Kághó. Its collective +name, little known to geographers, probably never enjoyed political +importance, but it seems still to survive in the name of the language +called by Caillié the Kissour. This language extends from Jenni down the +river to Tomboktú, where it is spoken, as the same traveller informs us, +by the negro or indigenous population. But there is no authority for +supposing that it extends no further eastward than Tomboktú; and it +seems more reasonable to enlarge the limits of a language occupying so +important a position, so that it may fill the area encircled by the +river, and comprise Kághó (the Gago of Leo) in its domain. Inkizár then +was a kingdom situate on the right bank of the Great River, between +Jenni, Tomboktú, and Kághó, of which the political fabric has long since +fallen to ruin, while a vestige of the original bond of unity still +remains in the Kissour language.[212] + +From Gago Leo passes to Guber, on the northern frontier of Houssa; then +to Agadez, which is more easterly; then to Cano and Casena, lying +further south; then to Zegzeg and Zanfara, still more in the rear, till +at length he arrives at Guangara (Wanghárah), which fills the remote +interior. But he shows his imperfect acquaintance with Houssa, by +setting Casena (Kachenah) on the east of Cano (Kanó), and Zanfara in +like manner on the east of Zegzeg. It is not surprising, therefore, that +he should place Guangara on the east of Zanfara. He may possibly have +confounded (like some modern writers) Angarú, the western province of +Bornú, with Wanghárah or Guangara; but it is more likely that his +information was substantially good, and that he knew Wanghárah to be a +region extending widely at some distance from Houssa; but his +systematical ideas left no room for such expansion south-westward from +Houssa, and consequently he was obliged to shift Wanghárah to the south- +east. Since Nufí and the other comparatively industrious countries on +the Great River, are not expressly named by him, it may be fairly +presumed that they were included in his Wanghárah.[213] + +Ibn Sʿaíd, in like manner, passes from Inkizár to Houssa; not however to +the northern part of this country next to the desert, but to its western +side near the river. He goes not in the track of the merchant or slave +dealer, but in that of the slave hunter. It may appear indeed difficult +at first sight to recognize any part of Houssa in the names Kúra, Jábí, +&c., but a little patient examination will dissipate the obscurity which +involves them, and concentrate on them so many rays of probability as to +guide us safely through the difficulties encompassing the first steps of +our inquiry. + +In the Geographical Dictionary of Yakút, an earlier writer than Ibn +Sʿaíd, and who is copied with little change by Abú-l-fedá, the names +Kúra and Jábí occur together, with such explanatory details as to prove +that the former is applied to the river Kowára, while the latter +(probably pronounced Gábí) seems meant for Kábí. It is there stated that +the King of Kaúkaú (Kághó) wages war with the moslim of Ghánah on the +west, and with those of Tekrúr on the east; and that a little to the +east of Kaúkaú is the Lake Kúra, which must consequently be near Tekrúr: +and, indeed, the author adds, that it is navigated by the Tekrúri and +their neighbours dwelling on its northern bank. On the shores of this +lake is Jábí, near the capital of which flows the Nile of Ghánah, so +that the continuity of the Nile of Ghánah with Lake Kúra seems to be +here offered as a fact; and this statement must not be set in the same +category with the theory afterwards enunciated by the Arab geographer, +that Lake Kúra is the common source from which issue the Niles of +Ghánah, of Egypt, and of Maḳdishó.[214] + +The same authors inform us that the tribes inhabiting the countries near +Lake Kúra were cannibals: among the people of Jábí, whoever died was +eaten by his neighbours. No one had ever seen the south side of the +lake, but it was known that, at its remote end, it branched into two; +and that by some means it extended westward into Kánem, whence flowed +the Nile of Egypt. Now at the present day, the Kowára is generally +called by the natives a lake; its name, written by them, is Lake Kúra; +it is thought by them to join the sea, or rather to become a sea, a +little below Núfí; they are quite ignorant of its southern termination, +but know that it separates into what they consider as two branches, by +one of which (the Chadda) it is supposed to communicate with Lake Chad, +in Kánem and Bornú, and thence to mingle its waters with those of the +Egyptian Nile.[215] In the country adjoining the Kowára and the Chadda +are still found the Yemyem or cannibals. Thus it appears that the +rudiments of the geographical system of the thirteenth century, so far +as regards the waters of Central Africa, were precisely the same which +now compose the native accounts of the Kowára, and its supposed +continuation, the Chadda.[216] + +Next to Jábí, in the east, Ibn Sʿaíd places Yemyem, then Kimi, of which +we are unable to give any account. Next to that, and towards the north +perhaps, he sets Tekrúr; then Baghárah, probably a tribe of the desert, +and then Kaúkaú, after which comes Kánem.[217] Leo, on the other hand, +passes from Guangara (Wanghárah) eastwards to Bornú, which coincides +sufficiently well with the Kánem of Ibn Sʿaíd to serve with it as an +established point of adjustment. He then goes to Gaoga, a kingdom +extending, according to him, from Bornú to Nubia, and which appears to +be the Kaúghah placed by some modern inquirers in the Baḥr el-Gazel. At +all events care must be taken not to confound the Kaúkaú of Ibn Sʿaíd, +which lay beyond the north-western bounds of Kánem and Bornú, with the +Kaughah of Leo, on the east of the latter kingdom.[218] East of Kánem +stands Zagháwah in Ibn Sʿaíd’s list, and beyond that Núbah, which +coincides with Leo’s Nubia. + +The results obtained by comparing Ibn Sʿaíd’s list of Negro nations with +that furnished by Leo, are not, in a general view, of a doubtful +character. At the extreme west, the coincidence of Ghánah with Walata is +manifest. It is hardly less certain that Inkizár is the country embraced +by the Great River, between Jenni and Kághó, and in which the Kissour +(perhaps rather N’Kiṣár) language prevails. Though the Kánem of Ibn +Sʿaíd and the Bornú of Leo do not exactly coincide, yet they approach so +nearly to coincidence as to serve for terms of adjustment in the +compared schemes. The tracts extending therefore between Inkizár and +Kánem, in the one author, and from Gago to Bornú, in the other, may be +said to lie between the same meridians, and to contain either the same +countries under different names, or contiguous and intermingled +countries. Now within those limits Leo describes the greater part of +Houssa, proceeding, or meaning to proceed, from west to east, and from +north to south. Ibn Sʿaíd, commencing with Kúra, goes on to Tekrúr and +Kaúkaú, evidently from west to east, and from south to north. Tekrúr +extended westwards from Zamfara (which may indeed have been included in +it) to the desert, and therefore Kúra, Jábí or Gábí, Yemyem and Kimí, +were all south-westward of the countries of Houssa named by Leo.[219] +There can be little doubt that Kúra was a district situate on the Great +River, the name of which is variously written or pronounced Kúra, Kuḍa, +Quorra or Quolla. Jábí was Kábí, to the east (or south-east) of which +lay Yowí or Yúfí (the modern Núfí), on the northern shore of Lake Kúra, +and under which, as we are also informed, flowed the Nile of +Ghánah.[220] + +The difference between Ibn Sʿaíd and Leo in their modes of viewing the +same region, may be naturally ascribed to changes in the channels and +manner of intercourse with it. The people of Gúber once possessed the +desert of ʿAhír, but were displaced by the Tawárik. The invasion of +Tekaddá by the people of Málí, had probably for its object to relieve +the trade of Kághó from the exactions levied on caravans in the desert. +It can hardly have failed to improve the road through that country, and +increase the influx of strangers. A few years later, Aghades was +founded, probably by the Kiliwah (the Kolluvi of Hornemann), who are now +the predominant Berber tribe on the frontiers of Houssa. When these +various changes are all taken into consideration, it will no longer +appear surprising, that while Ibn Sʿaíd viewed Houssa from the road +opened to it by the people of Tekrúr, Leo should look at it only from +the opposite quarter, or from Aghades.[221] + +It is needless to follow the parallel between the systems of Ibn Sʿaíd +and Leo beyond the western frontiers of Kánem and Bornú. Further east, +the few points touched on by Arab geographers are not liable to +misinterpretation. The inquiry into the early geography of Negroland, so +far as concerns representations founded on fact, might here terminate. +But it is worth while to observe how the framers of theories, the +compilers of Dictionaries and Complete Treatises of Geography, dealt +with the obscurer portion of it: how they endeavoured to fill up every +void, and by arbitrary suppositions to give unity and coherence to their +fragmentary information. The popular belief that the Great River of +Negroland unites with the Nile of Egypt, is of ancient date, and may +perhaps be traced back even to the time of Herodotus. It is stated with +more or less distinctness by all the Arab geographers. Leo, however, +discarded it, and adopted an original opinion of his own. The Shary, +according to him, is the source of the Niger; for this river, he says, +rises in the Desert of Seu (or country of the Shaúá), south-east of +Bornú, and enters the Lake of Gaoga (the Chad). Respecting the +hypothetical course of the river westwards from the lake, he is quite +silent; and when he says that Cano is 500 miles east of the Niger, he +seems to acknowledge his ignorance of its course south of that country. +However, he believed it to flow westwards by Tomboktú and Jenni to the +Western Ocean. + +At the present day all African geographers believe in the junction of +the Kowára with Lake Chad. Some suppose the line of connexion to be +formed by the Quorrama and the Yeou; others look upon the Chadda as the +continuation of the Kowára, and think that they can trace its course +into Lake Chad by the river of Katagum and the Yeou; while others again +carry it through Adamawa into the Shary.[222] All this hypothesis arises +naturally from the constitution of the human mind, which is averse from +doubt and systematic suspension of opinion. It hurries on to the +solution of every problem presented to it. Furnished with a knowledge of +portions of seas, continents, or rivers, it feels no pleasure in +devising their limits and separations, but prefers joining the fragments +together, as if it thus advanced a step in discovery, or mounted to a +higher and simpler truth. Illustrations of this remark might be drawn +from the history of geography in every age and country. It is not +extraordinary therefore that Yaḳút, copied by Abú-l-fedá and others, +should delineate decisively and with the air of a master, that +assemblage of waters in Central Africa, the existence of which seemed +proved by popular belief. Lake Kúra, says Abú-l-fedá, is 1000 miles +long. On its western side, near Jábi, flows the Nile of Ghánah; and at +its north-eastern angle, near the capital of Kánem, the Nile of Egypt +issues from it. Here it is apparent that the lake Kúra described by Ibn +Fáṭimah, the lake Kúra, or river Kowára or Quorra of the present day, is +supposed to be united with Lake Chad, and that it gives its name to the +great inland sea, thus formed by theory. The lake Kúra of Yáḳút and Abú- +l-fedá derives its origin from facts arbitrarily combined and expanded; +it owes its magnitude to the distance between the waters thus connected +together, and its name to the western portion of them, the river Kowára +or Quorra. + +Some of the systematic Arab geographers divided Africa into three great +regions, viz. Genéwah, Kaúkaú or Karkar, and Habesh or Abyssinia; others +into four, Genéwah, Nubia, Habesh, and Zinj.[223] Genéwah, or the +western division, was disproportionately enlarged, owing to the +protraction of the Great River, the incurvations of which were +overlooked, and because, in speculative geography, the known has a +constant tendency to encroach upon and narrow the limits of the unknown. +Zinj, on the other hand, must have been diminished, since Ibn Baṭúṭah +believed Sofálah to be but a month’s journey distant from Yúfi (Núfí), +on the left bank of the Great River, before it turned towards Nubia. The +centre of the continent, where those divisions met, was occupied by Lake +Kúra, whence issued the Niles of Ghánah, Egypt, and Maḳdishó. The shores +of the lake were inhabited by the Demdem or (in the Arabicised plural) +Demádem, who therefore stood, as occupants of the remote interior, in a +defined relation with the coasts to which those rivers descended. When +Arab writers, therefore, in speaking of the eastern coast of Africa, +state that the interior is possessed by the Demádem, who invaded +Abyssinia and Nubia in the early part of the thirteenth century, it is +obvious that they speak the language of system (the name Demdem or +Demádem being in reality unknown on the eastern coast), and +hypothetically trace the course of the invaders from the shores of Lake +Kúra and the sources of the great rivers.[224] + +There is no injustice done to the Arabs in thus ascribing altogether to +theory a positive statement made by many of their best authors. It is in +the highest degree improbable, that with little or no knowledge of the +various Black nations inhabiting the eastern coast of Africa, they +should have had any accurate acquaintance with the remote interior: and +besides, the acquiescence in system here imputed to them, is no greater +than must have inevitably arisen from the imperfect state of their +knowledge. Little more than a century ago, European geographers +represented Abyssinia as occupying nearly a fourth of the African +continent; on its eastern borders they placed a great lake, from which +issued the Egyptian Nile, and all the great rivers of Southern +Africa.[225] The maps of Africa of that date exhibit less vacant space +than they do at the present day. The improvement of geography, with +respect to that quarter of the globe, has consisted chiefly in reducing +what is known within its proper limits. Distant nations were of course +as easily brought together and united as distant countries. The +different African tribes which, in the course of the sixteenth century, +devastated the widely-separate coasts of Sierra Leone, of Angola, and of +Melinda, were, by a sweeping generalization, all supposed to be one and +the same people, and were furthermore identified with the Agows and +Gallas of Abyssinia.[226] Vestiges of these ideas still remain in our +treatises of geography, and in some of the latest maps, nor is the +system of thinking from which they emanated yet quite obsolete.[227] But +the close resemblance of European theories respecting the mysterious +interior of Africa to those of the Arabs, is strikingly manifest in the +following words of the Portuguese historian, Da Couto:—“About the year +1570, a horde of barbarians, like locusts, issued from the heart of +Ethiopia, from the great lake whence flows the Cuama, the Zaire, the +Rhapta, and the Nile.”[228]—Here then we have the exact counterpart of +Lake Kúra and the Demdem or Demádem. The subsequent history of the horde +referred to by Da Couto is taken up by other learned writers, who affect +to describe its march southwards from Mombása to the Cape of Good Hope; +thence to Angola, whence it spread to Sierra Leone and elsewhere: so +that not even the Demádem were ever carried by conjecture so far from +their native homes.[229] Thus it appears that the theories ascribed +above to the Arabs, much excelled in sobriety, while they were exactly +parallel in design with the geographical speculations of a later age. + +The position of the kingdoms of Negroland enumerated by Arab writers +having been now discussed and determined, and the efforts of Arab +theorists to mould into unity and form the isolated facts before them, +having been traced out, our task is at an end. The demonstration of the +fact that Ghánah lay between the desert and the Great River near +Tomboktú, at once reconciles with nature and probability, the history of +the constant intercourse of that state with Sijilmésah. The nation whose +language is spoken in the most important part of Negroland, is now +brought into light. The Tekrúr have been traced from the vicinity of +Silla to the eastern bank of the Kowára. The History of Málí has been +made known, and the limits of that empire partially determined. It has +been clearly shown that Kághó was also called Kaúkaú, but that the +application of the latter name to one or more other places, further +east, has caused incurable confusion. The ignorance and erroneous +hypothesis of the Africans respecting the course of the Kowára, have +been detected in the ancient accounts of Lake Kúra; and the limits of +the positive knowledge of the Arabs have been ascertained in the fact +that their theoretical geography embraced that lake, and the Demdem who +inhabited its shores. + +It will not be necessary to dwell here on the general harmony and +widely-extended coincidence attending the conclusions arrived at in the +preceding pages. A long series of inferences, each stamped with the +character of likelihood, and all agreeing perfectly among themselves, +yet obtained independently of one another, not by straining arbitrarily +selected texts, but by eliciting and examining each author’s fullest +meaning, and which form together a complete whole, reconcileable not +only with geographical facts, but also with that speculative mind, which +in the history of human knowledge is itself an incontestible though not +easily seized fact;—such a series of inferences, we say, carries with it +an internal evidence of truth not easily impugned. It remains therefore +only to recal attention to the chief historical revolutions brought to +light in the course of our inquiries. The wars and conquests of the +Morabites eventually opened the Western Desert to commercial enterprise. +The impulse given by the religious enthusiasm of the same people to +Tekrúr, spread rapidly through western Negroland, till at length the +wave recoiling on the desert, the Ṣúṣú first, and then the people of +Málí, became masters of Ghánah, and reckoned some of the Zenágah tribes +among their tributaries.[230] The outlines of the history of Málí +deserve particular attention. The establishment of extensive empires in +the early stages of society, almost always give rise to a better order +of things, by breaking down the obstructions to general intercourse, and +allowing free scope to aspiring industry. The progress of Tekrúr +eastwards, the foundation of Aghades, and the change effected by both +these events in the condition of Houssa, have been already pointed out, +and need not be further insisted on.[231] + +It is impossible to deny the advancement of civilization in that zone of +the African continent which has formed the field of our inquiry. Yet +barbarism is there supported by natural circumstances with which it is +vain to think of coping. It may be doubted whether, if mankind had +inhabited the earth only in populous and adjoining communities, slavery +would have ever existed. The Desert, if it be not absolutely the root of +the evil, has, at least, been from the earliest times the great nursery +of slave hunters.[232] The demoralization of the towns on the southern +borders of the desert has been pointed out; and if the vast extent be +considered of the region in which man has no riches but slaves, no +enjoyment but slaves, no article of trade but slaves, and where the +hearts of wandering thousands are closed against pity by the galling +misery of life, it will be difficult to resist the conviction that the +solid buttress on which slavery rests in Africa, is—The Desert. + + +[Footnote 195: At the present day the servile and perhaps most numerous +class of the population of the southern shores of the Persian Gulf, are +Zinj, or Blacks, originally from Zinjibar (corrupted into Zanguebar), or +the eastern coast of Africa. In Zinjibar, that is, the country of the +Zinj, on the other hand, the rulers and upper classes are chiefly Arabs +from ʿOmán and the Persian Gulf. The tribe of the Lámí, who have given +their name to Lámú, near Patta, are originally from the neighbourhood of +Baṣrah. The event related in the text ceases to appear improbable when +the nature and antiquity of the intercourse between Zinjibar and the +Persian Gulf are considered.] + +[Footnote 196: The Berbers here spoken of are the inhabitants of the +country called by the Greeks in general Βαρβαρία, and by the Arabs +Al-ʿajemí—that is, foreign; which latter name has been converted by +ancient geographers into Azania (Ptolemy; and Arrian, Perip. Mar. +Eryth.), and by moderns into Ajan. The name Berber, in this as in most +other instances, originated in the commercial and diplomatic language of +the Roman Empire. The east-African Berbers are now called Somáli; but +their ancient designation still remains to Berberah, a town or rather +encampment opposite to ʿAden. The tribe who possess Maḳdishó (the +Magadoxa or Magadocia of our maps) are the Bajúna or Bagúna, called by +the Sawáḥilí, or natives of the coast of Zinjibar, Wagúña. They are the +Baẓúnah of El Idrísí (Jaubert’s Idrísí, I. p. 55, where مدونه is read +for بذونه). It will be shown further on, that the Demádem have been +transferred to the eastern side of Africa by an ordinary effort of +speculative geography.] + +[Footnote 197: The title of the Emperor of Abyssinia was Negusa Negast, +or King of Kings. (Ludolf. Comment. p. 11.) The city called by the Arab +writer Kʿaber was Ankó-ber (or the Pass of the Ankó, a tribe formerly +occupying that tract, but now removed further north), at present the +capital of Shoa. The Arabs and Abyssinians in ancient times were +intimately connected. The language of Tigré, or Northern Abyssinia, is +of Arabic origin, and even the Amharic is thought by Gesenius (Ersch and +Gruber’s Encyklopedie, art. Amharische sprache) to be an older offset of +the same stock.] + +[Footnote 198: The Bojá or Bogá are the Βουγαείται of the Greek +inscription of Axum, copied by Salt (Trav. p. 410). Under that general +name was included all the tribes of the desert between Abyssinia and +Egypt; the Blemyes of ancient geographers, and the Bisharee or Bishareen +of modern travellers.] + +[Footnote 199: By the expression that the Nubians are brethren of the +Zinj, it must be understood that they are of negro origin; and indeed +there is little reason to doubt that the Nubians on the Nile were +originally a servile population, the progeny of the Nubah of Kordofán, +who, in the course of events, became sole possessors of their master’s +domains. Their emancipation was forwarded by powerful external causes +(see Edinb. Rev. No. 125. p. 297), and does not appear to have been +accomplished by means of revolt or invasion, as was the case with the +Zinj in Baṣrah, and the Funj in Sennár (Bruce’s Trav. vol. VI. p. 370). +When the Arabs conquered Nubia, they exacted an annual tribute of +slaves, which was called _Bakt_ (Quatremère, Mémoires sur la Nubie, II. +p. 42), a word evidently derived from the ancient Egyptian language, in +which _Bok_ signified a slave.] + +[Footnote 200: The family of Abú Ḥafṣ, of Berber origin, rose to the +sovereign power in Tunis, in the early part of the thirteenth century. +(Makrízí in Hamaker, Spec. Cat. p. 105.)] + +[Footnote 201: The names of nations from Kaúkaú westwards, enumerated by +Ibn Sʿaíd, are written as follows by Ibn Khaldún (MS. B.M. fol. 90) and +Makrízí (Hamaker, Spec. Cat. &c. p. 107, whose orthography is here +retained) respectively: ?aghárah ٮغارة I.K.; Baḳárah بقارة M.—At-Tekrúr +التكرور I.K. & M.—Kimí كمي I.K.; Nama نمي M.—?emyem ٮميم I.K.; Temím +تميم M.—Ḥáyí (?) حايى I.K.; Já جا M.—Kúra كورى I.K.; omitted by +Makrízí.—Inkizár انكزار I.K. & M.] + +[Footnote 202: The comparison of texts made in the preceding note proves +that Makrízí borrowed from Ibn Sʿaíd, but it is not easy to define the +extent of his obligations to that writer. The Tunisian dynasty of Abú +Hafṣ, the wars of the Zagháwah with the Wathekú (the opponents of that +dynasty), and the invasion of Mábiná by the King of Kánem in 1252, +referred to by Makrízí, all belong to the age of Ibn Sʿaíd, from whom he +probably obtained his knowledge of them. But, on the other hand, Makrízí +names the King of Kánem reigning in A.D. 1398, a century later than Ibn +Sʿaíd. It appears more probable that his list of the Black nations near +Kánem was the fruit of his own inquiry, than a transcript from an +earlier writer.] + +[Footnote 203: As names changed from Arabic to European writing are apt +to acquire thereby a more determinate form than properly belongs to +them, those mentioned in the text shall be here represented in their +original character, that the reader may be enabled to appreciate our +conjectures respecting them. Iklí اكلي; Afnú افنوا; Mambó منبو. +Caancouma (in Hamaker) كانكوما is evidently Kátakúmá كاتكوما wanting a +point. In like manner Hamaker’s Caancou must be changed into Kátakú. It +may be thought that there is not sufficient authority to prove that +Kátakúmá and Kátakú are distinct countries. But Burckhardt (Trav. in +Nubia, p. 433) has stated the position of the latter, and the districts +comprised in it (nearly all pointed out by Denham) with so much +precision, that his testimony, corroborated by that of Mohammed Miṣrí +(Journ. of the Roy. Inst.), decisively separates Kátakú from the Katagum +(Kátakúmá), which was visited by Clapperton.—Ibkarem ابقرم—Rábúmá +رابوما—Haúdama هودمي—Ankarar انكرر is probably written by an error of +the pen for Ankarú انكرو.] + +[Footnote 204: Shádí شادي; Mábiná مابنا; Abham ابهم; Atʿaná اتعنا; +Yáfalam يافلم; Mekba مكبا; Kálkín كالكين.] + +[Footnote 205: Aderma ادرما; Dafúmú دفومو; Abkalá ابكلا we have ventured +to change into Ankalá انكلا; Túkámá توكاما.] + +[Footnote 206: Afnú is the name given by the people of Bornú to Houssa +(Lucas in Proc. Afr. Assoc. I. p. 165), or the eastern part of it. +Einsiedel (Cuhn’s Merkw. Reisen. III. p. 439) understood that Hafnou +(Afnú) lies between Bornú and Zegzeg. Abdu-r-Raḥmán Aga, Niebuhr’s +informant (Walck. Rech. p. 72) also uses the name Afnú as equivalent to +Houssa. The Sultan of Tekrúr, he says, who possessed Mara (Marra), was +tributary to the Sultan of Afnú, residing in Zamfara. Seetzen also (Von +Zach’s Monatliche Correspondenz, vol. XXI. 1810, p. 152), places Affano +immediately to the west of Bornú. See also the Bulletin de la Soc. de +Geogr. de Paris, tom. VI. p. 169, where Kachenah is stated to be the +capital of Afnú. It is remarkable that in Bornú, and the adjoining +deserts, the Arabic expression Súdán (country of the Blacks) is always +given to Afnú or Houssa (Lucas, as above; Denham’s Discoveries, &c. II. +p. 85), a strong proof that it was the country of the Remrem or Demdem, +and the point to which the slave merchants directed their march.] + +[Footnote 207: Kátakú comprises Mandara, Musgow, and the other provinces +on the west of the River Shary, which are therefore not named. It is not +to be ascribed to mere chance, that two names are changed, by the +addition of a single point to each, into Kátakúmá (the Katagum of +Clapperton) and Kátakú, the Katákó of Burckhardt, the Kotoko of the +native of Bornú cited in the preceding note (Bullet. Soc. Geogr.), and +the Kotko of Seetzen (p. 153).] + +[Footnote 208: Umburm is in the country of the Yemyem near Jacoba +(Clapp. Sec. Exped. p. 250). In Sultan Bello’s account of Baúshí (Denham +and Clapp. Disc. II. p. 451), he mentions a province of that country +called Aádám. We cannot venture to say whether this is the root from +which Adamawa is derived, but it might be easily changed in discourse +into Haúdama. Angarú (Ankarú) is three long days’ journey west of the +capital of Bornú (Mohammed Míṣrí, in Jour. Roy. Inst.), and within the +dominions of Bello (Clapp. in Denh. Disc. II. p. 313). It is the Ungura +of Hornemann, which was supposed to be identical with Wanghárah (Proc. +of Afr. Assoc. II. p. 200).] + +[Footnote 209: One of the natives of Houssa, interrogated by M. Menézes +de Drummond (Hertha, July, 1827, p. 12), mentioned the Schadŭh (Shádí) +among the tribes depending on Zegzeg. Can the name Mábiná be the same +word as Foobina, said by Mohammed Másíni (Clapp. Sec. Exped. p. 335) to +be sometimes affixed to Adamawa? The name Bobyra, given in the Quarterly +Review (No. 77, p. 178), on the authority of Clapperton, in whose +published Journal it nowhere occurs, might easily have its origin in +Fobina, or even Mabina ill-written in Arabic. According to Abdu-r-Raḥmán +Aga, the King of Tekrúr possessed Marra and Adana. One of the +Itineraries collected by Dupuis (Resid. in Ashantee, App. p. 129,) +places an Etana on the river west of Marra.] + +[Footnote 210: Clapperton found the plains of Zamfara covered with a +chain of lakes which are connected in the rainy season; and Lyon (Trav. +in N. Afr. p. 151) was told that the country between Kanó and Zegzeg is +annually covered with water.] + +[Footnote 211: The name Angalawha, occurring on the northern shores of +Lake Chad, is easily traced by an analogy of the Bornowí language +indicated by Denham (the tree Kuka being called also Kukawha,) to +Angala, which name also occurs on the southern shores of the lake. The +town or station of Togáma is seven days distant from Kachenah, on the +road to Aghades (Lyon’s Trav. p. 131). Hornemann (Proc. Afr. Assoc. II. +p. 300) gives some account of the tribe so called.] + +[Footnote 212: If we suppose the word Kissour pronounced N’Kissúr with +the nasal sound, which among the Africans so often precedes the letter +_k_, then its affinity with Inkizár becomes more apparent. The +Portuguese, like the Arabs, employ an initial vowel in prefixing the +nasal; thus for N’Yáka, N’Yambána, N’Góla, they write Inhaqua, +Inhambana, Angola. Of the guttural pronunciation which seems to foreign +ears to confound the _a_ and _u_, many examples might be given. Leo +Africanus says that one language (which he calls Sungai) extended from +Málí to Kághó; and as we know that the Kissour, commencing at Jenni, now +extends at least to Tomboktú, we are justified in concluding that it is +the Sungai, or the language to which the Zagháï, the chief inhabitants +of Inkizár, lent their name. We have seen that the word Daḳno, the name +of the ordinary beverage of the people from Jenni downwards, was in use +below Tomboktú in the fourteenth century. (See above, p. 84.) It avails +little against this, that the Sungai language was also spoken in Málí: +for what is more natural than that the language of the most populous and +industrious part of an empire should be generally spoken in its capital; +and that a Moorish merchant should give little attention to the language +of the lower classes?] + +[Footnote 213: Two intelligent natives of Kanó, who were in London a few +years ago, when interrogated respecting Wanghárah, agreed in stating +that it is “behind Ako,” or Yariba. In the same vague manner probably, +Leo Africanus, little acquainted with the interior, conceived it to be +behind Zamfara. But his description of Wanghárah (pt. VII. c. 14), the +nature of the journey to it, its trade, and its fear of Tomboktú, leave +no doubt as to the country intended by him. The meditated invasion of +Wanghárah by the King of Bornú, may indeed provoke scepticism; but let +it be considered that the historical traditions related to Clapperton +(Second Exped. p. 102, 103) by the King of Boussa (Busá), testify the +former conquests of Bornú on the western side of the Kowára. Leo had a +very inadequate idea of the extent of Negroland south of the Great +River. He even speaks of the ocean encircling the desert from Cape Nún +to Gaoga (pt. I. c. 2). He could not, consistently with such views, +place the distant and populous country of Wanghárah south-westwards from +Zamfara.] + +[Footnote 214: Ibn Sʿaíd died A.D. 1286, at an advanced age. Yaḳút, of +whose Geographical Dictionary the Bodleian Library possesses a copy, +flourished somewhat earlier. Both these writers are quoted by Abú-l- +fedá, who died A.D. 1331. Yaḳút and Abú-l-fedá cite Ibn Fáṭimah with no +other variance than is usual in different MS. copies of the same work. +The Jábí of Abú-l-fedá is clearly preferable to Yáḳút’s Ḥání (see Note +201); but the Bedí of the former and the Yuthí of the latter are +probably equally erroneous. It may seem a bold emendation to alter them +into Yúfí or Núfí; but let it be considered that the country now called +Núfí or Níffí may have changed its name with its population; that Ibn +Baṭúṭah clearly means Núfí when he speaks of Yúfí; and that the name +written Yúfí in the Gayangos MS., is in other MSS. written Yuwí (Lee and +Kosegarten, Lee’s Ibn Baṭúṭah, p. 238), and in others Buwí (Burckhardt, +Trav. in Nubia, p. 491; and Lee). Now Bedí بدي and Yuthí يُذي lie, with +respect to Buwí بُوي, Yúwí يُوي and Yúfí يُوفي, within what may be +called reasonable limits of corruption, and the proposed change brings +all into order.] + +[Footnote 215: Abú-l-fedá and Yakut wrote Kúra كُورَى; in one of the +Routes (No. 4) published by Dupuis the river is called Koara كُوَرَا, +though had the points been correctly written, we should probably have +had Kúrá. Bello writes in his map Kowára كوارَ, or, as our travellers +have called it, Quorra. In Brahima’s Itinerary (Bowdich, Mission, &c. p. +491), and in another translated by De Sacy, (Walck. Rech. p. 453), the +Great River is named Lake Koad or Caudh كوض, which ought rather to be +read Kúḍa. Further on we shall show that in these Itineraries the Arabic +letter Dád ض is substituted for _r_; so that Lake Kúra is here intended. +The Kowára, Kúra, or Quorra is frequently styled by the natives a sea or +lake, according to some accounts, of forty-eight days’ sail in extent +(Ali Bey Badia’s Travels, I. p. 338). Clapperton (Denham, Disc. II. p. +269) was told that the river Kowára falls into the sea (of Nyffi or +Núfí) at Raka, where it is as wide as from Kano to Katagum, or about 150 +miles. But not to multiply authorities, it will be sufficient to observe +that Sultan Bello believed Raka (Rághá),—which has been recently reached +by Mr. Jamieson’s steamer Ethiope,—to be a sea-port, and represented it +as such in his letter to the King of England.] + +[Footnote 216: According to Ibn Fáṭimah, “when any one among these +people dies, they cast the dead body to their neighbours, and their +neighbours do the like for them.” So Sultan Bello related (Clapp. Sec. +Exped. p. 251) that in Umburm, where those who ail are killed at once, +for economy, “the person falling sick is requested by some other family, +and repaid when they have a sick relation.”] + +[Footnote 217: Kimí might without much violence be changed into Límí, +and thus explain the name Al-Límiyín. At-Tekrúr we may assign, on the +authority of Abdu-r-Raḥmán Aga, to Marra, which probably extended from +Zamfara westwards between Guber and Kábí. The Baghárah or Baḳárah were +probably a tribe of the desert. The Kaúkaú of Ibn Sʿaíd is too far east +to be the city of that name on the Great River; we must suppose him +therefore to extend this name to Karkar.] + +[Footnote 218: Leo’s Gago seems to be identical with the Caugha of +Hornemann, or Kaúka of Burckhardt (Trav. in Nubia, p. 436). Its empire +extended, he says, from Bornú to Nubia. The use of the name Bornú, in +former times, however, and the modern geography of the countries round +Lake Chad, are involved in an obscurity which it does not lie within the +scope of this essay to dispel. Leo’s text offers not only the names Gago +and Gaoga, but also, in two instances, Gaogao. He says (pt. VII. c. 14), +that while he was in Negroland, the King of Bornú marched against +Wanghárah; but learning, on his way, that Omar, King of Gaogao, +meditated an attack on his dominions, he turned back, and Wanghárah was +saved. But, in this passage, Gaogao is a misprint for Gaoga, as Leo +himself discloses by naming the King of Gaoga “Omar chi oggidí regna.” +In the other instance (pt. VII. c. 1), his Gaogao is justly changed by +Marmol (vol. III. fol. 21) into Gaoga. Leo (pt. I. c. 7) having +enumerated the fifteen kingdoms of Negroland visited by him, adds, that +there are three times as many, sufficiently well known, lying to the +south of the preceding; and names five of them, viz. Bito, Temiam, +Dauma, Medra, Goran. Marmol (vol. I. fol. 15), in copying this passage, +omits Dauma, and substitutes for it Mandinga. But Leo had no idea of +increasing the kingdoms of Western Negroland. His Bito is the Bede of +Denham and Clapperton, adjoining or comprised in the modern Bornú. +Einsiedel names together, Schikou—the Schaïkou of Lyon (Trav. in N. Afr. +p. 126), two days from the capital of Bornú—Bitou (Leo’s Bito), and +Engar (Angarú). Temiam may be an error for Yemyem: Dauma is probably the +Doma of our maps, or the country on the right bank of the River Chadda. +Medra seems to be Mandara, one letter being obliterated in the Arabic +MS. Goran (in Marmol Gorhan), which is often referred to by Leo, is +evidently the Desert of Kordofán. This name كردفان might easily become, +in negligent writing, Korhán كرهان; or as Leo, uniformly writing _kef_ +with a _g_, and omitting the aspirates, would represent it, Goran. +Another region often named by Leo, may be fitly considered here. In the +Desert of Seu, south of Bornú (pt. VII. c. 15), and environing an +immense lake (pt. I. c. 27), called the Lake of the Desert of Gaoga (pt. +I. c. 2), he places the sources of the Niger (pt. I. c. 3). It is +obvious that the lake alluded to is Lake Chad, and that the name Seu is +the root of the appellative Showy, and the name Shouaa, respectively +given by Denham to a town on the Shary, and the Arab tribes inhabiting +the adjacent country.] + +[Footnote 219: Yaḳút and Abú-l-fedá both mention the towns of Maghzá and +Jájah in the vicinity of Lake Kúra. Al-Maghzá, according to the former +writer, was the port in which were fitted out the fleets of the King of +Tekrúr, “who wages perpetual war with the infidels to the south of his +states.” Al-Maghzá signifies the place whence invaders sally forth. Abú- +l-fedá however differs from Yaḳút in assigning both Maghzá and Jájah, +not to Tekrúr, but to Kánem. Jájah (perhaps the Gagai of Clapperton, +Sec. Exped. p. 174) was the capital of a petty state situate probably +between those two kingdoms. It was remarkable for its fertility and +variety of its productions; among other things for its spotted sheep +(described by Lander in Clapp. Sec. Exped. p. 259-60). But it must be +observed that the Arab geographers, in describing the bearings of those +places, particularly in reference to the lake, speak in general the +language of misconception.] + +[Footnote 220: Bowdich remarks (Mission to Ashantee, p. 478 note), that +the name of the river written Kúra, Kúda, &c. was always pronounced +Quolla by the natives in their conversations with Mr. Hutchinson. Ignaz +Pallme (in the Athenæum, 1840, p. 54), a traveller in Kordofán, relates +that the natives of that country think that the Bahr el-Abiad may be +followed westward through Baghermi, Kúḳo (Kouka), and Niero (Naroo, the +hilly country north-east of Zegzeg); and “further on (he says), in Kúla +(Kúra) flows a river not identified” (that is, different from the Nile). +Browne also (Travels in Africa, p. 254) heard in Darfúr of Darkulla (the +Land of Kúla or Kúra), where pepper was in abundance, and the rivers +were navigated in large canoes. He indeed supposed Darkulla to lie +towards the south. But his map exposes his mistake; for the rivers Bahr +Wullad Ráshid, B. el Salamat, and B. Heimad, crossed on the route to +Darkulla, and which he places to the south and west of Baghermi, bear +the names of Arab tribes dwelling in Wadaí and on the shores of Lake +Chad (Burckhardt, Trav. in Nubia, pp. 433, 436). The route therefore +went westwards.] + +[Footnote 221: The Kiliwah (the Kalawa of Capt. Lyon, Kolluvi of +Hornemann), a Tawárik tribe, are masters of Asben, or the territory +between Houssa and Aghades. Their town in Guber is called by Clapperton +Killiwawa or Calawawa, by the Tatar merchant Wargee, Galibaba. +Clapperton frequently mentions also the Kilghí (whom he calls Killgris), +another powerful tribe of the same nation. Their territory is the +kingdom called by Bowdich (p. 208), Kallaghee, fourteen days’ journey +from Gamhadi (Kambari), or from the Quolla, crossing the Gambarou +(Kamba-róa, or Kamba water) on the tenth. Kamba is apparently the name +given by the indigenous population to Kábi, or a part of Yaúrí (Dupuis, +Append. 85). The Gambarou of Bowdich is the Gulbi Kambáji, or river of +Kambáji or Konbash of Dupuis’ Itineraries (App. 126 and 192). The name +Kilghí is changed by the Blacks into Kilinghi (see Note 162), whence +comes the title Kilinghiwa given to the King of Kachenah (Walck. Rech. +p. 451).] + +[Footnote 222: Hají Hamed (Quart. Rev. 1820, No. 45, p. 232), among +others, bears witness to the course of the Great River from the Sea of +Nyffé to Egypt by Kachenah and Kano. Capt. Lyon’s informant, however +(Lyon’s Trav. p. 142), traces the stream from Funda to Katagum, while +Ben Yusuf, Hornemann’s son (Denham, I. p. 334), and Mohammed Miṣri +(Jour. Roy. Inst. 1823, p. 5) are equally positive in making it flow +through Adamawa. Much has been said of the unanimity of the natives in +connecting the waters of Lake Chad with the River Chadda, but they agree +only in the vague outlines of a theory, not in facts; they are unanimous +in making the Kowára flow into the Chad, and not the Chad into the +Kowára.] + +[Footnote 223: The author of the Kitábu-l-Jʿarafiah divides Africa into +three parts, one of which is Karkar: Shehabeddin (Not. et Extr. tom. II. +p. 156), adopting the same division, writes Kaúkaú. The division into +four parts is frequently referred to by Marmol (tom. I. pp. 18, 21, 31), +who follows probably Ibn Gezzar.] + +[Footnote 224: El Bekrí probably wrote Remrem; though El Idrísí, copying +him, writes Demdem; the latter author names also the Lemlem. Ibn Sʿaíd +may be conjectured to have written Yemyem, but the doubtful text of the +MSS. leaves the point undecided. Abú-l-fedá mentions not only the +Demdem, but also the Nemnem, which latter people he places south of +Saharte (the most eastern district of Tígré in Abyssinia) and of Samhar +(the Dankali coast), and consequently in what is now called the Taltal +country. All those names, Nemnem excepted, refer to the same people.] + +[Footnote 225: In the maps of Forlani and others of the sixteenth +century, the Nile, Zaire, Cuama, and Spirito Santo, were all made to +flow from Lake Zambere. Sanson however (1650) allowed that lake no +outlet towards the east, but Hollar (London, 1667) still joined the +river of Kílwah with Lake Zaflan, which, as well as Lake Zambere, was +connected with the Nile. In all these maps Abyssinia extended to lat. +18° S. Delisle was the first who reformed these absurdities.] + +[Footnote 226: Labat (Rel. Hist. de l’Ethiopie Occidentale, II. p. 90), +copying, but not faithfully, Cavazzi de Montecucoli, states, with +surprising coolness, as matter of history, the supposed origin of the +Jagas in the country of the Monoemugi (Monomoézi). The country of the +Jagas, that is to say, of the chieftains so entitled, lies immediately +behind Angola, perhaps not above 250 miles from the sea coast, and there +is nothing in the history of their followers calculated to show that +they come from the remote interior. Andrew Battel, who was seized on the +coast and carried off by the Jagas, with whom he spent above a year, +says (Purchas’ Pilgrims, II. p. 973), that they told him they come from +Sierra Leone. This absurd statement shows that Battel had got into his +head some of the geographical speculations of his day. The Jesuit +Sandoval (Hist. de Ethiop. p. 48) thus abridges the information of the +missionaries: “About ninety years back, a nation called in their own +country Gangedes, in Congo, Jagas, in Angola, Guindes, in India (Eastern +Africa), Zimbas, in Ethiopia (Abyssinia), Gallas, and in Sierra Leone, +Zumbas (Cumbas, in Jarric, probably for Çumbas), which name they changed +for Manes, and who lived on human flesh, issued forth,” &c. Finally, +Anguiano (Epitome Historial &c. del Imp. Abyss. 1706, p. 8), speaking of +the Agows, assures us that the names Agáo, Agag, and Giagos, or Giacos, +are all the same.] + +[Footnote 227: A writer in a popular journal, says of the Zoolus +(properly Amazúla,) near Natal,—“They extend much further northward, +where they are found under the names Sualies and Gallas.” (Quart. Rev. +Febr. 1837, p. 178.) The Arabic word Sowáḥilí means “inhabiting the +coasts.”] + +[Footnote 228: The portion of Da Couto’s History here quoted (Decade X. +lib. 6, c. 15) has never been printed, but the Library of the British +Museum possesses two MS. copies of it. The lake here referred to is +called by De Barros Zambere, a name copied servilely by all succeeding +writers, though it was doubtless a misprint for Zambeze. Cuama is the +name given to the lower portion of the Zambeze, which river is so named +according to Dos Santos (Ethiop. Orient. p. 44), because, on quitting +the Great Lake, from which proceed the chief rivers of Southern Africa, +it flows through a territory inhabited by a people of that name.” The +people alluded to are the Ambios of Da Couto, the Movíza of the +Portuguese of the present day, but who call themselves M’Bíza. The true +name of the river, therefore (and that intended also to be given to the +lake), is Zambíza. N’yassi, or _the sea_, as this lake is called by the +natives (whence D’Anville’s Massi, by mistake for Niassi), is commonly +but erroneously designated in our maps Lake Marávi. The Marávi country, +that is to say, the country in which the chieftains bear the title of +Marávi, extends from the Zambíza to the Livúma behind Cape Delgado, and +touches but does not encompass the lake. Da Couto, following De Barros, +borrows the name Rhapta from Ptolemy. It serves to indicate eruditely +rather than clearly what the Arabs call the River of Maḳdishó, that is, +the Juba.] + +[Footnote 229: Cavazzi de Montecucoli, a laborious and sincere writer, +relates (Istorica Descrittione de tre Regni, &c. 1690, book II. c. 3) +that a chief named Zimbo raised an army in Congo, with which he invaded +Melinda on the opposite coast. Being there defeated, he retired towards +the Cape of Good Hope, and afterwards attacked Angola, &c. Zimbo’s +marches equalled those of Tamerlane. The enormous exaggerations and +mistakes of the Catholic Missionaries respecting the interior of +Southern Africa, still retain their places in works of geography.] + +[Footnote 230: A Mandingo warrior named Abba Manca (Mança?), conquered +Bambúk in the beginning of the twelfth century, and compelled its +inhabitants to adopt the Mohammedan rites (Golberry, Fragmens d’un Voy. +I. p. 419). Silla was one of the first converted of the negro towns; and +as, in the Mandingo language, the word Silla means a way, road, pass, or +ferry, and might therefore have been naturally employed to designate a +town situate on the line of traffic, it may be conjectured that Silla +belonged to the Mandingoes from the beginning. It may be here observed +that the termination _boo_ (see Note 52), characterizing the names of +villages in Bambara, signifies a hut. (Dard. Dict. Wolofe, pp. 19, 22; +Caillié, III. p. 301).] + +[Footnote 231: The Sultan of the Fellátah dynasty in Houssa styles +himself Sultan of Tekrúr. The Fellátah conquerors of Houssa issued, in +the beginning of the present century, from the province of Ader, +adjoining Kábí on the north, and where they may have been long +established. It is possible then that the kingdom of Tekrúr, mentioned +to Niebuhr by Abdu-r-Raḥmán Aga, and also heard of by Hutchinson +(Bowdich, p. 483), may have belonged to the Fellátah dynasty now +dominant in Houssa.] + +[Footnote 232: The Garamantes, a Libyan nation, chased, in chariots +drawn by four horses, the Ethiopian Troglodytes (Herodotus, book IV. c. +152). El Idrísí (in Jaubert’s Trans. I. p. 110,) remarks that stealing +children to sell them to strangers for a trifle, is a general practice +in the desert, and “no one there sees harm in it.”] + + + + + POSTSCRIPT. + + * * * * * + + REMARKS ON HOUSSA. + + +The route from the capital of Ashantí, through Gonja, to the Kowára or +Quorra opposite to Yaúry, is determined as satisfactorily as can be +expected from native information. Three different itineraries of that +route agree in the chief points, conducting from Lake Buro, or from +Salagha (which is the same as Dagwumba), through Tonuma, Jabzogho, +Ghofil, Zogho, Jambodú, Suso and Kúka to Nikki, the capital of Borghú. +Beyond this place is the town of Rugha, the River Wori, and the +mountains over which lies the road to Sholo on the banks of lake Kúra +(the Quorra). But in two of the itineraries the names Rugha, Wori, and +Kúra are written Ḍugha, Woḍi, and Kúḍa.[233] + +From Sholo the route conducts by Kambashi, Ghúnti, and Yendukka to +Kachenah in twenty-five days. Other native routes, passing northwards of +this through the mountainous country of Fagh, cross the river at Gongo +(_i.e._ the ferry,) to Múrí (Múli), and then proceed through Kábí, over +the Gulbi Kambaji to Raka, and thence through Kotú-n-kúra to Marki, and +crossing the hills near Surami to Kachenah. The Gulbi Kambaji (river of +Kambaji) of Dupuis, it has been already observed, is the same as the +Gambarou (Kamba-roa, or Kamba water) of Bowdich. The latter writer +places to the north of it, Mallowa, Kallaghee (Kilghí), Barrabadi +(Beráberi), and Kachenah. On the south side of his Gambarou, or between +it and the Quorra, he sets Gauw, Gamhadi (Kombori), Fillani, Goubirri, +Zamfarra, Yaoura, and Noufí. If a partial error in the position of +Mallowa be allowed for, and a more decided one in the case of Gauw, it +will be evident that the river dividing the countries here enumerated is +the Quorrama, or river of Kábí.[234] + +Mohammed Masíní, describing the Kowára, says, “this great river issues +from the Mountain of the Moon; and what we know of it is, that it comes +from Sookan (Sókaí) to Kiya (Kiyaú, the Gauw of Bowdich), to Kabi, to +Yaouri, to Boossa, to Wawa, and to Noofee; but in that place there is +another river that springs from Zirmá, to Ghoober, to Zeffra, to Kory or +Koora, and then enters Noofee; its name is Kaduna. On the north of it +Kanbari lies; on the east is Kory; on the south are Cankan and Kafath; +and on the west is Bassoa or Bashwa (Busawa, the territory of Busá). +About the centre of it is the kingdom of Noofee, with that of Abyou +(Abbiwa).”[235] + +The river here described under the name of Kaduna, as running first +northwards from Zirmá to Guber, and then southwards to Núfí, is +apparently the same described by Clapperton in these words: “This stream +rises only a day’s journey in the mountains or hills south of Guari, +runs through part of Zamfrá, and divides in one part the states of +Katongkora and Guari, and enters into the Kodonia in Nyffé.” The Kaduna +or Kadunia enters the Kowára in the vicinity of Raka and Rabba, perhaps +a little above the latter place. According to the native accounts, it is +during part of the year a great river, navigated in canoes made of a +single trunk of a tree, yet large enough to carry nine horses, but in +the summer it is quite dry.[236] + +The country called by Mohammed Masíní, Kory or Koora (Kúra), is either +the Guari of the maps, or else Kotú-n-kúra. The resemblance of this name +to that of the great river (Lake Kúra) deserves attention. It appears +probable that the natives of Houssa name the Great River from what they +conceive to be its sources in their own country, tracing it from Kowára +(the Guari of Clapperton), through Zamfara and Kábí, down to the sea of +Kúra or of Núfí.[237] Hence it is not surprising, that, while Ibn Sʿaíd +mentions Kúra among the kingdoms of Negroland, Yaḳút and Abú-l-fedá +should apply that name to the great water which there received the Nile +of Ghánah. + + + LONDON: + J. HOLMES, TOOK’S COURT, CHANCERY LANE. + + +[Footnote 233: One of these routes is given by Dupuis (App. 124), +another by Bowdich (p. 491), and a third, translated from the original +Arabic by De Sacy, is inserted in Walckenaer’s Recherches (p. 453). The +comparison of this last route with the fragment (No. 11) in Dupuis’ +Appendix (p. 135), shows that its author was Mohammed al Marrawi, the +servant of Ibrahim, from whom Bowdich derived his information. The Sholo +of the Itineraries is the Sooloo of Lander (Exped. to the Niger, II. p. +28), who means by the expression “the left bank of the river,” the bank +on his left hand, and contra-distinguishes it from the east bank, on +which his horses were. The systematic substitution of _d_ for _r_ by the +natives of a part of Houssa, is manifest from these itineraries. The +words Barrabadi and Gamhadi, for Beráberi and Kombori, are other +instances of the same change; and probably the savage and naked people +called Maradi, said to inhabit the country between Kachenah and Guber +(Lyon, p. 140), are no other than the Marrí, or people of Marra. The +deposed King of Houssa lives in Maradi (Lander, Sec. Exped. p. 63, 153). +Dupuis describes a route from Salagha, a little eastward of north, to +what he calls the great city of Andari, respecting which there is room +for some curious conjectures. But it will be sufficient for the present +to remark that his Andari عنظر (Itin. No. 6) and Fadaly فضلى (No. 10), +on the importance of both of which places he dwells with complacency, +are in reality one and the same.] + +[Footnote 234: For the Gharanti and Yendoto of Dupuis, Ghúnti (the Gonde +of Clapperton) and Yendukka (the Yendukwa of that traveller, and +Yendakka of Lyon,) are here read, the change in Arabic writing being +extremely easy. The name Kandashy, which Mr. Dupuis gives to a part of +Houssa, originated in a mistake. He joined the word Dúshi, signifying +the hills or mountains, to a part of some preceding word. Marina, +Kandashy, ought to be Markí, and Dúshi, or the hills. Mr. Dupuis +continues, “Great Souy is the name of the adjoining country; there is +also another Souy, where the water is very broad, and bears the name of +Boromi Mághami.” For Souy سُوْوِ in this place we must read Surmi +سُرْمِ, a name variously altered into Solan, Zulami, Zurmie and Zirmie. +The situation of Surmi, or rather Surami the less, is pointed out by +Clapperton (Sec. Exped. p. 164). Lander crossed the river of Makamie +(Mághami). The word Boromi apparently signifies river, in some dialect +the use of which extends into Bornú and Kánem.] + +[Footnote 235: The Cankan of Mohammed Masíní is probably the Ghana- +ghanah of Wargee. (Asiat. Journ. 1823, vol. XVI. p. 23.)] + +[Footnote 236: There is, no doubt, some difficulty in believing that the +mouth of the Kadunia is above Rabba, when Lander states so clearly that +it is below Fofo; yet a MS. sketch of the route from Kano to the Kowára +in Núfí, drawn by Clapperton from native information, places it between +Rabba and Leechee, and directly opposite to Raka. Bakani, the capital, +is one day from the mouth of the river; it seems to lie directly in the +road from Kanó and Zegzeg to Raka and Katunga (Hertha, July 1827, Geogr. +Zeit. pp. 11, 14). From one of Clapperton’s MS. vocabularies, +communicated to me by my invaluable friend, the Rev. G. C. Renouard, it +would appear that the word Kaduna, in the Houssa language, signifies +_little_. If this be correct, which appears very questionable, there are +probably several rivers of that name. Here it may be remarked, that when +Dupuis (pt. II. p. 100) speaks of Saghona, the capital of Yekoo (Ako or +Yariba), he means Raka, which is also called Saguda (Clapp. p. 60).] + +[Footnote 237: Clapperton (Sec. Exped. p. 232) says that the capital of +Zegzeg is called Quorra. He probably means to speak of the town which he +elsewhere calls Guari, but the name of which, in the native maps brought +home by him, is written Ḳowárah. When he speaks of Kóra (p. 133), he +appears to have in view the capital of Kotú-n-Kúra. This name is, +through obvious mistake, written Kotunfauda in Bello’s map. Kotú is a +name of frequent occurrence, as in Kotú-n-karafi (in the maps Cuttum +Curraffee), “where there is a copper mine” (Bello in Denh. Disc. II. p. +451). Karafi means metal in general. The country named Kúra is +mentioned, together with Niffi and Raka, by the Kaíd ben Yusuf (Denh. +Disc. I. p. 334). The slaves Boniface and Francisco agreed in +representing to M. Menézes de Drummond (Hertha, pp. 13, 14), that the +Kowára rises in the centre of Houssa, and that it takes its name from +the country named Kuara (Kowára), through which it flows.] + + + + +Transcriber's note: + + + Vowel diacritics in Arabic names have sometimes been adjusted to + match their transliteration. + + Unpointed Beh-shape letters in medial or initial form have been + represented with the Alef Maksura (ى) character. Other unpointed + consonants are shown as printed. + + Changes in the CORRECTIONS have been done, as well as: + + pg xv, Changed: "GHÁNAH, AUDÁGHOST, AÚLÍL" to: "AÚDAGHOST" + + pg 6, footnote 9, Changed: "Támedelt تَلمدَلْت (MS. B.M.)" + to: "تَامدَلْت" + + pg 12, footnote 24, Changed: "Agharef أَغَوَفْ MS. B.M." to: "أَغَرَفْ" + + pg 111, footnote 185, Changed: "(Walcknenaer, Rech. p. 450)." to: + "Walckenaer" + + pg 124, Changed: "it it manifest that Ghánah coincides" to: "it is" + + pg 134, Changed: "thirteenth century, it it obvious" to: "it is" + + Other spelling inconsistencies have been left unchanged. + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78434 *** |