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.