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]