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]