The Negroland of the Arabs Examined and Explained (1841) by William Desborough Cooley

Author:William Desborough Cooley [Cooley, William Desborough]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780714617992
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 1966-04-25T00:00:00+00:00

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.120 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 Mohammed 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.21 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.122 For merchants arriving at Táserahlá always despatched letters to Aϊwalátin, 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 Aϊwalátin, 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

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