¹ Ibn Hawqal's Saharan itinerary, for example, is quite consistent with respect to travel times between Sijilmassa, Awdaghust and Ghana, and Kawkaw, Marandet and Zawila. But travel times between the (presumed) Sahel/north savanna centres of Kugha, Sama, and Kuzan are greatly exaggerated, unless a great deal of doubling back and circular travel were involved (Ibn Hawqal, in Cuoq, J. M., Recueil des Sources Arabes concernant l'Afrique Occidentale du VIII^e au XVI^e Siècle (Paris, 1975), 73)Google Scholar. Also, reports of towns near or on the ‘Nile’ (i.e. the Niger or Senegal Rivers) are almost invariably vague, and range from confusing to contradictory, as in the case of Sama, Barisa/Yarasna, Ghiyaru, and Kugha, variously mentioned by Ibn Hawqal, al-Bakri and al-Idrisi, among others.

² But only as far south as perhaps 15° and 14° latitude. Even when describing pagan Lamlam territory, which is about as far south as Arab knowledge extended, al-Idrisi provides details of a very dry savanna or Sahel habitat, where the inhabitants raise camels and goats and eat camel meat dried in the sun (al-Idrisi, , in Cuoq, Recueil, 132Google Scholar).

³ al-Idrisi, , in Cuoq, Recueil, 131Google Scholar; al-Harrani, ibid. 248.

⁴ In the introduction to Ibn Hawqal's Surat al-Ard we find an example of this attitude: ‘I have not described the countries of the blacks in the west…because the characteristics of organized states…are utterly lacking among them’, translated in Trimingham, J. S., A History of Islam in West Africa (Oxford, 1962), 1–2.Google Scholar

⁵ Ibn Battuta's month-long stay in Gao merited only seven sentences (Battuta, Ibn, in Cuoq, Recueil, 316Google Scholar).

⁶ Mauny, R., Monteil, V., Djenidi, A., Robert, S. and Devisse, J., Textes et Documents Relatifs à l'Histoire de l'Afrique: Extraits Tirés des Voyages d'Ibn Battuta, Université de Dakar, Publications de la Section d'Histoire, No. 9 (Dakar, 1966).Google Scholar

⁷ Delafosse, M., ‘Le Gana et le Mali’, Bulletin du Comité d'Etudes Historiques et Scientifiques de l'A.O.F. vii (1924), 479–542.Google Scholar

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⁹ Hunwick, J. O., ‘The mid-fourteenth century capital of Mali’, J. Afr. Hist. xiv (1973), 195–206.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

¹⁰ If Hunwick's interpretation of the southward journey is correct, Ibn Battuta approached the Niger at a point well to the southwest of Jenne, but never crossed the Niger or travelled in the Delta. His return from Mali would have taken him north of the Niger, via Mema, until he reached the Niger again at Timbuktu, from whence he travelled by boat downstream to Gao.

¹¹ The middle Niger is easily navigable only during the flood season (mid-July to December); as soon.as the floodwaters recede, sandbars lie very close to the water surface. Even pirogue traffic comes to a virtual standstill between Markala and Mopti from March to the end of June (Champaud, J., ‘La navigation fluvial dans le Moyen Niger’, Cahiers d'Outre-Mer, lv (1961), 255–92, esp. pages 259, 281, 287CrossRefGoogle Scholar). Ibn Battuta travelled from Mali to Timbuktu in late February/early March (Cuoq, Recueil, 289, footnote 1).

¹² al-Maghili, , in Cuoq, Recueil, 430.Google Scholar

¹³ Crone, G. R., The Voyages of Cadamosto (London, 1937), 87Google Scholar; original letter reproduced in de La Roncière, Ch., La Découverte de l'Afrique au Moyen Age, Memoir of the Royal Society of Geographers of Egypt, No. 5 (Cairo, 1924), i, 151–8.Google Scholar

¹⁴ Prussin, L., ‘The Architecture of Djenné: African Synthesis and Transformation’ (Ph.D. dissertation, Yale University, 1973), 66–7.Google Scholar

¹⁶ La Roncière proposed the equation of Geni with Jenne: La Roncière, , Découverte, 148, 154.Google Scholar

¹⁶ Crone, , Voyages, 88.Google Scholar

¹⁷ Levtzion, N., Ancient Ghana and Mali (London, 1973), 133Google Scholar; Herbert, E., ‘Tmbuktu: a case study of the role of legend in history’, in Swartz, B. K. and Dumett, R. (eds.), West African Culture Dynamics (The Hague, 1980), 439.Google Scholar

¹⁸ Fernandes, V., Description de la Côte d'Afrique de Ceuta au Sénégal, 1506–7 (translated de Cenival, P. and Monod, T.), (Paris, 1938), 85, 87.Google Scholar

¹⁹ Pereira, D. P., Esmeralda de Situ Orbis (translated Kimble, G. H. T.) (London, 1937), 80–1.Google Scholar

²⁰ Mauny, R., Tableau Géographique de l'Ouest Africain au Moyen Age, Mémoire de l'Institut Fondamental d'Afrique Noire, no. 61 (Dakar, 1961), 47, 499.Google Scholar

²¹ Africanus, L., The History and Description of Africa (translated Pory, J.) (London, 1896), i, 12.Google Scholar Using this reasoning, however, it is difficult to see how Africanus could have overlooked the fact of the Niger's eastward flow at Timbuktu.

²² This is an excellent illustration of the problem of toponymy in tracing the historical sources for Jenne. Medieval writers and cartographers used a bewildering number of spellings – Gyna, Gyni, Genni, Ghinea, Genehoa – which are sufficiently similar that it is often unclear whether reference is being made to a city (Jenne), a kingdom (possibly Jenne or ancient Ghana), or an entire region (Guinea – the Land of the Blacks). Flemish and Portuguese maps of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries show an area variously designated as Gine, Guinea, Genoia, and Genna. These apparently are all variants of a generic term for Black Africa. During the early seventeenth century the term Genehoa began to appear with the term Guinia on European maps, such as that by Jodicus Hondius in 1606. The former term refers to both a city and a kingdom or region, whereas the latter is apparently a more generic term for the whole of West Africa. By the end of the seventeenth century both the city and the kingdom of Genehoe (Jenne?) were always indicated in addition to the generic term Guinea. See Prussin, , Architecture, 76, 276.Google Scholar

²³ Africanus, , History, 822.Google Scholar

²⁴ al-Sa'di, , Ta'rikh es-Sudan (translated Houdas, O.) (Paris, 1900), 22.Google Scholar Translated from the French by S.K.M.

²⁵ Ibid. 22–3. Translated from the French by S.K.M.

²⁶ Ibid. 24. Translated from the French by S.K.M.

²⁷ Ibid. 25.

²⁸ Caillié, R., Travels Through Central Africa to Timbuktu and Across the Great Desert to Morocco: Performed in the Years 1824–1828 (London, 1830).Google Scholar

²⁹ Ibid. i, 459–60.

³⁰ Ibid. i, 465–6; Mungo Park also mentioned that political instability in the region had disrupted trade – Park, M., Travels in the Interior of Africa (London, 1907).Google Scholar

³¹ Caillié, , Travels, ii, 57–9.Google Scholar

³² Ibid. ii, 202–3; in Vol. i, 435–8 Caillié suggests that certain villages specialize in the production of particular commodities.

³³ Ibid. ii, 59.

³⁴ Ba, A. H. and Daget, J., L'Empire Peul du Macina (1818–1853) (Paris, 1962)Google Scholar; Brown, W. A., ‘The Caliphate of Hamdullahi c. 1818–1864: A Study in African History and Tradition’ (Ph.D. thesis, University of Wisconsin, 1969).Google Scholar

³⁵ Dubois, F., Timbuctoo the Mysterious (translated White, D.) (London, 1897).Google Scholar

³⁶ Monteil, Ch., Monographie de Djénné (Tulle, 1903)Google Scholar; Monteil, Ch., Une Cité Soudanaise: Djénné (Paris, 1932).Google Scholar

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³⁸ Herbert, E., ‘Timbuktu’, 450.Google Scholar

³⁸ Robinson, D., personal communication (1978).Google Scholar

⁴⁰ Prussin, , Architecture, 94.Google Scholar

⁴¹ Bambara, Bobo, Nono (Marka), Bozo (Sorogo), Fulani and Songhay.

⁴² Brown, , Caliphate, 4–7Google Scholar; Johnson, M., ‘The economic foundations of an islamic theocracy – the case of Masina’, J. Afr. Hist. xvii (1976), 484.Google Scholar

⁴³ al-Sa'di, , Ta'rikh, 23.Google Scholar Translated from the French by S.K.M.

⁴⁴ The tendency, demonstrated here, for different ethnic groups to assign place names in their own language raises the possibility that Jenne-jeno was known by another name earlier in time.

⁴⁵ Monteil, , Cité, 33.Google Scholar

⁴⁶ Trimingham, , History, 31.Google Scholar But also see ibid., 63.

⁴⁷ Monteil, , Cité, 20–33.Google Scholar

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⁵⁰ Monteil, , Cité, 31.Google Scholar

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⁵⁸ Monteil, , Cité, 37.Google Scholar