Timbuctoo

Timbuctoo (native Tumbutu, Arab. Timbukhtu), a famous city of the Soudan, on the southern edge of the Sahara, lies about 8 miles north of the main stream of the Joliba or Upper Niger. It stands only a few feet above the level of the river, is about 3 miles in circumference, and at present without walls, though in former times it covered a much greater area, and was defended by walls. The houses are mainly one-story mud-hovels, but one of the three chief mosques is a large and imposing building, dating from 1325. The place stands on an important trade route between the interior and the west and south; and its importance has increased through the gradual extension of French influence hither (see SENEGAMBIA). Articles of trade are gold-dust, salt, kola-nuts, ivory, gums, ostrich-feathers, dates, and tobacco, exchanged for Manchester goods, mirrors, knives, tea, coral, &c. The town stands on the borders of various tribes and kingdoms—Sonrhai, Berbers, Tuaregs, Fulahs, Mandingoes, &c.; and amongst the 20,000 inhabitants of the place all these races are represented, with Arabs, Arabised Africans, and Jews. Timbuctoo was apparently founded in the 11th century, and first became known to Europeans in the 14th (Ibn Batuta was here about 1350); it has been visited by but six or seven Europeans, including A. G. Laing in 1826, Barth in 1853, Lenz in 1880, and Dubois in 1894. Timbuctoo, which was occupied by the French in 1894, has been besung by Tennyson and Thackeray. See SAHARA; and Dubois, Timbuctoo the Mysterious (trans. 1897).