Chap. LXVI. THE ORIGIN OF TIMBUKTU. 
411 
due to the Im6shagh, it is probable that, from the 
very beginning, a portion of the inhabitants of the 
town belonged to the Son ghay nation*; and I rather 
suppose, therefore, that the original form of the name 
was the Songhay form Tiimbutu, from whence the 
Im6shagh made Tumbytku, which was afterwards 
changed by the Arabs into Tumbuktu.f 
But the series of chronological facts which we learn 
from A'hmed BaM, or from other sources, I shall give 
in a tabular form in the Appendix. Here I will only 
draw the reader's attention to a few of the most 
striking facts, and make some general remarks on the 
character of that history. 
It is very remarkable, that while Islam in the 
two larger westerly kingdoms which flourished pre- 
* " The palace which was erected in Timbuktu was called 
* niaduk,' or i m'adugu.' This is evidently a Mandingo word, mean- 
ing 1 the house of the king but it was certainly called so in the 
language of the conquerors, and not in that of the natives, and 
A'hnied BaM understands the former when he says that the build- 
ing was called by this name in their language." — Journal of Leipsic 
Oriental Society, ix. p. 525. 
"f The u sound in the first syllable of the name is the only ori- 
ginal one, not only in the Songhay, but also in the Arabic 
form ; but it has gradually been changed into an i, and almost all 
the Arabs at the present time pronounce and write Tinbuktu, 
i^S^J . The town was probably so called, because it was built 
originally in a hollow or cavity in the sandhills. Tumbutu means 
hole or womb in the Songhay language : if it were a Temashight 
word, it would be written Tmbuktu. The name is generally 
interpreted by Europeans, well of Buktu, but tin has nothing to 
do with well. See Vol. I. p. 323, note. 
