Chap. LXVI. 
LIST OF PROVINCES. 
419 
rocco. Passing then by the province of Bantal, the 
limits of which I have not been able to make out, 
we come to the province of Bel or Bal, which evi- 
dently comprised the country on the north side of the 
river round about Timbuktu, and, perhaps, some dis- 
tance westwards ; but without including that town 
itself, which had a governor of its own, nor even the 
harbour of Kabara, which at that time was of suffi- 
cient importance to be placed under the inspection of 
a special officer or " farma," who, however, seems to 
have been subjected in a certain degree to the in- 
spection of the Bal- ma, or the governor of Bal, who 
was able to call him to account.* The governor of 
the province of Bal, who bore the peculiar title of 
" Bal-ma," a word likewise of Mandingo origin, ma 
corresponding to the Songhay word " koy," seems to 
have been of great importance in a military respect, 
while in a moral point of view the governor of the 
town of Timbuktu enjoyed perhaps greater autho- 
rity, and the office of the Tumbutu-koy, seems always 
to have been filled by a learned man or fakih, 
proving that this town was regarded at that time as 
the seat of learning; and that the fakih who governed 
the town of Timbuktu possessed great power is evi- 
dent from the fact, that A'hmed Baba mentions it as 
a proof of great neglect on the part of Al Hadi the 
governor of Tindirma, that he did not go in person 
to the kadhi to pay him his compliments. 
* See the account in the Journal of the Leipsic Oriental Society, 
p. 545. 
E E 2 
