CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF THE HISTORY OF SONGHAY. 589 
Songhay. 
A.D. 
surrendered without resistance *, 
and the king of Melle built here a 
palace (m'a-dugu), and the great 
mosque Jengere-ber, or Jama el 
kebira, with the assistance of the 
same I's-hak, a native of Granata 
(the " Granata vir artificissimus" of 
Leo, although commonly called 
e' Saheli, as if he were a native of 
Morocco), who built his palace in 
Melle. That space of the town 
of Timbuktu included between the 
two great mosques, Jengere-ber 
in the south-western, and San- 
kore in the northern quarter, was 
at that time open, and not in- 
habited. The mosque San-kore is 
generally stated to have been the 
oldest mosque in Timbuktu, al- 
though A'hmed Baba, who only 
states that it was built at the ex- 
pense of a rich wife, is not very 
explicit with regard to this cir- 
cumstance. 
Although Timbuktu thus lost its 
independence, it reaped a great 
advantage from becoming a por- 
tion of a powerful kingdom, and 
being thus well protected against 
any violence offered on the part of 
the neighbouring Berber popu- 
lation ; and in consequence the 
town increased rapidly, it becom- 
ing soon a market place of the first 
rank, so that the most respectable 
merchants from Misr, Fezzan,Gha- 
dames, Tawat, Tafilelet, Darah, 
Fas, Sus, and other places gra- 
dually left Biru or "YValata, and 
* The translation of Mr. Ralfs in the Journal of the Leipsic Oriental Society is here not correct. He translates 
" er bezwang Tumbuktu," while the words of the author are L, •* We do not know what part in 
A.H. 
Neighbouring Kingdoms. 
and a southerly one, probably 
divided by the Dhiuliba ; the 
governor of the former being 
called Farana (Farengh) Su- 
ra, the other Sangharzu-ma.f 
But in national respects Melle 
formed three large provinces, 
Kala, Bennendrigu, and Sabar- 
dugu, each with twelve chiefs 
or governors J, and each re- 
presented at court by an in- 
spector ; the inspector of the 
province of Kala was called 
Wafala-ferengh. Kala com- 
prised evidently the province 
next to Jinni along the north- 
ern side of the river, including 
the towns of Sare and Same ; 
and the town of Kala itself, 
which formed the residence of 
the province, will be spoken 
of in the Appendix to Vol. V. 
Bennendiigu, also, the country 
of the Benni, known from 
other accounts, lay entirely on 
the S. side of the river, and 
Sabardiigu beyond, in the di- 
rection of the central portion 
of Melle. The important dis- 
trict Bitu or Bido seems to 
have been included in Melle 
Proper. 
these affairs the general, Sagminhu, bore, who, according to Ebn Khaldun's account, was stated by some of his 
informants to have achieved this conquest. There may have been partial resistance in Songhay. 
f Ijy! — j yU-J. The final " ma," in Mandingo, corresponds exactly with the final " ma " in 
the Kanuri titles. 
% It is a very remarkable fact, that the titles mentioned by A'hmed Baba are all formed by attaching to the name 
of a town the syllable "koy," which would seem to be of Songhay origin. 
