74 
TRAVELS IN AFEICA.. 
Chap. XXLV. 
in the time of the famous Tawati Mohammed ben 'Abd 
el Kerim ben Maghili, the friend and contemporary, 
as I have said above*, of the great encyclopaedist 
Abu '1 Fadhl Jelal e' din 'Abd e' Rahman el Khodairi 
e' Soyuti, commonly known under the name of 
E' Sheikh e' Soyuti; and his connection with the king 
of Katsena we are able to fix with tolerable cer- 
tainty by his relation to the S6nghay king Is-hak, 
who is said to have excited his severest indignation 
by refusing to punish the people who had murdered 
his son in Gogo.f And although we can scarcely be- 
* Vol. I. p. 386. 
•f In Timbuktu I was enabled to peruse a long letter from 
Maghili to Is-hak about points of religion. This is the only- 
work of Maghili, which I was able to discover in Negroland. 
There were two Songhay kings of the name of Is-hak — the first, 
who ruled from a. h. 946 — 956, and the second, who was the last 
king of the dynasty, when Gogho or Gogo was conquered by the 
Basha Jodar the 17th Jumad e' thani, 999 ; but there is no doubt 
that the first is meant. What I have said about the grandson of 
Maghili's dispute with Is-hak is the common tradition in Negroland, 
and, I think, deserves more confidence than what M. Cherbon- 
neau has made out in Constantine. See Journal Asiatique, 1855. 
He says, " Apres cet horrible massacre, El Mrili quitta Touat 
pour s'enfoncer dans le cceur du Soudan. II parcourut successive- 
ment Tekra (? Tirka), Kachene et Kanou. Dans les deux pre- 
mieres villes il enseigna publiquement la science du Koran ; dans 
l'autre il fit un cours de jurisprudence. De la il passa a Karou (ou 
Tchiarou, suivant la prononciation locale), et fut invite par el Hadj 
Mohammed, qui en etait le gouverneur, a rediger une note sur 
differentes questions de droit. II etait depuis peu dans cette ville, 
lorsqu'on vint lui apprendre que son fils avait ete assassine par 
lesjuifs de Touat, II repartit et mourut presque au moment de 
son arrivee." 
