An Account of Timbuctoo and Housa Territories in the Interior of Africa

by active 1820 Abd Salam Shabeeny

FAS TO TIMBUCTOO,

PERFORMED IN OR ABOUT THE YEAR 1787, A.C.

BY

EL HAGE ABD SALAM SHABEENY.

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The Moors always prefer the spring and summer for travelling, because they suffer very much from the severe cold of the mornings in winter. They generally leave Fas in the beginning of April to proceed to Timbuctoo, and they leave Timbuctoo to return to Fas in the month of January.

The Mecca caravan takes its departure from Fas the beginning of March.

In travelling, the Moors hire their camels from stage to stage. Shabeeny's first stage was from Fas [¹] to Tafilelt, which is generally performed in about twenty days.

Footnote 1:[ (return) ] This is a journey of crooked and rugged roads across the Atlas mountains, where they often sojourn in spots which invite the traveller, so that it takes a longer time to perform it than the distance would indicate.