Abd Salam Shabeeny, a Moroccan trader, described his journey from Fez to Timbuktu and the Hausa country, made around 1787, to a British questioner; James Grey Jackson, sixteen years a diplomat and merchant in Barbary, published it in 1820 with long critical notes. Jackson adds letters on travel across the Atlas, anecdotes and specimens of Arabic letter-writing, and argues for a great British African trading company.
A rare insider’s report on the Saharan caravan world before European explorers reached it, framed by the commercial ambitions of its age. Download the free EPUB.