Jenne and the inland delta

Who rules

Name

Konboro, or a predecessor of his: not pinned. The Ta'rikh al-Sudan says Konboro was the first ruler to accept Islam and that the townsmen converted 'towards the end of the sixth century of the Hijra', that is between about 1180 and 1204. Whether he had converted, or even reigned, on 1 January 1200 cannot be settled.

Title

Sultan of Jenne in the Ta'rikh al-Sudan (the later title is Jenne-koi, 'lord of Jenne', in Songhay)

Since

Not pinned

Born

Not known

Family

Not known. The chronicle names his successor (who put the towers on the mosque) and that successor's successor (who built the wall), without names in the passage read.

Confidence

low

Al-Sa'di, Ta'rikh al-Sudan, trans. Houdas, pp. 23-25; Wikipedia, Djenne and Djenne-Djenno.

Overlord

None. Later chroniclers disagree whether Mali ever ruled Jenne (al-Sa'di: 99 attacks, never taken; the Ta'rikh al-Fattash: a humble vassal); for 1200 there is no overlord.

What the realm holds

• Djenne, the royal town, and old Jenne (Djenne-jeno), still partly lived in
• The floodplain between the Bani and the Niger round Djenne (the Pondori), with its rice villages
• Dia and its mounds, the clerics' town (relationship to the king of Jenne not pinned)
• The waterways south to the Bani towns and north to Lake Debo

How it was acquired

An ancient town; its kingship is undated before Konboro.

Allies and rivals

Neighbours: Mema to the north-west, the Bozo and Nono villages of the delta, the Tellem and the cliff peoples to the east (Bandiagara), Gao downstream. No war recorded for 1200.

The realm that morning

An independent town-kingdom under Konboro or his predecessor; Islam is the faith of its merchants and of the clerics of Dia, and its ruler converts in these years.

Threats

• Raids from Mema or the Sosso (none recorded for 1200)
• Floods or failed floods
• Rival clerical and pagan factions at the time of conversion

Ruler and household

Konboro (or predecessor); his palace stood where the great mosque was built.

Officers

Not known for 1200. Under the Songhay the town had a Jenne-koi and a Jenne-mondio (tax and customs officer).

Army

Not known; the waterways and the floods are Jenne's defence (al-Sa'di's tale of 99 Malian attacks).

Trade

Rice, fish (Bozo), grain, cattle from the delta pastures; salt from the north by the river and the lakes; gold from the south (the Ta'rikh al-Sudan, of a later age: 'those who deal in salt from Taghaza meet there those who deal in gold from Bitu'). In 1200 the Akan gold route (Begho) is young; the Bure gold comes down the Niger.

Relations

Muslim merchants and clerics (Dia; the Nono/Marka); the ruler's conversion at the end of the sixth century AH.

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

In 1200

1. Between about 1180 and 1204 ('towards the end of the sixth century of the Hijra'); not pinned against 1 January 1200Konboro embraces Islam, gathers the scholars, pulls down his palace and makes its site the mosque.Depends on: Konboro reigning and choosing conversion; if he has already converted, this is past. Stopped by: A pagan reaction, or a change of ruler.

Later, on the likely course

1. October to January (every year)The Niger flood stands in the delta and then falls; rice is harvested and the Bozo begin the great fishing of the falling waters.Depends on: A normal flood. Stopped by: Drought.

Where the sources disagree

• The conversion of Jenne is often dated 'about 1180' or to the thirteenth century; the chronicle gives only 'towards the end of the sixth century of the Hijra' (1107-1204), so any year between about 1180 and 1204 fits it.
• Wikipedia (Djenne, after Holder 2012) gives a local tradition of 25 chiefs before Islam and a mythical first Muslim ruler Siigha; this conflicts with the Ta'rikh al-Sudan's Konboro.

Evidence: Excellent archaeology for old Jenne (McIntosh); a seventeenth-century chronicle for the conversion; nothing written of 1200.

On the map: The extent of Jenne's rule over the delta villages in 1200 is unknown; the polygon is the town's natural hinterland.

Primary sources for this realm

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• History of the Sudan, Abd al-Rahman al-Sadi (about 1655, at Timbuktu). The Timbuktu tradition on the middle Niger four and a half centuries later, and the only narrative there is: the Za (Zuwa) kings of Gao and Kukiya, whose fifteenth king Za Kusoy is said to have accepted Islam in 1010 and whose successors ruled at Gao through the twelfth century; the foundation of Jenne and the conversion of its king Kunburu with his people towards the end of the sixth century of the Hijra, that is about 1200, with Jenne's early trade; and the position of Mali and Ghana as al-Sadi understood it. Read online
• The Chronicle of the Researcher, Ibn al-Mukhtar (attributed to Mahmud Kati); rewritten by Nuh ibn al-Tahir (about 1665, rewritten about 1830 to 1845). Later than the Tarikh al-Sudan and far less reliable: a seventeenth-century Timbuktu chronicle rewritten in the nineteenth century to serve the Masina caliphate, with insertions. Read online
• Corpus of Early Arabic Sources for West African History, Various (edited by N. Levtzion and J. F. P. Hopkins) (ninth to sixteenth centuries; the collection published 1981). The standard English collection of every Arabic passage on the western and central Sudan.