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23-592: The Taghaza mines are first mentioned by name (as Taghara) in around 1275 by the geographer al Qazwini who spent most of his life in Iraq but obtained information from a traveller who had visited the Sudan . He wrote that the town was situated south of the Maghreb near the ocean and that the ramparts, walls and roofs of the buildings were made of salt which was mined by slaves of the Masufa,

46-553: A Berber tribe, and exported to the Sudan by a caravan that came once a year. A similar description had been given earlier by Al-Bakri in 1068 for the salt mines at a place that he called Tantatal, situated twenty days from Sijilmasa . It is possible these were the same mines. In 1352 the Moroccan traveller Ibn Battuta arrived in Taghaza after a 25-day journey from Sijilmasa on his way across

69-625: A new demand by Ahmad al-Mansur in 1589–90 was met with defiance by Askiya Ishak II . This provided the pretext for Ahmad al-Mansur to send an army of 4,000 mercenaries across the Sahara led by the Spaniard Judar Pasha . The defeat of the Songhai in 1591 at the Battle of Tondibi led to the collapse of their empire. After the conquest Taghaza was abandoned and Taoudenni , situated 150 km (93 mi) to

92-655: A seminal work in cosmography. He is also the author of the geographical dictionary Āthār al-bilād wa-akhbār al-ʿibād (lit. 'Monuments of the Lands and Historical Traditions about Their Peoples'). Born in Qazvin , of either Persian or Arab ancestry, al-Qazwini served as a legal expert and judge in several localities in Iran. He traveled around in Mesopotamia and the Levant , and finally entered

115-434: Is 0.8°C higher than Furnace Creek , Death Valley , California , 0.3°C higher than Taoudenni and only 0.1°C cooler than Chenachène. Zakariya al-Qazwini Zakariyya' al-Qazwini ( full name: Abū Yaḥyā Zakariyyāʾ ibn Muḥammad ibn Maḥmūd al-Qazwīnī , Arabic : أبو يحيى زكرياء بن محمد بن محمود القزويني ), also known as Qazvini ( Persian : قزوینی ), (born c.  1203 in Qazvin , Iran, and died 1283),

138-564: The Saadi dynasty to wrestle control of the mines from the Songhai during the 16th century. In around 1540 the Saadian Sultan Ahmad al-Araj asked the Songhai leader Askia Ishaq I to cede the Taghaza mines. The Askia responded by sending men to raid a town in the Draa valley as a warning and demonstration of Songhai power. In 1556-7 Sultan Muhammed al-Shaykh briefly occupied Taghaza and killed

161-607: The Sahara to Oualata to visit the Mali Empire . According to Ibn Battuta, there were no trees, only sand and the salt mines. Nobody lived in the village other than the Musafa slaves who dug for the salt and lived on dates imported from Sijilmasa and the Dar'a valley , camel meat and millet imported from the Sudan . The buildings were constructed from slabs of salt and roofed with camel skins. The salt

184-501: The Sahara desert , Judar razed the desert salt mines of Taghaza and advanced on the Songhai capital of Gao . Meanwhile, Songhai ruler Askia Ishaq II assembled a force of more than 40,000 men and moved north against the Moroccans; the two armies met at Tondibi in March 1591. Despite their far inferior numbers, the Moroccan gunpowder weapons easily carried the day, resulting in a rout of

207-519: The trans-Saharan trade and salt was instead taken south to Timbuktu. Like Ibn Battuta before him, Leo complained about the brackish well water. At some point Taghaza came under the control of the Songhai Empire which had its capital at the city of Gao on the Niger River 970 km (600 mi) across the Sahara. Al-Sadi in his Tarikh al-Sudan chronicles the efforts of the Moroccan rulers of

230-594: The Askia's representative. However the Tuareg shifted the production to another mine called Taghaza al-ghizlan (Taghaza of the gazelles). On his succession in 1578 Ahmad al-Mansur asked for the tax revenues from Taghaza but Askiya Dawud responded instead with a generous gift of 47 kg of gold. In 1586 a small Saadian force of 200 musketeers again occupied Taghaza and the Tuareg moved to yet another site – probably Taoudeni . Finally,

253-661: The Songhai troops. Ishaq offered slaves and gold if Judar would retreat; Judar refused the offer. Judar sacked Gao and then moved on to the trading centers of Djenné and Timbuktu . He reached Timbuktu in April 1591, carrying a letter from the Sultan al-Mansur demanding their cooperation. According to Martin Meredith : "To quell resistance in Timbuktu, the Moroccans sent leading scholars to Marrakesh in chains. The wealth of Timbuktu, Gao, and Jenne

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276-449: The ancient salt lake (or sabkha ). They are separated by a distance of 3 km. The larger more westerly settlement extended over an area of approximately 400 m by 200 m. All the houses, except the mosque, were aligned in a northwest to southeast direction, perpendicular to the prevailing wind. The houses in the more easterly settlement were aligned in the same manner and occupied an area of 200 m by 180 m. The reason for

299-579: The circle patronized by the Ilkhanid governor of Baghdad , Ata-Malik Juvayni (d. 1283 CE). It was to the latter that al-Qazwini dedicated his famous cosmography titled ʿAjāʾib al-makhlūqāt wa-gharāʾib al-mawjūdāt ( lit.   ' Wonders of the Creation and Unique [phenomena] of the Existence ' ). This treatise, frequently illustrated, was immensely popular and is preserved today in many copies. It

322-467: The dual settlements is not known but could be connected with Taghaza's service both as a salt mine and as a stopping point on an important trans-Saharan trade route. Taghaza has a hyper-arid hot desert climate ( Köppen BWh ). It is one of the driest places on earth and one of the hottest during summer, only being behind Chenachène . The average high temperature in July is 48.2 °C (118.8 °F), which

345-549: The southeast and thus nearer to Timbuktu, took its place as the region's key salt producer. In 1828 the French explorer René Caillié stopped at Taghaza on his journey across the Sahara from Timbuktu. He was travelling with a large caravan that included 1,400 camels transporting slaves, gold, ivory, gum and ostrich feathers. At that date the ruins of houses constructed of salt bricks were still clearly visible. At Taghaza there are ruins of two different settlements, one on either side of

368-504: The water brackish and the village full of flies. He goes on to say, "For all its squalor, qintars of qintars of gold dust are traded in Taghaza." The salt mines became known in Europe not long after Ibn Battuta's visit as Taghaza was shown on the Catalan Atlas of 1375 on the trans-Saharan trade route linking Sijilmasa and Timbuktu . Alvise Cadamosto learned in 1455 that Taghaza salt

391-561: Was a cosmographer and geographer . He belonged to a family of jurists originally descended from Anas bin Malik (a companion of the Islamic prophet Muhammad) which had been well established in Qazvin long before al-Qazwini was born. His most famous work is the ʿAjāʾib al-makhlūqāt wa-gharāʾib al-mawjūdāt ( lit.   ' Wonders of the Creation and Unique [phenomena] of the Existence ' ),

414-601: Was a Spanish-Moroccan military leader under the Saadian sultan Ahmad al-Mansur in the late 16th century. He led the Saadian army in the conquest of the Songhai Empire . Born as Diego de Guevara in Cuevas del Almanzora , Castile , Judar had been captured by Muslim slave-raiders as a young boy. His captors castrated him. As a young boy, he joined the service of Moroccan Sultan Ahmad al-Mansur, who had many other eunuch officers. Judar

437-410: Was also stripped. Huge quantities of gold dust were shipped across the desert. When Judar Pasha returned to Morocco in 1599, his caravan included thirty camel-loads of gold valued by an English merchant at £600,000." Judar was demoted to governor because he advocated for making Timbuktu the new capital, rather than Gao, as Sultan al-Mansur wished. Despite Judar's gains, sporadic battles continued with

460-501: Was dug from the ground and cut into thick slabs, two of which were loaded onto each camel. The salt was taken south across the desert to Oualata and sold. The value of the salt was chiefly determined by the transport costs. Ibn Battuta mentions that the value increased fourfold when transported between Oualata and the Malian capital. In spite of the meanness of the village, it was awash in Malian gold. Ibn Battuta did not enjoy his visit; he found

483-669: Was often described by reference to his blue eyes. In 1590, Ahmad al-Mansur made Judar a pasha and appointed him the head of an invasion force against the Songhai Empire of what is now Mali . In October of that year, Judar set out from Marrakesh with a force of 1,500 light cavalry and 2,500 arquebusiers and light infantry. Some of these men were Spaniards from Andalusia and some were "Renegats" (probably Christians from Southern Europe). He also carried eight English cannons in his supply train, and assembled eighty Christian bodyguards for his personal detail. After an arduous crossing of

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506-405: Was taken to Timbuktu and then on to Mali . It was then carried "a great distance" to be bartered for gold. In around 1510 Leo Africanus spent 3 days in Taghaza. In his Descrittione dell’Africa he mentions that the location of the mines, 20 days journey from a source of food, meant that there was a risk of starvation. At the time of Leo's visit, Oualata was no longer an important terminus for

529-421: Was translated into his native Persian language , and later also into Turkish . Al-Qazwini was also well known for his geographical dictionary Āthār al-bilād wa-akhbār al-ʿibād (lit. 'Monuments of the Lands and Historical Traditions about Their Peoples'). Both of these treatises reflect extensive reading and learning in a wide range of disciplines. Judar Pasha Judar Pasha ( Arabic : جؤذر باشا )

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