Travels and discoveries in North and Central Africa : $b Including accounts of Tripoli, the Sahara, the remarkable kingdom of Bornu, and the countries around Lake ChadBarth, Heinrich
History
Travels and discoveries in North and Central Africa : $b Including accounts of Tripoli, the Sahara, the remarkable kingdom of Bornu, and the countries around Lake Chad
Barth, Heinrich
Africa, Central -- Description and travel; Africa, North -- Description and travel
What the revenue of the Sultan may at present amount to it is difficult
to say. His means and income consist chiefly in the presents which
he receives on his accession to authority, in a contribution of one
bullock’s hide or kulábu (being about the value of half a Spanish dollar)
from each family, in a more considerable but rather uncertain tribute
levied upon the Imghád, in the tax of ten mithkáls or four Spanish
dollars which he levies on each camel-load of foreign merchandise which
enters the town of Ágades (articles of food being exempt from charge),
in a small tribute derived from the salt brought from Bilma, and in
the fines levied on lawless people and marauders, and often on whole
tribes. Thus it is very probable that the expedition which ʿAbd el Káder
undertook immediately after his accession, against the tribes who had
plundered us, enriched him considerably. As for the inhabitants of Ágades
themselves, I was assured that they do not pay him any tribute at all,
but are only obliged to accompany him on his expeditions. Of course
in earlier times, when the commerce of the town was far greater than
at present, and when the Imghád (who had to provide him with cattle,
corn, fruit, and vegetables) were strictly obedient, his income far
exceeded that of the present day. When taken altogether it is certainly
considerably under twenty thousand dollars. His title is Amanókal,
or Amanókal Imakóren, in Temáshight, Kókoy bére in the Emgédesi, and
Babá-n-Serkí in the Háusa language.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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