The capital of this kingdom of Asben, at least since the 16th century, was Tin-shamán, at present a village a little to the west of the road from Aúderas to Ágades, and about twenty miles from the latter place. The name is evidently a Berber one[113]; and the Berber influence is still more evident from the fact that a portion, at least, of the population of the town were Masúfa, a well-known Berber tribe who in former times were the chief guides on the road from Sejilmésa to Waláta.[114] Be this as it may, several learned men, inhabitants of this place, are mentioned by the native historians of Negroland, which shows that there existed in it some degree of comparative civilization. In the middle of the 14th century not only Tekádda but even Káhír was in the hands of the Berbers, as we see from Batúta’s narrative; and this eminent traveller mentions a curious custom with regard to the Berber prince, whom he styles El Gérgeri, or Tegérgeri[115], which even at the present moment is in full operation in this country, viz., that the succession went not to his own sons, but to his sister’s sons.[116] This remarkable fact is a certain proof that it was not a pure Berber state, but rather a Berber dominion ingrafted upon a Negro population, exactly as was the case in his time in Waláta. Leo, who first calls the country by its present Berber name Aïr, states also expressly that it was then occupied by Tawárek, “Targa populo;”[117] and we learn also from him that the ruler of Ágades (a town first mentioned by him) was likewise a Berber[118]: so that it might seem as if the state of the country at that time was pretty nearly the same as it is now; but such was not the case. The name of the Kél-owí is not mentioned either by Leo or any other writer before the time of Horneman, who, before he set out from Fezzán on his journey to Bórnu, obtained some very perspicuous information[119] about these people, as well as about their country Ásben. At that time, before the rise of the Fúlbe under their reformer (el Jihádi) Othmán the son of Fódiye, it was a powerful kingdom, to which Góber was tributary. From Horneman’s expression it would seem that the Kél-owí had conquered the country only at a comparatively recent date[120]; and this agrees perfectly with the results of my inquiries, from which I conclude that it took place about A.D. 1740. However, we have seen that four centuries before that time the country was in the hands of the Berbers.