86 A TROPICAL DEPENDENCY the weakness of the declining power of the Ommeyades had permitted to erect themselves into independence, was gay, cultivated, splendid, and refined. El Bekri knew them all. After his father's death in 1066 he went to that of Almeria, then one of the first cities in importance of Southern Spain. It is claimed by some Arab writers that the commercial greatness of the Italian republics had its foundation in trade with Almeria, and through Almeria with the East. In Almeria El Bekri was the favoured guest of El Mutassim, the reigning prince. From Almeria he afterwards went to take up his residence at Seville, the home of art and science, where also he was honoured of the great. He loved the good things of life ; he enjoyed the society of the learned, and, eminent among all that was most eminent of his day, he was remarkable for his own great attainments and intellectual industry. He died in 1094. It is not recorded of him that he ever left Spain. It is true that his geographical works can therefore only be regarded as compilations, but this renders them for our purpose in one sense the more important, as serving to show how much was known at that time of West Africa in the cultivated circles of the courts of Spain.

It is evident from El Bekri's account that the trade of the Soudan with Spain and the countries of the Mediterranean coast had for a long time been important enough to attract attention and interest. He notes the two principal caravan roads into the western and eastern end of the Soudan, but describes the western road by Morocco and Tafilet as being that in most frequent use. Kanem, lying at the eastern end of the Western Soudan, is to him a "country of idolaters very difficult to reach," .while the country to the south of Morocco is evidently as well known as the provinces of Spain.

Tafilet — known to the Arabs and always spoken of under the name of SIdjilmessa, the last town at which the road to the Soudan left the fertile territories of Morocco — was, according to El Bekri, founded in the