TIMBUKTU, tim-buletir,i, or TIMBUCTOO. A town of Africa, in the first of the three Mili tary Territories of French Sudan (q.v.), situated 9 miles north of the Niger. in about latitude 10° north. and longtitude 5° west (Map: Africa, D 3). The climate is unhealthful. The town, near the southern borders of the Sahara desert, lies between a rolling table land on the north and the swamps of the Niger. it has flat, window less, clay houses; its streets are of sand and gravel. It was largely in ruins when taken by the French. They have, however, energetically begun introducing improvements, and new streets and European churches and schools have been constructed. Timbuktu is fortified. There is also a fortress at Kabara on the Niger. There are two important and handsome mosques. Timbuktu is notable for its commerce, and is the focus of the caravan trade in West-Central Africa. The annual value of the transit trade alone is put at $4,000.000. Gums and rubber are perhaps the leading articles. Gold, ivory, wax, salt, hard ware, beads, and cheap cloth are also prominent items. The trade is chiefly by barter. The few
local manufactures include cottons, leather ar ticles, and pottery. French goods and money are replacing those of other countries. Tim buktu is a centre of Mohammedan learning and has a large Moslem library. The population. which has greatly diminished in recent times, is about 10.000. The town was founded in 1077 by the Tuareg tribe. It passed through dif ferent hands, began to be a place of commercial importance in the sixteenth century, and was seized by an army from Morocco in 1591. The Fulahs drove out the Moors early in the nine teenth century. Timbuktu was first visited by a European in 1826—Major Laing, an Englishman. From 1844 to 1846 it was again in the hands of the Tuaregs. In 1863 Ahmed el-Bathai drove out the Fulahs for the last time. The town passed into the possession of the French in 1894. Con sult: Lenz, Timbuktu (Leipzig, 1S92,) ; Dubois, Timbuetoo the Mysterious (London, 1S06) ; Tout&, Du Dahome au Sahara (Paris, 1899).