United States or Seychelles ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
The fleet now separated, a part returning home by way of the Canaries, while Lançarot, with several other caravels, advanced along the coast of Africa southwards, till he got beyond what the Moors called the Çahara, or Sahara, of the Assenaji. This Moorish nation is mentioned by Abulfeda as the ruling tribe in Audagost, or Agadez, and as inhabiting the southern part of Morocco.
They are therefore to be considered as the peculiar people of the great desert and its environs, at its western extremity on the Atlantic. The latter part of their name, aji, or rather aspirated haji, signifies a pilgrim, and is now the appropriate title of one who has made the great pilgrimage of Mecca. In the present case, the name of Assenaji probably signifies the Wanderers of the Desert.
The Sanhaga, or Assenaji tribe, is now placed at no great distance from the African coast, between the rivers Nun and Senegal; and this latter river has probably received its Portuguese name of Sanaga from that tribe.
Word Of The Day