Djenné

Djenné, also spelled Jenne or Dienné, ancient trading city and centre of Muslim scholarship, southern Mali. It is situated on the Bani River and on floodlands between the Bani and Niger rivers, 220 miles (354 km) southwest of Timbuktu. The city, which sits on hillocks (small hills) known as toguère, becomes an island during the area’s seasonal flooding.

There is some uncertainty surrounding the establishment of Djenné. It was likely founded sometime between the 8th and the 13th century. It is near the site of Djenné-Jeno, an ancient city dating as far back as 250 bce—one of the oldest known cities in sub-Saharan Africa—but which had fallen into decline near the time that Djenné was established. Djenné grew into an entrepôt between the traders of the central and western Sudan and those of Guinea’s tropical forests. The town was likely ruled by the Mali empire beginning in the 13th or 14th century until it was captured in 1468 (or 1473) by the Songhai emperor Sonni ʿAlī. The city benefited both from its direct connection by river with Timbuktu and from its situation at the head of the trade routes to the gold mines of Bitou (now in Côte d’Ivoire), to Lobé, and to Bouré; it was also an important entrepôt for salt. With the defeat of the Songhai empire by Moroccan forces in the 16th century, the town fell under Moroccan rule.

By the mid-17th century, Djenné was renowned as a centre of Muslim learning. The city was besieged after 1818 and subsequently subdued by the Fulani ruler of Macina, Shehu Aḥmadu Lobbo, who expelled those inhabitants practicing a form of Muslim worship that he disapproved of and allowed Djenné’s mosque to fall into ruin. Djenné was conquered by the Tukulor emperor ʿUmar Tal about 1861 and was occupied by the French in 1893. Thereafter its commercial functions were taken over by the town of Mopti, situated northeast of Djenné at the confluence of the Niger and Bani rivers. Under the French, Djenné’s large mud-walled Great Mosque was rebuilt in 1906–07. French administrators remained in Djenné until just prior to Mali’s independence in 1960.

Djenné and its environs are host to numerous ruins, remains, and buildings that are culturally and historically significant. As such, Djenné, Djenné-Jeno, and other nearby archaeological sites were collectively designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1988. The most notable structure in the city is the Great Mosque, which is the largest mud construction in the world and recognized as an outstanding example of Sudanese and Sahelian architecture. Also of note are tombs of saints and traditional structures made from round mud bricks known as djénné ferey.

Djenné is now an agricultural trade centre. The weekly Monday Market in front of the Great Mosque attracts people from throughout the region. Pop. (2009) 26,267.