Djenné (Bambara: ߖߍ߬ߣߍ߫, romanized: Jɛ̀nɛ́; also known as Djénné, Jenné, and Jenne) is a Songhai town and urban commune in the Inland Niger Delta region of central Mali.

[5] In Djenné the annual flood produced by Bani and Niger rivers begins in July and reaches a maximum in October.

The drought that began in the early 1970s resulted in a big reduction in the volume of water flowing in the Niger and Bani rivers.

When the French explorer René Caillié made the journey to Mopti in a small boat in March 1828, he was "obliged several times to unload the vessel in order to pass over sandbanks.

In May 2009 the African Development Bank approved funding for an irrigation dam/weir to be built on the Bani near Soala, a village within the commune situated 12 km (7.5 mi) south of Djenné.

The name of the town itself was Djoboro, and it was founded by Soninke immigrants from the Wagadou region during an increasingly dry period that made the Inner Niger Delta more habitable.

[18] Oral traditions recount a legendary founder named Maafir, who was from Yemen and descended from the Biblical and Quranic figure Esau.

[20] 25 chiefs ruled the city before the coming of Islam in the late 600s, although Siigha, the first Muslim ruler, is also presumably mythical, considering his supposed connections to companions of the prophet Muhammad.

[21] Oral traditions, failing to distinguish between Djenne and Djoboro, claim that it was founded in 635 around the home of a powerful djinn, Shamharoush, who had been blessed by the prophet Muhammad.

[26] Djenné was probably a tribute-paying sometimes-vassal, with recurring episodes of conflict and commercial coercion pitting the city-state's military and economic prowess against the powerful Malian state, which controlled most of the trade routes in the area.

"[28][29] In the fifteenth century the Portuguese established trading-posts along the Atlantic coast of West Africa in an attempt to tap into the overland trade in gold bullion.

The sultan died during the siege, and his young son made peace with the Songhai and his mother married Sonni Ali, establishing the city's high political position within the empire.

[34] Under the Songhai, Djenne functioned as one of the key hubs in a thriving trade economy centered on the middle Niger river valley, with a population of approximately 40,000 people.

[35] Duarte Pacheco Pereira, a sea-captain and explorer, mentions Djenné in his Esmeraldo de situ orbis which he wrote between 1506 and 1508: "...the city of Jany, inhabited by Negroes and surrounded by a stone wall, where there is great wealth of gold; tin and copper are greatly prized there, likewise red and blue cloths and salt ..." [36][37][38] The Portuguese historian João de Barros, writing in the 1520s, mentions Djenné and the export of gold from the island of Arguin off the coast of present-day Mauritania: "Genná ... which in former times was more famous than Timbuktu ... As it is further to the west than Timbuktu, it is usually frequented by peoples of its neighbourhood, such as the Çaragoles [Sarakolle i.e. Sonike], Fullos [Fulani], Jalofos [Wolof], Azanegues Ṣanhāja, Brabixijs Barābīsh, Tigurarijs [people of Gurāra], and Luddayas [Ūdāya], from whom, through the Castle of Arguim and all that coast, gold came into our hands.

[40] However, by the early sixteenth century, the Portuguese had established trading posts along the African coast and were shipping large quantities of gold from Elmina in present-day Ghana.

[42] Under Songhai administration, the city was led by the Jenne-koi or king, but also had a Jenne-mondio who answered to the Askias and was in charge of collecting taxes and customs duties.

At several places in his book Leo Africanus describes the Niger River as flowing westwards from Timbuktu to Djenné.

[45] He describes Djenné (which he refers to as Gheneo, Genni and Ghinea)[c] as a village with houses constructed of clay with straw roofs.

[50] The Moroccan sultan, Ahmad al-Mansur, wanted to control the export of gold and in 1590 sent an army of 4,000 mercenaries across the Sahara led by the converted Spaniard Judar Pasha.

[53] The collapse of a centralised kingdom able to maintain order over a wide area led to a lack of security and a decline in the movement of traders and scholars.

The town formed part of the Segou kingdom from 1670 to 1818 and the Massina Empire established by the Fulani ruler Seku Amadu between 1818 and 1861.

He published a detailed description in his book Travels through Central Africa to Timbuctoo: The town of Jenné is about two miles and half in circumference; it is surrounded by a very ill constructed earth wall, about ten feet high, and fourteen inches thick.

The sand of the isle of Jenné is mixed with a little clay, and it is employed to make bricks of a round form which are sufficiently solid.

The traditional flat-roofed two-storey houses are built around a small central courtyard and have imposing façades with pilaster like buttresses and an elaborate arrangement of pinnacles forming the parapet above the entrance door.

[59] The façades are decorated with bundles of rônier palm (Borassus aethiopum) sticks, called toron, that project about 60 cm from the wall.

[66] In the early 1980s foreign aid organizations funded a system to supply drinking water to both public taps and private homes.

Between 2004 and 2008 the German government funded a project to construct gravel filled trenches outside each home to allow the wastewater to infiltrate the soil.

[71] Although historically Djenné had been an important commercial and trading centre, in the 20th century commerce in the town declined due to its relatively isolated position.

The local economy is now mainly based on agriculture, fishing and livestock[72] and is very dependent on the annual rainfall and flooding of the Niger and Bani rivers.

The weekly Monday market, when buyers and sellers converge on the town from the surrounding regions, is a key tourist attraction.