Trans-Saharan trade
The earliest use of the name "Niger" for the river is by Leo Africanus in his "Della descrittione dell’Africa et delle cose notabili che ivi sono" published in Italian in 1550. The name may come from Berber phrase "ger-n-ger" meaning "river of rivers". As Timbuktu was the southern end of the principal Trans-Saharan trade route to the western Mediterranean, it was the source of most European knowledge of the region.