Note 13 — Chapter X · THE SPREAD OF ISLAM IN CHINA.

The sixteenth century witnessed the birth of a movement of active proselytising in the Mag͟hrib, which has been traced to the reaction excited by the successes of the Christian powers in Spain and North Africa. This gave an immense impulse to the institution of the “marabouts,”13 and large numbers of them set out from the monastic settlements in the south of Morocco to carry a peaceful missionary campaign throughout the Mag͟hrib, renewing the faith of the lukewarm adherents of Islam and converting their heathen neighbours.14 To this proselytising movement the Muslim refugees from Spain contributed their part, as has been shown above (p. 127), coming to the aid of the Shurafāʼ or descendants of Idrīs b. ʻAbd Allāh, who had fled to Morocco to escape the wrath of Hārūn al-Rashīd.15