Note 21 — Chapter X · THE SPREAD OF ISLAM IN CHINA.

In the same century there were founded on the Upper Niger two cities, destined in succeeding centuries to exercise an immense influence on the development of Islam in the Western Sudan,—Jenne,21 founded in A.H. 435 (A.D. 1043–1044),22 and destined to become an important trading centre, and Timbuktu, the great emporium for the caravan trade with the north, founded about the year A.D. 1100. The king of Jenne, Kunburu, became a Muslim towards the end of the sixth century of the Hijrah (i.e. about A.D. 1200) and his example was followed by the inhabitants of the city; when he had made up his mind to embrace Islam, he is said to have collected together all the ʻulamāʼ in his kingdom, to the number of 4200—(however exaggerated this number may be, the story would seem to imply that Islam had already made considerable progress in his dominions)—and publicly in their presence declared himself a Muslim and exhorted them to pray for the prosperity of his city; he then had his palace pulled down and built a great mosque23 in its place.24 Timbuktu, on the other hand, was a Muhammadan city from the beginning; “never did the worship of idols defile it, never did any man prostrate himself on its soil except in prayer to God the Merciful.”25 In later years it became influential as a seat of Muhammadan learning and piety, and students and divines flocked there in large numbers, attracted by the encouragement and patronage they received. Ibn Baṭūṭah, who travelled through this country in the middle of the fourteenth century, praises the Negroes for their zeal in the performance of their devotions and in the study of the Qurʼān: unless one went very early to the mosque on Friday, he tells us, it was impossible to find a place, so crowded was the attendance.26 In his time, the most powerful state of the Western Sudan was that of Melle or Māllī, which had risen to importance about a century before, after the conquest of Ghāna by the Mandingos, one of the finest races of Africa: Leo Africanus27 calls them the most civilised, the most intellectual and most respected of all the Negroes, and modern travellers praise them for their industry, cleverness and trustworthiness.28 These Mandingos have been among the most active missionaries of Islam, which has been spread by them among the neighbouring peoples.29