Note 37 — Chapter XI · THE SPREAD OF ISLAM IN AFRICA.

In the fourteenth century the Tunjar Arabs, emigrating south from Tunis, made their way through Bornu and Wadai to Darfur; others came in later from the east;37 one of their number named Aḥmad met with a kind reception from the heathen king of Darfur, who took a fancy to him, made him director of his household and consulted him on all occasions. His experience of more civilised methods of government enabled him to introduce a number of reforms both into the economy of the king’s household and the government of the state. By judicious management, he is said to have brought the unruly chieftains into subjection, and by portioning out the land among the poorer inhabitants to have put an end to the constant internal raids, thereby introducing a feeling of security and contentment before unknown. The king having no male heir gave Aḥmad his daughter in marriage and appointed him his successor,—a choice that was ratified by the acclamation of the people, and the Muhammadan dynasty thus instituted has continued down to the present century. The civilising influences exercised by this chief and his descendants were doubtless accompanied by some work of proselytism, but these Arab immigrants seem to have done very little for the spread of their religion among their heathen neighbours. Darfur only definitely became Muhammadan through the efforts of one of its kings named Sulaymān who began to reign in 1596,38 and it was not until the sixteenth century that Islam gained a footing in the other kingdoms lying between Kordofan and Lake Chad, such as Wadai and Baghirmi. The first Muhammadan king of Baghirmi was Sultan ʻAbd Allāh, who reigned from 1568 to 1608, but the chief centre of Muhammadan influence at this time was the kingdom of Wadai, which was founded by ʻAbd al-Karīm about A.D. 1612, and it was not until the latter part of the eighteenth century that the mass of the people of Baghirmi were converted to Islam.39