Note 111 — Chapter XI · THE SPREAD OF ISLAM IN AFRICA.

The story of their conversion is obscure: while some of them are said to have been forcibly baptised into the Christian faith, the absence of any political power in the hands of the Muhammadans precludes the possibility of any converts to Islam having been made in a similar fashion. In the eighteenth century, those in the south were said to be mostly Muhammadans, those to the east and west chiefly pagans.111 More recent information points to a further increase in the number of the followers of the Prophet, and in 1867 Munzinger prophesied that in a short time all the Galla tribes would be Muhammadan,112 and as they were said to be “very fanatical,” we may presume that they were by no means half-hearted or lukewarm in their adherence to this religion.113