Note 144 — Chapter XI · THE SPREAD OF ISLAM IN AFRICA.

But much as Islam may have owed to the martial prowess of such fanatics as these, there is the overwhelming testimony of travellers and others to the peaceful missionary preaching, and quiet and persistent labours of the Muslim propagandist, which have done more for the rapid spread of Islam in modern Africa than any violent measures: by the latter its opponents may indeed have been exterminated, but by the former chiefly, have its converts been made, and the work of conversion may still be observed in progress in many regions of the coast and the interior.144 Wherever Islam has made its way, there is the Muhammadan missionary to be found bearing witness to its doctrines,—the trader, be he Arab, Pul or Mandingo, who combines proselytism with the sale of his merchandise, and whose very profession brings him into close and immediate contact with those he would convert, and disarms any possible suspicion of sinister motives; such a man when he enters a pagan village soon attracts attention by his frequent ablutions and regularly recurring times of prayer and prostration, in which he appears to be conversing with some invisible being, and by his very assumption of intellectual and moral superiority, commands the respect and confidence of the heathen people, to whom at the same time he shows himself ready and willing to communicate his high privileges and knowledge;—the ḥājī or pilgrim who has returned from Mecca full of enthusiasm for the spread of the faith, to which he devotes his whole energies, wandering about from place to place, supported by the alms of the faithful who bear witness to the truth in the midst of their pagan neighbours;—the student who, in consequence of his knowledge of Islamic theology and law, receives honour as a man of learning: sometimes, too, he practises medicine, or at least he is in great requisition as a writer of charms, texts from the Qurʼān, which are sewn up in pieces of leather or cloth and tied on the arms, or round the neck, and which he can turn to account as a means of adding to the number of his converts: for instance, when childless women or those who have lost their children in infancy, apply for these charms, as a condition of success the obligation is always imposed upon them of bringing up their future children as Muhammadans.145 These religious teachers, or marabouts, or alūfas as they are variously termed, are held in the highest estimation. In some tribes of Western Africa every village contains a lodge for their reception, and they are treated with the utmost deference and respect: in Darfur they hold the highest rank after those who fill the offices of government: among the Mandingos they rank still higher, and receive honour next to the king, the subordinate chiefs being regarded as their inferiors in point of dignity: in those states in which the Qurʼān is made the rule of government in all civil matters, their services are in great demand, in order to interpret its meaning. So sacred are the persons of these teachers esteemed, that they pass without molestation through the countries of chiefs, not only hostile to each other, but engaged in actual warfare. Such deference is not only paid to them in Muhammadan countries, but also in the pagan villages in which they establish their schools, where the people respect them as the instructors of their children, and look upon them as the medium between themselves and Heaven, either for securing a supply of their necessities, or for warding off or removing calamities.146 Many of these teachers have studied in the mosques of Qayrwān, Fas, Tripoli147 and other centres of Muslim learning; but especially in the mosque of al-Azhar in Cairo. Students flock to it from all parts of the Muslim world, and among them is often to be found a contingent from Negro Africa,—students from Darfur, Wadai and Bornu, and some who even make their way on foot from the far distant West Coast; when they have finished their courses of study in Muslim theology and jurisprudence, there are many of them who become missionaries among the heathen population of their native land. Schools are established by these missionaries in the towns they visit, which are frequented by the pagan as well as the Muslim children. They are taught to read the Qurʼān, and instructed in the doctrines and ceremonies of Islam. Having thus gained a footing, the Muhammadan missionary, by his superior knowledge and attainments, is not slow to obtain great influence over the people among whom he has come to live. In this he is aided by the fact that his habits and manner of life are similar in many respects to their own, nor is he looked upon with suspicion, inasmuch as the trader has already prepared the way for him; and by intermarriage with the natives, being thus received into their social system, his influence becomes firmly rooted and permanent, and so in the most natural manner he gradually causes the knowledge of Islam to spread among them.