Note 60 — CHAP. XXIX.

Makrízi has two other interesting statements with regard to the kings of Kánem, which, although they certainly cannot lay claim to absolute accuracy, nevertheless have evidently reference to certain facts which the diligent historian, placed at such a distance from the object of his inquiry, has not rightly understood. The first of these passages (Hamaker, p. 206.) states that Mohammed the son of Jíl (so—جيل—the name is to be read, instead of the absurd Jebl or Jabal), that is, most probably, Jíl Shikomémi, the founder of the dynasty of the Bulála, was the first of them who accepted the Mohammedan creed; this statement evidently regards the dynasty of the Bulála, who, at the time when Makrízi wrote, had driven the Bórnu dynasty out of Kánem, and it does not at all affect the statement of the chronicle, which calls Humé the first Moslim king of Bórnu. The second passage of the celebrated historian of Egypt (Quatremère, Mémoires sur l’Egypte, t. ii. p. 28.; Burckhardt, Travels in Nubia, 2nd ed. app. iii. p. 456. f.) is very remarkable; and although we are not yet able to understand perfectly its real purport, nevertheless it seems to refer to some circumstance of great interest: for, according to this statement, the Islám was introduced into Kánem by Hády el ʿOthmáni, a pretended descendant of the khalíf ʿOthmán, even before the period of the Séfuwa, or the Yazaníyín (descendants of Dhu Yazan). Here the excellent inquirer has most probably confounded the successors of Humé with the Dúguwa, forgetting that even the dynasty of the pagan Dúguwa belonged to the Séfuwa. In other respects this statement is in perfect harmony with the common tradition of the Bórnu people—that the Islám was brought to the Séfuwa, when they were still settled in Búrgu, by a special messenger of the Prophet.