INTRODUCTION xiii 



other directions by British and French action it remained 

 ahve and active by way of Wadai-Kufara-and-Benghazi, 

 till, in 1912-1913, Italy took Tripoli and CjTenaica from 

 the Turks and resumed the former protectorate of the 

 Roman Empire in this direction. 



Then — as Mrs. Forbes relates — the followers of the 

 Senusi Brotherhood found themselves in lively conflict 

 with a modern-tempered European power, and had — 

 eventually — to come to terms with Italy. --^ 



Mrs. Forbes tells us or reminds us of the main facts 

 and changes in Kufara history: its occupation at an un- ' 

 known and probably distant date^by the Tibu people, who 

 may have dwelt there when the surrounding deserts were 

 much less arid, and when the oases and their lakes were 

 considerably larger. They may have been there while 

 the Pharaohs reigned in Egypt and before the domestica- 

 tion of the camel. Then she alludes to the conquest and ; 

 occupation of Kufara by the Zwiya Arabs, who seem to ' 

 have come from the eastern part of Fazan, especially an 

 oasis named Leshkerre. Before their coming the Tibu 

 inhabitants seem to have called 'Kufara' (which in Arabic 

 means, 'unbehevers', 'heathen') by the name of Tazerr^; 

 and in a valuable Appendix the author relates the subse- 

 quent histor}^ of these oases when they came under the 

 influence of the Senusi dynasty. 



The statements in this Appendix may be in all points 

 accurate, but it might be interesting to the reader to give 

 an alternative version derived from earlier French and 

 British writers. Some of this information was noted 

 when the present writer was Consul General in Tunis, and 

 had commenced studying the results and aims of the teach- 

 ing emanating from the Senusi confraternity, his atten- 

 tion having been drawn to this movement in Muhamma- 

 danism as far back as the 'eighties of the last century, by 

 the influence of the Senusi missionaries on Nigeria. 



