MOSLEM MISSIONAEIES. 2S9 



quainted with Avicenna, Averroes, and the Greek 

 philosophers. 



The Mahometan religion was spread in Central 

 Africa to a great extent by the travelling Arab mer- 

 chants, who were welcomed everywhere at the negro 

 or semi-negro courts, and who frequently converted 

 the pagan kings by working miracles, that is to say, 

 by means of events which accidentally followed their 

 solemn prayers ; such as the healing of a disease, rain 

 in the midst of drought, or a victory in war. ' But 

 the chief instrument of conversion was the school. It 

 is much to the credit of the negroes that they keenly 

 appreciate the advantages of education : they appear 

 to possess an instinctive veneration and affection for the 

 book. Wherever Mahometans settled, the sons of chiefs 

 were placed under their tuition ; a Mahometan quar- 

 ter was established ; it was governed by its own laws ; 

 its sheik rivalled in power and finally surpassed the 

 native kings. The machinery of the old pagan court 

 might still go on ; the negro chief might receive the 

 magnificent title of sultan ; he might be surrounded 

 by albinoes and dwarfs, and big-headed men and buf- 

 foons ; he might sit in a cage, or behind a curtain in 

 a palace with seven gates, and receive the ceremonial 

 visits of his nobles, who stripped off a garment at 

 each gate, and came into his presence naked, and 

 cowered on the ground, and clapped their hands, and 

 sprinkled their heads with dust, and then turned 

 round and sat with their backs presented in reverence 

 towards him, as if they were unable to bear the sight 

 of his countenance shining like a well-blacked boot. 

 But the Arab or Moorish sheik would be in reality 

 the king, deciding all questions of foreign policy, of 

 peace and war, of laws and taxes, and commercial re- 



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