374 
TRAVELS IN AFRICA. Chap. XLIX. 
had written a work on Hausa, had sent him to 
Egypt, where he had studied many years in the 
mosque of El A'zhar. It had then been his inten- 
tion to go to the town of Zebid in Yemen, which is 
famous amongst the Arabs on account of the science 
of logarithms, or el hesab ; but when he had reached 
Gunfdda, the war which was raging between the 
Turks and the Wahabiye had thwarted his projects, 
and he had returned to Dar Fur, where he had settled 
down some time, and had accompanied a memorable 
expedition to the south-west as far as the borders of a 
large river, of which I shall have another occasion to 
speak. Having then returned to Waday, he had 
played a considerable part as courtier in that country, 
especially during the reign of e Abd el 'Aziz, till the 
present king, Mohammed e' Sherif, on account of his 
intimate relation with the prince just mentioned, had 
driven him from his court and banished him from the 
country. 
After having once made the acquaintance of this 
man, I used to visit him daily ; and he was always 
delighted to see, or rather to hear me, for he had no- 
body with whom he could talk about the splendour 
and achievements of the Khalifat, from Baghdad to 
A'ndalos (Spain) — particularly of the latter country, 
with the history of whose towns, kings, and literary 
men he was intimately acquainted. He listened with 
delight when I once mentioned the astrolabe or sex- 
tant ; and he informed me with pride that his father 
had been in possession of such an instrument, but 
