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APPENDIX V. 
EL BAKA^Y'S LETTER OF RECOMMENDATION^. 
TRANSLATED BY DR. NICHOLSON. 
In a preface in rhymed prose, Ah^med el Bakay, having enu- 
merated ten generations of his ancestors, addresses his letter 
to all into whose hands it should fall, of his brethren and 
friends among the Arabs, the Tawarek, the FuUan, and the 
Sudan, in the land of El Islam, and especially in the land of 
A'la Fodiye, the noblest of the sons of 'Abdallah and '0th- 
man the Imam, among whom the Imam 'All ben Mohammed 
Bello is distinguished : next, to those in the land of the faith- 
ful and humane, his brethren of the people of Bornu, and 
especially their excellent Sheikh 'Omar : and lastly, to all 
Moslims in the land. He then enters on his subject of re- 
commendino; to them the Christian traveller in the foUowino; 
terms : 
" Our and your guest, 'Abd el Kerim Barth, the English 
Christian, has visited us from your part, and we honoured 
him suitably, and were not wanting to him in anything, and 
befriended him openly and privately, and defended him from 
nomadic wanderers and settlers, until we restored him to you 
in safety, just as he came from you in respect. Now there is 
no fault to find with our present reception of him, nor with 
your treatment of him in time past ; for the guest of the muni- 
ficent is munificently treated, and injury to the good is for- 
bidden; and it is the nature of the good and pure to be 
helpful, just as malice is the disposition of the wicked ; and 
kind acts and intentions are acceptable both to men and to 
God. But you require to be urgently admonished to treat 
our and your guest with honour, beneficence, and equity. 
