The Galla freedman whom Doughty met at Khaybar certainly exhibited a remarkable degree of zeal for his own faith. He had been carried off from his home when a child and sold as a slave in Jiddah; when Doughty asked him whether no anger was left in his heart against those who had stolen him and sold his life to servitude in the ends of the earth, “Yet one thing,” he answered, “has recompensed me,—that I remained not in ignorance with the heathen!—Oh, the wonderful providence of Ullah! whereby [[348]]I am come to this country of the Apostle, and to the knowledge of the religion!”[114] “Oh! what sweetness is there in believing! Trust me, dear comrade, it is a thing above that which any heart may speak; and would God thou wert come to this (heavenly) knowledge; but the Lord will surely have a care of thee, that thou shouldst not perish without the religion. Ay, how good a thing it were to see thee a Moslem, and become one with us; but I know that the time is in God’s hand: the Lord’s will be done.”[115]
Among the Galla tribes of the true Galla country, the population is partly Muhammadan (some tribes having been converted about 1500)[116] and partly heathen, with the exception of those tribes immediately bordering on Abyssinia who in the latter part of the nineteenth century were forced by the king of that country to accept Christianity.[117] Among the mountains, the Muhammadans are in a minority, but on the plains the missionaries of Islam have met with striking success, and their teaching found a rapidly increasing acceptance during the last century. Antonio Cecchi, who visited the petty kingdom of Limmu in 1878, gives an account of the conversion of Abba Baghibò,[118] the father of the then reigning chieftain, by Muhammadans who for some years had been pushing their proselytising efforts in this country in the guise of traders. His example was followed by the chiefs of the neighbouring Galla kingdoms and by the officers of their courts; part of the common people also were won over to the new faith, and it continued to make progress among them, but the greater part cling firmly to their ancient cult.[119] These traders received a ready welcome at the courts of the Galla chiefs, inasmuch as they found them a market for the commercial products of the country and imported objects of foreign manufacture in exchange. As they made their journeys to the coast once a year only, or [[349]]even once in two years, and lived all the rest of the time in the Galla country, they had plenty of opportunities, which they knew well how to avail themselves of, for the work of propagating Islam, and wherever they set their foot they were sure in a short space of time to gain a large number of proselytes.[120] Islam here came in conflict with Christian missionaries from Europe, whose efforts, though winning for Christianity a few converts, have been crowned with very little success,[121]—even the converts of Cardinal Massaja (after he was expelled from these parts) either embraced Islam or ended by believing neither in Christ nor in Allāh,[122]—whereas the Muslim missionaries achieved a continuous success, and pushed their way far to the south, and crossed the Wābi river.[123] The majority of the Galla tribes dwelling in the west of the Galla country were still heathen towards the end of the nineteenth century, but among the most westerly of them, viz. the Lega,[124] the old nature worship appeared to be on the decline and the growing influence of the Muslim missionaries made it probable that within a few years the Lega would all have entered into the pale of Islam.[125]
The North-East Africa of the present day presents indeed the spectacle of a remarkably energetic and zealous missionary activity on the part of the Muhammadans. Several hundreds of missionaries come from Arabia every year, and they have been even more successful in their labours among the Somali than among the Galla.[126] The close proximity of the Somali country to Arabia must have caused it very early to have been the scene of Muhammadan missionary labours, but of these unfortunately little record seems to have survived. The people of Zaylaʻ were said by Ibn Ḥawqal[127] in the second half of the ninth century to be Christians, but in the first half of the fourteenth century [[350]]Abu’l-Fidā speaks of them as being Musalmans.[128] The new faith was probably brought across the sea by Arab merchants or refugees. The Somalis of the north have a tradition of a certain Arab of noble birth who, compelled to flee his own country, crossed the sea to Adel, where he preached the faith of Islam among their forefathers.[129] In the fifteenth century a band of forty-four Arabs came as missionaries from Ḥaḍramawt, landing at Berberah on the Red Sea, and thence dispersed over the Somali country to preach Islam. One of them, Shayk͟h Ibrāhīm Abū Zarbay, made his way to the city of Harar about A.D. 1430, and gained many converts there, and his tomb is still honoured in that city. A hill near Berberah is still called the Mount of Saints in memory of these missionaries, who are said to have sat there in solemn conclave before scattering far and wide to the work of conversion.[130] Islam gradually became predominant throughout the whole of North-East Africa, but the growing power of the Emperor Menelik and his occupation of Harar in 1886 resulted in a certain number of conversions to Christianity.[131]
In order to complete this survey of Islam in Africa, it remains only to draw attention to the fact that this religion has also made its entrance into the extreme south of this continent, viz. in Cape Colony. These Muhammadans of the Cape are descendants of Malays, who were brought here by the Dutch[132] either in the seventeenth or eighteenth century;[133] they speak a corrupt form of the Boer dialect, with a considerable admixture of Arabic, and some English and Malay words. A curious little book published in this [[351]]dialect and written in Arabic characters was published in Constantinople in 1877 by the Turkish minister of education, to serve as a handbook of the principles of the Muslim faith.[134] The thoroughly Dutch names that some of them bear, and the type of face observable in many of them, point to the probability that they have at some time received into their community some persons of Dutch birth, or at least that they have in their veins a considerable admixture of Dutch blood. They have also gained some converts from among the Hottentots. Very little notice has been taken of them by European travellers,[135] or even by their co-religionists until recently. In 1819 Colebrooke had drawn attention to the growth of Islam in some interesting notes he wrote on the Cape Colony: “Mohammedanism is said to be gaining ground among the slaves and free people of colour at the Cape; that is to say, more converts among negroes and blacks of every description are made from Paganism to the Musleman, than to the Christian religion, notwithstanding the zealous exertions of pious missionaries. One cause of this perversion is asserted to be a marked disinclination of slave owners to allow their slaves to be baptized; arising from some erroneous notions or over-charged apprehensions of the rights which a baptized slave acquires. Slaves are certainly impressed with the idea that such a disinclination subsists, and it is not an unfrequent answer of a slave, when asked his motives for turning Musleman, that ‘some religion he must have, and he is not allowed to turn Christian.’ Prejudices in this respect are wearing away; and less discouragement is now given to the conversion of slaves than heretofore. Masters, it is affirmed, begin to find that their slaves serve not the worse for instruction received in religious duties. Missionaries who devote themselves especially to the religious instruction of slaves (and there is one in each of the principal towns) have increasing congregations, and hope that their labours are not unfruitful. But the [[352]]Musleman priest, with less exertion, has a greater flock.”[136] During the last fifty years the Muhammadans in Cape Colony have been visited by some zealous co-religionists from other countries, and more attention is now paid by them to education, and a deeper religious life has been stirred up among them, and they are said to carry on a zealous propaganda, especially among the coloured people at the Cape and to achieve a certain success.[137] This proselytising movement is especially strong in the western part of Cape Colony. It is said that there is a movement on foot for the founding of a college at Claremont, in the vicinity of Cape Town, which shall become a centre for the propagation of Islam. One of the methods at present employed is the adoption of neglected or abandoned children, who are brought up in the Muslim faith.[138] Every year some of them make the pilgrimage to Mecca, where a special Shayk͟h has been appointed to look after them.[139] The Indian coolies that come to work in the diamond fields of South Africa are also said to be propagandists of Islam.[140]
On account of its isolated position, 220 to 540 miles from the mainland, the island of Madagascar calls for separate mention. The only tribe that has adopted Islam is that of the Antaimorona, occupying a part of the south-east coast; they undoubtedly owed their conversion to missionaries from Arabia, but the date at which this change of faith took place is entirely unknown; tradition would carry it back to the very days of Muḥammad himself, but it is not until the sixteenth century that we get, in the works of Italian and Portuguese geographers, authentic mention of Muhammadans on the island.[141]
From the historical sketch given above it may be seen that peaceful methods have largely characterised the Muhammadan missionary movement in Africa, and though Islam [[353]]has often taken the sword as an instrument to further its spiritual conquests, such an appeal to violence and bloodshed has in most cases been preceded by the peaceful efforts of the missionary, and the preacher has followed the conqueror to complete the imperfect work of conversion. It is true that the success of Islam has been very largely facilitated in many parts of Africa by the worldly successes of Muhammadan adventurers, and the erection of Muhammadan states on the ruins of pagan kingdoms, and fire and bloodshed have often marked the course of a Jihād, projected for the extermination of the infidel. The words of the young Arab from Bornu whom Captain Burton[142] met in the palace of the King of Abeokuta doubtless express the aspirations of many an African Muhammadan: “Give those guns and powder to us, and we will soon Islamise these dogs”: and they find an echo in the message that Mungo Park[143] gives us as having been sent by the Muslim King of Futah Toro to his pagan neighbour: “With this knife Abdulkader will condescend to shave the head of Damel, if Damel will embrace the Mahommedan faith; and with this other knife Abdulkader will cut the throat of Damel, if Damel refuses to embrace it; take your choice.”
But much as Islam may have owed to the martial prowess of such fanatics as these, there is the overwhelming testimony of travellers and others to the peaceful missionary preaching, and quiet and persistent labours of the Muslim propagandist, which have done more for the rapid spread of Islam in modern Africa than any violent measures: by the latter its opponents may indeed have been exterminated, but by the former chiefly, have its converts been made, and the work of conversion may still be observed in progress in many regions of the coast and the interior.[144] Wherever Islam has made its way, there is the Muhammadan missionary to be found bearing witness to its doctrines,—the trader, be he Arab, Pul or Mandingo, who combines proselytism with the sale of his merchandise, and whose very profession brings him into close and immediate contact with those he would convert, [[354]]and disarms any possible suspicion of sinister motives; such a man when he enters a pagan village soon attracts attention by his frequent ablutions and regularly recurring times of prayer and prostration, in which he appears to be conversing with some invisible being, and by his very assumption of intellectual and moral superiority, commands the respect and confidence of the heathen people, to whom at the same time he shows himself ready and willing to communicate his high privileges and knowledge;—the ḥājī or pilgrim who has returned from Mecca full of enthusiasm for the spread of the faith, to which he devotes his whole energies, wandering about from place to place, supported by the alms of the faithful who bear witness to the truth in the midst of their pagan neighbours;—the student who, in consequence of his knowledge of Islamic theology and law, receives honour as a man of learning: sometimes, too, he practises medicine, or at least he is in great requisition as a writer of charms, texts from the Qurʼān, which are sewn up in pieces of leather or cloth and tied on the arms, or round the neck, and which he can turn to account as a means of adding to the number of his converts: for instance, when childless women or those who have lost their children in infancy, apply for these charms, as a condition of success the obligation is always imposed upon them of bringing up their future children as Muhammadans.[145] These religious teachers, or marabouts, or alūfas as they are variously termed, are held in the highest estimation. In some tribes of Western Africa every village contains a lodge for their reception, and they are treated with the utmost deference and respect: in Darfur they hold the highest rank after those who fill the offices of government: among the Mandingos they rank still higher, and receive honour next to the king, the subordinate chiefs being regarded as their inferiors in point of dignity: in those states in which the Qurʼān is made the rule of government in all civil matters, their services are in great demand, in order to interpret its meaning. So sacred are the persons of these teachers esteemed, that they pass without molestation through the countries of chiefs, not [[355]]only hostile to each other, but engaged in actual warfare. Such deference is not only paid to them in Muhammadan countries, but also in the pagan villages in which they establish their schools, where the people respect them as the instructors of their children, and look upon them as the medium between themselves and Heaven, either for securing a supply of their necessities, or for warding off or removing calamities.[146] Many of these teachers have studied in the mosques of Qayrwān, Fas, Tripoli[147] and other centres of Muslim learning; but especially in the mosque of al-Azhar in Cairo. Students flock to it from all parts of the Muslim world, and among them is often to be found a contingent from Negro Africa,—students from Darfur, Wadai and Bornu, and some who even make their way on foot from the far distant West Coast; when they have finished their courses of study in Muslim theology and jurisprudence, there are many of them who become missionaries among the heathen population of their native land. Schools are established by these missionaries in the towns they visit, which are frequented by the pagan as well as the Muslim children. They are taught to read the Qurʼān, and instructed in the doctrines and ceremonies of Islam. Having thus gained a footing, the Muhammadan missionary, by his superior knowledge and attainments, is not slow to obtain great influence over the people among whom he has come to live. In this he is aided by the fact that his habits and manner of life are similar in many respects to their own, nor is he looked upon with suspicion, inasmuch as the trader has already prepared the way for him; and by intermarriage with the natives, being thus received into their social system, his influence becomes firmly rooted and permanent, and so in the most natural manner he gradually causes the knowledge of Islam to spread among them.
His propagandist efforts are further facilitated by the fact that the deism which forms the background of the religious consciousness of many fetish-worshippers may pass by an easy transition into the theism of Islam, together with some [[356]]other aspects of their theology, while their general outlook upon life and several of their religious institutions are capable of taking on a Muslim colouring and of being transferred to the new system of faith without undergoing much modification.[148]
The arrival of the Muhammadan in a pagan country is also the beginning of the opening up of a more extensive trade, and of communication with great Muhammadan trading centres such as Jenne, Segu or Kano, and a share in the advantages of this material civilisation is offered, together with the religion of the Prophet. Thus “among the uncivilised negro tribes the missionary may be always sure of a ready audience: he can not only give them many truths regarding God and man which make their way to the heart and elevate the intellect, but he can at once communicate the Shibboleth of admission to a social and political communion, which is a passport for protection and assistance from the Atlantic to the Wall of China. Wherever a Moslem house can be found there the negro convert who can repeat the dozen syllables of his creed, is sure of shelter, sustenance and advice, and in his own country he finds himself at once a member of an influential, if not of a dominant caste. This seems the real secret of the success of the Moslem missionaries in West Africa. It is great and rapid as regards numbers, for the simple reason that the Moslem missionary, from the very first profession of the convert’s belief, acts practically on those principles regarding the equality and brotherhood of all believers before God, which Islam shares with Christianity; and he does this, as a general rule, more speedily and decidedly than the Christian missionary, who generally feels bound to require good evidence of a converted heart before he gives the right hand of Christian fellowship, and who has always to contend with race prejudices not likely to die out in a single generation where the white Christian has for generations been known as master, and the black heathen as slave.”[149]
It is important, too, to note that neither his colour nor [[357]]his race in any way prejudice the Negro in the eyes of his new co-religionists. The progress of Islam in Negritia has no doubt been materially advanced by this absence of any feeling of repulsion towards the Negro—indeed Islam seems never to have treated the Negro as an inferior, as has been unhappily too often the case in Christendom.[150]