The Preaching of Islam: A History of the Propagation of...

145 Bishop Crowther on Islam in Western Africa. (Church Missionary Intelligencer, p. 254, April 1888.) ↑

146 D. J. East, pp. 112–13. Blyden, p. 202. ↑

147 It is said that over a thousand missionaries of Islam leave Tripoli every year to work in the Sudan. (Paulitschke, p. 331.) ↑

148 For a detailed examination of these points of contact, see Forget, p. 28 sqq. Merensky, p. 155. ↑

149 Sir Bartle Frere (1), pp. 18–19. ↑

150 E. W. Blyden, pp. 18–24. E. Allégret, p. 200. Westermann, pp. 644–5.

In a very interesting, but now forgotten, debate before the Anthropological Society of London, on the Efforts of Missionaries among Savages, a case was mentioned of a Christian missionary in Africa who married a negress: the feeling against him in consequence was so strong that he had to leave the colony. The Muslim missionary labours under no such disadvantage. (Journal of the Anthropological Society of London, vol. iii. 1865.)

The contrast between the way in which Christianity and Islam present themselves to the African is well brought out by one who is himself a Negro, in the following passage:—“Tandis que les missions renvoient à une époque indéfinie l’établissement du pastorat indigène, les prêtres musulmans pénètrent dans l’intérieur de l’Afrique, trouvent un accès facile chez les païens et les convertissent à l’islam. De sorte qu’aujourd’hui les nègres regardent l’islam comme la religion des noirs, et le christianisme comme la religion des blancs. Le christianisme, pensent-ils, appelle le nègre au salut, mais lui assigne une place tellement basse que, découragé, il se dit: ‘Je n’ai ni part ni portion dans cette affaire.’ L’islam appelle le nègre au salut et lui dit: ‘Il ne dépend que de toi pour arriver aussi haut que possible.’ Alors, le nègre enthousiasmé se livre corps et âme au service de cette religion.” L’islam et le christianisme en Afrique d’après un Africain. (Journal des Missions Évangéliques. 63e année, p. 207.) (Paris, 1888.) ↑

151 E. D. Morel: Nigeria, its people and its problems, pp. 216–17. (London, 1911.) ↑

152 Ibn K͟hallikān, vol. i. p. 18. ↑

153 “Extracts from the Koran form the earliest reading lessons of children, and the commentaries and other works founded upon it furnish the principal subjects of the advanced studies. Schools of different grades have existed for centuries in various interior negro countries, and under the provision of law, in which even the poor are educated at the public expense, and in which the deserving are carried on many years through long courses of regular instruction. Nor is the system always confined to the Arabic language, or to the works of Arabic writers. A number of native languages have been reduced to writing, books have been translated from the Arabic and original works have been written in them. Schools also have been kept in which native languages are taught.” Condition and Character of Negroes in Africa. By Theodore Dwight. (Methodist Quarterly Review, January 1869.)

Dr. Blyden (pp. 206–7) mentions the following books as read by Muslims in Western Africa: Maqāmāt of Ḥarīrī, portions of Aristotle and Plato translated into Arabic, an Arabic version of Hippocrates, and the Arabic New Testament and Psalms issued by the American Bible Society. For the literature of the Muslims in East Africa, see Becker: Islam in Deutsch Ostafrika, p. 18 sqq. ↑

154 Mohammedanism in Africa, by R. Bosworth Smith. (The Nineteenth Century, December 1887, pp. 798–800.) ↑

155 Le Chatelier, (3), p. 348. ↑

156 Forget, p. 95. Merensky, p. 156. (“Den Vertretern des Islam aber stand ihr Vorteil, der Gewinn, den die Unterdrückung der Eingeborenen bringt, höher als die Ausbreitung ihres Glaubens. Hätte man die Völker Afrikas durch die Macht geistiger Waffen unter gütigem Entgegenkommen zu Mohammedanern gemacht, so wären sie Glaubensgenossen, gleichberechtigte Brüder, die man nicht mehr berauben, zu Sklaven machen, oder als Sklaven nur Arbeit ausnutzen könnte.”) ↑

157 Westermann, p. 643. L. de Contenson, p. 244. Kumm, p. 122. ↑

158 Thus Merensky, discussing the failure of Islam to dominate the whole of Africa after centuries of occupation says:—“Wir sehen die Ursache für diese merkwürdige Erscheinung in den Beziehungen, in denen bei den Mohammedanern die äussere Gewalt zum Islam und zur Ausbreitung des Islam steht. Beides steht und fällt miteinander, dringt miteinander vor und geht miteinander auch wieder zurück.” (p. 156.) ↑