The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1873-09-12
Moslem Africa,

| "H6u tu0 hOUduS conquered Gar.
thage they were assisted by the native
chiefs and at first it appeared as if Af
Tic0 would become civilized province
in the fashion of Spain and Gaul. Ber.
! Der regiments served in the army; Ber-
Der princes were educated in Rome, and
soon became distinguished as historians
and philosophers. But the desert was
! lmpregnable, and continually poured
! fresh hordes upon the Tell, or cultivated
/ land. In Algeria the Romans were
strongly established, and the ruins OF
their outposts are yetto be seen far away
inland. But in Morocco they were set
tied only on the coast. Algeria was
wisely and temperately governed under
the republic and Cicero describes it as
a peaceful province but, when the bad
days of the empire came, it was de-
graded to q cornfeld, and was forced to
feed, at its own expense, the Roman laz-
zarOni. The governors became satraps,
the great landowners were accused of
conspiracy, that their estates might es-
cheat to the crown, and the people were
made agricultural serfs. Moreover, the
wild region between the Tell and the Sa-
hara contained the game-preserves o
Rome. The lion was a royal beast, IL
censed to feed on the cattle of the shep-
herd, and on the shepherd himself if it
preferred him.
When the Arabs invaded Africa, they
did not merely settle on the coast. This
people, accustomed to deserts, con-
quered the whole country but they al
so added persuasion to force, recognized
the Berbers as their kinsmen, declared
them to be Arabs in their orioin, and al
lured them to accept the mission of the
prophet. The two races mingled, and
thus the nation of the Moors was
formed. At that time Jews aboundedin
Barbary; their brethren across the
straits were being prosecuted .by the
Christian Goths and the African Jews,
it is said, instigated the invasion of
Spain. The MoOrs treated with indul-
gence the Europeans whom they con-
quered, and acquired the arts of the Ro-
mans and the Greeks. Andalusia civil
ize Africa and the city of Morocco be-
came the rival of COrdOva and Seville.
Between the literary men of the two
countries an amiable controversy would
often arise as to which might claim pre-
eminence in learning and the arts, and it
appears to have been allowed that Mo-
rocco was not inferior to Spain.
The existence of a civilized North Af-
rica soon made its influence felt across
the desert The camel was unknown in
Carthage, and but rarely employed in
the Roman days ) but now these ami
mails were introduced in thousands, and
the Sahara voyage could be made with
comparative facility. Arab travellers of
piety and learning took up their abode
in the SOudan, and the MOslem mission
work commenced. Mosques and schools,
palaces with glass windows and painted
walls, sprang up on the banks of the
Niger, and the glories of Granada were
reflected at Timbuctoo.
Negro nations were speedily con-
verted crusades were waged against the
pagans and negro Moslems, in turban
and tobe, converted pagan kingdoms, as
the Arabs had converted Timbuctoo.
Thus the work was continued from cen
tury to century, and thus it is still 60
ing on. In Cairo and Constantinople Is
lam may appear to be decaying but in
the heart of Africa it is young, vigorous,
victorious, as in the early days.
The negroes, under the influence of
this religion and its accompanying code
of laws, appear to be an altered people.
Restrictions are placed on polygamy and
slavery; the position of the wife is ele-
waited drunkenness and gambling are
abolished ; clusters of wretched huts
have given place to walled towns, with
municipal governments /; and immense
regions have been opened up to travel
and to trade. A large part Of the Sou
dan has, in fact, ceased to be African,
and has become Asiatic. The inhabi-
tancs are black, but their laws, manners,
and religion, are no longer those of the
negroes, but of the Arabs. Their min
strels are men who go about chanting
verses of the Koran through the nose
their fetishmen are sanity Adventures,
who travel from chief to chief, and from
city to city, writing phylaeteries and
charms. Thousands of pious negroes
mako every year the pilgrimage to Nee
ca Many perish on the road, and many
return from the Holy City in very un-
holy frame of mind for, as the Tartars
say of Mecca, "The torch is dark at its
foot ;" and it was written by the Ovid
of Arabia
al set ont in the hopes of tightening my sins
And returned bringing home with me fresh load of
transgressions."
But the very wickedness of Mecca
deepens real enthusiasm into severity
and wrath and every year there is
Ioo1- 1rofor &c 1iorOErx- 1o+o Tor