replaced by black men. Under the early kings, who can be traced back to
the third century, these people had ruled nearly all the territory between
the Nile and Lake Chad. The country was known as Kanem, and the pagan
dynasty of Dugu reigned there from the middle of the ninth to the end of
the eleventh century. Mohammedanism was introduced from Egypt at the end
of the eleventh century, and under the Mohammedan kings Kanem became one
of the first powers of the Sudan. By the end of the twelfth century the
armies of Kanem were very powerful and its rulers were known as "Kings of
Kanem and Lords of Bornu." In the thirteenth century the kings even dared
to invade the southern country down toward the valley of the Congo.

Meantime great things were happening in the world beyond the desert, the
ocean, and the Nile. Arabian Mohammedanism had succumbed to the wild
fanaticism of the Seljukian Turks. These new conquerors were not only
firmly planted at the gates of Vienna, but had swept the shores of the
Mediterranean and sent all Europe scouring the seas for their lost trade
connections with the riches of India. Religious zeal, fear of conquest,
and commercial greed inflamed Europe against the Mohammedan and led to the
discovery of a new world, the riches of which poured first on Spain.
Oppression of the Moors followed, and in 1502 they were driven back into
Africa, despoiled and humbled. Here the Spaniards followed and harassed
them and here the Turks, fighting the Christians, captured the
Mediterranean ports and cut the Moors off permanently from Europe. In the
slow years that followed, huddled in Northwest Africa, they became a
decadent people and finally cast their eyes toward Negroland.

The Moors in Morocco had come to look upon the Sudan as a gold mine, and
knew that the Sudan was especially dependent upon salt. In 1545 Morocco
claimed the principal salt mines at Tegazza, but the reigning Askia
refused to recognize the claim.