Introduction

The Arabic manuscript of the document which is here translated, was obtained by the traveller Dr. Heinrich Barth at Kukawa, the capital of the Kanembu Shehus of Bornu, about the year 1853 from the then Wazir of Bornu, Haj Beshir. It was sent by Dr. Barth to the British Foreign Office from whence in some mysterious way it wandered to Germany, where at the instance of the Secretary of State for the Colonies it was found, and photographed by the courtesy of the German authorities in the year 1921.