ABSTRACT
Ibn Baṭúṭah, in describing the course of the Great River below Kársekhó, makes no mention of Tekrúr, the first converted of the Negro communities in that quarter. That designation, though widely and vaguely extended in process of time, was certainly at first applied to a spot between Silla and Ṣínghánah, and not far from the former of these places. Wárjání, the chief of Tekrúr who first adopted the Mohammedan faith, and induced his subjects to follow his example, died in 432 H. (A.D. 1040–1); so that the conversion of his principality preceded, by thirty-five years at least, that of Ghánah and Western Negroland in general. Such a priority explains at once the religious eminence implied in the title Tekrúr (whatever may have been its original signification), and which caused it to be usurped till its proper application was at length forgotten. 56
