as a historian
finished, the author appends the annals of the country to the year
1656, saying: "What shall happen hereafter I shall relate in the same
manner as that which is past, for as long as I shall be alive."[204]
It is highly probable that the author died that year.

Considered from all angles the student must agree with the
investigator that the Tarik e Soudan is a masterpiece. Barth, the
distinguished German scholar, says that the book forms "one of the
most important additions that the present age has made to the history
of mankind."[205] Lady Lugard, another writer in this field, believes
that it is not merely an authentic narrative but is an unusually
valuable document since it throws unconscious light upon the life,
manners, politics and literature of that country. "Above all," says
she, "it possesses the crowning quality, displayed usually in creative
poetry alone, of presenting a vivid picture of the character of the
men with whom it deals. It has been called the 'Epic of the Soudan,'"
continues the writer. "It lacks the charm of form, but in all else
the description is well merited. Its pages are a treasure-house of
information for the careful student and the volumes may be read many
times without extracting from them more than a small part of all that
they contain."[206]

Felix DuBois refers to it as serving him as his "charming and
picturesque guide through the Soudan." "The _Tarik e Soudan_," says
he, "is conceived upon a perfectly clear and logical plan according to
the most correct rules of literary composition."[207] "It forms, with
the exception of the holy writings, the favorite volume of the negro,
and is known to the furthest extremity of western Africa, from the
shores of the Niger to the borders of Lake Chad." "Its style,"
continues he, "is very simple and clear, entirely lacking those
literary artifices so much in vogue among the Arabs; and the author
displays an unusual conscientiousness, never hesitating to give both
versions of a doubtful event."[208] On the whole it is a book of
elevated active morals and with its charming combination of fables,
marvels and miracles it is well adapted to influence the negraic mind.
The work is not an uninteresting narration of events but an
explanation of them as the rewards of God when fortunate and
punishments of the wicked when calamitous. Devoted to religion and
civic virtue, the author portrays as sinful the evil deeds of all
whether they be pea