RISE OF THE SONGHAY EMPIRE 171 though it had been with occasional outbreaks of disorder — for the heavy hand of Sonni AH, they had exchanged freedom for a yoke which was almost too heavy to be borne.

The only circumstance which rendered their fate tolerable was the interposition of Sonni Ali's prime minister, a man for whose counsels he had a great regard, and who acted as a moderating influence upon him. This man, whose name was Mohammed Abou Bekr Et-Touri, was a pure-blooded black of Songhay. He was born of wellknown parents in the island of Neni, a little below Sinder, in the Niger, and though he first made his fame as a soldier, being one of the most distinguished generals of Sonni Ali's army, he was more remarkable for the qualities which usually characterise great civilians. He appears to have been a man of liberal principles and large views, naturally humane, and disposed to temper justice with mercy, more than usually cultivated, active, wise, and firm. He had been fortunate in the circumstances of his youth. He came of good stock. His father was a man universally respected. His mother was a woman of remarkable piety, who brought up her children with care. A brother of his is mentioned by Leo Africanus — who was by no means disposed to be a gentle critic — as '* black in colour but most beautiful in mind and conditions." Mohammed himself had been brought up in the strictest orthodoxy, and throughout his life he adhered closely to the faith of his youth. He took no part in the luxuries and the loose living of Sonni Ali's court. Possibly the purity of his life contributed no less than the well-balanced power of his mind to the creation of the remarkable friendship which existed between him and the wild monarch, so unlike himself in every particular, except that of a certain greatness which they had in common.

Sonni Ali, with all his faults, had qualities which won him friends. When his name was mentioned with blame before them, they would say, ** He has been good to me ; I will speak neither praise nor blame." His prime minister would