i82 A TROPICAL DEPENDENCY over the Turks, and the closing of the principal ports of the Mediterranean to the infidels.

The lately subjected portions of Askia Mohammed's empire not unnaturally seized the opportunity of a change of dynasty to rebel, and in the course of the long reign which lay before him he fought perhaps as many campaigns as SonnI Ali. Nevertheless his reign was, to the majority of his people, a reign of peace. Almost his first act was to issue orders for the organisation of a standing army — a scheme which had no doubt been long matured — and by this separation of the fighting element from the people he saved the country, says his chronicler, from the desolating effects of war. The industrial and learned life of the towns went on without interruption, and one end of the empire hardly knew whether the other end was at peace or war. Simultaneously with his reform of the military forces of the empire, he gave his attention to the Church. The orthodox and pious, whose voices had not been heard during the late reign, now came from their obscurity. Mohammed consulted frequently with the heads of the Mussulman communities in all the towns, and everything that could be done to improve the religious position of the country was undertaken. Schools were founded, mosques were rebuilt. A new activity was felt throughout the empire.

SonnI Ali died in November of 1492. Mohammed was occupied for nearly three years with these first necessary reforms, and with the subjugation of outlying and rebellious populations. But though he had accepted with such apparent calm the irregularity of his own position, it is clear that he was not indifferent to the Importance of affirming his power by a sanction stronger than that of popular acclamation. As soon as the Immediate necessities of the situation had been dealt with, and It was possible for him to contemplate a temporary absence from the country, he appointed his favourite brother to be regent In his place, and proceeded to Mecca to make the pilgrimage and to seek at Cairo a formal investiture