262 A TROPICAL DEPENDENCY Dr. Barth attribute the foundation of the city to a hero of the name of Komayo as late as the middle of the fourteenth century, while King Ibrahim Maji, who lived about the middle of the sixteenth century, is counted as the first Mussulman king. This must, however, I think, be an error. It seems scarcely probable that Kano, which is at no great distance, should have had Mussulman kings from the end of the thirteenth century, while Katsena, nearer to northern civilisation, and in commercial and intellectual touch with Egypt and the Barbary States, should have waited till 1550 to seat a Mussulman on the throne. A little bit of direct evidence which supports the assumption of Katsena's earlier conversion is contained in the Tarikk-es-Soudan, where, in relating the life of one of the distinguished Mussulman scholars of Timbuctoo, Aicha Ahmed, who died in 1529, it is stated that, having spent many years in study in the East, "he returned to the Soudan and took up his residence at Katsena, where the Sultan treated him with much consideration, and conferred on him the function of Cadi." It may, I think, be taken for granted that the appointment of Cadi was not made by a pagan Sultan, nor would a pagan court have offered attractions as a residence to one of the most cultivated traditionists of Timbuctoo. The Kano chronicle mentions Katsena as a place to which many of the Fulani went to settle when they came from Melle in the end of the fourteenth century. It seems probable that Katsena, shortly to be distinguished under a Habe dynasty for superior learning, cultivation, and enlightenment, and gladly sought as a residence by men of letters from all parts of the Soudan, received Mohammedanism very shortly after the foundation of the town. It is not certain that the present town of Katsena was the first capital of the province, but if it is not certain neither is it material. By the middle of the sixteenth century, that is, after the conquest by Songhay, and the at least nominal incorporation of Katsena with that great empire, the present town had spread to a