CHAPTER XLI RISE OF THE FULANI IN THE SOUDAN Assuming the Fulani and the gypsy to be of similar Indian race and to have entered the Soudan by way of Egypt, perhaps nearly two thousand years before Christ, we have still the fact that within historic times the movement of the Fulani in the Western Soudan has been from west to east, not from east to west.

The earliest definite mention which we get of them is the rumour mentioned by the author of the Tarikh-es-Soudan, that the first white king of Ghana, who reigned presumably in the third century of the Christian era, was reputed to have had a Fulani name — Quaia Magha, which in Fulani means Quaia the Great. Whether Phoenician or Fulani, the first white rulers of Ghana continued to reign for twenty-two generations, and were then superseded by a black dynasty.

In the ninth century we hear of Fulani occupying the town of Masina, situated on the Niger between Jenne and Timbuctoo, and the following story is told of the origin of their kings.

Maghan, a fugitive prince from his own country of Koma, in the territory of Quaiaka, came driving a few oxen before him to a hill called Masina, in the territory of Baghena. He and his followers made friends with the Senajah (Berbers), who occupied the territory, and after a time, Maghan having been joined by more followers, the King of Baghena named him king of those who had followed him. All the Fulani then joined themselves to Maghan, some being of his own tribe and some of Sankora. From this time (to which no date is affixed), 381