RISE OF THE FULANI 389 of Sultan Mohammed he still refused to be made Sultan, and again put a dummy Sultan on the throne, reserving for himself the responsibility of power without any of its outward display. His campaigns were usually successful, and it is said of him that he ''turned all victories to the advantage of those whom he overthrew." By the purity of his administration and the reforms which he introduced, the kingdom grew in enlightenment as well as power. Nowhere were the laws of Islam more strictly observed than in Bornu under his administration.

The wider education of his youth had given him a knowledge of other countries, which he used for the benefit of his own. Foreigners were well received, trade prospered, and the roads, through the Sheikh's government, were, according to Major Denham, "as safe as any, even in happy England itself." After the overthrow of Baghirmi, which was achieved with the co-operation of the ruler of the Fezzan about the year 1824, the ruler of Bornu turned his arms against South - western Haussaland, where he was at first successful, and took from the Fulani the province of Bautchi, which they had conquered shortly after the taking of Zaria ; but here, in the year 1826, he was destined to meet with a reverse. His armies were defeated by the Fulani, and he himself narrowly escaped with his life. Shortly after this he came to terms of agreement with the Fulani.

He died in 1835, when his son, who succeeded, abolished the dummy Sultans, and established the dynasty of the Kanemi openly on the throne of Bornu.