as-salaamu ‘alaikum. It is really ugly to observe the blatant prejudices that European and American authors had against the Ottoman Turks and other civilizations. I recently came across one such ugly example of orientalist/religionist propaganda when looking into various sources for an article on the Islamic State, Kanem-Bornu. What I found was a British depiction of the Kanem-Borno military of 1888, published in a book called, “The Earth and its Inhabitants, Africa” published in 1892.

However, here are actual photographs of Kanem-Borno from 1891-1898 [1], [2], [3], the reality is quite different than what is suggested in, what was at the time, a popular published authority on African Civilization in Europe and America.

-Fulani