Livingstone was unimpressed with arguments that Islam had brought education, morality, and civilization to eastern and central Africa. He was struck by what he considered an absence of Muslim missionary activity among the pagan Africans, and wondered at the missed opportunity this lack of proselytizing created. He wrote in his diary, "As they [the Arabs] never translate the Koran, they neglect the best means of influencing the Africans, who invariably wish to understand what they are about."

Eve M. Troutt Powell, A Different Shade of Coloni…, loc. 655