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The Sultanate of Darfur (Arabic: سلطنة دارفور, romanized: Salṭanat Dārfūr) was a pre-colonial state in present-day Sudan. It existed from the 16th century to 1874, when it fell to the Sudanese warlord Al-Zubayr Rahma Mansur, and was re-established again from 1898 to 1916, until it was conquered by the British. At its peak in the late-18th and early-19th century it stretched all the way from Darfur in the west to Kordofan and the western banks of the White Nile in the east.
The region of Darfur is part of the wider bioregion of Sudanian savanna that forms an east–west belt across Africa, situated to the south of the Sahel and Sahara. Central Darfur features the Jebel Marra, a 70-mile-long (110 km) volcanic range that reaches around 10,000 ft (3,000 m) in height. There are typically large distances between areas of fertile land and therefore population centres. The environment is hot and dusty, and rains often fail. Though drought and famine were likely always a major concern, population growth through the 20th century contributed significantly to desertification and environmental degradation, and climatic history of the region is poorly understood. In western Darfur (the sultanate's heartland), the northern parts are suitable for pastoralism, while the southern parts (the Fur homeland) are much more fertile and can support agriculture.
Tunjur oral traditions say that the founder of the Tunjur kingdom in Darfur, Ahmad al-Ma'qur, had two sons called Ahmad Kanjar and Musa; Kanjar accordingly succeeded his father in Darfur and was the founder of the Kunjaara dynasty, while Musa went to Wadai and subjugated the region with the assistance of the Mahamid Arabs. Most traditions emphasise that the Tunjur and Fur were kin of some sort. The final Tunjur king was reportedly Shaw Dorshid (lit. 'the master over us') who ruled as a tyrant (thought to have been around the mid-16th century), leading his nobility to ask his half-brother, Daali or Dalil Bahr, to usurp the kingship, after which Shaw Dorshid is said to have fled to the Jebel Marra on a white horse or antelope (a common motif). Other versions say that Daali was a eunuch at the Tunjur capital of Uri. McGregor wrote that many of the early heroes in tradition were later Islamised to strengthen the dynasty's legitimacy.
Based in Turra in the northern Jebel Marra, Daali is said to have founded several important institutions of the Keira state, namely the sacred tree (numang fadda), the five provinces upon which the state's administration would be based until the 19th century, and the codification of Keira customary law in the Kitab Daali. Arkell considered the latter to be "an attempt to reconcile" customary/sultanic law with a Maliki interpretation of Sharia law. There are also ruins at Turra called tong daali ("Daali's palace"). Following Daali's reign, a lengthy period of conflict is said to have ensued (shown by his successors' palaces being of poorer quality than his own), involving 10 short reigns. The early monarchs were divine kings, likely based in Fur and Tunjur traditions.
During the reign of Kuuruu, a major schism is said to have taken place among the Keira after he reportedly fought his brother Tunsam over land in Dar Fia (west of Jebel Marra), causing Kuuruu to flee with his son Sulayman to Dar Masalit. Having grown up among the Masalit (to whom his mother belonged), Sulayman is then said to have returned to Jebel Marra to seize power back from Tunsam, who fled with his followers to Kordofan where they became known as the Musabba'at ("the people of the east"). Both Kuuruu and Sulayman have ruins at Turra associated with them. O'Fahey wrote that the conflict between Kuuruu and Tunsam may have signalled the collapse of the Tunjur empire, while McGregor said that the conflict may have been over conversion to Islam with the Keira as early adherents, based on Sulayman making Islam the state religion and becoming the first sultan. Traditions consider Daali to be the founder of the Keira state and Sulayman (generations later) as the second founder.
According to Nachtigal's recordation, Sulayman reigned from 1596–1637, however O'Fahey considered it to have been from c. 1660 to c. 1680. He was called Sulayman Solungdungo ("Sulayman the Arab/red"), either because of his skin colour or his purported descent from Ahmad al-Ma'qur. Sulayman is credited as a warrior who expanded the state to encompass the Masalit, Orra/Qimr, and Mararit in the west, the Zaghawa in the north, and the Birged, Beigo, and Tunjur in the south and east. This expansion saw the tribal positions of lineage chiefs, ritual leaders, and war leaders become hereditary title holders, upon whom the ruler depended for support. O'Fahey wrote that Sulayman likely sought to increase the territory from which he could gain goods such as slaves to trade for weaponry, war-horses, and cloth among other goods, some of which could then be distributed among his subjects. Sulayman is said to have made Islam the state cult and to have built mosques, although the spread of Islam among the population was very slow. He was succeeded by his son, Musa, who likely had a short reign. Prior to Musa's reign, Wadai paid tribute to Darfur as a legacy from the Tunjur empire; Sultan Ya'qub refused to pay and invaded Darfur, reaching just south of Wadi Barei, however disputes within his army forced a retreat. Musa is reported to have ineffectively fought the Qimr, and to have defeated the Musabba'at at their ruler's fashirs (itinerant courts) in Tina and Kolge. Both Sulayman and Musa were buried at Turra.
Joerg Adelberger considered the "Keira" to originally be one of the Fur descent-groups (orrenga), which grew dominant and gradually incorporated others (generically called Fartit). It was common for the Keira dynasty to intermarry with other ethnic groups as the region was very ethnically diverse, and the royal family was open to integrating strangers into the elite. Over the course of its existence, the expansion of the state was often done via integration and assimilation rather than by war. While the Keira dynasty claimed an Arab lineage (in the Sudan the concept of "Arabism" was more fluid and could be applied to any who were culturally Arabised and spoke Arabic regardless of skin colour), it was likely intermarriages with Arabs from the Nile Valley and interactions with their holy men and merchants from the east and north which brought about the conversion of the royal court to Islam. Muslims making the hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca) often passed through Darfur, and settlement by West Africans could have also played a role. Most Fur commoners continued to follow their traditional religion.
From the 17th century, the trans-Saharan trade route Darb El Arba'īn ("Forty Days Road") became busier, linking Kobbei to Asyut. The prosperity the sultanate enjoyed was largely down to the extensive trading relations and contacts they cultivated over the centuries. The sultan himself commissioned slave raids due to only the national army being strong enough, particularly into the land of the Baggara Arabs to the south, and profited greatly. While the state expanded north beyond the Jebal Marra mountains, they struggled to conquer the Baggara Arabs, and instead forged socio-economic relations with them. During the 17th century, the Keira sultans introduced the feudal hakura system into Darfur.
Musa was meant to have been succeeded by his eldest son, Giggeri, however he had a seizure on his first day and was perceived as being "possessed by the devil", leading Musa's youngest son, Ahmad Bukr, to ascend to the kingship instead. Giggeri revolted and forced Bukr to flee to the southwest, however he soon returned and killed his brother to regain the kingship. During Bukr's reign, several holy men from the west and east were enticed to settle in Darfur, including one from Futa Tooro and another who was a pupil of the Awlad Jabir (a renowned Islamic scholarly family in the Nilotic Sudan). Wadai sultan Ya'qub invaded Darfur again during Bukr's reign, reaching Kabkabiya, until Bukr managed to obtain weaponry from Egypt and defeat them.
On his deathbed c. 1720, Bukr reportedly made title-holders swear an oath that his sons were to succeed him and that the kingship were to pass from brother to brother, such that a grandson was not permitted to succeed while he had a living uncle. Over the following decades, internal conflict ensued between the incumbent sultan at any one time, who wanted to consolidate power and privilege their own lineage, and others of Bukr's lineage. One of Bukr's sons, Dawra (meaning "iron-hearted"; also called "Harut"), served as co-ruler during his lifetime and succeeded him. Dawra reportedly killed many of his brothers throughout his reign, and tradition remembers him as a callous ruler. Despite naming one of his sons, Musa 'Anqarib, as his successor, Dawra later favoured another son called 'Umar Lel ("the donkey", possibly due to his patience), provoking Musa to revolt. Musa was able to defeat his father near El Fasher, but at a mediation summit organised by holy men Dawra beat his son to death. Dawra is reported to have eventually died at his palace in Majalla of leprosy.
'Umar Lel succeeded his father c. 1730, but faced tensions with his uncles. He also sought to strengthen Islamic rule which brought him into conflict with the titleholders, with one tradition saying that he had 30 leading chiefs executed after claims of oppression. Lel saw off challenges to his rule from the Musabba'at in Kordofan, but a more perilous challenge began materialising from the west. After uncovering a plot by his uncles and the Wadai sultan to overthrow him, Lel invaded Wadai with two armies led by titleholders. One of his armies was repelled while the other saw success; Lel and Wadai's sultan joined their armies for the final battle (thought to be c. 1739), in which Lel was captured after his army deserted him. Lel reportedly saw out his days reading the Quran in captivity at Abu Kundi where he was buried. Lel was succeeded by his uncle, Abu'l-Qasim, who traditions portray as a capable ruler. Abu'l-Qasim attempted to reduce his reliance on other Keira and the Fur by incorporating slave soldiers into the army, and he appointed a Zaghawa as his Wazir, angering the Fur. In 1753 Abu'l-Qasim decisively prevented 'Isawi of the Musabba'at from interfering in Darfur's politics. During his reign, war again broke out with Wadai, during which he introduced a tax of one head of cattle per household. Abu'l-Qasim also placed his slave soldiers and his Wazir's forces a rank above the Fur, causing them to desert him on the battlefield c. 1750s; the Fur only came back to fight to prevent the Wadai from taking the sacred drum (al-mansura).
Muhammad Tayrab was chosen to succeed his brother as sultan, however Abu'l-Qasim had survived the battle, aided by a Mahamid Arab, and returned to Darfur. Tayrab wished to abdicate but the title-holders instead had Abu'l-Qasim executed. O'Fahey wrote that it is unclear why Tayrab, who had a Zaghawa mother and went on to appoint his Zaghawa relatives to office, was chosen as Abu'l-Qasim's successor.
With Wadai proving too formidable, Tayrab and the sultanate pivoted away from the west, to Kordofan and the Musabba'at in the east. Unlike the west, Kordofan consisted of expansive savanna and had no natural boundaries save for the Nuba mountains. Tayrab initially had his main fashir at Shoba, but during the second half of his reign, all the sultanate's capitals were east of the Jebel Marra. The Birged in southeastern Darfur entered into rebellion, reportedly because they considered Tayrab to be selling Birged girls (sent in tribute) into slavery, which Tayrab subsequently suppressed, and he consolidated their lands under the rule of his own candidates while disenfranchising the chiefly families. He also strengthened his authority over the Beigo in the southeast and the Berti in the northeast, and unsuccessfully campaigned to subdue the Rizayqat nomads, who just migrated further south to Dinka lands.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Sultanate of Darfur”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.