Sultanate of Darfur

Origins

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 (a Fur clan) 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.^{[3]: 28–9, 34} McGregor wrote that many of the early heroes in tradition were later Islamised to strengthen legitimacy.^[4]: 221

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.^{[3]: 33–5}

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.^{[4]: 222 [3]: 35–6}

Expansion

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).^{[2]: 10–1} 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.^[5]

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),^[5] 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.^[6] Muslims making the hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca) often passed through Darfur, and settlement by West Africans could have also played a role.^[5] Soleiman's grandson, Ahmed Bukr (c.1682 – c.1722), made Islam the religion of the state, and increased the prosperity of the country by encouraging immigration from Bornu and Bagirmi.^{[citation needed]} The sultanate benefited from incorporating outsiders who were literate and educated in Islamic law. Most Fur commoners continued to follow their traditional religion.^[5]

From the 17th century, the trans-Saharan trade route Darb El Arba'īn ("Forty Days Road") became busier, linking Kobbei to Asyut.^[6] 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.^[5] Wadai was a tributary of Darfur throughout the 17th century, however towards the end of the century they ceased paying tribute.^[7] During the 17th century, the Keira sultans introduced the feudal hakura system into Darfur.

Civil war (1722–1786)

Succession struggles were common in the Keira dynasty.^[5] The death of Bukr initiated a long-running conflict over the succession. On his deathbed, Bukr stated that each of his many sons should rule in turn. Once on the throne, each of his sons instead hoped to make their own son heir, leading to an intermittent civil war that lasted until 1785/1786 (AH 1200).^{[citation needed]} The sultans launched various campaigns against Wadai to their west in an attempt to reduce them to a tributary again,^[7] however were unsuccessful. The enlistment of slave soldiers from the south as an imperial guard proved unpopular.^[6] In the mid 18th century, the Musabb’at, an exiled faction from the royal family, lost control of the gold-producing region of Kordofan to the Funj Sultanate.^[8] By the 18th century, Islam became more influential in state and society, owing to the Sultanate recruiting holy men by granting them privileges and status. Holy men were also given land inhabited by the Fur from which they could receive income, furthering the economic, legal, and political complexity of the state. Also in the 18th century, trade with Egypt dramatically increased, as the sultanate began to pivot away from the west and towards the east.^[5]

Apogee

One of the most capable of the monarchs during this period was Sultan Mohammed Terab, one of Ahmad Bukr's sons,^{[citation needed]} and a descendant of the Zaghawa.^[5] He led a number of successful campaigns,^{[citation needed]} including expansion at the expense of the Musabb’at.^[8] Frustrated by lack of progress in the west,^[6] in 1785/1786 (AH 1200),^{[citation needed]} he led an army east against the Funj Sultanate, defeating them in successive battles,^[5] and conquered Kordofan,^[6] stopping at Omdurman on the Nile. Ready to conquer the Funj capital, Terab suddenly died.^[5] According to some stories, he had no way of leading cavalry across the river, and Terab was poisoned by his wife at the instigation of disaffected chiefs, resulting in the army returning to Darfur to potentially participate in the succession struggle. While Terab had tried to have his son succeed him, the throne instead went to his brother Abd al-Rahman.

Sultan Abd-er-Rahman oversaw the sultanate's apogee and established a new capital at al-Fashir, meaning "the capital", in 1792.^[6] The capital had formerly been moved from place to place then at another location called Kobb. In 1799, during the French campaign in Egypt, Abd-er-Rahman wrote to congratulate Napoleon on his defeat of the Mamluks. Napoleon replied by asking the sultan to send him 2,000 strong and vigorous black slaves who were upwards of sixteen years old in the next caravan.^{[citation needed]} By the end of the 18th century, most of the population had syncretised Islam with their traditional beliefs.^[5]

Muhammad al-Fadl, his son, was for some time under the control of an energetic eunuch, Mohammed Kurra, but he ultimately made himself independent, and his reign lasted till 1838, when he died of leprosy. He devoted himself largely to the subjection of the semi-independent Arab tribes who lived in the country, notably the Rizeigat, thousands of whom he slew.

An account of life and the geography in Darfur was written in the early 19th century by Muḥammad al-Tūnisī (d. 1857), who spent ten years as a merchant from Cairo in the sultanate and described the kingdom in detail and with his own drawings in the book translated as In Darfur.^[9]

Decline

In 1821, the Turco-Egyptians under Muhammad Ali, who planned to conquer the Sudan and compile a large slave army, conquered the Funj and the province of Kordofan from el-Fahl.^[6] The Keira dispatched another army but it was routed by the Egyptians near Bara on 19 August 1821. The Turco-Egyptians had intended to conquer all of Darfur, but their difficulties consolidating their hold on the Nile region forced them to abandon these plans.

The emergence of a more powerful eastern neighbour threatened the sultanate's political dominance over the region, and its greater military strength inhibited their procurement of slaves, crucial to the sultanate's economy. North-south trade routes began to bypass Darfur via Egypt, causing the sultanate to enter a recession.^[5]

Al-Fadl died in 1838 and of his forty sons, the third, Muhammad al-Husayn, was appointed his successor. Al-Husayn is described as a religious but avaricious man. In 1856 he went blind and for the rest of his reign Zamzam Umm al-Nasr, the sultan's eldest sister or ayabasi, was the de facto ruler of the sultanate. Zamzam and other members of the sultan's inner circle exploited his weakness to repossess and pillage large tracts of land, terrorizing the citizens and weakening the sultanate.^[10]

In 1856, a Khartoum businessman, al-Zubayr Rahma, began operations in the land south of Darfur. He set up a network of trading posts defended by well-armed forces and soon had a sprawling state under his rule. This area, known as the Bahr el Ghazal, had long been the source of the goods that Darfur would trade to Egypt and North Africa, especially slaves and ivory. The natives of Bahr el Ghazal paid tribute to Darfur, and these were the chief articles of merchandise sold by the Darfurians to the Egyptian traders along the road to Asyut. Al-Zubayr redirected this flow of goods to Khartoum and the Nile.

Turco-Egyptian rule

Sultan al-Husayn died in 1873 and the succession passed to his youngest son Ibrahim, who soon found himself engaged in a conflict with al-Zubayr. After earlier conflicts with the Turco-Egyptians, Al-Zubayr had become their ally and in cooperation with them agreed to conquer Darfur.^{[citation needed]} The war resulted in the destruction of the kingdom. Ibrahim was slain in the Battle of al-Manawashi in the autumn of 1874,^[6] and his uncle Hassab Alla, who sought to maintain the independence of his country, was captured in 1875 by the troops of the khedive, and brought to Cairo with his family.^{[citation needed]} Al-Zubayr was shortly recalled by the Turco-Egyptians, and Darfur was administered as a province. Numerous rebellions sought to restore the sultanate, which enjoyed popular support, however they were unsuccessful.^[5]

Mahdists, Ali Dinar, and colonisation

In the 1880s, the Mahdists launched a jihad against the Turco-Egyptians. In 1885 they conquered Darfur and destroyed Khartoum, ending Turco-Egyptian rule. Although the regime change was initially popular, the Fur soon fiercely resisted Mahdist rule, and in 1887 a rebellion by the son of Sultan Ibrahim was narrowly put down. Another rebellion commenced soon after led by Abu Jammayza, a faki, and was only put down after his death from smallpox in 1889. Rebellions sought to expel foreign occupiers and return the traditional sultans.^[5]

In 1898, when the Mahdists were conquered by the Anglo-Egyptians, sultan Ali Dinar managed to re-establish Darfur's self-rule. Ali Dinar's rule was recognised and tolerated by the British, and he rebuilt the sultanate's institutions. Dinar interfered in Wadai's succession struggle and placed his candidate on the throne, however he was assassinated and replaced by Dud Murra, the Senussi's candidate. Dinar contested the French conquests of his western tributaries, and the French and British convened to compose borders, however this was halted by the outbreak of World War 1. Dinar reassured the British he wouldn't ally with the Islamic Ottomans, however the British began to see the status quo as untenable. The British campaign in Turkey ended and troops became available in Egypt. Amid the possibility of French expansion and rumours of Dinar preparing an attack, the British conquered Darfur in 1916 and Dinar was killed in battle. The kingdom was incorporated into the Anglo-Egyptian Condominium in 1917.^[6][5]

Colonial histories often portrayed the region as chaotic and barbaric, necessitating colonial rule to keep order, in contrast to the reality. Recent histories stress the co-operative and largely peaceful nature of coexistence in the region, however the colonial narrative has seen a resurgence due to the Darfur War.^[5]