The Sultanate of Darfur was a pre-colonial Nile Valley state in
present-day Sudan. It functioned independently from 1603 to October 24,
1874. Origins
Darfur is composed mostly of semi-arid plains that cannot support a dense
population. The one exception is the area in and around the Jebal Marra
mountains. It was from bases in these mountains that a series of groups
expanded to control the region. The Daju and the 14th century migrants the Tunjur
were the earliest powers in Darfur according to written records. The
transition of power from the Daju to the Tunjur was facilitated through marriage.
Eventually the Tunjur began marrying amongst the Fur people producing Sultan
Dali, a celebrated figure in Darfur histories, who was on his mother's side
a Fur, and thus brought the dynasty closer to the people it ruled. Dali
divided the country into provinces, and established a penal code, which, under
the title of Kitab Dali or Dali's Book, is still preserved, and differs in some
respects from Quranic law. His grandson Suleiman reigned from 1603 to 1637, and
was a great warrior and a devoted Muslim. Suleiman Solon is considered as
the founder of the Keira dynasty and the sultanate of Darfur. During the 17th
century, the Keira sultans introduced the feudal hakura system into Darfur.
Islam and Prosperity in Darfur The Tunjur introduced Islam to Darfur
via their experience in the Muslim empires of Kanem and Ouaddai. Soleiman's
grandson, Ahmed Bukr, made Islam the religion of the state, and increased the
prosperity of the country by encouraging immigration from Bornu and Bagirmi. His
rule extended east of the Nile as far as the banks of the Atbara.
Civil War 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 1785/6 Due to these internal divisions, Darfur
declined in importance and engaged in wars with Sennar and Wadai.
Mohammed II Tairab One of the most capable of the monarchs
during this period was Sultan Mohammed Terab, one of Ahmad Bukr's sons. He led
a number of successful campaigns. In 1785-1786, he led an army against the
Funj, but got no further than Omdurman. Here he was stopped by the Nile, and
found no means of getting his army across the river. Unwilling to give up
his project, Terab remained at Omdurman for months and the army began to grow
disaffected. According to some stories Tayrab was poisoned by his wife at the
instigation of disaffected chiefs, and the army returned to Darfur. While he
tried to have his son succeed him, the throne instead went to his brother Abd
al-Rahman. Abd-er-Rahman the Just
Abd-er-Rahman established a new capital at Al Fashir, meaning "the capital", in
1790. The capital had formerly been moved from place to place then at
another location called Kobb. During his reign Abd-er-Rahman, surnamed el-Rashid
or the Just, Napoleon Bonaparte was campaigning in Egypt. In 1799
Abd-er-Rahman wrote to congratulate the French general on his defeat of the
Mamluks. Bonaparte replied by asking the sultan to send him by the next caravan
2000 black slaves upwards of sixteen years old, strong and vigorous.
Mohammed-el-Fadhl Mohammed-el-Fadhl, 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. In 1821, he lost the province of Kordofan to the
Egyptians under Mehemet Ali, who planned to conquer the Sudan. The Keira
dispatched an army but it was routed by the Egyptians near Bara on 19 August
1821. The Egyptians had been intending to conquer the entirety Darfur, but
their difficulties consolidating their hold on the Nile region forced them to
abandon these plans. Al-Fadl died in 1838 and of his forty sons, the third,
Mohammed Hassan, was appointed his successor. Hassan is described as a
religious but avaricious man. In 1856 he went blind and for the rest of his reign
his sister Zamzam, the iiry bassi, was the de facto ruler of the sultanate.
The Turkiyya 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.
Sultan Hassan 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 Egyptians, Al-Zubayr had become their ally and in
cooperation with them agreed to conquer Darfur. The war resulted in the
destruction of the kingdom. Ibrahim was slain in battle in the autumn of 1874,
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 removed to
Cairo with his family. Conquest
Darfur was reconquered and its last sultan, Ali Dinar, killed by the British
in 1916, when Ali Dinar gave his support to the Ottoman Empire during the First
World War. The sultanate then passed to the Anglo-Egyptian Condominium.
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