Background
In the second half of the 18th century a militant Islamic movement began in the Sudan region to the south of the Sahara, stretching from the Senegal to the Nile. The leaders waged jihad , or holy war, against pagans and less strict Muslims, establishing a string of strictly Muslim states across the region. The first jihad was launched in Fouta Djallon in 1726 by Ibrahima Musa. He was a leading Muslim cleric who had studied in Kankan.
Ibrahima Musa, also known as Ibrahima Sambeghu, Karamokho Alfa or Alfa Ibrahima, enlisted the support of gangs of young men, slaves and outlaws in his fight against the ruling powers. He became recognized as the "Commander of the Faithful" at a time when the Fulani were gaining supremacy over the Jalonke people in a Jihad, although he had to contend with competing families and with squabbling clerics and military leaders. The Jalonke people adopted the Muslim religion and achieved some social status, but remained subordinate to the Fula leaders. The jihad process was protracted, because the Fula were not simply taking over an existing state, but were building a new state. Alfa Ibrahima died in 1751.
Almami
After the victory over the Solima, Ibrahima Sori adopted the title almami . He became known as Sori Maudo ("Sori the Great"). Although he was the leader of the Fulani, he had to respect the advice of a council of elders, and had to accept that the council would confirm his successors. The council also collected tithes and booty to cover the costs of the jihad, and enforced the Shari's laws. Under Ibrahima Sori the theocratic state was organized into nine provinces, each led by a cleric who was subordinate to Sori as almami. The almami was formally installed in Fugumba, the religious capital, but ruled from Timbo, the political capital, with the help of the council.
The council became jealous of Ibrahima Sori's power and prestige, and began agitating against him. Sori entered Fugumba, executed the councillors who had opposed him, and called a general assembly to confirm his authority. The packed assembly duly voted in his favor, and the military faction was firmly in control until Sori's death in 1791-1792. He was succeeded by his son Sa'id, who held office until 1797-1798 when he was killed and replaced by a descendant of Karamokho Alfa. Two other sons, Abdul Qadir and Yahya, subsequently held the office of almami. The original Fulani leaders retained the right to elect the almami, who was usually a either clerical descendant of Alfa Ibrahima or a more secular and military descendant of Ibrahima Sori.
The Fula, Fulani, or Fulɓe people is an ethnic group in Sahara, Sahel and West Africa, widely dispersed across the region. Inhabiting many countries, they live mainly in West Africa and northern parts of Central Africa, South Sudan, Darfur, and regions near the Red Sea coast in Sudan. The approximate number of Fula people is unknown, due to clashing definitions regarding Fula ethnicity. Various estimates put the figure between 25 and 30 million people worldwide.
Takrur, Tekrur or Tekrour was a state based in the Senegal River valley in West Africa which was at its height in the 10th and 11th centuries, roughly parallel to the Ghana Empire, but lasted in some form into the 18th century.
Fouta Djallon is a highland region in the center of Guinea, roughly corresponding with Middle Guinea, in West Africa.
Timbo is a town and sub-prefecture in the Mamou Prefecture in the Mamou Region of Guinea. It is located in the Fouta Djallon highlands of Guinea, lying north east of Mamou, in a part of the country mostly occupied by the Fula people. It is also known for its vernacular architecture, for the local mountains and for local chimpanzees.
Abdul Rahman Ibrahima ibn Sori was a Fula prince and Amir (commander) from the Fouta Djallon region of Guinea, West Africa, who was captured and sold to slave traders and transported to the United States in 1788. Upon discovering his lineage, his slave master Thomas Foster, began referring to him as "Prince", a title used for Abdul Rahman until his final days. After spending 40 years in slavery, he was freed in 1828 and returned to Africa the following year, but died in Liberia within months of arrival.
Sheikhu Ahmadu was the Fulbe founder of the Massina Empire in the Inner Niger Delta, now the Mopti Region of Mali. He ruled as Almami from 1818 until his death in 1845, also taking the title Cisse al-Masini.
Futa Toro, often simply the Futa, is a semidesert region around the middle run of the Senegal River. This region is along the border of Senegal and Mauritania. It is well watered and fertile close to the river, but the interior parts of the region away from the river is porous, dry and infertile. This region is historically significant for the Islamic states, Fulani states, jihad armies and migrants for Fouta Djallon that emerged from here.
The Imamate of Futa Toro was a West African theocratic monarchy of the Fula-speaking people in the middle valley of the Senegal River. The region is known as Futa Toro.
The Imamate of Futa Jallon or Jalon was a West African Islamic State state based in the Fouta Djallon highlands of modern Guinea. The state was founded around 1727 by a Fulani jihad and became part of French West Africa in 1896.
The Yalunka, or Dialonké, are a Mandé-speaking people. Some of them were sold to fouta djallo by almamy samore Toure Futa Jallon, a mountainous region in Guinea, West Africa. The Yalunka people live primarily in Guinea, particularly in Faranah, while smaller communities are found in Kouroussa. Additional Yalunka are also located in northeastern Sierra Leone, southeastern Senegal, and southwestern Mali.
Shaykh Sulayman Bal was an 18th-century African leader, warrior, and Islamic scholar, from the Futa Toro region in what is today western Mali.
Guinean Americans are an ethnic group of Americans of Guinean descent. According to estimates by 2000 US Census, there were 3,016 people who identified Guinean as one of their two top ancestry identities. However, in November 2010 the New York Times estimated that as many 10,000 Guineans and Guinean Americans reside in New York City alone.
Fugumba was the religious center of the Imamate of Futa Jallon. It was about 30 miles (48 km) to the northwest of the secular capital, Timbo, and lay in the valley of the Téné River.
Karamokho Alfa was a Fula religious leader who led a jihad that created the Imamate of Futa Jallon in what is now Guinea. This was one of the first of the Fulbe jihads that established Muslim states in West Africa.
Talansan was the location of a battle in Futa Jallon, in what is now Guinea, in which Muslim forces were victorious. The battle was a key event in the jihad in which the Imamate of Futa Jallon was created.
The Zawaya are tribes in the southern Sahara who have traditionally followed a deeply religious way of life. They accepted a subordinate position to the warrior tribes, whether Arab or Berber, who had little interest in Islam. The Zawaya introduced Sufi brotherhoods to the black populations south of the Sahara. The jihad movements of the Fula people in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries have their origins with the Zawaya. Today the Zawaya are one of the two noble castes of Mauritania.
The Torodbe; singular Torodo were Muslim clerics and theocratic monarchs who preached and reigned in Futa Toro, a region located in the north of present-day Senegal, and other Fula communities in West Africa from at least the seventeenth to the early twentieth century. Drawn from all ethnicites and levels of society, the Torodbe aimed to 'purify' the Islam practiced in West Africa and establish Islamic states run with Islamic law.
Maka Jiba was the ruler of Bundu in West Africa between around 1720 and 1764.
Bokar Biro Barry was the last independent ruler of the Imamate of Futa Jallon in what is now Guinea. He died in the Battle of Porédaka, when his forces were destroyed by French artillery.
