Kobbei (also Kobbai, Kubay or Kubayh[1]) is a former town in North Darfur of western Sudan, west of Al-Fashir. It is now deserted. At its peak in the 19th century it was a thriving town, the largest in Darfur, with a population of up to 8,000.[2][3] It declined as the wells at the oasis dried up, and the caravans first slowed, due to conflicts with al-Zubayr Rahma Mansur to the south, and then stopped with the fall of the Darfur Sultanate in 1874.[1][3][4] The ruins are located west of Jabal Kobbei (Mount Kobbei) along the Wadi Kobbei (Kobbei Arroyo) for approximately two miles.[1]
Kobbei was the major trading center of the Darfur Sultanate,[1] but was dependent on long-distance trade both north-south, and to a slightly lesser extent east-west. Slaves from the south were a major component of the trade, as were ostrich feathers, camels, ivory and acacia tree gum. When al-Zubayr Rahma Mansur acquired holdings in the Bahr el Ghazal, he diverted to Khartoum significant portions of the goods coming from the south. These diversions began in 1856 and the decline in trade was significant by 1860.
Notes
1 2 3 4 Tubiana, Marie-José (editor) (1983) "Chapter 5 Translations and Commentray, Documents XLII to XLVII The merchants Muhummad Kannuna and 'Ali Bey Ibrahim al-Tirayfi" Land in Dar Fur: Charters and Related Documents from the Dar Fur Sultanate (Fontes Historiae Africanae: Series Arabica #3; translations by R. S. O'Fahey and M. I. Abu Salim) Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, England, pages 106-107, ISBN0-521-24643-1
↑ Theobald, Alan Buchan (1965) ʼAlī Dīnār: Last Sultan of Darfur, 1898-1916 Longmans, London, pp. 1-16, OCLC25827495
↑ O'Fahey, Rex S. "Introduction" In Marie-José (editor) (1983) Land in Dar Fur: Charters and Related Documents from the Dar Fur Sultanate (Fontes Historiae Africanae: Series Arabica #3; translations by R. S. O'Fahey and M. I. Abu Salim) Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, England,page 3, ISBN0-521-24643-1
The Funj Sultanate, also known as Funjistan, Sultanate of Sennar or Blue Sultanate was a monarchy in what is now Sudan, northwestern Eritrea and western Ethiopia. Founded in 1504 by the Funj people, it quickly converted to Islam, although this embrace was only nominal. Until a more orthodox Islam took hold in the 18th century, the state remained an "African empire with a Muslim façade". It reached its peak in the late 17th century, but declined and eventually fell apart in the 18th and 19th centuries. In 1821, the last sultan, greatly reduced in power, surrendered to the Ottoman Egyptian invasion without a fight.
The Zaghawa people, also called Beri or Zakhawa, are a Sahelian ethnic group primarily residing in southwestern Libya, northeastern Chad, and western Sudan, including Darfur.
Al-Zubayr Rahma Mansur Pasha, also known as Sebehr Rahma or Rahama Zobeir, was a slave trader in the late 19th century. He later became a pasha and governor in Sudan.
Ta'isha, or Ta'aisha, or Taaisha, one of a series of Arabic-speaking groups collectively called Baggara "cattle people", who live in Sudan, across southern Kordofan, Darfur, as well as Chad. The Ta'aisha tribal homeland is in the far southwest of Darfur, neighbouring to the east the Habbaniya, with whom they are closely related. The Ta'aisha rose to power when one of the members of their tribe, Abdallahi ibn Muhammad, later known as the Khalifa, became an early follower of Muhammad Ahmad, who would later become the Sudanese Mahdi. During the revolution, 'Abdallahi became the strongman of the movement and was designated as senior Khalifa by the Mahdi. Following the Mahdi's death in June 1885, the Khalifa 'Abdallahi ruled the Mahdist state until its destruction by an Anglo-Egyptian army. The Khalifa during his rule brought his tribe to Central Sudan and he went on to make extensive use of his relatives and other fellow Ta'a'isha as soldiers and administrators. Throughout the Mahdist period there was constant tension between the Ta'aisha leaders and the riverain Sudanese. Several Ta'aisha amirs who survived the Mahdiyya became prominent at the re-established Darfur Sultanate of Ali Dinar, one being Arabi Dafallah, who was appointed commander of the Equatorial province with its headquarters at Rejaf under the Khalifa's rule. Having been forced in 1897 to evacuate Equatoria by Belgians advancing from the Congo, he had made his way into southern Darfur where he faced Anglo-Egyptian forces and friendly tribes sent by Kitchener in pursuit of him. He then settled in the area of the present Central African Republic-Darfur border where he came into contact with encroaching French colonial power. After an unsuccessful attack on French outposts in the region he surrendered to Sultan 'Ali Dinar with his men and their arms in 1902, he subsequently lived in Al-Fashir and took part in many of the Sultan's military expeditions. Another one was 'Ali al-Sanusi, who was a Mahdist amir under Mahmud Ahmad in Atbara and fought at Karari after which he escaped to Darfur to be one of 'Ali Dinar's best generals. Under the British colonial rule, He was appointed Nazir of the Ta'aisha in Darfur and rendered valuable service to the new administration.
The Islamization of the Sudan region (Sahel) encompasses a prolonged period of religious conversion, through military conquest and trade relations, spanning the 8th to 16th centuries.
The Tunjur people are a Sunni Muslim ethnic group living in eastern Chad and western Sudan. In the 21st century, their number has been estimated at 175,000 people.
Rabih az-Zubayr ibn Fadl Allah or Rabih Fadlallah, usually known as Rabah in French, was a Sudanese warlord and slave trader who established a powerful empire east of Lake Chad, in today's Chad.
Dār Fertit is a historical term for the lowlands south of Darfur and east of the highlands in the east of the modern-day Central African Republic that contain tributaries of the White Nile River. This region included parts of southwestern Sudan and northwestern South Sudan. In the present era, Fertit is a catch-all word for non-Dinka, non-Arab, non-Luo, non-Fur groups and tribes in Western Bahr el Ghazal, South Sudan. Even though these groups often speak different languages and have a history of inter-tribal violence, they have become more unified over time, mostly out of opposition to the Dinka people.
The Wadai War was waged by France and its African allies against the Wadai Empire and its allies from 1906 to 1912. Located in what today would be eastern Chad and western Sudan, Wadai fiercely resisted the French invasion. Regardless, much of Wadai including its capital Abéché fell to the invaders in 1909, forcing the empire's ruler Dud Murra to continue his resistance from outlying provinces and allied states. He managed to gain the support of the Sultanate of Darfur and Dar Masalit, and used these areas as rear bases during his attempts to oust the French. Doing so, he enjoyed some success, and inflicted several defeats on French-led forces. In order to legitimize their intervention, the French installed Dud Murra's relative Adam Asil as puppet ruler in Wadai. After losing most of his forces and allies, Dud Murra was forced to surrender in 1911. Regardless, unrest initially continued: a major anti-French revolt broke out soon after Dud Murra's defeat, and an anti-European conspiracy was allegedly organized with the support of Adam Asil. The last effective anti-French resistance in Wadai was suppressed by 1912 and the region remained a part of French colonial empire until 1960.
Throughout its history, Darfur has been the home to several cultures and kingdoms, like the mythical Tora or the Daju and Tunjur kingdoms. The recorded history of Darfur begins in the seventeenth century, with the foundation of the Fur Sultanate by the Keira dynasty. In 1875, the Anglo-Egyptian Co-dominion in Khartoum ended the dynasty. The British allowed Darfur a measure of autonomy until formal annexation in 1916. However, the region remained underdeveloped through the period of colonial rule and after independence in 1956. The majority of national resources were directed toward the riverine Arabs clustered along the Nile near Khartoum. This pattern of structural inequality and overly underdevelopment resulted in increasing restiveness among Darfuris. The influence of regional geopolitics and war by proxy, coupled with economic hardship and environmental degradation, from soon after independence led to sporadic armed resistance from the mid-1980s. The continued violence culminated in an armed resistance movement around 2003.
The Sultanate of Darfur was a pre-colonial state in present-day Sudan. It existed from 1603 to 24 October 1874, when it fell to the Sudanese warlord Rabih az-Zubayr, and again from 1898 to 1916, when it was occupied by the British and the Egyptian integrated into Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. 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, giving it the size of present-day Nigeria.
Sulayman Solong was the first historical sultan of Darfur. According to several sources, he ruled the Sultanate of Darfur from 1596 to 1637. However, because of the lack of contemporary references, estimates of his reign dates diverge widely, with some modern scholars stating that he probably reigned between 1660 and 1680.
The history of South Sudan comprises the history of the territory of present-day South Sudan and the peoples inhabiting the region.
Muhammad 'Abd al-Karim Sabun was (Sultan) of Wadai, a Muslim state in what is now eastern Chad, from 1804 to 1815. He pursued an expansionist policy, and was the greatest of the rulers of Wadai.
The hakura system was a method of land allocation in the Sultanate of Darfur. The system was based on charters or hawakir issued by the sultan entitling one to ownership of a certain estate, usually as a freehold, sometimes as fiefs in exchange for tribute or rent. The possessors of hawakir were usually wealthy aristocrats, while most the estates granted were worked by slaves or bondservants. A distinction can be made between the demesne lands of the estate-holder, whose slaves he personally owned, and the rest of the hakura, from whose inhabitants he exacted tribute and who owned their own slaves.
Muhammad Salih bin Yusuf, known as Dud Murra or Dudmurrah, was the last independent ruler, or kolak, of the Wadai Empire. He allied with the Sanusi, powerful traders of the eastern Sahara, and with the Sultan of Darfur to resist French aggression in the eastern Sahel, but was defeated. His sultanate was incorporated in the French military territory of Chad.
The Tunjur kingdom was a Sahelian precolonial kingdom in Africa between the 15th and early 17th centuries.
Darb El Arba'īn is the easternmost of the great north–south Trans-Saharan trade routes. The Darb El Arba'īn route was used to move trade goods, livestock and slaves via a chain of oases from the interior of Africa to portage on the Nile River and thence to the rest of the world.
Rex Seán O'Fahey was an Irish historian specializing in Islamic Africa. He was especially known for his work on Sudan and on Sufism.
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