War Jabi (Serer: Waar Jaabi or War Jaabi or War-Dyabe; Arabic: وار ذياب بن ربيس) was the first Muslim king of Takrur in the 1030s, the first to proclaim Islam as a state religion in the Sudan.
Background
War Jabi was a member of the Manna dynasty that had ruled Takrur since the early 800s.[citation needed] He is the first West African ruler to make Islam the state religion. He is the son and successor of a man named Rabis.[dubious – discuss][original research?][1]: 65 Islam had been brought to Takrur by Soninke[original research?] merchants and spread widely.[1]: 64
Reign
War Jabi converted to Islam and forced his subjects to convert to Islam, introducing sharia law in the Kingdom in 1035.[2] This greatly benefited the state economically and created greater political ties with the Muslim states of North Africa that would be important in the later conflicts with the animist state of Ghana.[3]
He successfully waged West Africa's first Holy War against the King of Sila.[4]
He died in 433 Hijri (1040 or 1041 Gregorian), and was succeeded by his son Lebi ibn War Jabi, who would go on to be a key contributor to the foundation of the Almoravids and their rule in Al Andalus.[5]
Serer Exodus
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War Jabi's enforcement of sharia law pushed the Serer people of Tekrur (land owners and "the local agricultural people"[6]), who refused Islam in favour of their traditional Serer religion, out of the country.[2][7] That resulted in their migration to Baol and Sine.[2]
Legacy
War Jabi's embrace of Islam may have provided impetus and inspiration for the later Almoravid movement that arose among the Berbers north of the Senegal river in the decades after his death.[8]
The name "War" means "death" in the Serer language. The old Serer anti-Islamic and anti-Arab term "the spurns of War" and "the spurns of Leb" are in reference to him and his son. They are pejorative terms.[citation needed]
Sources
- ^ a b Kane, Oumar (2004). La première hégémonie peule. Le Fuuta Tooro de Koli Teηella à Almaami Abdul. Paris: Karthala. ISBN 978-2-84586-521-1. Retrieved 12 July 2023.
- ^ a b c Colvin, Lucie Gallistel, Historical dictionary of Senegal, Scare Crow Press Inc. (1981), p. 18, ISBN 0-8108-1369-6
- ^ Robinson, David (12 January 2004). Muslim Societies in African History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-53366-9. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
- ^ Al-Naqar, Umar (1969). Takrur the History of a Name. Cambridge University Press. p. 367.
- ^ Levtzion, Nehemia (1973). Ancient Ghana and Mali. New York: Methuen & Co Ltd. p. 44,183. ISBN 0841904316.
- ^ Fage, J. D.; Oliver, Roland Anthony, "The Cambridge History of Africa: From c. 500 B.C. to A.D. 1050", Cambridge University Press (1975), p. 485, ISBN 9780521209816 - [1] last retrieved 20 June 2022
- ^ Cohen, Robert Z., Discovering the Empire of Ghana, The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc. (2013), p. 39, ISBN 9781477718889 - [2] last retrieved 20 June 2022
- ^ Gomez, Michael (2018). African dominion : a new history of empire in early and medieval West Africa. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. p. 37. ISBN 9780691177427.
