Tekrur

a state that existed in the ninth through 15th centuries in West Africa. Situated in the basin of the Senegal River, the Tekrur state had its capital in the vicinity of the city of Podor. In the second quarter of the 11th century, the ruler of the state embraced Islam. Beginning in the second half of the 13th century, Tekrur was in vassalage to the medieval Mali state. Between the 12th and 14th centuries its coastal regions constituted the Wolof (Jolof) state. In the late 15th century the eastern regions became part of the Songhai state.

The word “Tekrur” survives as the name of the Tukulor (also Toucouleur) people. Arabic writers of the seventh to 14th centuries used the name “al-Takrur” to designate the coastal regions of the western Sudan. Sudanese chroniclers of the 16th and 17th centuries often referred to all islamized regions of the western Sudan as “Tekrur.”