Darfur Sultanate

a state in the Sudan from the 16th century to the beginning of the 20th. The Fur (For) people formed the ethnic base; tribes of Baggara Arabs lived in the southwestern regions.

When the Darfur sultanate was flourishing (17th—18th century), feudal relations predominated, and there was a well-entrenched slave-owning system. In the 17th century Islam became the state religion.

The sultanate maintained commercial and cultural relations with the states of Wadai, Bornu, and Egypt. From 1874 to 1898 it was under the rule of Egypt. The inhabitants of the sultanate took an active part in the Mahdist rebellion. After the seizure of the Sudan by Great Britain in September 1898, the Darfur sultanate preserved its formal independence for some time. In April 1915. Sultan Ali Dinar, whose reign began in 1898, declared the full independence of the Darfur sultanate. However in May 1916 his soldiers were defeated by the English, and in November 1916 he was killed. In 1916 the territory of the sultanate was annexed by the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. In the Republic of the Sudan the territory of the former Darfur sultanate is part of the province of Darfur.