Empire Wadai
Wadai ( Arabic وداي, DMG Waddāi , French Ouaddaï ) was the empire of the Maba (Wadai) in the east of the Sudan region in the Wadai region of Chad , which was formed in the 15th or 16th century and became independent in the 18th century.
The official language of the empire was Maba .
Wadai was on the easternmost Trans-Saharan route and produced copper as a commodity. In the 16th century a dynasty of the Tunjur conquered the Daju ( Dar Sila ) area in Wadai and in Darfur to the east . One group of Daju fled west, the other stayed.
Wadai was located between the neighboring kingdoms of Kanem Bornu and the Fur Sultanate , to which it was temporarily tributary. From 1635 to 1653 the Islamic preacher Abd el Karim led a jihad against the Tunjur, came to power and successfully fought for the independence of the empire. Around 1640 he founded Ouara (Wara) as the capital. The main building of the city within a 10 hectare walled area was a massive building made of fired bricks with 7 meter high and 2.5 meter thick walls. Through the zeal for faith of the Arab Abd el Karim and missionary Sufi saints from the Funj Sultanate, Islam spread in Wadai in the 17th century. In 1846 the Kolak (ruler's title) of the Wadai took advantage of internal disputes in Kanem-Bornu, conquered the Bornu province of Kanem with a force of around 7,000 riders , burned down the city of Kukawa and gained supremacy over Baguirmi . The Wadai then withdrew from the Kanem-Bornu Empire for a considerable sum in silver.
Wadai lacked artisans, and so in 1806 and 1870 the city of Massenya attacked in order to force blacksmiths, leather workers, etc. living there to move to their capital and to start their own handicraft production with them. The several thousand craftsmen there received special privileges at the royal court. The capital was moved from Ouara to Abéché around 1850 . Under the Kolak Al-Sharif , the Sufi brotherhood of the Sanussiya received extraordinary influence over the empire. In 1874 the Sanussiya were asked to settle a dispute for heir to the throne. They chose their own candidate, Kolak Yussuf . Wadai thus became a kind of vassal state of the religious trading empire of the Brotherhood. The Trans-Saharan route from Benghazi via Wadai became the most profitable route from the Mediterranean to Sub-Saharan Africa in the late 19th century thanks to the political stability of Wadai. In 1909, Wadai was subjugated by the French and, like the neighboring small sultanates Dar Sila and Dar Masalit, incorporated into the French colony of French Equatorial Africa .
See also
- History of Chad
- Colonization of the Wadai , for the French campaigns 1910-12
literature
- James Bertin Webster and AA Boahen: The Growth of African Civilization. The Revolutionary Years. West Africa since 1800. Longman, London 1980.
- Timothy Insoll: The Archeology of Islam in Sub-Saharan Africa. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2003, pp. 310-313
- Karen Haire Hoenig: Identity imaged in history and story: re / constructing the life of Abd-al-Karim, founder / renewer of Islam in Wadai, Chad. African Identities 5, 3, December 2007, pp. 313-330
- Bret, René-Joseph: Vie du Sultan Mohammed Bakhit 1856-1916: la Pénétration française au Dar Sila, Tchad. Paris 1987