War-Dyabe ibn Rabis ( ar, وار ذياب بن ربيس) or War Jabi ( ar, وار جابي), also known as: War Jaabi or War-Dyabe or War-Ndyay, was the first Muslim king of Tekrur in the 1030s. He converted to Islam and forced his subjects to convert to Islam,Colvin, Lucie Gallistel, ''Historical dictionary of Senegal'', Scare Crow Press Inc. (1981), p. 18, and introduced

sharia Sharia (; ar, شريعة, sharīʿa ) is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition. It is derived from the religious precepts of Islam and is based on the sacred scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran and the H ...

law in the Kingdom in 1035. As a result of his jihad and sharia law, the

Serer people The Serer people are a West African ethnoreligious group.

of Tekrur ("the local agricultural people") resisted Islam in favour of their

Serer religion The Serer religion, or ''a ƭat Roog'' ("the way of the Divine"), is the original religious beliefs, practices, and teachings of the Serer people of Senegal in West Africa. The Serer religion believes in a universal supreme deity called Roog ...

and were forced out of the country. That resulted in their migration to

Baol The Kingdom of Baol or Bawol in central Senegal was one of the kingdoms that arose from the split-up of the Empire of Jolof (Diolof) in 1555. The ruler ( Teigne or Teen) reigned from a capital in Diourbel. The Kingdom encompassed a strip of l ...

and

Sine In mathematics, sine and cosine are trigonometric functions of an angle. The sine and cosine of an acute angle are defined in the context of a right triangle: for the specified angle, its sine is the ratio of the length of the side that is opp ...

. His people: the Tukulor people followed him in accepting Islam. He was the first sovereign to officially pronounce the Sharia in the

Sudan Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic t ...

, establishing Islam in the region for centuries to come, today Islam in the largest religion in the

. In 1035 War Jabi introduced

Sharia Sharia (; ar, شريعة, sharīʿa ) is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition. It is derived from the religious precepts of Islam and is based on the sacred scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran and the H ...

in the kingdom. This adoption of Islam and Islamic Sharia greatly benefited the state economically and created greater political ties between the Muslim states of

North Africa North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...

that would also affect them in the coming conflicts between the animist state of

Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and Tog ...

and its northern neighbours. The domains of Tekrur as a result of his reign expanded into the South as his State

. He died in 433 Hijri (1040 or 1041 Gregorian), succeeded by his son Labi.

Sources

*Barry, Boubacar. ''Senegambia and the Atlantic slave trade'', (Cambridge: University Press, 1998) p. 6 *Clark, Andrew F. and Lucie Colvin Phillips. ''Historical Dictionary of Senegal: Second Edition'', (Metuchen, New Jersey: Scrarecrow Press, 1994) pp. 18; 265 * Fage, J. D.; Oliver, Roland Anthony, "The Cambridge History of Africa: From c. 500 B.C. to A.D. 1050",

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press in the world. It is also the King's Printer. Cambridge University Pr ...

(1975), p. 485,

last retrieved 20 June 2022 *Cohen, Robert Z., ''Discovering the Empire of Ghana'', Rosen Publishing, The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc. (2013), p. 39,

last retrieved 20 June 2022 *

Notes

{{Gambia topics Serer history History of Senegal History of the Gambia Converts to Islam Former monarchies of Africa

See also

Sources

Notes