| Takrur | ||||
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| Capital | Settlement on Morfil | |||
| Language(s) | Fula | |||
| Religion | Islam, Traditional African religions | |||
| Government | Monarchy | |||
| King | ||||
| - 1030s | War Jabi | |||
| Historical era | Middle Ages | |||
| - Established | 800s | |||
| - Islam | 1030s | |||
| - Conquered by Mali Empire | 1285 | |||
Takrur, Tekrur, or Tekrour (c. 800 - c. 1285) was an ancient state of West Africa, which flourished roughly parallel to the Ghana Empire.
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Takrur was the name of the capital of the state which flourished on the lower Senegal River. Takruri was a term, like Bilad-ul-Sudan, that was used to refer to all people of West African ancestry.[1][2][3][4]
The formation of the state came about as an influx of Fulbe noble clans from the east settled after the formation of the Soninké state of Ghana.
According to historical and archaeological sources, the kingdom was actually founded by the Serer people along with the Jola people.[5][6][7] The Serer people who resided at Takrur, had previously ruled the Kingdom. They were the high priests and priestesses and the land owners through what is referred to as the Lamanic lineage (Kings and land owners of the Serer people).[8][9][10]
Located in the Senegal Valley, along the border of present-day Senegal and Mauritania, it was a trading center, where gold from the Bambuk region, salt from the Awlil, Sahel grain. It was rival of the Ghana Empire and the two states clashed from time to time with the Soninké usually winning. Despite these clashes, Takrur prospered throughout the 9th and 10th centuries.
The kings of Takrur eventually adopted Islam. Sometime in the 1030s during the reign of King War Jabi, the court converted to Islam, the first regent to officially pronounce Orthodoxy in the Sahel, establishing the faith in the region for centuries to come. In 1035 that War Jabi introduced Sharia law in the Kingdom. This adoption of Islam greatly benefited the state economically and created greater political ties that would also affect them in the coming conflicts between the traditionalist state of Ghana and its northern neighbors.[11]
The king of Takrur sided with the Berber and Tuareg tribes of the Almoravids in their political intervention of the Ghana Empire. when Ghanaian power faded, Takrur was left as the sole power in the region. Integration of Takrur with the Almoravids meant that some of these troops reached all the way to Andalusia (Spain) with the Almoravid expansion.
Among these were the Susu who carved out the sizeable though short-lived Kaniaga. Waalo, the first Wolof state, emerged out its south. By the time Mandinka tribes united to form the Mali Empire in 1235, Takrur was in a steep decline. The state was finally conquered by the usurper emperor Sabakoura of Mali in the 1280s.
Takrur was later conquered by Mali, it was also conquered by Jolof in the 15th century.[12] Although Koli (a Fula rebel) did finally managed to regain Takrur and named it Fouta Toro in the 15th century thereby setting up the first Fula dynasty (Denanke), that dynasty also did not last and in 1776 at the Fouta Revolution, who were Muslim clerics entered the kingdom and brought down the house of Denanke.
Later Islamic Takrur kingdoms are often called Toucouleur, after a French corruption of "Takrur." The Denanke Kingdom, and kingdom of Fuuta Tooro all followed creating powerful Fulbe states over the same general area once ruled by ancient Takrur.