The kingdom of Takrur

Who rules

Name

Not known. The later Futa Toro tradition would make him a king of the Manna dynasty, remembered as Soninke of the Sumaare clan, but it gives no dated names

Title

King of Takrur (al-Takruri in the Arabic sources; his own title in the Fulfulde, Soninke or Serer of the valley is not recorded)

Since

Not known

Born

Not known

Family

The last kings named in writing are War Jabi son of Rabis (died 432 AH, 1040-41) and his son Labi (fought beside the Almoravids in 1056). Whether the king of 1200 descends from them is not known.

Confidence

low

No Arabic source names a king of Takrur between al-Bakri (1068) and the Malian period. Al-Idrisi (1154) describes but does not name him. The Futa chronicle of Sire Abbas Soh (written down in the early twentieth century, translated by Delafosse and Gaden, 1913) lists dynasties (Dya'ogo, Manna, Tondyon, Lam Termes, Lam Taga, Denianke) whose dates are modern reconstructions that disagree by centuries.

Overlord

None. The Almoravid alliance of the eleventh century ended with the Almoravid empire (Marrakesh fell to the Almohads in 1147); the Almohad caliphs never ruled south of the Sahara. Takrur's Friday sermon may still name the Abbasid caliph, as Almoravid practice did, but this is not recorded.

What the realm holds

• The town of Takrur, the royal residence (site not known; see Takrur)
• Silla, the river market two days upstream, in the dominion of the king of Takrur in 1154 (al-Idrisi; see Silla and Silla)
• Barisa, a small unwalled town of itinerant merchants twelve days east along the river, subject to the king of Takrur in 1154 (al-Idrisi; site not known)
• The flood plain (walo) and the dry uplands (jeeri) of both banks of the middle Senegal, the later Futa Toro, with the Gorgol valley that the Futa tradition makes the heartland of the first kings
• The river fisheries and the river road itself, by canoe, from the delta to the Soninke country
• Loose authority over the Fulbe herders of the uplands and the Ferlo (not recorded; inferred from the later Futa Toro)

How it was acquired

The origins are tradition only: the Futa chronicle has a first dynasty of the Dya'ogo (remembered as blacksmith kings, linked to Ogo near Matam), followed by the Manna, remembered as Soninke incomers; modern writers date the Manna anywhere from the ninth or tenth century to about 980-1300. In written history Takrur appears with al-Bakri (1068): War Jabi son of Rabis converted, imposed Islamic law (Wikipedia gives about 1035) and died in 432 AH (1040-41); Silla's people were converted in his time. His son Labi took Takrur's men north to fight beside the Almoravid Yahya ibn Umar against the Juddala at Tabfarilla in 448 AH (1056).

By 1154 al-Idrisi treats Takrur as the dominant power on the river, with Silla and Barisa in its dominion.

Allies and rivals

No alliance or war is recorded for 1199-1200. Likely partners: the merchants of the far Maghreb and the Sanhaja caravan men who carry its gold and slaves north. Likely rivals: the veiled Sanhaja of the desert north of the river (realm sanhaja), who hold the salt of Awlil and fought Takrur in 1056; the Soninke powers to the east (Ghana, Diara, the rising Sosso: see the gha records); the peoples to the south whom its men raid for captives (al-Idrisi's Lamlam).

The realm that morning

At first light on 1 January 1200 Takrur is, so far as anything can be said, an independent Muslim kingdom on both banks of the Senegal, from about Dagana upstream to the edge of the Soninke country below Bakel, with the Gorgol valley; this extent is drawn from the later Futa Toro and from al-Idrisi, not from any source of 1200. Nothing places it under another power that winter: the Almoravids are gone, the Almohads never came south, and the Sosso conquests and Mali's conquest (about 1285) are later. Across the river to the north the Juddala and other veiled Sanhaja hold the desert and the salt (realm sanhaja, mag sheet).

Downstream the Wolof villages of Waalo govern themselves under their land chiefs (lamanes). Upstream lie the Soninke of Galam (Gajaaga) and the gold country of Bambuk, and further east Ghana and Diara (gha). To the south the Fulbe herders of the Ferlo and the Wolof of Jolof. It is the dry season: the flood has fallen, the flood-recession sorghum is in the ground or being harvested, and the river is low.

Threats

• The rising Soninke powers to the east: the Sosso of the Kante, whose king Sumanguru is usually placed about 1200-1235 (gha records); no Sosso move against Takrur is recorded
• The veiled Sanhaja north of the river, who hold the salt and the caravan road and fought Takrur in 1056
• Drought or a poor flood: the valley's harvest depends on the summer flood of the Senegal
• Strife within the ruling house: the Futa tradition remembers the Manna dynasty ending in tyranny and revolt in the thirteenth century

Ruler and household

Not known. No wife, heir, child or brother of the king of 1200 is recorded. The Futa tradition names the Manna kings and remembers the last, Cengaan Sumaare, as a bloodthirsty tyrant overthrown by his own people in the thirteenth century, but dates none of them.

Officers

• Not recorded. Al-Idrisi speaks only of the king's slaves and soldiers.
• A court that has applied Islamic law since War Jabi must have had judges and jurists; none is named.
• The governors called farba belong to the later Malian (from about 1285) and Jolof overlordships: do not use them for 1200.

Army

No numbers. The king keeps slave soldiers and free warriors (al-Idrisi); Labi led a force north into the desert in 1056 (al-Bakri). Canoes on the river, horses in the valley and the raiding of the southern lands for captives are the means of war the sources point to. Wikipedia's claim that Takrur sent about 4,000 black horsemen to the Almoravid victory at Sagrajas (1086) is not tied to Takrur in the sources we know.

Trade

Gold dust (tibr) from the upper Senegal and the Faleme (Galam, Bambuk) comes down the river; salt comes up from Awlil on the coast by boat and along the north bank by Juddala caravans; merchants of the far Maghreb bring wool, copper and beads and take away gold and slaves (al-Idrisi). The valley weaves cotton: al-Bakri lists the money of Silla as sorghum, salt, copper rings and fine cotton cloths (shakkiyyat). Fish, sorghum and milk feed the towns (al-Idrisi).

The caravan road north crosses the Sanhaja desert to the Adrar (Azougui), the Wadi Nun and Sijilmasa (mag sheet).

Relations

Sanhaja

The Juddala of the coast north of the river hold the Awlil salt and carry it along the north bank; their land borders Takrur (Brooks, cited in Wikipedia: Godala). Takrur fought them in 1056. Nothing recorded for 1200; Takrur's northbound trade passes through Sanhaja hands.

Almohads

No contact recorded. Almohad gold coinage is struck in part from West African gold that reaches the Maghreb through Sanhaja and Maghrebi middlemen.

Ghana and the soninke east

In the eleventh century Silla's king fought the unbelievers of Qalanbu, a day away (al-Bakri); Wikipedia (Silla) says Wagadu sought Almoravid help against Silla in the 1080s and that Takrur eclipsed Silla in the twelfth century. Nothing recorded for 1200; for Ghana, Diara and the Sosso see the gha records.

Wolof and serer

Serer tradition remembers the families who refused Islam leaving the valley from the eleventh century onward for the Ferlo, the Sine and the Saloum. The Wolof lamanes of Waalo and the inland Wolof are Takrur's south-western neighbours; whether any paid tribute in 1200 is not known.

Galam

If al-Idrisi's Barisa lay in the Gajaaga reach of the river, as his twelve days' distance suggests, Takrur's overlordship reached the Soninke of Galam in 1154; not pinned for 1200.

Religion

Islam has been the religion of the court and the law since War Jabi; al-Bakri (1068) says the people of Takrur are now Muslims. Followers of the old religions remain in the countryside and among the neighbours. The Maliki school is likely, through the Almoravid connection, but is not stated for Takrur.

Coinage

No coins. Silla used sorghum, salt, copper rings and cotton cloth as money (al-Bakri); gold dust is weighed in trade.

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

In 1200

1. July to October 1200 (the flood season)The Senegal floods the valley; flood-recession sorghum is sown as the water falls, for harvest early in 1201.Depends on: Rains on the upper Senegal and the Futa Jallon. Stopped by: Drought; war in the valley.
2. Not dated; the decades after 1200 in the usual reconstructionThe Sosso under the Kante extend their power over the Soninke lands east of Takrur. No act against Takrur is recorded; nothing should be assumed for 1200.Depends on: The Sosso's rise (gha records). Stopped by: Anything that checks the Sosso in the Soninke country.

Later, on the likely course

1. Thirteenth century, not dated (later)The Futa tradition's fall of the Manna dynasty: its last king, Cengaan Sumaare, overthrown by his own people; the western parts break away (Wikipedia: Takrur).Depends on: Tradition only. Stopped by: Not applicable to 1200.
2. About 1285 (later)Mali conquers Takrur and rules through farba governors (Wikipedia: Takrur).Depends on: The rise of Mali under Sundiata's successors, which has not begun. Stopped by: Not applicable to 1200.

Places of note

• Takrur, the royal town (site not known): Stand-in for the capital; see Takrur.
• Silla (candidate site near Kaedi): One of three candidate sites for Silla; see Silla.
• The Gorgol valley (Tumbere Jiinge of the tradition): Heartland of the first dynasties in the Futa tradition; the site of Tumbere Jiinge is not fixed.
• Sintiou Bara (point drawn at Matam; the site lies near it): Excavated mound site of the first millennium AD near Matam; see Sintiou Bara.

Where the sources disagree

• The dynastic dates of the Futa tradition are reconstructions: English Wikipedia (Takrur) puts the Manna in the ninth or tenth century and has the Tonjon overthrow the first dynasty 'sometime during the 8th century' (citing Brooks 2019) while also calling the Tonjon the remembered form of Mali's later governors; French Wikipedia (Tekrour) dates the Manna about 980-1300 and the Tondyon 1300-1400. We name no king for 1200 from any of these.
• English Wikipedia (Takrur) has the Serer leader Amar Godomat kill the Almoravid Abu Bakr ibn Umar in November 1087 at Lake Cayor. The Arabic sources have Abu Bakr die of a poisoned arrow in 1087 in the far south of the desert and name no Serer. Treat the Serer version as tradition, not fact.
• French Wikipedia (Tekrour) calls War Jabi 'Wardiaby Ndiaye', a Wolof. This is a modern reading of the name, not al-Bakri's text.
• The site of the capital is not known: English Wikipedia names Tumbere Jiinge in the Gorgol valley (the Dya'ogo and Manna capital in the tradition); Oumar Kane places the cradle of Takrur between Dagana and Dembankani; archaeologists have looked on the Ile a Morphil. The point is a stand-in.

Evidence: Written evidence: al-Bakri (1068) and al-Idrisi (1154) before 1200; Ibn Sa'id (after 1250), al-Umari and Ibn Khaldun (fourteenth century) after; nothing dated to 1199-1200. The Futa Toro tradition was written down in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and its dates are reconstructions. Archaeology (the Middle Senegal Valley project of S. K. and R. J. McIntosh and H. Bocoum, published as The Search for Takrur, 2016) shows a densely settled valley with imported copper alloys and glass beads from the later first millennium, but has not found the capital.

On the map: Drawn on the extent of the later Futa Toro and the Gorgol valley. Al-Idrisi's Takrur of 1154 reached further east (Barisa); how far the king ruled the Wolof delta, the Ferlo herders or the Soninke upstream in 1200 is not known, and those lands are drawn as their own peoples' provinces with Takrur's possible claims noted on their cards.

Primary sources for this realm

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• The Book of Geography, Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr al-Zuhri (about 1140 to 1150, at Granada). A short Andalusi geography fifty years before 1200 with notices on the Sahara and the Sudan that are independent of al-Bakri: the Lamtuna and the veiled Sanhaja, Sijilmasa and the gold road, and Ghana, which al-Zuhri says accepted Islam at the time of the Almoravid movement (he gives the year 469 of the Hijra, 1076 to 1077), the only source for that statement.
• The Book of Geography, Ibn Said al-Maghribi (Ali ibn Musa ibn Said) (about 1250 to 1275). Written two generations after 1200 but drawing on the travels of Ibn Fatima, a merchant who had been in the Sudan, Ibn Said gives the first clear picture of Kanem as an empire: the mai Dunama Dibalemi (reigned about 1210 to 1248), his capital Njimi, his Muslim subjects and his reach to the Fezzan, Tajuwa and the Zaghawa, with the Sao and other peoples on his borders. Read online
• The Book of Examination of the Wonders of the Cities (1191). The nearest geographical survey to 1200: a description of the Almohad lands written nine years earlier, town by town, from Alexandria and Barqa through Tripoli, Gabès, Mahdia, Tunis, Bougie, Tlemcen, Fez, Marrakesh and Sijilmasa, with a section on the Sahara routes and the Sudan (Ghana, Zafun, Kawkaw). Read online
• The Book of Routes and Realms: the Description of North Africa, al-Bakri (Abu Ubayd Abd Allah ibn Abd al-Aziz al-Bakri) (1068, at Cordoba). Old by 1200 but still the standard description of the Sahara and the Sudan that the Almohad-period writers copied: Ghana under Tunka Manin with its twin towns and its Muslim quarter, Awdaghust, Tadmakka, Kawkaw, Takrur and Sila, the gold trade and the routes from Sijilmasa and the Dar'a; the Ibadi towns of the Jarid and the Fezzan; the Berber peoples of the Maghreb. Read online
• The Pleasure of One who Longs to Cross the Horizons (the Book of Roger), al-Idrisi (Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Sharif al-Idrisi) (completed in 1154 at Palermo, for Roger II of Sicily). The fullest geography of Africa a generation before 1200: the Maghreb and Ifriqiya town by town with distances and products; the Sahara routes through Sijilmasa, Awdaghust, Ghadames and Zawila; the Sudan with Ghana, Takrur, Sila, Barisa, Kawkaw (Gao) and Kugha, and Kanem with its towns Manan and Njimi; Nubia and Dongola, the Beja and the Red Sea ports; Zeila and Berbera; and the Zanj coast with Malindi, Mombasa, Qanbalu and Sofala with its gold, the earliest systematic notice of the Swahili towns. Read online
• Corpus of Early Arabic Sources for West African History, Various (edited by N. Levtzion and J. F. P. Hopkins) (ninth to sixteenth centuries; the collection published 1981). The standard English collection of every Arabic passage on the western and central Sudan.