War Jabi

{{Original research section|date=March 2025}}

War Jabi was a member of the Manna dynasty that had ruled Takrur since the early 800s.{{citation needed|date=March 2025}} He is the first West African ruler to make Islam the state religion. He is the son and successor of a man named Rabis.{{dubious|date=March 2025}}{{OR|date=March 2025}}{{cite book |last1=Kane |first1=Oumar |title=La première hégémonie peule. Le Fuuta Tooro de Koli Teηella à Almaami Abdul |date=2004 |publisher=Karthala |location=Paris |isbn=978-2-84586-521-1 |url=https://www.cairn.info/la-premiere-hegemonie-peule--9782845865211-page-114.htm |access-date=12 July 2023}}{{rp|65}} Islam had been brought to Takrur by Soninke{{OR|date=March 2025}} merchants and spread widely.{{rp|64}}

{{POV section|date=March 2025}}

War Jabi converted to Islam and forced his subjects to convert to Islam, introducing sharia law in the Kingdom in 1035.Colvin, Lucie Gallistel, Historical dictionary of Senegal, Scare Crow Press Inc. (1981), p. 18, {{ISBN|0-8108-1369-6}} This greatly benefited the state economically and created greater political ties with the Muslim states of North Africa that would be important in the later conflicts with the animist state of Ghana.{{cite book|last=Robinson|first=David|title=Muslim Societies in African History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jZEL3kdcQggC|access-date=14 October 2015|date=12 January 2004|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|isbn=978-0-521-53366-9}}

He successfully waged West Africa's first Holy War against the King of Sila.{{Cite book |last=Al-Naqar |first=Umar |title=Takrur the History of a Name |date=1969 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |pages=367}}

He died in 433 Hijri (1040 or 1041 Gregorian), and was succeeded by his son Lebi ibn War Jabi, who would go on to be a key contributor to the foundation of the Almoravids and their rule in Al Andalus.{{cite book|authorlink1=Nehemia Levtzion|last1=Levtzion|first1=Nehemia|title=Ancient Ghana and Mali|date=1973|publisher=Methuen & Co Ltd|location=New York|isbn=0841904316|page=44,183}}

{{Serer religion}}

{{main|Persecution of Serers|Tekrur#Serer Exodus}}

War Jabi's enforcement of sharia law pushed the Serer people of Tekrur (land owners and "the local agricultural people"Fage, J. D.; Oliver, Roland Anthony, "The Cambridge History of Africa: From c. 500 B.C. to A.D. 1050", Cambridge University Press (1975), p. 485, {{ISBN|9780521209816}} - [https://books.google.com/books?id=GWjxR61xAe0C&pg=PA485] last retrieved 20 June 2022), who refused Islam in favour of their traditional Serer religion, out of the country.Cohen, Robert Z., Discovering the Empire of Ghana, The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc. (2013), p. 39, {{ISBN|9781477718889}} - [https://books.google.com/books?id=J5HnAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA39] last retrieved 20 June 2022 That resulted in their migration to Baol and Sine.

War Jabi's embrace of Islam may have provided impetus and inspiration for the later Almoravid movement that arose among the Berbers north of the Senegal river in the decades after his death.{{cite book |last1=Gomez |first1=Michael |title=African dominion : a new history of empire in early and medieval West Africa |date=2018 |page=37 |publisher=Princeton University Press |location=Princeton, NJ |isbn=9780691177427}}

The name "War" means to "kill" (or "death") in the Serer language.Faye, Souleymane, "Morphologie du verbe sérère," Centre de linguistique appliquée de Dakar (1982), p. 26 The old Serer anti-Islamic (and anti-Wolof and anti-Arab) sentiments still prevails amongs ultra conservative Serers, especially in the former Serer Kingdom of Sine–the most conservative of the kingdoms were Serer religion and tradition prevails–even amongst those Serers who converted to Islam,Galvan, Dennis Charles. "The State is Now the Master of Fire : Adapting Institutions and Culture in Rural Senegal.", Volume 1. University of California, Berkeley (1996), p. 41, 95, 150-1Thiam, Iba Der, Maba Diakhou Ba Almamy du Rip (Sénégal), Paris, ABC, Dakar-Abidjan, NEA, 1977, p. 44Diagne, Pathé. "Pouvoir politique traditionnel en Afrique occidentale: essais sur les institutions politiques précoloniales." Présence africaine, 1967. p. 94 so much that, it is not uncommon to hear Serers use the pejorative terms "the spurns of War" and "the spurns of Leb" in Serer, and in reference to War Jabi and his son Leb–against anyone of Arab decent as well as other Senegambian ethnic groups whom they view as historically helping to propagate Islam in the Senegambia region. Senegalese author Iba Der Thiam writes that: "The Sine is an impregnable bastion of the anti-Islamic."

{{Portal|Senegal|Islam|Monarchy}}

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Category:Converts to Islam

Category:11th-century monarchs in Africa

Category:Senegalese monarchs

Category:History of Mauritania

Category:Persecution of Serers