r), region and former sultanate, W Sudan. The region is mountainous, dominated by the central massif of Jebel Marra, which rises to 10,130 ft (3,088 m). Much of the terrain is dry plateau, and there are sand dunes in the extreme north. The region is divided into the states of North, West, and South Darfur. The Fur (for whom the area is named) and the Baggara are the major ethnic groups. Darfur's economy is based on subsistence agriculture. Cattle, sheep, and goats are raised in the north.
The rulers of Cush Cush .
1 Asian nation, perhaps the same as one of similar name in E Mesopotamia. Gen. 10.8; 1 Chron. 1.10.
2 Ancient kingdom of Nubia, in the present Sudan, which flourished from the 11th cent. B.C. to the 4th cent. A.D.
..... Click the link for more information. , which fell c.A.D. 350, may have established a dynasty in Darfur. Christian kingdoms emerged in the period between 900 and 1200, but they were destroyed by Muslim incursions from Kanem Kanem , former empire in Africa in the areas near Lake Chad that are now part of Chad and N Nigeria. The empire began in the 9th cent., when the Sefawa migrated to the area from the Sahara.
..... Click the link for more information. in the mid-13th cent. Fur, a major kingdom probably founded in the 15th cent., pushed aside the Kanem rulers in the 17th cent. Fur was conquered by the Egyptians in 1874 and by the Mahdists (see Mahdi Mahdi [Arab.,=he who is divinely guided], in Sunni Islam, the restorer of the faith. He will appear at the end of time to restore justice on earth and establish universal Islam. The Mahdi will be preceded by al-Dajjal, a Muslim antichrist, who will be slain by Jesus.
..... Click the link for more information. ) of Sudan in 1883. With the fall of the Mahdist state in 1898, Darfur became a semiautonomous sultanate under Anglo-Egyptian suzerainty. The sultan attempted to expel the foreign colonizers during World War I, but his forces were defeated by the British in 1916, and Darfur was incorporated into Sudan.
Since 2003 the region has been scene of fighting, with government forces and their allied Arab militias (the janjaweed) battling non-Arab rebels linked to an opposition party. An estimated 50,000 persons have died in the fighting, and another 150,000 have died from disease, hunger, and other causes, and the government and janjaweed have been accused by some of genocide. Some 2 million people have been made refugees, and attempts to establish a cease-fire have produce only temporary results.
Darfur
Historical region and former province, western Sudan. It was an independent kingdom from c. 2500 BC. Its first traditional rulers, the Daju, probably traded with ancient Egypt; they were succeeded by the Tunjur. Darfur's Christian period (c. 900–1200) was ended by the advance of Islam with the empire of Kanem-Bornu. In the 1870s Darfur came under Egyptian rule, and in 1916 it became a province of Sudan.
Darfur
Darfur
a plateau in the Sudan between the basins of Lake Chad and the White Nile. The designation “plateau” is relative. since the predominant relief consists of socle plains composed of ancient crystalline rock from a projection of the African platform; there are many monadnocks. The central part includes the extinct volcano Jabal Marra, which at 3,088 m is the highest summit of Darfur. The plateau has an equatorial monsoon climate, torrid with a dry season of eight to nine months; precipitation measures 500–600 mm per year. There are no permanent rivers, and vegetation is typical wilderness savanna.
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