Keira sultanate

The Keira sultanate, also known as the Darfur dynasty, ruled the historical region of Darfur in present-day Sudan from approximately 1640 to 1916. This dynasty was affiliated with the Fur people, who were the dark-skinned inhabitants of the region that accepted Islam and the Keira rule. The Keira sultans played a significant role in the Islamization of Darfur's inhabitants and engaged in intermittent conflicts with the Wadai kingdom.12

Darfur itself is a historical region within the Billād al-Sūdān, meaning "Land of the Blacks," and is located west of Kordofan and east of Wadai. The region is characterized by rolling plains and the volcanic Marrah Mountains. Historically, Arabs have been the majority in the north, while Arabs and Fur predominated in the south. The Keira dynasty's rule ended when Darfur came under Egyptian control in the 1870s, and it later became a province of Sudan after the Anglo-Egyptian government recognized 'Ali Dīnār as sultan in 1899.1