sultanate · Egypt, North Africa and Sudan
Dar Masalit
Origins
The Masalit lived on the western fringe of the Darfur Sultanate. In the 1870s, as Darfur fell to Zubayr's Bahr al-Ghazal and the Khedivate of Egypt, a Masalit holy man, Ismail Abd al-Nabi, built up authority among them, and his family founded an independent sultanate around 1874.
Rule and society
The sultans ruled a farming people from fortified centres, balancing between the Mahdist State, the Wadai Empire and the restored Darfur Sultanate of Ali Dinar. In 1910 Sultan Taj al-Din defeated a French column at Dorothe, though he died in the fighting. His successor Muhammad Bahr al-Din, known as Andoka, made Geneina his capital.
Decline and legacy
After Britain annexed Darfur in 1916 and the Anglo-French border was fixed in 1919, the sultan accepted indirect rule. Dar Masalit was formally joined to Anglo-Egyptian Sudan in 1922, keeping its sultan as a traditional ruler.
On the connections map
Open the full map →Connections (2)
- Dar Masalit paid tribute to Wadai Empire1874 CE – 1910 CE
- Dar Masalit was a protectorate of Anglo-Egyptian Sudan1922 CE
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Cite this page
- APA
- The Epoch Institute. (2026). Dar Masalit. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/dar-masalit
- MLA
- “Dar Masalit.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/dar-masalit. Accessed .
- Chicago
- The Epoch Institute. “Dar Masalit.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/dar-masalit.
- Harvard
- The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Dar Masalit’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/dar-masalit (Accessed: ).
Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻