page_title: Zaghawa people
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Zaghawa people / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Repartition map of Zaghawa people in Chad Africa
context_page_description: The Zaghawa people, also called Beri or Zakhawa, are a Northern African Muslim ethnic group of Southern Libya eastern Chad and western Sudan, including Darfur.
  Zaghawas speak the Zaghawa language, which is an eastern Saharan language. They are pastoralists, and a breed of sheep that they herd is called Zaghawa by the Arabs. They are nomadic and obtain much of their livelihood through herding cattle, camels and sheep and harvesting wild grains. It has been estimated that there are between 2000,000 and 2000,500 Zaghawa.
context_section_description: The Zaghawa are mentioned in classical Arabic language texts. The 9th century Arab geographer al-Ya'qubi, wrote of them as the “Zaghawa who live in a place called Kanem,” and proceeded to list a string of other kingdoms under Zaghawa rule. Historically, the Zaghawa people held a sort of hegemony over most of the smaller societies that stretched along the Sahel between Lake Chad to the Nile valley kingdoms of Nubia, Makuria and Alwa.
  The Zaghawa people were trading with the Nile region and the Maghreb regions by the 1st millennium CE. The earliest references to them in 8th century texts are made jointly with the Toubou people of northern Chad and southern Libya, and scholars believe the two are related ethnic groups. The 11th century texts mention that the kings of the Zaghawa kingdom had accepted Islam, and were at least nominally Muslims. Al Ya'qubi mentioned that the Berbers of north were trading in slaves drawn from the Zaghawa ethnic group and others.
  The early Arabic accounts describe the Zaghawa to be "black nomads". The 12th century geographer Al-Idrisi and the 13th century Yaqut describe the Zaghawa influence around an oasis centered system, and they mention the towns of Kanem, Manan and Anjimi. Al-Idrisi also described how the Zaghawa townspeople in the 12th century were involved in slave kidnapping, raiding and trade.
  Ibn Sa'id, however, writing in 1270 states that Manan was the capital of Kanem kingdom till the Sayfawa dynasty rulers converted to Islam, conquered the region, thereafter the capital shifted to Njimi. The Zaghawa continued to live in Manan, wrote Ibn Said. However, the records of Kanem do not mention Zaghawa, and it is likely that they were displaced and they then moved into the region they are currently found. This region is called Dar Zaghawa, or the "land of the Zaghawa".
  Although Zaghawa power was broken by the rise of Kanem in the Lake Chad region, Zaghawa retained control over a considerable portion of the lands lying east of Kanem, and it is only in the late 14th century that Darfur is mentioned as an independent state by the Egyptian historian and geographer Maqrizi. Following the rise of Darfur and Kanem, the Zaghawa appear to have controlled only desert areas and ceased to be a major regional power.
caption: Zaghawa people's distribution in Chad and Sudan.
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