Sultanate of Damagaram

Niger, 1731–1899. Draft, not yet reviewed

The Sultanate of Damagaram was a Muslim pre-colonial state in what is now southeastern Niger, centered on the city of Zinder. The Sultanate of Damagaram was founded in 1731 near Mirriah by Muslim aristocrats, led by Mallam. By the 19th century, Damagaram had absorbed 18 Bornu vassal states in the area. In the mid-19th century, European travelers estimated the state covered some 70,000 square kilometers and had a population of over 400,000, mostly Hausa, but also Tuareg, Fula, Kanuri, Arab and Toubou.

Seat of power: Zinder

No rulers documented for this era yet.

Culture

• Zinder rose from a small Hausa village to an important center of the Trans-Saharan trade with the moving of the capital of Damagaram there in 1736.
• Damagaram sat astride the major trade route linking Tripoli to Kano, one of the more powerful Sokoto sultanates, which provided the economic lifeblood of both states.
• At the center of the state was the royal family, a Sultan (in Hausa the Sarkin Damagaram) with many wives (estimated at 300 by visitor Heinrich Barth in 1851) and children, and a tradition of direct (to son or brother) succession which reached 26 rulers by 1906.
• The sultanate remained nominally subject to the Borno Empire until the reign of Sultan Tanimoune Dan Souleymane in the mid-to-late 19th century, who declared independence and initiated a phase of vigorous expansion.

Picture

In 1736 the town of Zinder was declared the capital of the Sultanate of Damagaram, and it became an important centre of the Trans-Saharan trade.

Image: Mab.black, CC BY-SA 4.0, file

Sources

• Sultanate of Damagaram (Wikipedia)
• Sultanate of Damagaram (Wikidata)
• About the picture (Wikipedia)

Text adapted from the Wikipedia articles listed as sources, CC BY-SA 4.0.