A01542 - War-Dyabi, The First West African Ruler to Convert to Islam

 War-Dyabi ibn Rabis (War Jabi) (War Jaabi) (d. 1040/1041 CC [433 AH]).  Ruler of Takrur -- the first known West African kingdom to embrace Islam.  According to the chronicler al-Bakri, it was War-Dyabi who first insisted that his subjects convert to Islam, demonstrating that Islam had reached western Sudan before the Almoravid conquest of Ghana in 1076/1077.  After War-Dyabi’s death, his son allied with the Almoravids, and probably fought with them against Ghana.

War Jabi was the king of Tekrur in the 1030s. He converted to Islam. This conversion allowed Tekrur to justify its wars of expansion to the south.

War-Dyabe or War Jabi, also known as: War Jaabi or War-Dyabe, was the first Muslim king of Tekrur in the 1030s, and the first to proclaim Islam as a state religion in the Sudan. 

War Jabi was a member of the Manna dynasty that had ruled Tekrur since the early 800s. His father Rabis may be the Rai bin Rai mentioned in Arabic sources as an ally of the Almoravids and king of the Sudan. Islam had been brought to Tekrur by Soninke merchants and spread widely.

War Jabi converted to Islam and forced his subjects to convert to Islam, introducing sharia law in the Kingdom in 1035. This greatly benefited the state economically and created greater political ties with the Muslim states of North Africa that would be important in the later conflicts with the animist state of Ghana. 

War Jabi died in 433 AH (1040 or 1041 CC) and was succeeded by his son Labi.

War Jabi's enforcement of sharia law pushed the Serer people of Tekrur (landowners and "the local agricultural people"), who refused Islam in favor of their traditional religion, out of the country. That resulted in their migration to Baol and Sine.

The name "War" means "death" in the Serer language. The old Serer anti-Islamic and anti-Arab term "the spurns of War" and "the spurns of Leb" are in reference to him and his son. They are pejorative terms.