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746 TAMA-SPEAKING PEOPLES
five—in Chad, the Abu Sharib (45,000), Asungor (56,000) and Mararit (17,000);
in Sudan, the Erenga (33,000) and the 8,000 Mileri (called Jebel by outsiders)—
have always been dependent upon more powerful neighboring sultanates.
In literature, the seven groups have been classified according to ethnic names
and corresponding territories, suggesting a degree of material and cultural separateness
which does not really exist, except for the Tama and Gimr. The Mararit
and Abu Sharib are in every respect similar; the same applies to the Asungor,
Erenga and Mileri. Linguistically, the two western groups cannot be understood
by the three southern and eastern groups, and only to some extent by the Tama
proper; the Gimr have spoken Arabic for a long time.
The seven groups may not have common ancestry and origins, and they appear
never to have acted in common in case of warfare. The Mararit and Abu Sharib
have always been part of the sultanate of Wadai (ca. 1680-1912), while the
Mileri, Erenga and probably also the Asungor became part of the Keiri sultanate
of Darfur at an early stage of its existence (ca. 1650-1874). Despite occupation
by the respective hostile sultanates, this situation remained more or less intact
until 1874, when the Darfur sultanate was conquered and became a province of
Turko-Egyptian Sudan (see Fur).
The Islamization of the region is associated with the collapse of Tunjur rule
towards the middle of the seventeenth century in Darfur and a few decades later
in Wadai (see Tunjur). However, the process by which Islam became the religion
of the subjects rather than the court and ruling classes was slow and gradual,
especially on the fringes of the two empires. A more thorough Islamization of
western Darfur began in the 1880s, when its peoples, including the Erenga,
Asungor and Mileri, joined the Mahdiyya (1881-1898). The Mahdi, who led
the holy war against the Turko-Egyptian conquerors of Sudan, did not distinguish
between the religious and political dimension of his struggle. Propaganda for
the Islamic faith and for the state which he founded went hand in hand. The
peoples of western Darfur accepted and continued to believe in the religious
message of the Mahdiyya, but they turned against the oppressive government
of the Mahdi's successor, the Khalifa Abdullahi, in what has been called "the
revolt of Abu Jummayza."
Abu Jummayza was a simple/«g/ (cleric), born in Dar Erenga of Tama parents.
Yet, in 1888 he became the leader of a general revolt in western Darfur which
failed. Of the seven Tama populations, only the Mararit and Abu Sharib appear
not to have taken part in it. Despite a punitive expedition, the Mahdist state
never succeeded in reasserting its authority in the area on a permanent basis,
and as soon as the Mahdist threat subsided, the political leaders of the area
became locked in a power struggle among themselves. The Masalit made themselves
independent from their previous rulers and subjugated the Erenga, Mileri
and perhaps also the Asungor (see Masalit).
These peoples have always resented their subjugation. When the Masalit became
involved in a series of three wars with the ruler of the restored Darfur
sultanate in the first decade of the twentieth century, they tried to shake off the