War Jabi

War-Dyabe (وار ذياب بن ربيس) or War Jabi (وار جابي), also known as: War Jaabi or War-Dyabe, was the first Muslim king of Tekrur in the 1030s, the first to proclaim Islam as a state religion in the Sudan.

Background
War Jabi was a member of the Manna dynasty that had ruled Takrur 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 Takrur by Soninke merchants and spread widely.

Reign
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.

He died in 433 Hijri (1040 or 1041 Gregorian), and was succeeded by his son Lebi Ibn War Jabi.

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

Legacy
War Jabi's embrace of Islam may have provided impetus and inspiration for the later Almoravid movement that arose among the Berbers north of the Senegal river in the decades after his death.

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.