Maba

The Maba, also called the Bargo, are Sunni Muslim farmers and pastoralists of the Wadai mountains in eastern Chad; their Maba language became the state language of the Wadai Sultanate.

The Tunjur kingdom ruled them from the fifteenth century, but in 1635 the Maba clans answered Abd al-Karim's call, overthrew King Daud and founded the Kolak dynasty at Ouara, making Islam the state religion, though most commoners kept older beliefs. Wadai long paid tribute to Darfur until the kolak Ya'qub Arus withheld it and beat off Darfur's invasion.

After 1804 Sultan Muhammad Sabun turned Wadai into a caravan power: in 1805 he tributized Bagirmi, and a route north to Benghazi opened about 1810, bringing coinage and firearms. Instability followed Sabun's death around 1815, six sultans rising and falling through the 1820s and 1830s as Darfur pressed its succession claims.