[2] Except for slaves, including eunuchs, Bagirmi also exported animal skins, ivory, and cotton, while importing copper and cowrie shells.

[3] When Rabih az-Zubayr's forces burned Massenya in 1893, the 25th sultan, Abd ar Rahman Gaourang, moved his government to Chekna.

Rabih killed Paul Crampel, the leader of the first French expedition through the area but Emile Gentil secured a protectorate over Bagirmi from its sultan in 1897.

[3] French ambitions in Sudan were blocked following the Fashoda Crisis the next year, and their authority over the Bagirmi itself was not secured until after the death of Rabih and his sons in 1901.

[3] The population of the district was reckoned as 100,000 in 1903 and, by the time of the First World War, most of its trade was being conducted with Khartoum in Sudan through the Wadai Empire and with Yola in Nigeria along the Benue.

In March 2010, the Sultan of Baguirmi, Mbang Hadji Woli Mahamat was reinstated in his functions by the Chadian Minister of the Interior and Public Security.