Fur people

The Fur are the largest ethnic group in the Darfur region of western Sudan.

The Fur are nominally Sunni Muslims following the Maliki school of Islamic law.

[6] They are a Western Sudanese people who practice sedentary herding and agriculture, mainly the cultivation of millet.

They speak Fur, a Nilo-Saharan language, and are Muslims, having adopted the religion following the region's conquest by the Kanem-Bornu Empire during the Middle Ages.

[6] Abdul Wahid al Nur, a leader among the Fur,[7] established the Sudan Liberation Movement and Army.

[5] The traditional heartland of the Fur is the mountainous region around Jebel Sî and Jebel Marra Wadi Salih and Zaligi; today, however, most of them live in the lower country west and southwest of that area, between 11–14 N and 23–26 E. Some Fur live across the border in Chad, many of them refugees.

The Furs' lifestyle has led to conflict with the nomadic Baggara, cattle-herders of the region, concerning access to water and grazing land, particularly in Darfur's central Jebel Marra mountains where the best agricultural land is to be found.

Common greetings include: Heavy drums are often used while making speeches and other public addresses.

[citation needed] Among the Fur people, stories are told to keep children safe from the outside world.

Some popular Fur musicians are; Abdalla Kioka, Marium Amo and Tour Baréé'ng Kwee.

The clay will then pile up while still wet, pressed on to the scaffolds made out of wood, or cast in molds of various sizes into bricks.

This technique is applied to most architecture in Western Sudan such as farmhouses, barns, outer walls, palaces, and even mosques.

The Quran is studied with the help of a hand-held board shaped object known as the lohh and a wooden stylus called a kalam.

The Fur tribesman's knowledge of the Quran determines their position on the tribe's hierarchy ladder.

The grounds are steeped in hot water and the coffee is served in tiny cups after straining it through a grass sieve.

Millet porridge and fool medamas, a savory dish of mashed fava beans, are popular breakfast foods in the north.

Breads include the Arabian khubz, and kisra, an omelet-like pancake which is part of the Sudanese dinner.

In a typical Fur family the parents of the groom and wife will be taken care of until they die.

After the wedding, the family and guests have lunch, then they start a lively dance called firalubia.

Classes begin at 6–7 years and they continue learning the Quran (though not entirely in school) for the rest of their lives.

The Fur were also one of the first people from other ethnic groups in the country who were picked to build the wall covering and mosque surrounding the Kaaba.

[12] Until 1916, the Fur were ruled by an independent sultanate and were oriented politically to peoples in Chad.

The fall of Darfur was decided when Ali Dinar declared loyalty to the Ottoman Empire in World War I.

In World War I Darfur made a bid for independence by allying with Turkey against the British.

Since the 1970s, the Darfur area has suffered some of the effects of the northern Arab war prosecuted in the south against Southern ethnic groups who wanted to secede from the Sudan.

[13] Analysis of classic genetic markers and DNA polymorphisms by Tay and Saha (1988) found that the Fur are most closely related to the Hawazma of Sudan.

The remaining Fur individuals are primarily carriers of the A3b2 lineage (31.3%), which is instead common among Nilotes.

This altogether suggests that the genetic introgression into the Fur's ancestral population was asymmetrical, occurring primarily through Afro-Asiatic-speaking males rather than females.