ABSTRACT
In Chad, several state societies and principalities emerged between the ninth and the seventeenth centuries. Some survived until the arrival of the French during the 1890s. Others lasted a short time, most often engulfed by a stronger neighbor. Among precolonial Chad’s best known states were Kanem-Bornu, Bagirmi, and Wadai. All three eventually became Islamic states following the conversion of their rulers and subjects to Islam, engaged in violent slave raids, and constantly attempted to expand and control a nucleus of states or indigenous polities as vassal states or tributary communities.
