ABSTRACT
The Keira sultan, Ibrahim b. Muhammad al-Husayn, who was killed unsuccessfully defending his state in 1874, was only seven generations removed from Sulayman, the first historical Keira sultan, who, as is argued below, probably ruled about the middle of the seventeenth century. Concerning the Keira kings between Sulayman and Daali, ‘the father of the Fur’, jadd alFur> the traditions are very confused, but taking an average of the regnal lists we have, the period between them would appear to be about eight generations.1 This may suggest, although it cannot be proved, that a Fur or Keira kingdom existed in Jabal Marra as early as the fifteenth century and therefore was contemporary with the Tunjur empire in northern Dar Fur.
