Ibrahim Sori

Ibrahim Sori (died 1784 by the sources' date lines, 1791–1792 by their narratives) was the Fula military leader of the Imamate of Futa Jallon in Guinea and the cousin of its founder Karamokho Alfa. Where Alfa was the scholar, Sori was the sword: de facto leader from 1748, formal successor in 1751, and after the victory of 1776 almami in his own right as Sori Mawdo, Sori the Great. He organised the theocratic state into nine provinces, broke the council that tried to curb him, and founded the military line of almamis that alternated with Alfa's clerical line thereafter. ^{1 2}

Sori was Alfa Ibrahima's cousin. Tradition credits him with symbolically launching the war in 1727, destroying the great ceremonial drum of the Yalunka with his sword, and he took the military role that Alfa, an inspired religious leader, was not qualified for. When Alfa's devotions overcame him in 1748, Sori was selected as de facto leader — Alfa's son Alfa Saliu being too young — and on Alfa's death around 1751 he was formally chosen as successor. In 1762 his combined Fulani and Solima forces invaded the Wassoulou and were defeated; the alliance broke, the Solima raided the Fulani yearly, and in 1776 Sori defeated them decisively and imposed Fulani supremacy. ^{3 1}

After the 1776 victory Sori adopted the title almami and became known as Sori Maudo, Sori the Great. He was formally installed at Fugumba, the religious capital, but ruled from Timbo, the political capital, over nine provinces each led by a cleric subordinate to him; the council of elders collected the tithes and booty of the jihad and enforced the Sharia, and its consent confirmed his successors. When the council grew jealous of his power and agitated against him, Sori entered Fugumba, executed the councillors who had opposed him, and had a packed general assembly confirm his authority; the military faction was then firmly in control for the rest of his life. Under Sori, slaves taken in the wars were sold to obtain munitions, a practice the article records as considered acceptable so long as the slaves were not Muslim. ^{1 2}

The summary lines of both articles date his death about 1784, and the Historical Dictionary of Guinea, cited by the French article, enters him as Barry, Ibrahima Sori (?-1784); Wikidata likewise gives 1784. Yet the narratives of the same two articles state that the military faction remained in control until Sori's death in 1791–1792, and that his son Sa'id then held office until 1797–1798, when he was killed and replaced by a descendant of Karamokho Alfa; two other sons, Abdul Qadir and Yahya, later held the almami office in turn. The museum builds about-1784 under the status debated and states the 1791–1792 reading in full; the conflict is in the sources and is not resolved here. ^{1 2 4}

One of Sori's sons was Abdul Rahman Ibrahima Sori, captured in 1788 and held in slavery for forty years near Natchez, Mississippi, before his release in 1828. He is a different man from his father and has his own museum record; the two are easily confused, since the son's name contains the father's, and the articles on the father point to the son in their see-also lists. ^{1 2}

No source consulted names a legal school or a Sufi order for Ibrahim Sori himself. He commanded a clerically founded state and enforced its Sharia order, but command of a tradition is not attestation for the man, and Wikidata records no religion value for him. His faith is recorded as unattested. ^{1 4}

No Arabic or Urdu Wikipedia article on Ibrahim Sori exists; the museum's Arabic and Urdu labels and prose are its own rendering of the English- and French-language record. No source read gives any birth year for him — Wikidata's value is recorded at century precision only — so the record builds no birth date, and the century queue's about-1725 is an unattested inference. His name is also written Ibrahima Sori and, in French, Ibrahima Sory Mawdo.