Imamate of Futa Jallon

The Imamate of Futa Jallon was a West African Islamic state established in 1725 in the Fouta Djallon highlands of what is now Guinea, founded through a religious uprising and ruled from its capital at Timbo near modern Mamou. It was governed under a strict interpretation of Islamic law by a religious-political leader called the Almamy, with the territory divided into nine autonomous provinces known as diwe, and after 1845 power alternated every two years between two ruling factions, the Alfaya and the Soriya. The nineteenth century was considered the imamate's golden age, when it became a leading center of Islamic learning in West Africa, though the same period saw its society harden into a hierarchy in which Muslims held full rights while non-Muslims formed an enslaved population; French forces deposed its last independent ruler, Bokar Biro, in November 1896, and the imamate continued as a French protectorate until 1912.