Fugumba was the religious center of the

Imamate of Futa Jallon The Imamate of Futa Jallon or Jalon (; or ' , ), sometimes referred to as the Emirate of Timbo, was a West African Islamic state based in the Fouta Djallon highlands of modern Guinea. The state was founded in 1725 by a Fulani jihad and became ...

. It was about to the northwest of the secular capital, Timbo, and lay in the valley of the Téné River. Fugomba was a place where

marabout In the Muslim world, the marabout () is a Sayyid, descendant of Muhammad (Arabic: سـيّد, Romanization of Arabic, romanized: ''sayyid'' and ''sidi'' in the Maghreb) and a Islam, Muslim religious leader and teacher who historically had the f ...

s and chiefs of the

Fula people The Fula, Fulani, or Fulɓe people are an ethnic group in Sahara, Sahel and West Africa, widely dispersed across the region. Inhabiting many countries, they live mainly in West Africa and northern parts of Central Africa, South Sudan, Darfur, ...

gathered to read and discuss the

Quran The Quran, also Romanization, romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a Waḥy, revelation directly from God in Islam, God (''Allah, Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which ...

. It was here that the decision to launch a holy war against the infidels was decided in 1725, and here that Karamokho Alfa was chosen to lead the ''

jihad ''Jihad'' (; ) is an Arabic word that means "exerting", "striving", or "struggling", particularly with a praiseworthy aim. In an Islamic context, it encompasses almost any effort to make personal and social life conform with God in Islam, God ...

''. In 1762 the king of Sankaran, Konde Burama, attacked the new formed state and was only with difficulty prevented from taking Fugumba. The forces of Ibrahima Sory did not remove the threat from Sankaran until 1776. The Council of Elders of the Futa Jallon state were based in Fugumba, acting as a brake on the Almami, who headed the state. The Fulani built a large conical mosque in Fugumba, the first in the region. Fugumba had perhaps a thousand huts, and became the place where the newly chosen rulers of Futa-Jallon came to be consecrated. It was a center of Islamic learning. In the later political struggles of the state, Fugumba and Kolladé were the bases of the '' Alfaya'' faction, opposed to the more militarist '' Soriya'' faction that controlled

Labé Labé ( Pular: 𞤂𞤢𞤦𞤫) is the main city and administrative capital of the Fouta Djallon region of Guinea. It has a population of about 200,000. It is the second largest city in the country after the capital Conakry in terms of economic i ...

and Timbi.

References

Citations Sources * * * {{morecat, date=September 2022 History of Guinea