Who calls Sultan Ali Dinar?

Sultan Ali Dinar, the last of the Fur sultans, of the Kerawi dynasty in the Sultanate of Darfur, Sudan.

He resided in the city of El-Fasher, the capital of Darfur, and built a factory for the manufacture of the covering of the Kaaba, and for nearly 20 years he sent the covering of the Kaaba to Makkah Al-Mukarramah, and he is credited with digging wells on the meeqaats of the people of Medina for Ihram for Hajj and Umrah in the vicinity of Medina, and the renovation of the "Dhu al-Hulaifa" mosque.

His original name is Muhammad Ali, but Dinar means in the Darfurian dialect (this is fire), meaning that this person is a man of fire, tough, strong and brave.

A memorial meeting was recently held in Turkey on the 106th anniversary of the martyrdom of Sultan Ali Dinar, and this event is being held for the first time in Istanbul.

The definitive answer to the lies of the hate mongers

When talking about the relations between Turkey and Sudan, it is automatically talked about the brotherhood between the two countries and the close relations and deep talks between them, but to understand the nature of the reasons for these deep roots;

It is necessary to get to know Sultan Ali Dinar and understand his reign, as this is the first time that such a memorial meeting has been held for Sultan Ali Dinar, who was martyred 106 years ago while fighting on the side of the Ottoman Empire against the British.

This heroism no one knows anything about, and this, in my opinion, is an unforgivable omission of our true historical and geographical depth and our identity, but it is better late than not coming at all.

I think that this omission of this great event in our Turkish history is unforgivable for two reasons:

• The first is that it is not appropriate for us to forget the depth and originality of relations between Turkey and Sudan.

• The second is that it clearly shows the truth of the famous cliche that "the Arabs shot us in the back, and betrayed us," which is spoken of with ignorance and hatred.

If the thousands of Arabs, Indians, Kurds and Albanians who lay with their Turkish brothers in Erşanakkale and Sarışkam and the many sites where they were martyred together;

They do not constitute an adequate answer to this sentence;

Ali Dinar, like Sheikh Ahmad al-Senussi, is an excellent answer to that question.

This answer is only for those who ask a real question, and are looking for answers that calm themselves, and for those who repeat these phrases and fallacies out of sheer hatred, this is another way to respond to them that is not appropriate here in that article.

Dinar's good relations with the British did not last long, as the sultan used to show great independence in ruling the Darfur region, although the region belonged to the government of Sudan, which was under the control of the British.

Sultan and the French and English occupation

When Ali Dinar came to rule the Sultanate of Darfur at the end of the 19th century;

The British and French occupations had spread in the continent to stop any independent power, and Ali Dinar was a sultan who tried to protect Darfur as an Islamic homeland living under the Ottoman Empire from this occupation and tried to raise the Ottoman flag on this land, and in order to achieve this purpose he made many skillful political maneuvers against The British - who surrounded him from all sides - rejected many of the British demands in the region he ruled and waged a real struggle against them for independence.

Dinar's good relations with the British did not last long. The sultan used to show great independence in ruling the Darfur region, although the region belonged to the government of Sudan, which was under the control of the British.

Although Ali Dinar was keen to confirm that the Darfur region actually belonged to the government of Sudan, and he continued to pay tribute to the ruler of Sudan until 1915, Dinar was behaving as if the Darfur region was an independent part, so that he did not allow any government employee to enter the region as he was. He always avoids meeting the English envoys to Darfur.

The British did not find any escape from dealing with Ali Dinar as a fait accompli imposed on them, as the man was able to impose his hegemony over the Darfur region, and it would cost the British a heavy price if they wanted to change him.

The movement of the siege of the French and the British against the Ottoman Empire had in fact begun long before the First World War across Africa and in Yemen and the Hejaz region, and through their activity in Africa they found very serious and powerful allies with an understanding centered on confronting the Ottoman Islamic Union and the Khilafah.

But both Al-Senussi and Ali Dinar in Libya and Darfur, and with them the leadership of the Joys of Life movement - despite the struggle between them - made the Ottoman Empire live until the last moment, and they may even have been the cause of the defeat of the British in the war against this alliance that they were not forced into. Therefore, their loss and martyrdom is a great matter and is considered a badge of honor that we must recognize and remember over the ages.

In fact;

None of them had any other reason to oppose the British than loyalty to the Ottoman Empire, for Sudan was at that moment a rising power;

The British promised them power, but they did not stop fighting against the British in order to protect a Muslim land from invaders, in the name of loyalty to the Ottoman Empire, to which they felt sincere loyalty.

When the letter containing the fatwa of jihad declared by the Ottoman caliph against the British reached his hands;

Without hesitation, Sultan Ali Dinar declared his independence by issuing a proclamation on April 22, 1915, reducing the tax he had been sending to the British until then, and officially declaring jihad against Britain and its allies.

In his letter to Anwar Pasha - Minister of War at the end of the Ottoman Empire - he said, "I wanted to inform the caliph that as soon as this war began between the Sultan of Islam and the British and French - who are infidels and heretics - and their allies, I severed relations with the infidel in God and Islam and declared war, and denounced them as enemies." .

This open attitude of Ali Dinar, who was somehow fine with them, even though he had not completely succumbed to the expansionist policies of the British until then was a decision that could change the balance of the war in the beginning.

Ali Dinar's strength was not to be ignored.

in addition to;

His choice to side with the Ottoman Empire with such rhetoric and violence could have set an example for other countries.

Therefore, although the British tried to lure Ali Dinar to their side by writing letters to the scholars to change their mind, the Sultan did not change his mind and fought with all his means on the side of the Ottoman Empire, with the latest weapons and armies - and despite the great difficulties - against the British;

until he was martyred by a bullet that hit his head on November 6, 1916;

As his stand, struggle and martyrdom are witnesses to the blood, feelings and ideas that contributed to the existence of Turkey today.

Work on the construction of Sultan Ali Dinar's palace began in 1871 and was completed in 1912 under the supervision of Haji Abd al-Razeq, nicknamed Pasha Bok, who came to El Fasher from Baghdad and was of Turkish origin.

Despite its transformation into a museum nearly 40 years ago, and its inclusion in the UNESCO World Heritage List, the palace suffers from long neglect.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was determined to restore the palace after he visited Sudan in 2006, in honor of the memory of Ali Dinar, who stood with the Turks in their war against the British.

The palace was handed over to the presidency of the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency "TIKA" (a Turkish government agency concerned with providing aid and undertaking projects concerned with Turkish history and antiquities) to take care of and preserve it.

Among the most important relics in the Palace Museum are 3 huge wooden lists to carry the Sultan’s brass, which is a huge drum that weighs about 200 kilograms and has a circumference of about 2 to 3 meters. This huge royal drum was used to announce orders and war and in cases of royal occasions.

This palace will be one of our main tools to draw the attention of new generations to the historical testimony presented by the story of Ali Dinar’s martyrdom to the General Directorate of Historical Antiquities and Museums of Sudan in July 2021.

But before you tell the story of Ali Dinar’s martyrdom to the Sudanese, anything;

It is necessary that the people of Turkey be told of it, for as far as I can see;

Our Sudanese or Arab brothers did not forget their relations with the Turks, but someone tried hard to make the Turks forget their existence, ties and heritage in this wide geography and close to the heart!