Rabih az-Zubayr

Rabih az-Zubayr bin Fadlallah (Arabic: رابح فضل الله ,رابح الزبير ابن فضل الله, romanized: Rābiḥ az-Zubayr ibn Faḍlallāh; c. 1840 – April 22, 1900) was a Sudanese warlord, adventurer, and slave trader who through conquests established a large and powerful empire in Central and West Africa in the late 19th century. A formidable military tactician and leader, Rabih supplanted the al-Kanemi dynasty of the Kanem–Bornu Empire and frustrated European colonial interests in the region for several years.

Rabih began his career as a soldier in the Egyptian army under Isma'il Pasha, eventually joining the raider and trader Al-Zubayr Rahma Mansur in the Bahr el Ghazal. After Mansur's forces were suppressed by the Egyptians and British, Rabih took a small force westwards and gradually built up a larger army and considerable wealth through raiding. Over the course of about a decade, Rabih's army grew from 400 soldiers to 5,000 and he became strong enough to face and defeat well-established states in central Africa, such as the Sultanate of Bagirmi. In 1892–1894, Rabih conquered the Kanem–Bornu Empire and transformed it into a brutal military dictatorship under the leadership of himself and his close military commanders. Rabih instituted a highly efficient but brutal and extortionate tax system and his army was one of the best-equipped and best-organised forces in sub-Saharan Africa. Rabih's raiding-based rule and economy severely damaged the traditionally prosperous agriculture of Bornu, causing a food crisis in the empire.

Rabih's independent rule over Bornu ran counter to French interests in the region. In 1899–1900, France sent several expeditionary forces against Rabih. In 1900, a French army led by Amédée-François Lamy and Émile Gentil, supported by local allies, defeated and killed Rabih at the battle of Kousséri. Although the al-Kanemi dynasty was briefly restored under French colonial suzerainty, Rabih's death paved the way for the French colonisation of Chad. Rabih was one of the last major opponents of the French colonial empire and is a controversial figure in African history, remembered both for his brutal rule and for his resistance against European colonialism.