Historical region and former province, western Sudan.
It was an independent kingdom from с 2500 BC. Its first traditional rulers, the Daju, probably traded with ancient Egypt; they were succeeded by the Tunjur. Darfur's Christian period (с 900–1200) was ended by the advance of Islam with the empire of Kanem-Bornu . In the 1870s Darfur came under Egyptian rule, and in 1916 it became a province of Sudan.