Editing Cayor (section)

==Religion==
[[Trans-Saharan trade]]rs brought [[Islam]] to the region in the 8th century, and it rapidly became the dominant tradition among the [[Wolof people|Wolof]], to the point where historians can find no traces of a pre-Islamic organized religion.<ref name=Thomas/>{{rp|323}} The practice of Islam, however, was syncreticized with local customs in much the same way that Christianity was adapted to an underlying pagan context in Europe.<ref name = Colvin>{{cite journal |last1=Colvin |first1=Lucie Gallistel |title=Islam and the State of Kajoor: A Case of Successful Resistance to Jihad|journal=Journal of African History |date=1974 |volume=xv |issue=4 |pages=587–606 |doi=10.1017/S002185370001389X |s2cid=146699555 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/C5103BEEF02E021E91F418FDD3693BC7/S002185370001389Xa.pdf/islam_and_the_state_of_kajoor_a_case_of_successful_resistance_to_jihad.pdf |access-date=4 December 2023}}</ref>{{rp|593}} This has led to debate among scholars, some of whom characterize the nobility of Cayor and other Senegambian kingdoms as 'pagan' (despite their self-identification as Muslims) in opposition to a more stringently Muslim [[marabout]] class. Islam was the official religion of the state and of the entire population. When Christian missionaries asked the damel for permission to prosyletize in 1848, he refused, saying that as Muslims the Wajoor already knew God; he sent them to convert the [[Serer people|Serer]] instead.<ref name = Colvin/>{{rp|603}} 

Most of the marabouts in Cayor were [[Fula people|Fulas]] from [[Futa Toro]], but integrated into the Wolof population over time.<ref name = Colvin/>{{rp|594}} There was a clear separation between the clerical and noble classes, although nobles and freemen could join the marabout class as ''talibe'' (disciples).<ref name = Colvin/>{{rp|589}} [[Lat Jor]]'s acceptance of a marabout patron in Maba (sometimes referred to as his conversion to Islam) prompted a rapid shift away from more syncreticized Islamic practices among the inhabitants of Cayor generally.{{sfn|Lewis|2017|p=167, 172}}<ref name = Colvin/>{{rp|605}}