Bornu Empire: A Visual History

Kanem-Bornu was the state of the Kanuri people around Lake Chad, ruled by the Sayfawa dynasty from about the ninth century until 1846. Kanem, north-east of the lake, converted to Islam around 1085 and under Dunama Dibbalemi (about 1210-1259) dominated the central Sahara trade routes to Libya. Civil wars and Bulala attacks drove the dynasty west of the lake to Bornu around 1380, where Mai Idris Alooma (about 1564-1596) built a firearm-equipped army and a strong Islamic state. Bornu resisted the Sokoto jihad with the help of the scholar al-Kanemi, whose descendants replaced the Sayfawa in 1846 and whose line still holds the throne of Borno in Nigeria.

When it existed: the era ribbon

The bold bar is Kanem-Bornu Empire. The lighter bars are empires and wars from the same era and the same part of the world. Click any bar to jump to its page.

Kanem-Bornu territory

Timeline of the Kanem-Bornu Empire

1. 700
   Kanem foundedTraditional date.
2. 1085
   Mai Hummay converts to Islam
3. 1250
   Dunama Dibbalemi's peak
4. 1380
   Sayfawa move to Bornu
5. 1470
   Ngazargamu founded
6. 1564
   Idris Alooma
7. 1808
   Fulani sack Ngazargamu
8. 1846
   Sayfawa dynasty ends
9. 1893
   Rabih conquers Bornu

Kanem

Kanem emerged from the Zaghawa nomads north-east of Lake Chad and controlled the route north through the Fezzan to Tripoli, trading slaves for horses and salt. Mai Hummay adopted Islam around 1085; Dunama Dibbalemi's cavalry, said to number 40,000 horsemen, ruled from the Fezzan to Wadai and Kano, and he founded a hostel for Kanem pilgrims in Cairo. His destruction of a sacred talisman, the mune, was blamed for later troubles.

Bornu

Wars with the Bulala drove the Sayfawa west of the lake; Mai Ali Gaji founded Ngazargamu around 1470 and Bornu became the new heartland. Idris Alooma imported Turkish musketeers and military advisers from Tripoli, waged holy war on the Sao and Kanuri pagans, made treaties with the Ottomans and Morocco and imposed sharia courts. His imam Ahmad ibn Fartuwa wrote the account of his campaigns. Bornu was the leading power of the central Sudan for two centuries.

Jihad, al-Kanemi and Rabih

Fulani followers of Usman dan Fodio sacked Ngazargamu in 1808. The Kanembu scholar Muhammad al-Amin al-Kanemi rallied resistance, argued by letter with Muhammad Bello that Bornu was already Muslim, and became the real ruler with the title Shehu; his son Umar deposed the last Sayfawa mai in 1846. The Sudanese warlord Rabih az-Zubayr conquered Bornu in 1893 and was killed by the French in 1900; Britain, France and Germany divided the empire, and the Shehu of Borno reigns in Maiduguri today.

Related empires and wars

Chosen automatically by overlap in time and geography, plus a few hand picked connections.

Empires of the same era and region

• Sokoto Caliphate (1804 to 1903)
• Songhai Empire (1464 to 1591)
• Mali Empire (1226 to 1670)
• Ottoman Empire (1299 to 1922)
• Oyo Empire (1300 to 1836)
• Second French colonial empire (1830 to 1980)

Wars of the same era and region

• Boko Haram insurgency (2009 to present)
• Seven Years' War (1756 to 1763)
• World War I (1914 to 1918)

8 surprising things about the Kanem-Bornu Empire

1. The Sayfawa dynasty ruled for roughly a thousand years, longer than any other African royal house and most in the world.
2. Idris Alooma's Turkish musketeers, hired from Ottoman Tripoli, made Bornu one of the first sub-Saharan states with firearms.
3. The girgam, the Bornu king list, records rulers back to the ninth century with reign lengths.
4. Al-Kanemi's letters to Muhammad Bello of Sokoto are a classic of African political theology, disputing whether jihad against fellow Muslims is lawful.
5. Kanem's ambassadors reached Tunis in 1257 with a giraffe as a gift.
6. Bornu's diplomatic contact with the Ottoman sultan in the 1570s makes it one of the earliest African states in relations with Istanbul.
7. The Kanuri language remains the tongue of some 10 million people in Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon.
8. Maiduguri, capital of the modern Shehu of Borno, has been the centre of the Boko Haram insurgency.

Sources

• Kanem-Bornu Encyclopaedia Britannica
• Kanem-Bornu Empire Wikipedia
• Kingdom of Kanem-Bornu World History Encyclopedia
• Dierk Lange, 'The kingdoms and peoples of Chad', in UNESCO General History of Africa vol. IV (1984) UNESCO

Back to all empires and wars