Omar ibn Idris, or Umar Idrismi, Idris Dunama III, was the ruler (or ''mai'') of the
Kanem Empire from 1372 to 1380.
He moved the capital from
Njimi Njimi was the capital of the Kanuri state of Kanem (later Kanem-Bornu), north of Lake Chad, from the 11th through the 14th centuries. Founded by the Sefawa dynasty in the 11th century, the town dominated trans-Saharan trade in ivory and slaves ...
,
Kanem to
Kaga, located on the western edge of
Lake Chad
Lake Chad (french: Lac Tchad) is a historically large, shallow, endorheic lake in Central Africa, which has varied in size over the centuries. According to the ''Global Resource Information Database'' of the United Nations Environment Programme, ...
in present day
Borno State
Borno State is a state in the North-East geopolitical zone of Nigeria, bordered by Yobe to the west, Gombe to the southwest, and Adamawa to the south while its eastern border forms part of the national border with Cameroon, its northern border ...
,
Nigeria
Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...
.
History
By the end of the 14th century, internal struggles and external attacks had torn Kanem apart. Between 1370 and 1389, six ''mais'' reigned, but
Bulala
The Bilala or Bulala are a Muslim people that live around Lake Fitri, in the Batha Prefecture, in central Chad. The last Chadian census in 1993 stated that they numbered 136,629 people. Their language, Naba, is divided in four dialects and is a ...
invaders (from the area around
Lake Fitri
Lake Fitri is located in the center of Chad about 300 km east of N’Djamena. The normal size of the lake is about . The size of this lake can triple in wetter years. This freshwater lake is shallow and is fed by seasonal rainfall and run-off ...
to the east) killed five of them. This proliferation of ''mais'' resulted in numerous claimants to the throne and led to a series of internecine wars.
Finally, after warring with Kanem since the 1370s, the Bulala people forced the
Kanembu people The Kanembu are an ethnic group of Chad, generally considered the modern descendants of the Kanem-Bornu Empire. The Kanembu number an estimated 890,000 people, located primarily in Chad's Lac Prefecture but also in Chari-Baguirmi and Kanem pre ...
under ''mai'' Omar ibn Idris to relocate to Bornu circa 1380, overcoming attacks from their neighbours (
Arabs
The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Wester ...
and
Berbers
, image = File:Berber_flag.svg
, caption = The Berber ethnic flag
, population = 36 million
, region1 = Morocco
, pop1 = 14 million to 18 million
, region2 = Algeria
, pop2 ...
, and the
Hausa of modern Nigeria), and marked the transition of the beginning of the
Bornu Empire Bornu may refer to:
* Bornu Empire Bornu may refer to:
* Bornu Empire, a historical state of West Africa
* Borno State
Borno State is a state in the North-East geopolitical zone of Nigeria, bordered by Yobe to the west, Gombe to the southwest ...
. The once strong
Sayfawa dynasty was forced out of Kanem and back into the nomadic lifestyle they had abandoned nearly 600 years ago. With the new centre of the empire at Bornu, it became known as the Bornu Empire.
Over time, the intermarriage of the Kanembu and the various original peoples in Bornu contributed to what is now the current people and language, the
Kanuri. The Sayfawa dynasty still had control over both capitals and therefore became more powerful than it ever had been so far, and the Bulala and Kanembu states were merged, but political authority still rested in Bornu.
The Kanembu would not fully reconquer their former capital Njimi until the early sixteenth century under ''Mai'' Ali Gaji (1497–1515) who was able to defeat the Bulala and retake Njimi, the former capital. The empire's leaders, however, remained at
Ngazargamu
Ngazargamu, Birni Ngazargamu, Birnin Gazargamu, Gazargamo or N'gazargamu, was the capital of the Bornu Empire from ca. 1460 to 1809. Situated west of Lake Chad in the Yobe State of modern Nigeria, the remains of the former capital city are still v ...
, the Bornu capital, because its lands were more productive agriculturally and better suited to the raising of cattle.
References
*Ajayi, Jacob Festus Ade, and Michael Crowder (1972). "History of West Africa". New York: ''Columbia University Press''.
*Davidson, Basil (1998). "West Africa before the colonial era: a history to 1850". London: ''Longman''.
*Lange, Dierk (2004). "Ancient kingdoms of West Africa: African-centred and Canaanite-Israelite perspectives; a collection of published and unpublished studies in English and French". Dettelbach, Germany: ''Röll''.
*Urvoy, Yves (1949). "L'empire du Bornou". Paris.
External links
All links retrieved May 29, 2014.
*Lange, Dierk
The Chad region as a crossroads Africa and the Ancient World
*Lange, Dierk
The kingdoms and peoples of Chad Africa and the Ancient World
*B. Schemmel
Rulers.org.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Omar 01 Of Kanem
Rulers of the Kanem Empire
14th-century monarchs in Africa