Ali V Minargema
| Ali V Minargema | |
|---|---|
| Mai of the Kanem–Bornu Empire | |
| Reign | 1846 |
| Predecessor | Ibrahim IV |
| Dynasty | Sayfawa dynasty |
| Father | Ibrahim IV |
Ali V (ʿAlī bin Ibrāhīm[1]), called Ali Minargema[2][3] and Ali Delatumi,[4] was the last mai of the Kanem–Bornu Empire, ruling in 1846.[1][4]
Life
[edit]Ali's father, Ibrahim IV, had served as a puppet ruler under the shehu Umar and had been killed in a civil war attempting to restore the power of the mai.[5][6] Ibrahim had been supported by Wadai Sultanate, which proclaimed Ali as the new mai after Ibrahim's death,[2] installing him at Kukawa.[3] When Umar's armies advanced to recapture Kukawa from the Wadai forces, Ali's allies abandoned him and retreated.[2][3]
Ali was left with a relatively small number of supporters, about a thousand spearmen and a thousand swordsmen, primarily of Kanembu Sugurti origin. Ali's force met Umar's in battle at Minarge, near the River Yo. Umar was quickly victorious. Ali and many of his supporters were killed during their retreat.[3] The name "Minargema" is derived from the site of Ali's defeat.[3] In later orally recited histories of the mais of Kanem–Bornu, Ali was remembered as "more brave than fire".[3]
In order to assert his power, Umar had the seat of the mais, Kabela, destroyed and had much of the imperial family killed.[3] Survivors either fled from the country[2][3] or were forced to swear allegiance to the shehu.[3] Umar abolished the office of mai[1] and assumed sole power over the empire.[1]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d Bosworth, Clifford Edmund (2012) [1996]. The New Islamic Dynasties: A Chronological and Genealogical Manual. Edinburgh University Press. pp. 127, 129. ISBN 0-7486-2137-7.
- ^ a b c d Lipschutz, Mark R.; Rasmussen, R. Kent (1986). Dictionary of African Historical Biography. University of California Press. p. 87. ISBN 978-0-520-06611-3.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Brenner, Louis (1973). The Shehus of Kukawa: a history of the Al-Kanemi dynasty of Bornu. Clarendon Press. pp. 48, 66. ISBN 978-0-19-821681-0.
- ^ a b Stewart, John (1989). African States and Rulers: An Encyclopedia of Native, Colonial and Independent States and Rulers Past and Present. McFarland & Company. p. 146.
- ^ Stapleton, Timothy J. (2013). A Military History of Africa: The Precolonial Period: From Ancient Egypt to the Zulu Kingdom (Earliest Times to ca. 1870). Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 82. ISBN 978-0313395697.
- ^ Obikili, Nonso (2018). "State Formation in Precolonial Nigeria". The Oxford Handbook of Nigerian Politics. Oxford University Press. p. 82. ISBN 978-0-19-880430-7.
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