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Umar of Borno

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Umar ibn Muhammad al-Amin
"Umar von Bornu" on 6 June 1870 by Gustav Nachtigal in his travel's narrative, Sahara und Sudan, p.594
Shehu of the Kanem–Bornu Empire
1st reign8 June 1837 – 4 October 1853
PredecessorMuhammad al-Amin al-Kanemi
Successor'Abd ar-Rahman ibn Muhammad al-Amin
2nd reign3 September 1854 – December 1881
Predecessor'Abd ar-Rahman ibn Muhammad al-Amin
SuccessorBukar Kura
DiedDecember 1881
Kukawa
Burial
Kukawa
IssueBukar Kura
Ibrahim Kura
Ashimi
Dynastyal-Kanemi dynasty
FatherMuhammad al-Amin al-Kanemi
Official sealUmar ibn Muhammad al-Amin's signature

Umar ibn Muhammad al-Amin (Arabic: عمر الأول ابن محمد الأمين; died 1881), or Umar of Borno, was shehu of the Kanem–Bornu Empire in 1837–1853 and 1854–1881.

Umar was a son of Muhammad al-Amin al-Kanemi. Umar's father had sidelined the mai (king/emperor), the traditional ruler of the empire. Umar completed this process by abolishing the office of mai in 1846 and assuming sole de jure power over the empire, though still with his father's title of shehu.

Reign

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Umar came to power at the death of his father in 1837.[1][2] Umar did not match his father's vitality and gradually allowed the kingdom to be ruled by advisers (wazirs).[3]

Umar's rise to become shehu had been opposed by the mai (king/emperor) Ibrahim IV, though Ibrahim failed to reassert the power and influence of his office.[4] In 1846, Ibrahim hatched a new plan to restore his power and invited an external army from the Wadai Sultanate to invade Bornu in his name while Umar's forces were away from the capital of Kukawa,[4] igniting a civil war.[5][6] Umar uncovered the plot and managed to have Ibrahim killed. The Wadai forces then installed Ibrahim's son Ali V Minargema as mai.[4] Ali was soon defeated, captured, and killed, and his family was dispersed.[4] The office of mai was abolished and Umar assumed sole power over the empire.[4]

Umar ruled until November 1853 when he was deposed by his brother 'Abd ar-Rahman ibn Muhammad al-Amin who became shehu. The latter only reigned until 1854 when Umar reconquered his throne.[3] Umar ruled as shehu for a second time from September 1854 to 1881. Borno began to decline, as a result of administrative disorganization, regional particularism, and attacks by the militant Wadai Sultanate to the east.[7]

Legacy

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Decline of the empire continued under Umar's sons, and in 1894 Rabih az-Zubayr, leading an invading army from eastern Sudan, conquered Borno.[7]

Salih the Muhammadu al-Amin’s elder son with his first wife Yamba and Abubakar (Garba), whom carved out of a unique legacy within the Kanem-Bornu Empire, were distinct from the path of royal ascension. While their brother, Shehu Abd ar-Rahman, pursued roles tied to the throne, Abubakar dedicated his life to Islamic scholarship, earning recognition as a respected scholar. Despite his intellectual prominence, he never held the title of Shehu of Borno just like Salih, nor did any of their descendants seek the throne, adhering to the established tradition that restricted royal succession to the lineage of Umar, the first officially recognized Shehu of Borno.[8]

This practice of centralized succession mirrors similar patterns in other historical contexts, such as the Sokoto Caliphate. For instance, Sultatn Ibrahim Dasuki’s ascension diverged from the lineage of Sultan Bello, while Sultan Muhammad Bello, the son of Shehu Usman dan Fodio,[9] solidified the legitimacy of the Sokoto lineage. In Borno, the claim to the throne similarly stems from the exclusive designation of Shehu Umar I, firmly establishing the hereditary line.

The story of Abubakar’s family, however, takes an intriguing turn with Muhammad Auwal, also known as Mallam Kura, a son of Abubakar ibn Muhammad al-Amin. Unlike his father, Mallam Kura became entangled in palace intrigues, which eventually led to his departure from Kukawa, the then political and cultural heart of the Kanem-Bornu Empire to Takai local government area of Kano State. His journey westward was marked by adversity and disconnection from the royal court [10]

Footnotes

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  1. ^ Louis Brenner, The Shehus of Kukawa: A History of the Al-Kanemi Dynasty of Bornu, Oxford Studies in African Affairs (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1973), p.72.
  2. ^ Herbert Richmond Palmer, The Bornu Sahara and Sudan (London: John Murray, 1936), p. 269.
  3. ^ a b Louis Brenner, The Shehus of Kukawa: A History of the Al-Kanemi Dynasty of Bornu, Oxford Studies in African Affairs (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1973), pp.78-79.
  4. ^ a b c d e Lipschutz, Mark R.; Rasmussen, R. Kent (1986). Dictionary of African Historical Biography. University of California Press. p. 87. ISBN 978-0-520-06611-3.
  5. ^ 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.
  6. ^ 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.
  7. ^ a b Helmolt, Hans F., ed. (1903). The history of the world; a survey of a man's record, Volume III: West Asia and Africa. New York: Dodd, Meade and Company. p. 538. OCLC 1193060.
  8. ^ Brenner, L. (1973). The Shehus of Kukawa : a history of the Al-Kanemi dynasty of Bornu. Oxford : Clarendon Press. https://archive.org/details/shehusofkukawahi0000bren/mode/2up?q=ngala
  9. ^ Chalk, P., RABASA, A. M., BENARD, C., CHALK, P., FAIR, C. C., KARASIK, T., LAL, R., LESSER, I., & THALER, D. (2004). Islam in West Africa: The Case of Nigeria. In The Muslim World After 9/11 (1st ed., pp. 413–432). RAND Corporation. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7249/mg246af.19
  10. ^ AMINU, M. (1981). THE PLACE OF MAHRAMS IN THE HISTORY OF KANEM-BORNO. Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria, 10(4), 31–38. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41857094

Bibliography

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  • Brenner, Louis, The Shehus of Kukawa: A History of the Al-Kanemi Dynasty of Bornu, Oxford Studies in African Affairs (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1973).
  • Cohen, Ronald, The Kanuri of Bornu, Case Studies in Cultural Anthropology (New York: Holt, 1967).
  • Denham, Dixon and Captain Clapperton and the Late Doctor Oudney, Narrative of Travels and Discoveries in Northern and Central Africa, (Boston: Cummings, Hilliards and Co., 1826).
  • Isichei, Elizabeth, A History of African Societies to 1870 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), pp. 318–320, ISBN 0-521-45599-5.
  • Lange, Dierk, 'The kingdoms and peoples of Chad', in General history of Africa, ed. by Djibril Tamsir Niane, IV (London: Unesco, Heinemann, 1984), pp. 238–265.
  • Last, Murray, ‘Le Califat De Sokoto Et Borno’, in Histoire Generale De l'Afrique, Rev. ed. (Paris: Presence Africaine, 1986), pp. 599–646.
  • Lavers, John, "The Al- Kanimiyyin Shehus: a Working Chronology" in Berichte des Sonderforschungsbereichs, 268, Bd. 2, Frankfurt a. M. 1993: 179-186.
  • Oliver, Roland & Anthony Atmore (2005). Africa Since 1800, Fifth Edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-83615-8.
  • Palmer, Herbert Richmond, The Bornu Sahara and Sudan (London: John Murray, 1936).
  • Taher, Mohamed (1997). Encyclopedic Survey of Islamic Dynasties A Continuing Series. New Delhi: Anmol Publications PVT. LTD. ISBN 81-261-0403-1.

See also

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