Kanem's Eastward Expansion (1200s)

A map of Kanem at its apogee based on a problematic map by Waziri.

One topic in the annals of medieval Kanem that remains poorly understood is the eastward expansion of the 13th century. The eastward expansion likely began during the reign of Dunama Dibalemi (1210-1248, according to the chronology of Lange). Kanem's influence spread as far east as the land of the Tajuwa and Zaghawa. However, the nature of this control or influence is not clear. Nor can one easily determine its longevity or the reasons for why the Sayfawa maiwa believed extending this far was a worthwhile endeavor. Fortunately, some clues to the nature of this eastward expansion have been possibly revealed through chemical analysis of beads at the site of Njimi in Kanem. Data from stone ruins in Darfur dated to the era of Daju rule as well as evidence from Christian Nubian provide additional clues.

First, let us begin with the early written sources. The most detailed account from the 13th century, by Ibn Sa'id, draws from the earlier writings of Ibn Fatima. Ibn Fatima traveled to Kanem during the reign of Dunama Dibalemi. Writing later in the 13th century, Ibn Sa'id included the "Zaghawa" and "Tajuwa" as subjects of Kanem's Muslim ruler. Ibn Sa'id's brief description of this vast region is unfortunately limited, one can make some sense of it. The Zaghawa, who lived east of Manan (in Kanem) were said to be mostly subjects of Kanem. Tajuwa, said to be the capital of the Zaghawa, adopted Islam and accepted Kanem's suzerainty. Yet, later on, Ibn Sa'id wrote that the Tajuwiyyin were pagans who were refractory to the sultan of Kanem and kept to the deserts and mountainous terrain (Hopkins & Levtzion 189). This confusing account suggests that the land between Kanem and Nubia included Zaghawa and Tajuwiyyin peoples. The latter had a capital where Islam was accepted and the ruler recognized the authority of Kanem's sultan. It is very likely that Ibn Sa'id was also using the 12th century work of al-Idrisi here, particularly in his account of a town called Tajuwa. For al-Idrisi, however, the Tajuwin were pagans who kept camels and were raided by their neighbors (124). One of their towns was Samna, which was raided by the ruler of Bilaq (in Nubia). The news of this attack reached travelers to Kawar, who later related it to al-Idrisi (114). If Ibn Sa'id's muddled narrative is reliable, the town of Tajuwa (the capital of the Daju polity?) included Muslims and recognized Kanem's rule, yet other groups living in the region of Darfur (or its surroundings) were largely autonomous of Kanem or sought to maintain their autonomy.

Besides Ibn Sa'id, other sources merely reemphasize the Tajuwa as a type of "Zaghawa" (Ibn Khaldun) or, in the case of al-Maqrizi, add a few details. The latter wrote of a place called Tukama at the beginning of Taju land. Word of the Taju's penchant for working in stone and their wars against the enigmatic Wathku also reached al-Maqrizi in Egypt (354). Putting together all the aforementioned external Arabic sources, one can surmise that medieval Islamic geographers from the north saw the Taju as a branch of the Zaghawa. In addition, they lived between Kanem and Nubia and included Muslims among their pagan population. In the 13th century, some recognized the authority of Kanem while those living near deserts or the mountainous, rugged terrain, were able to at least resist Kanem's oversight. When one considers the vast distance between Darfur and Kanem and the rough terrain, outright military conquest was unlikely. Thus, it is perhaps more logical to see Kanem's interests in this region as one of securing an eastern trade route. Besides this trade route, occasional raiding outside of a small tributary zone may have been a common feature. Consequently, the "town of Tajuwa" with its Muslims may have been linked to the trade route while the rest of the area was very loosely controlled by Tajuwa.

A map of Africa based on Ibn Sa'id in Cuoq, Recueil des sources arabes concernant l'Afrique occidentale du VIIIe au XVIe siècle).

In the absence of internal written sources from the 13th century, one must look to oral traditions and archaeology for further detail. Gustav Nachtigal, who traveled to Darfur and Wadai in the 19th century, collected oral traditions everywhere he visited. In the Sula kingdom ruled by a Daju dynasty, Nachtigal saw a list given by a prince which enumerated 21 rulers (Nachtigal 81). Another list of kings that Nachtigal saw included 13 Daju kings, 13 Tunjur kings and 22 Keira (Fur) sultans. Yet another list gave 5 Daju kings and 25 Tunjur and Keira rulers. The first Daju king was called Gitar (272). This early Daju kingdom in the Darfur region was based in Jebel Marra (273). On the other hand, Nachtigal was also told that the first Daju ruler was named Kosber, who lived in Debba. And in the first list of 21 Daju sultans Nachtigal received from a Sula prince, 6 were said to have been pagans based at Jebel Marra. These Daju kings were said to have controlled Darfur until the Tunjur, Ahmed el-Maqur, seized power (274). Based on Nachtigal and subsequent authors, O'Fahey's study of the Darfur Sultanate endeavored to use all known traditions on the Daju and Tunjur kings of Darfur to reconstruct a more coherent chronology. O'Fahey was able to locate written sources that allude to a Tunjur dynasty in Darfur by the 16th century (O'Fahey 31). Furthermore, the Daju title for a chief, shartay, survived in Darfur among the Keira sultans (37). This roughly suggests that the Daju kings in Darfur rose to power sometime before the 1500s, probably in the 1100s or 1200s.

In terms of archaeological evidence from Darfur, Andrew James McGregor has produced the detailed work to date. According to McGregor, the Daju rose to power in the 12th or 13th century (McGregor 34). The Daju were the Taju pagans of al-Idrisi, with only 2 towns. Moreover, al-Tunisi apparently believed the Daju were one of the 5 aboriginal Wadai groups 40). Yet as a polity, the Daju kingdom was remembered in Tunjur tradition for primarily subsisting on raiding its neighbors (47). Intriguingly, McGregor found a manuscript source that assigned the arrival of the Daju to Sila to 1692 (39). This date, however, must be too late since Tunjur oral traditions in Kanem contradict it. According to Gros, who studied Tunjur oral tradition in Kanem, the father of the Tunjur ruler, Daoud el Mireim, Omar, had subdued the Daju of Sila (Gros 274). If so, and Daoud el Mireim was the last Tunjur ruler of Wadai, then the Tunjur dynasty there would have conquered the Daju of Sila (Sula) by the early 1600s if not late 16th century. In other words, a Daju presence in Sila (Sula) likely predates the 17th century. Anania's late 16th century description of a polity in Darfur called Uri, presumably the Tunjur dynasty's capital or commercial town, included Dagio (Daju) among its subjects (Anania 343). 

So, based on oral traditions and written sources, we know there was a Daju polity in the Darfur region by the 13th century. It was said to have been based on Jebel Marra and likely raided neighboring groups in Darfur and perhaps further afield. Although the early rulers were said to be pagans, Ibn Sa'id believed that Tajuwa, the capital or principal town, was a Muslim city. Since the kingdom of Makuria allegedly raided one of the Daju towns in the 12th century, it is possible the polity had also disrupted a trade route or attacked parts of Kordofan closer to the Christian kingdom. Overall, sadly, it is difficult to reconcile the sources on this enigmatic polity. Yet it's rather loose administrative structure and reliance on raiding may be clues for a weak polity. If this was the case, why was Kanem interested in conquering this region?

Recent archaeological evidence and chemical analysis of artifacts found at the probable site of Njimi may provide the answer. The article "LA-ICP-MS analysis of glass beads from Tié (12th–14th centuries), Kanem, Chad: Evidence of trans-Sudanic exchanges" noted that the chemical composition of beads at Njimi were more similar to medieval beads found in eastern African sites than those of West Africa. While not the best smoking gun, this pecularity for medieval Kanem suggests that most of its beads were ultimately derived from the same sources of Eurasian beads that arrived in places along the Swahili Coast, southeastern Africa or the Red Sea coasts of Africa. This pattern, so different from sites in West Africa in the 10th-15th centuries, implies that Kanem was ultimately part of the Indian Ocean network that brought high alumina soda glass beads to eastern African sites. Since these types of beads were not common west of Kanem, despite trade routes through the Fazzan connecting western Africa to the Mediterranean, one must wonder if Kanem accessed the beads through a separate route to Egypt or Nubia. While further confirmation of the analysis of glass bead chemical composition in Makuria and Alwa is necessary, it is possible this eastward route from Kanem connected to the Red Sea/Indian Ocean networks through Nubia (or Egypt). Possible indications of a route to Nubia may be found in the analysis of beads at Soba, the capital of Alwa. In Soba, 20 high alumina beads of Indian origin were part of a study of 23 glass beads.

Besides the data from chemical analysis of glass beads, studies of cattle remains suggest Makuria imported cattle from the west. According to "The cattle factor. Faunal evidence for the study of social and economic processes in the medieval Middle Nile Valley. Sudan" by Marta Osypińska and Mariusz Drzewiecki, Makuria imported long-horned cattle from the west, probably the Central Sahel or Kordofan. Their analysis of faunal remains suggests that Alwa practiced a more conservative livestock farming based on ancient Kush while Makuria may have imported as much as 1/4 of its cattle from the west. While there is no evidence for Kanem playing any role in supplying cattle from the Central Sahel to Nubia (Makuria), it is possible that both Kanem and Makuria had an interest in secure trade routes through Kordofan and Darfur. This facilitated access to Egypt (and Nubia) for Kanem while the Christian Nubian kingdoms could be guaranteed of some security for trade routes through Darfur to Kawar and North Africa. Evidence from Nubian graffito writings or inscriptions found in Kordofan, such as one attesting to King Siti and likely from the 1330s, likewise demonstrate Makuria's interests in Kordofan and perhaps Darfur to the west. 

In summation, Kanem's eastward expansion in the 13th century was likely related to economic interests that likely included access to Indian Ocean networks via Nubia (and/or Egypt). While the northern, trans-Saharan route through Kawar and the Fazzan to the Maghreb and Egypt was still very important, the unique chemical composition of beads found at medieval Njimi suggest the use of an alternative route for at least beads. Since the Daju polity of the 13th century was possibly decentralized and divided, Kanem may have been able to expand its influence and promote an Islamic community of traders at the town of Tajuwa, likely somewhere near the Daju polity's base in Jebel Marra. Direct control or tribute-raising on much of the region would have been difficult due to the Zaghawa and Daju "pagans" who used the deserts and mountains to resist Kanem. Nonetheless, for the region to retain its significance to Kanem's rulers, Kanem may have engaged with the Daju polity for more security of the trade routes that led to Nubia (or Egypt). The possible evidence of a Nubian use of this trade route, or at least use by Muslim traders from Makuria and Alwa who also traded with the lands west of the Nile, can be seen in the cattle imports from the Sahel in Makuria. Furthermore, Makuria's rulers raiding a Daju town in the 12th century may be due to their raiders disrupting trade passing through the region. Lastly, the chemical composition of several beads at Soba, the capital of Alwa, resemble those of Njimi in Kanem. This may be due to interest in Makuria and Alwa in maintaining the trade routes to the west. Although any evidence for direct engagement between Kanem and the Christian Nubian states is lacking, Muslim traders active in all three kingdoms may have been the link.

Bibliography

Courtecuisse, L (editor). Les Arabes du Tchad. Paris: Centre de hautes études administratives sur l’Afrique et l’Asie modernes, 1971.

Hopkins, J. F. P., and Nehemia Levtzion (editors). Corpus of Early Arabic Sources for West African History. Princeton, NJ: Markus Wiener Publishers, 2000.

Lange, Dierk, and Silvio Berthoud.  "L'intérieur de l'Afrique occidentale d'après Giovanni Lorenzo Anania (XVIe siècle)". Cahiers d'histoire mondiale, 14, no. 2 (1972): 299-351.

Magnavita, S., MacDonald, B. L., Magnavita, C., & Oga, A. (2024). LA-ICP-MS analysis of glass beads from Tié (12th–14th centuries), Kanem, Chad: Evidence of trans-Sudanic exchanges. Archaeometry, 66(1), 100–118. https://doi.org/10.1111/arcm.12898

McGregor, Andrew James. The Stone Monuments and Antiquities of the Jebel Marra Region, Darfur, Sudan (dissertation). University of Toronto, 2000.

Nachtigal, Gustav, Allan G. B. Fisher, and Humphrey J (trans.). Fisher. Sahara and Sudan, Vol. 4. Berkeley and; Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1971.

O’Fahey, R. S. 2008. The Darfur Sultanate : A History. New York: Columbia University Press.

Osypińska, Marta, and Mariusz Drzewiecki. 2024. “The Cattle Factor. Faunal Evidence for the Study of Social and Economic Processes in the Medieval Middle Nile Valley. Sudan.” Journal of Archaeological Science Reports 55 (April): 104513. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2024.104513.

Then-Obłuska, J., & Dussubieux, L. (2023). Overseas imports on the Blue Nile: Chemical compositional analysis of glass beads from Soba, Nubia. Archaeometry, 65(5), 1018–1031. https://doi.org/10.1111/arcm.12863

Revisiting the Mahram of the N'Galma Duku Witness List

 

Whilst revisiting Bobboyi's work on the mahram texts that have survived in Borno, we came across an interesting find. Bobboyi actually located an Arabic text in Geidam that is a version of the "Mahram of the N'Galma Duku" published in H.R. Palmer's Bornu Sahara and Sudan. The witness list in the Geidam copy found by Bobboyi was apparently shorter than the version used by Palmer. Nonetheless, one notices that a Dunama b. Salma appears as a yarima while the talib was named Yunus. We strongly suspect Dunama b. Salma to have been a yerima during the reign of his father, Salma (sometimes rendered Tsilim). Furthermore, we believe that the talib listed as a witness was the grandfather of Kaday b. Dunama. We've made our case before, but this Arabic copy of the mahram that is likely more reliably translated by Bobboyi is further indication that the yerima in the text was probabl a young Dunama Dibalemi. 

The Mystery of the Mune

 

A plausible map of Kanem's 13th century apogee available on Wikipedia.

The Mune, an object opened by Dunama Dibalemi (r. 1210-1248), is one of the heavily contested or debated topics in the annals of the Sayfawa dynasty. Said to have led to the period of strife, defeat, and civil wars that followed Dunama Dibalemi's reign, the Mune has been interpreted by some as a pagan relic, an Islamic covenant, and even tied to Egyptian conspiracies against the mai. Older academics tried to contextualize it as Dunama the ardent Islamic reformer, eager to end pre-Islamic customs or influences in the state. Others stress the interpretation of Ahmad b. Furtu or Muhammad Yanbu, which suggests the Mune was a revered Islamic relic. Thus, in their eyes, Dunama Dibalemi went against Islam and the advice of his court. A thorough second look at the various contexts in which the Mune was discussed in Borno sources as well as an examination of Kanuri religious practices may shed additional light on this poorly understood aspect of Kanem-Borno history. Ultimately, the Mune may best be understood as a symbol for proper leadership.

 

Let us begin with one of the earliest written sources on the Mune. Ahmad b. Furtu, chief imam and chronicler of Idris b. Ali (r. 1564-1596), mentioned the Mune in the context of Idris b. Ali's campaigns against the Bulala sultan in Kanem. Since Kanem was the ancient homeland of the Sayfawa dynasty, it is not surprising that Ahmad b. Furtu also wrote of visits to the burial places of Sayfawa ancestors or compared Idris b. Ali to Dunama Dibalemi. It would seem that by the 16th century, Borno tradition remembered Dunama Dibalemi as a seminal figure in the history of the maiwa. Informants on this past included elders and sheikhs. More specifically, a shaykh named Wunoma Muhammad al-Saghir ibn Tuguma spoke of Dunama Dibalemi's army including 30,000 cavalry (Sudanese Memoirs I, 50). In terms of the Mune itself, Ahmad b. Furtu wrote it "was a certain thing wrapped up and hidden away whereon depended their victory in war" (Sudanese Memoirs I, 69-70). It was thus something held by the Sayfawa dynasty for generations and believed to be essential for military victory or success. Ahmad b. Furtu stressed that Dunama Dibalemi disobeyed "his people" by opening the Mune and whatever was inside flew away. In addition to losing what ensured victory against infidels, Ahmad b. Furtu wrote, "It is said that when Dunama opened it, whatever was inside flew away impelling the chief men of the kingdom to greed for dominion and high rank" (Sudanese Memoirs I, 70). As if it was not already clear, Ahmad b. Furtu also compared the Mune to the Ark of the Covenant and immediately wrote of the war with the Tubu during Dunama Dibalemi's reign. This was followed by further conflict with the Bulala. Undoubtedly, Ahmad b. Furtu (and presumably elders and shaykhs relying on tradition) saw the Mune as Ilslamic and something held by the Banu Sayf for generations which ensured their military victories as well as internal political stability.

The next source, the Diwan, is much briefer. Since we are relying on the French translation of Lange, which used a 19th century copy found by Barth, we are assuming the Diwan given to Barth represented a 19th century product. While there may have been a longer chronicle or much earlier girgams that were periodically updated over the centuries, we do not have any such document from the reign of Dunama Dibalemi or his immediate successors. So, what does the Diwan tell us about the Mune? Like Ahmad b. Furtu, the chronicle attributes the opening of the Mune, a thing known only to God the most high, to Dunama Dibalemi. Moreover, like Ahmad b. Furtu, it also tells us that Dunama engaged in at least one war, his sons were dispersed. Furthermore, "Auparavant il n'y avait pas eu des factions" (Diwan, 72). Unmistakably, the Diwan emphasizes the rise of political factions with the sons of the mai taking different sides. This corroborates the view of Ahmad b. Furtu, who wrote of the chief men of Kanem aspiring to higher positions and power after the opening of the Mune. The general picture is one of the Mune as a holy object and the opening or cutting of it was actually un-Islamic. In his commentary on it, Lange tried to argue that the Diwan and Ahmad b. Furtu saw the "pagan" object as something that must be maintained by the Sayfawa for reasons of state security. However, it is far more likely that the authors of these aforementioned texts truly believed that the Mune was a Muslim object akin to the Ark of the Covenant. 

The next major source on the Mune is Muhammad Yanbu. A scion of the Sayfawa dynasty who lived in the 18th and 19th centuries, Yanbu wrote al-Idara fi nizam al-mamlaka wa 'l-imara. This author wrote that the Mune was actually carried on military campaigns. Yanbu also emphasized the Mune as a convenant with Ten Commandments the Banu Say were supposed to maintain (Bobboyi, 87). One such commandment was, "Eightly, to hold fast, all together, to the rope of Allah and not be divided" (Bobboyi 88). This commandment seems particularly relevant since the Sayfawa princes apparently began to form or align themselves with factions, eventually leading to civil wars and internal discord that weakened Kanem after Dunama Dibalemi's reign. Based on Ahmad b. Furtu, Muhammad Yanbu and Borno oral sources, Bobboyi believed the Mune represented "a conceptualization of the Islamic political role of the Sayfawa sultans by the 'Ulama, at least from the sixteenth century" (Bobboyi, 88). Besides these aforementioned written sources, abundant Borno oral traditions consulted by Bobboyi stress the central role of the Mune in the fall of Sayfawa rule in Kanem. For example, the Mune commandment to never flee from battle when defeated, as Bobboyi elucidates, informed the custom among the Sayfawa for the ruler to dismount, sit on his shield and say, "Munem Bago." This apparently means "Fleeing is not in the Mune" (Bobboyi, 107). Undoubtedly, the Mune and its commandments were understood in this broadly Islamic ideology of a proper, just ruler.

Additional Borno sources on the Mune were utilized by historian Muhammad Nur Alkali. One of his sources, an unpublished text he entitled The story of the mune written 1185 A.H. (NO, 1771) as a memory of the golden age of the Sayfawa rule, was written by the amir of Alarge, Muhammad b. al-Hajj b. Ali. A translation and commentary by Abdullahi Smith was included in Kyari Tijani's "The Mune in Pre-Colonial Borno." This source includes a list of pledges or dictates the Sayfawa must maintain, which is essentially the same as the Commandments in al-Idara (Alkali, 43-44). Alkali also included material from al-Idara which blamed the Egyptians for influencing Dunama Dibalemi's actions with regard to the Mune: "Thus, Mai Dunoma’s decision to open the Mune was not only seen as a break-away from an established tradition of his ancestors but was also considered a conspiracy against the state by the Egyptians who influenced the Mai into taking this decision" (Alkali, 70). A possible foreign involvement or influence on Dunama Dibalemi was certainly possible. He was likely the ruler of Kanem when Kanemi pilgrims and students began to pay Ibn Rashiq in Cairo to teach at a madrasa, sometime in the 1240s (Levtzion & Hopkins, 353). Furthermore, one mahram said to originate during the reign of Dunama Dibalemi's father designates Dunama Dibalemi as "Al Hajj Dunama ibn Dabale" (Bornu Sahara and Sudan, 20). There are no Egyptian sources to corroborate a pilgrimage undertaken by Dunama Dibalemi, but he likely sponsored the Kanemi students and pilgrims who passed through Cairo in the 1240s and began to study at Madrasat Ibn Rashiq. 

Since contact with Ayyubid Egypt did occur and it entailed Islamic teaching, there may have been some kind of foreign involvement or pressure that influenced Dunama's decision to open the Mune. Alternatively, one wonders if the story of an Egyptian conspiracy here is merely a muddled alternative version of Egyptian involvement in the drowning of Dunama b. Hummay in c. 1140 (Diwan, 69). Unfortunately, there are no Fatimid sources on the alleged pilgrimages of Dunama b. Hummay or any involvement in his death. But since Dunama Dibalemi shared the same name, is it possible the idea of Egyptian involvement arose because of Dunama b. Hummay's death, a death in the sea of Moses which the Kanem ruler could not part? Or was there pressure from Egyptian scholars to end the veneration of the Mune that reached Dunama in Kanem? Alternatively, is the Egyptian involvement related to Ayyubid fears of Kanem's influence in the Fazzan and lands in the east, toward Nubia? One of the Borno sources, written in the late 1700s, merely states, "Some Egyptians who came to him advised him that it would be preferable to open it to find out what it contained" (Tijani, 239). 

Alternatively, given its Judeo-Christian overtones and clear resemblance with the Ark of the Covenant, was there some creative reimagining of Sayf b. Dhi Yazan legends in which he actually took the Ark of the Covenant from Ethiopia? Or was this a reference to the period of Jewish rulers in Himyar? In one of the story cycles of the Sayf legends written in Mamluk Egypt, Sayf was interested in seizing a book on the history of the Nile. Is it possible that Coptic and Islamic legends in Egypt about the Ark of the Covenant being in Ethiopia possibly influenced, even indirectly, the Mune traditions acquiring more overt Biblical characteristics? Unfortunately, the ascent of the Solomonic dynasty in Ethiopia only began in 1270, but the idea of the Christian kingdom as the land of Sheba and its Solomonic connections predate this period. Is it possible that the Mune was creatively reimagining the Ark of the Covenant based on traditions of Sayf b. Dhi Yazan defeating the Abyssinians? Or was this due to the brief period of a Jewish kingdom at Himyar? Either way, it was undoubtedly reimagined with a more Islamic veneer by the 16th century. It nonetheless demonstrates how complex the Mune and its origins were.

With Borno sources emphasizing an Islamic orientation of the Mune and connecting it to an ideology of kingship, what room is left for interpretations of it as a pagan relic or symbol from the pre-Islamic past? Palmer, whose diffusionist imagination often got the better of him, tried to link the Mune to sacra of the Hausa, Kwararafa, and Zaghawa peoples. When informed by a Zaghawa of Wadai that a Koran covered in skins like the Kano dirki was a Mani, and pagan Zaghawa saw the Mani as a ram stored in a cave with sacred objects, Palmer leapt at the opportunity to bring in the Ancient Egyptian god, Aman (Amun, perhaps). Consequently, Dunama Dibalemi's opening the Mune was seen by Palmer as the first truly Islamic ruler of Kanem ending pagan practices (Bornu Sahara and Sudan). However, this view is contradicted by local written sources and oral traditions. In our own feeble attempts at reconstructing pre-Islamic religion in Kanem, we preferred to view the Mune as a type of sacrum from the pre-Islamic period which was adapted after the conversion of the Sayfawa maiwa in the late 11th century. 

Looking at the sources on it again, we find it impossible to answer. Either the Mune was purely inspired and began during the reign of Hummay or the tradition attributing its opening or "cutting" to Dunama Dibalemi is meant metaphorically to refer to the loss of internal unity during and after Dunama Dibalemi's reign. In that sense, he violated one of the central commandments and his successors truly paid the consequences. Yet, the Mune must have also been an actual object at one point if it was carried into battle. Its possible pre-Islamic, Judeo-Christian, and Islamic meanings or origins suggest the need for a closer exploration of Kanem-Borno's intellectual history. Understanding, to whatever extent possible, the connections with the broader Islamic world and perhaps, the Egyptian context in which Kanem pilgrims and students began to travel more frequently in Ayyubid and Mamluk Egypt may provide further clues for the development of the Mune ideology. 

Bibliography

Alkali, Mohammad Nur. 2013. Kanem-Borno under the Sayfawa: A Study of the Origin, Growth, and Collapse of a Dynasty (891-1846) . Nigeria: University of Maiduguri.

Bobboyi, Hamidu. The ’Ulama of Borno : A Study of the Relations between Scholars and State under the Sayfawa, 1470-1808. Dissertation, 1992.

Hopkins, J. F. P., and Nehemia Levtzion (editors). Corpus of Early Arabic Sources for West African History. Princeton, NJ: Markus Wiener Publishers, 2000.

Lange, Dierk. Le Dīwān Des Sultans Du (Kānem-)Bornū: Chronologie Et Histoire D'un Royaume Africain (de La Fin Du Xe Siècle Jusqu'à 1808). Wiesbaden: F. Steiner, 1977.

Palmer, H.R. Sudanese Memoirs: Being Mainly Translations of a Number of Arabic Manuscripts Relating to the Central and Western Sudan. 1st ed., new impression. London: Cass, 1967.

___________. The Bornu Sahara and Sudan. London: J. Murray, 1936.