X-Nico

4 unusual facts about Bornu Empire


Bornu Empire

Muhammad al-Amin al-Kanemi was a Muslim scholar and non-Sayfawa commander who had put together an alliance of Shuwa Arabs, Kanembu, and other seminomadic peoples.

Dirkou

While isolated in modern Niger, it once lay on the important central soudan route of the Trans-Saharan trade which linked coastal Libya and the Fezzan to the Kanem-Bornu Empire near Lake Chad.

Kanem-Bornu Empire

Between 1359 and 1383, seven mais reigned, but Bulala invaders (from the area around Lake Fitri to the east) killed five of them.

Werehyena

In the Kanuri language of the former Bornu Empire in the Lake Chad region, werehyenas are referred to as bultungin which translates into "I change myself into a hyena".


Logone River

In the eastern lower Logone valley formed out of the Kotoko population several historic sultanates (Kousseri, Logone-Birni, Makari-Goulfey and others) which were political dependent to the empires of Bornu or Baguirmi and belong today to Cameroon.

Zinder

The large fortress of the southeast central city (Birini) was built shortly thereafter, and became a major hub for trade south through Kano and east to Bornu.


see also