The mai (sometimes equated to king^[1] or emperor^[2]) was the monarch of the Kanem–Bornu Empire from the foundation of the empire in the 8th century to the abolition of the office in the mid-19th century. From the conversion to Islam in the 11th century and onwards, the mai sometimes adopted additional titles, such as emir, sultan, or caliph.^[3] The last mai, Ali V Minargema, was killed in 1846, whereafter the empire was ruled by the shehus.

Records of the mais generally distinguish between an earlier Duguwa dynasty (8th–11th century) and a later Sayfawa dynasty (11th–19th century) but it is unclear whether this distinction is rooted in an actual change in royal lineage or the result of some other factor. The line of rulers is reconstructed by scholars through orally recited sources such as the girgam (the empire's royal chronicle), surviving literary sources, and contemporary sources from other parts of the Islamic world.

In the Kanem–Bornu Empire, keeping records of the royal lineage was the task of specialists, usually part of the royal court and in service of the mai. Records were passed down both through documents, written in Arabic by court scribes, and in the form of oral history. The history of the mais was referred to as the diwan in its written form and as the girgam in its orally recited form.^[4] Girgam is also commonly used as a name for both versions.^[4] Another type of important source document are mahrams, grants given by mais to their officials and subjects.^[5]

The empire was a literate society by the 12th century at the latest^[6] but surviving native literary sources are very limited in number and no known intact documents predate the 16th century.^[7] Now lost early documents include a 1392 letter from the mai of Bornu to sultan Barquq of Egypt recorded in Arab sources^[8] and a 16th-century narrative history of the reign of mai Idris III Katagarmabe by the Kanuri author Masfarma Omar ben Othman.^[9] A surviving document from the 16th century is the works of Ibn Furtu, the Grand Imam of Bornu, which detail the reign of mai Idris IV Alooma and some earlier imperial history.^[10] Limited information on Kanem–Bornu history can also be derived from contemporary Arab and North African historians, such as Ibn Sa'id al-Maghribi (1282), Ibn Battuta (1353), Ibn Khaldun (1385), al-Maqrizi (1400), and Leo Africanus (1528).^[11]

Heinrich Barth (1857)

Gustav Nachtigal (1881)

Moïse Landeroin [fr] (1911)

Richmond Palmer (1928, 1936)

Principal early European Bornu scholars, with dates of publication for their works

The earliest European scholar to produce a list of Kanem–Bornu rulers was the German explorer Heinrich Barth, who visited Bornu in the early 1850s. Barth's main source was a diwan which chronicled the entire history of the empire. According to Barth this was an abridged document, though he was unable to find the original larger work.^[9] Barth compared his diwan with two additional shorter diwans, as well as other works, most notably those of Ibn Furtu and al-Maqrizi, and found a "striking correspondence" and only "slight discrepancies". Barth was especially surprised by the correspondences with a list of mais in al-Maqrizi's work, which must have been based on material obtained much earlier, possibly from pilgrims or merchants that passed through Egypt.^[11]

Scholars after Barth are only partially independent from each other.^[4] The next European explorer to compose a list of rulers of Kanem–Bornu was the German explorer Gustav Nachtigal, who visited Bornu in the 1870s. Nachtigal was on the orders of the then-incumbent ruling shehu Umar Kura provided with historical documents by the courtier Ahmed ibn Brahim, and worked out his own list of mais using this material.^[10] In the early 20th century, Moïse Landeroin [fr] accompanied the 1906–1907 expedition of Jean Tilho [fr] to the Chad Basin and collected a large amount of material, including a document that gave a complete timeline of mais and significant world events.^[12] From 1904 to 1930, the British colonial administrator Richmond Palmer collected oral traditions and historical documents in northern Nigeria, which were largely published in the volumes Sudanese Memoirs (1928) and Bornu, Sahara and Sudan (1936). Palmer made use of the same source material as Barth and combined it with other sources to produce what he referred to as a "more complete" version. Palmer believed that Nachtigal's list was "very corrupt" and that Landeroin's was "suspect", having used material from secondary 19th-century sources.^[13] Palmer's work has since its publication had a strong influence on oral histories in Bornu itself, which can thus no longer be considered independent from European reconstructions.^[14]

In the 1930s and 1940s, the French historian Yves Urvoy attempted to synthesize the different sources to produce a list of mais, using Arabic sources, the work of Ibn Furtu, girgams and mahrams published by Palmer, and the lists of Barth, Nachtigal, and Landeroin. Urvoy believed that Barth's version was more reliable than those of Nachtigal and Landeroin, partly due to more alterations between lineages in the line of succession. Urvoy faced the most difficulty in reconstructing the royal line between the middle of the 13th and early 16th century, where the sources disagree the most.^[15] Similar efforts to examine and synthesize the source material to produce a list of mais as reliable as possible has since been conducted by Ronald Cohen (1966),^[16] Dierk Lange (1977),^[17] and Augustin Holl (2000).^[18]

Since girgams give only regnal years, not absolute dates, estimated dates for the reigns of the mais are derived from counting back from the known death dates of the late rulers and comparing with mais mentioned in contemporary Arab documents.^[19] Differences between modern transcriptions and translations of girgams may derive from scribal errors, faulty memories during oral recital, and faulty translations by Arab and European scholars.^[20] Many of the Kanuri names in the girgams are attributes, such as Selema ("black") and Dunama ("strong"), and may at least in some cases reflect later nicknames and not the contemporary names for rulers.^[21]

The original royal dynasty of Kanem is called Duguwa in Kanuri^[22] and Banū Dūkū in Arabic.^[22][23] Kanem was established c. 700^[2][24] and its original rulers probably belonged to the Zaghawa people,^[24][25][26] pastoralists from the Ennedi Plateau,^[25][26] who are referred to as the rulers of the empire in 9th–11th century Arab sources.^[24][27] Their dynasty has thus also been called the "Zaghawa dynasty" by modern scholars.^[28] Through intermingling with other ethnic groups in the region, the Zaghawa of Kanem are believed to have given rise to the Kanembu people.^[29] Modern scholars thus variously identify the Duguwa mais as Zaghawa^[30] or Kanembu.^[31] Islam reached Kanem in the mid-8th^[32] or 9th century^[33] and the Duguwa dynasty converted to Islam in the 11th century under mai Hu, the tenth mai.^[34][35]

All known records of the Duguwa mais were written down centuries later, after Islam had been long established and the succeeding Sayfawa dynasty ruled. In the girgam, the Sayfawa are contradictorily described as a new dynasty and genealogically connected to the Duguwa.^[23] The line of mais is given an invented Arabised origin legend in the girgam by equating the first mai, Susam, to the 6th-century Himyarite prince Sayf ibn Dī Yazan.^[30] Because of the long timespan that separates the Duguwa mais from recorded history, and there being little historical evidence for their existence outside of the girgam, some scholars treat the entire history as legendary. Cohen (1966) contends that there is little evidence that any of the Duguwa mais have "any real historical validity".^[36]

Reign lengths and relations follow comparative tables of different sources by Cohen (1966).^[37] There is a high degree of agreement on the names and sequence of the Duguwa mais in the sources.^[38] The only major disagreements are the omission of Adyoma (#7) by both Nachtigal and Landeroin^[38] (though both nevertheless include the name as the father of Bulu^[39][40]) and Landeroin adding an additional mai before Susam, Abdallah ben Aïssata, who Landeroin stated ruled only for "a few days",^[40] omitted in all other lists.^{[39][40][41][42]} There are also minor disagreements on regnal lengths,^[a] parentage,^[b] and name variations^[c] of mais. Dates are sometimes given for the reigns of the Duguwa mais^[40][43] but most authors omit dates due to the uncertainties involved.

The second royal dynasty is called Sayfawa or Sēfuwa in Kanuri^[48] and Banū Ḥummay^[23][49] or Banū Sayf^[49] in Arabic. According to the girgam and other sources, the Sayfawa dynasty began with the accession of the twelfth mai, Hummay.^[23][50] The girgam connects the dynastic shift to Hummay and his descendants "professing Islam" and not an actual break in the royal line, also designating Hummay as the son of his predecessor Selema.^[23][50] It may thus be misleading to speak of the Duguwa and Sayfawa dynasties as separate lineages.^[51] The girgam's explanation of Islam being the distinction between the dynasties is incorrect since the last two Duguwa mais were also Muslim.^[23] Different alternate explanations have been proposed by modern scholars. Hummay might have overthrown Selema^[23][52] and could have been an unrelated figure falsely inserted in the royal line in the girgam.^[23] Dewière (2024) speculated that the distinction could instead be that the last two Duguwa mais may have been Ibadi Muslim, whereas Hummay and his descendants were Sunni Muslim.^[30]

The Sayfawa dynasty ruled continuously from the 11th to the 19th century, a period of nearly 800 years,^[53][54] placing them among the longest-lasting ruling dynasties in history.^[55][56] The Sayfawa lost Kanem to the Bilala in the 14th century^[25] and were forced to relocate west to Bornu, a former tributary territory,^[57][58] hence the name Kanem–Bornu.^[53] Bornu continued to remain the heartland of the empire even after Kanem was recovered in the 16th century.^[25][59] Intermarriages between the Kanembu people and the local Sao in Bornu may have given rise to the modern-day Kanuri people.^[25][60] Modern scholars thus variously identify the Sayfawa mais as Kanembu^[25] or Kanuri.^[61]

Reign lengths and relations follow comparative tables of different sources by Cohen (1966).^[62] The names and sequence of the Sayfawa mais differs at several points between the sources, especially from the middle 13th century to early 16th century.^[38] Dates for the reigns of the Sayfawa rulers derive from scholars adding together regnal years per the sources and counting backwards from known events,^[63] such as the capture of Ngazargamu by the Fulani in 1808 (which was shortly followed by mai Ahmad Alimi's abdication to his son Dunama IX Lefiami).^[64] Despite disagreements between sources, there is general agreement on the rough timeframes that the mais ruled. As an example, nearly all sources place the first Sayfawa mai, Hummay, in the late 11th century.^[g] The approximate dates in the list below largely follow Bosworth (2012).^[67] A comparative table of dates given by different authors for each mai can be found after the list.

After the deaths of Ibrahim IV and Ali V, power fully shifted to the shehus and shehu Umar Kura had the office of mai abolished.^[109] Survivors of the Sayfawa dynasty either fled from the country or were forced to swear allegiance to the shehu.^[110]

Several of the current (non-sovereign) traditional rulers in Nigeria use the style of mai, though the title is in contemporary times considered equivalent to "emir" and lesser in status than the style of shehu, considered equivalent to "supreme emir".^[111] Traditional rulers who use the style of mai include the rulers of Bama, Biu, Shani, Askira, Gwoza, and Uba.^[111] The traditional town heads of Marte in Borno State, Nigeria claim to represent a surviving branch of the Sayfawa dynasty and use the style of mai.^[112] According to some traditions, the Bilala dynasty are a cadet branch of the Sayfawa dynasty.^[113]