Idris Alooma

Idris Alooma, mai of Bornu in the later sixteenth century, is the most celebrated of the Sefuwa kings and survives in Kanuri memory in near-legendary colours. His reign is uniquely documented by his imam Ahmad ibn Furtu, whose chronicle of the mai's campaigns presents him as the model Muslim sovereign: a builder of brick mosques, a patron of scholars, a reformer who set the sharia over customary law, and a relentless holy warrior against the Sao, the Bulala, the Tuareg and other enemies. His figure stands at the culmination of the long religious transformation that began with Hummay and Dunama Dibalami, embodying the triumph of orthodox Islam over the older sacral order, even while the folk religion of spirits and protective charms endured beneath the surface of Kanuri Islam.

Domains

• islam
• warfare
• law

Powers

• reform worship and suppress pre-Islamic practice
• wage holy war on the enemies of Bornu

Epithets

• Alooma — he of Alau, from the place of his death and burialYves Urvoy, Histoire de l'empire du Bornou (1949) (secondary)

Sources

• Idris Alooma, mai of Bornu c. 1564-1596, is celebrated as the ideal Muslim king who enforced sharia, built brick mosques and campaigned as a holy warrior; his reign is chronicled by his imam Ahmad ibn Furtu.: Ahmad ibn Furtu, History of the First Twelve Years of the Reign of Mai Idris Alooma, trans. H. R. Palmer (Lagos, 1926) (primary); Ronald Cohen, The Kanuri of Bornu (1967) (secondary)