Dunama Dabbalemi is one Mai of Kanem Empire from the Sayfawa dynasty, present-day Chad, ruled from 1203-1243.
Dabbalemi is a devoted Muslim initiated diplomatic exchanges with Sultan in North Africa and apparently arranged for the establishment of a special accommodation in Cairo to facilitate pilgrimages to Mecca.
During his reign, he declared jihad against the surrounding tribes and initiated an extended period of conquest, with a powerful warriors and commanders that are well armed . The Mai with his powerful team successfully captured territory around Lake Chad the Fezzan region (in present-day Libya) ad joined with Kanem's authority, and the empire's influence extended westward to Kano (in present-day Nigeria), and Southward to the Adamawa grasslands (in present-day Cameroon). Through his wars, he captured many slaves that he sold to the North African traders as the main item of the trans-Saharan trade.
In particular the historian Ibn Khaldun, who remembers him as King of Kanem and Lord of Bornu , reports a Kanem embassy in 1257 to Tunisia.
He is also credited with destroying the mune, a mysterious object believed to possess unknown powers, possibly a symbol of divine kingship. It was probably destroyed so to cancel an important symbol of pre-Muslim beliefs, and to prove his determination in contrasting what he saw as the lax faith of his predecessors. The action generated some reprobation, as it is reported that the destruction opened a period of civil strife within the kingdom.
Dabbalemi devised a system to reward military commanders with authority over the people they conquered. This system, however, tempted military officers to pass their positions to their sons, thus transforming the office from one based on achievement and loyalty to the mai into one based on hereditary nobility.
Dabbalemi was able to suppress this tendency, but it was to erupt after his death, provoking the loss of most of Dabbalemi's conquests.
Dabbalemi was able to suppress this tendency, but it was to erupt after his death, provoking the loss of most of Dabbalemi's conquests.
- Barkindo, Bawuro, "The early states of the Central Sudan: Kanem, Borno and some of their neighbours to c. 1500 A.D.", in: J. Ajayi und M. Crowder (ed.), History of West Africa, vol. I, 3. ed. Harlow 1985, 225-254.
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