Idris Alooma

Idris Alooma, also called Idris ibn Ali and Idris Alawma, was the mai, or king, of the Kanem-Bornu Empire in the second half of the sixteenth century. The empire stretched across what is now Chad, Nigeria, Niger and Cameroon, around Lake Chad. Historians date his reign either from about 1564 to 1596 or from about 1570 to 1603, and his birth date is unknown.

Under Idris, Kanem-Bornu reached the height of its power. He is remembered for his skill as a soldier, for his administrative reforms and for his deep Islamic piety, and he made the pilgrimage to Mecca. His reign is the best documented of any Kanem-Bornu ruler, thanks to the chronicler Ahmad ibn Furtu, who wrote The Book of the Bornu Wars and The Book of the Kanem Wars in the 1570s.

Idris fought many campaigns, against the Bulala for the old homeland of Kanem and against peoples such as the Sao, Margi and Mandara around Lake Chad. His army was supplied with muskets obtained through trade with North Africa and the Ottoman province of Tripoli, giving it an edge over its rivals.

His diplomacy was as active as his wars. Kanem-Bornu had relations with Tripoli, Egypt and the Ottoman Empire, which sent an ambassadorial party of 200 members across the Sahara to his court at Ngazargamu, and with Morocco. He signed what is probably the first written treaty or ceasefire in the history of Chad, and brought the trade routes between Lake Chad and Fezzan and the Mediterranean under his protection.

Idris also paid close attention to the economy and the law. He is credited with clearing roads, designing better boats for Lake Chad, introducing standard measures for grain, settling farmers on new lands, and introducing legal and administrative reforms based on Islamic law. He was buried at Alau, and the empire he strengthened lasted into the nineteenth century.