Ngazargamu

History

During the late 14th-century, the Sayfawa dynasty, which had ruled Kanem for centuries, fled their capital of Birni Njimi due to a civil war. They settled in Bornu, a southern province of Kanem. The civil war continued throughout much of the 15th-century until the reign of Ali Gaji, who succeeded in defeating his rivals and brought an end to the war. Ali Gaji then established Birni Gazargamu, a fortified city that served as the capital of Kanem-Bornu until the 19th-century.

Little is known of the physical appearance or population of the city. The city was surrounded by a circular wall spanning approximately two kilometers in diameter, with the Mai's palace, constructed of red bricks, occupying its center. A description of the city was given by one Mallam Salih ibn Ishaku and translated by H R Palmer:

At N'gazargamu [sic] there were six hundred and sixty roads cleared and widened, called Le. Sixty of these roads were well known to the Amir [Mai], for he traversed them, but many of the roads were unknown to the Amir since he did not traverse them and so did not know them . . . There were four Friday mosques. Each of these mosques had an Imam for Friday who led the Friday prayer with the people. At each mosque there were twelve thousand worshippers.

Gazargamu emerged as a major trading hub within the Sudan region. By the 17th-century, the city's markets attracted caravans from various directions: Tunis, Tripoli, and Cairo in the north; Timbuktu, Awdaghust, Agades, and Gao in the west; and Kordofan and the Nile regions in the east. These trade caravans transported a variety of goods, including silk, carpets, weapons, and books from the Middle East; paper and glass beads from Venice; leather products, copperware, and tobacco from the Maghreb; and gold and kola nuts from Ashanti in the south.