Ali IV Kalirgima
Ali IV, called Ali Kalirgima, Ali Gulmi, Ali Dunamami, and Ali Fannami, was mai of the Kanem–Bornu Empire in the second half of the 18th century, ruling approximately 1750–1791. Ali is remembered for a series of unsuccessful wars against the Mandara Kingdom to the southwest, which greatly weakened the empire's armies.
Life
Ali IV was a son of mai Hamdan Dunamami and succeeded his cousin Dunama VIII Gana as mai in the mid-18th century, 1750. Ali's mother was named Fanna, described as "princess of the lands of Wurga". According to the German explorer Heinrich Barth, who visited Bornu in the 1850s, the royal chronicles of the empire praised Ali as a "most excellent prince", though this seems to have been "only from a monkish point of view". Other accounts praise Ali as a warrior, giving him epithets such as the "fierce lion", "bravest of the princes", and "terror of the bush". Further epithets sometimes applied to Ali include "the gold mine" and the "son of happiness".Ali's reign saw repeated conflicts with the Mandara Kingdom, located to the southwest of Bornu. Mandara and the densely populated pagan lands that surrounded the kingdom was attractive as an area for slave raids, an important factor in Bornu economics and politics. Ali led several military campaigns against Mandara. Most of Ali's wars were unsuccessful. In one campaign, Ali was wounded and most of his army was killed. In 1781, an army from the Mandara Kingdom invaded Bornu itself and killed many of the empire's soldiers. The people of Bornu later attributed Ali's unsuccessful campaigns against Mandara as the major cause of the empire's weakness under Ali's successors, particularly against the Fula jihads that swept through the region shortly after Ali's death. The best parts of the Bornuan army had reportedly been slain by the forces of the Mandara Kingdom. According to Barth's chronicle, Ali also led several military expeditions against the Bade people to the west of Bornu.
Simon Lucas, an English diplomat contemporary with Ali who traveled to Libya, claimed that Ali was the father of three hundred male children. Ali died in 1791 and was succeeded as mai by his son Ahmad Alimi. It is unclear where Ali died and where he was buried. A girgam translated by Richmond Palmer in 1912 states that he was buried "in the camp built with bricks" whereas another girgam translated by Palmer in 1926 states that Ali died at Ngazargamu.
Writings of Muhammad al-Tahir
Sometime during his reign, Ali became close with the Fulani scholar Sheikh Muhammad al-Tahir. When al-Tahir arrived at the Bornu capital Ngazargamu, he was said to have been advised by another respected scholar Shehu Ajirami "not to indulge himself in the offices of the dynasty such as imam, alkali, or the council."Despite accepting Ajirami's advice, al-Tahir became a close confidant of mai Ali, which reportedly led to some jealousy among the other courtiers. There are several stories regarding this jealousy. In one account, a man arrested by the mai was defended by al-Tahir but when Ali refused to release him, the man disappeared. The court official Shettima Magaramma then accused al-Tahir of using magical charms to spirit the man away in a gourd. Al-Tahir then replied with the verse:According to another:
Mainin Kunendi would never shake the hand of Shehu Tahr, so one day Shehu Tahr asked the Mai about this. "You are the leader of all the country and you shake my hand. Why does Mainin Kunendi refuse?" The Mai put this question to Mainin Kunendi, saying, "Every Mai has need of an alkali, an imam, one Shehu or learned man, and one master of the Qur'an. Shehu Tahr is my learned man, so why don't you shake his hand?" Mainin Kunendi replied, "You have need of him and he has need of you. You want to use his magical powers, and he wants your throne, but I need nothing from him".Al-Tahir's writings suggest that he advised Ali on religious matters, encouraged him in his military campaigns, and wrote eulogies to him as a pious Muslim. One of his most famous works was a poem he composed for the mai called Fané Fané, an allusion to gossip-mongering. In it, al-Tahir condemned certain unnamed courtiers for their slander and rumour-mongering. An excerpt reads:
During the 19th century Sokoto jihad, Fané Fané was used as justification for the jihad in Bornu by the jihadist commander and intellectual Muhammed Bello. Bello interpreted the poem as evidence that al-Tahir was an oppressed scholar who faced difficulties at court resulting from his defense of Islam against an unbelieving tyrant. However, historian Louis Brenner argues that this reading misrepresents the poem. Instead, he notes that a broader reading of it would strongly suggest another interpretation: "of a religious scholar who was profoundly implicated in court politics." According to Brenner, al-Tahir consistently viewed Ali as an upstanding Muslim ruler, and much of his poems were composed "to support the policies and the person of Mai Ali."