Hamdan Dunamami

Hamdan, also recorded as Dunama, Muhammad, and Haji, and nicknamed Dunamami and Lumlumma, was mai of the Kanem–Bornu Empire in the first half of the 18th century, ruling approximately 1717–1731.

Life

Hamdan was a son of mai Dunama VII Martemarambi, who he succeeded as mai in the first half of the 18th century. Little is recorded of Hamdan's reign. The German explorer Heinrich Barth, who visited Bornu in the 1850s, stated that Hamdan was "a pious and indolent king, who appears to have made a pilgrimage", hence the honorific al-Ḥājj. Although Hamdan's reign was remembered as one of peace and prosperity, he is known to have engaged in military campaigns against the Mandara Kingdom, located to the southwest of Bornu.
There is considerable variation in the regnal dates assigned to Hamdan; he may have ruled only for a few years or for over a decade, perhaps for over twenty years. He died at Ngazargamu and was succeeded as mai by his son Muhammad VIII Ergama.