Girgam

Diwan ( Dīwān ) is the Arabic and Girgam the older orally transmitted name of the Chronicle of the Kings of Kanem-Bornu . In some kingdoms in the western neighborhood of Bornu , such as Daura and Fika , the same name is used for written and sometimes also oral historical traditions.

The Dīwān was discovered in 1851 by the German explorer Heinrich Barth in Kukawa , the capital of Bornus. He provides the list of 69 rulers of the Chad Empire, gives for most of them the paternal, sometimes maternal descent and the length of government. At the beginning it also contains the list of all biblical patriarchs from Adam to Ishmael with one exception . According to Dierk Lange, the name form of some of these patriarchs should correspond to a pre-Arab, Hebrew tradition and come from a local tradition of immigrants, as Arab authors do not know them. Even the more original, from the Akkadian - Sumerian girginakku derived (library, Tontafelkasten) Name girgam indicates a vorarabischen origin. Lange's theses regarding pre-Christian immigration from the Middle East have not yet been commented on by other scholars. From the 13th century onwards, other royal names have been passed down by Arabic geographers. The comparison between the two independent traditions makes it possible to establish a fairly exact chronology for the kings of Kanem-Bornu. In addition to the names of the kings, additional messages from the Dīwān provide important information on the history of the dynasty of the Sefuwa and thus on the history of the empires Kanem and Bornu , as well as Kanem-Bornu .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Barth, Travels , II, 16.
2. ↑ Lange, "Biblical patriarchs", (PDF; 196 kB) 589–597.
3. ^ Lange, Prologue of the Diwan " (PDF; 308 kB), 84.
4. ↑ See now Lange, Founding of Kanem , 3-18, 27-39. (PDF; 1.6 MB).
5. ↑ Barth, Travels , II, 16–24; Lange, Chronologie , 83-94. See the review of Lange 1977 by Anders Bjorkelo in The International Journal of African Historical Studies 11, no. 2 (1978), pp. 337-341, and the discussion between Lange and Bjorkelo in The International Journal of African Historical Studies 12, No. 2 (1979), pp. 283-289, which relate to a now outdated state of research.

literature

• Barth, Heinrich: Travels and Discoveries in North and Central Africa . Vol. II, New York 1857, pp. 15-35, 581-602.
• Dierk Lange: Le Dīwān des Sultan du Kanem-Bornu. Chronologie et histoire d'un royaume africain. Franz Steiner, Wiesbaden 1977
• -: "Biblical patriarchs from a pre-canonical source mentioned in the Dīwān of Kanem-Bornu" (PDF; 196 kB), Journal for Old Testament Science , 12 (2009), 588-598.
• -: "An introduction to the history of Kanem-Borno: The prologue of the Diwan" (PDF; 308 kB), Borno Museum Society Newsletter 76–84 (2010), 79–103.
• -: The founding of Kanem by Assyrian Refugees approx. 600 BCE: Documentary, Linguistic, and Archaeological Evidence (PDF; 1.6 MB), Boston, Working Papers in African Studies N ° 265.
• Herbert R. Palmer: The Bornu Sahara and Sudan. London 1936 (English translation of Dīwān pp. 89-95)
• - (Ed.): Hāḏā'l-kitāb huwa min śa'n sulṭān Idrīs Alawma, wa-mā waqa'a baynahu wa-bayna umarā 'bilād Kānem, wa-mu'allifuhu imām Aḥmad al-Bornuwī, allaḍī sāra 'ahu fī kulli ǵiha. Maṭba'at al-amīrīja (= "This book is about the Sultan Idris Alauma, and what happened between him and the princes of the land of Kanem. Its author is the Imam Ahmad from Bornu, who went with him in every direction") Kano 1932 , Pp. 130-137. Arabic text.
• Otto Blau : Chronicle of the Sultans of Bornu. Journal of the German Oriental Society (ZDMG), 6 (1852), pp. 305–30.