Mune (sanctuary)

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The Mune symbol was the national shrine of the Kanem Empire on Lake Chad. In the course of his policy of Islamization, King Dunama II (1203–1242) destroyed this symbol of state unity.

The consequences of the destruction of the Mune are viewed by internal sources as disastrous. While the royal chronicle of Kanem, the Diwan , regards this event as the trigger of dynastic conflicts, Ibn Furtu is convinced that the short-sighted act of violence resulted in the evocation of a previously unknown striving for power between the greats of the empire. In particular the seven-year war against the Tubu, which had previously been firmly integrated into the empire, but ultimately also the expulsion of the ruling Sefuwa from Kanem in 1381 are said to have been the consequences of the fateful deed.

The chronicler Ibn Furtu compares the Mune with the Sakina of the Koran and attributes the same religious potency to both sacred objects. He also makes it clear that he regards the Mune as the ark of Israel inherited from King Saul . The somewhat confused but unmistakable sentence has so far not been paid much attention to by the researchers. Several references from the Diwan suggest, however, that the Israelite component of the story of Kanem-Bornu is to be taken seriously: the 20 patriarchal names beginning with Adam at the beginning of the chronicle, several of which suggest an independent tradition independent of Arabic texts, Oral tradition traced back to Abraham and the bicephalic division of power into the Duguwa / Zaghawa and Sefuwa ruling groups. Christian reminiscences can also be found in the early history of Kanem. Nevertheless, the Arab geographers clearly indicate that the pre-Islamic Kanem was neither an Israelite nor a Christian state. Instead, his sacred kingship should be viewed as a Canaanite-Israelite state with strong polytheistic components. Phoenician-Punic slave hunters established in the middle of the 1st millennium BC A military base at the southern end of the central route of the Sahara, from which the successor states Agisymba and Kanem later emerged.

In view of these references to Canaan and Israel, it seems reasonable to interpret the Mune name etymologically as a slight transformation of the biblical manna ("heavenly bread"). According to H 9.4, there is said to have been a jar with manna in the ark, as well as a staff of Aaron and the covenant tablets of Moses . The devastating consequences of the destruction of the Mune indicate that the sanctuary had previously contributed significantly to the integration of the various cult parties into temple service and the state.

literature

  • Dierk Lange: The Mune as the Ark of the Covenant between Duguwa and Sefuwa in ancient Kanem. In: Borno Museum Society Newsletter 66-67 (2006), pp. 15-25 PDF
  • Dierk Lange: Le Diwan des Sultan du Kanem-Bornu. Wiesbaden 1977, pp. 65-72
  • Dierk Lange: Ancient Kingdoms of West Africa. Dettelbach 2004, pp. 242f, 556f
  • Herbert R. Palmer: Kanem Wars. In: Sudanese Memoirs , Lagos 1928, pp. 69–72