Kanem-Bornu (1340s)

Timeline

1. 1340–1345Kanem · KanemMai Abdullah II Kaddem still ruled the Kanem heartland in the early 1340s. According to traditions relayed by 19th-century travelers such as Barth, he was a just ruler who quelled internal unrest. But the empire had already declined from its peak at the end of the 13th century, with the eastern frontier facing encroachment by tribes such as the Bilala.
2. 1346–1349east of Lake Chad · Lake Chad basinAfter Abdullah II, his son Selema III acceded but reigned only a few years. Traditional chronicles record that wars with tribes such as the Sao since the 1320s had already consumed many royal members; the brief successions of the 1340s further weakened central control over subject territories.
3. 1348–1350Bornu · BornuBy the late 1340s, the Bilala threat to eastern Kanem continued to intensify. Although the Sayfawa dynasty had not yet fully abandoned Kanem, it began relying more on the resources and population base of the western former subject state of Bornu. Around 1350 the empire entered more intense succession struggles, paving the way for Umar I's final establishment of the capital at Bornu in the 1370s.