Hummay

{{Infobox monarch|

| name = Hummay

| succession = Mai of the Kanem–Bornu Empire

| reign = 1085–1097

| predecessor = Abd al-Jalil I

| successor = Dunama I Umemi

| spouse = Kinta

| issue = Dunama I Umemi

| house = Sayfawa dynasty

| house-type = Dynasty

| father = Abd al-Jalil I (?)

| mother = Tigiram (?)

}}

Hummay (Hummay bin ʿAbd al-Jalīl), also referred to as Umme, Houmé or Hume, was the mai of the Kanem–Bornu Empire in 1085–1097.{{Cite book |last=Stewart |first=John |title=African States and Rulers: An Encyclopedia of Native, Colonial and Independent States and Rulers Past and Present |publisher=McFarland & Company |year=1989 |pp=146}}{{Cite book |last=Bosworth |first=Clifford Edmund |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/New_Islamic_Dynasties/maQxEAAAQBAJ |title=The New Islamic Dynasties: A Chronological and Genealogical Manual |date=2012 |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |year= |isbn=0-7486-2137-7 |pages=126 |orig-year=1996}}

Life

Hummay is considered to be the founder of a new dynastic line in Kanem, the Sayfawa dynasty.{{Cite book |last=Insoll |first=Timothy |title=The Archaeology of Islam in Sub-Saharan Africa |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2003 |isbn=0-521-65171-9 |pages=273 |chapter=}} Although he was of Kanembu origin,{{Cite book |last=Nave |first=Ari |title=Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-19-517055-9 |location= |pages=17 |chapter=Chad}} Hummay and his dynasty claimed descent from a Yemeni noble named Saif ibn Dhi Yazan. other African dynasties of this time sometimes made similar claims to Arab origin as a source of prestige.

Despite being seen as establishing a new dynasty, later sources indicate that Hummay was the son of his predecessor, Abd al-Jalil I{{Cite book |last=Barth |first=Heinrich |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Travels_and_Discoveries_in_North_and_Cen/la_zIUj0oiwC |title=Travels and Discoveries in North and Central Africa: Being a Journal of an Expedition Undertaken... 1849-1855 |date=1857 |publisher=Longmans |pages=634 |language=en}}{{Cite book |last=Cohen |first=Ronald |url=https://archive.org/details/bostonuniversity02bost |title=Boston University Papers on Africa: Volume II: African History |date=1966 |publisher=Boston University Press |pages=73, 80, 82 |chapter=The Bornu King Lists}} and Abd al-Jalil's consort Tigiram. The "dynastic shift" has sometimes been attributed to religion, with Hummay perhaps being the empire's first Muslim ruler. This is incorrect, however, since both Abd al-Jalil and Abd al-Jalil's predecessor Hu were Muslim. The spread of Islam during Hummay's reign apparently provoked some dissension in the empire, which caused the Toubou people to break from imperial rule and move east.

Hummay's consort was named Kinta and was of Toubou origin.{{Cite book |url=https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000184287 |title=General history of Africa, IV: Africa from the twelfth to the sixteenth century |date= |website= |publisher=University of California |year=1984 |isbn=978-92-3-101710-0 |editor-last=Niane |editor-first=Djibril Tamsir |pages=244 |language=en |access-date=2024-02-20}} Hummay is said to have performed the Hajj twice. He died in Egypt during his third voyage, while accompanied by his son and successor Dunama I Umemi.{{cite book |last1=Page |first1=Willie F. |editor1-last=Davis |editor1-first=R. Hunt |title=Encyclopedia of African History and Culture |date=2005 |publisher=Facts On File |page=231 |edition=Illustrated, revised}}

References

Category:Rulers of the Kanem Empire

Category:11th-century monarchs in Africa