Kanuri is a dialect continuum spoken by about four million people in 1 , mostly in northeastern Nigeria, western Niger, southeastern Chad and northern Cameroon, as well as by small minorities in southern Libya and the diaspora in Sudan. The Kanuri Kingdom as well as other cities, provinces and states such as Borno in Nigeria, Damagaram (Zinder) in Niger, Mao in Chad and Kusri and Kanem in Cameroon are considered to be of oriental origin. ; Some experts have interpreted this east as the southern Arabian Peninsula, which corresponds to the modern geographical description of the areas of Al Hudaydah (Arabic: ﺍﻟﺤﺪﻳﺪﺓ), also known in English as Hodeida or Hudaiyya in Kanuri, Yemen, geographically located at 14° 48′ 08″N 42°57′04″E. This Kanuri people are said to have come from the Arabian Peninsula and settled about 400 miles north of what is now Lake Chad, which later became the Kanem Empire (one of the two great empires in African history). . Although these historical findings are based on fragments of existing historical sources available from both the British Library in London and the American Museum of Natural History in New York and from the Süleymaniye Library in Istanbul (Turkey), with the advent of of consideration Con Due to modern technological advances in the field of DNA research and identification, we believe that further research in the field of geoarchaeological and geobiological research should be carried out over time to undoubtedly confirm these results. However, given the similarities between the Kanuri languages and Arabic in terms of counting days, numbers and some nouns found in the language, one can easily conclude that the Kanuri language is the product of a locally endangered or on the way to becoming ongoing development is extinction. mixed with some indigenous African languages.This is one of the main reasons why anthropologists have placed the Knauri language in the Nilo-Saharan language family. Despite the fact that the environment of Lake Chad, which is the heart of the Kanuri colony and the entire Kanem-Bornu Empire, is a very dusty environment, if a person does not wash his body more often or regularly, the dust settles on the skin and makes it look very dusty. However, since the Kanuri are practicing Muslims, they regularly wash their faces, feet and hands five times a day to keep their skin looking fresh. Because of their cool skin in the middle of the dusty Lake Chad, some neighboring ethnic groups such as the “Sau” (supposedly a giant race) who lived in what is now the Ngala region called them Kanuris or Kanuri.
The name Kanuri comes from the combination of two Kanuri words; “Ka” means skin and is a word derived from the Arabic word NUR or “Nuri” which means light (although in Kanuri Nur itself means light). The reason the Kanuri were called KA + NURI (KANURI) was because at the time of their arrival the Kanuri were primarily shepherds who herded cattle and sheep. Therefore, according to normal tradition, almost every shepherd carries sticks with him to serve as a guide for each other. . Animals by grazing them and hunting them home, this was also the case with the Kanuri. The Saudis know that there were many shepherds around them, but the Kanuri have cooler skin and always carry sticks with them. To distinguish them from other shepherds with the same skin, they refer to them as “people who look cool (Nur)” with a stick (Ka), hence the name KaNuri, which literally translates to “people with cooler skin and sticks”. . The Kanuri were also called differently by different ethnic groups, e.g. B. Beri Beri from present-day Hausa and Barnowaji from the Najdi, Baggara and Hejazi tribes living in the Republics of Chad and Sudan. The Kanuri language was the main language of the pre-colonial Kanem-Bornu Empire and remains the main language in the southeastern states of Borno and Yobe in present-day Nigeria, Diffa and Damagaram in the Republic of Niger and Mao, Kusri and Kanem in present-day Nigeria, Chad and in the Republic of Cameroon, but some gifts were also received in western Sudan and southern Libya. The Kanuri Kingdom began with the Sayfawa dynasty founded by Sayf ibn Dhi Yazan, considered by many historians to be an Arab from the Arabian Peninsula, as mentioned above. Yazan ruled and controlled the Kanem Empire for about 800 years. Based on these historical facts, it was concluded that the ancient Kanem Empire was founded in the 9th century and its first capital was a city in the northeastern part of Lake Chad known as Njimi. The Sayfawa dynasty and its subjects fled to Birnin Gazargam when the Bulala people attacked them. Birnin Gazargamu remained the capital even after the reconquest of Njimi in the 16th century.However, over the years towns/cities like Monguno, Kukawa, Dikwa , Old Maiduguri and now Maidugrui/Yerwa were all capitals at different times since the last 1000 years ago.
The rulers of the El-Kanemi family were given control of the kingdom after several mistakes occurred that also cost Maia his position of power. Therefore, a prominent Islamic scholar and warrior from Ngala, known as Sheikh All Hajj Muhammad al Amin ibn Muhammad al Kanemi, was appointed ruler to checkmate the kingdom and restore its required status. Therefore we can say that the Sayfawa dynasty ended in 1846. Many descendants of the Maize dynasty of still live in Maiduguri, and many of them live in Lawan Bukar Kaacha in northern Shehuri and Fezzan district in Maiduguri. . Over the course of several centuries, Saifawa’s efforts to consolidate his power and expand the kingdom’s borders led to the incorporation of many different groups into Kanuri society.This process is not complete. Intermarriage, trade, politics and other factors combined to create a culturally diverse people. The Kanuri exerted a strong influence on the surrounding peoples, including the Budum of Lake Chad, the Mandara and Kotoko (or Mogori) living southeast of the Kanuri, the Marghi of the Damboa district, and the Babur of the hills to the south of the Kanuri , the Bolewa southwest of Kanuri and the Beda of Gashua in Kanuri territory. All of these groups have adopted various aspects of Kanuri culture, most notably the Kanuri language and Islam. Many, including the Hausa, were once subjects of the Kanuri Empire.
