Bir I Othman (ʿUthmān Biri bin Dunama) was the '' mai'' of the

Kanem–Bornu Empire The Kanem–Bornu Empire was an empire based around Lake Chad that once ruled areas which are now part of Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon, Libya, Algeria, Sudan, and Chad. The empire was sustained by the prosperous trans-Saharan trade and was one of the ...

in 1150/1151–1174/1176.

Life

Bir was the son of

Dunama I Umemi Dunama I Umemi (Dunama Umemi Muḥammad bin Hummay) was the '' mai'' of the Kanem–Bornu Empire in 1097–1150/1151. Name It is common for Kanem–Bornu rulers named ''Muhammad'' to also be called ''Dunama'', and vice versa. According to 19th-c ...

and Fasama. He succeeded his father as ''mai'' in 1150/1151, after Dunama was killed in Egypt. In his early reign, Bir was under the influence of his mother Fasama, whose power was apparently so great that she at one point had him imprisoned. He was remembered in later chronicles as a very learned man. Bir's consort was named Zainab and was of

Toubou The Toubou or Tubu (from Old Tebu, meaning "rock people") are an ethnic group native to the Tibesti Mountains that inhabit the central Sahara in northern Chad, southern Libya, northeastern Niger, and northwestern Sudan. They live either as her ...

origin. They had at least one son together, Abdullah I Bikur, who succeeded Bir as ''mai'' in 1174/1176.

References

Rulers of the Kanem Empire 12th-century monarchs in Africa {{Africa-royal-stub