Idris Alooma

Idris Alooma, also called Idris Amsami, was mai (ruler) of the Kanem–Bornu Empire in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Wikipedia dates his reign to approximately 1570–1603; the Library of Congress country study gives about 1569–1600. His reign is known mainly from the chronicle of his chief imam, Ahmad bin Fartuwa.

According to Wikipedia, Idris ended Bornu's long conflict with the Bilala of Kanem, introduced legal reforms based on Islamic law with qadi courts independent of the executive, and extended Bornu's influence over most of Hausaland, the Tuareg of Aïr and the Tebu of Bilma, giving it control of central Saharan trade routes. The country study says that Kanem was reconquered during his reign and that Kano and Katsina became tributaries.

Idris was a son of Mai Ali II Zainami; his mother, Amsa Aliram, was probably the daughter of a Bilala ruler. After his father's short reign the throne passed to relatives, and then to Aissa Koli, who ruled with the title magira (queen mother) until Idris could take the throne and then gave way to him. Some traditions say she raised him in secret, building him a brick palace at Gambaru near the Yobe River, far from the capital, Ngazargamu (Wikipedia).

Both sources regard his reign as the high point of Bornu: the country study says that after the fall of Songhai in 1591 Bornu dominated the political history of northern Nigeria for two centuries.

According to tradition, Idris was killed near present-day Maiduguri by an archer hidden in a tree, and was buried in Lake Alau, from which his name Alooma, or Alau-ma, is said to come. He also sought negotiations with the Ottoman Empire over Fezzan, an important trans-Saharan trading centre (Wikipedia). Before his reign Bornu had suffered famines, raids by its neighbours and internal conflict.