# Girgam

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{{Short description|Arabic royal chronicle of the Kanem–Bornu Empire}}
{{italic title}}
The '''''Girgam''''' (or ''Diwan'') is the royal chronicle of the [Kanem–Bornu Empire](/source/Kanem%E2%80%93Bornu_Empire), written in [Arabic](/source/Arabic_language). Girgam is also used as the name for written historical records in some kingdoms west of Bornu, including [Daura](/source/Daura), [Fika](/source/Fika_Emirate) and [Mandara](/source/Mandara_Kingdom), defined as "chronicle or 'list of ancestors'"<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xFM4AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA71 |title=The Bornu Girgam |last=Palmer |first=H. R. |journal=African Affairs |volume=12 |number=45 |date=October 1912 |access-date=16 May 2019}}</ref> or simply "date".<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vTAOAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA157 |title=Collection of vocabularies of Central-African languages |last=Barth |first=Heinrich |volume=3 |page=157 |date=1862 |publisher=J. Perthes |access-date=16 May 2019}}</ref>

"A very meagre and incorrect abridgement" of the ''Girgam'' was provided by a local associated with the Sefuwa dynasty to the [German](/source/Germans) traveller [Heinrich Barth](/source/Heinrich_Barth) in 1851, in [Kukawa](/source/Kukawa), the nineteenth century capital of Bornu.<ref>Henry Barth 1857, ''Travels'', II, p. 253-255.</ref><ref>Heinrich Barth 1857, ''Travels'', II, p. 16.</ref> Barth reported that a translation was published in 1852.<ref>Blau 1852</ref>

It provides the names of 69 rulers of Kanem-Bornu and some supplementary information concerning the length of their reigns, their ascendancy, and often some events of their reigns.<ref>Palmer, ''Bornu Sahara'', 89–95</ref> The information given by several Arab authors ([Ibn Sa'īd](/source/Ibn_Said), [al-Maqrīzī](/source/al-Maqrizi) and [al-Qalqashandī](/source/al-Qalqashandi)) confirm the validity of the data provided by the ''Girgam''.<ref>Levtzion/Hopkins, ''Corpus'', pp. 188, 347, 354-5.</ref> On the basis of these sources, a nearly accurate chronology of the rulers of Kanem-Bornu can be established between the tenth and the nineteenth centuries. Since the fall of the [Sefuwa dynasty](/source/Sefuwa_dynasty) in 1846, "the new dynasty of the Kánemíyín [Kānemī] endeavours to obliterate as much as possible the memory of the old Kanúri [Sefuwa] dynasty, and has assiduously destroyed all its records wherever they could be laid hold of."<ref>Henry Barth 1957, p. 255</ref>

==See also==
*[Bornu Empire](/source/Bornu_Empire)
*[Kanem Empire](/source/Kanem_Empire)
*[Sayfawa dynasty](/source/Sayfawa_dynasty)

==References==
{{Reflist}}

== Literature ==
*Barth, Heinrich (1857): ''Travels and Discoveries in North and Central Africa''. Vol. II, New York, pp.&nbsp;15–35, 581-602.
*Barth, Henry (1857): [https://books.google.com/books?id=d5cSAAAAYAAJ ''Travels and Discoveries in North and Central Africa'']. Vol. II, London: Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, & Roberts, pp.&nbsp;253-268.
*Blau, Otto (1852): [https://menadoc.bibliothek.uni-halle.de/download/pdf/20781 ''Chronik der Sultâne von Bornu'']. ''Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft,'' p.&nbsp;305-330. (German translation of the ''Dīwān''. This source is referenced by Henry Barth (1857 p. 253 footnote)).
*Palmer, Herbert R. (1936): ''The Bornu Sahara and Sudan.'' London 1936 (English translation of the ''Dīwān'' S. 89-95
*Lavers, John (1982): [http://dierklange.com/pdf/reviews/chronologie/review_Chronologie_histoire.pdf  "Review of 'Le ''dīwān'' des sultans du Kanem-Bornu'], ''Journal of African History'', 23, 122-3.
*[Nehemia Levtzion](/source/Nehemia_Levtzion) and John Hopkins (1981): ''Corpus of Early Arabic Sources for West African History'', Cambridge.
*Palmer, Richmond: ''The Bornu Sahara and Sudan'', London 1936 (a rough English translation of the ''Dīwān'', pp.&nbsp;89–95).

Category:Culture of Chad
Category:African chronicles
Category:Kanem–Bornu Empire
Category:Nigerian literature

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