{{Short description|Mai of Kanem–Bornu Empire}} {{Infobox monarch| | name = Muhammad III | succession = ''Mai'' of the Kanem–Bornu Empire | reign = 15th century (0–5 years)<br/>{{Circa}} 1449–1450{{efn|name=MuhammadReign}} | predecessor = Dunama V Ahmad | successor = Amarma | death_date = {{circa}} 1450 | death_place = Damasak, Bornu | issue = | house = Sayfawa dynasty (?) | house-type = Dynasty | father = Abdullah (?) | mother = Matala }} '''Muhammad III'''{{efn|Some chronologies of Kanem–Bornu rulers omit the 14th-century Muhammad II Manza, lowering the regnal numbers of later rulers of this name. This ruler is then considered '''Muhammad II'''.<ref name="stewart">{{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 |p=35}}</ref>}} (Muḥammad<ref name=":0232">{{Cite book |last=Bosworth |first=Clifford Edmund |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=maQxEAAAQBAJ |title=The New Islamic Dynasties: A Chronological and Genealogical Manual |date=2012 |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |isbn=978-0-7486-2137-8 |pages=126–127 |orig-year=1996}}</ref>) was briefly ''mai'' (ruler) of the Kanem–Bornu Empire in the mid-15th century, ruling approximately 1449–1450.{{efn|name=MuhammadReign|Different king lists (''girgam''s) and chronicles translated in the 19th–20th centuries give Muhammad different regnal lengths: 5 months (Barth), 1 year (Urvoy), 2 years (Palmer), or 5 years (Landeroin, Nachtigal).<ref name=":2" /> As a result of this, and due to different calculations for other mais, various dates have been given for his reign, including 1455 (Barth), 1448–1450 (Palmer), 1450–1451 (Urvoy), 1418–1423 (Landeroin), and 1446–1451 (Nachtigal).<ref name=":2" /> Cohen (1966) considered a reign of one year most likely.<ref name=":2" /> Later authors have also proposed different dates: 1444 (Lange, 1983),<ref name=":0" /> 1455–1456 (Stewart, 1989),<ref name="stewart" /> and 1449–1450 (Bosworth, 2012).<ref name=":0232" />}} Possibly a usurper, Muhammad ruled during the "Era of Instability", a chaotic period of internal and external conflict in the empire.

== Life == Muhammad's connection to the Kanem–Bornu Empire's ruling Sayfawa dynasty is unclear. In a royal list (''girgam'') translated by Heinrich Barth in the mid-19th century, Muhammad is designated as the son of Matala. Muhammad was also designated as a son of Matala by the later scholars Richmond Palmer (1936) and Yves Urvoy (1941).<ref name=":2">{{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=54, 58, 63, 66, 81 |chapter=The Bornu King Lists}}</ref> Matala is a female name. There is no mention of Matala having any royal status or what her connection was to the Sayfawa dynasty. As a title, ''matala'' was connected to the sister of the ruling ''mai''; Muhammad may thus have been the nephew of one of his predecessors.<ref name=":2" />

''Girgam''s translated by Gustav Nachtigal (1881) and {{Interlanguage link|Moïse Landeroin|lt=Moïse Landeroin|fr|Moïse Landeroin}} (1911) do not include the mothers of the ''mai''s but state that Muhammad's father was named Abdullah.<ref name=":2" /> In 1984, Dierk Lange proposed that Muhammad was the brother of his predecessor (Dunama V Ahmad) and thus a son of Biri III Uthman, and that his royal lineage had been omitted in Barth's ''girgam'' because he directly followed his brother and this was "presumed to be known". Lange opposed the suggestion that Muhammad was a usurper.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Lange |first=Dierk |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=261, 265 |language=en |chapter=The kingdoms and peoples of Chad}}</ref>

Muhammad ruled briefly, though the sources vary on the length of his reign.{{efn|name=MuhammadReign}} Muhammad died at Damasak.<ref>Palmer, H. R. (1926). History Of The First Twelve Years Of The Reign Of Mai Idris Alooma Of Bornu (1571–1583) (Fartua, Ahmed Ibn). p. 114.</ref> He was succeeded by Amarma.<ref name=":0232" /><ref name=":2" />

== Notes == {{Notelist}}

== References == <references /> {{Kanem–Bornu rulers}}{{DEFAULTSORT:Muhammad 03 of Bornu}} Category:Rulers of the Bornu Empire Category:15th-century monarchs in Africa