Girgam

Dīwān is the Arabic and Girgam the older oral traditions name of the chronicles of the kings of Kanem -Bornu. In some kingdoms of the western neighborhood of Bornu, as Daura and Fika, you use the same name for written, partly oral historical traditions.

The Dīwān in 1851 by the German explorer Heinrich Barth discovered in Kukawa, the capital Bornus. It provides the list of 69 rulers of the empire Chad, are for most of them the paternal and sometimes maternal lineage and the government lengths. At the beginning he also, with one exception contains the list of all the biblical patriarchs from Adam to Ishmael. After Dierk Lange, the form of the name of some of these patriarchs should correspond to an vorarabischen, Hebrew tradition and a local tradition of immigrants come from, since Arab authors do not know. Even the more original, from the Akkadian - Sumerian girginakku (library, Tontafelkasten ) derived name girgam indicates a vorarabischen origin. The theses of Lange in terms of a pre-Christian immigration from the Middle East have not yet been commented on by other scientists. From the 13th century other royal names have been handed down by Arab geographers. The comparison between the two independent traditions makes it possible to create a fairly accurate chronology for the kings of Kanem -Bornu. Besides the royal names provide additional important information on news of the Dīwān dynasty history of Sefuwa and thus the history of the kingdoms of Kanem Bornu and, and Kanem -Bornu.