Ngazargamu, Birni Ngazargamu, Birnin Gazargamu, Gazargamo or N'gazargamu, was the capital of the Bornu Empire from ca. 1460 to 1809. Situated 150 km (93 mi) west of Lake Chad in the Yobe State of modern Nigeria, the remains of the former capital city are still visible. The surrounding wall is 6.6 km (4.1 mi) long and in parts it is still up to 5 m (16 ft) high.

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Birni Gazargamu

Shown within Nigeria
Location	Yobe State, Nigeria
Coordinates	13°05′N 12°22′E
Part of	Kanem-Bornu
History
Founded	1480[1]
Abandoned	1809
Cultures	Kanuri, Shuwa Arab, Babur
Site notes
Condition	Abandoned

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The capital city was built in c. 1488, during the reign of Mai Ali Gazi (1476–1503). It was located in the fork of the Komadugu Gana River and the Komadugu Yobe, near present-day Geidam.^[2][3]

The city became Bornu's leading center for Islamic education under Idris Alooma.^[2]: 504

In 1808, Gazargamo was taken by the Fulani Jihad.^{[4][3]: 259 [5]}

The first segment of N'gazargamu, which is N'gasar, indicates that the earlier residents of the area were known as either N'gasar or N'gizim. The latter segment of the word, gamu or kumu, shares similarities with the initial portion of the name Gwombe and can signify either (i) a leader or monarch or (ii) a revered ancestral spirit.^[6]

Based on the Kanuri pronunciation, the correct spelling of the city is Birni Gazargamu. The spellings N'gazargamu or Birnin Gazargamu are likely of Hausa origin.^[7]: 20

During the late 14th-century, the Sayfawa dynasty, which had ruled Kanem for centuries, fled their capital of Birni Njimi due to a civil war. They settled in Bornu, a southern province of Kanem. The civil war continued throughout much of the 15th-century until the reign of Ali Gaji, who succeeded in defeating his rivals and brought an end to the war. Ali Gaji then established Birni Gazargamu, a fortified city that served as the capital of Kanem-Bornu until the 19th-century.^[7]

Little is known of the physical appearance or population of the city. The city was surrounded by a circular wall spanning approximately two kilometers in diameter, with the Mai's palace, constructed of red bricks, occupying its center.^[7]: 20 A description of the city was given by one Mallam Salih ibn Ishaku and translated by H R Palmer:

At N'gazargamu [sic] there were six hundred and sixty roads cleared and widened, called Le. Sixty of these roads were well known to the Amir [Mai], for he traversed them, but many of the roads were unknown to the Amir since he did not traverse them and so did not know them . . . There were four Friday mosques. Each of these mosques had an Imam for Friday who led the Friday prayer with the people. At each mosque there were twelve thousand worshippers.^[8]

Gazargamu emerged as a major trading hub within the Sudan region. By the 17th-century, the city's markets attracted caravans from various directions: Tunis, Tripoli, and Cairo in the north; Timbuktu, Awdaghust, Agades, and Gao in the west; and Kordofan and the Nile regions in the east. These trade caravans transported a variety of goods, including silk, carpets, weapons, and books from the Middle East; paper and glass beads from Venice; leather products, copperware, and tobacco from the Maghreb; and gold and kola nuts from Ashanti in the south.^[9]