Abu Ishaq Ibrahim al-Kanemi

Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm al-Kānemī^[1] (Arabic: أبو إسحاق إبراهيم الكانمي; died c. 1212) was a West African poet and grammarian from the Kanem-Bornu Empire of contemporary Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon, Libya, and Chad. He was the first to write in Arabic in the central Sudan.^[2]

Ibrāhīm was born in the oasis of Bilma, then a part of Kanem. In one poem, he refers to himself as belonging to the Dhakwān branch of the Banū Sulaym.^[3] The Dhakwān moved from Upper Egypt to North Africa in the 11th century. He is described as "jet-black in hue", indicating that his mother at least was Sub-Saharan African. He was educated in the Sudan; in Ghana, according to Ibn Ḥamuwayh.^[3]

Ibrāhīm visited Marrakesh around 1197–98, gaining there a reputation as a grammarian and poet. Only fragments of eight of his works survive, mainly quotations in the works of Ibn al-Abbār and Ibn al-Shaʿār. A poem in which he explains why he eschewed satire and wrote mostly qaṣīdas is quoted by both.^[3] He was patronized by the Almohad Caliph Yaʿqūb al-Manṣūr (1184–1199). Two lines of a poem Ibrāhīm recited before his patron are quoted by the 19th-century historian Aḥmad al-Nāṣirī al-Salāwī.^[4] Ibrāhīm wrote panegyrics on other leading Almohad figures and was a friend of fellow panegyrist ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Fāzāzī, who praised his verses. He also wrote in defence of his dark skin and exchanged stanzas on his race with al-Jirāwī. In Marrakesh, he married a "white" woman named Zahrāʾ and wrote her poetry dealing with his dark skin.^[3]

Ibrāhīm eventually moved to al-Andalus (Spain).^[3] He resided in Seville.^[5] He died in Spain in AH 608 or 609 (between AD 1211 and 1213).^[6]