Biri V

Biri V (Biri bin ʿUmar) may have been a mai (ruler) of the Kanem–Bornu Empire in the mid-17th century. Biri is recorded only in a single source; he was either a briefly-reigning ruler immediately before mai Ali III Walamma, or his name may have been an alternate name for Ali III and misunderstood as a separate monarch.

Sources and interpretation Biri is recorded in a list of Kanem–Bornu rulers (girgam) translated by in 1911. According to Landeroin's list, Biri was a son of mai Umar III al-Maqdisi and ruled for a single year after Umar, directly before mai Ali III Walamma (also a son of Umar). 19th-century scholars who published translated lists of Kanem–Bornu rulers, e.g. Heinrich Barth and Gustav Nachtigal, did not include a mai Biri in this position in the list. Later scholars have been divided in their approach: Richmond Palmer (1936) omitted Biri, whereas Yves Urvoy (1941) included him, assigning him a reign of less than a year.

In 1966, Ronald Cohen concluded that Biri was either a largely forgotten figure who ruled briefly before Ali III, the same person as Ali III, or inserted into Landeroin's regnal list by mistake.