Omar I of Kanem

Umar I (ʿUmar bin Idrīs ), called Umar Idrismi, was mai (ruler) of the Kanem–Bornu Empire in the mid-to-late 14th century, ruling approximately 1376–1387. (King lists (girgams) and chronicles translated in the 19th–20th centuries assign Umar a reign of 4 years (Palmer), 5 years (Barth), or 7 years (Urvoy, Landeroin, Nachtigal).) Cohen considered a reign of 5 years to be most likely. and Stewart (1989) dated it to 1394–1398. Bosworth (2012) assigned Umar a longer reign of 11 years, dated to 1376–1387. Since the death of mai Abdullah II Kademi in 1322, ten mais had reigned in a period of just over fifty years. This proliferation of mais resulted in numerous claimants to the throne and led to a series of internecine civil wars, Faced with the catastrophe, Umar is said to have called an assembly of nobles who told him to "leave this place, our day here is done". Umar relocated across Lake Chad to the western region of Bornu, a former tributary territory. The initial new site of the court was the town of Kagha, a notorious refuge for claimants in imperial civil wars, where one went to regain their strength. Bornu would remain the new heartland of the empire for the rest of its existence.

Umar ruled for between four and eleven years. The site of his death is recorded as Demaghíya (or variations thereof, such as Damagia). Umar was succeeded as mai by his brother Saʽid.