Amadu Amadu

Amadu Amadu (Var.: Ahmadu ibn Ahmadu, Ahmadu III) (b.1830 -16 May 1862) was the last ruler (Imam or Amir al-Mu´minin)(1853 – 16 May 1862) of the Fula Massina Empire in what is now the Mopti Region of Mali. Amadu Amadu was the grandson of the Empire's founder, Seku Amadu and assumed the throne following his father Amadu Seku's 1852 abdication.

In 1861 Toucouleur conqueror El Hadj Umar Tall took Ségou from its Bambara rulers and launched a fresh jihad down river against the Massina. After a series of bloody battles in which more than 70,000 men died, Amadu Amadu's forces were defeated on the fields before the Empire's capital, Hamdullahi. On March 16, 1862, the city fell, and Amadu Amadu was captured by the Toucouleur and put to death. Though his brother Balobo briefly continued resistance against the Toucouleur, Amadu Amadu's death and the loss of Hamdullahi marked the end of the Massina Empire as an effective force in the region.

External links